Page 7 of Untamed Billionaire
“Chloe? What are you doing here?” another male voice called out.
Chloe turned to find Steven leaning against the wall in front of a pretty blond woman. She was looking a bit trapped and panicked, clutching several file folders against her chest. Steven’s body was blocking the other woman’s exit.
“Steven?” Chloe walked over to her brother and looked at him strangely. But she suddenly understood what he was doing. She looked at the woman and extended her hand, forcing Steven to have to pull back slightly. “I’m Chloe Forsythe. I’m Steven’s sister.”
The woman almost sighed with relief and stepped forward to take Chloe’s hand. “I’m Dani Roberts,” she said. “I work in the financial analysis department.”
Chloe smiled at the woman. She was pretty, but more importantly, she had an intelligent look to her green eyes. An intelligence that Chloe suspected Steven wasn’t aware of.
Chloe understood exactly what was going on. She barely glanced up at Steven as she said, “Dani, would you mind helping me with some boxes in my car?”
The woman almost sagged with relief and she nodded. “I’d be more than happy to help you, Ms. Forsythe,” she replied, shifting the file folders to her other arm. She turned to Steven and said, “I’ll email those numbers to you as soon as they are ready.”
Steven opened his mouth to reply, but obviously thought better of it and turned, almost stomping down the hallway.
“This way,” Chloe said, then waved to the woman to follow her down the hallway.
Dani followed, hurrying to keep up with Chloe. “What’s in the boxes?” she asked.
Chloe waved that aside. “Oh, I don’t have any boxes at all. It seemed like you were having a hard time getting away from Steven, so I thought I’d lend a hand.” She stopped at the elevator, pressing the call button. “How long have you worked here at Forsythe Investments?”
Dani sighed, pulling those folders closer again. “I started a month ago. I didn’t realize…” she stopped, looked at Chloe and shook her head. “It’s a very nice place to work,” she finished awkwardly.
Chloe pulled a piece of paper out of her purse, wrote down her phone number and handed it to Dani. “Call me when you decide to leave here. I have a lot of contacts and I can help you find a place to work that won’t require you to fight off my brother’s handsyness.” She shook her head. “I wish there was some way to stop him. And if you decide to sue the company, I can give you the names of other women who have had to deal with Steven’s harassment.”
“I couldn’t do that!” she hissed, looking over her shoulder as if waiting for her boss to pounce.
Chloe nodded, understanding. “I know. Unfortunately, several other women have been in the same situation. Until someone stands up to Steven, he’ll continue to use his position of power to demand things of his female employees that they generally aren’t willing to provide. So far, no one has stopped him.”
Dani took the paper with Chloe’s name on it, stuffing it into the pockets of her slacks. “Thank you!” she whispered, then hurried down the hallway to what Chloe assumed was her office.
An hour later, Chloe smoothed the simple black dress down over her hips and nervously stepped out of the elevator. The tenth floor of the Austin building in downtown Charleston was hushed, but there was an intensity in the air. Everyone was moving around, bustling to get a task accomplished. She passed by several doors and heard impressive conversations. One person spoke Italian, another French and several others in Mandarin.
The atmosphere was so dramatically different from her father’s office, it was almost spooky! But spooky in a good way.
The thick carpeting muffled her steps as she made her way down the long hallway. She suspected that Marco’s office was at the end, behind those double doors. She hoped not. For some reason, the doors intimidated her. She shouldn’t be intimidated. She’d been around wealth all of her life. Good grief, she was considered a wealthy woman in her own right! Why should anyone intimidate her now?
And yet, the man scared her. Last night, just a simple touch from him created thoughts and images in her mind that were…salacious! She never had salacious thoughts! No man had ever generated anything other than mild interest in her over the years.
Perhaps because, in her experience, men were unethical, slimy, unsympathetic jerks. They were manipulative and mercenary.
And yet, Marco Hudson was more wealthy than her father had ever been. Especially now, since her father was hiding the fact that he was nearly bankrupt. And another point, no one really knew how wealthy Marco Hudson was. The fact that the man owned a vineyard in Italy wasn’t part of his public biographies. The vineyard had been privately owned. After looking up the information online, Chloe knew that the vineyard wasn’t under any of the various Hudson Industries corporate umbrellas. It was still privately owned.
How many other private entities did Marco Hudson own that no one knew about?
More mysteries, she thought as she continued down the hallway.
“Good morning, Ms. Forsythe,” a very efficient man greeted her as soon as she stepped around the corner.
“Good morning. I’m here to see…”
The man smiled professionally and stood up. “Yes, Mr. Hudson is expecting you. Go right in,” the man replied, gesturing with his hand to the open doorway.
Chloe had just turned to enter the office but before she could take even a breath, the man himself was coming out of the office, his tie gone, jacket off and the top buttons on his dress shirt undone. He looked formal in the perfectly tailored dress slacks that showed off his trim hips and flat stomach…and incredibly hot! Chloe’s mouth dried at the sight of him, and she took an inadvertent step back, almost as if distance could help her absorb the powerful impact of this man’s presence.
“Chloe!” Marco stopped, staring down at her with a surprised expression.
“I…you said…” she stopped, not sure what to say. “You told me to be here at eleven thirty,” she finally blurted out. “Did I misunderstand?”
