The Grumpy Boss Cowboy Billionaire

Chapter 6

Victor

When my alarm sounded promptly at eight AM, my eyes popped open and I leaped out of bed. Tossing aside the covers, I made my way into the en suite bathroom, cranking the hot water up in the shower. I stood in front of the vanity mirror, scrubbing my teeth, trying to ignore the heavy throb hanging low between my legs. Since Emma’s touch last night, I had been hard and restless, fighting the urge to address the growing tension between us.

I suspected that it was just my old playboy ways rearing their ugly head—it had been nearly six months since the last woman I had bedded, with no interest in jumping in with another, until I had met Emma.

Finally, I made up my mind and stepped into the shower. After scrubbing all the necessary areas, I spent several long moments imagining tangling my hands in her dark curls, cupping her ample breasts, and burying myself in her until she screamed, until I was spilling over on the shower floor, her name on my lips.

I leaned my head against the shower wall and allowed the hot water to sluice over my back, washing away the evidence of my pleasure before I shut it off and toweled dry. Dressing quickly, I made my way downstairs, to the massive, highly-underutilized kitchen. After several long minutes, I located a coffee maker in one of the cabinets, and proceeded to brew a pot of coffee. It was eight-thirty-two when the hot liquid finally burbled to a stop, settling in the carafe. I poured myself a cup, then took a seat at the breakfast bar, skimming the headlines on my news app. I finished my coffee and poured another cup, intentionally, not looking at the clock, my anticipation mounting. Had she heard me this morning in the shower?

Finally, I glanced up at the clock... Nine-O-two. Had we decided on a starting time this morning? I couldn’t remember, though I recall the conversation had strayed in the direction of needing to get an early start. Maybe she was just sleeping in, or taking her time getting ready?

By nine-thirty-three, I was about to crawl up the walls. I poured a mug of hot coffee and made my way up the stairs to her room. Pressing my ear to the door, I couldn’t hear anything. Tentatively, I knocked.

I could hear a swish of movement and knocked again. Her voice grumbled inside the room, and I knocked a third time, irritation increasing the force of the knock. Did she not take this job seriously?

She swore in a groggy voice, moving toward the door. I raised my hand to knock a fourth time and it swung open. The snarky quip I was going to offer died on the end of my tongue as I took in her appearance.

Dark circles painted the skin beneath her eyes, and her kinked curly hair stood on end in a wild halo around her head. She was wrapped in the throw blanket, with the strap of her tank top slipping off her shoulder. Her lips were parted, and her eyes half-lidded. She had removed her bra at some point during the night, and her nipples were pebbled just under her shirt, sending a wave of heaviness straight to my cock. Her lovely mouth was turned down in a frown.

“My phone died. I had it plugged in, but... What time is it?”

"Almost ten." I furrowed my brows at her, feeling an uncertain mix of arousal and annoyance. “We were going to brainstorm ideas about the park. Are you sick or something?”

"No. Sorry." She cupped her face in her hand, trying and failing to conceal a massive yawn, finally shaking her head and blinking rapidly. “I’m awake. Is that coffee?”

I remembered the mug in my hand and nodded, handing it to her. She took a long drink from the cup and I waited until she drew it from her face. “You went to bed pretty early. Why are you--”

She shook her head, and backed away from the door, waving me to come in. I glanced around at the floor; socks, panties, and other items were strewn across the room. Her pink lacy bra hung from the arm of the gold statue of the bucking bronco in the corner. She didn't seem concerned about me seeing her mess, gesturing toward the desk. I looked at the table, trying to make heads or tails of it. The majority of it consisted of sheets of paper scrunched up and thrown all around.

“I’m, uh–” I grimaced. "Do you need me to call housekeeping?"

She shook her head again, downing the last of the coffee from her cup. “Not that, that.” She pointed at the wall.

I stared for several long minutes, not entirely certain of what I was seeing. “What the–”

“I’m really a visual planner. I needed to get the ideas out in front of me.” She made her way over to the wall, then gestured for me to sit with a wave of her hand.

I sank down into the nearest chair, still reeling from shock and confusion. “Did you sleep at all?”

She shook her head, rubbing her eyes. “I had just gotten to sleep at about six.”

“You did this all last night?”

She bobbed her head, then picked up the legal pad sitting atop the desk beside me. Emma met my gaze and gave me a quick smile. “Are you ready for a killer sales pitch?”

I grinned and leaned back. “Fire when ready.”

She took a deep breath, glancing up at me, then released it, dropping her gaze to her hands, squirming momentarily. I reached for her, taking her hand gently. “Seriously, Em. Don’t stress. It’s just me.”

She chuckled. “That’s the problem, Victor. It’s just you.”

She shook her head, blowing out a firm breath.

When she looked up at me again, I realized I was now in the presence of Dr. Emma Pierce.

“So, for this park, you want to bring Cactus Creek back to life in the time of the Old West.” She winked at me. “Starting with renovating the old carousel–I spoke with a local artist who specializes in fiberglass sculpture who would love to offer some local fauna to replace the safari creatures, and to repaint the others.”

“Where should I put the elephants?” I mocked.

She gestured to the mansion around her. “Why not here in the house, make it unique seating in the game room? Mount them to the floor by the bar?”

I gave her a grin. “Very creative. Hit me with another.”

My words emboldened her and she stood up a bit straighter.

“If this is going to get people excited, we can't just rebuild the same park. That park already failed. We can utilize technology to fuse the New World with the Old West.” She continued, “People are always on their phones anyway, so why not take advantage of that?”

I shifted forward in my seat, resting my elbows on my knees. “What are you thinking?”

“We could have a private website built with augmented reality experiences…customers walk through the park, scan a QR code and they can see an A/R version of what life was like back in the 19th century.” She glanced over at the wall briefly. “From that perspective, we could also do an app that allows for smartphone scavenger hunts…walk around the park, find different things, earn digital rewards and prizes.”

I liked the idea but cringed. “What is that going to cost us?”

She glanced over at me, a wry smile on her lips. “About $1,000?”

"What?" I narrowed my eyes. “How did you pull that off?”

She grinned wide. “I spoke to the scholarships office at University of Phoenix, and they said that if we are willing to offer two $500 scholarships to their students, they will run a summer competition amongst their coding and programming students to create these two platforms.”

I raised my eyebrows. “That’s impressive.”

“But wait..." She mimicked the voice of a game-show host. "There's more!.” She glanced back at the wall, then over at me. “I spent the majority of the morning on the phone with a number of departments at the University, and there’s quite a lot of interest in this project.”

This surprised me. “Such as?”

“Such as the theater and history departments have come together for us to interview their recent grads for positions as historical role players—cowboys, settlers, miners, etc. As well as the engineering department has agreed to donate for scholarships as well—I was thinking of a high-tech laser tag in an Western-style course, and a drone for light shows.”

She paused to down the last of the coffee. “There is a company in Scottsdale that builds escape rooms that is willing to do a sponsored partnership with us…once the park is open, we pay them a fraction of revenue earned from the escape room—in trade, they will donate the first escape room completely.”

I whistled appreciatively. “What percentage were they asking for?”

She shook her head. “I told them I was not the numbers person, that was a question for our CFO…presumably you.”

The weight of burden suddenly sank down onto my shoulders. “Oh.”

She smiled. “I get to be the ideas girl. Shall I continue?”

I felt my eyes widen. “There’s more?”

“For the people that actually want to be present on their trips, we could offer time-travel tours…historical demonstrations of what life was really like in the Old West. I’ve been in touch with several historical reconstructionist troupes, including The Navajo Reenactment Society that includes atlatl hunts.”

“I don’t know what that is, but it sounds cool.” I quirked my mouth.

"It's like a..." She held her arm back like she was doing an overhand baseball pitch. "...Spear throwing bow type thing."

“What about rides?”

"Ahhh yes." She pointed at me. “We could have a train ride for the ‘time travelers’, representative of the arrival of the railroad in Arizona in the 1880s. We could also do a mine cart ride…including animatronic miners, ‘dynamite explosions’, bats, stalactites, twists, and turns. Play on the ‘time traveler vibe there, too.”

I could already see the park coming together. “What about food? Music?”

She beamed, happy that I had caught onto her wavelength.

“I’ve already spoken to several local country artists, as well as a Native fusion group, and they are willing to have talks about scheduling live shows here at the park.” She gestured to a list of names pinned on the wall below several pencil-sketched instruments. “And for food, there’s a number of food trucks who are willing to schedule regular rotations here, as well as I have found several Navajo, Hopi, and Havasupi chefs who are willing to do residencies here at the dining halls. Which means that we would have regularly rotating menus, allowing for variety for our guests.”

I couldn’t suppress the smile that was threatening to cover my face. “Wow.”

She continued without missing a beat. “I was thinking maybe your brother, Jax, would be interested in playing at our grand opening…and I thought it would be a nice touch to offer a local discount—if the residents of Cactus Creek can show us that they’re local, we can offer a 50% discount off admission…”

“50%? That’s ludicrous!” I palmed my face. “We’d be practically giving away admission tickets by the dozens!”

"Exactly!" She gestured. “If they get a significant discount on admission to gourmet dining in a scenic park, they will bring their families for birthdays, graduations, anniversaries…when out of town relatives come to town, they’ll bring them for an experience., no blackout dates. They'll spend more money inside the park than we'd ever lose from offering the discounts for entry.”

I considered what she was saying. This was an impressive plan—not some all-night, half-baked ideas of an airheaded dreamer. I could see that she was hardworking, and creative as all hell, but how were we going to manage this with what was left of my savings?

“You've seen the budget, right?”

She gave me a half-smile. “Much of what we will start with is donation-based. The University will pay for all the materials for the scholarship competitions, so long as we provide the scholarship money. The escape room company will donate and operate the first room if we are willing to offer them proprietary rights on the next three. I’ve also spoken to the representatives of the local organic growers’ union and they are willing to provide produce at a discounted rate to us so long as we bear their logo on our menus and website.”

“Who is going to put this all together?”

She looked at me like I had grown a second head. “You. Me. And a small team of passionate, driven people, who are invested in this park for more than just the money.”

I nodded slowly. “You’re the Project Manager—make it happen.”

She considered her empty mug momentarily, then glanced up at me. “If you expect me to get other people excited about your park on a shoestring budget, you will have to show them that you are invested personally, and not just financially. So first thing’s first: marketing campaign.” She extended the mug to me. “The vlogging starts NOW.”

Even in her disheveled state, I couldn't help but notice how incredibly sexy she was. Her full lips, warm brown eyes, and mocha skin had me completely and thoroughly infatuated. She had a natural beauty, a confidence that didn’t need makeup and perfectly-styled hair. Just her. But she was so much more than that. She was intelligent and witty and I wasn't used to being turned on by someone's intangible qualities.

"I'll get you more coffee." I chuckled and nodded, grabbing her empty cup and standing.

She glanced around the room, looking embarrassed. "You don't have to do that."

"Well, you said I need to be hands-on, for this, right? Right now, that means getting you coffee so you can walk me through the next ten or twelve hours."

I grinned and stepped past her, striding down the hallway and toward the staircase. She followed along, talking animatedly about the marketing plans, and my mind drifted, thinking about what the future could bring. What this park would look like if her vision is feasible? Would this be the start of something new, not only for me, but for her as well?

"And we'll need a new logo."

"What's wrong with the old one?"

She grimaced and I thought about the cartoon silhouette of the cowboy and Indian, mid-battle.

"Yeah, you're right." I nodded. "Can you get in touch with the graphics design department of that college?"

"Already on it." She laughed, then yawned again. "I had a list of vendors lined up to reach out to. If you can help me with the numbers, I'll handle the rest."

She stopped at the bottom of the stairs, her cheeks flushed and her chest rising and falling. "I should probably get dressed. I can't work in my pajamas."

"I mean, if you're just going to be on the phone all day, I won't complain." I grinned as my eyes flitted down the length of her body.

Her little black shorts hugged her hips and ass and I could see the outline of her panties beneath the soft fabric. Her legs were shapely and long and her tanktop had ridden up, showing off the soft curve of her stomach.

"Very funny." She rolled her eyes and turned to go back up the stairs.

I had only been half serious...I would have gladly kept her in her pajamas all day, but if she needed to change to feel comfortable, I wasn't going to protest.