Page 5 of Tall, Dark, and Grumpy

“This is Miss Meadows.” Hathaway jerks me unpleasantly from my all-too-pleasant thoughts and back to reality, whereI see that she’s nervous, but smiling cheerfully through it. So sweet.

This young woman…

I don’t allow my expression to change, my features steady in a dark scowl.

There are pivot points in life. My first kill. Leaving London to go to Milan. First territory. First million. One billion. The day Miss Meadows walked into my boardroom and stole my heart. Or rather, that previously stoney organ bounced up like a puppy and threw itself over to the Junior Assistant Accounting Clerk.

Myemployee.

She was probably born around the time I took over the territory on the outskirts of Milan when I was twenty. I ought to be disgusted with that thought, but I can’t be. I can only want.

Amore mio dolce. My sweet love.

Everyone in the room is waiting for me to say something, I realise.

I clear my throat, and Miss Meadows widens her smile.

“Did you make these slides?”

She nods.

“Use your words, Miss Meadows.” I’m coming across as severe. It’s been too long, and I suppose I’m broken now. Unable to express any gentler feeling, even as it overflows, surging out of my ribcage.

“Yes.” Her voice is sweet and higher than I expected, and it makes her seem even younger. Usually, I prefer women my age, but this girl is irresistible.

“And the data shown in the presentation, where is it from?”

“I, er…” Her gaze slides to the side to her boss, Mr Hathaway.

“Look at me,” I bark and her chin snaps back, her eyes meeting mine. “Where is it from?”

“I ran the analysis myself.”

“And is it correct?”

“Well, it can’t be,” Hathaway blusters.

“Shut up.” I don’t move my focus from the girl who has captured my attention, and I suspect, my heart. “Is it right, Miss Meadows?”

There’s a long, fraught silence. She blinks several times, the delicate fan of her lashes shadowing her cheek.

“I believe so,” she whispers, smiling nervously.

The head of finance is a treacherous coglione. I’d be angrier, except he brought meher. I might not have known that the creature who could touch my soul existed if she hadn’t walked into this room.

This girl…

She’s been here alive, for what—twenty years maybe?—and I haven’t known her. I’ve lived forty fucking years missing out.

I wonder if this is why I’ve felt so lonely. I’ve never lacked company, and I returned to London to see if spending time with my brothers would help fill the void. But now, it’s as though she’s a bright furnace and I’m broken glass. She softens all my edges, reforming me into… Okay, I’ll always be a demanding bastardo, but for her, I’d melt.

I take a few minutes to ask her more about the company’s financial situation, and the more I ask, the more confident she becomes as she recognises I’m not going to brush her off. She knows her stuff, and I think is used to being ignored.

“Miss Meadows says you’re lying, Mr Hathaway,” I say eventually. I don’t take my eyes off Miss Meadows.

She lets out a terrified squeak. “No! I?—”

I put one hand up to silence her, and good girl that she is, she cuts immediately. “And I’m inclined to believe her. You think I wasn’t aware that you were skimming off the profits from my predecessor?”