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That was why Olivia had been hired. A slice of news that came as a great shock to me.
“So, if we get on board, what’s the next step?” Gerald asked.
“Glad you mentioned that, because the next step would be finding another investor or two to bring on to the board. But don’t worry, you ten will always be my favorite,” I said, grinning.
“Does that mean we get to recommend people for your investor board?”
I grinned devilishly. “By all means, I’m open to any and all options. But only if the board agrees to move forward with this venture.”
I loved having the number one financial company in the nation. It meant I could use that pull to get whatever it was I wanted. A quick vote on the matter produced a unanimous vote for expanding internationally, and soon names were flying around my head, names of men and women with millions and billions of dollars who had expressed interest in investing with my company. I was the hot ticket everyone wanted to be on, and it felt great.
But once the unanimous vote passed, my mind drifted elsewhere.
When my assistant informed me that Olivia Masters had been hired for the new consultant manager position, I’d choked on my coffee that morning. I opened up my phone and sifted through the file she sent me on the new hire, figuring it had to be a mix-up. There was no way in hell Olivia would take a job at my company. No way on God’s green earth she’d step foot onto my territory after what happened between us.
But when her beautiful picture popped up in my email, I knew my assistant hadn’t been mistaken.
Olivia was officially working for my company.
I knew she was interviewing for the position, but I figured she wouldn’t take it. Once she knew exactly who owned the damn thing, I figured she’d go running for the hills. Our past was torrid, to say the least. Filled with sexual tension so thick I couldn’t breathe as a young man and arguments that spanned until three, sometimes four in the morning.
I leaned back into my chair as I mindlessly recorded names thrown at me, potential investors I’d have to entertain simply because my own investors had made a promise. But a few of them were good ones, men and women with deep pockets I could schmooze and syphon money from before making them filthy rich.
Like I had my original ten investors.
The meeting was dismissed, and I shook everyone’s hand. Anything to pull my mind away from the spiraling defeat it fell into. But once the conference room of the hotel I had rented out was emptied, my ass fell back into the chair and my back hit the cushion. And my mind raced back to that moment.
The first moment I ever saw Olivia.
She was in a pathetic little bunny costume. Her curves overflowed an outfit that was obviously one size too small. Her bunny ears had been crooked, and she had no hope of ever walking upright in those fucking heels of hers. And yet, she had captivated me, with her sloping curves and her long legs and her sun-kissed skin. When she looked up at me and caught my stare, I fell straight into her ocean-blue eyes. Those plump lips of hers had called to my cock that night. Her long, curly brown hair had begged to be fisted. Which was exactly what I did after fucking her imprint into the wall of the bedroom we had stumbled into. The warmth of her pussy caught my attention. The warmth of her mouth promised more nights to come.
But the dazzling look in her eye kept me on her hook.
That party changed the course of my life. I met my soul mate that night in a little eighteen-year old that looked out of place and out of character. She was a young woman with dreams of owning her own practice so she could simply help people one day. I was driven by money. I saw the wealth my father had amassed during his years as a lawyer owning his own firm, and I wanted that for myself. But Olivia? She had been drawn by emotion, guided by a passion to help and a raw, desperate need to save those around her while she drowned.
I’d made her a promise at that Halloween party to always be the person who kept her afloat.
Yet everyone around us had tried to drown us.
My sister wouldn’t fucking shut up about her. From the moment I took Olivia home to meet my parents, she concocted lie after lie after lie. First, it was the fact that she didn’t think Olivia was good enough for me. Then, it was the fact that Olivia didn’t seem as serious about me as I was about her. Then, it was the fact that Olivia didn’t like her, and that was why Olivia never came around the family when I went home for the weekends. And those lies blossomed into treacherous lies that rifted my sister and myself for years.
