BOUNDED

OFFICE

6

OFFICE

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 f**k, 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?

I exhale, trying not to look guilty.

"Let me guess, if you won't have me interviewed by your deadline, and if you won't have an article about me, you'll bid goodbye to your internship at Lure. Correct?" He arched an eyebrow at me.

I almost gaped when he guessed it right. Damn this guy is like a stalker or something. How'd he know about that?

I look away from him awkwardly as I glared at him leaning forward with his elbows resting on his knees as his knuckles underneath his chin.

"We have an excellent internship program here Miss Thibault. Way better than Lure's. I don't always offer this to anyone but I can give you your own desk if you want to."

My eyes widened when he mentioned about his company's excellent internship program. Did he just offer me to be an intern for his company or not? I'm having mixed signals from him. s**t this is something big. Way big than Lure.

"I already have my own desk at Lure Mr. Saintclare." I answered him. Lying.

"Why did you chose Lure?" He asks.

Is he being serious right now? Does be really want to know all about this when he doesn't even know me yet.

"I can see that you have a huge potential in you, why stick with a stuck up little magazine like Lure?" He grins.

I slightly gaped at him. "I'm sorry but I don't want you badmouthing anything about Lure before me. I'm still an intern on that magazine Mr. Saintclare."

He chuckles under his throat. "Let's admit, Lure can't compete with what I have but I will respect your decision."

I exhale, clearing my throat. "You graduated with honors, your parents must be so proud." I changed the topic, pointing it back at him again.

"I think every parent would be proud if their child would graduate with honors."

I smile. "Your lucky you still have yours."

He looks at me ruefully. "What do you mean by that? Don't you have your parents with you?"

I breathe. "Today's not about me Mr. Saintclare. It's about you." I say sternly.

He smiled back with his tight-lipped.

"In spite of your huge wealth, massive success and fame, what does Benedict Saintclare still wants to have in life that he still doesn't have?" I continued to ask him so he won't ask anything about me.

"Materially? Well... I can buy anything I want if I want to. Anytime I want to."

"Ummm... Girlfriend?"

He grins. "I don't do relationships Miss Thibault. I think that's not for me."

"Why not? Everybody wants to have someone, why don't you?"

He pauses for a while as he looks at me sternly. "How about you Miss Thibault. Do you do relationships?"

I looked away from him the second he rubbed his finger against his chin.

"I'm more focused on my career as of now." I answer honestly.

"I am too. This company is like my bread and butter." He answers.

I pulled my head up to him as he begins to say, "If ever that day will come when I'm going to fall in love with someone, I won't hold back and I will love her honestly. But as for now, work is more important to me. I wanna focus on my career like you. I'm not ready for any.... serious commitments yet."

She'll be the luckiest as hell.

My heart softens with his words of wisdom. It's unusual to hear those words coming from a well known wealthy manwhore like him. It's something worth writing on my article, this would definitely sell. As I look at him and as I study him from where he's sitting, I think people don't tend to see what's inside his strong metal armor because he doesn't want anyone to unveil what's beneath it.

"Aren't you bothered about being called manwhore?" I ask, this wasn't part of the questions on my phone. But I want to ask him now that it's my only chance.

"No. Not really." He answers calmly.

"Why not?" I ask.

"Because I know myself better than anyone. I'm a man, it boosts my ego and my self-esteem if they think of me like that. If they see me as that kind of person, it's not my fault."

"It's what you tend people to see who and what you really are, that's why they call you manwhore." I kind of snapped.

He slightly bent his head down and chuckled at himself. "It's not a sin that I love to hang out with women and eventually women loves to hang out with me too. It's a mutual feeling."

He bore his green eyes at me making me feel my groin sweating. I lick my lips as I'm left in awe with the words he uses and in distracted, totally distracted, by his plump lips. It's one of his strongest assets too and those huge hands also makes to that list.

"I heard you're a collector of any sorts, that's why I think you love collecting women too." I tell him but looking into his eyes. I act like I'm busy fixing the recorder on top of the table.

I hear him chuckle. "I don't tend to collect women, Miss Thibault. If I did, I've got a long list of exes because I don't have exes as far as I can remember. And it's not my fault they come up to me begging and vying for my attention."

I grin. "What are your other interest outside work? Aside from collecting."

I look back at him and watched him looking back at me seriously. He looked annoyed with the collector thingy but it felt good that I asked that.

"My interests vary, in all aspects." His answer makes me shift on my seat.

"Being so busy with work and such, when do you even get to have a free time?" I ask, he's a busy man always has busy schedule.

"When do I even get a free time?" He asked himself. "Weekend, per say. But I'm always loaded with work, still I make sure I have a time to have fun."

"Hobbies?"

"Flying my private jet, golfing, horse back riding, yachting, sailing, probably flying from one state to another for my free time. I love karate and playing polo. Partying is on top of that list." He answers impassively.

All hobbies that a rich man would do.

"How do you chill out after a busy schedule or after a tiring day?" I ask.

"Great food. Great women. And of course..." I watch him look at me.

His lips slightly grins to the side before continuing to say, "Some amazing sex."

My eyes widened.

Then his phone rings again.

I exhaled heavily when he pulls it out from his pocket. "You really need to answer that." I tell him.

"It's just a person from the board. Where were we?" He asked me.

Sex.

You said you chill out by having s*x.

Oh god the thought of him being naked is infiltrating my head. That can't be! Get out! Leave me alone! I don't want him to enter my thoughts. No Thea. Just because he said the word s*x doesn't mean you're going to lose your focus.

"Don't you have a board to attend to?" I ask him, worrying about his phone that is still ringing.

He cancels it and shoves it back inside his pocket then looks back at me.

"I'm my own man Miss Thibault. I own this company. I don't have anyone to attend to." He answers.

"Now." His voice stern making my panty tighten more around my ass.

"Where were we?" He asks me with a grin.

I know that he knows where we left before his goddamn phone rang.