Page 22 of The Billionaire's Fake Wife

She leans forward toward the panel that controls the console with the fob and, I shake my head.

"What?" She frowns.

"I don't have time for a long drawn-out presentation."

"Bu... but I pulled together a deck."

"Give me a summary." She chews on her lower lip.

Don't look there, don't.I peruse the glistening flesh. Pink, slightly swollen. Her mouth falls open slightly, and fuck, if I don't want it fastened on my cock right now. My groin hardens. I shove my legs further apart, "Ms. West."

"Mr. Sinclair?"

I tip my chin up, "You now have have four minutes and fifty seconds left."

She releases her death grip on her laptop, folds her fingers together on the table, "The brief was on how to humanize the face of the 7A Company, using innovative marketing communications, the kind in which my company specializes."

"Cut to the crux of the strategy."

Her eyebrows lower. "My idea is to go behind the scenes, tail the founders, share behind-the-scenes pictures of each of the Seven, your interactions with each other, how you come up with strategies, the chemistry, the banter, the fights, use the key individuals at the helm to bring out why your company is not as bad as the recent PR that surrounds it."

"Oh, so you think we have a bad reputation in the market?"

"Yes." She holds my gaze.

Took guts to own up to that. It is refreshing, I’ll give her that. I place my elbows on the table, lean forward. "Go on."

"You and your fellow stakeholders are seen as cut-throat, mercenary, not caring about your employees, or anyone else, ready to take what you want, earn money for your stockholders."

I frown. "What’s wrong with that?"

"Profiting by itself is not enough. Not if you were thinking of going for an IPO, which you are."

How did she find out about that? That is information privy to the seven of us... and our teams.

"If you’re wondering how I knew about that," she raises her chin, "there was a piece in CITY A.M. last evening."

"There was?"

"Clearly, your PR team sucks if they didn't bring it to your notice."

"Hmm." I pull out my phone, search for the piece and find it. "We would have announced it in a week... No biggie."

I'm going to destroy whoever leaked the piece.

"It didn’t necessarily come from within your company."

"Oh?" Did she second-guess my thoughts, hmm?

"The change in your messaging during the last few months is a clear indicator that you are planning something big. Besides, the brief was aimed at whitewashing your reputation, and companies do that when they are going to..."

"Raise capital?" I pocket my phone.

She nods.

Hmm. Okay, I'll grant her that.

"So you're not just another pretty face, huh?"