The insult made Lydia pause for a brief moment before continuing on to her desk, where she took her seat once again. She truly was a vision, sitting before a wide wall of windows, New York City laid out at her feet below.
Damian came to his feet as well, tucking his hands in his pants, effectively putting his raging hard-on on display for Lydia to see. He wanted her to know that everything about her turned him on. Even her negotiating technique.
“Right now your app matches a woman’s complexion to the makeup that is best for her using the camera on her phone and some admittedly sophisticated programing, correct?” She nodded in confirmation. “But the options are limited. You are beating your competition because you offer more choices for a wider array of skin colors, but they are still stock colors. Nothing terribly special about them, no exclusivity.”
Lydia visibly prickled at his evaluation of her product. He knew she would react like this. In her mind, 4U Cosmetics wasn’t just a way to make money. It was her life, her baby. She’d sacrificed a personal life to make sure her company succeeded. A stranger—granted, one who had brought her to orgasm the night before—coming in and telling her what her product lacked put her on the defensive. Right where he wanted her.
“However, with my technology you can give each woman the ability to mix her own colors. It would be near impossible for two women to have the exact same shades of makeup. We could even offer different price points so you will still cater to the everyday woman you champion, but appeal to the more elite women and men of the world.”
Approaching her desk, Damian took the phone he had prepared just for her from his back pocket. On it was a demo version of the app he proposed they collaborate on. And his phone number. He opened the app to the capture screen and handed it over.
She didn’t take it at first, instead staring at him as if she could decipher what his true agenda was by simply glaring. Little did she know, he was telling her the truth. He wanted to help her company soar to the number one beauty outfit in the world. And he wanted to have her in his bed every night for the rest of eternity.
Finally, Lydia glanced at the screen, gasped, and grabbed it from his hand. “You hacked our app?”
Yes, yes he had.
“Indeed. Wasn’t hard either. As you can see, I’ve made some improvements.” Walking to the printer beside her desk, Damian removed a blank sheet from the feeding tray. “Right now your app uses a simple piece of white paper and a selfie to perfectly set the white balance in the photos and match women to the right shades of makeup. The new app will work largely in the same way, only now instead of toggling between premade colors already in your inventory, your customers will be able to adjust shades to best suit them. Please, take a photo like you normally would.”
Rolling her eyes, Lydia complied, capturing her selfie along with the piece of paper lined up next to her face. She tapped the Evaluate button, which shaded the picture so that the white piece of paper appeared true white in the frame, thereby also perfectly shading Lydia’s skin tone. Within thirty seconds, five pallets of colors appeared in the next window. These were the base colors. He tapped on one of the pallets, then on her picture, and the colors filled in her eyelids, cheeks, lips, and skin automatically. He showed her how with one touch on the slider bars she could adjust the colors most suited for her until they were exactly what she wanted, then showed her how they would be sent to the manufacturing department and produced in the same plants she currently used. There would be no markup in production costs using his software.
After the quick tour of the app, Lydia placed the phone on the desk and regarded him with a much more interested expression on her face. “I admit, this is good. So I have to know, why approach me the way you did last night? You could have come in here today and presented this idea and I most likely would have gone ahead with more meetings and research. But with last night factored in, I have to ask, did you participate last night to have something to hold over me? Do you think your knowledge of my sexual predilections will corner me into working with you?”
