"Don’t leave town Mr. Medici." Jeb warned him. "I'm leaving you at liberty in her custody." He nodded towards me. "Don't abuse it or trust me, she won't ever let you forget it."
Vincent was unimpressed.
We got into the high end rental and headed straight to the fanciest hotel in Shillington to pick up some documents. Vincent looked more than ever like a man on a mission. When we got inside the suite he closed the door behind us and put on the latch.
"I didn't know Shillington had a room in it as grand as this." I said looking around at the five star accommodation. "I guess this is what being out on bail means for the rich and famous."
He ignored the comment and took my hand, towing me along behind him like a rag doll.
"What's going on Vincent?"
"Stop talking and sit down. If you were ever to shut up for one minute I'd have been able to explain all this to you days ago before you ran away from New York and got yourself into this whole mess."
"You're the one facing a felony, not me."
He gave me a look of exasperation. He was so hot when he was like that - like he was slowly getting to the end of his tether and when he did he would have to do something crazy.
I wanted him to do something crazy.
"Sit down and listen." He said.
I took the chair he offered me and sat down. There were several neat piles of documents and a tablet computer on the table in front of us. He pushed one set across the table and nodded for me to take a look.
The folder read 'Clarissa and Jean'.
I opened it and began scanning the contents. There were pictures attached to various documents a USB stick, copies of invoices.
"Vincent… I don't understand…."
"Clarissa is finished Victoria. You're so called friend has been manipulating you into making money that is borderline illegal with a view to future blackmail of wealthy men in positions of power. Your roommate is a lowlife, a gossip monger at the bottom of the food chain but she went too far when she offered you up for sale to a friend of mine. We have it all on digital. She couldn't resist the temptation, even after all she did to you, and as for Jean, that crooked accountant will lose her job if a single word of what she's done for Clarissa and her 'books' comes out."
I was speechless.
"What do you mean 'offered me up for sale'? I don't get it."
"Take a look at the footage. It's all there."
He handed me a small tablet computer with a video clip ready to go. He tapped play and I saw Clarissa come to life in all her blonde glory.
She was in a hotel room with a man I didn’t recognize.
'I've got to have her.' The guy was saying. He was young and good-looking in a wealthy, aggressive Wall Street kind of way.
"That guy is Even Richards." Vincent explained. "He's a friend of mine, a business partner and he's talking about you."
'I've told you Evan, she is not for sale.' Clarissa said. 'I can get you panties, used ones.' She emphasized the word used. 'And I can get her to strip for you.'
My mouth fell open.
'I know for a fact she's done that before, but it'll cost you. And no touching.'
The man stood up and walked anxiously around the room.
'Look, Clarissa, you've known me for a long time and I've bought a lot of merchandise from you over the years, but I've never seen anything before like that little girl-next-door hottie who sucks cock for investment capital.'
My mouth couldn’t drop open any further.
'She's pretty special alright.' Clarissa said.
'Now listen, I know you like money and you know that I'm willing to pay very, very substantial coin for this. I'll make it worth your while, but let me be quite clear, I need to fuck that girl.'
Clarissa didn’t say anything but you could see the processors and serial busses working overtime in that blonde brain of hers.
'How much is it worth to you?' She said. Evan went down on his knees in front of her and took her hands in his, lavishing them with kisses.
'Clarissa, thank you, thank you, thank you.'
Clarissa pulled her hands away.
'Stop doing that Evan and get away from me. You know I don't like men getting close to me.'
'I'm sorry, of course, just tell me when you can arrange the meeting and I'll be there.'
'Nothing is being arranged yet. Not until I hear numbers. I've got a buyer who paid one hundred grand only to see that girl strip, now if you want her all for yourself then you've got to be a whole lot more generous than that.'
The exchange was surreal. They were talking about me like I was a stock market commodity or a piece of meat. This was the woman I thought was going to protect me from Vincent.
'If you can guarantee that she will have sex with me then I am willing to pay whatever you ask… name your price Clarissa, I'm deadly serious. I want this one and I'll pay whatever it takes.'
Clarissa paused for effect. Always the drama queen.
'Okay, I'll have to speak to her, but we're talking at least two hundred thousand dollars here. She's a real girl, I can’t emphasize that enough. She is not some cheap stripper who puts out for coked up business men and drunk college boys. She's the real deal.'
'I know and that's exactly why I'm willing to pay whatever she asks. I want to fuck someone who would never normally do something like this, that's the whole point, so go ahead and offer her the two hundred thousand dollars but you have to make it clear that she will be having sex with me. Do you understand? She must know exactly what she's getting into.'
'I understand completely and so will she, but Evan, you better understand something as well - this goes no further than here. Do you understand that? I mean strictly between the two of us. I don't want to go to jail over this just because you need to get laid.'
'Of course not.' He stood back up again and went out of view. Clarissa sat there like a triumphant madam which I guess is what she was.
'Then there's the issue of my finder's fee.' She said.
'Take whatever percentage you want, that's between you and Victoria.'
Clarissa shook her magnificent blonde head.
'Two hundred thousand is her fee. My fee is an additional twenty-five percent, take it or leave it.'
'Fifty thousand dollars? Are you kidding me?' Evan was indignant. 'You should be sucking my cock all day for money like that.'
I hit pause on the clip and looked at Vincent who had a glimmer of a smile on his face.
"Who the hell is this guy?" I asked him. He was so good-looking, so well dressed, so unbelievably crass.
"Keep watching," He said. "It gets better. Or worse, depending on your point of view."
I tapped the screen to continue.
'Trust me Evan, even you couldn't afford that one.' Clarissa said.
'Oh no? Try me. What's the rate these days to get Clarissa Lovelock down on her knees?'
'Are you serious? Do you seriously want me to give you a price?'
'To tame that mouth of yours? Why the hell not? I know what a slut you are deep down Clarissa, you can’t lie to me. You know I want you more than any of these girl-next-door, panty- slut amateurs, so come on, you name your price and if I agree to it then it's a done deal. You go down on your knees and give me what I want.'
Clarissa didn't move a muscle but that mind of hers was working - trying to figure out the maximum amount she could take without arousing too much suspicion from the IRS, the minimum it would take her to do the job without gagging or losing her mind.
'I'll need the money offshore.' She said, without a hint of internal conflict in her smooth voice.
'Not a problem.'
A slow smile spread across her lips.
'You can bill it to me as consulting work.'
'Of course.' He said, his voice was nervous, filled with anticipation. 'Name your price because I need some consulting work done right now.' He paused. 'Are you ready to go?'
'For five-hundred thousand dollars I am.'
There was a stony silence and then Evan came into view again. Was he really going to front half a million dollars just for one blow-job from that fake, conceited, manipulative bitch?
'I'll need a guarantee of payment before anything happens.' She said.
'I can give you a deposit up front. I have twenty thousand dollars with me in cash.'
Her eyes lit up.
'Well now Evan, I truly didn't know you cared so much. I really am quite touched.'
'I'm thrilled that you feel touched Clarissa, now how about making me feel touched as well.'
He patted his crotch.
'With such a charming invitation I don’t know how I can resist. If twenty thousand is all you have then I guess I'd be willing to provide you with an equivalent amount of service.'
'Cut the small talk Clarissa, I'm ready.'
The beautiful woman went slowly to her knees but a loud noise turned her head and made her jump back to her feet.
Off camera someone had burst into the room.
'Vincent, what the hell are you doing here?'
He came into view, walked right up to the camera and smiled that seductive smile of his.
'I hope that's your good side Clarissa.' He said. 'Nearly all this footage of you soliciting and offering to provide an escort service for Evan here is on the right.'
He stood back to reveal the look of frozen shock on Clarissa's face.
Evan leaned in and kissed her on the cheek. She was too stunned to react.
'Thanks baby,' he said, 'but five hundred thousand bucks is a little too much, even for you.'
Vincent paused it there.
"That's enough." H said. "Clarissa isn't a problem anymore. She understood very quickly how this would impact her career and potentially land her up in jail. She promised to delete every copy of the images she recorded of you and even if she doesn't you now have a copy of her clearly pandering and soliciting for sex. We don’t need to worry about her anymore."
I hadn’t given much thought to Clarissa since I had gotten on the train to leave NYC but now I felt a dark cloud lift away from me. I guess it had been weighing down on me all along. The photos, texts and video clips were only pictures and words but knowing that they were in someone else's possession and beyond my control had been profoundly disconcerting.
"And don’t worry about who she may have sent them to either." Vincent continued. "We took care of that as well. As far as we know she only sent it to Evan and me. If it turns out she lied about that then you have the means to take her down. Evan, great guy and deeply screwed up pervert that he is, has always been her main buyer of undergarments. In fact, he had first call on any new material and he was not happy that she broke their understanding by sending a copy to me."
"Why did she do that? I don’t understand that part. Why did she send a copy to you?"
"Let's not talk about that now."
"We absolutely need to talk about that now. If all of this is true, what you've shown me, then that's the one part that doesn’t make sense. How did she even get your number if you aren't one of her regular buyers?"
"I'm not on her list of buyers. I have no interest on being on her or anyone else's fetish list. I do not in any way shape or form indulge in that manner of…. recreation."
I put my hand into the pocket of his jacket and pulled out my torn silk panties.
"So what exactly do you call this kind of recreation?" I dangled the scrap of pink and black fabric in front of him.
He tried to snatch them from me but I was quicker.
"You may remember that I didn't buy those from anyone."
"But I bet you would have. How do I know you don’t have a stack of these things at home to get off on, courtesy of Madame Lovelock?"
"Give those back." He said, ignoring my question. I drew back from him. "Victoria, I'm not in the mood for games, we have a lot of things to discuss, now please return those to me so that we can continue."
"Like hell I will. These are mine Vincent. You stole them from me - just like you stole Will's car from him. I think you have a problem with ownership Medici. You want to own things that aren’t yours - like you wanted to own the patent for the Life Defender -my invention."
He made another grab at me but I jumped up and moved away.
He looked angry, but also kind of turned on. If I'm honest, the little chase was also turning me on as well. We had come that close to fucking in my old front yard before we'd been interrupted. This time I wanted to finish what we had started.
"We don’t have time for this Victoria. I need to be back in New York by tonight and there's a lot of things we have to talk through."
"I don’t think so. You were released into my custody, remember? And Jeb told you to stay put in Shillington until further notice so you're not going anywhere tonight Medici."
The threat to his control was obviously enough to provoke him. He got to his feet and towered over me in that sexy way of his. It was such a turn on that I could get him riled so easily. I backed away and waited for him to follow. Was he seriously going to chase me around the room? Could I make him do that?
"Don’t come near me." I said, moving rapidly to put the couch between us.
"Don’t make me do this Victoria." He sounded genuinely peeved. It was awesome. "Don't make me take those panties from you again. I did it once before and I will have no hesitation in repeating my actions."
He started backing away towards the door.
"Where are you going?"
"I'm securing this door. You're not going anywhere until you see sense and return those underwear to me."
My pulse began pounding with an adrenaline rush. He was boxing me in, leaving me nowhere to run and it was as exciting as hell. I wasn't going to make it easy for him though; he was going to have to work hard to get what he wanted.
"That's false imprisonment Medici - another felony - you won’t get bail this time, not even with your lawyers."
"It's not if I'm preventing you from stealing my property."
"These are mine!" I screamed at him. The bastard could be as infuriating as hell when he wanted to be. "How dare you talk that way."
He placed a chair against the latched hotel room door and then began to close in on me like a hunter on his prey.
"You made no objection when I tore them off you and that, young lady, is implied consent. Those are mine and I insist that you return them immediately or suffer the consequences."
I backed further away but there was nowhere else to go; my back was literally against the wall.
"Tell me about Clarissa first. How do you know her?"
"It's none of your business."
He crossed the room and shoved the couch out of the way. I looked around for an escape route. Of course I knew it was a game but that didn’t stop my heart from racing. There was the bedroom on one side, the bathroom on the other. Vincent was directly between me and the blocked doorway.
"You've got nowhere left to run Victoria. Now it's either time to play ball or to have that thieving little ass of yours punished for your insolence."
I took the panties and shoved them down my shirt and into my bra.
"You're the one who's got nowhere left to run. Will and Jeb are so going to put you behind bars unless I talk them out of it, so it's you who had better behave himself Medici."
He took a step closer but I darted to the bathroom and then struggled to get the door closed and locked. I nearly had it too, but Vincent was equally determined. The toe of his Italian leather shoe blocked the door and his thick fingers pushed through the gap. I shoved as hard as I could to push him out but he was too big, too strong, and my feet slid slowly but surely backwards across the bathroom tiles.
I had to let him in but I wasn't finished yet. I ran to the shower and jammed the thick Perspex door shut.
Vincent entered the bathroom calmly and locked the door behind him. Despite my evasive tactics I had the odd feeling of being exactly where he wanted me to be. I've never been someone to rea
ct hysterically to events but Vincent seemed to have a way of bringing the hysteria out of me.
I started shrieking at him.
"You say you aren't a pervert Medici? You say you weren't on Clarissa's fetish list? I call bullshit. I'm calling it now. That is just such total bullshit. Look at you - you can't even fucking control yourself for a half hour at a time."
"On the contrary Victoria, I am very much in control right now."
"Is that your fetish? Control? You get off on cornering random women in hotel bathrooms so that you can steal their underwear from them? God you are so fucking pathetic."
"You are definitely not a random woman Victoria. Believe me, you are a very, very specific woman and that's exactly why we have to talk and that is why we're here."
He walked over to the shower door gripped the handle. I grabbed it from the other side with both hands and leaned all my weight against it. The feeling of being hunted, pursued and now truly backed into a corner by specifically this man who was clearly going out of his mind to fuck me was almost unbearable.
"Am I your fantasy fuck Medici? Is that it? Some kind of girl-next-door jerk off fetish that I happen to tick all the boxes for?"
We were very close to each other now, our faces separated only by the layer Perspex between us which suddenly didn't feel so thick at all.
"You definitely tick all the boxes." He said. "But it's much more specific than that Vicky." He leaned against door and looked into my eyes. "You are the girl next door." He said, his voice low and intense.
I don’t know why but it was enough to make me let go of the door and back away to the wall behind me, turning on the damn shower in the process.
A blast of freezing cold water hit me and I turned around, fumbling with the unfamiliar controls to turn it off. I only made it worse and the now steaming hot water began to rain down, soaking me.
I felt Vincent's hand on my arm, turning me around and then pulling me in towards him.
"You still don’t remember me?" He said. I looked up into his eyes, those beautiful dark eyes. "Look at me carefully Victoria. I didn't remember at first either."
I stared up at him, searching those eyes that searched me back in turn.
"I promised you back then all those years ago I would own these." He reached into my shirt, drew out the panties and then dropped them to the floor. "You promised to give them to me but knew that what I really wanted was the girl herself, not what she was wearing."
WEAK Part Three: A Thornhill Road Romance Page 4
