Board Meeting (1)

"Should I stop?"

The question sounded like it came from the mouth of a devil. Richard looked up at her face and was momentarily stunned. Because she had been moving around her face was flushed a gorgeous pink. Her violet eyes were narrowed seductively and as she brushed her hair back with one hand and smiled wickedly, all he wanted to do was pull her down and kiss those lovely pink lips. Because of her playful nature, he often forgot how gorgeous she was.

Celeste saw the conflicted look on Richard's face and ground her hips against him again. She used her thumb to gently stroke his lips before gently cradling his head and neck with her hands causing him to freeze and his eyes to close momentarily.

"Babe? Should I stop?"

It was the voice of a siren, echoing through his head.

Richard hesitated for a moment. His large hands gripped her waist, and he pulled her closer, his hips rising to meet hers before he regained his senses. He gently lifted her body and repositioned her on his stomach before holding her still. His eyes opened and he almost caved in again when he saw the slight look of regret on her face.

Slightly embarrassed at his body's reaction, he immediately warned her off.

"Yes. Stop and act properly. There's no need to act like this when we're not in front of others. You should quit touching me any way you like and keep your distance from me unless we're out in public." Richard whispered although he almost instantly regretted it when he saw Celeste's face close off.

"Okay."

Without delay, Celeste immediately hopped off from him. She dusted herself off and quickly went to grab her shoes and socks, ignoring Lieutenant Miller and Adjutant Adler who stood a distance away and were looking elsewhere in awkward embarrassment.

"I'll be taking my leave now. Thank you for allowing me to train with you this morning. Bye, babe." She waved at Richard even though she felt like dying inside from embarrassment. She had thought that her behavior was fine especially since he had seemed to flirt back, but seeing as he rebuffed her, then she would pull back. It was her who had misread the possible interest in his eyes, and him flirting back with her. If he wanted her to act properly and distance herself, she could do that. No problem at all.

She quickly ran up to her apartment and got cleaned up and dressed. After eating a light breakfast of toast and milk, she called a taxi to take her to the office.

The Valentine family owned a large 30-story office building in the financial district of the imperial capital. Although it couldn't be compared to the newer gigantic skyscraper, it was a building that had a lot of history and feelings as it had been the headquarters for the business for over 50 years.

Since it was almost 9 a.m., she headed straight to the largest conference room on the top floor, where the board meetings were held.

Although she was over 20 minutes early, Edward Jr. was already in the room and was seated to the right of the head seat. He was formally dressed in a three-piece black suit and when he caught sight of her, he immediately pointed to her, and his face contorted in anger.

"You little bastard. Do you know what that man did to me?"

Celeste tilted her head and gave him an innocent smile as if she didn't know what he was talking about, asking "What man could you be talking about elder brother?"

"Richard! Carrington." Edward Jr. couldn't help but whisper the last name as it wasn't something he could go around yelling. When he had been seized by Richard Carrington, he had been thrown in a prison with horrible conditions. They had fed him horrible slop, kept him isolated in the dark, and he hadn't been able to sleep as she could constantly hear the scrabbling of rats and insects. No matter how much he screamed and cried, nobody had responded to him or his threats. It had been an absolutely dehumanizing experience and he could only blame the useless bastard in front of him for it.

Seeing her perfect face and figure as she smiled happily, he immediately wanted to go over and violently slap her face. But remembering who she now had behind her and that they were in a public space, he restrained himself instead.

He sneered at her and said mockingly, "I guess the truth doesn't fall far from the tree. It seems you've turned to whoring yourself out to a man with power, just like your bed wench of a mother. All you know how to do is break homes. Someone who abandoned her father's house for a man. Who knows how much d*ck you've sucked for the cheap benefits you've received."

Celeste's eyes immediately became cold and although her voice was restrained, the anger could be heard in her voice. "Rather than point to my mother being a bed wench why don't you blame that useless father of yours that couldn't keep his prick in his pants when he was the one who said the wedding vowels hmm? Because the last time that I checked, it wasn't a crime to be dating a single man. And if you're so worried about the dick I'm sucking why don't you go suck some too and get some power for yourself. You've already started with Daddy dearest, you can only go up from there."

"You better respect our father Celeste! Or else I'll" Edward Jr. roared.

"Or else you'll what brother. Keep my mother's name out of your mouth unless you want me to tell Richard to drag you back to whatever hell hole he threw you in before. And this time, I won't tell him to release you." Celeste coldly ordered him.

Hearing her threat, Edward Jr. flinched before glaring at her in silence.

Seeing that he was unable to retort, she took a random seat, pulled out her laptop, and proceeded to ignore him. It seemed that Richard had really done a number on him. She would have to thank him when she saw him again.

Soon the other board members arrived including her father, her remaining siblings, and some other high-level executives. The only empty seat was for her grandfather, but he didn't attend these meetings since he had no plans to personally interfere with the direction of the company. He only wanted an appropriate leader from the family to be chosen so he could hand over his shares and fully retire in peace.

Her father, Edward Sr. sat at the head of the table and called everybody to attention.

"Since we have all arrived, let's begin this meeting. We'll start by going over the quarterly earnings and projections. Each person will report. Let's begin with Edward Jr."

"Of course, chairman. I was in charge of securing the contracts with the Girardi family this quarter regarding creating a new manufacturing plant and acquiring land. Although we are in the red for this deal by XXXX-amount since the Girardi family front-loaded the costs to us, the projections look good. Once everything is done and we are stabilized, we will be on the path to making a sizeable profit." Edward Jr. reported, his tone getting lower and lower as the anger on his father's face increased.

He had been charged with this major project and his tasks were to pass on the costs to the Gerard's or at least gain an even split between the two companies. However, he was on the verge of losing the contract, so he had done his best to get them to sign it. To make matters worse, unknown charges had come up and he had gone completely over budget.

His only hope was that the rest of the executives at the table did comparably bad or even worse than he did. That way, he would look good.

Luck seemed to be with him as the rest of the executives all reported failing contracts or expenses that went over budget, especially his siblings. When it got to Celeste's turn, he looked at her with a smirk. Although his acquaintance Andre had originally said he would support Celeste and sign the contract she was assigned, he had spoken to him a couple of days ago and gotten him to change his mind.

"This quarter I was charged with reaching out to the Cross family regarding renewing the two-year contract we have with them. Due to certain circumstances, I was able to extend the contract to four years as well as double the profit we would be making. I've sent the contract over to the financial and legal departments as well and they have approved it. The only requirement on the Cross-business side is that I remain the sole spokesperson and the final authority on the contract changes. Additionally, while reviewing records for the past years, I found some inefficiencies in these other contracts as these companies are violating certain legal standards and we've been unknowingly paying the fines on them. This has also been squared away with the legal team and will end up saving the company xxx-amount and-"

Celeste quickly and accurately presented her accomplishments for the quarter. She spent time to make sure her presentation had all the accurate charts, graphs, and references and at the end of it, some of the older board members were looking at her in a new light.

"Although she's young she's quite efficient. It seems a tiger father can birth a dog daughter even if she's illegitimate."

"Even if she is illegitimate, based on her work in the past two quarters alone. She's more successful than the legitimate children! All they do is make noise and lose money while bragging about their connections."

"I can see why old man Valentine was pushing for her to join the company even if she's illegitimate. She knows what she's doing."

The different board members chatted to themselves and the expressions of the other Valentine family members, especially Edward Jr. couldn't help but darken.

Andre had assured him that he would not sign the contract with Celeste and would instead give it to him. What the hell was going on?