Everything about Raiden is frustratingly perfect and annoyingly strong and square. I’d like to punch him in his perfect nose, his perfect mouth, or his square, perfect jaw just so he wouldn’t be so perfect. His clothes, his shoes, and even his haircut look expensive. It gives me the urge to take a pair of scissors to some of that shit.
I’m not usually this evil. Raiden just brings out the worst in me.
I meet his cerulean gaze, stare for stare, unblinking. “That’s right. Are you?”
His lips twitch at the corners, and he drops his eyes to my mouth like he’s thinking about doing something very work-inappropriate with it. A strange heat starts in my belly, and a disgustingly disturbing pooling of wetness goes on a little lower. Apparently, my hormones are a little off. I’m two or three days away from ovulating, so it’s just my body acting freaking crazy. Biological clocks are no joke, and hormones aren’t either. But still, I’m grossed out at myself.
“Let’s just say I’m an overachiever. Most people probably think so, and I’d hate to disappoint them.”
“Disappoint them?” I scoff. “There’s probably nothing you couldn’t buy your way out of or into, and that includes a new image. If you screw up and do something nice for someone, I’m sure you could cover it up so your reputation wouldn’t suffer.”
Raiden’s eyes get a strange new glow then. How could I have forgotten he was on the debate team? When I knew him, at least. Sparring with people was something he always loved doing, and I hate how I just accidentally tapped into something that gives him joy. I backtrack fast by leaping out of my chair and grabbing my notebook and pen.
“Since this is just going to be really awkward, and I have no desire to work for you, under you, with you, beside you, or in any capacity that has anything to do with you, I quit. Have a nice life. I hope it’s a lot longer than eighteen years before we have the misfortune of crossing paths again. To be clear, I hope it’s never.”
Raiden’s square jaw ticks. “Is that any way to greet your long lost stepbrother?”
“Ex-stepbrother. And you were never lost. I always knew exactly where you were.”
“So you kept tabs on me.”
My annoyance rises at being caught. Not that I meant it that way. “It’s hard not to,” I bite out. “You’re always in the news or whatever, and you’re on billboards. You can’t live in Florida and not know the name Raiden Vanstone.”
“Well, I’m honored.”
“Why should you be honored?” Now I’m really irritated, which I realize is probably Raiden’s objective. He wants to get me off my game. “Because the whole world bows at your feet? Because your ego is so big that you choose to plaster your face all over the city? Because you’ve absorbed so many companies that stood no chance just to make sure the entire world knows your name?”
“I thought it was just Miami. I wasn’t aware I was a household name around the world.”
I am not playing this game. I was supposed to be prepared for this. I was supposed to be the one to take Raiden by surprise. This isn’t going how I thought it would, but I should have known better. The guy was on the freaking debate team. He probably talked his way into owning all the companies he took over.
“And I just want to say I paid good money for the companies I’ve purchased. No one got screwed over. I really value the hard work and time people have put in, and I paid more than anyone else was willing to when someone wanted to sell. That’s good business to me.”
“That’s your version of events.”
It would be smart to come up with something a little wittier than that. No matter how pissed I am and generally unhappy to see Raiden in all his wondrous male glory, there’s a tightening in my stomach, and my lady bits have to at least acknowledge that Raiden is attractive. As gross as it is, kind of. Wait, no. I’ve decided. It’s totally and utterly gross. Despite my conclusion, there’s still some mysterious, annoying throbbing going on at the juncture of my thighs. And maybe, just maybe, it’s in my nipple region too. Can nipples throb? Because it seems I’m now learning they can.
Raiden shrugs. “Anyway, I think you’ll find that we can get along just fine. I’m a reasonable person. People actually like me, and I’m a good boss.”
“That won’t be necessary.” I can’t contain my gleeful smile when I continue, “Because I quit.”
CHAPTER 3
Raiden
I thought the ability to surprise me went way by the wayside a long time ago. That’s an expression my grandma loves and has instilled in me over time. My grandma also once told me she was beamed up into a spaceship by aliens who tried to probe her but couldn’t because they were allergic to grandmotherly human farts, and they liquefied on contact. She said she was then forcefully beamed back down to earth. So yeah, I probably shouldn’t be using any of her expressions.
Anyway, I was wrong about being taken by surprise. Zoe just caught me completely off guard, and not many people can do that.
“What do you mean you’re quitting?” I stammer. “You can’t quit. I…I…”
“Don’t worry. You won’t have to pay severance if I’m the one quitting, and I’m not going to do some weird thing where I sue you for wrongful dismissal or harassment or anything like that. I’m way too honest, and that never happened. It’s my choice. And yes, I fully intend to take everything I’ve learned here to some dickhead competition company and become a thorn in your side. Not that a household name like you has to
