5| I'll Make Her Mine

Dominic POV

She was the most interesting thing I had ever come across. She seemed ruthless, and I could understand her nickname a bit more.

Stephanie Greene was strong, confident, gorgeous, and I could tell that she was going to be a complete pain in my ass, and I was strangely excited to work with her.

I didn’t care about meeting everyone or seeing her workspace, I was just curious how far she was willing to go to get my partnership.

Her outburst when I mentioned wanting 60% of the profit was hilarious and I had to pinch my lips together to keep from laughing. The embarrassment that I saw then was the most humility that I had seen from her the entire time and I thought it was adorable.

“Office, Reggie,” I told my driver as I got into the car.

I wasn’t expecting to stay so long in the restaurant. I thought she would be intimidated by me and run off, but she didn’t. She surprised me and stood her ground, challenging me. God, it was hot.

We pulled up to my office building and I stayed in the car to avoid paparazzi as I took a good long look at it. The windows were all tinted black and it gave the entire place a dark and mysterious vibe.

The entire building belonged to me, and every floor had a different step of the creative process. I worked on the top floor mainly, where meetings and more office work were done. I loved watching the creative process and overseeing it, but I didn’t dare to touch anything.

I sketch just about every new design and oversee everything during the prototype creation, but I don’t dare to use a machine. When it comes to steady hands, I lack them, and the fabrics used in my company for our suits are far too expensive to make any mistakes.

I have hundreds of seamstresses and patternmakers, and that’s just in this building. We’ve expanded across the country and even gone international these last few years in Italy, France, Spain, Germany, and Madrid, we’re working on expanding further in Asia most recently.

“How was your lunch meeting, Mr. Knight?” asked my assistant, Gwen.

“Good. I think we are going to partner with Claudette Reed soon.”

“Claudette Reed?” She said the name like it was a bad word, “Why?”

“Because her company is in financial crisis and she needs me.”

Our businesses have the same accountant, and he happened to let it slip after a few drinks that one of his clients was threatening bankruptcy, then Stephanie’s name was casually mentioned shortly after, and I put the pieces together.

Gwen’s eyebrows drew together. “So… it’s charity?”

“No,” I chuckled at her as I sat behind my desk, “Charity would be simply giving her money. No, I’m going to make the “Baddest Bitch in Fashion” work for it. I’m going to drive her crazy, and I’m going to have fun doing it.”

“So you’re doing this just to have fun?”

“Wrong again. It’s not just for fun, I want something from her. The fun of messing with her is just a bonus for me.”

“What is it that you want from her?”

I sat back and laced my fingers across my torso as I looked at her with a mischievous smirk.

“Oh,” she said with realization, “You know you can get that anywhere, right?”

“But I don’t want it from anywhere. I want her. And I’ll get her.”

“Whatever you say, boss.”

Gwen turned on her heel and left my office with an eye roll.

I’ll get her. I’ll make Stephanie Greene mine, even if it’s just for one night.

*

The day after our lunch, I decided to pay an unexpected visit to Stephanie at the Claudette Reed studio.

I was slightly surprised at what I saw. It looked as if she had taken my entire building and turned it all into a single floor. I found it cute. Seems like we both enjoy watching the entire process.

“Can I help you?” Someone with dark hair and a stack of fabrics asked me. Was there no receptionist here?

“Stephanie Greene.”

“She’s in her office. I’ll go tell her you’re here Mr…?”

“Knight. Dominic Knight.”

Her eyes flew wide and her cheeks turned crimson red, “Oh, you’re… right. I’ll let her know that you’re here.”

She scurried off as quickly as possible to get Stephanie, who showed up not a minute later.

“Dominic,” she greeted. I forgot that I told her to call me by my first name yesterday. I’m not entirely used to people greeting me by my first name and had to remind myself to brush it off.

“Stephanie,” I smiled at her.

“What an unexpected surprise. What can I do for you?”

“I wanted to see your studio and discuss some things with you.”

She was dressed in a nude, body-fitted dress today with a square neckline and matching heels. If I didn’t have my contacts in, I would probably think that she was naked. I cleared my throat and tried to rid myself of that image as she turned and began walking with me.

“You’re welcome to walk around and browse. This half of the floor is planning and the beginning steps for designs, the other half is where they get made.”

I froze. “You do everything in-house?”

“Not everything,” she chuckled. “Our prototypes are made here, along with any special orders, but we send them out and have them manufactured elsewhere to lessen our shipping prices to each store. We have manufacturers in both Asia and Europe, along with here in the USA.”

My eyebrows rose, “You have contacts in Asia?”

She got a smug look on her face. Dammit, she was right. I do need her contacts. Well, I guess I don’t necessarily need them, more like they would be a convenience. Maybe her contacts in Asia aren't of any use to me after all and she isn’t connected to the countries I want to expand to. Okay. Yeah. That makes me feel a little better.

So really, if she had the money, she could take over numerous floors of this building with her teams. It seems like she has a thriving business after all. I should probably give her more credit, but it’s fun to challenge her.

“I have some papers for you to sign to make our collaboration legit before we get started if you wanted to look at them.”

“Sure, I’ll take a copy of them and take them home to review.”

“What else did you want to discuss with me?”

We had walked entirely around the office now and we’re entering her office. It was cozy with lots of natural light coming from the floor-to-ceiling windows, and everything seemed to be in a neutral color. Lots of brown, white, and pastels.

I looked at a shelf of awards and photographs that was along the wall as I answered her, “I wanted to look at your portfolio and decide if I like your designs enough to work with you.”

I looked back at her after a few breaths of silence. She was staring at me, so I stared back.

“I can show you the portfolio, and you can certainly do some digging online to find any of our hundreds of thousands of happy customers.”

I smiled at her. “Of course. But as I said yesterday, I wanted to see your studio. So, two birds, one stone, you know?” I shrugged my shoulders at her.

“Right, of course… I’m afraid that none of my investors are here, so you won’t get to meet anybody you wished to.”

I dismissed that with a hand motion, “It can wait. I’m patient.” I wanted to tell her I didn’t care, but I bit my tongue.

Stephanie smiled at me and began searching for a portfolio for me to browse.

I went back to my browsing of the shelf and found one photo that piqued my interest.

“Elijah Greene?”

I showed the photo to her and she smiled at me. “My uncle. Are you a baseball fan?” Amusement laced her voice.

I’m a huge fan of his, but I won’t tell her. I played it cool and shrugged before putting the photo back, “Kind of.”

“Because if things go well and I decide that I like you, I can arrange for you to meet him.”

The thought was exciting and made my heart pound slightly, but I contained my composure and told her, “That’s not necessary.”

“Here you go,” she handed the portfolio to me and I took it from her and headed for the seat across from her desk.

I put one foot on my opposite ankle and cleared my throat before looking through the large book. Stephanie sat back in her chair and began typing on her computer.

Wanting to irritate her, I pulled out a bag of chips that I had stuffed into my pocket earlier and opened them, beginning to chew loudly. Stephanie stopped typing and looked up at me through her lashes without moving her head an inch.

My eyes stayed focused on the book as I flipped through it, ignoring her glare. I want to know how much I can push her.