Read Powerful Men 3: Four Hot Alphas who Take Whatever They Want for Free Online

me?’ he said, in a way that suggested he did not appreciate being roused from his thoughts.
    Standing in the aisle, a skinny young man in a beginner’s suit was smiling down on him, his face a mixture of stunned disbelief and pleasant surprise.
    ‘Wow,’ the youth grinned, ‘you look fantastic Rex. What in heck happened to you?’
    Jon frowned. ‘I think you’ve got the wrong person,’ he said.
    The youth knitted his brow with pained ambivalence. If Jon remembered correctly, his name was Jem Bowman. ‘What do you mean?’ Jem said, ‘Rex, it’s Jem ! Don’t you remember? We lived just down the road from your people.’
    Jon smiled slightly, but only with his mouth. ‘I’m sorry,’ he shrugged, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about. Please, I have some business to prepare for the day.’
    Jem Bowman said nothing. He stared at Jon for a moment longer and then continued walking further along the train, shaking his head like he was questioning his own sanity.
    For a moment, Jon glanced out the window, as though recalling some distant life, long in the past, and then his face was stern and blank again.
    Forty-five minutes later he was at his place of work.
    ‘There he is!’ Tommy Harlan, joint partner of Harlan Fisher, whooped as Jon walked into the main lobby, ‘Jon Sugar – the John Wayne of Madison Avenue.’
    ‘Stick em up,’ Jon smiled coolly, as if only to humor his friend, ‘Pilgrim.’
    Tommy laughed and put his arm around Jon’s shoulder, walking him deeper into the offices.
    Tommy Harlan had inherited his position as one of the firm’s two joint partners from his father who’d founded the company with Chuck Fisher, Tommy’s current counterpart. Tommy was a handsome, middle-aged man with snow white hair and an impish face which seemed to suggest that he’d never truly left his boyhood behind him. And certainly, that was how he conducted himself around the workplace.
    ‘Come on,’ he said, leading Jon towards his office, ‘I’ll pour you a glass of scotch. The people from Sunset Hotels are coming in soon and I want to get a sneak preview of the Jon Sugar magic.’
    Jon glanced at him. ‘Tommy,’ he said, ‘if you start any earlier you’ll be drinking vodka in your dreams.’
    ‘Hey,’ Tommy quipped, ‘I already am.’
    As they crossed the hallway, Jon’s secretary Suzie rushed up to him with her agenda clasped firmly in her hands. Chances were she knew that if she didn’t catch him now, she might never. Smart girl.
    ‘Mr. Sugar,’ she said, ‘good morning.’
    ‘Good morning Suzie.’
    ‘Buck Tynsedale from Campbell and Kline called. He said he wants to do lunch.’
    ‘Put him off,’ Jon muttered, ‘indefinitely. Anything else?’
    ‘Yes,’ Suzie nodded, ‘it’s your anniversary this weekend, I thought you might appreciate the reminder.’
    Jon stopped suddenly and turned towards her. Tommy looked back at the secretary as though enjoying a wicked joke. ‘Thank you Suzie,’ Jon said, ‘that will be all.’
    ‘Yes sir,’ Suzie said, glancing down and hurrying back to her desk outside Jon’s office.
    Tommy glanced at him slyly. ‘Don’t tell me you actually remembered?’ he said.
    Jon stared at him for a cool couple of seconds, a faint smile, both humorous and strong playing on his lips. ‘Well maybe I would have, if you people ever actually gave me a minute to think about something other than my work.’
    Tommy burst out laughing and they continued into his office.
    ‘So,’ Jon said, as Tommy took a bottle from the cabinet beside his desk and prepared the drinks, ‘the Sunset Hotel people. Remind me again how you landed this contract?’
    ‘I didn’t,’ Tommy said, handing a glass of scotch over to Jon, ‘they came to us. Said they were looking for a new direction. Something fresh.’
    Jon covered his mouth as he lit a cigarette and then held the zippo over to Tommy. Tommy took a cigarette from the case on his desk and leaned forward to light it on