The Earl's Outrageous Lover Page 0,3
and there is a printout in your morning file.” Edward pulled the printout from the file folder that Tim had ensured was on the seat before Edward walked out of the house. He glanced over the information, asking questions and handing out directions on several of the items.
By the time the limousine pulled up to the headquarters building, he was fully briefed on the day’s upcoming events and walked straight into his first meeting.
By ten o’clock that morning, he was passing by Alice’s desk, heading towards his own office when she called out for him. “I’m sorry, my lord,” Alice said, standing up and handing him a sheet of paper. “Your uncle has been calling every few minutes for the past two hours. Apparently, he’s been in a skiing accident in Switzerland and needs to speak with you urgently.”
Edward didn’t show any outward sign of his irritation with his schedule being interrupted. He glanced at his watch and nodded. “Put the call through. I’ll take it in my office.” He walked into his office and sat down behind his large, steel and glass desk. The difference between the way Edward ran the Livingston holdings and his father’s methods was that Edward’s financial acumen had tripled the family’s net worth in the past 5 years whereas his predecessors had simply maintained the status quo. Edward enjoyed business and making deals, had a ten year plan to expand his holdings even further. He wasn’t satisfied with just maintaining. Expanding, creating, figuring out the next move and what his enemies and competitors would do before they even knew it themselves, that was the challenge that pushed him on each day.
Some would consider the enormous weight of his responsibilities to be crushing, but he took everything in stride, analyzing the data and making rational evaluations based on facts and leaving emotions out of any equation and decision. He didn’t consider it to be a weight of responsibility, but more of a contest as to what he could do better, or bigger.
His uncle, on the other hand, was not of the same opinion. After his father’s death ten years ago, Uncle Charles had urged Edward to have more fun, to take time off and go on genuine vacations. Edward didn’t need to take time off, he needed to get to his next meeting. And finding out why Uncle Charles was in the hospital, from skiing no less, was an irritation that would create several shifts in his schedule that weren’t appreciated. But family was important, and that had been drilled into him from childhood. Family, responsibility and the Earl of Locton title were what he had to constantly keep in mind during everything he did throughout each day.
“Uncle Charles, why are you in the hospital?” he asked, looking down at the papers Alice had efficiently arranged on his desk.
“Eddie, my boy! How the hell are you?” his uncle cheerfully answered, completely ignoring Edward’s question and using the hated nickname. The man didn’t sound like someone who had just been in a skiing accident, Edward thought absently.
Edward’s mind was focused more on the contract Alice had place in the center of his desk, the contract he would be discussing in his next meeting that would finalize his company’s purchase of a business worth more than three billion dollars. “Busy. What’s going on and why are you in the hospital?” he asked, repeating his question, pushing the contract back after checking the clauses he’d been concerned about while his mind already started going over the details for his next meeting.
His uncle wasn’t fazed by Edward’s impatient tone at all, used to it from years of experience. “Look away from all of your papers Eddie. I have something important to discuss with you, my boy.”
Edward sighed and did as his uncle asked, taking a seat in the large leather chair and spinning around so that he was looking out at the London skyline instead of the contracts and reports. “Okay, you have my undivided attention. Now will you tell me why you are in the hospital? Alice mentioned you’d broken your leg while skiing but surely that doesn’t require a hospital stay, does it?”
Charles chuckled softly and Edward heard some music in the background. “Not normally, but when an old man like me gets knocked down while racing, that creates a bit of a nuisance break. Apparently, the leg needs to heal a bit before I can put any weight on it. They also said something about my