My CEO, My Temptation

Tyler

It took us almost an hour to reach her family home after a quick stop at Barney’s to pick up our takeout dinner. And I was shocked to find that she was living alone in the two stories mansion.

I’ve read her file, her parents had passed away, her brother was jailed for spousal abuse and died there not long ago. Her family was known for her brother’s scandal and the company was suffering because of the neglect and mismanagement.

It was an easy fix and I was needing her company for an expansion project that me and my brother Larry was doing.

“Let’s eat first, and we will talk about work later.”

I have never found a woman with such determination before, she’s very thin and pale and strangely still looked beautiful. I was quick to open the door for her while carrying our dinner with my other hand.

She was moving methodically turning all the lights in her family home. I can see it was slightly dusty, and my next words seemed to irritate her even more.

“You really need to tell your maids to do their job properly.”

“I’ll be sure to tell them when I see them.” She said flatly while putting her sandwich in the fridge. She looked annoyed, but I can’t help myself and gave her a teasing smirk.

I tried to assist her with the takeaway bag, but she harshly tells me to sit. So I let her be and watches her as we set up dinner while talking about the clauses.

“I like the changes you’ve made, the budget cuts and all, and I can only imagine signing off your company to another.”

“My parents, yes. I can keep on blaming myself, but that wouldn’t stop me from having to let good people go cause I can’t afford to pay them.”

She seemed smart, her words were articulated finely but there was still something about her that bugged me as if she was hiding a big secret. And I don’t like getting into something without knowing what’s ahead.

The uncertainty in the business world is dangerous enough, and I don’t want to gamble the prospect of losing money to her company.

She jumped a little when I pulled out a chair for her to sit. I thought maybe she had a lot on her mind, but after few hours she should be comfortable enough to be around me. And the fact bothered me even more, though she managed to get her points across but I was still bothered by her demeanor.

“Is there something about me that made you uncomfortable?” I decided to go ahead and asked.

“What do you mean?”

“You’re a bit jumpy.” I shrugged and try to play it cool, maybe it was the stress or her lack of sleep since I know that she uses her office as her apartment. My lawyers told me that she’s a good person, smart, graduated at the top of her class, and very hard working.

“I just have a lot on my mind.” She smiled at me and take the first bite of her steak. I smiled back and start to dig into my medium rare sirloin and stop in the middle of my bites when I saw her chewing as if she hadn’t been eating steak for a while.

Is she one of those women who starved themselves and only eat sandwiches and salads?

“That good is it?” I take another bite to make sure.

“Hmm… it’s been a while, been… living in my office for a while, and eating steak with plastic… cutleries just not my style,” she cuts, and bites, and talks, pausing between her words as she enjoys her meal.

“Do you have any wine?” I asked after we finished off on our water to wash down our dinner.

“Yeah, sure… wait here.”

She had just started to relax, but then tensed in a couple of seconds when she looked at the corner cabinet at the lounge area which held the liquor.

“Why don’t you get the glass and I’ll get the bottle?”

Her lips cracked a smile, there was a slight of relief in that fraction of a second and my mind mentally noted her strange behavior one by one.

I’ve never felt such high curiosity towards a woman before, and I was setting myself not to get entangled with a future partner. Office affairs had never ended well.

“So, tomorrow I’ll make some adjustments with our lawyers. I think it’s all doable, again… this is my first time meeting the head of the company who’d like their people back as a condition of a buyout.”

She let out a small beautiful laugher telling me that those people are like family.

“I know it’s cheaper to hire new people. But at least we don’t have to train them and think about their loyalty. With the company’s condition, they’re the first group of people that I had to let go because of their salary.”

I opened the bottle and she gave me the glasses and let me pour the red liquid into the fine wine glasses.

“… they have been with us since my dad built the company. I’ve known their sons and daughters, we play together on company retreats…” her facial expression was giving me the love she has towards her people and it made me warm on the inside.

Her company was it, the all traditional family-based company. The perfect face for our expansion.

We talked for another half an hour before I excused myself giving her time to rest. There was a troubling expression but she quickly masked it with her polite smile.

I arrived at Players just in time for my meet with Larry. He was at our usual VIP table with a woman clinging to his side already, while another one was to his other side.

“Little brother, I see you made friends.”

“Ladies, meet my brother, Tyler. He’s older but definitely not bigger than me.” He smirked and told me to join him while I give the women my best smile and they let out their flirtatious giggles.

“Tell me, how’s our new boss? is she as pretty as they say?” he asked ignoring the women.

“She’s… very pale,” I said taking my seat beside the woman who’s wearing very short and revealing club wear and looked like she just turned eighteen.

“But is she pretty?” he asked one more time, demanding a straight answer from me, while I strangely didn’t want to share the knowledge with my player brother.

“She’s beautiful, but that’s not the point. She’s off-limits.”

She’s actually gorgeous, and I didn’t want him to know more.

“Bro, since when do we ever play by the rules.” He chuckled and sneakily planted a kiss on the woman sitting on his lap.

“Nope, we never do apparently,” I said looking at the woman who’s too young for my taste, and at that same moment, I decided that I was too tired and need to go home.

“Larry, I’m going to head on home, I need to go to the lawyer’s office in the morning and make some adjustments. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Ah come on, Tyler, it’s too early for you to bail!”

I ignore him, excused myself, and leave them to head home. I was feeling too bit excited to rest and see her in the morning.