Black Hearted - An Enemies to Lovers Romance (Complete)

Black Hearted: Chapter 17

For the better part of two hours, Jack patiently bided his time as the celebration droned on. He sipped on a scotch and pretended to listen to the not-half-bad looking accountant talking his ear off as he scanned the room for a far more remarkable woman. Solana had disappeared into the kitchenette adjacent to the reception area moments ago and he'd lost track of her, despite the bright yellow shirt she wore as part of her server uniform.

"Don't you agree Mr. Blackhorne?"

The accountant fluttered her dark eyes as he dropped his gaze to her. He had no idea what she was talking about. Jack smoldered in her direction and enjoyed the image of the woman's lips parting in desire. Yup, that should befuddle her for a while.

"Let's pick this up later, shall we?" He wandered away without bothering to take in her response.

His lobby brimmed with employees, eating, drinking and vying for time with the boss. There were parts of being CEO he loved and parts he loathed.

His father started a pharmaceutical company with his partner, Patrick Caldwell, and the drug industry was a golden cow that kept on giving. When his parents died, Jack was only five, so his uncle took charge until he came of age to collect his inheritance. And James Blackhorne was a brilliant bastard.

The first thing he did was eliminate the competition. Internally, he ousted Patrick, forcing him to sell all stake in the company. Then he bought or squeezed out other companies that posed any kind of threat. Jack had learned at the hands of a master how to manipulate, what weaknesses to exploit, and how. Back then, he'd been an eager and willing pupil, itching to get his chance to play with the big boys.

When his uncle had died, Jack took up the mantle of chairman of the board and got to hunting on his own. And he was good at his job. It was second nature to him, like he had been born for it.

Sitting across from an opponent at the exquisite moment when they realized they had played their last card, that they were going to lose, well that was the dragon Jack chased. It was almost as good as sex. It was a damned close second.

Those were good days. Unfortunately, they were becoming few and far in between the day to day of running Blackhorne & Caldwell.

What he didn't like took up more and more time. Dealing with people. Employees were a necessary evil of a large corporation. Someone had to work in the labs and discover the next drug, another person had to produce and package the product. Even more people had to bring the drugs to the marketplace, sell it and although Jack would have loved to have done it himself, someone had to count all the money.

All this meant he had to interact with people. Play nice. Hold employee appreciation events. Like tonight.

Yet, until this evening, he'd never looked forward to one of these events as much.

Wolf intercepted his escape. "Isn't that the woman we ran the profile on this week?" Wolf nodded in the direction of Solana, who offered a tray of frosted glasses filled with a light green liquid to a group of salesman.

"Yes." He studied her reactions of the three men as they tried to engage her in small talk. She smiled, and she said something that made them laugh. Jack wanted to know what was so funny and moved in her direction. A hand on his arm stopped him.

"Why is she here?" Wolf's pale eyes inspected him. "We're not going to have to pay off two women in one week, are we?"

He jerked his arm out of the older man's grip. The subject of money spoiled his good mood. He'd almost forgotten Solana was here out of a perceived obligation, not just to see him. This morning he'd couriered over the five thousand dollars to her ignorant best friend and Jack's hope was she'd repay the fake debt before they got to the good stuff he had planned. "I'm doing her a favour."