Chapter 3 Soothing Scent

• Walking into his office, Paul Carter met with the gentle smell of Jasmine. It’s a soothing scent that helps keep his mind at ease. It was part of a strict routine she’d kept to for over a decade, along with the same suit she’d worn and his usual route to the office.
• He was not a superstitious man but one who understood efficiency's importance. Why waste precious time or mental strain on menial adaptations?
• His life focuses on sharpening the tool of his mind into a scalpel, one that deftly navigates the hide that is the world of commerce and business dealings.
• Last night, unfortunately, I asked for a hammer. More aptly, a flyswatter. Listening to that man rambling like a used car salesman was more headache-inducing than blaring music. Though, he does have something to thank him for. His offering solutions to genuine problems gave Paul a different perspective, one he did not intend to reward him for.
• Paul barely has time to sit down when his secretary walks through the door. She, as directed, succinctly rattles off the tasks he has to tend to for the day.
• Most of it is the standard day-to-day operations; him needing to review last quarter’s bottom line, governors trying to renegotiate funding for future construction and dealing with some local fallout from a shooting at one of their malls over the weekend. Then, she says something that garners his attention.
• “…and at one, you have a meeting with the CEO of Sapphire.”
• “Sapphire?” he asked.
• Sapphire is a jewelry company that has been operating solely out of its HQ buildings. They’ve been the picture of premium since the turn of the century, even more so when their current CEO took over.
• “Yes, sir. The only Alpha female in the business industry, June Foster,” she replied.
• She’s gained a hell of a reputation for one so young. She’s taken risks no one else would, and they’ve paid off. Personally, Paul was amazed that half her board hadn’t keeled over from heart attacks with some of the moves she’s made.
• The fact that she fired half of the executives in the company only makes it more impressive. Her instincts are second to none, and her work ethic is nothing to scoff at.
• Paul had heard through the grapevine that her next big move was a great expansion setting up stores across the globe. This would be an absolute betrayal of the brand they’ve spent nearly a decade establishing. It’s another risk, but given June’s track record, the payoff is sure to be big.
• The meeting’s supposed to be about Sapphire setting up a couple of shops in his malls. This by itself would be a boom for business, but he had set his eyes on something more.
• He wanted to use their penchant for exclusivity too. Instead of breaking away from that instinct, they grow it. Just with him in their ever-discerning circle.
• Paul’s one-sided conversation last night really served to whet his appetite. Derek’s claims of saving his business held water, but he wasn’t without a reputation himself. He’s wild and unpredictable, and this shows in his work.
• Sure, Derek’s managed to maintain his father’s money, but Paul was not going to reward a man for another’s work. He should have billions by now, not millions.
• They are what their nature made them, and Sapphire’s serves him perfectly. It can be the fuel to his dwindling fire, but like a fire, it needs to be controlled. While the company takes risks, it’s also shown discipline.
• It’s now a household name that’s synonymous with luxury. From rap songs to red-carpet events—you’ll find their products dotting the landscape like glitter. By focusing their products on being the absolute pinnacle of craftsmanship and exclusively on being the way the rich can signal to the world their status, they’ve carved a deep foothold for themselves.
• It’s awe-inspiring, and Paul hoped to secure our cooperation for the future. Thankfully for his patience, it isn’t going to be in a club with drunk morons shouting like baboons. They’d agreed upon a modest meeting over lunch at a local restaurant.
• Paul would be lying if he said he wasn’t excited. Not every day you get to meet a woman with such a reputation. He supposed some lesser men would find her cutthroat nature intimidating that it was something unbecoming of a lady.
• Perhaps it’s the Italian in him, but such traits are admirable. She’s strong—tenacious even. She has a mind for business that borders on genius, and she seems to be a force of nature. A raging fire that consumes all that gets in her way.
• His experiences with women have been mostly disappointing. He had encountered more than a few gold diggers and vapid minds that couldn’t stimulate an infant.
• Add to that the tales of her beauty, and it makes the package almost too perfect. Perhaps the fire is too hot to avoid being burned. All of this serves only to make the coming meeting more interesting.
• Paul was going to see if she was all her reputation said she was. He was going to need to figure her out enough to make his proposal irrefutable. Lastly, he was going to meet a woman who was actually worthy of his interest.
• ---
• June was nearly late as she walked through the threshold of the restaurant.
• “Hi there, Ms. Foster. Mr. Carter is waiting for you just over there.”
• “Thank you, Wales. Has he been waiting long?”
• “No, ma’am, he’s only just arrived five minutes ago,” Wales replied.
• “Perfect,” she asserted, slipping him a few twenties for his hospitality.
• She does most of her business meetings here, so she sees the same employees often.
• She scanned the room, looking for the famous Alpha Paul Carter. This won’t be the first time she has seen him, though she hasn’t met him personally. It was from afar at a meeting when she was just another member of a separate branch of Sapphire.
• Despite being daddy’s little girl and the heir to the Foster family estate, she wasn’t just placed at the top of the food chain, as much as the rumors said otherwise. No, she personally requested the most menial job that the company offered. Her father then found an opening available for a janitor.
• Of course, her aims were higher, and so while working at night, she attended college by day. It wasn’t glamorous or easy, but it was an invaluable experience.
• Many things go into making a business thrive, but a key one that she learned early on was efficiency. If you only spend time in your oversized office and only assess the information given to you by an ass-kissing assistant, you likely lack both knowledge and perspective.
• During that time, she worked with a man nearly three times her age who’d worked for the company his whole life. The sheer number of unattended—faults in the building he knew about was staggering.
• From something as minute as a chronically faulty network in a specific division of the company to things as drastic as the electrical system is blatantly not up to code. All you needed was the perspective of a quiet old man with the time to listen and the curiosity to look.
• She wondered how things had gotten so bad and why nothing had been reported. He laughed and said that they all were. The people above her just didn’t care. He was a janitor; what did he know?
• From there, she climbed the long ladder up the company. She shed the company of its problems each rung, one department at a time. Due to her tactics, people began to fear her, but she was fine with that.
• She doesn’t need to be liked.
• She was going to ensure her company prospered, and her efforts bore fruit.
• Since she clawed her way to the position of CEO, Sapphire has only grown. She’d raised their stocks and expansion of their reach to six of the seven continents. Once they staked out their claim, they’ve only further expanded into every major city in the world.
• Looking back, she felt only pride. She’d done before the age of thirty what most of her peers don’t do in their entire life. She’d taken a business that her family cherished and was able to bring it to untold heights.
• That, and she’d given up very little in the process. She’d spent most of her twenties doing what twenty years are supposed to do. For every board meeting, there were two parties. For every deal broached and sealed with adjacent firms were two-three ways with men whose names she never got.
• This brings to mind her dating history, which is tumultuous at best. She’d experienced many men, but had she really been in a real relationship with one?
• Maybe once or twice, depending on how one classifies a relationship.
• It wasn’t like she was particularly aloof. It was more that there was a severe lack of men who could handle her.
• She threatened nearly every aspect of a man’s masculinity. Being five foot eleven makes every guy self-conscious, and I don’t even get her started on her heels.
• Of course, she was aware that her personality was abrasive, so unless the man had a spine, she’d just walk all over him. Lastly, you can count the people who make more money than her in the hundreds, so she was pretty much guaranteed to be the primary breadwinner.
• To sum it up, most of the guys she’d actually ‘dated’ have been whiny, insecure babies who get bitchy when they find out her metaphorical dick is bigger than theirs. Which you can imagine isn’t the sexiest thing in the world.
• But this brings us to Paul Carter. Now that is a man who can handle her. However, he damn well pleases. She’d yet to make his acquaintance, but if the rumors were true, he was pretty much perfect.
• She doesn’t usually dress up when she works. Not to say she looked sloppily; she actually spent a lot of time on her appearance, but not like this. She mixed in a little bit of party her into the usual costume of working her.
• At these types of meetings, she tailored her look to the man across the table, and this time is no exception. She wanted something to accentuate every curve loudly, not subtly suggest their existence. She wanted to set herself up to milk the best deal out of him and hopefully something else while doing so.
• When she came up to the table, she internally reminded herself to act professionally, but her memories of seeing him didn’t do the man justice.
• His face is that of a Greek god, with full lips, striking eyes, and cheekbones that could cut glass. More so, he’s like a statue of a Greek god. His expression is stern, almost to the point of it being interpreted as anger.
• His posture is both active and relaxed. He radiates a sense of readiness, like he’s in his element, waiting for me to join him. But it isn’t like he’s eagerly waiting for her, more like a shark resting below the water’s surface, waiting for her to jump inside.
• When he sees her, he stands up from the table and offers her his hand. It was always a good sign.