Taming The Wild CEO novel Chapter 63

B O N U S C H A P T E R 1 : A F T E R T H E H A P P I L Y E V E R A F T E R

E L L A S T A N F O R D

Ella dropped her bag on the desk then dragged the chair towards her before slumping down on it and heavily sighed. All morning, she had been troubled by the paparazzi. They camped in front of the building where she lived, and some even went up the fire escape stairs that were mounted to the outside of the building. She could no longer sit on her balcony without getting photographed and bombarded with questions. Honestly, people did not respect others’ privacy sometimes. She had called the building manager and some of the security could shoo those people away from the fire escape stairs but they were still crowding the front door. This had been happening since last week when Javier had proposed to her in front of all of her colleagues, his family, and the media.

In movies or stories, that would be incredibly sweet and a perfect ending for their love story but in real life, it was much more complicated than that. Now that she was officially the fiancé of Javier Summers, CEO of Summers Entertainment and one of the heirs to Summers Industries empire, her quiet life was pretty much nonexistent any longer.

“What is wrong?” Javier who had just walked through their connecting door widened his eyes. There were worries in his tone. “Are you alright? Is it the pregnancy thing? Are you not feeling well? Please do tell me if you are going to throw up again so at least I would be prepared this time.” He was holding a bottle of water and he placed it carefully on her desk.

“It is not that. I think I have stopped throwing up,” answered Ella then she added with a bit more confidence in her voice, “that last one was truly the last one.”

Javier shook his head and planted a kiss on top of her head. “That was what you said for the last three as well, Ella. I do not mind about it, really. Though I would prefer that you tell me in the future especially when I am about or am currently kissing you.”

Ella blushed as she recalled what had happened the other day. “I am sorry.”

“Do not be.” Javier chuckled. “So, what is bothering you then?”

“It’s the paparazzi,” she answered with a sigh. “They keep bothering me non-stop and I could not really report them to the police since they pretty much just hover around the building.”

“This is precisely why I told you to move in with me. When will you stop rejecting my offer, hmm?” He slid his hand into his pocket and pulled out two keys tied in a red ribbon. “My offer still stands. Move in with me. Let me take care of you, Miss Stanford.”

Her eyes stared at those keys for a while as her mind was trying to decide. Even though Javier had made everything sound easy and reasonable, she was still reluctant to give up her independence and live under his roof. She had lived in her apartment for more than five years. When she had first moved there, she and Damon had painted the wall together and she had saved money from her monthly salary to replace each of the furniture. She had turned what previously had been a very old and cold place into a comfortable home. It was true that her apartment was nothing compared to Javier’s large mansion but it was a place that was held close to her heart. There were so many memories there. And if she were to move to Javier’s place, she would have to let her apartment go because it would be silly to keep paying the rent here.

“I—I will think about it,” she finally replied. She grabbed the water bottle and twisted the cap open then took a drink.

“Alright.” Javier did not seem to be satisfied with her answer but he dropped the subject, knowing how uncomfortable it made her feel. “So what is our agenda today, Miss Stanford?”

With Maria being removed from the office, Ella had reinstated her old position as Javier’s secretary. Even though she could recall his important meeting for the day, she wanted to be sure just in case one of the attendees had sent an email and requested for a reschedule thus she turned on her computer and logged into the company’s email. She quickly skimmed through her email. “You have a meeting with the project team in regards to our expansion. Summers Tech Inc will send some people here to discuss it together with the developer company, um,” Ella scrolled down the email correspondences and tried to find the name of the developer company which she always forgot, “Phoenix Orientem Plc.” She reread the words there three times in her mind, determined to engrave them in her brain.

“Phoenix Orientem Plc,” reiterated Javier with a frown. “I let Thornton go through the proposals from land developers and pick the best deal but I have never heard of this one. They must have offered a great deal for Tony to pick them.”

Ella swiftly opened her browser and did a quick search on Phoenix Orientem Plc. “It is a British land developer company. They have been around for twenty five years however previously it was a private limited company called Britain Land Maker Ltd however ten years ago, it went public and changed its name to Phoenix Orientem Plc. They recently became one of the top three biggest land developers in the United Kingdom.”

“Must be very recent then,” commented Javier with a shrug. “Two years ago Declan had a project for his two new hotels in the U.K. but he did not use them. I should probably do more research on this company. It is not that easy to be one of the top three. They must have raced their way there and in such a short amount of time. Which one of the previous top three whose position they have replaced with?”

“Hold on.” Ella scrolled through the news and once she found what she had been looking for, she answered his question, “It is Newton Uphill Ltd but,” she took a pause then clarified further, “actually, they did not get replaced.”

Javier lifted his eyebrows and out of curiosity, walked over to her table and stopped as he read the news displayed on her screen. “Oh, wow.” His baby blues filled with amusement.

“Yeah, so they bought the company and merged with them.”

“That does explain why they swiftly moved their way to the top three but still, Newton is a big company. They must have spent a lot of money to take over the company. Plus, it is not that easy to convince Newton to sell their company to you. I still remember Maxon used to want to have a developer company but he gave up after failing to convince the company he wanted to sell.” Javier rubbed his chin and narrowed his eyes. “Interesting. I cannot wait to meet them.” He dropped to his knees and planted a kiss on Ella’s growing belly. Then he looked up and met her in the eye. “Anything else on my schedule for today, Miss Stanford?”

“You will have a meeting with the legal team for the new contract for that Indie band, Loyalty Among Thieves, that the talent acquisition team has approached last month at two this afternoon.”

“Yeah, the band does know how to negotiate their terms.” Javier smiled. “What else?”

“Discussion for the upcoming board of managements meeting at three thirty and that is all for today.”

Javier rose to his feet and happily sighed. “Well, that is not too bad. If things are going well, we could leave on time so I could take you to a nice dinner. I know a good place with great Italian food.” He looked down at her and gave her a wink, knowing fully well how his fiancé loved her food.

Ella laughed as she rose to her feet. She gave him a small kiss as she said, “Don’t jinx it, Sir.”

“I will take that as a yes,” replied Javier then he caught her back and deepened their small innocent kiss, and turned it into something more.

Someone coughed and in a split second, they both tore their lips from each other and turned to the door. The person who had interrupted them shook his head as he said, “Not his lover my ass.”

* * *

It was Roberto Capaldi, the Italian actor that agreed to sign a contract with Summers Entertainment. Previously, both Ella and Javier had gone to Trapani, Sicily to discuss terms with Robert, and Robert was supposed to come to their office in Washington DC last month however since there was a delay in his shooting schedule, he could only come this month. He was not supposed to be here until next week thus explaining the confusion written on both Ella and Javier’s faces.