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ChapterSix
Dominik
“Stupid fucking red wine,” I glowered to myself, marching to the bathroom and trying not to cause any more disturbance to my banquet.
I shook my hands of the wine droplets, growling as I pushed the bathroom door open and slammed it behind me. If I had it my way, that woman would never work another function in this town. She was sloppy and spacey, and now my two-thousand-dollar suit has been compromised before my speech. Just fucking great.
I cleaned myself and looked at my reflection in the mirror. Even with a small bit of wine on my suit lapel, I’m still the most powerful man not only in this banquet, but in this city. I took a deep breath and smoothed my hair back, straightening my jacket and standing tall in the mirror.
“Get through tonight and then you can bill her for the dry cleaning.” I murmured to myself.
“Good evening, everyone!” Jackson exclaimed off in the distance. A raucous moment of applause and whistles soared down the hallway and into the bathroom, like we were at a fucking baseball game with hot dogs in our hands.
“First off, I want to thank you all for coming out this evening. Me and my partner in crime, Dominik Drake, look forward to this evening every year.”
I rolled my eyes as I buttoned up my black shirt. “Lay it on thick, why don’t you?”
As I listened to Jackson give his speech, I studied myself in the mirror. I slid my ruby cufflinks into the wrist of either sleeve and buttoned them tightly before I slid my hands down my suit. God damn it, I looked good. Black had always been my color, but the way it showed off my time in the gym forced a grin across my face. Maybe Jackson wasn’t the only one who would be taking someone home this evening. After all, I looked much too good to go to waste. However, as I heard Jackson wrapping up his speech, I knew everyone expected me to be on that stage next. So, with my head high and my back strong, I strode out.
And headed straight for the area backstage.
“With all of that said and done, however,” Jackson said as I perched in the hallway to make my entrance, “I know I’m not the one you came to listen to. So, without further ado, please welcome my best friend and business partner—Dominik Drake—to the stage!”
The thunderous applause and whistling that ushered me out onto the stage rattled my ribcage. It felt like I was in a fucking Thunderdome, but I tried my best not to let it get to me. This was a formal function, after all. Did none of these people have any couth?
“Knock ‘em dead,” Jackson murmured as he shook my hand.
Then, he patted my back and made his way off stage.
“Good evening, everyone,” I said into the microphone.
The applause kicked up again and I felt my smile growing tighter.
“I’ll make this short and sweet since I know we’re all anxious to try out the new caterer for the evening,” I said.
The sound finally died down and I watched everyone raise their glasses. And while I didn’t have a glass to raise myself, I didn’t let that stop me from being one of the tallest and most put-together human beings in the room.
“As always, I consider it an honor that you’ve chosen to attend my banquet this evening. I know your social schedules are almost as busy as mine, and I want you to know that I appreciate your time,” I said.
A soft round of chuckles and giggles filtered from left the right, and while I wasn’t sure what the hell I had said that was so damn funny. Besides, it was much better to listen to than the applause and the whistling than idle laughter at nothing. Idle laughter was the touch of a suck-up. And I didn’t waste my time with suck ups.
Unless, of course, those suck ups had money to give.
“So, in order to benefit our stomachs, I’ll make this short: we have two new openings on our board of investors for this year, so if you’re wanting a space in my company, now’s the time to pull out your checkbooks and see how deep you can dig. We also have a couple of charities in the spotlight tonight: St. Jude’s Research Hospital and Habitat For Humanity. If nothing else, give to them. My company has already cut checks to the tune of two million for each charity, and my pledge is that if I can get you guys in the room to match that with your own donations, I’ll add another million on top of that.”
The cheering and applause struck back up and it took all the energy I had not to roll my eyes so far into the back of my head that they got stuck. Sure, everyone loved a good charity donation. But, that donation didn’t mean shit if I didn’t get to swing that around in the bedroom with a lovely lady from the evening. And the particular woman I had my eyes on wasn’t very good at playing hard to get in that sparkling dress of hers.
I had to figure out what in the absolute hell it was about her that turned my head so quickly. And the best way to do that was to fuck her out of my head. I had every intention of doing that.
“Thank you, all. Now, it’s time to put your money where your mouth is.” I say with a smile as I see women grab their designer bags and men reach for their wallets.
I clapped my hands together and backed away from the microphone, allowing my eyes to scan the room. And when I found Jackson leaning against that fucking kitchen window, I knew exactly what he was doing. With the plastered smile on my face slowly dipping into my casual frown, I took my leave from the stage. I’d leave the toast for the head of my board of investors, Carlisle. I’d let him usher us into the meal of the evening.
Because what I wanted was to get the hell off stage and rip Jackson a new one for continuing to distract the already failing caterer.
“Oh, really?” Jackson chuckled as he made googly eyes at the girl in the kitchen. “Well, if you’ve never been there, maybe I’ll have to take you someti—hey!”
I grabbed his arm. “With me. Now.”
