CLAIRE'S POV
During the meeting, my mind wondered off to Logan's offer. As much as I knew that he was acting like a ridiculous arsehole, I could not bring myself to tell him anything.
After all, he was my employer. I put my phone on vibration mode as Logan had requested. Earlier on, before we went into the room, he had warned me not to ruin his chances with the investors. That warning was the most serious I had ever received in my entire life.
In as much as I was not in any position to contribute into the meeting, one of the investors named Mr Dubois showed an interest in me and constantly asked for my opinion. Half the time, I gave a polite nod in response.
Logan noticed this and low key confronted Mr Dubois.
He cleared his throat subtly "Mr Dubois, I see you have taken an interest in my secretary. Have you not?"
Mr Dubois smiled sheepishly "You are indeed as clever as everyone has been talking about. You are right! I mean, she is an epitome of beauty, I must admit that and I know you think the same thing too."
I looked in between them, gave a slight nudge to Logan and whispered "I do not think you should give him a response. Let it slide, for the sake of this deal."
As expected, he ignored me and went ahead to speak up "I suggest you dead that thought, Mr Dubois. My secretary here, is not one to be toyed with. She is special to me. Anyone that tries to mess with her, will be messing with me instead. Are we clear? If so, let us get back strictly to our initial business"
His voice had this authority embedded in it, such that Mr Dubois got the hint and he immediately dropped the topic and apologised to Logan.
"I'm sorry about that Mr Reynolds." He said nervously.
After his apology, Logan looked at me in reassurance with a smile before he continued with his discussion.
It was the second time I was seeing him with a smile. Hence, once again, my mind wondered off.
Who exactly had he been defending at that moment? Could it have been me, Claire Wilson, or his late wife Olivia? Who was he seeing me as? Did he only defend me because of the resemblance I shared with Olivia?
On the other hand, I quickly realised that it could not have been me in his mind at the moment. Hours before now, he had still been the same person who invalidated my feelings and asked to sleep with me just because I needed a favour from him.
I thought to myself "Claire, you can not afford to be deceived by his words. Get a grip."
Few minutes to the end of the meeting, my phone kept vibrating. I took a look at my phone and I saw multiple text messages and phone calls from Eva. My heart skipped a bit and being an over-thinker, I started to worry that maybe something bad might have happened to Eva. It was unlike her to spam my phone.
I excused myself from the meeting room in a hurry and put a call through to Eva.
She picked up almost immediately "What is the matter? Eva? Are you okay? Is anything bad happening? Say something!"
From the other side of the call she said in a barely audible voice "I'm sorry this is happening. I...I really can not place how everything went downhill."
"Are you going to tell me what is happening or not?"
"We....I mean, I am officially homeless. I got kicked out of the house"
I already expected this. Before Eva lost her job, we had already been two moths behind on rent money and our bills had been pilling up. Before company Eva worked for went bankrupt, she had not been paid monthly salary which made her flat broke. She also had no savings as she only lived from hand to mouth.
"Can you find somewhere close-by to stay? I will come find you and we will sort it out."
Without waiting for her response I hung up hurriedly and pondered on Logan's offer. There was no doubt now that I actually needed his money. It was like the universe was desperately out to get me.
All this while, I felt indebted to Eva for saving me and taking me in despite her poor financial state.
If I was going to sacrifice myself and my dignity for Logan's offer then that meant that I needed to make it worthwhile.
I summoned up as much courage as I could to head back to the meeting room. By the time I got there, the meeting had already finished and everyone was leaving. I patiently waited for Logan to be alone.
I rushed in to meet him. I opened my mouth to say exactly why I had come to see him but I could not bring myself to say such things from my mouth. The longer I spent looking at him, the more I cringed at his ruthlessness.
He knew that I was desperate and this was the only reason why he had an edge against me.
"I agree, let's do it." I said in one breath.
"What?" His response and his reaction clashed with each other. It seemed to me that he was aware of what exactly I meant but he just wanted me to say it.
"Your offer, I accept it"
A slight smirk appeared on his face and I bit down on my lip in an attempt to hide my anger or shame.
"What offer? Tell me about it" He said not removing his gaze from me.
This man had his was of making people feel inferior. I hated the fact that I was subjected to being on of his victims.
"You know what I'm talking about. Let's not drag it further."
"If you refuse to speak about it then forget about it." He said and with that he walked away swiftly.
Out of desperation, I chased after him in my heels. "You having....you having me in exchange for the advance payment. Buy I have an extra condition."
"Oh that? Go ahead. What condition do you want have this time?"
"I need you to give my friend a job. We are basically sisters so if you could just....."
He put his index finger on his lips "shhhh. Enough of this talk. We have a deal"
My body calmed down and let go of the initial cold sweat. I tilted my head in confusion "uhn". Logan was so unpredictable.
"You agreed? So fast? I...I thought you would decline the offer" I said timidly.
Truth be told usually, I was not a timid person, until I met Logan. His superiority complex stressed me out.
"We have a deal. Follow me before I change my mind"
I followed behind him as he walked swiftly to the car and collected the car keys from Peter.
"Get the car. NOW" He said sternly to me.
I shamelessly obeyed him.
With Peter gone, it was just both of us in the car. To my surprise, he did not make any attempt to start the car.
Instead he looked at me expectantly with a straight fact.
Although the atmosphere seemed off, I managed to keep my cool
"Get naked" Logan said.
"WHAT? HERE? ARE YOU CRAZY?" These words left my mouth before I realised who I was talking to.
"Do it. NOW!"