Total pages in book: 25
Estimated words: 23393 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 117(@200wpm)___ 94(@250wpm)___ 78(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 23393 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 117(@200wpm)___ 94(@250wpm)___ 78(@300wpm)
I don’t have many photos from my teenage years. Whenever I saw a camera pointing at me, I either hid behind my hair or ran from the room. This is one of the only ones I have where I’m smiling.
“This is where it started?” he asks as he turns to me with a grin.
“Yup! In my aunt’s kitchen.”
“And look what you’ve built since,” he says as he turns back to the photo. He strokes the frame and my body tingles with life. “It’s very impressive.”
“Not as impressive as you Hammerheads,” I say as he looks at the next photo of me and Linda standing in front of our new office building. “I don’t think there are many sharks that find minnows impressive.”
He turns and looks at me with those piercing brown eyes and I find myself taking a step back.
“Sharks?”
I swallow hard. “I didn’t mean offense,” I ramble on. Gawd, is it possible to fuck this first impression up more than I already have? I wish I could restart the day.
“It’s just… The Hammerhead Group,” I say with my voice racing. “Corporate sharks. You guys swallow little minnow companies like us, don’t you?”
He takes a deep breath and walks over to my desk. “Is that what you think?” he asks as he sits on it and crosses his arms over his chest. His dark blue suit fits his muscular body perfectly.
I chuckle nervously as he stares me down. “What do you want me to think? That is what’s going on here, isn’t it? She’s The Sun with all of our quirky products and eccentric marketing is getting eaten by your huge corporate conglomerate and it’s only a matter of time before the suits are going to swoop in and start axing our employees and changing everything that made us special. Everything that made us unique. Everything that our customers love.”
He just looks at me like an unreadable statue.
I can feel my cheeks going red under his stern gaze.
“I mean, it’s in your name. You’re a bunch of Hammerhead sharks.”
“The company was named for the street my grandparents lived on,” he says after a long uncomfortable moment. “Hammerhead Lane. They started this company in their home too. In their garage.”
He stands up and pulls out his phone. “Look.”
My breath stills as he walks over and I get a whiff of his delicious cologne. He stands so close as he shows me an old photo of a young couple holding up a bottle of perfume—big smiles on their faces. The photo is similar to mine.
“Those are your grandparents?” I can’t help but smile as I see the excitement in their eyes. I know that entrepreneurial excitement all too well.
“They started this company,” he says as he smiles while looking at it, “and I can assure you, they weren’t sharks. They were lovely people who wanted the best for their family, the best for their employees, and the best for their customers.”
“Right…” I say as he puts the phone back into his pocket. “But that was then. It’s awfully different now. The company has come a long way from a cute couple in their garage.”
He looks at me for a long time. I don’t know what he’s thinking. He’s probably wondering how he can get me the hell out of this building for good with as little fuss as possible.
“Do you always speak your mind like this?” he finally asks.
I stare back at him. “Does that bother you?”
That unreadable expression breaks and he smiles a little. It’s quite the sight…
“I like employees who speak their mind.”
“More like ex-employees.”
He tilts his head a little as he looks at me in confusion.
“Come on, Mr. Raven,” I say, sighing in exasperation. “You don’t have to put up this charade. I know I’m going to get fired.”
His eyebrows go up. “Fired?”
“The CEOs always get fired in a takeover,” I say. “Even without causing chaos in the first meeting. You don’t have to pretend otherwise. I know I’m not going to be welcome in The Hammerhead Group.”
I’m expecting him to agree. To take a breath of relief. Maybe even start discussing my compensation package, but he just looks at me with those penetrating brown eyes.
“You’re not going anywhere.”
He walks over to the wall of windows, gazing out at the city while I stare at him in shock.
“I’m not?”
“I want you here, Kyra. With me.”
He turns with a possessive look and my toes curl in my shoes as those dominating eyes run up and down my body, leaving tingles in their wake.
Those eyes suddenly dart to my desk and he sucks in a sharp breath when he sees the lingerie catalogue laying on it.
I close my eyes, dying of embarrassment, as he picks it up.
Chapter Five
Brandon
“That’s for market research,” Kyra quickly spits out as I read the Post-it note sticking to the cover.