The CEO

Exotic Business

"Woaahhhhh!!!" Sasha jumped down from the helicopter and stared open-mouthed at what lay in front of her. I couldn't blame her. No one could peel their eyes off the scenery all around us.
"Hey, you brats." Levi called down from the helicopter. His hair whipped around in the wind. "I expect you all to act like mature adults," His eyes flicked over to me "So don't be a pain in the ass for the next few days."
"Yes, sir!" Sasha yelled gleefully and ran towards the small wooden airport, kicking the sand under her.
The Cook Islands.
It was blazing hot during this time of the year, but I couldn't care less. I walked beside Thomas as we took in the lush greenery that rolled on for miles ahead, the beach behind us with its crystal clear ocean water and the sounds of the chopper fading away in the distance.
I glanced behind me to see Levi strolling along further away, his eyes grudgingly admiring the clean sand.
The shrill cackle of seagulls made me look up, squinting in the sun, to see a flock of them whizzing by overhead.
"This is great." Thomas breathed.
"Tell me about it."
"I've never gone abroad in my life." He smiled in embarrassment.
"Well, I've certainly never taken a private helicopter to an island like this." I still couldn't believe that Levi was rich enough to have his own helicopter...
This morning I had arrived at the bank as usual, but not in my usual suit and tie. Everyone, including me, was decked out in holiday wear. We'd innocently expected a seaplane or something to pick us up as we stood in the parking lot waiting for the boss to come. Suddenly a huge black vehicle had come roaring at us from the middle of nowhere and parked like it belonged there. Levi had emerged from it wearing sunglasses and his everyday office suit.
I swear, that guy.

We checked into our rooms- one for the girls and two for the five boys. Levi had a suite of his own, of course. No way he'd stay with us. Not because of his higher position, but because he couldn't bear to live with us "messy brats who couldn't clean to save their lives" as he put it.
At least our room had an awesome view of the ocean.
After a while we gathered in a wooden shed situated between the forest and the beach for drinks. We were chilling on the lounge chairs, talking and gazing at the sea.
I was wearing shorts, and Levi noticed them. He raised his eyes up at me, cocking an eyebrow. I blushed and tried to look anywhere but at him.
"Feels like we're on vacation." Mina stretched a hand behind her head and sipped her cocktail.
"When we're not." Bertholdt added helpfully.
My phone buzzed. It was Mikasa, to my disappointment.
"Hey." I greeted her.
"Hi there! Wait, hold on..." Her voice was cut short.
"Hi Eren!!" Armin's voice yelled happily into my ear. "Mikasa was nice enough to put us on a conference call. Did you reach yet?!"
"Yeah, about 30 minutes ago." I replied. I felt someone staring at me and turned my head to see Levi's gaze locked onto mine.
Sudden paralysis overtook me and I realized I couldn't avert my eyes.
"Eren, did you put on sunscreen?" That was Mikasa, of course.
"I did." I replied, my voice monotonous.
"Don't be out in the sun for too long or you'll get a sunburn. Normally it's rainy over there in June, but you can't be too careful, you know?"
"All right." I wished Armin would say something.
"And be careful while eating. And call regularly. And-"
"Mikasa, I'll cut you off!" I threatened. God she was frustrating.
"Hey Eren, is he with you? What're you doing right now?" Armin asked excitedly.
"I'm currently sipping a lemon soda and having a staredown with him."
"Eep!" Armin giggled. "Must be nice. Doesn't anyone notice?"
"I have no idea." I laughed.
"Eren, who?" Mikasa demanded but I ignored her, too focused on Levi.
The longer we stared at each other, the further the heat spread across my cheeks.
"Eren.." Connie waved a hand in my face, breaking my eye contact with Levi. "You okay?" He mouthed, pointing at me then making a thumbs-up.
That thumbs-up made me remember what Levi had said about male virility, and I blushed even deeper.
I managed a feeble grin at him and pointed to my phone, as if it was my girlfriend talking.
Connie nodded with eyebrows raised and resumed his chatting with the others. In the distance, I saw our dealer coming towards us carrying a tray in his hands.
"Armin..I'll call you later. We're getting to business now."
Levi stood up to shake hands with him, who then collected our glasses and smiled "More drinks, anyone?"
_________________________________
Our host, Mario, served us delicious seafood for lunch, which we had in his outdoor restaurant. He was a pretty cool guy, in his fifties and having good knowledge about accountancy. His nephew, Robert, a guy few years older than me also joined us to eat. He was an athletic-looking guy with dark eyes and tousled black hair.
I guess he was attractive, because Sasha and Mina stared at him and then weirdly eyed each other when he introduced himself.
Levi, Mario and Robert fell into discussion with each other, so I took the time to talk to my friends.
"Oh my god." Sasha leaned in to talk to Mina who sitting right beside me.
"I know." Mina gushed.
"Hey, Eren." Sasha smirked at me and subtly gestured to Robert. "You think he's hot?"
"Jeez, Sasha." I muttered. "Behave yourself. He's a client. And no."
"Liar." She giggled. "Admit it. He's really good-looking."
Behind her, I saw Connie scowl at his oysters and felt a pang of sadness for the guy. I knew he liked Sasha as more than a best friend, so it hurt to watch him like that.
"You think Mr.Ackerman's hot?" I countered.
Her eyes widened. "I dunno, man. He's scary so I never really thought about it. But I mean, I guess?" Her mouth fell open. "Wait..."
"Do you..like him?" Mina stared at me.
"Of course not!" I scoffed, pretending to look insulted. "It's a general question."
"We'll see." Mina deadpanned.

When our plates were cleared away, Mario told us that we could have a tour of the island and hang out at the beach in the evening. We exchanged thrilled looks with each other. I never thought I would see this day at all myself.
I started to walk back to my room but was stopped by a hand on my shoulder. I turned around to see a pair of stormy grey eyes looking up at me.
"Come to my room in ten minutes. Don't be late." Levi murmured.
My heart skipped a beat and proceeded to jackhammer in my chest as images exploded in my head. I watched the raven walk away, controlling my urge to push him against a coconut tree or something.
He seems awfully eager today.
"Hey Eren, wanna climb this thing?" Connie pointed to the tree I was thinking about.
"Yeah, doing that would be better." I replied sadly. He gave me a confused smile.
"Jean, you wanna walk around the place?" Marco grabbed Jean's hand and pulled him over to the entrance of the woods.
"Eren, come on!" Connie started scampering up the tree.

In the end, I left my friend in the middle of a bunch of coconuts 15 feet in the air and ran down a graveled path to get to Levi's suite. My legs felt wobbly and my palms started to sweat in anticipation.
I skidded to a stop in front of his door and with a shaking hand pressed the buzzer. He opened the door almost immediately, still in that suit and tie.
"Good, you're on time." He stepped aside to let me inside.
"So, um..." My eyes roamed his sweet crib, lingering on the bed for a few seconds. "You called me awfully early."
"What are you talking about?" He said behind me. I heard a low thud and whirled around to see him opening a laptop at his table.
"What're you doing with that?"
"It's just a meeting with Zackley and Azumabito. You're not supposed to attend, but I'll let you on this for once."
I stood there like an idiot. "You called me here for that?"
"Well, what did you think it was for?" He stared at me incredulously.
"For...you know, that." I said tightly and winced at my stupidity.
"You think I invited you here so I could fuck you?"
"Actually, I was hoping it would be the other way around." I replied without thinking.
Oh, shit.
Levi slowly pointed to me. "You. In that chair. Now."
I obeyed immediately. My seat was a little away from the laptop so that my superiors wouldn't see me.
Pretty soon the video conference started, with the finace director's and chief financial officer's faces appearing on the screen.
"Good afternoon, Levi." They said.
"Yeah, 'afternoon."
"How's the island?" Zackley asked.
"Favourable. Our guy is pretty good too."
"Nice. Let's start with the updates."
I listened with rapt attention mainly because I was interested but also because Levi kept looking at me to check if I was listening.
"So overall, there's been a decline in slippage ratio from 0.97% to 0.36% on an annual basis, especially in the May quarter. Other banks have reported that on the contrary, with high slippages especially from the corporate loan book." Mrs.Azumabito said, reading from a document.
Levi nodded "That one company has an easy liquidity stance, it seems. But don't make that statement to those reporters."
"Obviously not." Zackley made a weak excuse at a grin.
"What about our inverstors?" Levi asked as his eyes flicked to me for a split second and realized that I had been staring at him the whole time.
A small twinge of irritation started building up in my chest.
"Well, we are good accumulation candidates..supposedly." Zackley continued as he fixed his glasses. "The best thing to do currently is to continue holding quality scrips and rebalance the portfolio."
"I agree." Azumabito said. "I'd recommend this to make the most of the result-specific positives. Your thoughts, Levi?"
"I heard that from a good source." Levi commented. "The index is likely to consolidate at higher levels. Option data can indicate a wider range of-" He turned to me as I stood up from my seat.
"Yes?" Azumabito prompted.
"Hold on a minute." Levi stood as well, came over to me and stood up on his toes to whisper in my ear. "Eren, don't be a fool and sit the fuck down."
I gently held his arms and leaned in to bite him on the ear. He jumped back with a hiss.
"Levi, is this a bad time?" Azumabito asked.
"No, I apologise." He returned to his desk and sat down. "Slight stomachache. I probably ate too much."
"Nonsense, you're a light eater."

After droning on about stock prices for a half hour, the three of them decided to catch a fifteen minute break. Levi turned the video call off and slumped in his seat, turning his head to face me with bleary eyes. "What got into you that time?"
"I don't know." I confessed. "Probably jealous of the attention you were giving them."
"Tch!" He got up and walked over to the kitchen to get a glass of water. "You're a pain in my ass, you know that?"
"I hope so." I said under my breath so he wouldn't hear.
"To be honest, I am getting tired of seeing their faces." He put down his glass. "Normally in the office it's not that big of a deal, but I guess you brats' holiday mood is getting to me." He removed his blazer stretched his arms, his muscles rippling under his shirt.
I thought for a moment. "Wanna make it interesting?"
He eyed me suspiciously "What do you mean?"
"You'll see. When the meeting resumes, just ignore me and go on with it."
He furrowed his brows.
"I'll be listening, of course." I said hastily.
He walked over to me and grabbed the front of my shirt, pulling me closer to his face. "It better be good."