Chapter 11

• I pull out my phone and scanned through the questions I've readied weeks ago. I take my recorder out and placed it on the table. I try not to scatter my things and stop my hands from shaking so he won't notice me being nervous.
• "I have a lot of things to ask, and I hope an hour would be enough." I smiled at him.
• He half smiled at me. "Let's start."
• "So, my main interest is, how do you maintain such success? With everything you own, Saintclare Enterprises doesn't just focus in one field. It's ground is vast in all aspects of business. All sorts..."
• He shifts on his chair with a huge hand covering his face. Wait. Is he hiding a smile? Holy. Did his chest just move a little? Oh my god he's laughing at me. He's obviously laughing at me.
• "Uhhhh what's so funny?" I can't help but ask him.
• He licks his lips while he pulled his hand away from his face. "You." He answered.
• I arches an eyebrow at him, "Me? And why? Did I say something funny?"
• "A while ago, you were dressed... Funny. And now... You look..." He studied me from head to toe then shares back at my face with a grin.
• "Stunning." He added.
• Fuck he just said I look stunning. Did he even mean that? No Thea don't give in. I frantically look away and felt my cheeks burning like a quick fire. I feel myself blushing to the tips of my ears. I try to bite my inner cheek, trying to hide my smile as I kept my eyes off him.
• Fuck. Me.
• "A while ago, did you make clay pots? The dirt on your clothes would make it obvious." He's referring to how dirty I was this morning.
• "I went to an orphanage earlier this morning where they have this pot making session for the kids to play. They always love it and I join them if I have free time." I answer.
• He nods. "Orphanage. Which one?"
• "Heaven-sent. It's a small orphanage for kids that were abandoned by their parents. That orphanage is pretty close to me in some way." I answer.
• He smiles.
• "Okay." I announced.
• But no it's not okay. No I'm not okay.
• "Thank you for calling me stunning and reminding me how I looked dirty this morning." I stammered while laughing.
• I look back at my phone and tried to calm down but I can't. My fingers are frozen to death and I still haven't recovered from that embarrassment. I pull my head up to him and watch him as he smiles at my comment.
• He. Smiled.
• Ahhh he's so handsome when he smiles.
• Then his phone rings. He pulls it out of his pocket and then ignores it as he puts it back inside his pocket.
• "Would you like to answer that call? It must be someone important." I say.
• "No." He answered bluntly, "This is your time. Go ahead." He tells me.
• I exhale heavily and felt my heart beating even faster. "So, how do you maintain such huge success?" I ask.
• "It's simple." He grins.
• I could already tell that he's a great businessman with such self confidence even with the way he speaks.
• "I'm excellent in what I do. I try to be the bestest at my game. It's simple knowledge. Buying ailing, mismanaged companies and fixing them. I keep some but if they're broken, I strip their assets off and sell them to the highest bidder. Easy money."
• He sounded more full of himself on that phrase but I try to keep firing at him.
• "Why do you think you've amassed such an empire only at a young age?" I ask.
• "It's because I have exceptional people who works for me. This industry that I'm in is like my battlefield and I always love to win at any becauset. Losing is never an option to me. That's because I don't put things in between. Work is strictly work and nothing else. To succeed in business Miss Thibault, you need good and bright people and I can judge a person better than most." He answers.
• "You recently invested in manufacturing, why?" I quizzed, looking at him as he licks his lips now with his leg crossed over the other.
• Damn those legs are long.
• "I like to expand my business. I like to build things. I love seeing things being constructed and deconstructed." He answers with his hands over his knee.
• "But have you encountered a downfall in business? Every business man passes through that phase which makes them strive for more." I wittily asked.
• "People have always wanted to see me brought down a notch but then they can't because Success is my middle name. That might sounded a bit boastful but people around me knows me. They know how much I strive harder for keeping this company at its best. That's why they say I don't have a heart. Hence, being a called heartless manwhore in both aspects of women and at work." He answers with a grin.
• His boastfulness even makes him more sexy which is weird is because I used to hate people who thinks too much of themselves. But with Ben, it's like it suited him to be too confident.
• "Why do you think they say that you're heartless?" I asked, swallowing my saliva deep down my throat.
• "Because they know me pretty well that I am." He gives me a wry smile.
• "And I always seek for my father's advice when everything's a bit complicated in the office. I remind myself that I always need to keep my feet on the ground like how my mother taught me." He added.
• I thought he doesn't want to be interviewed one on one but he answers me with long sentences and it's amusing because he sounded very intellectual.
• "I can see it that you're a family oriented kind of guy." I tell him.
• "Not everyone sees that. Thank you."
• I take a deep breath then I let go a smile before asking him the next question. "Why do I feel like you're very closed off from everyone?" I ask.
• "Because I want to keep my life as private as I can. I'm a very private person. I'd do anything to protect my privacy and my family's privacy. That's why I don't often give out interviews." He answer firmly. He's like a mannequin.
• "Why did you let me interview you?"
• He pauses and looks at me quietly for while. I feel his green eyes began to roam around my body and I feel him very arousing when he looks at me that way. Okay fine I admit that he's very alluring. But fuck, I'm not here for that.
• "You say you were an intern at Lure. I heard Victoria is a harsh boss." He grins.
• "She is." I answered under my breath.
• "Did she force you to interview me so her little magazine would sell?" He smirks at me. Why is he good at this?