Series: Stacey Espino
Total pages in book: 25
Estimated words: 23564 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 118(@200wpm)___ 94(@250wpm)___ 79(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 23564 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 118(@200wpm)___ 94(@250wpm)___ 79(@300wpm)
The waiter took their order. Clara left it to him to order for her. She had no food allergies, and she had never been great at French, and the menu had no English translation.
“How has your day been?” Grayson asked the moment they were alone.
“It was good. I’m finishing up a few of my essays. Some of my professors gave advisories on a couple of them, so they didn’t drop my grade down. I’m on course to pass, and then my life is my own.”
“Do you have any idea what you want to do?” he asked.
She opened her mouth, closed it, and then shrugged. “I do. I had a strategic plan.” April knew of her plan, but she hadn’t told anyone else about it. She didn’t know if she should trust Grayson, which was silly. “One day, I hope to start my own company, so the plan is to go in at the ground level, learn everything I can, and I hope to change jobs every few years, garner experience, and then take everything I know and create my own business. Not by copying what everyone else is doing but finding a gap, you know, a niche.” She had everything planned out—business ideas, proposals—all the information she needed. However, she lacked experience and she knew no one would invest in her at this time. She had to be patient. Clara knew she sounded immature.
Gritting her teeth, she forced herself to glance up and finally look at Grayson. He smiled at her, but it wasn’t something she could read. Why was he smiling like that? Did he find it funny? Did he think she couldn’t do it, and it was just the pathetic flighty dream of a little girl?
“That sounds wonderful,” he said.
Clara tensed up.
Was he … mocking her?
She forced a smile to her face. “Sorry, I do have everything planned, and it came to me one night while my mom was out working. When she came home, she was just so exhausted, and trying to keep a roof over our heads.”
Clara had spent a lot of time thinking about what she could do. Most of her ideas over the years had fallen by the wayside because she didn’t see them as viable options.
Grayson reached across the table. “It’s amazing what inspires us, isn’t it?”
He ran his thumb across her fingers.
Clara’s stomach tightened. Whenever he touched her, she felt her whole body react to him. “What was it like?” she asked. “Starting your own business?”
“It was hard. Trust me, I am not going to paint it as anything other than what it is. Long hours, a lot of work, not to mention having to rely on people who were only after my money, and not interested in helping.” He gave her fingers a little squeeze. “If you want, I can help you.”
“Help me?”
“I did start my own company, so I may just know what I’m talking about. I can help you and you can have the start that makes the process easier. I’m not going to let anything happen to you, especially not with what happened to me.”
She opened her mouth about to question him but the waiter brought their food out. He delicately put their plates in front of them, and she smiled at him, and then waited for him to leave.
“What happened to you?” she asked, intrigued.
Grayson laughed. “Curious to see how hard my life was?” He winked at her.
“No, I’m curious about you. I mean, you don’t have to tell me or anything.”
He reached across the table and grabbed her hand, giving it a light squeeze. “Don’t worry about it. It was the usual. In the beginning I took everyone at face value and trust me, a lot of people can say the right kind of stuff, but they don’t mean it. They took money without jobs completed. I nearly went under once because of paying upfront for a job. It’s all down to inexperience and trust. The moment I started to realize where I went wrong, I changed, and my company as well as my life turned around. I’ll take care of you, Clara. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
****
Clara was a star, and not just because he was fucking her. Grayson had known she was a bright pupil, and April had told him numerous times how amazing she was. He always listened to what his daughter had to say, and when it came to Clara, even though he tried to hide his attraction to her, he paid attention.
He always wanted to believe the worst of her. Grayson should have known better.
She wasn’t quite willing to give him some of her ideas as she had found them embarrassing. Clara had groundbreaking ideas, and he knew without a shadow of a doubt that any company, once they saw how inspired she was, how attuned she was, would snap her up in a heartbeat. He knew he wanted to.