Rival To The CEO

Rival to the CEO Emily Hayes Contents 1. Melanie 2. Vanessa 3. Melanie 4. Vanessa 5. Melanie 6. Vanessa 7. Melanie 8. Vanessa 9. Melanie 10. Vanessa 11. Melanie 12. Vanessa Epilogue If you enjoyed the CEO series, you’ll love… VIP Readers List 1 Melanie Melanie checked her reflection once more in the mirror. Unsurprisingly, she looked exactly the same as she had one minute ago when she had last checked. Still, she couldn’t help but check again, just in case a hair was out of place. Melanie loved to always look immaculate, especially so today. A good first impression was important. She’d already received the promotion of her dreams, but that didn’t mean it couldn’t be revoked if her new boss didn’t like her. Technically, Vanessa Reiss had been her boss for five years now, ever since Melanie had begun working for Ardak Enterprises, but up until now, she had been working under managers who reported to the CEO. With her new promotion, Melanie would be working directly under the great Vanessa Reiss. To say she was excited was an understatement. Vanessa was an inspiration and the reason Melanie had joined this company. As an openly gay black woman, Vanessa Reiss had had all the cards stacked against her, and yet she had risen up to be one of the most successful women in the industry. Melanie hoped that, someday, she could achieve half of what Vanessa had. She wasn’t even out to anyone except her close friends and family, but even without her sexual orientation in the mix, her skin color alone had ensured that she had to work twice as hard as anyone else to get where she was. Getting somewhere in the business world as a woman was hard. As a black woman, it was doubly hard. As a gay black woman… Well, there was a reason she wasn’t out to anyone except those she trusted. The elevator opened and Melanie stepped out into the corridor. She strode down to the end, where she knew Vanessa’s office was located. She knocked twice and waited. “Come in. Melanie Fox, I take it.” Melanie gulped. She hadn’t realized Vanessa would be this attractive in person. She had seen photos of course, but they didn’t fully encapsulate the aura of power and sensual energy that Vanessa exuded. Melanie wasn’t usually attracted to older women, but she was convinced that anyone with eyes, gay or straight, would be attracted to Vanessa. She had long dark hair and high cheekbones. Her eyebrows were impeccably shaped, and her breasts were the perfect size—large enough to be noticeably attractive but not so large to detract from the rest of her appearance. Melanie realized she was staring and forced herself to stop. Pull yourself together, Melanie. “That’s right. Nice to meet you.” They shook hands, and Melanie didn’t miss the way Vanessa’s eyes flicked down her own body. She looked up at Melanie, smiling smugly. “Why don’t you sit down?” Melanie sat. She was sure that Vanessa was looking at her cleavage and took advantage of the moment to do the same. Vanessa was wearing a sinfully low-cut top that displayed the smooth tops of her breasts in a way that was unfairly tantalizing. “So, Melanie, tell me about your ideas for your new position.” Melanie forced herself to yank her eyes back up to Vanessa’s face. She had her notes in her bag, but she’d already memorized what she wanted to say. “I’ve taken a thorough look at our sales reports. We’ve already got a good market with the older generation. It’s the younger folks who we need to get interested in our products. A lot of our products will actually appeal more to the younger generation if we market them correctly.” “I see. How do you think we should do that?” “We’ve got a lot of billboards and TV adverts currently. Those are great, but I reckon we can scale them back a bit. We need to be focusing more on social media. Get out some Facebook adverts. Send out several tweets a day and start getting a following on Twitter. Instagram. Maybe make some YouTube videos of our best products.” Vanessa frowned. “That kind of stuff can be fun, but none of it will actually generate sales. The people who waste half their day on social media aren’t the people with the money.” “That’s not true. Sure, the younger generation has access to less money, but a lot of our products are cheap enough to be affordable to almost everyone. We won’t be getting huge bulk orders from our social media sales, but thousands of individual orders still pay the same of one bulk order worth thousands.” “You’re wrong,” Vanessa said flatly. “I appreciate the novelty of the idea, but it’s not a road we’re going to go down. I want you to work on researching the best spots to purchase more billboards.” Melanie couldn’t believe what she was hearing. More billboards? After she’d just told Vanessa that they could scale back on that kind of thing? Was Vanessa even listening to her? “I don’t think that’s the right direction to go.” “Well, I’m the one who gets to decide that, aren’t I?” Vanessa’s dark brown eyes flashed dangerously. Melanie felt enraged. “Why did you hire me, then?” Melanie was unable to keep the frustration out of her voice. “You wanted my ideas! Well, here they are, and you’re just dismissing them out of hand!” Vanessa’s eyes narrowed. “You watch your tone with me, Melanie Fox. You’re my employee and you’ll do as you’re told.” Melanie found herself on her feet, though she didn’t remember standing up. “I’m not going to do a shit job because you know fuck-all about marketing!” “You’ll do what I tell you to, or you’ll regret it!” Vanessa was on her feet too. The air between them was practically crackling with tension. Melanie was seized with the desire to grab Vanessa and kiss her. Maybe if