Caught Between Three Billionaire Tycoons - Willa Hart

1

I sat quietly in the chair in front of Aleksy Dragos, more nervous than I expected. I took this job to work with him—learn from him.

Still, being close to the man was always daunting. Over the past months, he seemed to seek me out and ask for my input. In one way, that was terrific. It meant all my hard work paid off. In another way, it scared the living hell out of me.

Dragos Inc. was the biggest trader of antiques and archeological artifacts in the game. I had joined the firm to get hands-on experience with the precious, rare items that moved through the firm daily.

So far, I’d done a lot of that. I’d tried to keep myself down on the bottom floor where I could handle the pieces, clean them, and prepare each one for sale. The company brought in billions every quarter. Aleksy had the very best teams on the ground in Greece and Egypt, and he was capable of finding and trading the rarest of items.

Every day was a thrill.

Over the past months, he sought me out multiple times. He put me on organizing the paperwork for sales and working through the items and clients. I didn’t like it as much, so fast-paced, and no chance to admire the pieces themselves.

Still, I took this job to learn the industry, and I suppose that was part of the learning process. One day I hoped to be moving and selling ancient and rare finds, perhaps even visit digs and religious sites myself.

I tried to grasp what Aleksy was saying, but it felt as if there were miles of space between us. That and some kind of sound barrier.

“Whitney?” He prompted. “Are you still there?” He grinned and shook his head.

Fuck. It was so hard to focus while Aleksy looked at me. In the sunlight pouring from the window behind him, his hair lit with red, far from the usual dark brown it usually appeared. His golden eyes glinted at me, and I felt like they glowed. Wild like a predator, in some ways.

“Yes, sir.” My voice was tinier than I intended. I hadn’t learned to be pushy or assertive… yet.

He nodded slowly, pressing his hands together. His eyes flicked to the paperwork on his desk, then back to me. His devices were set to silent, but the laptop, tablet, and phone all blinked and vibrated with notifications.

Everyone wanted original pieces for their offices or homes. Some were private collectors, others were businesses out to impress clients with their very expensive decor. Some were museums and other specialist organizations. The phone never stopped ringing.

He grinned at me, showing his very white, sharp teeth. My stomach clenched as if I was stuck in the room with a grizzly, and he was ravenously hungry.

“You’ve been doing excellent work here in the office, Whitney. I’ve never had someone who can work the books and the phones as well as you.”

I smiled despite my nervousness. It was charming to hear I was good at my job. Most people weren’t lucky enough to have a job they liked, and were good at, so I counted my blessings.

I decided to strike while he was in a good mood.

“Actually, Sir… Mr. Dragos, I wanted to talk to you about that.”

His eyebrows shot up, and his gold eyes widened. The way they caught the light and reflected was something like a cat’s, as he focused on me so intently. He tapped his fingers together and nodded.

“Go ahead, Whitney.” He seemed amused.

“Well, when I first started, I spent a lot of time down on the shop floor—”

“Yes.” He nodded, almost apologetically. “I apologize for that. Someone with your skills and delicate nature shouldn’t be lifting heavy things, getting dirty and dusty, and scrubbing antiques with a toothbrush.”

I had loved cleaning the smaller statues and pieces of jewelry. I once restored a gold bracelet that was set with different precious stones. It was priceless. Touching things like that utterly thrilled me.

“Thank you, sir. I appreciate that sentiment, but I really enjoyed working with the antiques. I was hoping to do more of that.”

He braced his hands against each other again, frown returning. “That’s very interesting.” His voice turned slightly dark as he looked away. “Because I’ve asked you to come in today to talk about moving up within the company.”

“I’m sorry?” I was sure I hadn’t heard him right.

He smiled gently at me. “When I brought you out of the shop floor, I was trialing you on the whole public