Chapter 22

Crissy

I was surprised I could actually piece myself together for this meeting. My shower had to be quick, and Grant had to physically hold me up the majority of the time. I couldn’t stand after the lesson he’d taught me, and for a moment, I actually thought I was going to have to stay behind. It wasn’t until we pulled up to the meeting spot that I was able to get out of the car by myself.

“You all right to do this?” he asked. His eyes were searching me, looking for obvious marks as I gathered my things. I left my phone behind, but I did pull out my laptop, readying it to take notes before we headed into the meeting.

“Yep. I’m good,” I said, grinning. “Are you all right to do this?”

“I’m always ready, for anything and everything,” he said. “That’s my job as CEO.”

“And as a professor,” I said, winking.

We walked into the room, and he automatically commanded everyone there. He stood at the front of all the investors and board members of the company he was trying to acquire, and my panties started growing wet for him. From the moment he started talking, his shoulders rolled back and his eyes became stern, and everyone in the room understood who was the boss.

“Good afternoon, gentlemen,” he said. “I’ll cut right to the chase. J&M is looking to acquire Tike Oils. We believe we can take your company to the heights you wanted to be at before everything went south with your previous CEO, and we’ve got a few ways we can accomplish this.”

“What were you thinking?” someone asked.

“One, we could buy you outright. Now, I know that deal has already been denied, but hear me out. If we take over your company and put you underneath the umbrella of J&M, you will reap many benefits. Our stock will skyrocket, giving you more bonuses and financial stability in your pocket. We have better deals with insurance companies, so your employees will have better coverage. We also have a much better reputation, so you will see profit much sooner than if the Tike Oils name were to stay in the Midwest.”

“You’ll have to trim too much of the company,” someone else said.

“There are downsides to every transaction, including the hostile takeover you guys seem to be more interested in.”

“Well, we’d get to keep our name, so the history of the place won’t be lost. Our stock options aren’t doing terrible for what’s happened, so repairing our reputation might not be as rough as you think.”

“But,” he said, “your stock options will remain mediocre, and if we absorb that many employees, we can’t open things up for them how I would like. If I’m going to take over a company, I want to take over their wellbeing. That means stock options, 401(k)s, retirement plans, wonderful health insurance. The works. If we keep on this many employees by just doing a hostile takeover, I can’t take care of them like I’d be able to if I just bought the company outright.”

The nerdy, aspiring businesswoman in me was getting so fucking turned on by Grant. Most people might get bored and tune this information out, but not me. The way he knew his information was soaking my panties.

He was powerful, but reasonable. Stable and kind. They were idiots if they didn’t side with him on an acquisition instead of doing a hostile takeover.

I found my mind wandering to other things. He was trying to teach me how to command, how to take charge, how to negotiate without being overt. It got me wondering if I could take control in the bedroom. I thought about what that might mean.

I began daydreaming of him on his knees, clad in nothing but a collar as I ordered him around. He licked my pussy with a vengeance while I squirted all over his lips. He begged for me to suck his cock after delivering several mind-blowing orgasms. I thought about tying him to a bed and teasing him relentlessly, until he was so frustrated, it made him angry.

I thought about putting him in a cock ring, just sliding it on without ever giving him the option. I thought about sitting on his face every morning, waking him up with the taste of my pussy until I came all over his face. I shivered in my seat, trying to pull myself from my daydreams. But Grant’s voice in my ear pulled me back quicker than I ever could’ve done myself.

“I’d love to know what you’re thinking about, beautiful, but you’re neglecting your notes,” Grant whispered in my ear. He’d walked over to me while the men at the table discussed something among themselves.

Grant shot me a grin and took his place back at the head of the room. I focused on the meeting, but the tone seemed to have shifted. They were now comparing figures, or at least Grant was trying to get them to. He always came prepared with numbers and calculations, fighting for every side before convincing someone that his path was the right path because of monetary reasons. But the answers he was getting from this group of old men seemed vague.

“If you allow me the opportunity to completely buy you out, I could give you the option of paying out your stock or merging it with our company,” Grant said. “If you paid out, I could give you that money upfront, and you could leave the table with a clean conscience. If you merged it with ours, then you’d have more money options than you would know what to do with.”

“Well, we can crunch the numbers later,” one board member said. “Right now we’re just talking general terms.”

“I sent over my general terms before this meeting,” Grant said. “Now we need to nail down which course this company intends to take.”

“Well, we just aren’t sure if we want to fire that many employees so you can buy us,” someone said.

“I’d only be firing twenty,” Grant said. “That’s all. And with all the positions opening up on my end of the company, as long as they were willing to relocate, I could hire them at headquarters. The firing would be a formality more than anything else.”

He had an answer to everything, and yet these men were still shifting around in their seats. Some of them looked worried, some of them looked skeptical, and others simply looked a bit confused. The last board meeting I’d sat in on was filled with competent men who came with questions, figures, and thirst for knowledge.

This pack of idiots looked like they had no clue as to what the hell was going on.

Grant’s composure never cracked, though. “Let me ask you this: Do you know how much you guys will lose over the course of ten years if you decide not to merge with us?”

“I assume you’re going to tell us,” someone said.

If Grant didn’t know something was up, he did now. The attitude just thrown his way darkened his entire demeanor. They were blowing smoke up his ass, and he knew it. At the other board meeting, someone would’ve had that figure. A figure he was prepared to back up with slides as well as the paperwork he’d doled out. They all had files full of information sitting in front of them, and yet none of them had moved to look at it.

Weren’t they taking any of this shit seriously? Their company was done, and the rising CEO of the East Coast wanted to take them on. What the hell was the floundering about?

“Listen,” he began, showing admirable restraint, “I’m well aware that Alex Marks has had the lead on this acquisition up until this point. So, it must be throwing you guys that it’s me standing up here and not him. I can assure you, however, that I come with your best interests in mind. I’ve consulted with him on everything I’m proposing to you, and he’s on board. Now, another thought that’s just come to mind is to simply invest. Invest in your company and you could hire a new CEO and rebuild yourselves. The company would take stock options and ownership to the tune of thirty percent, and I could then become a personal lender. That way, you can keep your employees, your name, your connections, and this legacy of yours and continue on the road you’re going down.”

“How much would you be willing to invest?” someone asked.

“Finally, you’re showing some life,” Grant said. “For thirty percent, I’d be willing to invest three of the four million I was going to use to buy the company.”

“Oh, we wouldn’t need that much,” one of them said. “We’re not hurting that badly for money. It’s more for our reputation’s sake. We’d probably hire a temporary public relations person to help fix our image, then just keep on truckin’.”

I could see the shock roll behind Grant’s eyes. Were the idiots actually serious?

“Right,” Grant said. “So is that an option I should discuss with my board?”

Grant asked a question. He never asked question. He dictated. He commanded. He told them what was best, and then people just did it.

Something was very wrong with this meeting.

“How about this?” Grant asked. “How about you guys take the information in front of you and look it over? I’ll contact Alex before our meeting tomorrow, and we can come prepared to discuss the future path of your company and where J&M fits into all of that.”

“And you’ll call Marks?” someone asked.

Why the hell were they so intent on my father doing this bullshit? The owner of the fucking company was standing right here! Who did they think would have the last say in this deal anyway?

“Yes. Thoroughly. But this deal can’t go anywhere if you have no clear path of projection. My numbers don’t mean anything. This growth doesn’t mean anything if you don’t have a goal in mind. Come prepared to talk specifics, gentlemen. Or you’ll be on your own to fix this mess.”

And with that, Grant picked up his stuff and motioned to me. We walked out of the building and back to the car, leaving the room full of clueless men do to with the information what they would. I could tell by Grant’s demeanor that he was not happy, so we rode in silence back to the hotel suite. I could tell his mind was racing, and honestly, so was mine. That was very different from the first board meeting I’d sat in on, and even I knew something wasn’t right.

I just wasn’t sure what.

“Crissy?” Grant asked.

“Yeah? What’s up?”

“How would you like to go to dinner tonight? Out in the French Quarter?”

“Sounds wonderful,” I said. “Where were you thinking?”

“I was thinking Restaurant R’evolution. Ever heard of it?”

“Nope,” I said.

“Well, go get ready,” he said. “I’ll call the restaurant and tell them to prepare for our arrival.”

The restaurant was incredibly fancy, with yet another menu that didn’t have prices on it. I figured he would be teaching me another lesson, but all we did was eat in relative silence. I could tell his mind was still spinning from the meeting this afternoon, so I kept my mouth shut.

I knew he was thankful for the respect and silence, so my mind began to wander in order to fill the time. I thought back to the nasty thoughts I’d had during that dreadful board meeting, wondering if I had the guts to do any of it. I wondered if I had the guts to just take his hand and lead him through the crowd. I wondered if I had the guts to drag him to the bathroom of this restaurant and place his lips between my legs just so I could feel his warmth.

When I came to, he was grinning at me, and I was suddenly ready to go.

We walked out to the street, and it was filled with raucous drunks. He put his hand on the small of my back, steering me through a crowd that made me grow weak with nerves. My legs started shaking with every person that pushed into me, and for a split second, I thought Grant was going to have to carry me. Never in my life had I been around this many people who were whooping and hollering and having a good time, and I was painfully aware of how some of the men were looking at me.

And while I might’ve enjoyed their lustful looks before, I found myself not enjoying the attention now.

I breathed a sigh of relief when we finally got up to our suite. Grant shut the door behind me. My heels clicked across the hardwood floor, and as I turned to him, I caught his stare. He was still preoccupied with that meeting, and now I was just getting pissed. There was nothing we could do about it until tomorrow morning, so I did the only thing I knew I could do to take his mind off things.

I slipped on a grin and pointed my finger toward the couch.

“Sit.”