Taming a Brat

Alias Star is a strong, independent, self established Marketing Manager. Kane Rhodes is a handsome, asshole, billionaire CEO. She agrees to his rules to land an amazing deal for her company, but will his rules be too much? Or will he be able to tame a brat?

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Part 1: Introducing Alias

*Alias's POV*

"Quite Frankly, I don't care who you need to call, make it happen," I demanded through the iPhone pressed to my ear. I hung the phone up without a goodbye and huffed away the conversation I just had.

"Everything okay, Alias?" Sarah questioned me from the doorway.

"Dandy as always, Sarah. Could you please check to see how long it is until my next meeting?" I replied.

With a nod, she spun on her heels to her office. Sarah had been my assistant for 8 years; watched my company grow from one office to an entire building. I've successful, but my life has never been completely satisfying. Always missing something, I suppose. Sarah helped me keep my head straight through many hard times. She always looks out for me and makes sure I'm prepared for anything.

"Two hours!" She yelled from her office.

"Thank you!" I replied back.

Plenty of time to run across the street for lunch. I grabbed my Louis Vuitton and sunglasses, told Sarah where I was headed, and made my way to the elevator. Joe's was the restaurant across from my building, and they had my favorite chicken wraps that I always treat myself to before an important meeting. I was meeting with a new client, Rhodes Incorporated. This would be a huge deal for my company as they are also a large company and they fund tons of starter companies who need marketing to get on their feet. I was confident, but nervous. I have heard a lot of rumors about the CEO, Kane Rhodes. He was your typical young, rich guy who slept with tons of women and blew money on ridiculous things. Rumor has is, he's the worst person to work with. Extremely uptight and has rules for all of his business partners. Whatever though, I would probably deal with an associate before I'd deal with him directly anyway.

I ordered my wrap to go, and hurried out to get back to my office and eat before the meeting. I was looking down at my phone when I collided with something... hard. I gasped as a loud crash sound rang through my ears when my phone hit the ground. I didn't even notice the arms holding me up. I looked at the man who just ran straight into me with a furious look on my face and jerked my arms from his grip.

"Watch where you're going," I snapped as I bent down and picked up my now busted phone. Thankfully, I didn't drop my lunch I just bought.

"You should watch where you're going," he chuckled as he replied with a smirk.

I shook my head, rolled my eyes and walked away from the stranger in street. Men. No regard for women, god forbid anything is their own faults. Tsk. I had quit dating for years. Men had disappointed me enough times I vowed to put my heart into work and never another relationship. I was too much for every man I ever met, so none could ever have me fully again.

I hopped in the elevator and tried to turn my phone on, foolishly thinking maybe there was still hope for it.

No luck.

I huffed loudly. "Fucking great."

The elevator dinged as I made it to the floor of my office. I asked Sarah to grab me a new phone after she had lunch, but I would have to suffice with my watch to keep up with the time and email on my laptop as my only form of communication until after my meeting. Wonderful.

Time flew by and it was time to go set up everything in the conference room. Sarah let me know that the Rhodes Incorporated representatives had arrived and would be coming in any minute. I heard a knock at the door.

"Come in!" I yelled as I spun on my heels to greet everyone. I shook hands with each person as they entered my conference room.

The smile on my face faded a bit when my eyes landed on the man who had just ran into me in the street, but I kept my professionalism and smiled as I shook his hand. He smirked, obviously recognizing me from our encounter earlier.

Everyone took their seats, and he sat at the very end of the long table.

"Hello everyone, my name is Alias Star, and I am the founder and Marketing Manager of Star Marketing. I'm pleased to meet you all and would like to thank you for the time to hear out my ideas for our partnership." I confidently announced myself.

Everyone went around the room introducing themselves, and my knees almost went weak when the stranger in the street introduced himself as the Kane Rhodes. I gulped away my nervousness when I realized I had told the Kane Rhodes to watch where he was going. Not to mention, the Kane Rhodes had literally broken my phone. I despise him already.

He must have noticed my realization as he confidently smirked back at me. Or maybe it was just his ego. Sure, he was beyond handsome, but I'm too damn good at what I do to be flustered by some guy. I carried on with my presentation flawlessly and received a round of applause at the end. I was good, and I knew it. Everyone was fully on board and excited to get started, that is everyone except him.

"What makes you think the starter companies can afford your prices, Ms. Star? They are quite literally, starter companies." He questioned me intently.

"That's why I would be creating individual plans based on the starter company's budget. We would come up with the most cost efficient form of marketing until the company is on its feet enough to renegotiate a bigger marketing department." I replied assuredly.

"Social media markets itself nowadays, don't you think? And it's free." He retorted.

I was becoming frustrated at this point. "If social media was working, you wouldn't be here today, Mr. Rhodes." I glared back at him from across the table.

He debated my words for a moment before the edge of his lip curled into a sly smirk. He nodded his head in agreement. "Alright, Ms. Star, you've convinced me. We'll give it a try, but I'll need to have a one on one meeting with you to discuss the policies and rules of working with Rhodes Incorporated." He let the word "rules" roll slowly off his tongue. The rumors were true. I wanted to roll my eyes, but I resisted the urge and smiled instead.

"Of course," I replied, gritting my teeth.

We signed the necessary paperwork and adjourned the meeting. It was a success. Everyone was making their way out, except for him. I looked at him questioningly as he remained seated at the back of the table, slouching in the office chair.

"Shall we have our meeting now?" He asked.

"I suppose I could pencil it in, Mr. Rhodes. Let's meet in my office, I need to set up my new phone." I smirked a little as I walked towards the door. He followed behind me as we made our way down the corridor. I thanked Sarah for getting the phone for me and we entered my office.

"Take a seat." I motioned toward the chairs across from my desk.

I pulled out my notebook and pen as we sat down to take notes of whatever rules he had in mind. Surely, there couldn't be anything too outrageous.

"So, first and foremost you will report to me directly. I will approve any and every project before you implement it. You must run everything by me first." He didn't waste any time.

I scoffed. "Mr. Rhodes, surely you have more things to do than hear about every little decision I make."

"Call me Kane. And I have a ton of things to do, but you'll run everything by me nonetheless."

He couldn't be serious. "Kane, then. So you don't trust your partners?" I questioned.

"Not many of them." He replied nonchalantly.

"Fine." I scribbled down the rule. I knew what it was like to have a lack of trust in the people you work with.

"Rule number two, you must attend events for Rhodes Incorporated and represent the Marketing Department at every event I deem necessary," He stated.

I hated events. Especially ones where you go smile in the faces of people you hate.

"I suppose that's non-negotiable?" I asked, hoping events would be elective.

"None of my rules are negotiable." He replied back firmly.

So, he really was strict as hell. I bit back my remarks and scribbled down the damn rule.

"Finally. you must meet with me once a week to discuss what's going on in your department and I must have your personal cell phone number in case I need you for any reason," he stated.

I sighed. I was on the shortest leash any client had ever put me on. I would have to see him almost daily in order to get this partnership. It's the best thing for my company, so I wrote down the final rule.

"Any questions?" He raised an eyebrow as he waited for my response.

Why are you so damn strict? I thought to myself. "No, I look forward to working with you, Kane." I stood up to shake his hand.

"I'm looking forward to it as well, Ms. Star." he smirked and shook my hand, gentler than the first time.

"Alias." I told him.

"Alias." He repeated my name back with a soft smile.

Damn, for a second, I forgot what an uptight asshole he was because the way he said my name sent shivers down my body. What are you doing, Alias? Absolutely not, don't even think about shit like that.

I shook away my thoughts. "Until next time, Alias." He called from the doorway as he walked out. I took a deep breath to calm myself down and took a seat back at my desk. I groaned as I dropped my head in my heads, this was not going to be an easy deal by any means.