Read Sold to the Berserkers: A Menage Shifter Romance Online
Authors: Lee Savino
Sold to the Berserkers: A Menage Shifter Romance (10 page)
When Leon died, Ben had thought about turning his share of the stock over to Jack and letting him have the company, just as he’d refused to take leadership of his brother’s pack, but in the end, it didn’t seem right. His brother had left the company stock to him rather than to his wife and young children, which told him something. If Leon had trusted Jack to run the company, he would’ve left the stock to Shayla, presuming she and their children would be cared for. By leaving it to Ben, it meant Leon needed Ben there to look after things, to ensure the profits continued for the benefit of his family. And so Ben was there, running a multi-million dollar company with no experience. But he owed his brother. If he had done his duty in the first place, Leon would still be alive.
He went into the meeting and listened as the team presented their weekly reports, which were dismal, as usual. Suma Games was rapidly taking over Stone’s market share. When he questioned the causes, he got excuses. In the first year, he had believed them, still getting his bearings and the culture of the company. Now he’d come to recognize the bullshit, but he hadn’t figured out what to do about it yet. As he stacked the reports in front of him, he hatched an idea.
When Karen buzzed him that afternoon to say Ashley had arrived, he told her to send her to the conference room. He picked up the reports his management team supplied him with and entered.
She jumped to her feet, knocking her rolling chair backward.
“Sit.”
“Woof,” she said.
He arched a brow, hiding his amusement. No one talked back to him at Stone Technologies, but for some reason, on her, he found it cute.
She blushed. “Sorry,” she mumbled, settling back into her chair. “I was just making a joke…”
He walked around to the seat opposite her, but sat on the table rather than a chair, dropping the sales reports and financial data in front of her. “Sales are down. Costs are up. Find me ten strategies to rectify the situation and you have the job.”
She gaped at him, her blue eyes wide. “Um… okay.” She picked up the papers and began leafing through them. Her tongue darted out to lick her lips and he nearly groaned at the sight.
“You have one hour. Two if you need it.”
She exhaled. “Okay. Got it. Thank you.”
“Thank you,
sir.
”
Her jaw dropped momentarily before she snapped it shut and blushed again. “Thank you, sir. I’m sorry, I don’t know the right etiquette, or protocol or whatever, but I’ll learn. I’m a quick learner.”
“I’m sure you are,” he said, standing up from his perch on the table and walking out.
He left her alone for an hour, then another. At five o’clock he opened the door to the conference room and found Ashley sweating, the reports and papers spread out in front of her.
She jumped up.
“Sit.”
“Woof.”
This time he actually smiled. He couldn’t help it. That she had tried her joke a second time after failing the first showed a confidence and resiliency he admired.
When she caught his smile, her face broke into a wide grin.
Torn between wanting to stare at its brilliance and needing to shut her down before she gained any further footing, he looked down at the papers. “Well?”
“I only found eight,” she said immediately, clicking the top of her pen. “But I’m sure I can find two more if you give me just a little more time.”
He hadn’t really expected her to find ten. Hell, he hadn’t expected her to find more than three. “Tell me what you’ve got.”
Ashley picked up a piece of notebook paper where she’d made a list. “The first one is phasing out the NE3 Game Stations. A lot of money goes into maintaining them, when if you’d just refuse to service them any longer, everyone would buy the E6’s.”
He nodded. The idea had occurred to him as well, but he hadn’t acted on it, mainly because the NE3 had been his brother’s first product, the platform for Robo Shooters, and the company, himself included, clung to it with a sentimental attachment. Hearing confirmation of his instinct from Ashley made up his mind. “Next.”
“Um…” She looked down at her paper. “Costs on a number of these products seem too high, considering what we’re charging. The profit margin isn’t large enough. I suggest we institute a cost reduction team, awarding prizes to engineers or teams who can reduce by the most.”
He liked the way she used the word ‘we,’ if they were already a team. It was presumptuous, yet it sounded right coming from her lips. “Good,” he said, throwing her a bone.
She lifted her eyes at the compliment, then looked at her paper once more. “My third suggestion is to recover the market we lost to Suma Games last year. This is sort of a two-part suggestion, so I counted it as number three and number four.” She raised her gaze again, as if checking to see if he would allow it.
He nodded.
“So, the first would be an advertising campaign. And the second would be product development to compete with their D-boy unit. I understand both of those will require an outlay of capital, but I do think the investment would be worth it.”
He didn’t comment.
“Okay,” she said, drawing another breath. “Number five is to thin out some of middle management.” She stopped, watching his face for a reaction.
“Reasoning?”
“Right. Um, the reasoning is that you have an awful lot of people who sit around here and don’t do anything but tell others what to do and report further up the chain.”
“Speaking from experience?”
She hesitated. “Yes, sir.”
He liked that she remembered to call him
sir.
“Number six?”
She continued, describing her last three ideas, of which all but one seemed sound.
When she finished, he let her sit for a moment while he contemplated her in silence.
“So, as I said, I’m sure I can come up with two more—”
“Yes. I will expect you to. You can think about it tonight. You’ll start tomorrow. Karen will show you your new office.”
Her face split into a grin. “Mr. Stone! Thank you. You won’t be disappointed, I promise.”
He tapped the table. “See that I’m not.” He started for the door and stopped when he reached it. “Type up those suggestions and send them to me in an email, along with the backup data.”
“Yes, sir,” she said, still beaming.
He walked out, shaking his head, not at her, but at himself. Inviting her into his personal space was courting disaster.
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~Reader's Choice Nominee for
The Romance Reviews
Best Paranormal~
Lying on the floor of her cubicle to stave off a migraine while working late, the last thing Ashley Bell expected was to open her eyes and find the company's notoriously hard-assed owner and CEO, Ben Stone, standing over her. The offer of a ride home is a bigger surprise, but the biggest shock of all comes when Ben asks her to work for him as his personal assistant.
Despite some misgivings about his intentions, Ashley accepts the position, but she has barely started the job when a phone call turns her life on its head. Her twin sister has been kidnapped, and the price for her life is Ashley's help in a secret plot to destroy Ben's company. But she soon discovers that Ben has a far more terrifying secret of his own.
From the moment he first crossed paths with Ashley, the beautiful young human from marketing, Ben has been consumed by her. When her life is threatened by his enemies, he casts aside caution and fights with the rage of a beast defending his mate. Not sure he can trust her yet determined to protect her, Ben kidnaps Ashley, planning to keep her under his watch for as long as necessary.
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About the Author
Lee Savino writes books about women finding their power in genres ranging from fantasy to romance. The stories come from deep inside her and the characters often act of their own accord while she watches and writes.
She lives in Richmond, Virginia, USA with her husband and son. While she studied creative writing Hollins University, her first novel, Raven and Wolf, set in 9th century Viking Norway, won the Hollins Fiction Prize.
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Copyright © 2015 Lee Savino
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.