The Billionaire’s Tenacious Boss (The Maxfield Brothers Series Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

company. But that couldn't be true. Surely, there was another side to her? And Stephen was oddly determined to find out what that other side was.
    "Who's the lucky guy?" he asked softly as he sidled up to her desk. She blinked, clearly lost in thought, and turned those beautiful eyes towards him.
    "What?"
    "The lucky guy who kept you up all night?" Although he was teasing her, he suddenly felt a touch of jealousy. It hadn't occurred to him until that minute that there might be another guy in her life. Of course, there would be another guy. She was smoking hot, successful, and one of the most confident women he had ever met. How could there not be another guy?
    "Typical," she said as she rolled her eyes. "You think a male is the only thing that can keep a woman up at night?"
    He lifted his eyebrows in surprise. What was she implying? "Was it a woman that kept you up?"
    "Please go away," she murmured. "You're making things worse."
    Relief swept through him. No man. And definitely no woman. That was a good start. "Well, if it wasn't anything fun, what did keep you up?"
    Her eyes hardened. "That fact that you swoop in after years of absence to block my plans to save your family's company," she hissed. “Remember that teeny little thing?”
    Well. He certainly wasn't expecting that. He could immediately see the regret in her eyes as her head dropped. "I'm sorry," she murmured. "Lack of sleep makes me cranky. I didn’t mean to snap at you."
    "I've only been here a day," he reminded her softly. "And I'm not blocking anything. I simply want to make sure that we explore all of our options." He swept his hand through his hair. She obviously didn't think he was qualified to voice an opinion and maybe she was right. But he wasn't about to let Gabe down. "Maybe we could work on trying to find a compromise rather than going behind each other's backs and talking to board members."
    "I'm not going behind your back," she bristled.
    He snorted. "Of course you’re not." If she was in the position to make CEO, and this was the only thing holding her back, Stephen had no doubt that she was all over it.
    "I'm not," she snapped. "Believe it or not, I want what is best for this company. And if I needed to push something through, I don't need to do it with secret meetings behind closed doors. That's not my style."
    More than anything, he wanted to ask her exactly what her style was, but he had a feeling that she wouldn't appreciate it much. Instead, he pulled a chair up to her desk and sat down. And just to piss her off a little bit, he leaned back in the chair and propped his feet up on her desk. "Great. So let's talk about these plans of yours. You do realize that cutting off two arms doesn't make a third grow."
    She got up and leaned over. As she shoved his feet off her desk, he got a quick peek down her shirt. He struggled to keep his face calm, but she saw his eyes wander and quickly straightened. She directed a hard look at him. "Get. Out."
    This wasn't exactly going the way he had planned. Grimacing, he stood and put his hands up in surrender. "I'm sorry. That was inappropriate. Look, I really do want to make this work. Can we start over?"
    "Am I supposed to believe that it's possible for you to even try to act professionally?" she demanded.
    A little bit of guilt hinged on him. She wasn't wrong. "I can act professionally. I'm at a loss at what to do here. I'm not even sure why I'm here," he admitted.
    "That makes two of us."
    That set his teeth on edge. "No. Of course, you wouldn't know. The only thing you know is what Duncan lets you know. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe we can't work together," he said harshly.
    She didn't stop him as he turned on his heel and stormed out. He immediately went to Gabe's office. Without bothering to knock, he flung open the door and stormed in. "Why am I here?"
    Gabe stared at him. He was holding the phone up to his ear. "Daniel, I understand that you want us to make a decision soon, but we're talking about a huge