Page 11 of One Night Billionaire

“I am sending you all the details on the timeline, milestones, and tasks. I won’t lie to you, it’s going to require some overtime, but I think it can be done,” Brian said.

Anna considered that. “Sorry to be blunt, but do you have the technical skills to make that judgment?” It was probably overstepping, but she wasn’t going to take the word of someone that wanted it done telling her it could be.

Pete snorted and covered his mouth to hide it.

Brian glared at him. “I do. I built this company from the ground up doing most of the work myself. I would step in and take over here entirely, but I don’t have the time in my day for it.”

She acknowledged him with a nod. “Great. I’ll take a look at all of the documentation and let you know my assessment.”

“Sounds good to me. Anna, did you need me to walk you back to your office?” Pete asked.

Bless this man. “Yes, please. I’m afraid I was distracted on my way here with taking it all in.”

“Before you go, I need a moment alone with Anna. Thank you, Pete.”

Pete looked between them and though she could tell he wanted to say something he didn’t. He nodded and let himself out of the office closing the door behind him, trapping her inside with Brian.

“Are we going to have a problem?” Brian asked.

Anna shook her head. She now had a few more regrets to add to her list, starting with not searching the company before accepting the offer, or after for that matter. She’d been so busy wrapping up at her old job and getting paperwork done to start this one that she truly hadn’t had the time.

“No problem from me,” she confirmed.

“Good. I would hate to lose a qualified project manager over nonsense. You can ask my receptionist for directions back to your office. I hope you pay more attention to your working than you do to your walking.”

Dismissed, Anna stood. She didn’t say anything as she let herself out of his office. What was there to even say at this point?

Chapter six

TwodayslaterBriansat in his office contemplating Anna again. It was an entirely different line of thought this time. She was frustratingly chipper even when pushing back on things with him.

Anna was also his next meeting. She had emailed him an agenda with her calendar invite and given him just enough information to piss him off. For the second day in a row, she was coming to push back on the requirements of this project.

He needed to talk to Pete about her. It wasn’t going to work out if she couldn’t make the project meet his demands. Even working with her was a challenge and it only had a little to do with the fact that he’d slept with her.

She had been a surprise, that much was obvious, but she was qualified so he’d done his best to push the lustful thoughts from his mind. He had nearly managed to get over the fact that she had walked out on him, but then she would appear again with more questions or challenges.

If he couldn’t forgive and forget, he would need to let her go. The trouble was that so far, she had shown she was good at her job, despite the mess she had walked into. The only problem he had was her need to push back on everything.

“Come in,” he said to the knock on his door.

“Brian, Pete is here to see you before your next meeting,” his receptionist, Cheryl, told him. “Also, your phone seems to be on do not disturb.”

“Send him in.” Brian looked down at his office phone seeing the red-light glowing confirming he’d set it to do not disturb. He was too distracted with her here; he didn’t even remember doing it.

“Brian,” Pete took an empty chair across from him. “I think we might have an issue here.”

No shit. “With what?”

“The new list of requirements. I think she’s right. They aren’t doable.”

“Bullshit. I’ve looked at the data myself, it’s possible.” Sure, he’d added new scope to the project, but it was possible.

“You’re being unrealistic.”

“No, I’m not. This will make the program more marketable and help appease the delays that Terry caused.”

They had dug through everything Terry had done and it seemed from the start that he was out to sabotage this project. Work was denied approval according to the acceptable team, creating delays.

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