Chapter 15: Chapter 15

- As CEO

James's pov

Two weeks. Two fucking weeks. Two weeks since the heated kiss. Two weeks since I last saw my Dei, the glimpses of her didn't count and I wasn't even certain if it was her or her shadow. Might as well have been my illusions.

I knew I shouldn't have done it. Damn it, I shouldn't even be thinking of regretting it. Nevertheless, I shouldn't have kissed her.

Great, I did a good job, now she's been avoiding me like I was a plague. I should've known what the aftermath would be. I shouldn't have walked back into her life like that— like it was a room without a door when in reality it had so many doors. Kissing her after two years without seeing each other was too sudden.

Although it was in my head that kissing her was a wrong stir, but if I could turn back time, I'd kiss her again and again. Maybe I didn't regret it like I was trying to make myself believe. No, I didn't regret it.

That day, I knew I wouldn't be able to stop myself the second I had her luscious red lips in front of me. I still felt her lips against mine anytime I get flashes of the scene, and that was a lot. I still had her taste on my tongue. I could still feel her soft body pressed against mine. The way the heat of our centers steamed when they touch with our clothes as the only barrier. And most of all I couldn't get the fact that she was almost at her peak. I groaned as I felt myself growing hard, cursing Dawn for denying her the release.

All this was why I couldn't comprehend her avoiding me. I sighed dropping on the bed. She had kissed me with equal passion, her moans were real, she'd grounded on me as her life depended on it. Then just why was she avoiding me?

Rubbing my palm to my forehead— something I did when I was tired of overthinking, I concluded, even if I tried figuring her out I wouldn't be able to. I needed to have her in front of me. I needed her to tell me why she's been avoiding me.

Bang. Bang.

The knock interrupted my thoughts. I sat straight, wobbling my head free from the realm of thinking. I was going to answer when he stormed through the door.

"James!" Okay, dad yelling walking towards me was now too normalized but I was never getting used to it.

"Not with this topic again, "I mumbled.

"Well, good morning to you too dad," I said grudgingly.

He watched me warily, like he wanted to retort but decided against it. "We have to be in the office in thirty minutes, so meet me downstairs in fifteen."

I opened my mouth to speak, but he cut me off. "Don't start with your rants of how I can't control you. It's your business too, and for the past two weeks you've been lacking behind." He stormed out, not even allowing me to talk.

I was fed up with Mr. Martin's senior. He was going to have to hear from me soon, but not today though. I agreed with part of what he said— I haven't had a clear head in the business for a while now, and I knew why or who my head's been with.

I showered and in thirteen minutes I was ready.

"Good morning, mum." I walked to the kitchen counter where she stood, planting a kiss on her cheek.

"Morning, James. Breakfast has been waiting for you, you finally decided to come down," she said patting my shoulders.

I grumbled, "Mum."

"What? I can't pat my son's shoulders?"

"I'm hungry," I declared ignoring her question and sitting roughly.

Almost immediately, I dug into my plate of pancakes, cheese, and eggs. My mum stood there, watching me like I was the most adorable kid on earth.

"Don't choke, okay?" she giggled "Your dad is waiting for you in the car."

I inquired for the time from the Rolex on my wrist and saw that it was still very early. "What's so important today that we have to be at the office so early? It's just 7:15."

"If you had been checking on your work schedules you'll be very well aware." She paused with a smile, then continued, "Now go."

"Okay, bye." I stood up, gave her a quick hug, heard a faint 'I love you' but was in a hurry to meet up, not because I was late, but out of curiosity about why we were to be in the office this early.

my normal work time began by 8:30 in the morning, and my dad was almost never in the office unless it was very important. Most of the time he worked from home, and despite our grudge, I'd to agree he worked efficiently.

I met him standing close to his Bentley.

Keeping a grudge and going in my Range Rover was canceled if we were going to take his Bentley. I might as well just stuff that grudge in some corner and enjoy the ride, I thought.

The one thing I had in common with my dad was love for good cars, there used to be a whole lot more than one.

On seeing me, he entered the car wordlessly, I followed suit. I caught the death glares he shot me from the corner of my eyes, but I remained mute.

We reached the office at exactly 7:30 am and immediately made our way to the conference room, where I was told we would be having a delegation.

As the Chief Executive Officer, dad was seated on the center chair which was at the end of the table, and I as the Chief Operating Officer was seated closest to his left. The company's board of directors were seated in the remaining line of seats on the left. The right rows of seats and chairs at the center of the other end remain vacant as we waited for the arrival of the representatives for the company we were delegating with.

Dad's PA surfaced at the entrance of the conference room. "They've arrived," she announced taking her seat next to me.

I looked up to see Dawn and thought, "Oh, this was the mystery?"

Babson's Empire, was no mystery to me as we've done business delegations more times than could count.

He walked to me, grinning like a two-year-old. I rolled my eyes at him. He formally greeted the CEO of TMG. "Good morning to you, Mr.Martin." And he replied with equal formality as he always does to whomever when it came to business.

I watched Dawn take his seat from across me. He gave me a thumbs-up and winked, not to my surprise— he was a clown in a suit, though he looked far from it looks could be deceiving. I on the other hand struggled to suppress my grin and ended up giving him a closed-mouth smile. I returned my eyes to the entrance of the conference room, expecting to see Mr.Barbson, CEO of the Barbson Empire, but the sight in front of me made my chest tighten.

Deila.

I couldn't comprehend. She wasn't even part of the company, never even showed any interest even though it was her family business. But there she stood. Sexily dressed in a black suit trouser and jacket, her full hair tied in a decent bun at the center of her head.

As perverted as it sounded, the thought of her as a CEO turned me on. She looked so unlike her. I tried to control my thoughts from picturing her dressed for an ex rated scene. She was formally dressed, no skin on display, but that didn't stop my eyes from raking over her, trailing more on her defined curvy hips. Hot. Hot CEO.

I would've felt disgusted at myself for ogling as I never did that to you woman knowing how rude and perverted it was, but I wasn't remorseful when it came to Dei. She had a way of making my boundary lines grow legs to walk away.

I sat there, longingly looking at her with my mouth agape, unable to tear my eyes away.

Not realizing when she walked to the table and sat across my dad at the other end. The table was arranged that way so the CEO's faced each other, but Deila wasn't CEO though... well last time I checked she wasn't.

"We are complete now. We offer our sincere apologies for arriving 3 minutes late," I heard Dawn say, that did it.

I tore my eyes away from her, regaining my composure, adjusting my tie as it seemed to have knotted tighter. I bet Dawn saw me drooling and spoke to help me out. He shot a questioning brow at me like he read my mind. Once again he saved my ass. It would have been a total disgrace had the board of directors saw me drooling over a woman.

Out of curiosity, I looked to my father to see he wasn't surprised to see Dei sitting across from him in the place of Mr. Barbson.

"Let's get down to why we are here, shall we?" Deila asked politely in a surprisingly relaxed voice. "Mr.Martin?" she nodded to my dad.

And we went down on it.

The meeting was a smooth one, as smooth as a delegation could be. The Barbsons were proposing an exchange of company percentage. My dad dragged a little for %10 for %5, as expected of a typical businessman he proposed to give five percent of his company to them if they would give ten percent of theirs. I saw it as unreasonable and selfish of him.

In the end, the Barbsons won the ten for ten percent proposal. Deila to my surprise had a great stance in bargaining making her even more irresistible to me. I never thought of her as the business type, she always had a passion for writing and never hid that she didn't fancy joining her family business. But well...

It was advantageous for them to want to trade company percentages— a shipping company could be of great advantage to a clothing company.

In this case, Barbson Empire would gain as a clothing company and get great discounts for transportation costs and TMG would also gain a lot being transporters for one of the biggest clothing companies in the country.

In business, you could never get enough allies. Even though TMG has won second place for the biggest shipping company in the whole of Southern America thrice in a roll, we could still use powerful partners.

During the delegation, I was only able to grab a few words as I was distracted by the woman sitting at the center of the other end, Deila Barbson. To my dismay, she didn't even meet my eyes for a nanosecond. She acted like I wasn't there.

Grabbing the glass of water in front of me a little more forceful than I had intended, I placed it on my mouth, fixing my eyes on her while I drank. She didn't even flinch.

An hour later the meeting came to an end, and everybody said their goodbyes professionally. It was just me, my dad, Dawn, and Deila— who was still finding it difficult to gather her papers— left in the room. I watched her as she struggled with arranging them.

Feeling a presence behind me, I looked up to meet Dawn's mocking eyes. "Well man, this is it. Don't mess this one up, " he whispered and walked out.

The room was now completely silent, I looked around to it was just Deila and I left and thought "Oh." Great, just what I needed, a chance to talk to mess things up some more. Or fix it.

I smiled realizing Dawn's cunningness. He helped me get a chance to talk to her again. Adding another one to the millions I was indebted to him for.

Shoving my hands in my pocket, walking to her, I swallowed. "Hey, Dei."

She jerked—taken aback and all the papers left her hands, flying around before finally resting on the cold floor.

"Here, let me help you with that," I offered already starting on gathering them.

"Okay," she muttered. ''It's okay. I got it,'' she insisted, bending down and starting to gather some herself.

I continued gathering them, ignoring her protest and soon enough there wasn't any left on the floor. I had the majority of them neatly stacked in front of her.

"Here." I held them in front of her.

I saw a smile appear on her face, but it disappeared as quickly as it came... I could've as well imagined it.

"Thanks," she muttered taking them from me.

Here is it, my chance.

Shoving my hands back in my pockets K started nervously, "Listen Deila, I'm sorry for the other day." Okay, a wrong start.

She raised her head, looking at me for the first time. "What day?" She asked dryly arcing a brow up.

I sighed, knowing she wasn't going to make it any easy for me. "Y'know, that day I was at your house." I waited, and when she didn't answer, I summoned courage and continued "I'm sorry for kissing you like that. I shou-"

"It's okay. It's not like I pushed you away or anything."

As soon as the words left her mouth, relief washed over me, but then again the relief went as quickly as it came. She sounded so angry at herself for allowing the kiss.

I rubbed my forehead with one of my hand while the other stayed in my pockets "Then why have you been avoiding me?"

"Only your assumptions. I haven't been avoiding you. Where would I have seen you have made you assume that?"

"Oh Dei, you going to play that? You had no idea I was at your house several times these past weeks?"

She turned to the door wordlessly and was already walking towards it.

I knew she wasn't going to make it easy so I was prepared to not back down easily.