Wall Street Titan (Wall Street Titan #1) - Anna Zaires Page 0,34
smile. “Say no more. I promised not to pressure you, and I won’t.”
Her flush intensifies. “Oh. Well, thank you. I had a great time.”
“Me too. What are you doing tomorrow night?”
She blinks up at me. “Tomorrow?”
“Friday,” I say helpfully. “You know, the day before the weekend?”
“Oh, I—” She stops and bites her lip. “You want to see me tomorrow?”
“I do.” And the day after, and the one after that, I realize to my shock. This dinner was far too short to satisfy my curiosity about Emma and her effect on me. I want to fuck her, yes, but I’m also intrigued by her.
I want to understand what makes her tick, and why that matters to me.
“I guess…” She hesitates, then blurts, “I guess that would be okay.”
“Excellent.” It takes everything I have to conceal my savage satisfaction. “Any specific food preference?”
“I’m not picky about food, but I do have a budget preference,” she says, and I sigh, realizing we’re going to fight that battle all over again.
Now is not the time for it, though, so I just nod and say, “I’ll be sure to keep that in mind. Pick you up at seven?”
“Okay.” She smiles up at me. “Seven it is. Thanks again.”
And before I can so much as kiss her cheek, she turns around, opens the door, and disappears inside to a chorus of outraged meows.
17
Emma
“Are you seriously telling me that you have a second date with Marcus Carelli of Carelli Capital Management?” Kendall’s eyes look like they’re about to pop through my phone screen.
“Yes, why? Do you know him?” I angle the phone slightly and look around to make sure the bookstore is still empty. My boss is off having a long lunch, and though it would’ve been smart to use this downtime to edit the short story I’ve been procrastinating on, I couldn’t resist video-calling Kendall about my date instead.
“Do I know Marcus Carelli?” Her voice rises. “Are you shitting me? Are you that oblivious to the world?”
“Um…”
“Never mind.” Her face grows in the phone camera as she leans in. “I should know by now. If it’s not in a book or doesn’t have a tail, it doesn’t exist for you.”
I sigh. My friend is nothing if not a drama queen. “Just tell me already. What do you know about Marcus? Because I’m seeing him again tonight, and—”
“You couldn’t be bothered to google him?”
“I didn’t get a chance. I got home pretty late, had to feed the cats right away and then respond to some editing clients. And today was an extra-early shift with a bunch of morning deliveries, so I’m just now catching my breath.” I also spent some quality time with my vibrator last night, needing to relieve the tension from the date, but Kendall doesn’t need to know that. I suppose I could’ve spent that time stalking Marcus online, but it honestly didn’t occur to me.
I’ve never dated anyone who had anything interesting for me to find.
Kendall rolls her eyes, making sure the camera catches her doing so. “Yeah, okay, whatever. Listen up, Miss Oblivious.” She leans in until her perfectly shaped nose dominates the screen. “Anyone who’s ever glanced at The Wall Street Journal or turned on CNBC—as in, everyone in NYC with the possible exception of you and your cats—knows about Marcus Carelli. He’s one of the biggest movers and shakers on Wall Street. His fund has some insane number of billions under management, and his presentations can make or break a stock. Don’t you remember that thing with the corrupt tire company a couple of years ago, where a prominent hedge fund manager bet the stock would go to zero—and it did? It was all over the news, and they even made a documentary about it on Netflix.”
“Maybe.” I frown because that does ring a bell. “That was Marcus’s fund?”
“Yep. He laid out the case against the company at one of those big-name investment conferences, and the stock dropped like sixty percent that day. The CEO was crying foul all over the news, but the regulators refused to do anything, and a few months later, the company filed for bankruptcy.”
“Wow.” I do recall the story now. It was all over the headlines, to the point that even I couldn’t miss it. The tire company—an old and highly respected industry leader—had been accused by some hedge fund big-shot of everything from manufacturing defects to slave-labor conditions in its factories, and the resulting publicity tanked the company’s stock, hastening its demise.