Christian Walker was hot. And that was all I could think of during the entire meeting.
My morning had been long and crappy. Leah's nanny had canceled and I had to drive her to school and the older kids had a function so the roads were completely jammed.
By the time I got to the office, I was half an hour late and everyone was giving me glares. Of course, we were using my building, so no one had the nerve to say more.
I had texted Dante and Caeser that I was going to be late, but he was still pissed about it and he couldn't tell the others about it because not many knew about my daughter.
I didn't like sharing things or even trusting people. Of course, it was in the magazines, but no one read it in detail and I refrained from taking her to any events that might expose her too much.
I took her to dinners where the media wasn't present, and I knew there was only a matter of time before they brought her into the spotlight, but I wanted to protect her for as long as I could.
The moment I entered the room, my eyes narrowed in on the stranger sitting beside my brother in a navy blue shit and a black blazer. He was trying to look casual, but there was something about the way his tie was hanging slightly loosely and the way that his sparkling blue eyes met mine that made my heart stop for a good moment.
Finding men attractive for normal for women at my age, but the way he distracted me, I almost forgot there were other people in the room.
His hand felt warm around mine like a blanket on a cold day and I almost hoped that he was one of the gentlemen out of the movies and would kiss the back of my hand.
When he didn't, I pulled back and turned to Dante, trying to ignore his prominent presence. Christian Walker was getting into my head.
My brother had always talked about him, but he had obviously never mentioned how gorgeous his partner really was. Perhaps I could convince Dante to set me up with Christian.
With those thoughts, I sat down, plopping my feet up on the table, and turning to the other people in the room. They had to know who was in power there.
I knew Caeser wasn't really mad. He knew my reasons, and he was aware that I wasn't compromising when it came to Leah. That was my one condition after she was born and they pulled me back into their worlds, but he wasn't happy with my arrogance and he had mentioned that my attitude had taken a bad turn in the last few years.
Diana looked pissed at me. I was informed beforehand of the mission and the team and I knew enough about her to know that she was going to hate me and I was going to love annoying her.
After the meeting ended Diana and Aiden left immediately, probably due to my lack of hospitality. Dante stayed back along with Caeser while seeing the others leave, Christian rose to his feet.
"You coming along?" he asked Dante, who looked like he was in no mood to leave.
"No. And you aren't leaving either!" I answered boldly, pacing towards the two of them. I was aware of how slightly red my cheeks had turned and how my usual confidence had faded away.
Dante inclined to his side to have a better view of my face, most likely to know what game I was playing, but I ignored him and stared straight up at Christian with a hand on my waist. "You're the hacking guy, right?
"A guy just loves to be known that way, but yes, I am,"
"Oh, well, I can remember you as the guy who blew my mind but we'll get to that later." Stop talking. Stop talking. JUST STOP TALKING. "I needed your help with something,"
He recovered quickly from my former statement and his expression turned serious. "What happened?"
"The previous agency I had hired for cyber security leaked some of my data which cost me a lot. I was looking for a new company and since you merged with Dante's I think it will be best if I take in the whole package that you guys offer."
"We're not taking money from you, Ruth-" Dante spoke like it was common knowledge.
"His work, his choice, Dante," I replied a little too quickly. I snapped my head back to Christian to see what he had to say.
"If you and Dante are close then I really cannot accept your money-" Christian offered.
"Let's discuss this tomorrow. Over dinner. I'll send you the details." I cut him off in the middle.
"Why do you guys need to go on a dinner to discuss that?" Dante asked me, raising a teasing eyebrow. He was internally laughing over my attempts at asking Christian out.
Christian silently looked at me, waiting for me to answer. Our eyes met and I prayed for some sort of silent conversation that took place between two people from their eyes.
His eyes glistened brightly and a hopeful smile curved over his lips. He knew what I was doing very well, he just didn't want to risk his relationship with Dante by accepting my invitation.
Something in my eyes must've told him that he was in clear, or maybe it was the expression of relaxation on Dante's face because the next words coming out his mouth were something along the lines of, "I'll send you the time and location," I wouldn't know for sure, because I was too busy staring into his eyes.
"Thanks..." I muttered, suddenly very much aware of the fact that I had been staring blatantly.
"Mind if I get your number?" the nervousness was evident in his voice.
"Sure..." Emily wrote it for me on a piece of paper and handed it to him. I checked once to see for sure that it was my personal number.
We paused for a second, not knowing what to say or do. "Ruth, a word?" came Caeser's voice from the end of the table. My head snapped in his direction, glad to have a reason to get away from the awkwardness brewing.
Without sparing another glance towards Christian I skipped towards Caeser. "So what can I help you with?"
"Outside, Diaz," his voice was commanding, and as much as I enjoyed disobeying him I wordlessly walked outside.
"What happened?" I asked, my nerves still prickling from the conversation with Christian.
"Nothing just wanted to save you from embarrassment," he shrugged before taking off his suit's jacket. "Also, that Diana is Simon's daughter. Might want to lay off her."
"Figures why she got the position," Simon was one of the highest-ranking people in the agency. He was a good man with a multi-million dollar business of wines. Though, that still didn't explain why his daughter indulged in cheap beer. "I think I'll give him a call. It's been a long time since I've talked to him."
"Do that. And that Walker..."
"What about him?"
"Try not to kill him, Diaz. Guy's a genius when it comes to computers."
"I'll try," I gave him a wink before sending in a few workers to clear up the room while Dante drank my booze.
Being a CEO of a company that big was not easy, but my love for fashion made it easy for me even with the lack of degrees in that arena. My company had thousands of outfit designs: some were bought from other smaller companies while some were designed by our own team.
We had outfits replicating the celebrities with tiny changes so as to not make it entirely illegal. Our outlets had clothes from other brands as well but all them were selected by the board of directors and the major outfits were handpicked by yours truly.
As someone who was a staunch follower of fashion, I believed that there were three kinds of outfits: one that was new in fashion, one that was always in fashion, and another that one should never touch.
With bold fashion coming up, it seemed as though the lines between looking stupid and looking beautiful had blurred because everyone wanted to go for looks that made them look more confident and unique.
We had created a special section for all those lurkers and prayed that each one of them found peace. It was as if the designers had run out of good ideas and had started encouraging people to dabble in stupidity in the name of boldness.
Boldness was "accidentally" knocking on your ex's house in red lingerie on Valentine's Day when you know he has a date over.
Stupidity was putting on cowboy hats and pink boots and walking into an elite Italian restaurant and acting like you own the place because everyone knows that you even figuratively don't.
My top circle of employees was really small. I didn't trust too many people. One of them was Naomi who was from one of the richest families of England. She was responsible for the European pieces that the designers created.
My sister Rebecca had a fancy sense of fashion. Okay, to be blunt, she had the worst taste in fashion but after a lot of surveys I had conducted, I realized that her taste matched with the bold party, so she chose those pieces.
Apart from that I had my two best friends; one chose casual outfits while the other had the gangster/goth department under her.
We had one guy named Jordan who looked after the men's formal wear while Carlos, my gay best friend checked out the other men's pieces.
They really took the weight off my shoulders, but I kept choosing the female formals and dresses and gowns to myself. I had every single one of the best outfits at my home and I made sure to wear some to events. The thing was that my actual wardrobe only had black colored dresses. In a way it was safe. I couldn't ever look ugly. But it had earned a lot of criticism from the media.
However, the marketing department used my pictures at the events to promote the particular outfits and those dresses had a tendency to sell off pretty fast.
The formals' designers had a gorgeous design they had created: it was a bold masterpiece and something that would sell well. "Tell the marketing department to start creating campaigns for that dress," I told Emily. "I will be wearing it to Dews's ball. Have the designers find some good jewelry and shoes for it as well."
"And for tomorrow?" Emily asked while noting down my request.
"Tomorrow?" I repeated in confusion.
"Your dinner with Mr Walker," she told me like I was being silly for forgetting it. I didn't like the tone.
"I want to wear Lisa's new masterpiece to that."
"The black one?"
"Of course the black one," I grinned at her without turning towards her. "The jewellery too. Make it rose gold this time."
"Yes, ma'am," she skirted away and I entered my office to deal with my new assistant, Dylan. I knew I should've never hired a male assistant. Male bosses want to sleep with their female secretaries and the male secretaries want to think that they're superior to their female bosses and they just want to sleep with them too.
The thing was that I had never been one to let men degrade her. Well, I once was, but it was a long time ago.
Now was the time to teach my dearest assistant a lesson.
"Dylan darling?" I called out as I entered my room, a fake scary smile on my face. He froze and I could see him gulp and it only made me smile wider.
"Y-Yes?" he stuttered and turned to the security camera in the corner of the room.
"I want you to go to my house and arrange all my books according to their color."
"What?" he uttered, puzzled by my request.
"Don't worry, there's only like a thousand of those,"
"How is this relevant to my work?"
"Colours are about fashion, remember? You're learning how to differentiate between colours, my darling,"
"You can't make me do that!"
"Yes, I can, and I will. Now go there and start working. You have three days to finish it off and I am not paying for overtime,"