Chapter 9: Her kryptonite

PRESENT-DAY.

It was him, it had to be and no one else! His eyes met hers and he held her gaze, suddenly the image of her tiny hands squeezing his business card and tossing it into the trash evaded her mind and filled her thoughts, a sudden red crept up her ears and cheek and she felt as if he could see right through her.

"Charis, what are you doing? Come on" Anne dragged her away from the door and broke the eye contact, Charis' legs were wobbly and she was grateful that she at least had Annie's support as she headed to where the strategic planning team stood by the conference table. Prisca glared at her as she made her way to stand at the back. Forget about concentrating she could barely look up throughout the meeting, so she didn't notice when her proposal for the company's new product was the one delivered to the new boss. Desperately praying that the meeting would just end and she would leave, Charis was so conscious of her surroundings and not conscious at all as well.

"I like that proposal, get it to my desk after this" Sebastian said, "I will be honest with all of you. I am not here to make friends I had no intentions of purchasing this company, only a fool will buy a sinking ship. But by some twist of fate I did, I am no loser, I cannot be here and have this company continue to sink."

Getting up he began to walk around the office and Charis' breath caught in her throat, "I'd hate to say you all are incompetent because that would seem judgemental and unfair, but these proposals? And you call yourselves professionals, just want exactly what are you doing here every day?"

The entire room was silent, frozen still, then there was him, moving like a predator in a room full of trapped prey, his eyes were cold and piercing, everyone else avoided his eyes but Charis found out she couldn't look away. Sebastian had to be a foreigner because they didn't have skin so pale in this country, not with hair so dark and lips so red. With how tall he stood, she was a tall woman but even she stood with her head right under his chin. You wouldn't notice at first glance but she knew because she had touched him before but he was hard, meaning he had a lot of muscles too. He gave her a supernatural feeling, if she were to describe him she would probably say he had some Dracula-type vibe.

"To think my favourite proposal out of all of this was that" he pointed to Charis' proposal and her eyes widened when she looked at the screen and saw her business proposal projected. She wasn't even done with that how?

**********************

Charity gasped as his hot wet lips found her sensitive skin again, her lead lulling backwards, her chest rising from the soft bed where her back lay, soft moans escaped her lips as his hand crawled up her naked torso, leaving feather-like sensations on her belly. "You like this don't you?" That familiar gruff voice whispered.

In that instant, her eyes shit opened and she sat up panting, in her dark cold room, her body felt so hot, panting hard she grabbed her hair and sighed heavily, swinging her feet off the bed, her desire induced brain became alert and she walked into her bathroom groggily. It has been a week since she was in that room with that man and she had been plagued by sensual dreams like this. Walking to the light switch she turned in the light and grabbed her bible off her nightstand. Her gaze reached the alarm clock beside her phone, at 4:30 am.

"Just great" she groaned "anyway this is good, I get to read my bible because of you strange man." In cases of overwhelming emotions, when this thought got too serious of course she was human she would feel sensual once in a while but after her sister showed her this trick she never failed to grab her bible whenever the thoughts came. But she had never had a situation that she had dreamed of! Wow, was this a temptation, was the devil on her case these days?

"God? This seems unfair, I am already dealing with so much right now, can I not catch a break?" She sighed, pushing open the bible she began to read.

*************************

"Yet it is mediocre and childish" his words broke something in Charis as he stood right beside her when he said those words. He wasn't looking at her but she began to feel all those feelings she thought she forgot a month ago this man was bad for her, how can he be this close to her elicit such wanton feelings, how could his words make her feel so incompetent and useless?

"I have a lot of money and firing all of you wouldn't hurt me in any way, you all have three months to start doing what you are all paid for, I'm I clear?" He said, walking away again and they all chorused their "Yes sirs!"

"The strategic planning team should remain behind the rest of you are dismissed!" Charis began to panic, she was part of the strategic planning team, she was going to remain in this large room with him and they were going to be a whole lot fewer people!

Annie gave her a sympathetic look as she walked out with her team, advertising they were the most so as the left half of the room had emptied. "Sit, let us talk." His tone softened?

"I will be working closest with your team so I should know who you all are isn't that right?" he said but everyone else was too confused to even reply. "Team leader, introduce your team members."

Charis watched how Prisca nodded and began to introduce them but Sebastian stopped her, "wait, do it in this order, name, age, and duration of work. With a sentence on their work habit. I'll go round to shake your hands."

Jesus Christ! A sentence of work habit? Prisca hated her there was nothing she would say that would be good. "And finally Charis Sweeney, 23 years old?"

"24" Charis corrected, "I turned 24 yesterday, you were there."

"Ah... I'm sorry I don't keep track of interns as they might not have a permanent job after one year, and you've spent only a month. Work Habit... as you saw earlier she is hardly very dedicated and always late."

That is it! Why is she such a bitch?!

Sebastian stood before her and Charis didn't have the mind to look back at him, but in her examination of the small coffee stain on her work pants she saw that pale skin, his hands were bony but large. "Sebastian Delvey, you've only been here a month?"

Charis took his hands in a warm shake and looked up into his eyes and her body woke up, she reacted to this man with the same intensity Superman reacted to kryptonite, but her mind still couldn't draw the line, was he her kryptonite or was he something else?

"Y-yes" she whispered and his grip on her arm tightened.

"You should add titles when speaking to superiors don't you think?" He said and she blinked at him in confusion. Heh?

"Yes sir?"

"Better, you are the only person that got a bad report, she must still be fitting in don't you think? Team leader?" He said, her hand still in his, Charis had tried to subtly pull away but he wouldn't let go.

"What? Of-of course sir."

"You should take special care of the interns, team leader, they are the future of a company. And you, try and work harder so bad reports won't be circling about you" without waiting for a response he just left her hands, with how confused she was her hand fell lifelessly to her lap. And she just watched as he walked to the head of the table and took a seat. Just like that? What the hell was that interaction?