Page 7 of Vivacity
‘I’m definitely going to pump the Montagues for dirt if I get the job,’ I say. Theo’s older brother Miles is the company CEO, their father the chairman.
‘Makes sense,’ Lotta says. ‘But from what I’ve heard, Ethan’s pretty obnoxious, just like his old man. Have you met him yet?’
‘Briefly, at the opening of his Westminster hotel a couple of weeks ago.’ I cock my head, considering. ‘Obnoxious is definitely a fair adjective, as far as first impressions go, anyway. He’s having major problems holding onto executive assistants.’
‘Because he's an entitled arsehole?’ Lotta guesses.
‘Possibly.’ I screw up my face. ‘I think he has control issues that get people’s backs up, funnily enough. He likes everyone to know who’s boss.’
‘And he wants to interview you?’ Athena jokes. ‘Poor guy’s going to find out who’s boss pretty quickly.’
‘Exactly. His last executive assistant is very sweet, but she couldn’t really hack him being a grumpy, bossy wanker the whole time. Is that fair?’ I ask Marlowe and Athena, who know Talia.
‘Sure,’ Athena says. ‘I mean, who wants to be terrorised at work all day long? But I have no doubt you can handle him, babe.’
‘But is he hot?’ Lotta, damn her, wants to know.
I turn to Marlowe, who gives me a little shake of her head. She absolutely does not want to field this one, so I ponder how to answer.
There’s no doubt he affected me. No doubt at all. He’s physically gorgeous, but it’s his alpha demeanour that gets me hot under the collar. He may not have been basking in theachievement of his latest glittering hotel that evening, but when he got up to speak, he commanded the entire fucking terrace, and I mean effortlessly. He radiated power without lifting a finger. He had the audience rapt. And that kind of Big Dick Energy is the kind I can very much get on board with.
‘He's really hot in a way that’s icy and controlling, but in a hanging-on-by-a-thread kind of way, you know? I bet if you could get him to snap, you’d be walking funny for a week.’
My skin heats slightly at the thought. At the memory of him grabbing my wrist.
Wait. I want first dibs on you.
So entitled… and yet almost panicked. Like he wanted to lock me down, there and then, before anyone else had a chance. It wasn’t unsexy.
Not by a long shot.
Athena settles back in her chair.
‘Well, darling, if anyone can get the guy to snap, my money’s on you. Every time.’
CHAPTER 4
Ethan
My father points at the Reuters dashboard on one of my desktop monitors.
‘You know this makes sense,andyou know it makes more sense now than it’s ever done.’
I don’t need to glance at the flashing green and red list of hotel stocks globally to know he’s right, just as I don’t need our bankers to tell me that the government would have no issue with this deal going ahead. Dad and his golfing, Scotch-drinking, cigar-puffing cronies have any potential monopoly issues tied up. And, given the pummelling The Montague Group’s stock has taken over the past few days, this is the perfect time for us to move in for the kill.
The only thing that’sunclear, in fact, is why this leaves quite such a sour taste in my mouth.
Late last week, it was announced that work on not one but two of our largest British competitor’s new London flagships had suffered “indefinite” delays due to withheld planning permission. The news spooked investors, and their stock is currently off by as much as ten percent. While I don’t expect the sell-off to continue, it’s looking cheaper than it has for quite some time.
At first glance, the Montague and Kingsley hotel groups have a lot in common. Both are now run by the sons of the men who founded them. Both are considered standouts among their peers. And both have remained independent, despite the huge conglomerates—Hilton, Marriott, and IHG—sniffing around them.
But our differences, no matter how well concealed to everyone but us, divide us more than our similarities unite us. It’s not just that the Montagues have increasingly pursued the family and leisure markets while we’ve doubled down on being the hotel of choice for discerning corporates. It’s that the current CEO, Miles Montague, and his father Charles, who was at the helm previously, are thoroughly decent men who, as far as I can see, run their business with integrity, while Richard Kingsley wouldn’t know integrity if it whipped out its dick and pissed all over his face.
That said, I’m a businessman. I’m the CEO of a listed company, and, to that end, my fiduciary duties are extremely clear. My primary objective is to create value for our shareholders, and boy, would this deal be value-creating. While The Montague Group may be suffering a setback, it’s structurally better positioned than we are. Leisure travel recovered far better after the pandemic than business travel. Zoom has removed the need for a large proportion of meetings to happen face to face, but it will never remove the need for people to take holidays.
Their hotel assets are incredible, especially their flagship hotel in Knightsbridge, near Hyde Park Corner. That gorgeous Victoriangrande damegives me a hard-on every time I drive past it. And, in a genius move that I’m ashamed to say I didn’t see coming, they formed a joint venture with the idyllic rural resort Sorrel Farm and have been rolling out new locations with great success.
In this, I’m my father’s son.
