Mr.arrogant(28)

She answered with a smile. "This is Naomi, how may I help you?"

His deep voice sounded in her ear. "Good afternoon, Naomi. This is  Phillip Cross. I'd like to speak with my son immediately. Please send  him into my office right away."         

     



 

Biting her lip, her heart catching slightly in her chest, she lifted her chin and answered him. "I will do that, Mr. Cross."

"Thank you." He said shortly, and then he hung up the line,

She sighed and sent a fast email to Jonathon, informing him of his  father's request. He responded right away that he would go, and to clear  his schedule for at least the following hour. Naomi knew that the two  of them had not talked about the announcement in the newspaper and that  the conversation between Jonathon and his father about that situation  was about to happen. Drawing in her breath and letting it out slowly,  she returned to her work, glad that she wasn't involved in the meeting  in any way.

Jonathon walked into his father's office and closed the door behind him.  He gritted his teeth slightly and walked toward his father's luxurious  desk, taking a seat across from him in a thickly stuffed leather chair.

His father looked up at him finally and sighed, slowly laying his pen  down on the top of his desk, and folding his fingers together as he  contemplated his son.

"You lied to me." He stated flatly, his eyes piercing his son's.

"I'm not sure what you think I lied to you about, but there's something  else that you and I need to discuss. You've caused quite a big problem  for me, and I have to tell you, I really don't appreciate it." Jonathon  returned, his back straight and his chin lifted.

Phillip leveled his gaze at his son. He acted as though he had not heard  a word of what his son said to him. "I asked you if you were sleeping  with that new girl of yours and you told me that you weren't."

Jonathon sighed and looked away from his father. "Are we really back to this?" he asked impatiently, furrowing his brow.

"We are back to this because you lied to me, and because the fact that  you are screwing yet another one of the women you hired. Those  indiscretions of yours have come to an end, and I mean today!" Phillip  said to him sharply.

Jonathon took a deep breath. "Okay, fine. It's true, Naomi and I have  begun an affair, but she means more to me than any of the other women  I've had. She's not just a fling, father, and I fully intend to keep  seeing her and being with her. I care a great deal about her."

Phillip stared solemnly at his son and shook his head. "You will not see  her again, and in fact, she is going to be moved to another department,  so you won't see her at all, anyway. I will make sure of that." His  father leaned forward and looked at him squarely.

"You are going to marry Susan Grayson." Phillip said calmly.

Jonathon's eyes flashed dark with anger and he leaned forward toward his  father. "That's the other thing we need to talk about. I saw that  announcement in the newspaper. How dare you publish something like that!  I'm not in love with her, I'm not engaged to her, I'm not going to date  her, and I'm sure as hell never going to marry her! I've had days of  damage control to clean up since you published that! I can't believe you  did that! What on earth did you do that for?" he shot at his father,  grinding his teeth when the words stopped coming but the emotion was  still fierce in him.

His father sat back a little and looked as if he might be humoring an  errant boy. "I'm glad that you saw the announcement. Perhaps that will  show you just how serious this is. That, and what I'm about to tell  you."

He rested his back against the back of the cushioned chair and smiled  subtly at his son, speaking in a calm voice. "You are going to give  Susan an engagement ring today. She has already chosen it." He pulled  open the top drawer of his desk and lifted a ring box from the drawer.  He flipped the lid back and exposed a massive diamond engagement ring  inside it. Then he reached forward and set the little baby blue box on  the desk before his son.

"You will give that ring to her today, and you will ask her to marry  you. Then you will set a date for the wedding within the next three  months, and then you will never see that secretary of yours again. She  will be working for another department by morning. If you ever attempt  to see her, and believe me when I say that I am watching the two of you  closely, I will fire her and make certain that she is unable to find a  job in this city again. If you care about her at all, you will not  jeopardize her future with your own sinful lust. You will do all of this  exactly as I have said, or you will lose your inheritance, and I do  mean all of it. Everything will be gone, including your job at this  company, and you will be left without a cent." His father looked  enormously pleased with himself, as if he had thought and planned so  meticulously that he had covered every base and there was no way that  Jonathon could get out of it.         

     



 

Jonathon stared at him in horror. "You can't be serious." He said in a  strained voice. Fury, confusion, frustration, disbelief, and panic were  raging through every part of him as he tried to wrap his head around  everything that his father had told him.

His father leaned far forward and locked his eyes on Jonathon's. "I could not be more serious."

Jonathon glared hotly at his father, his brows low and tight, his lips  thin, and his voice as sharp as a razor. "You will not force me to marry  her! I don't want her! How dare you try to do something like this to  me!"

Phillip didn't flinch. "I am securing your future. As your father it is  my duty to make sure that you don't make foolish decisions, and I  promise you that every word of what I said to you is absolutely serious.  I won't see you throw your future or the future of this company away.  You will marry Susan, and you will never see Naomi again, or I will  personally wreck Naomi's entire career and future, and you will be left  with nothing! Do you understand me? I am doing this for your own good!"

Jonathon jumped to his feet and slammed both of his fists down on his  father's desk. "You will not force me to do this! I am not some puppet  that you can control! It will not happen!"

His father rose to his full height, standing a few inches taller than  his son. He met his son's stance and glare and his voice grew  thunderous. "You will do it, and you will do it today, or I will  disinherit you today, fire you immediately, and destroy Naomi's whole  life before this afternoon is over! You are the only one who can stop  that from happening. You are the one who gets to make the choice. You  will do as I have told you to do, or you will suffer the harshest and  most immediate consequences and you will not suffer them alone!"

Jonathon's heart nearly stopped in his chest as he stared into his  father's eyes. He knew that the old man was as serious as he had ever  seen him. He knew that there was no way out of it for him. He could not  be disinherited or lose his home, but he discovered in the furthest  reaches of his heart that he could not bear to cost Naomi the rest of  her life.

They had talked so many times about her parents and what her parents had  sacrificed to give her the life that she had. He had admired them  tremendously for doing what they had for her. He had admired her for all  the hard work she had done over the years to get where she was. He had  not had to work for anything, and the sacrifices that she made and that  were made for her were not lost on him.

They were all the more precious to him because he hadn't worked for  anything, it had all been handed to him, and he knew the difference.  There was no pride in his own accomplishment of position in life, there  was only a sense of right and entitlement that he didn't like, but that  he knew came with the silver spoon that had been in his mouth since the  beginning.

He realized as he stood there before his father that he was going to  have to make a choice on the spot and that the choice he made was going  to affect many lives, and that the most important of those lives, at  least to him, was Naomi's. He knew his father was serious about firing  him and disinheriting him. He had some money put away, and he would be  able to live out his own life in a much more humble manner, and perhaps  he might even be able to start his own company if his father didn't  destroy every connection he needed to do it. But he could not risk his  father destroying what Naomi and her parents had worked so tirelessly  for all of their lives. The gift of it was precious and fine; delicate  and beautiful, and it could not be tossed away because of him.

He would not cost her everything in her life just for the chance to have  her, and he didn't know if she would even want to be with him, once she  found out that his choice to keep her had cost her everything.

He was trapped and there was no way around it. His father had been so  prepared that Jonathon was facing a checkmate. There was no way around  it.