Mr.arrogant(5)

Phillip leaned far forward, his eyes nearly on fire with anger. "If it  happens again, you will be fired. I am not going to absorb any further  expense, collateral damage, or bruised reputation toward our family or  this company because of your indecencies! You will not get another  chance!"

He looked up at his father with his heart in his throat and finally met  his eyes. "It won't happen again," he said quietly. His father did not  make idle threats, and panic was coursing through him as he sat there  facing a harsh reality he had never considered. His attention was locked  onto the man seated before him.

"What in the hell are you doing with these women anyway? It can't just  be cheap or easy sex; you're a good looking boy, you could go out and  find girls all over the city, I'm sure. What on earth are you going  after your staff for? Why don't you find someone in our own circle of  friends?

"You know, Vincent Grayson is my oldest and dearest friend, and I  believe that his daughter Susan has liked you for quite a while now.  She's on par with you in every way. That would be a smart match. That's  what you should be focusing on, rather than the women on the other side  of your office door. Give Susan a call and take her out. God knows it  would make both Vincent and I thrilled if you two tied the knot, and it  would certainly be a step in the right direction of saving your  reputation and the reputation and finances of this company!" His eyes  were fully open and his face was beet red.

Jonathon sighed again. He had known the conversation would go that route  and he had hoped to avoid it, but there was no way around it. His  father had had it with him. He had very little interest in Susan Grayson  whatsoever, but telling his father that as he glared at him over his  desk would be a bad idea; the timing could hardly be worse.

"I'll give it some thought," he said instead, standing up and  straightening his jacket. "Good morning, father." He spoke as a means of  saying goodbye. With that, he turned around and walked out of the door,  closing it behind him as he heard his father plunk his empty glass of  scotch down on the desk.

Jonathon went back to his office and found the flash drive he had  requested, waiting for him on his desk. It was labeled and as he plugged  it in to look at it, he saw that everything he had wanted to review was  on it. Margaret was a good secretary. He considered hiring a secretary  that was a little older like she was; someone who might not be attracted  to him, and someone he would not be attracted to. He knew that it  wasn't in his best interest to hire anyone else who might turn his head.

Jonathon hadn't meant for each of his indiscretions to happen, they just  seemed to develop and when hot sex around the office turned into more  than a night or two out, he would realize too late that he had taken it  too far, and then he'd have to either let the woman go because she  wouldn't let go of him, or she'd let go because he wouldn't hold on to  her.

It never ended well, and he swore every time that he wouldn't let it  happen again. After the last fiasco, he promised himself that he  wouldn't do it again, and then he had just promised his father, so there  could be no slip-up with whoever was hired to fill the administrative  position. In an effort to remove himself from the process of hiring and  choosing a woman who might be tempting to him, he had given the task of  hiring his new assistant to the head of the Human Resources department; a  woman older than Margaret was, and possibly even more conservative.         

     



 

He was certain she would make a good choice for him. He wanted to negate  any chance that he could be remotely associated with the final decision  on who was hired. He was well aware of the office rumors and the  whispered scandals that had made the rounds in the business he was  slated to inherit, and he didn't want to add more to it.

His father had shaken him up with the mention of him losing his job. He  knew that Phillip had been disappointed in him, but he never would have  guessed that he might lose more than what was left of the reputation he  didn't care much about. The company was a family legacy, and his father  was not one to make a light threat. If it had been spoken, it had been  spoken after much consideration and contemplation, and it was a serious  warning to be heeded. Jonathon Cross was intent on keeping his romances  out of the office and his mind focused on business.

The only request his father had made that he was disinclined to spend  much time at all on was that Jonathon become romantically involved with  Susan Grayson, the daughter of his father's best friend, Vincent  Grayson. Susan and he had been an item on and off throughout college,  and though she had what could be realistically termed as an obsession  with him, he had little interest in her other than for occasional  intimate interludes. Even those had stopped after college, because she  couldn't seem to want to let go of him, and he had no interest in a  serious relationship with her, and that was what she wanted with him  more than anything.

For both of their sakes, he had for all intents and purposes, stopped  speaking with her, but they would see each other on rare occasions and  he was polite, and she was filled with longing, holding back her  unrequited love for him.

Her father had prompted him several times to become involved with her,  and his own father had done the same; both of them interested in merging  their families, and their businesses. Her father was also interested in  seeing his only daughter get anything that she wanted to make her  happy, and there was nothing that she wanted more than Jonathon Cross.

Phillip had mentioned him getting engaged to Susan, and when he had,  Jonathon struggled to keep his mouth closed, rather than to tell his  father just how remote a possibility that truly was, no matter how much  his father pressed him toward being with her.

Jonathon wasn't interested in settling down with anyone for any length  of time; he liked to have fun, and he preferred to indulge in spending  time with a variety of women, and he was not about to give that up for  his father, his father's best friend, or anyone else.

He could see all the merit of finding women outside of the office, as  his father had requested, however, and on that point he would acquiesce  to his father's request.





Chapter2





At ten in the morning on the following day, Naomi was sitting in a  reception area on the twenty seventh floor of the Cross Corp building.  Her heart was beating swiftly and her mind was whirring with the  possibilities of what may come, but she was calm and collected on the  outside, and she knew that was what mattered most of all.

She had opted to wear a dark pinstriped skirt and jacket with a light  blouse beneath the jacket, low heels, and her mother's pearl necklace.  She had slipped in the pearl earrings that her parents had given her for  her sweet sixteen birthday, and they matched the necklace almost  perfectly. Her makeup was light, her hair was pulled up into a twist at  the back of her head, and on her wrist, and her watch told her that she  was fifteen minutes early to the interview. She looked classy and put  together, and she knew it. It instilled her with some confidence, but  not enough to truly ease the butterflies that were fluttering wildly in  her stomach.

Just as the clock began to chime ten times, an older woman walked out to  her, extending her hand and inclining her head slightly. She was  slightly heavyset and had a sway to her whole body as she moved. Her  hair was silvery white and her eyes were blue, but were obscured behind  thick glasses. She was dressed nicely, but simply, and Naomi admired the  woman's short haircut that was styled in a cute and bold fashion; it  reminded her of Andrea.

"Good morning, dear, you must be Naomi Bradshaw. I'm Helen Klein. It's  so nice to meet you." She extended her hand to Naomi and Naomi took it  and rose to her feet with a wide smile on her face.         

     



 

"Good morning, Ms. Klein, it's really nice to meet you as well." She  returned pleasantly. The butterflies in her stomach continued to zip  around erratically. She noted that Ms. Klein had a firm but friendly  handshake and she knew in the first few minutes of speaking with her as  they walked into the meeting room that she liked her. She was anxious in  every part of her that Ms. Klein would like her as well.

The meeting room was like the building and the elevator and the waiting  room; spacious and large. There was an oval table that filled most of  the room, and it was surrounded by a couple of dozen chairs. They sat  together at one end of it and faced one another. Ms. Klein set a tablet  on the table and ran her finger over it, reading over what Naomi was  sure was her resume.

She waited patiently and quietly as Ms. Klein reviewed it for a few long  moments, and then the woman looked up at her and smiled. She asked  Naomi questions about her education and her work history and she asked  her about why she wanted to work with Cross Corp.