Total pages in book: 20
Estimated words: 18371 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 92(@200wpm)___ 73(@250wpm)___ 61(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 18371 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 92(@200wpm)___ 73(@250wpm)___ 61(@300wpm)
I was supposed to be the one to bring him down, not succumb to his game.
I was supposed to be the one to ignore his good looks, not fall for his charms.
I was supposed to see through his publicity stunts, not buy into them.
But now I’m accepting a job offer at his company?
Now I’m working for the man I despise?
What’s wrong with me?
Maybe I want to believe there’s more to him.
Maybe I want to be proven wrong…
A steamy enemies-to-lovers romance with fiery heroine who refuses to back down from a beguiling billionaire who thought he had it all until he met her.
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
1
Whitney
All these guys are these same. Unfathomably rich, unscrupulous, exploitative, and willing to do whatever it takes to make them even richer. They’re despicable. And it doesn’t matter if Ethan Newhouse is strikingly handsome with a charming smile reminiscent of Tony Stark; he’s still all of those things, and I seem to be the only one on the planet who’s not fooled by it.
And that’s why I’m here tonight.
Ethan has called a big, over-the-top press conference where he can swing his dick around, metaphorically speaking of course, and tell the world about his plans for a new fantastic portable generator that his company is working on, that will bring electricity to all the people in third world countries who are currently lacking it.
The whole thing is just a massive publicity stunt, of course. He’s never going to build the damn thing. He’ll just tote a prototype out here later in the evening, garner some applause, make more billions as his stock goes up, and then we’ll never hear about it again.
The whole thing will just fade into the lost memories of the Internet, and no one will even bother asking him about it again in a couple of years.
And that is why I’m here tonight.
It’s just become public knowledge that Ethan’s company, Newhouse International, has been using slave labor to mine minerals in the Congo, which it then uses in the electronics that it constructs, saving millions in profits. No one knows how long this has been going on, but it could have been years, and if you ask me, it probably has.
That’s why I stole a press badge to tonight’s event and have a water bottle filled with ketchup stashed under my windbreaker. As soon as he gets close enough, looking so slick and sharp in his Don Draper suit, I’m going to squirt it all over him. A nice splatter of red to symbolize the blood being spilt in the mines his company owns and operates to generate the profit that he uses to buy up all those homes and cars that he enjoys.
Look at him…so smug and handsome. Strutting through the crowd, shaking hands like he’s a male model running for president.
I hate the fact that he’s so good-looking. His face is corruptibly sexy, with a sculpted jaw and sparkling blue eyes that seem to pierce through everyone with inhuman precision. He’s over a decade older than I am, but you’d never know he was in his thirties by looking. There’s not a wrinkle on him. I bet he gets asked out by girls in their early twenties all the time.
His hair is a warm brown, parted perfectly and brushed back in a way that’s reminiscent of the '60s but is still somehow modern.
I have to shake my head as he approaches to snap myself out of the stupor he’s somehow trapped me in. If this man ran for office, he would definitely do well, and that just makes me hate him even more. He is the last kind of person we need as an elected official. All he would do is bring more corruption to our already corrupt country.
“Good evening, Carol,” he says with a smile, taking the hand of a woman in a golden gown and bringing it to his lips. “So nice of you to come tonight.”
“Oh, you know I couldn’t miss a Newhouse International event!” she giggles, a lot harder than she should. But I guess that kind of butt-kissing is what you get when you’re worth billions of dollars.
Ethan must be used to it because he just smiles back and moves on down the line of sycophants and press waiting to get a chance to fawn all over him.
I reach under my jacket and twist the bottle of ketchup between my fingers.
This is it. This is what I came here to do.
There are so many more cameras than I expected too. They’ll all catch it, and it will be all over the Internet for the world to see. Everyone will be talking about it, and soon the news of his slave mines in the Congo will be impossible for people to ignore.
My heart is pounding. My hands are cold from all the adrenaline coursing through me. They’re trembling too. I knew this wasn’t going to be easy, but I didn’t know I was going to be on the verge of freaking out.
I take a deep breath and try my best to calm myself down.
He moves closer. He’s almost in range now as he reaches out and shakes another man’s hand.
“Hey there, Paul.” He smiles. “Having a good time?”
Here we go.
I pull the bottle out from under my jacket and fix my eyes on my target. My hands shaking makes it almost a mission to uncap as I step forward. Just as I’m about to get it, I feel an iron grip on my hand, followed by another on my shoulder.