Page 3

Bailey

“ G ood morning, Ms. Henson!” My assistant Penny greeted me cheerfully while handing me a much-needed cup of coffee.

I didn’t get much sleep last night, and when I finally closed my eyes, it was time to get up.

Thank goodness my first meeting wasn’t until noon so I could take a nap with my cold mask on to help reduce the bags under my eyes and have enough energy to push through the meeting.

“I have some phone messages for you, but the most important one is on top; it’s from the CEO of Hydro. He has to go out of the country, so he has to move the meeting up,” she said a little hesitantly as she handed me a stack of mail and phone messages.

“Shit! Move it to when?”

So much for a nap . I thought as I pouted.

“Right now, he’s been in the conference room for five minutes.” Penny looked a little scared because she’s witnessed my temper flare before. I loved routine, and when unexpected changes came up that threw my day off, such as meetings being changed on short notice, I tended to be a little dramatic.

But right now, was not the time to have a temper tantrum, so I grabbed the papers from Penny with my free hand and walked into my office.

After I set my purse and laptop bag down on my desk, I rushed over to the closet in my office and changed into my favorite pair of black, patent leather red bottom stilettos.

After I put my heels on, I slipped on my favorite black blazer because it was tailored to perfection, and it made my waist look snatched without me having to wear a belt over it.

I looked in the mirror hanging on the closet door as I buttoned the middle button.

When I was finished, I took a deep calming breath and let it out in a quick huff to let go of some of the irritation I was feeling.

Then I smiled as I smoothed my hands over my hips, as I admired how great they looked in my black pencil skirt.

“That bitch bad, looking like a bag of money.” I rapped the chorus of “Bag of Money” in my best Rick Ross voice to get myself hype as I checked out my angles in the mirror before I went to grab my makeup bag.

After putting on what seemed like five layers of concealer over the luggage bags under my eyes, I was ready for my meeting. I grabbed my laptop bag, took a huge gulp of coffee, and hurried to the conference room.

“Sorry to keep you waiting,” I greeted as I quickly walked in the room while rummaging through my papers to make sure they were in order.

When I looked up, I saw five men standing, and at the head of the table looking like the most delicious piece of chocolate in a navy blue, three-piece suit, was my chocolate Adonis from the bar last night.

When his lips quirked as though he was going to smile, I knew he recognized me too.

Gathering my wits about myself, I took a glance around the room and was surprised.

I thought I was only meeting with one person today; instead, there was a room full of fine ass men to concentrate on while I did my pitch.

They were all around the same height, which I estimated to be around 6’5 or 6’6.

All of them had the solid build of football players with beautiful faces of male models and manners of Southern gentleman, because it was rare to see men stand when a woman entered a room.

I quickly composed myself as I took my seat at the other end of the large glass and chrome conference table and was pleasantly surprised when they all sat down a second after me.

“Don’t worry about the wait, my brother insisted last night that we move the meeting up since he has a trip planned, so this was last minute.” The man sitting to the right of the chocolate Adonis spoke. His voice was deep and rich with a lovely southern drawl.

So, they were southern gentlemen , I concluded to myself.

“I’m Travis Browning, Chief Financial Officer of Hydro ; this is my twin brother Tyran; he’s the Chief Operating Officer.

” He pointed to the identical replica across from him, except Tyran had a goatee and locs that reached his shoulders, whereas Travis was clean shaven with a small curly afro that was cut low on the sides.

Tyran smiled and tilted his head in greeting.

“Nice to meet you.” I smiled what I called my professional smile, which was not too big but pleasant enough to seem friendly.

I learned a long time ago that if I smiled too wide, men may think I was flirting and wouldn’t take me serious, but if I didn’t smile wide enough or smile at all then they assumed I was a bitch.

The smile I had right now was the perfect balance and it was a damn shame that I had to adjust my actions because I was a woman, specifically a Black woman in corporate America, so I didn’t come off a certain way.

From my peripheral, I saw chocolate Adonis tilt his head slightly to the side as though he was studying me.

“That’s our brother Torrence, Chief Counsel.

” He gestured to the lighter chocolate brother who sat to my left; he had a bald fade, and his beard was cut so perfectly it looked like it was painted on.

His black framed glasses fit his face wonderfully and magnified the fact he was the only one with hazel eyes.

“Pleasure to meet you.” He spoke softly like he was shy, but he still looked me directly in the eyes, and I smiled my professional smile again.

“I’m Trent,” the man sitting to my right spoke up before his brother could introduce him, “I’m President of Marketing, and the pleasure is all mine to be in the presence of such exquisite beauty.

” I felt my cheeks blush a little from his overt flirting.

“And if all goes well today, you and I will most definitely be seeing more of each other.” His southern drawl wasn’t as noticeable as his brother Travis, but his voice was deep and sounded almost as good as he looked.

I noticed that he was the only one who was not wearing a dark suit, which told me that he loved to stand out.

He wore a burnt orange blazer and a crème-colored shirt with a few buttons opened that showed the outline of his defined chest, with a pair of brown dress pants.

Trent was about to say more when someone pointedly cleared their throat to cut him off.

“And this is our fearless leader,” Travis said, and the brothers chuckled softly. I turned my head just in time to see chocolate Adonis’s left eye twitch, which gave me the impression that the greeting must be an inside joke that irritated him. “This is our oldest brother Titan.”

“Titan?” I squeaked out. Realization hit me.

No wonder I thought he looked familiar last night.

Titan Browning was very high profile because he was a Black man who amassed over a billion dollars in the tech industry.

He was always on the cover of a magazine or website, regarded as the first Black man or the youngest person of color to do something in technology.

No pun intended, but Titan was literally a Titan in his industry.

His name by definition meant a person of very great strength, intellect, or importance, and from the research Marlow gathered on him for this meeting, his name fit him very well.

Seeing him today in a fully lit room instead of the dimly lit bar, it was easier to see why I kept referring to him as an Adonis because he was so damn handsome, and he was built like he could easily fuck me through any surface.

Although I made great money and had my own company, I was not as high profile…

yet . Therefore, I didn’t have to attend all the same social functions as Titan, so our paths didn’t cross until last night, and from the way my clit was thumping between my legs last night and right now, maybe that was for the best.

However, this meeting today was not for any of Titan’s tech businesses, it was for his water company Hydro .

It was the only business he owned with his brothers that they built from the ground up, and it was the only business with his name attached to it that needed more work on making it a household name because it was fairly new.

Hydro was doing ok, but they needed to do better.

“Why you say my name like that? You have a problem with my name or something?” Titan asked, and I could have sworn I heard a little apprehension in his tone.

I had to cross my legs because his voice was like a siren directly to my clitoris and it throbbed more.

The deep timbre of his voice intertwined with his southern drawl was like a soft caress over my body and it made me feel warm.

“No, your name is fine, shall we get started?” I asked while shuffling my papers nervously, purposely avoiding Titan’s piercing gaze from across the table.

For the next two hours, I presented multiple ways for Hydro to build its name by building relationships within the community.

Hydro offered various water such as sparkling and spring water, as well flavored water.

So, when I suggested that they should meet with Giada Morretti to work out a deal to supply their water at her nightclubs and the grocery stores she was building, Trent interjected.

“I’ve been trying to meet with that broad for years, and she shut me down, even threatened to kill me, but I know she was joking about that.” Trent sounded a little hurt that a woman rejected him, but he covered it well behind his bravado.

“Well, I hope you didn’t refer to her as a ‘broad’ when you tried to set said meeting up,” Titan said, staring at his brother with a displeased look on his face.

“Does it look like I would call her a broad to her face?!” Trent looked offended as he asked the question to the table.

“Yes!” His brothers all yelled in unison, and I bit my lip to keep from laughing.

“Well, I just recently signed her as a client. I can help facilitate the meeting if you like,” I offered.