Unprincipled Ms. Raymonds?

The infuriating woman was running late.

Ricky checked the time again by his watch, tapping his fingers on the glass table as he wondered how the investors would react the moment they arrived and realised that Jade wasn't present after all. And for Pete's sake, could the members of the board stop infuriating him further with their endless questions?

"Why isn't she here already?" 

 "You 're sure she's still coming?"

  "Can't you contact her office?" 

  "Are you sure the intern you sent did his job right?"

There went the complaints from the members of board, ten minutes to the time stipulated for the arrival of the investors without Ms. Raymonds either making herself present for the meeting or sending a message ahead.

Their tone held disapproval, and he knew they were disappointed at him for handing the project over to an intern.

Although he pretended as though he didn't care, sipping at his glass of water and scrolling through his phone without saying a word,  he did regret not getting her contact information as he checked the time by his watch for the umpteenth time, anxiety preventing him from saying a word.

If she wasn't going to come, why had she agreed in the first place that she would make it? Why had she made her secretary send a message requesting  for the time and location of the meeting? Or had she done this to rile him further?

To get back at him for making several attempts to pull her company out of competition? What had... 

The doors were pushed open then, revealing the reason for everyone's anxiety clad in black designers' suit which fitted her figure perfectly, and white stilettos.

Ricky's eyes followed hers, watching with keen interest as she looked around, briefly taking in her environment. He inhaled inwardly, deeply relieved that she had finally shown up.  

Jade's eyes quickly registered the nunber of people present in the hall, and then proceeded to bite her thin lips, something that Ricky found extremely sultry.

"Look who is twenty minutes late." Ricky started, determined to kill those lingering thoughts in his head as well as eager to put her down the same way she had degraded him. 

This was after all the woman who had gotten all the deals in his stead. He was suddenly happy that she had come late on their first meeting. First impressions mattered, and he felt satisfied that they would see her as unprincipled.

However, her response to his obvious jibe caught him by surprise. Still standing, she replied, sounding contrite.

"My apologies for keeping you waiting, I was caught up with something urgent, I am sorry." 

Based on Ricky's experience with the members of the board, he had thought he knew them well enough to predict them, and  had definitely expected them to tell her how unprofessional it was that she wasn't able to keep to time, but what happened next had him looking around to be sure he hadn't been placed in the midst of people other than the strict self-righteous members of his company board. 

 Starting from the chairman who acted all disciplined and made it a point of duty to advise Ricky because he saw his father as a son, to the last person to join the board, they all surprised him by chorusing words of understanding with feigned high-pitched voices.

The chairman had fucking gone as far as standing to walk towards her, informing her that he understood, the lines of his ever unsmiling face lighting up.

"Traffic can be crazy at times." The Vice Chairman threw in, as though Jade had said anything about traffic being the cause of her lateness. 

"We didn't wait for long." Another member said, followed by feigned laughter and words of welcome. Well well, Ricky thought, literally dumbstruck. 

They had to be kidding him.

 Ginger wasn't left out in the adoration of the woman. She walked to Jade and welcomed her with a smile she had never given anyone before since she started working for Ricky, offering her a seat at the other edge of the round conference table.

Jade sat opposite him, and damn could he catch a whiff of that sexy perfume that was all feminine and tempted him so.

 "Mr. Mears, my apologies" She spoke to him for the first time, bracing her elbows on the glass table and pouring the bottled water placed in front of her into a glass. 

He acknowledged her with a curt nod, and added "Ms. Raymonds" more because he preferred watching her drink the water, and because he had not expected her to apologise to him.

He caught a view of her cleavage beneath the top two buttons of her jacket that were left open, and damn were those mounds fucking sexy!

  "Let me do that, ma'am." Ginger offered immediately, walking towards her and making to take the bottle of water.

  "No, that's okay. If you could just give me another bottle, I'd be glad." Jade replied with a warm smile that made something in Ricky's chest shift, gulping down glasses of water in quick succession.

Ricky suddenly wondered what had made her so late and  breathing fast early in the morning, wondering if she had been kept awake by a lover who had made her so tired after rounds of sex.... No, he wasn't going to sit opposite her and imagine her tangled beneath the sheets knowing he would get a boner as well as become infuriated all over again. He decided to begin the meeting. 

  Only when he cleared his mind for the matter at hand did he notice that everyone, every single person in the room, including Ginger who had just returned from placing a can of water in front of Ms. Raymonds had their eyes on her, watching her with undivided interest as though she were their breakfast within their reach to slowly devour and.... What was wrong with him exactly? 

Clearing his throat loudly to get everyone's attention, he began, glad to see the charm leave their faces. They blinked almost in unison, each returning to looking serious. 

He had to give the woman that; she exuded power, both professionally and erotically.

 "While we expect the investors within five minutes, we'll briefly run through the agenda for this meeting. They informed us over the phone that they have somewhere else to be today and can only stay for a few minutes to finalise and sign the deal. Ms?"

He looked at Ginger as he said the last word, having her get up to distribute printed documents arranged in files to everyone.

  Jade adjusted herself in the executive seat and opened her own file, flipping through the pages while Ricky tried hard, made extra efforts not to stare at her withering rose coloured lips set upwards with seriousness as she studied the papers- lucky papers.

He remembered her face coated with make up of bold red lipstick, eyeliner and whatever else she had applied the last time he had seen her.

It wasn't difficult for him to remember her, it had rather been hard work trying not to memorise every curve and perfect plane of her face. She was like a photo crawling into his soul and leaving marks with her fingers so deep he could feel every cut she had made.

The realisation that perhaps she had really been entertaining a lover that she had woken so late, resulting to not having time even to make up made him angrier, so angry he had the urge to stand and demand in front of all the people present to leave so he could talk to her alone.

But it was foolish as well as childish, and he imagined her laughing at him, a controlled and mocking laughter, asking if he had not only met her once.

 The arrival of the investors relieved him of his torturous thoughts. Standing with the rest of the people in the room, he shook hands with them and exchanged pleasantries as though they were long lost friends, before settling in his seat.

They made extra effort to Ms. Raymonds, in a way that made him wonder if the old man who had smiled and shaken her hand the longest had an interest in her.

It disgusted and angered him.

And damn, he hated that it did.