Hot Boss - Anne Marsh Page 0,1

named Maple had changed his mind and he claimed to be a happy, happy man about that course reversal.

Take a note and remember that app name.

It’ll come up again.

Most days I was too busy working and plotting to take over the world, one disruptive start-up at a time, to think about Molly and me. We loved each other. We talked. Even at the end, we still had amazing sex, because practice does make perfect. Or maybe it’s just that I was willfully blind and not ready to admit that something wasn’t quite right. The realization isn’t like a dam-bursting hurricane that sweeps in and wipes out your town, while you huddle on the roof and hope to God you haven’t pissed off the local search-and-rescue team lately because you need saving. It’s slower, a steady chipping away at some essential piece of Molly and me.

I never saw it coming.

When Molly and I ended, my friends were there for me, Hazel leading the pack. Of course, Hazel being Hazel, she wasn’t rubbing my back or listing the million ways Molly would regret ending our marriage. She just insisted that I look forward, not back. Keep moving toward the future because, she said, not even I could fund a company that would successfully invent a time machine so I could go back and fix where things had gone wrong. She kicked my ass and I liked it, and that led to kissing—

And that was where I made my big mistake. I thought there could only be one The One. I thought her name was Molly and that I’d met her and loved her and it was game over, but sometimes the universe is generous and offers second chances. I was just too dumb to see it, so I took her first offer when I should have held out for more. Because it didn’t take too many months for me to realize that Hazel was a unicorn.

No, she’s not a mythical animal. Not even close. She’s gorgeous and bold and totally sure of herself, but she’s thankfully no virgin lover, because I was already on my second chance even if I didn’t know it. A unicorn is the ultimate fantasy of the VC world—like banging triplet gymnasts with DDD boobs. When a start-up company goes public and is valued at more than a billion dollars, you’ve found your unicorn. There aren’t many of them and they’re rare, but if you back one, you’re a guaranteed legend and a filthy rich bastard.

When you find a potential unicorn, you thank your lucky stars and you put in the work to make it happen.

You do whatever it takes.

You make it happen.

You hold on.

CHAPTER ONE

Ten months ago...

“HARD AND FAST. Come on, big guy.” Hazel sucks in a breath. “Almost there.”

I brace my arms on either side of her. My nose crinkles as her hair tickles me. “If it rises too fast, it’s just gonna run out of steam and collapse. I’m in this for the long term.”

Hazel makes a mock-shocked face, her eyes meeting mine. “Mr. Reed, do I hear an innuendo?”

I highly doubt I need to answer that question, but I wink at her because that’s how we play the game. Hazel’s good people and we’ve known each other since college, after all. “Ms. Coleman, you most definitely do.”

Yesterday I was a filthy rich bastard. Today? I, Jack Reed, am the filthiest, richest bastard of them all. People dream of hitting it big—winning the lottery, cashing in at the racetrack, maybe inheriting a secret stock fortune from good old Aunt Betty. Those aren’t bad ways to fill your bank account, but trust me, doing it by using your head, by earning every penny, nickel and dime, is the best. You’re in control, you call the shots. The lucky ticket or racetrack bet? Just dumb luck—and luck is for losers.

The New York Stock Exchange is minutes away from recording the final trade of the day and everyone at the venture capital firm of Coleman and Reed is glued to their laptops and CNBC, watching what our latest start-up to IPO trades for. Our firm has spent the last three years mentoring the start-up and pouring cash into it. We found them a kick-ass CEO, refined their business plan and introduced them to industry players. Now, after multiple rounds of funding, it’s D-Day, the date they make their initial public offering, and we’ve been holding our collective breath since the shares debuted. This is the part I love—where