Read Online 4 The Billionaire's Seduction All That He Requires by Olivia Thorne - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Olivia Thorne
Tags: Romance
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business.”
“Oh.”
My mind was spinning.
That must be a hell of a couch in the Templeton household.
“And for a mere pittance, he was buying my soul. It really was a deal with the devil. If I succeeded, then I owed him the original ten million, plus 75% of all profits as my primary investor. If I failed, then I agreed to go back to school. After graduation, I would enter whatever position in the family business that my father deemed fit.”
“What did you do?”
“I agreed, with the proviso that we cap the buyout at twenty million. Meaning if I could give him $17.5 million, that was it, we were done, and I kept the rest – plus my freedom.”
“What did he say?”
“He laughed – after all, remember, he thought I was going to crash and burn, and then he’d own me. But, being the consummate negotiator that he is, he wouldn’t do the deal for less than $30 million – meaning I would owe him $25 million to get out from under his thumb. The original ten, plus 75% of the 20 million in profit.”
“That doesn’t seem fair,” I protested.
“That’s another lesson I learned in Monopoly. In business, nothing is fair; you get what you negotiate for.”
“So what did you do?”
“I took the deal.”
“What happened?”
“I crashed and burned spectacularly,” he grinned.
“You lost ten million dollars?” I gasped. “In three years?”
“No – in nine months. I gambled recklessly on several enterprises, all of which tanked.”
“You?! But you’re, like, a business genius! How did that happen?!”
“Well, I was trying to lose the money.”
“WHAT?!”
“It was my form of adolescent rebellion. Anyway, that’s what my mother’s shrink told me at a Christmas party one year.”
“What did you do?!”
“I told him to stick to analyzing my mother and leave me out of it.”
“No, I mean – ”
“I know what you meant. I went back to my father and told him I’d lost the money.
“He said, ‘Well, now you’re going back to Harvard.’
“And I said, ‘No I’m not.’
“And he said, ‘We had an agreement!’
“And I said, ‘Do you have it in writing?’”
My mouth fell open. “Did he?!”
Connor burst out laughing. “No, he didn’t. I think it was the only time in his entire life he didn’t sign a contract – because he totally underestimated me. He thought I’d never learned a thing from him. You should have seen his face. Especially when I said, ‘And since you don’t, how are you going to enforce the agreement?’”
I laughed in spite of myself. “Did he know what you were referring to? The Monopoly games, I mean?”
“Oh, of course he knew. My father has a memory that’s a cross between a computer and a steel trap. He just didn’t think I remembered – or had enough balls to cross him.”
“What did he do?”
“He ranted and roared about suing me in court, then he threatened to disown me. I flipped him off and left the house.”
“Oh my God,” I whispered.
“It was pretty stupid, but – hey – I was twenty years old at the time. And it felt great. ”
“But…. what happened after that?”
“Well, one thing I’d done with that ten million dollars was make a lot of contacts in the industries I targeted. And I had the family name backing me up, not to mention dozens of college and boarding school friends with rich fathers who had millions of dollars to invest. I secured a hundred million in seed money – with far, far better terms than my father had offered me, I might add. I buckled down and actually tried to make it work… and the rest is just boring details in a bank account ledger.”
He toasted me ironically with his glass of wine.
“You got people to give you a hundred million dollars right after you blew ten million?!”
“First off, you’ve got to remember, we’re talking about people worth hundreds of millions of dollars apiece. Some of them worth billions. A couple of million for an investment – especially backing a
“Oh.”
My mind was spinning.
That must be a hell of a couch in the Templeton household.
“And for a mere pittance, he was buying my soul. It really was a deal with the devil. If I succeeded, then I owed him the original ten million, plus 75% of all profits as my primary investor. If I failed, then I agreed to go back to school. After graduation, I would enter whatever position in the family business that my father deemed fit.”
“What did you do?”
“I agreed, with the proviso that we cap the buyout at twenty million. Meaning if I could give him $17.5 million, that was it, we were done, and I kept the rest – plus my freedom.”
“What did he say?”
“He laughed – after all, remember, he thought I was going to crash and burn, and then he’d own me. But, being the consummate negotiator that he is, he wouldn’t do the deal for less than $30 million – meaning I would owe him $25 million to get out from under his thumb. The original ten, plus 75% of the 20 million in profit.”
“That doesn’t seem fair,” I protested.
“That’s another lesson I learned in Monopoly. In business, nothing is fair; you get what you negotiate for.”
“So what did you do?”
“I took the deal.”
“What happened?”
“I crashed and burned spectacularly,” he grinned.
“You lost ten million dollars?” I gasped. “In three years?”
“No – in nine months. I gambled recklessly on several enterprises, all of which tanked.”
“You?! But you’re, like, a business genius! How did that happen?!”
“Well, I was trying to lose the money.”
“WHAT?!”
“It was my form of adolescent rebellion. Anyway, that’s what my mother’s shrink told me at a Christmas party one year.”
“What did you do?!”
“I told him to stick to analyzing my mother and leave me out of it.”
“No, I mean – ”
“I know what you meant. I went back to my father and told him I’d lost the money.
“He said, ‘Well, now you’re going back to Harvard.’
“And I said, ‘No I’m not.’
“And he said, ‘We had an agreement!’
“And I said, ‘Do you have it in writing?’”
My mouth fell open. “Did he?!”
Connor burst out laughing. “No, he didn’t. I think it was the only time in his entire life he didn’t sign a contract – because he totally underestimated me. He thought I’d never learned a thing from him. You should have seen his face. Especially when I said, ‘And since you don’t, how are you going to enforce the agreement?’”
I laughed in spite of myself. “Did he know what you were referring to? The Monopoly games, I mean?”
“Oh, of course he knew. My father has a memory that’s a cross between a computer and a steel trap. He just didn’t think I remembered – or had enough balls to cross him.”
“What did he do?”
“He ranted and roared about suing me in court, then he threatened to disown me. I flipped him off and left the house.”
“Oh my God,” I whispered.
“It was pretty stupid, but – hey – I was twenty years old at the time. And it felt great. ”
“But…. what happened after that?”
“Well, one thing I’d done with that ten million dollars was make a lot of contacts in the industries I targeted. And I had the family name backing me up, not to mention dozens of college and boarding school friends with rich fathers who had millions of dollars to invest. I secured a hundred million in seed money – with far, far better terms than my father had offered me, I might add. I buckled down and actually tried to make it work… and the rest is just boring details in a bank account ledger.”
He toasted me ironically with his glass of wine.
“You got people to give you a hundred million dollars right after you blew ten million?!”
“First off, you’ve got to remember, we’re talking about people worth hundreds of millions of dollars apiece. Some of them worth billions. A couple of million for an investment – especially backing a
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