Page 9 of One Night with the CEO

“Yes. We never got properly introduced. I’m Genevieve Mitchell, CEO of Wisdom Investments.”

Now, it was Mia’s turn to nearly choke. She went bright red. “I—I didn’t know.”

“Clearly. Neither did I.” Genevieve took a deep breath, centering herself. The fact that they’d had a fantastic one-night stand didn’t have to change anything. It all depended on how they handled it.

Genevieve decided not to address the issue for now and focus on business. They would no doubt need to talk about it if they ended up working together, but she wanted to start things on a professional note.

“Is this painting for sale?”

“It is. The ones in this section are for sale. These ones here already belong to various galleries.”

There were so many beautiful artworks that Genevieve didn’t know where to look. One in particular drew her eye. This time, she was the one to go red.

The nude woman in the painting wasn’t Genevieve, but she had enough of Genevieve to make her self-conscious.

“Is this one…?”

“It’s inspired by a particularly good night I had with a beautiful stranger.” Mia winked at her, and Genevieve found herself blushing harder. It took a lot to tongue-tie her, but she found herself lost for words. It was extremely flattering, being the inspiration for a painting like this.

“It’s… it’s wonderful.”

Mia blushed as well. “I’m glad you think so.”

“How much do you want for this city one.”

Mia was clearly prepared for the question. She grabbed a notebook that was sitting on one of the short columns spread throughout the room and wrote down a number.

It was an ambitious bid, but the painting was definitely worth it. Genevieve knew that it would be acceptable to haggle in this kind of situation, but she felt the painting was worth the high price.

“I’ll take it.”

Judging by her look of surprise, Mia had clearly been expecting Genevieve to try to bargain with her.

“Perfect! Thank you, Genevieve.”

“Thank you, Mia. Now, let’s get down to business, shall we? I would like you to come and work for my company.”

Mia bit her lip. “No.”

Disappointment flooded Genevieve’s insides. Perhaps Mia thought it would be too complicated entering a situation where she had slept with her boss. That would be a fair concern, but Genevieve had hoped they could work around it. “You’ve changed your mind about wanting to work with us, then?”

“Absolutely not. I would love to work with you and your company, Genevieve, but not as an employee. I would like to maintain my independence, but I’m sure we can cut some kind of deal.”

It wasn’t how Genevieve usually did things. She preferred the talent she fostered to be directly under her wing. She would usually say no outright to such a request. If someone wanted to work with her, they could do it her way; and if not, there were plenty of others who would kill for such an opportunity.

However, she was strongly tempted to make an exception for Mia. Genevieve did a quick scan of her feelings, trying to determine if the fond memories of their encounter last week were interfering with her business sense and her assessment of Mia’s talent.

No, she didn’t think that was it. Both Sean and Archer had said that Mia was brilliant, and they would know better than Genevieve on the artwork side. Genevieve’s job was to assess Mia as a person and decide whether she would be a good fit for the company.

If she wasn’t joining the company, that would be a less important question. Genevieve had a good feeling about Mia. She had gotten to know her more intimately than she had ever done with a potential business connection, and the brief time she had spent talking to her had been promising.

In the end, Genevieve decided to trust her gut, which seldom let her down.

“What did you have in mind?”

Mia had her answer ready. “It’s simple. You promote my work and I give you a share in the profit from all the paintings I sell. I can offer you fifteen percent.”

“Twenty-five,” Genevieve offered.

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