Page 15 of Selfish Suit (Steamy Latte Reads Collection #1)

THE CEO

DOMINIC

“ Y ou all cannot be fucking serious…” Braxton stands at the front of the boardroom table, glaring at the team. “If I were Skittles, I’d walk right out within the first fifteen minutes of listening to this dreck.”

“Sir, you haven’t even given us fifteen minutes,” Marcus says. “It’s literally been five.”

“Well, it feels like an hour.” He presses a hand against his forehead. “Skip to the mock commercials, preferably with a bit more enthusiasm and less crap.”

I lean back in my chair, grateful that he’s saying all the words coming to my mind. Well, the words regarding work and not Ivy.

She’s sitting across from me, crossing and recrossing her legs, and I’m trying not to stare.

“Okay, let’s bring customers back and show them there are more ways to taste the rainbowww!

” The presentation begins, and I swear this is not what we discussed the other day.

It’s nothing like what Ivy suggested—he hasn’t incorporated any of her brilliant notes—and I can see Braxton’s eyes about to pop out of his skull.

“Okay, enough.” I hold up a hand. “Let’s take the rest of the day off and reconvene tomorrow morning. I’ll send emails this evening. You’re all dismissed.”

Everyone scuttles out of the room—including Ivy—and Braxton walks over to the window.

“Thank you for finally saying something,” he says. “Has Miss Locke’s pussy got your tongue?”

“What?” I arch a brow. “That’s a highly inappropriate thing to say to me.”

“You’ve never been this quiet on a pitch polish day,” he says. “You’re over there smiling like the team isn’t serving up turds on a pee platter.”

“You really need to work on your metaphors... I was in deep thought.”

“About what?”

“Am I really that selfish?”

“Stop bullshitting me, Dominic.”

“It’s a genuine question.”

“You once paid an executive fifty dollars extra on a check by accident,” he says. “You immediately called the bank to claw it back.”

“That’s not selfish. That’s good accounting. If I let that slide a hundred times, it starts to add up.”

“You’ve done it over a hundred times,” he says. “For overages of like thirty and fifty cents.”

“It still adds up.”

“Right.” He rolls his eyes. “Are we going to be ready for Skittles at the end of this month? It’s looking like we’ll need to reschedule, cancel, or replace everyone on this team for severe incompetence.”

I tap my fingers against the table, unsure of what to say.

“They could potentially be one of our biggest clients if we land them, and it’ll forever close the door on Mars, Inc. coming back to us, but…” He sighs. “They will laugh us out of our own building if we present whatever the hell I just saw.”

I nod. I agree with him one hundred percent, but we’re too close to make any major shifts.

“Miss Locke had some extremely good ideas at our last meeting,” I say, pushing my notebook toward him. “More upscale than nostalgic. Focused on elegance instead of memories and summer.”

He picks it up and reads. Then he slumps into a chair.

“Can you and I work on her idea together today, and then make them rework it for you?”

“Only if you give me five ways in which I’m not selfish.”

“I can’t even think of one.” He laughs. “Can I have a rain check?”

“No.” I groan. “Let’s just get to work.”