Page 28 of Two of a Kind
Effectively dismissed and nearly shaking with a mix of stunned shock and outrage, Spencer stormed out of his father’s office and went to his own. How dare the old man threaten him like that! His own son!
“I do not want to be disturbed,” he barked at the homely, chubby woman sitting at his personal assistant’s desk before realizing he didn’t recognize her. “Who the hell are you?”
She bit her bottom lip. “Yvonne, sir.”
“Where is Michelle?”
“Um”—she squirmed uncomfortably and pushed her thick glasses up higher on the bridge of her nose—“she was let go last week. I’m her replacement.”
Spencer gaped at her. He hadn’t thought it was possible to be any angrier, but he had been wrong. His blood pressure increased, making the veins along his temple throb. Not that losing Michelle was a great loss. Michelle gave great blow jobs, but she was a shitty secretary. Regardless, she had beenhisshitty secretary, and his to fire, if he so desired.
Spencer walked over to her, placed his hands on the desk, and leaned forward. His voice was very quiet as he spoke again. “Well, Yvette—”
“Yvonne, sir.”
“Well, Yvonne, if my phone rings even once, oranyoneknocks on my door in the next several hours, you will be right behind Michelle in the unemployment line. Do I make myself clear?”
She swallowed. “Yes, sir.”
Spencer went into his office and closed the door. He made a beeline for his own stash of fine whisky and downed two jiggers in quick succession.
When the hell had his charmed life become such a clusterfuck? Two days ago, he had been a perfectly happy, successful, single man in paradise, fucking the woman of his naughtiest fantasies. Now he was engaged to a she-devil who thought to control his dickandhis business? And, if that wasn’t enough, his own father was threatening to lead the charge in ousting him if he didn’t fall in line?
He threw the glass against the wall, finding some small satisfaction in the uncharacteristically violent act.
The question was: what the hell was he going to do now?
He sank behind his desk, wishing his grandfather still occupied one of the four corner offices. Spencer had always looked up to him and respected the hell out of him. Alexander Dumas had been every bit as business savvy as his father before him, and had somehow retained a strong sense of principles and the moral fiber that didn’t seem to have been passed along to his son, Spencer’s father.
Despite tripling the fledging company’s growth, his grandfather had always had time for young Spencer. He had actually listened to his ideas, and shared many of his own. Spencer would often seek him out when he needed to work out a problem, and now that was no longer possible. It had been nearly seven years since his grandfather passed, but Spencer still felt the loss acutely.
His grandfather had been a hell of a business man. Ruthless to his competitors and fiercely loyal to those who were close to him.Thatwas the kind of man Spencer aspired to be, but at what cost?
What would he have to say about all this? Spencer smiled, knowing exactly what he would have to say. He would say Spencer’s father was a damn fool; that people were far more important than profits. That money could buy a man a lot of things, but not the things that mattered most: Dignity. Respect. Happiness. The love of a good woman ...
Was there any dignity to be found in marrying a woman he didn’t love to get her family’s assets? Any respect to be gained in an arrangement that not only expected, but encouraged them both to screw around? Could he find happiness at the helm of an even bigger corporate machine with his father and Caldwell Chamberlain working the puppet strings?
Spencer shook his head. The answer was no, and he didn’t need to hear his grandfather say so to know it was true.
On the other hand, this was the only life Spencer knew. As Tristan’s firstborn son, taking over as CEO had never been in question. He had been raised with that in mind, groomed from an early age to one day be his father’s successor. He thought he had been doing a pretty good job of it, too, but apparently, not good enough.
