Sleeping With The CEO
Chapter 55: Can’t Touch This

Chapter 55: Can’t Touch This

Derek had slept.

He had actually slept. He had closed his eyes and caught some zs. He had counted sheep, he had caught some shut-eye. He had closed his eyes and had not let the bed bugs bite( which had been a real worry given the state of the room that he had slept in). All the various ways that people used to describe the process of going to sleep, he could now use freely since he too was now part of those people.

All those fancy terms and phrases now applied to him, and they all meant the same thing. And to him, that meaning was that for just over ten hours, Derek had been like the majority of the people on the planet. His brain had finally allowed him to rest.

It was such a momentous occasion that he wanted to write a memo and send it to every single department at Haven Group headquarters. And then he wanted to take the same memo, draw hearts on it and send it to every other company that Haven Group owned.

The Chief Executive Officer of Haven Group, I, Derek Haven, slept for more than ten hours last night. It was a wonderful experience and I fully intend on a repeat of it tonight. I wish that all of you have the same sleep filled night as I will be having.

Derek had even drafted it, but he had deleted before the temptation to send it had gotten to be too much. Turning his attention to Erasure Corp, whose people were lying to him, badly.

How had he even let these people get onto the short list, obviously they had only survived so long because of his insomnia. He would make sure that they were disqualified as soon as possible.

In fact, Derek was in for a bit of spring cleaning. Once he had decided that Erasure was not worth his time, he had closed their file and been going through the reports that he got from each department on a weekly basis.

What usually took him the whole day, now took him only a matter of minutes. And not only was he faster, he was able to pick out errors and discrepancies with an ease that he had never thought possible.

He and the head of finance would need to sit down together for a serious meeting soon. There was something very wrong going on in that department.

There was absolutely no way to justify why companies owned by people Derek knew were within the woman’s social orbit were being paid so much for work that could be done at a higher standard for less. Yes, there definitely needed to be a sit down and soon. Taking note of it, Derek moved on to the next issue.

The head of Building and Construction had the opposite problem to the head of finance. They were using very little money. Construction was expensive, that much Derek knew. And while he wanted money to be saved, he did not want to do it by cutting corners. Building with cheap materials and not buying the best equipment often created more headaches than it prevented. Derek did not want to be dealing with injured construction workers in the near future. Nor did he want to have his buildings collapsing years down the line.

And the list went on and on. As the Erasure representative kept talking, Derek slowly but steadily cut it down to size. And by the time the presentation was done he had a clear plan of attack. Standing to thank the Erasure people, Derek vaguely heard himself say something along the lines of ’It was a pleasure hearing from you, but do not call us, we will call you’ The usual company nonsense that meant you had as much of a chance at being called back as a piece of straw falling into a volcano had at not turning to ash.

Judging by the way the Erasure delegation’s smiles became fixed, they knew that they were not going to get called back, but they kept it professional and left without causing a scene. Leaving quietly should have been the norm. But Derek had actually had people break down in tears and starts begging. Others even tried to offer themselves up. Sex in exchange for a deal, the lengths people would go to scared him sometimes. So he was glad that the Erasure people left without making a fuss, their departure finally allowing Derek to get to the part of the day that he had been looking forward to all day. The emergency meeting.

At long last he would repay the board for trying to go behind his back in the earlier meeting that he had gate crashed. And at last he would have the chance to teach his uncle a lesson with everyone watching. The man loved the spotlight, but only if he was the one shining it on himself, and highlighting what he thought of as his positive attributes. He did not like being put on the spot for negative things, especially in front of an audience... Derek was really going to enjoy this.

He listened as Emily drafted her email, and with his approval. She hit send, and just like that, the trap was sprung.

One by one, the flies walked into the spider’s web. All of them knowing it was a trap. He could see it in the way they walked in, shoulders hunched, steps slow. But they had no choice but to enter, and so they did. And one by one all of them were caught by it. With no chance to escape unless he allowed it.

And looking over all of them with the eye of someone who had gotten enough sleep for once, Derek felt as though they were all open books. Their secrets laid bare for him to see.

To them he probably looked like an executioner sharpening his axe. But to him all he saw was just a room full of small fish. None of them could even come close to him, and they needed to be reminded of that.