Accident Prone

Wednesday

11:36 AM

"Come in…" Brianna called without lifting her gaze from the screen in front of her when she heard a knock on the door.

"Miss Harper, CEO Harper asked you to come to his office." Secretary said when she peeked in.

"I will be there in five minutes." Brianna responded and when the door closed she leaned back in her chair.

She wondered, what does her father want now?

This is Brianna's third day at work. She got her office, secretary, and a lot of material to catch up on. Joseph Harper (aka CEO Harper, aka Brianna's father) gave her one week to learn about the current state of the company, their partners, and deals, with a task to come up with proposals for strengthening and expanding their business.

Of course, Brianna wanted to shout 'SEATTLE!' right away, but she knows that if she says that to her father without proper research, report, and numbers to support that idea, he will scold her. After all, saying that her friends and her boyfriend are there is not a good reason to branch out the company. She told herself to be patient and to learn about what happened to the company since she left.

Learning would not be such a big deal if she didn't spend the whole Monday and most of Tuesday following her father to various meetings. How is she supposed to learn from the documents if she needs to shake hands and sit in meetings? Brianna is aware that her father is super-excited that she returned, and that this is his way to make sure she is really back at the company, and in San Francisco, but he is preventing her from accomplishing the task he assigned her to do.

To make things worse, she didn't anything similar to this for more than five years, and her cousin Thomas is giving her death-glares whenever he can. And she suspects that he is hiding some documents from her. She didn't know that Thomas is so insecure in his future as the next CEO, and he definitely sees her as competition.

Brianna said that she will go to her father's office in five minutes with a goal to finish reading through the current document which is showing on her screen, but now she is distracted, so she decided to leave it for later.

…

Brianna knocked at the door with the name tag: 'Joseph Harper, CEO' and opened it.

"Brianna, thank you for joining us…" Her father said with a big smile.

Bri assumed that he called her to give her more information on what she needs to learn, but other than Joseph and Thomas, she saw another man and Brianna rolled her eyes internally because this looks like another hour which starts with a handshake and she needs to sit and smile while listening to a conversation. If she is lucky, it will be done in half an hour.

To make the situation worse, Thomas is present, and her cousin is not trying to hide his condescending attitude.

"Welcome back, cousin. Let me see how quickly you will mess up."

Brianna could not believe how eager he is to put her down. But she is not the one who will not retaliate. "Back off, Tom. I'm here to work, not to play teacher's favorite with you."

Thomas snorted. "Maybe you are saying that you are here to work, but we both know that you want to be the next CEO."

Brianna wanted to deny it, but she decided to stay silent. After all, going on Thomas' nerves will make this boring job more exciting.

Brianna will never understand, why is Thomas competing with her for attention from HER father? No matter what she does, Brianna will always be daddy's princess, and no matter how brilliant Tom is, he is fighting a losing battle.

Of course, her father believes that Tom's hostility is only because Brianna was absent for such a long time and that he is concerned for the wellbeing of the company.

"Don't worry about Tom, he always has difficulty adjusting to changes." Joseph assured Brianna. "He fears that I'm giving you too much too soon and that you will not be able to handle it, but I'm confident in your capabilities. Soon, he will accept that the two of you have an equal status in this company…"

"Of course, father…" Brianna smiled while wondering if her father is deceiving her or himself.

Back to the present...

Brianna is in CEO's office and she can see that her father and Tom are facing a person who is sitting in the chair with a high back, so she can only see the top of his head.

"You called me, CEO Harper." Brianna said in an official voice which she uses when the outsiders are present.

Brianna learned that if she acts too familiar to her father, others don't take her seriously because they assume that she is a vase who is here only because her father is the boss.

Joseph smiled. "Yes. Mr. Reynolds said that he is looking for someone to process transactions for his company and that he is here on your recommendation."

Brianna hoped that her poker face didn't crack. Who the heck is Mr. Reynolds and when did she recommend him to come here? "My recommendation?"

The mystery man stood up from his chair to face her. "Don't tell me that you forgot our talk, Miss Harper."

Brianna blinked several times rapidly. "Quentin?"

Now that she sees Quentin, she remembered that his last name is Reynolds. But why is he here, pretending that he does not know her? Well, she will play along as soon as she gets out of her shock.

His lips curved into a smile. "I'm glad that you remember me."

Brianna's eyebrow twitched. Just what is this situation?

She peeled her eyes off from Quentin and looked at her father. "Why am I here?"

Actually, she wanted to ask Quentin, why is HE here? And why he didn't call or text her? But she will keep that for when her father and cousin are not present.

"As I mentioned, Mr. Reynolds' company is looking for someone who can process their transactions, and since he is here on your recommendation, I wanted to offer you to take over. You are qualified, so it's a question if you agree to take Mr. Reynolds as your client."

"Oh…" A sound escaped Brianna's lips while she processed this information. "Of course."

Thomas snorted in disapproval, enjoying his role of an experienced senior. But actually, he is happy that Brianna is so flustered even though he didn't know why. Brianna used to handle customers with ease, but it's possible that she lost that skill over time. Ha! That will make this fun!

Quentin enjoyed the sight of his flustered fiery Goddess. And she looks ravishing in a dark red skirt and matching blazer which has the middle button fastened, and it's just right to emphasize her narrow waist and her plump girls. And he knows how good it feels to touch them. He licked his lips from the inside while vividly remembering the feel of her hardened nipple at the tip of his tongue. 

Brianna swallowed her non-existent saliva. She saw that Quentin's gaze deepened and he is devouring her already. Oh, God! How is she supposed to focus on work now?

Quentin gestured to Brianna to sit on the chair next to his, which she obeyed robotically.

"I was just telling CEO Harper that we need three transactions processed in the next week and if we are satisfied with the conditions and the service you provide, there will be more work coming your way from Reynolds publishing." Quentin said when Brianna took a seat.

"Mr. Reynolds is representing Reynolds publishing." Joseph added. "They are in fashion and will be doing a number of photo shoots in the near future in this area. The transactions are to cover fees…"

Brianna was too distracted to listen to her father. There was something about renting and models and acquiring other publishers, but Brianna could not focus. Quentin has that effect on her. But she heard the last part… "Do your best to satisfy Mr. Reynolds because we hope for a more permanent contract. I'm sure that Mr. Reynolds' requests will not be unreasonable. Maybe you can discuss it over lunch?"

Brianna laughed inwardly. Did her father tell her to do her best to satisfy Quentin? 'Oh, daddy… you have no idea…'

Quentin agreed to leave the CEO's office and have lunch with Brianna. He only hoped that these two men will not join because he wants to be with his fiery Goddess. His girlfriend. Just the two of them. "My lunch today is open, I would love to discuss this further with Miss Harper."

Brianna snapped out of her daze. "Please, call me Bri."

"Only if you call me Quentin. My close friends call me Q."

"I will call you Quentin… for now." Brianna shook her head inwardly and stood up. "I need to get my things from my office and then we can go to lunch. Do you have any food preferences?"

"Not really." Quentin responded even though he wanted to say that seafood is off-limits. He will never forget that seafood salad with wiggling tentacles which he ate in order to appease his fiery Goddess. Just the memory of that plate makes him feel queasy.

"Can I join you at your office?" Quentin asked Brianna. He could not get out of here soon enough.

Quentin saw that Brianna's gaze moved to her father, and he spoke to Joseph. "We are done here, and Bri will take care of me from now on. Correct?"

Joseph confirmed. "Yes, yes."

Quentin shook hands with Joseph and Thomas and Joseph gave encouraging eye-signals to Brianna. She knows that her father is telling her to take this opportunity to show her skills and that she can seal the deal, but he obviously does not know that the deal was sealed at the moment she stepped into her father's office.

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