by Iona Rose
“It’s strong,” she says.
“What can I say? I thought I’d get you drunk and take advantage of you,” I grin.
“Works for me,” she laughs.
I begin to relax a little as I sip the bourbon. Natalie is a sure thing. She hasn’t asked for the tour because she’s having second thoughts. She’s just nosey. I can deal with nosey.
“So, do you want to continue the tour or do you want me to kick your ass at pool first?” I ask.
She glances over at the pool table and then she smiles and shakes her head.
“The rest of the tour sounds good. I can do without the humiliation of being thrashed at pool,” she says.
I lead the way back upstairs.
“Yeah people say I’m pretty good with my balls,” I say, looking back over my shoulder and winking at Natalie.
“Oh I bet you are,” she grins back.
I reach the top of the stairs and take her into the lounge. It’s a reasonable sized room, with brown leather sofas, an entertainment system, a coffee table, and little else.
“Wow you like the whole minimalist thing don’t you?” Natalie remarks.
“What more would I need in here?” I ask, genuinely curious as to what she thinks is missing.
“I don’t know. The little things that make a house a home,” she says. She smiles. “This is such a bachelor pad. You need a woman’s touch.”
“The only place I need a woman’s touch is …” I trail off, nodding towards my crotch.
Natalie laughs and shakes her head, but she moves closer to me. I can smell the bourbon fumes on her breath when she whispers into my ear.
“That can definitely be arranged.”
“You know what?” I say. “Let’s finish the tour right here. The kitchen is a kitchen. Normal. Boring. My office is a no go area. So we may as well just head upstairs right now.”
I don’t wait for her to respond. I turn and walk from the lounge, heading for the stairs. I know she’s following me, eager to get to the good bit herself now. I reach the top of the stairs and lead her along another hallway.
“Bathroom. Linen closet,” I say pointing out doors as we pass them. “Spare bedroom. Another spare bedroom.”
“You know if you get bored of the corporate world, you would make an excellent tour guide,” she laughs.
“I aim to please,” I reply.
I reach the end of the hallway and stop outside of the final door. I throw it open with a flourish.
“And the only room you really wanted to see. My bedroom.”
Natalie gives me another one of those lust filled grins that makes my cock twitch, and steps into the bedroom. She looks around for a moment and then nods her approval. Obviously the addition of a wardrobe and a chest of drawers makes this room more suitably furnished to Natalie’s tastes. She misses the point in my opinion. It’s all still practical stuff. There is nothing in this room that distinguishes it from a soulless hotel room.
“Are you going to stand in the doorway all night then or are you coming in?” Natalie asks.
She downs the last of her bourbon and puts the glass down on the chest of drawers. I step into the room and kick the door closed behind me. The moonlight streaming in the window gives us enough light to see by and I don’t bother switching the light on. I down the rest of my own bourbon and stand my glass beside Natalie’s.
I go to her and pull her into my arms. My lips find hers and it’s like my kiss breathes life into her. She wraps her arms around me, her hands running up and down my back. Her mouth is hungry for me, her tongue probing into my mouth as her hands make their way beneath my shirt.
I run my hands down Natalie’s body, feeling the curve of her hips. I move one hand between us and rub my fingers over her mound. She’s wearing loose fitting trousers, but she still moans at my touch. She presses herself tighter against my hand, moving her hips slightly.
She pulls her mouth from mine and kisses down my face, over my jaw and down my neck. Her kisses bring goose bumps to the surface of my skin. She steps back from me and begins to unbutton my shirt. She pulls it down my arms and lets it drop to the floor and then she looks me up and down. She nods approvingly when she sees my abs and I bite my lip to stop myself from smirking.
She runs her nails lightly over my chest and I increase the pressure on her mound. I lean in and kiss her again, walking her backwards towards my bed. When her legs hit the mattress, she breaks our kiss long enough to kick her heels off, hop up onto the bed and scoot backwards. I join her eagerly, wanting to get her out of those clothes, to taste her pussy.
Our lips lock again as I reach down and begin to open her trousers. I have barely gotten the button open when my cell phone rings loudly in my pocket, making us both jump.
“Ignore it,” Natalie breathes.
Like I was going to do anything else. She finishes opening her trousers and pushes them down, kicking them away. Her legs have a light tan, and they’re every bit as long as I imagined them to be. I trail my fingers up one of her inner thighs. I run my fingers over her panties, feeling the clinging dampness of them. Oh she wants me alright. I push her panties to one side and slip my fingers inside of her lips. My cock hardens as I feel how wet she is. How ready for me.
Natalie gasps as my fingers find her clit. I begin to work her, listening to her gasps as I bring her close to the edge. My cell phone rings again.
“Goddammit,” I shout, pulling my hand away from Natalie and slamming my fist down on the mattress between us in frustration.
I pull my phone out of my pocket, ready to cut the call off and turn the damned thing off. It’s Matt, my older brother. It has to be important for him to be calling at this hour. He’s not going to quit calling until I answer, and if I ignore him, he’ll start on the landline.
“Fuck,” I say quietly.
Natalie grabs my hand and tries to move it back down to her pussy. I pull it away gently.
“I’m sorry. I have to take this. It’s my brother and he wouldn’t call at this time if it wasn’t something important. Make yourself comfortable, I won’t be a minute,” I tell her.
I jump up off the bed, trying to ignore my erection as it presses uncomfortably against my trousers. I can hear Natalie sighing as I leave the room. I pull the door closed behind me. I know how she feels, but I plan on getting this call over with quickly and then making it up to her.
“What?” I demand as I take the call in the hallway.
“Charming,” Matt laughs.
“I’m kind of busy here. What do you want?”
“Well seeing as you brought it up, what I want is for you to stop fucking potential clients Seb. Jeez. Can you not just keep it in your fucking pants for once?”
Apparently I can thanks to him.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I say.
“Sure you don’t. This could blow the whole deal,” Matt says.
I can hear the irritation in his voice. It should be me who is irritated. I’m the one getting disturbed.
“Don’t worry about that bro. The only thing getting blown here tonight will be me. If you ever get off the damned phone that is.”
“Do you have to be so crude?”
“Yup.”
“Look I get that you think with your cock, but this is an important deal Seb,” Matt says.
I’m getting annoyed now. Matt knows I would never do anything that would negatively affect the business.
“Look it’s not like I dragged her here kicking and screaming. She made it quite clear she was interested,” I say.
“Yeah? And what happens when she finds out you’re not interested in anything other than one night with her?”
“Oh trust me. She’ll have had that good a time that she won’t hold it against me.”
Matt sighs loudly.
“Can you just be serious for one moment? You’re putting the deal in jeopardy and you know it. And for what? A cheap lay you won’t even remember this time next week.”
<
br /> His judgemental tone hits my last nerve.
“You’re one to talk Matt. If I remember correctly, and I know I do, it was only a year or so ago that you almost allowed a fucking criminal who was stealing from us to walk free because you started to think with your cock instead of your head.”
“That was different,” Matt snaps.
“How? Because you were the one fucking up?”
“No. Because Callie wasn’t just a conquest to me. I had real feelings for her.”
“And how do you know I don’t have feelings for Natalie?”
“Do you?”
“Well no, but that’s not the point I’m making.”
“So what is your point?”
“My point is that I’m perfectly capable of keeping business and pleasure separate. Natalie and I are both adults and this won’t affect the deal. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a horny and pissed off woman waiting for me.”
“Wait,” Matt says. “There is one other thing.”
There’s something in the way he says it that piques my interest and instead of cutting off the call as I had planned to, I hear myself sigh and ask him what it is.
“Well it’s something I know you’ll be very interested to hear. But it’s clear you’re otherwise engaged so maybe I’ll just tell you later,” he teases me.
Now I’m really fucking intrigued. What could Matt know that he clearly wants so badly to tell me that he’s winding me up this way at one one o’clock instead of being in bed with Callie?
“Just spit it out,” I say.
“What about Natalie? Isn’t she waiting for you?”
Natalie who?
“She can wait another couple of minutes.”
“Kimberley is back in town,” Matt says.
The playful tone is gone from his voice and I know he’s serious. The news hits me like a brick wall and I am momentarily mute. I find my voice eventually and I croak out a what, but it’s too late. Matt has hung up and I am left with the buzzing noise of a dead line in my ear.
I freeze on the spot, the phone still glued to my ear although there’s no one on the other end. Kimberley is back in town. How? Why? When? I have so many questions. I can’t believe Matt dropped that bombshell on me and then hung up. I finally peel the phone away from my ear, and call Matt, but the call goes straight to his voicemail. He’s turned his phone off, just like I knew he would.
I curse and throw my cell phone to the ground. Kimberley is back in town. It plays on a loop in my head as I picture the girl I once knew. She was stunning with flaming red hair and piercing green eyes. She had this laugh, a gentle musical sound that was so infectious that anyone around her would automatically laugh with her.
I haven’t seen her in like four years, but the vision of her is still as fresh in my mind as it was the day she … Never mind. I’m not going to let myself go there. So Kimberley is back in town? So what?
I hear a door open behind me and I jump. I turn around and see Natalie standing in the doorway to my bedroom. Fuck. I had forgotten she was even here. I can’t do this with her. Not now. My erection is long gone, and Natalie won’t be the one to bring my cock back to life tonight. I just want her gone.
“Is everything ok?” she purrs.
“Something came up,” I say, pleased that my voice comes out even. “I’m sorry, but you’re going to have to leave.”
“Leave?” she repeats, frowning at me.
She sounds pissed off and I don’t blame her, but I can’t do anything about it now. I can’t bring myself to even look at her, let alone fuck her. Kimberley is back in town.
“Yeah,” I say.
She smiles. That seductive smile that a few hours ago, hell a few minutes ago, was driving me wild. Now it only irritates me. Is she deaf or what? Why won’t she just go away?
“Or I could wait in your bedroom until you’ve fixed whatever crisis has come up. I’ll keep the bed warm and give you something to look forward to,” she says.
She runs her tongue over her lips and I feel nothing.
“For fuck sake Natalie. Take a hint. We’re done here. Just get out,” I snap.
Her face changes from seductive to shocked and then angry.
“You absolute asshole,” she snaps.
She storms back into my bedroom and for a moment, I think she’s still not planning to leave, but then I remember her stripping off her trousers. I’m not going to insist she leaves half naked.
I stand in the hallway, still rooted to the spot. I hear Natalie huffing as she grabs her trousers. She comes back into the hallway with them pressed against her front, her shoes dangling from her hand by her side.
I can see tears shining in her eyes. I don’t think she’s that upset. I think she’s angry and humiliated, and I wish I could make it better, I really do, but I can’t. Anything I say now is only going to make this worse. I keep my mouth shut as she stalks closer to me.
“You really are a first class fuck boy,” she snarls.
I shrug. What is there to say to that? It’s not like she’s wrong, and it’s not like she didn’t know that when she came back here with me. She just didn’t care when she thought she was going to get her way with me.
I don’t say any of that to her. I don’t want to argue with her. I just want her gone. I can smell her perfume and now it doesn’t smell sweet like I thought it did earlier. It’s over powering. Nauseating.
She’s still making no move to leave.
“Well? Don’t you have anything to say for yourself?” she demands.
“Close the door on your way out,” I say.
Her mouth drops open and she shakes her head.
“Wow. Just fucking wow,” she says in a low voice that bristles with anger.
She finally starts to walk away from me. She reaches the top of the stairs and turns back to me. I can see the venom in her expression, the embarrassment in her flushed cheeks.
“You should know I don’t do business with people who are unreliable. The deal is off Sebastian. Don’t bother calling me.”
Dammit. That’s what Matt said would happen. But then again, he was the one who dropped that bombshell on me. What did he think would happen after that? I have no idea, but I know I have to fix this. I’ll give her some sob story, make her feel sorry for me. Maybe I’ll even promise to make it up to her at the weekend when my head isn’t reeling.
“Kimberley wait,” I say, taking a step forwards.
“Did you just call me Kimberley?” Natalie demands.
Fuck. I did. I know I did. There goes any chance I had of rectifying this.
“Natalie,” I say, still not quite ready to give up without at least trying to turn the situation around.
“Fuck you,” she says.
She starts down the stairs. I hear her running down the hallway at the bottom and then I hear the front door open and slam closed. I don’t bother going after her. What’s the point? The deal is off. I screwed up big time. And Kimberley is back in town.
I take a step backwards and my back hits the wall. I slowly slide down it and sit on the ground, my knees drawn up and my elbows resting on them. I run my hands over my face and try to make sense of the swirl of bottomless emotions that flood through me.
Kimberley is back in town.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter 2
Sebastian
* * *
I’ve been trying to call Matt for the last hour, but his phone keeps going straight to voicemail. I’ve called his office and his secretary insisted he was in a meeting. I know that’s bullshit. I could hear it in her voice. He’s avoiding my calls on purpose.
Well he’s not going to be able to avoid me in person. Screw what his secretary has to say. I’m going to have this out with Matt right now. I step out of the elevator and stalk along the corridor. A few associates run back and forth going about their day like the whole world hasn’t just been turned upside down. I return their nods, their good morning greetings. It’s anything but a
good morning, but I remind myself how I let my own emotions screw up a deal last night and I keep myself in control now. I don’t want to take my foul mood out on the staff here.
My head is banging from the alcohol last night and the lack of sleep. I was expecting that but I was expecting it to be for a very different reason. The sort of reason that makes the pain bearable.
I move through the open plan centre of the floor, trying to ignore the way the low hubbub of voices pierces my head. Even the sound of computer keys clicking sets my jaw on edge. I reach into my pocket and pull out a strip of painkillers. I dry swallow two and tell myself they’re working.
“Rough night?” Bradley, one of our top accountants, grins when he sees me popping the pills.
I bite my tongue to stop myself from snapping at him that it’s none of his business. Bradley and I go way back and we’ve always had an easy relationship, more like friends than a boss and a worker. Any other day I would have laughed and regaled him with stories of the wild night I’d had last night.
“You could say that,” I reply, forcing a laugh.
He pulls his desk drawer open and hands me a sealed bottle of ice cold water. I’m glad now I didn’t bite his head off.
“Thanks,” I say as I open the top and drink half of the bottle down in one go.
The cool water revives me somewhat and I don’t know if the pills are kicking in quickly or if I was just dehydrated, but the pain in my head begins to recede, becoming a dull ache rather than a sharp pain. I sit down on the edge of Bradley’s desk.
“How’s the report coming along?” I ask.
“It’s looking good,” Bradley says. “I’ll have it over to you by the end of today officially, but unofficially, I’ve been through Benton’s books with a fine tooth comb and they’re a good investment. They’re financially strong, and with a few tweaks, they could be a real cash cow.”
I nod thoughtfully. Bradley is right. I knew it from a quick glance over the figures, but I wanted to do due diligence and be certain there were no skeletons lurking in their books before I began the negotiations. They’re due to get underway in the next week or so.
