Dirty BossDereck Anderson Edition
V.T. Do
Copyright © 2021 by V.T. Do
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.
Contents
1. Dereck
2. Lily
3. Dereck
4. Dereck
5. Dereck
6. Lily
7. Lily
8. Dereck
9. Dereck
10. Lily
11. Dereck
Epilogue
Afterword
Also by V.T. Do
About the Author
1
Dereck
I covered my yawn and tried to look more interested in the conference, but all I could think about was when it would be over.
It had been an hour, and my partners and I still hadn’t made any progress with the overseas team in Paris for the new hotel we were constructing for Oliver Kempton, a man whose reputation proceeded him. This business deal had been going on for about two years, and barely a few months in construction, we were running into some problems.
Mark Duncan was the project manager we put in charge, and I was already regretting that decision. He had shown nothing but incompetency since day one, and now he was eating away most of my time.
I turned to my partners, Danny Thompson and Jaxon Cooper, my annoyance showing clear in my eyes. Danny and I met in college. We had been friends ever since and decided to go into business together after graduation.
We had planned to make enough to live on; we didn’t plan on our business taking off so quickly that in only six short years since we had been opened, we now had contact with five of the biggest corporations in America and one more overseas, Oliver Kempton’s being one of them.
He was not a patient kind of man. He would expect nothing less than perfect, especially with the kind of money he was investing, and I was no different.
“And why hasn’t the shipment gotten in?” Jaxon asked, a tinge of irritation in his voice. He joined our firm three years after we opened, bringing Lucas and Callum along with him, and the five of us had worked our asses off to make the firm into what it was today. We had formed unbreakable friendships with each other ever since.
“I-I am not sure,” Mark stuttered out. I’d had enough. Walking up so that I was in front of the screen, I stared down at the much smaller man until he started to fidget.
“Figure this out,” I said. “And I expect the answer to that question by tomorrow morning.” Without waiting for his reply, I turned off the screen and turned to my partners. “I think we need to bring in a new project manager.”
Danny nodded in agreement. “Let’s hope the new guy knows what he’s doing, coming in so late to the game and sorting out the mess that Mark will surely leave behind.”
Jaxon sighed. “I can’t believe we are just learning about the problems with the shipment now.”
I looked down at my Rolex watch. It was well past the time we should have been out of here. Most of the employees had already gone home for the day.
“I’m going to head down to the bar and find someone to warm my bed tonight,” I said with a smile.
Danny laughed. “I don’t how you’re not tired of that kind of life already. Don’t you want to find someone to settle down with?”
“Why?” I asked. I worked hard, there was no time for love in my life. I wasn’t like my friend. Danny had married young, right out of college, and he and his wife, Ashley, were expecting their first child in a few short months. He met his wife and I supposed that was it for him. For months, he’d followed her around like a lost puppy, begging for just one date. She finally gave in on the third month, and they’d quickly tied the knot mere weeks after our graduation.
Danny shook his head. “I guess you just haven’t met the right one. You’ll know why when you see her.” He shrugged. “I’m going home to my wife.”
I looked at Jaxon. He was probably a bigger player than I was. I raised an eyebrow in question. He nodded. “Yeah, a drink and a warm bed sounds nice.”
Danny laughed, walking out the door with a stack of papers in his hand. I frowned after him. Jaxon and I had our own stacks that we needed to go through. I wasn’t sure if going out and looking for my next conquest was such a good idea anymore, but the thought of going home to an empty bed held no appeal.
We made our way out to the elevators, our things in hand. When the doors opened on the first floor, I told Jaxon I would meet him there and walked over to my car, a sleek black Ferrari, which was the love of my life at the moment.
The car purred when I turned her on, and without looking back at the office, I sped out of there and to the bar.
Blacklist Bar was crowded. Not surprising, since Fridays usually brought in a lot of the locals. I weaved my way through the crowd to the bar top. Jerimiah Winthrop nodded his head my way in greeting before walking over to me.
Jerimiah was the owner of Blacklist Bar, a chain along with steakhouses, bar grill restaurants all over the US, and a distillery located about two hours away from here, which he used to make most of his famous house drinks for his business.
Which was to say, Jerimiah wasn’t exactly hurting for money, nor was he short-staffed enough that he needed to come out here to take my drink order personally.
No, I understood the determined expression on the other man’s face.
He wanted something from me.
I sat patiently at one of the open barstools until Jerimiah made his way
