Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 85593 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 428(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85593 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 428(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
But deep down, I knew why Darcy was distracting me, and that was exactly why this was pissing me off so badly.
Darcy was haunting my thoughts because she wasn’t anything like those women I’d find at the bars. They were always like sheep–ready to come with me after nothing but a crook of my finger. Darcy was the prey that didn’t just run from me, she would lie in wait and try to ambush me. She’d fight back.
Apparently that was all it took. Something about her rebellious glares and the amused curve of her lips had me obsessed. All I wanted was to have my hands on her–to show her how I could wipe that smug look from her face with nothing but a single fingertip. I wanted to feel that control over her. I wanted to hear what it sounded like when she moaned.
And I also knew I could never do anything of the sort. Darcy McClain was my employee, and my fantasies needed to stay in my head. Better yet, I needed to find a way to be rid of them–to be rid of her. I wasn’t sure what would happen if I had to endure her presence for much longer, so I needed her gone. I needed her to slip up.
My office door opened and Tristan came in. His dirty blonde hair was trimmed short on the sides and pushed back on top in a single swoop. “Good news,” he said. “We’re going to be on more shelves. I worked out a deal with New York’s biggest grocer last night. I’ve got meetings with a handful of big bloggers today. The Squawker–is that name permanent? Should we try to change it to something less ridiculous?”
“Maybe,” I said with a sigh.
“Anyway, I’ve got people working on a web structure. We’ll have a subscription service and I’m recruiting bloggers to put the word out when it goes live.”
“Good,” I said. “Did Marcus work out that thing with the newsstands?”
“What thing?”
“They heard about the acquisition and they’re trying to stage a sort of boycott.”
Tristan nodded knowingly. “Because of the thing with IntelliCorp?”
“Yeah,” I said. Three years ago, my father acquired a tech startup just as they were about to launch their big funding push to investors. He had inside knowledge of the product and also knew the men and women they were going to pitch to. So he went to the investors, confirmed the money to be made, and made an aggressive buyout. One of the founders of IntelliCorp didn’t want to sell, even for the seemingly ludicrous price, but his two partners folded. My father took over the company and fired everyone as quickly as he could. It all made him a fortune, but the press caught wind when IntelliCorp’s original founder told his story.
Basically, the Lockwood family was on public notice. We’d gone from relative invisibility with the average person to public enemy number one in many circles. It was partly why my father decided to put me on this project. On the one hand, I hadn’t been in any kind of public spotlight before taking this job, which meant I was far less hated. On the other hand, I’d studied journalism and business at Columbia and this sort of project was right in my wheelhouse.
Either way, I knew I had to be more careful than he’d been with IntelliCorp. That meant I couldn’t just fire employees at a whim. They had to give cause that would stand up under scrutiny. Of course I planned to fire most of the staff here eventually, but I needed to wait for them to slip up so I could bring my own people in.
I was confident it wouldn’t be an issue. The only problem was it meant I couldn’t fire Darcy unless she gave me a reason. All it would take would be one employee blabbing to bring the scrutiny of the media on me.
Tristan’s phone chimed and he looked down at it. “Gotta take this.”
“Yeah, go ahead,” I said, waving him off. Tristan had set up a temporary office outside the building with Marcus. I was working on plans to buy out the first floor. The old historic building was more apartment complex than business center, and part of me wanted to scrap the whole place entirely to move somewhere more professional. But if I could buy out the tenants on the first floor, I could convert it into some proper offices for myself and my team. It would also mean Darcy wouldn’t be prancing around right outside my window all day.
I shifted in my seat, annoyed. Of course I could just close the blinds on my windows and door. But I didn’t have the willpower. I also wanted to watch her to see if she was going to get off task, but the damn woman had lived up to her promise ever since that first morning when I moved Steve away from her workspace. She came into work, went to her computer, and grinded all fucking day.