Magdalene by Moriah Jovan Read Free Book Online Page B

Catholic priest. Ah, yes, the
Man-of-God Handshake. Thoroughly non-threatening while at the same
time being loving and caring—and sincere in it, too. I remembered
my boring priest and suddenly wondered what Hollander would be like
in bed.
    Then I got a little obsessed by the idea. My
very curiosity about him intrigued me; of all the overtly sexual
people in this band, none of them had caught my fascination more
than the one ordinary man—
    —who happened to have built a steel empire,
so I shook off those errant thoughts and got down to business.
    Honestly, fucking these people’s minds had
to be at least as pleasurable as fucking their bodies, but once I
immersed myself in the business at hand, that ceased to be of any
importance at all.
    By the end of the meeting, I had wrestled
with Eilis—and, somewhat surprisingly, Knox—over my plan to split
the former Jep Industries back to its own entity. Knox’s opinion
was negligible, his objections clearly rooted in the fact that he’d
worked so hard to get Hollander Steelworks and Jep Industries
consolidated that he didn’t want to see his work undone. But Eilis
had real concerns and was a worthy opponent, flinging questions at
me as fast as I could catch them.
    Kenard and Ashworth grilled me on details,
and took copious notes to help them ascertain some of the more
complex legal and long-term economic aspects inherent in such a
move. They asked every question I knew they would ask, and got
answers that satisfied them.
    Sebastian, obviously bored, had pulled out a
sketchbook and pencil. He seemed to pay no attention to the
proceedings at all, but I knew better.
    Both Justice and Giselle had disengaged
themselves from the meeting soon after it began. They tapped away
at their laptops, serious expressions on their faces. Curious, I
actually stopped the meeting and asked what they were doing.
    “Uh...bookkeeping?” Giselle said warily
after a minute hesitation, as if she thought I were reprimanding
her.
    Justice looked at me over the top of her
glasses and, with a straight face, announced, “I’m having
cybersex.” Knox nearly fell off his seat laughing, most everyone
else chuckled, and I couldn’t help but smile, conceding the point
that it was none of my business. Then she grinned and went back to
it. Whatever “it” was.
    Throughout the presentation, Hollander made
no comment whatsoever, nor had he laughed at Justice’s joke. He had
simply leaned back, relaxed, interlaced his fingers behind his
head, and took it all in with an expression I couldn’t read. He had
watched my relatively loud scuffle with Eilis and Knox like someone
watching a tennis match, back and forth, back and forth. For
someone who had to make the decisions—difficult ones—he didn’t seem
terribly stressed about it.
    Finally I had finished detailing my plan,
answered Kenard’s and Ashworth’s questions to their satisfaction,
earned Sebastian’s approval with a faint nod, and thoroughly
quelled the objections of both Eilis and Knox. I turned to
Hollander, wondering if he even understood what had happened since
he stared right through me and hadn’t seemed at all engaged.
    “Mitch?” I said, and watched his eyes focus
on me fully.
    “Do it.”
    Both Eilis and Knox piped up again, a token
protest, really, but he held up a hand. They snapped their mouths
shut.
    Well. That was easy.
    My minions would put the plan in motion and
what would have normally taken me eight hours today and another six
weeks in a flurry of emails and phone calls had taken me all of
three hours with no bloodshed.
    I gave Hollander a little smile as I began
to pack up my displays and my laptop, careful not to look too long
lest he believe me to be interested in him personally, which would
not be an incorrect assumption.
    Morgan and Giselle amused themselves with an
obviously familiar game of swapping increasingly clever insults
across the table.
    Knox sat quietly, playing with Justice’s
curls and reading over her