Page 16 of CEO February: Brax Danvers
We walked a circuit and then returned home. I fed Sally and made myself a meal. I sat in the courtyard and ate, drinking a glass of wine. I heard my phone vibrate on the kitchen counter. I’d left it in the car when I’d visited Darryl and I cursed, betting it was full of messages and emails. Even on a weekend I couldn’t get away from work. I walked in and picked it up.
There was a missed call and three messages from Annie, one apologising for being snippy with me. I smiled and returned her message, telling her all was fine and not to worry about it. I deleted some junk and then I came to a message from an unknown number. I frowned and then smiled as I read.
Thank you, I enjoyed today immensely. Looking forward to seeing you again. Darryl
I saved the number and added her name to my contacts, wondering when I’d given her mine. Still, it was nice to receive that message from her.
Same, and I look forward to seeing you, also. Brax
I sat and reflected while I sipped the rest of my wine. No one was being harmed, all parties understood and agreed to the activities, but in the cold light of the day, or rather, the evening, something felt wrong. I made the decision to not visit the clearing in the park anymore. The last thing I needed was to get caught and have my reputation ruined. If Darryl was so keen to see me again, that activity wasn’t needed.
I didn’t believe there would be aconventionalrelationship between Darryl and me; if I entered a relationship I wanted monogamy and I wasn’t sure she would want that. I then started to laugh. I’d fucked her in a park, she’d rubbed my cock at a restaurant, and we’d had a lot of fun in a lake and woods, that’s all. There I was, thinking about a relationship with her.
* * *
For the next few days, I was busy with work. I had no time for anyone, despite Emilia calling me to meet up. I worked eighteen-hour days, ate when I could, and flopped into bed each evening, exhausted. As the days wore on, the grumpier I got.
“Jesus, Brax, you need to get laid,” Annie said, after I’d snapped at her for something completely out of her control.
“I need to have a team that will help secure this deal,” I said, walking away.
Even though I knew I was grumpy, I didn’t appreciate being spoken to that way in an office full of employees, and I intended to tell her so. She’d overstepped that time. Since she’d discovered I wasgetting laidshe’d been sniping at me. Until then, working with her hadn’t been an issue; we’d managed to keep our friendship and our business relationship separate. I knew she’d been gossiped about; one or two of her colleagues had set up a pool betting on whether we’d had sex, orhad she fucked the boss?I knew that because I’d found one of their betting slips. I hadn’t told Annie what I’d discovered, but I was furious and found a way to move the two colleagues to different areas within the company. If she, however, was making comments out of turn like she had, I’d have to reevaluate our friendship.
Annie accompanied me when we headed to Covent Garden to deliver the final pitch to Mack Jacobs. Although we spoke, it was mostly rehearsing our presentation and general chitchat. There was an atmosphere, for sure. Our conversations felt stilted. It was something I resolved to deal with after the meeting.
When we walked into the restaurant, I came to a halt and chuckled; sitting beside Mack was Darryl. She rose and walked toward me, kissed my cheek, and offered her hand to Annie. I wanted to kick Annie for the obvious delay in taking it.
“I’m sorry, Brax, I decided to gate crash your meeting with my husband,” she said. I caught Annie smirking at me.
I shook Mack’s hand. “I thought you lived overseas,” I said, sure that it had come up in a conversation with Darryl.
“I do, normally,” he said, and then laughed. “I have my most profitable restaurants in Portugal. Hence, why I want a new marketing team.”
Offers of coffee or tea were given and declined. I connected my laptop to a projector and started my pitch. Annie and I tag teamed, we worked well as a team and Mack was impressed with what we delivered. He looked to Darryl before nodding at me.
He stood and reached to shake my hand. “Looks like we have a partnership,” he said. He then shook Annie’s hand, and I was pleased with that, she was often left out. “Let’s celebrate, are you hungry?”
I was ravenous. We moved to a table for four; Annie and I sat at one side and Darryl and Mack sat opposite. Mack left us to go finish cooking a lunch he had semi-prepared.
“I’m so thrilled for you guys,” Darryl said, smiling at us both.
“We’ve worked hard on this pitch, and as Annie said, we need to move away from the stuffy old banks,” I replied.
When Mack returned, with a server following close behind, Darryl left to grab a bottle of wine.
“I hope we don’t have any vegetarians,” Mack said.
“Oh, Brax is a meat eater, for sure,” Annie said, and then laughed. I frowned at her wondering why she’d say such a strange thing.
“So, Mack, what plans do you have next?” I asked, as we tucked into a rare steak on a bed of wilted spinach with a light peppercorn sauce on the side; a simple dish, but delicious.
Mack told us of his future plans. He wanted to sign up another celebrity chef and because of his television commitments, he had brought in a team to oversee the restaurant chain.
I felt something slide up my leg and shuffled myself forward, under the table a little more. Darryl ran her foot over my crotch and since we were sitting near a window, I wondered if anyone could see what she was doing. I continued to eat and chat while my cock grew hard. I thanked the tablecloth for giving me some privacy from my fellow diners, of course.
Darryl smiled as she ate, sipped her wine, and chatted as if she wasn’t trying to make me come with her foot. I vowed to return the favor at our next meeting. She was very much into arousing me in public and I wondered how she’d fare if I did the same.
I stared at her with my eyebrows raised and a smirk on my face.Run,I mouthed and she chuckled.
