Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 93140 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 466(@200wpm)___ 373(@250wpm)___ 310(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 93140 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 466(@200wpm)___ 373(@250wpm)___ 310(@300wpm)
I sipped my water. “My grandmother, not that it’s any of your business. Are we done with the interrogation now? Because I was considering putting the drunken emails you sent me behind us. But if you’d like to rehash every last interaction we’ve had, we can discuss those, too.”
She squinted at me and drank some of her wine. “I want a twenty-percent raise, and consideration given to Madeline Newton for Bickman’s position.”
Interesting. I scratched my chin. “One thing at a time. I’ll give you ten percent.”
“Fifteen.”
“Twelve and a half.”
She smiled. “Seventeen.”
I chuckled. “That’s not the way this works. Once you go down in a negotiation, you don’t get to go back up if you’re not liking the way things are going.”
She frowned. “Who said?”
I shook my head. “I’ll tell you what. I’ll give you your fifteen, but for that, you’ll also have to sign a release form, giving up your right to any potential lawsuit for anything Bickman might have done during his tenure.”
She thought about it. “Okay. That’s fair. If I’m being honest, I wasn’t going to sue you anyway. I think our society is litigious enough. Plus, I don’t like dealing with lawyers.”
“What about Scott Marcum?”
“Especially Scott Marcum.”
Good to know. “So we have a deal then?”
“As long as you’ll give consideration to Madeline Newton for Bickman’s position. She’s the best person for the job, and has been passed over twice.”
“If she applies, I’ll make sure she’s given due consideration.”
“Thank you.” She put out her hand. “Then I guess we have a deal.”
I shouldn’t have noticed how tiny and soft her hands were, how much her skin felt like silk, but I did.
I cleared my throat after we shook. “I’ll let Mike Charles know you’ll be taking the reins back immediately. I have to admit, I’m surprised you won’t try for Bickman’s position yourself.”
She shook her head. “I’m not ready for it. But Madeline will do a great job. Unlike Bickman, she’s smart and fair, and people respect what she says. Well, actually, to be fair, Bickman was smart, too. Just not when it came to women.”
This woman just kept surprising me.
“You thought Bickman was smart?”
She nodded. “He was. It was everything else that was horrible.”
“How did you two manage to co-exist for so long if he was that bad?”
“He was rude and demeaning, and I got my joy from the little things I did that drove him nuts. I pretended it balanced things.”
My brows narrowed. “What little things?”
She smirked. “Well, he had certain pet peeves. For example, he couldn’t stand when someone tapped their foot. It would make him turn the color of a tomato while he held in exploding about it.”
“Okay…”
“So I would tap my foot and watch the vein in his neck pulse when he pissed me off.”
My brows rose.
“He also once mentioned that he hated when people wore too much perfume or cologne. So I kept a bottle in my desk drawer for those times when I saw him ogling a woman’s ass. I’d douse myself before going into his office and pretending I needed help with a story.”
“Creative,” I said.
“I thought so.”
Ireland Saint James had a wicked side, that was for sure. I probably shouldn’t have, but I found it rather sexy.
The waiter came back over to take our order, but we still hadn’t checked out the menu. “Have you decided yet?”
Ireland held her menu up to the waiter. “Actually, I’m not going to be staying for lunch. So it’s just Mr. Lexington.”
“Alright.” The waiter nodded and then turned to me. “For you, sir?”
“I need a few more minutes.”
After the waiter walked away, I raised a brow. “Not hungry?”
“I’m always hungry. But I need to change the flat to my spare so I can drive the car to the tire shop. My roommate has to work at three, and she’s going to give me a lift back home so I don’t have to wait there. Last time they took hours, and now that I’m employed again…I have a ton of work to catch up on.”
I nodded. “Do you have AAA?” I wasn’t sure why the hell I’d asked. Was I going to go over and roll up the sleeves of my custom-made shirt and change it for her if she didn’t?
“No. But I know how to change it. I’ve done it before.” She laughed. “I once went on a date with a guy who got a flat while driving me home. He’d never changed a tire, so I changed it for him.”
I smiled. “I bet he didn’t get a second date.”
She finished off her wine. “Definitely not.”
My mind conjured up a quick flash of Ireland changing a tire. Only she wasn’t changing some guy’s tire while dressed for a date. She had on a pair of Daisy Dukes, a shirt tied in a knot exposing a fuck of a lot of tanned skin, her hair was in pigtails, and she had a smudge of grease on her cheek. The grease was fucking hot.