Chapter 12

Shit. What have I just done?!

“Cancel the approval.” Alexander said with a dangerous calm that made Daniel jolt subtly when his gaze shifted back to him.

“Sir?”

“The Singapore expansion. Cancel it.”

“B-but sir, the board has already approved the preliminary-”

“Cancel. It.”

“Mr Thorne, we’re scheduled to finalize the negotiations by Friday.”

“Then you’ll find a way to explain this mess to them while they wait.”

Alexander shut the folder in front of him, and stood up. “We don’t invest hundreds of millions of dollars based on numbers that can’t even survive basic scrutiny.”

Daniel swallowed.

“S-sir, I assure you, the discrepancies are just-”

“Bring me the raw customer acquisition data.”

“Sir?”

“The original data. Not your slides, nor this report.” Alexander said, gesturing toward the report on the table. “As well the complete expenditure reports for the last eighteen months. On every campaign.”

“…” Daniel’s gaze went to the floor. “Yes, sir.”

Alexander turned to another one of the seated executives.

“Have Finance independently audit all the figures.”

“Yes, sir.”

“And Mr. Hart…” His head turned back to Daniel. “I want all the results on my desk before Friday. And then your performance and truthfulness towards this company, will have to be reevaluated.”

Daniel’s face went pale instantly, frozen the spot.

“Meeting adjourned.”

The meeting was dismissed after that. And the look on everyone’s face was rather grim as they, and I actually felt bad about opening my mouth. Moreso, I was scared Alexander would be regretting bringing me in this morning with him. I looked at him. He was seated again, his hand on his temple, slightly covering the look on his face.

“Xander…” I called him softly, but he didn’t respond, just took a dep breath. “I’m…I’m so sorry if I’ve overdone it.”

“No.”

“I-I just got your expansion project cancelled.”

“You identified a problem.” He picked up his tablet as he rose to his feet again. “There’s a difference.”

I followed and got up as well. “What happens now?”

“Now…we investigate.”

“Investigate?”

“Yes. The numbers don’t match. And I can only guess the frequency at which this sort of error has been going on for. There might be a mole, or someone damagingly incompetent that needs to be gone.”

I nodded despite the way his words made my stomach churn uncomfortably. However, it seemed reasonable enough to carry out an investigation.

“I just hope I didn’t just cause corporate catastrophe on my first day.” I said gathering my things. “Not to talk of being the reason operations might slow down once your investigation starts.”

“Chloe.” He called me, and I raised my head to see his right brow lifted. “You’ve prevented a catastrophe, you should be proud and smug about it, not feeling bad for speaking out.”

He dropped his tablet on the table for a moment as he stepped closer to me. Before I could process his movement, his hands were on my waist which pulled my closer to him.

My breath hitched, and heart began pounding due to the suddenness of it all, due to the way his breath lingered against my skin, warm with the faint scent of coffee.

“You’ve saved me a whole lot of stress with that mouth of yours. Seems like the skills you so claimed to have, are as very much proven to be valuable as they are real.” He spoke lowly, his gaze glancing down to my lips. “Keep it up.”

He let go and left the conference room before I could get a word in. And I was left stunned, my knees buckling, and I sat back down before I could fall.

That motherf*cking jerk!

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A few hours later, I found myself sitting in Alexander’s office, comfortably settled down into the giant cream-colored sofa in his private lounge.

I had been here for almost an hour now and I was bored. Really, really bored. While Alexander was, on the other hand, was sitting behind his enormous desk, completely absorbed in whatever report was in front of him.

I stared at him, like I had been for almost an hour, but he has simply been ignoring me. So, I stared harder, still no response. I narrowed my eyes, still nothing.

This f*cker is actually ignoring me after what happened in the conference room?

I then picked up a decorative cushion and hugged it tightly, letting out a long sigh.

He stopped writing, eyes still on the papers, but the corner of his mouth twitched.

I narrowed my eyes at him again, the anger building up the more.

“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you.”

“Enjoying what?”

“My suffering.”

“You’re sitting on a very comfortable sofa.”

“Not what I’m referring to.”

“Then what are you referring to?”

I glared at him for bit, and he finally looked up and I was it. That innocent look on his face, was all too innocent. It was so fake, and deliberate it creeped me out a bit.

He knows what I’m talking out. I need to beat him up just once.

“You’ve been staring at the for the last hour.”

“So you have been aware of my staring!” I said, partly glad he admitted it, and partly embarrassed about it.

“I was working.”

“Yeah right. You’re acting like a closet pervert, it’s so creepy.” I said as a joke. But his brow went up and I instantly regretted it.

Alexander leaned back in his leather chair, looking more amused than offended. “A closet pervert…is a quite a serious accusation, Chlo.”

Yup. I’m done.

“Y-You didn’t need to go ahead and use such an old nickname. You know what I meant.”

“Oh? Do I?”

“…”

“Enlighten me then.”

“W-well…” I pointed an accusing finger at him. “…you were pretending to work while secretly oogling me…n-not to talk about what happened in the conference room.”

“I wonder where my eyes are supposed to go, when you’re sitting right in my office. Willingly might I add.”

I looked at the sofa.

“Besides…” He continued. “…you’re my wife. Don’t I have the right to oogle?”

I froze, temporarily stunned by his reasoning. “It’s a fake marriage, remember?”

“That night felt very real though.”

“Th-that night was an accident!” I yelled, completely flustered and wondering what up with his head today. He just smirked, and I ended up grabbing the cushion beside me and throwing it.

He caught it without looking surprised, and placed it neatly on his desk.

“Violence in the workplace is frowned upon, Mrs. Thorne.”

“You’re lucky I’m not actually violent.” I said, folding my arms again.

He was quiet all of a sudden, just staring at me, and I thought for a split second that I had taken it too far.

“…” It was uncomfortably silent, and he wasn’t looking away. “What is it? I’m not apologizing if you felt hurt by that.”

“Chloe.”

“…Yeah?”

“Come here.” The amusement in his voice had disappeared now.

Oh, nell naw.

“Why?”

“I need your opinion on something concerning the documents here.”

And that immediately caught my attention, and I stood up from the sofa, and reluctantly went straight to his desk.

“What is it?”

“The marketing projection for our new product line. You’ve proven yourself to be observant when it comes to details others miss.”

“Oh, well, I guess I can take a look. What kind of product is it?”

“That’s classified. However, look at the projected customer retention projections.”

I went around his desk to stand right next to him and leaned over to read the document.

“The third-quarter projection doesn’t make sense. The retention rate is higher than the acquisition rate.”

“And?”

“You’re projecting more customers coming back than you are actually gaining. Unless the existing customer base suddenly developed a religious devotion to your product, the numbers are rather made up.”

He stared at the document for a while. And I shrugged. “That’s what I think though.”

“Hm.”

I turned to leave, seeing as I had once again saved his finances, not that billionaire like him would need his money saved so crucially.

“Wait.”

I looked back to him. He held out his hand. “Come here.”

“…” I stared at his extended hand. “Why?”

“Because I told you to.”

“That’s not a reason.”

“It’s the only one you’ll get.”

I rolled my eyes and sighed, and reluctantly walked towards him. But as soon as I was within his reach, Alexander grabbed me by the waist.

“Alexander-”

He pulled me down on his lap, not letting me protest. My entire being froze from the sudden contact.

“What the hell are you doing?!”

“Reviewing the report.”

“Like this?!”

“Yes.”

“Yes?”

“But now I’m tired.”

I stared at him, flabbergasted, but all he did was calmly lean back in his chair.

Then before I could scramble away, he rested his head against my chest. And my mind blanked.

What the actual f*ck?!!!

“A-Alexander.”

“Hmm?”

“Get up.”

“No.”

“Excuse me?”

“I’m comfortable here.”

And I never asked if you weren’t! What’s wrong with him?!

I stared at him, looking at how his eyes were closed and highlighting his long lashes. His head was resting against my chest as though as if I were just some fancy pillow.

I didn’t know whether I should be screaming or pushing him to the floor to give him a good beating. All I could focus on was keeping my heartbeat in checking because it was drumming in my ears.

“Y-you’re insane.” I said, my voice trembling slightly.

“Probably.”

“And…and a closet perv.”

“Still not convinced that’s an accurate assessment.”

“Not accurate? You’re laying against me!”

“And you’re sitting on me. It’s only fair.”

“That’s not the point!”