Ruined: Loving An Alpha Male(31)

“What’s going on? I’d thought you be at work today,” I asked her.

She shrugged.

“It was slow today, so Lou told me I didn’t have to come in.”

“Oh yeah? So what made you decide that you’d take pity on me and cook me dinner?” I teased.

She laughed that adorable way I can’t get enough of.

“Well, I was heading home from going shopping. Since I was around your place, I figured I’d check up on you.”

I looked down at her and smiled.

“So, you were thinking about me then, huh?”

“Yes, I was thinking about you.”

“It’s okay. Most women do.”

She laughed. Then I heard her gasp as I opened my door.

“Holy crap, Mason, you live here?”

I walked around her and placed the bags on the kitchen counter.

“Last time I checked. When did it start to snow?”

She walked to the window and looked at the view, “Um, it’s been snowing for about an hour now. They don’t think we will get much as far as inches, though.”

I looked up at the clock and saw it was 3:30 p.m. She saw me check the time and smiled.

“I know it’s early for dinner. It takes a little bit to make the Alfredo sauce.”

My eyebrows rose.

“You’re making the sauce from scratch?”

I sat down at the island, watching her pull out a container of cream from one of the bags. With my direction, she grabbed the pans she needed to cook. I opened a bottle of Cabernet, and we talked while she prepared the Alfredo sauce, chicken, and shrimp. She asked me more questions about what I did for a living, so I explained how I made my living.

“So, let me get this straight. You find businesses that are going down. You buy them and fix them up. Then you resell them. It’s like a fixer-upper.”

I nodded.

“Well, that’s one way of putting it. Most of these companies can’t afford to get out of debt, or they don’t have enough to invest in whatever market they are in. What my company does is research these companies. If it’s worth the investment, we’ll take over the business and bring it back to life. Then, we will resell it to the highest bidder. Sometimes people have an already-successful business, but they don’t know how to bring the company into the twenty-first century. So I step in and make that happen.”

“Wow. How do you know the business that you buy is going to make you money?” she asked me.

I shrugged. “I hire the right people to make sure I do. If they make a mistake, I fire them. It’s that simple. I’m not in the business of losing money on investments I can’t control. It has to be a very good reason for me to buy a company. Now I also help others acquire businesses too. They look to my company to make sure they invest their money smartly. If they have an idea about a business they would like to pursue, they contact me. I’ll research the company to find out if the company can survive in the market it is in. If so, I’ll approve it for purchase. If not, I’ll tell my client what I think and provide proof that they shouldn’t go with the investment.”

She leaned over the counter and studied me.

“And you’ve never made a mistake?”

“I’m not going to say I have never made mistakes. Investing is a gamble, like Blackjack. You don’t know what kind of cards the dealer will pull. You could go bust or get Blackjack. It’s about how much are you willing to gamble. Of course, I have made some mistakes or miscalculations over the early years, but my overall record is stellar. Companies around the world send me, or rather my company, acquisitions they are thinking about pursuing in hopes we could help them. I’m very good at what I do.”

I tried not to sound too cocky, but I couldn’t help myself. She smiled at me.

“Well, I guess you’re successful considering…” She spread her arms out over my apartment. “But can I ask you a question? You’ve been gone for, what, ten years? Has your brother been making all the decisions?”

I shook my head.

“Not all of them. Max, I started this business when I was seventeen. By the time I went off to the Navy, I’d already made my first million. My brother went to college to make sure the business stayed afloat. He’s good at what he does, as well. And we are of like minds, of course.”

“Oh, of course.” She rolled her eyes.

I laughed. “So for the large investments we took on, if I was available we talked, and we both made decisions. When I had some down time, I would give him companies to go after. So, I’m not a complete slacker, although some would think that. I’ve never allowed my brother to put my name on anything we acquired since I’ve been away.”