Ryan's POV
Vivian Rose was introducing Ryan to things that he had never experienced in his life. That was not a good thing.
He should have never gone looking for her.
In just a short period of time, she had shown him how it felt to have someone run away from him. Then she had slammed the door in his face, and she had kicked him out of her apartment. Things that had never happened to him ever. Just who did she think she was?
Ryan was a billionaire. The amount of money and power he had did not just make his her net worth seem small. It eclipsed hers in comparison.
He had cups that cost more than Vivian's salary, and yet she had kicked him out like he was some sort of thief. He had not even been trying to steal from her. He had been offering her money. What was wrong with that woman?
Those were the things that Ryan Terrell was thinking as he steadily made his way through a bottle of wine.
"Should I ask what is wrong? Or is this the kind of problem where you just need a drinking buddy and not someone to listen to you?" Looking up from his glass of wine, Ryan stared at his friend. Why did Mark seem so tall all of a sudden? Oh, that was because he was drinking while seated on the floor, placing his elbows on the table. He gave the other man a serious look.
"How did you get in?" Shrugging, Mark grabbed a cushion off one of the chairs and put it on the floor before sitting on it.
"Simple, I know your code. Even if I did not, anyone just a little bit close to you would be able to guess it. Stop combining your brother and your grandfather's birthdays," Oh, not wanting to think about his younger brother and his grandfather. Ryan gulped down more of his drink and decided to change the topic.
"I had a business deal today. I have been putting a lot of effort and even had some very good people on it. But the person I am supposed to partner with refused. It was going to be very pleasurable for the both of us to work together. So why was I turned down?"
***
After giving him a look, Mark very pointedly took Ryan's drink away from him, not just the one in the glass, but the remaining wine in the bottle too.
"If you cannot figure this out, then it means that you have had way too much to drink,"
"Figure what out?" Ryan asked. Not even trying to keep the pout out of his voice. Mark wagged a finger at him.
"You are a businessman. I would think that you would recognize this negotiation tactic off the bat," Ryan laughed at that. He was a very good businessman. There was not a negotiation tactic that he did not know. If he was having any problems with this, it was because it was about sex, not business.
Luckily he was able to stop himself from blurting out the truth. Instead he stayed quiet waiting to hear Mark's insight on the matter.
"Whomever it is that you are trying to make a deal with is obviously stalling because they think they can make more from you,"
What? That made a lot of sense.
Finally using his brain, instead of his dick to think, Ryan realized that Mark was right.
Were it in the business world. Ryan would not have approached Vivian first. He would have waited for her to come to him. But he had made a mistake because he was thinking out of lust.
By reaching out first, he had made it very apparent that he was desperate, supply and demand. He had made it known to Vivian that he wanted what she had, and she in turn was withholding the goods in order to give them up at a higher price. Ah! Looking at his friend, Ryan smiled at him. The expression making his face hurt.
"Hey, stop looking at me like that. You are creeping me out," Mark chastised, but Ryan was beyond caring. Mark had just cleared something up for him.
Something very important.
He might have approached the situation all wrong, but he'd read the room correctly. As much as he had been ogling Vivian, he had seen her stealing looks of him, of his crotch to be more specific. There was no way that she was not as hot for him as he was for her.
He might have lost the battle, but he would win the war. She would come crawling back, wanting a piece of him, and he would negotiate until he not only gave her less money, but he also would make sure to have her until every dream he'd had of being with her was fulfilled.