Billionaire Romance: Darque Shadows (A Darque Billionaire Romance Book 3)
Page 4
“I’m sorry, Mister Darque,” she said straightly, minus any sarcasm, sexy stare or role playing farce.
“What?”
“I’m sorry that I embarrassed you by showing my mother to you.”
He shrugged, already having put it out of my mind.
“I’m sorry that I’m such a weak person that I can’t separate this fantasy from reality.” She started crying. “I should have just known my place. I should know that a man like you…could never feel anything for a girl like me. I have nothing you could ever want. And yet the world craves you. I’m just stupid. Tell me how stupid I am, Mister Darque.”
To her surprise, Bastien seemed scandalized by the thought. He couldn’t even play along. He simply stared at her. He even turned away his eyes, as if shoving the compassion away from his face.
He struggled with a deeper thought and remained silent for a few long moments. Whatever Bella said, it hit a nerve. Maybe it took him out of character. Maybe it hurt his heart just a little bit. Or maybe he felt sorry for Bella, even if he could never really love her. Maybe he mourned only himself—that he made it impossible to love anyone.
Whatever the thought, it was enough to rip Darque away from the scene. He stormed out of his office and didn’t say another word to Bella the rest of the day. The optimistic nature of Bella rose again. What if he really was a man, a decent man, underneath all of his baggage? Could it be that he really felt something for her and was too disturbed to acknowledge it?
Bella was sore all over. She still ached from the spanking and still throbbed from the clit and nip torture of yesterday. But the aching of her heart was the biggest naughty turn on of all.
Bella could no longer take the isolation. When Darque ignored her for the second day in a row, she ran to Alicia and started to spill the truth.
“Oh my God,” Alicia said, having heard the story in all its sickness. “I can see the problem. How do you tell mom that you’re being orgasmically tortured by a Dom? Jesus, Bella. I wish you had told me.”
“And what? I can’t tell anyone. Now you can’t tell anyone. And it’s not just because of work or sexual harassment. For god’s sakes, Alicia, he’s a politician’s son. He could have me snuffed out if he felt I was a threat. Haven’t I learned by now that he’s ruthless?”
“I see your point. Generally not a good idea to provoke a billionaire. I guess…not saying anything is the best option.”
“Yeah.”
“Buuuut…” Alicia added. “I really don’t think you need to be playing this game with him anymore. You’re not being respected. Your entire pseudo-relationship is based on him telling you what to do. And you orgasming because of your own low self-esteem. Come on, Bella. You deserve better than that.”
“Better than what? Better than mind-blowing orgasms? Maybe that’s what I want.”
“I don’t think so, honey. I mean, yeah. Sex is good. It doesn’t matter if it’s vanilla sex or crazy Addams Family type gonzo stuff you’re doing. Sex is supposed to lead to caring. To affection. To…at least some kind of mutual respect, even if it’s not love. What you have with this Darque guy is not love. It’s kind of a really dangerous fetish thing you have going on. And I think it needs to stop.”
Bella seemed disheartened at the idea.
“You really think so?” She resented the idea of giving up the one good thing in her life: amazing sex. Worlds of pleasure and pain that she never even fathomed with her first boyfriend.
“Yeah. I mean…at this rate, you might as well get back together with Bradley. Seriously, Bella. What is the difference between Darque and Bradley? Just because Darque has money?”
She frowned and made herself nod in agreement. “You’re right. I can’t think of any difference.”
Abrams all but ambushed her in the break room the next morning. As she eyed Abrams and his squinting, determined face she couldn’t help but think the most morbid of thoughts: Oh God, is Abrams going to spank me too?
“Bella…I don’t want you to say another word.”
“Kinky,” she said, giggling in embarrassment that she actually said that out loud.
“I am offering you a transfer to our office in Maryland. No questions asked. You will continue all hours of your internship requirements and keep your employee status if it’s desirable. But you can be out of this office. If you so choose.”
She flinched at the thought. Abrams knew, or at least knew something wasn’t right…even if he probably didn’t know that she had just had her nipples tortured into screaming orgasm…but he knew something.
She shook her head in disbelief, shortly before ending the statement with a cryptic but strong note of finality. “Yes, I want to go.”
Abrams nodded firmly and not another word was spoken.
Once again, and for at least the third time, she was ready to clean out her desk. It was the only way to get over him. To get over this. To live down the mistakes of the past. Bella took a breather from sorting through her files and sat back down on her chair.
She was startled to find Darque sitting just a few yards away from her at another cubicle and staring into her unsuspecting eyes.
“Oh! Mister Darque! Hi…”
An awkward silence.
He nodded. “So…”
“So…”
“Abrams told me you were requested at the Maryland office for the firm.”
“I heard that.”
“You’re taking it.”
“I…don’t know what else to do.”
Darque nodded stoically.
“Is it a bad career move?”
“No. It’s fine. Staying here is probably a bad career move.”
“Yeah. Kind of what I was thinking.”
“Arabella…”
“Yes?”
He stared into the ceiling, then the wall, then into Bella’s eyes and then to the floor. For the first time in all the months she’d known him, she sensed Bastien Darque was uncomfortable. Not confident. Even a little scared.
“I…don’t want you to go.”
“I’m sure you don’t.”
“I think that…that…” He shrugged, as if trying to read a doctor’s handwriting or interpret ancient Mayan texts. He was genuinely confused. But what was the message?
“What is it, Mister Darque?”
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?”
“If I increased your salary…added more responsibilities to your position…would you stay?”
“Sir…it’s not about that. I think you know what it is.”
“What is it I know?” he said, a notch louder and more inquisitive.
“I think…I just think I can’t handle you. You’ve done nothing wrong. You’re every bit the man I thought you might be. And…to your credit, sir, you do not seem like the dangerous person the media says you are.”
“No. No, I’m not. I’ve never hurt anyone. Not in a way that scarred them.”
“I’m sure. I just don’t think I can handle you. It’s my own shortcoming. I’m naïve. I’m too new to this life. And I hate reputation management. That’s the tall and short of it, right there.”
“I understand,” he said with caution.
“Yeah.”
“For what it’s worth Arabella…”
Her interest perked.
The words unspoken hung on the air, thickening things between them until Arabella thought it might be impossible to draw her next breath. She wouldn’t speak now. She wouldn’t lose any edge on him she may have gained, however small or unexpected. She would wait it out, until he gave her an opening.” The moment of silence was long, awkward, and strange for the both of them. Darque was at a loss for words, repeatedly vetoing whatever he was thinking of saying. Was he incapable of saying he loved her, or was he apologizing? Was he begging her to stay or was he letting her go for her own good?
“I think you’re going to make a great journalist.”
He finally looked up and smiled, a bit of a camera
smile, not really anything deep or soulful. At least kind, at least with the illusion of caring. He was letting her go. Whatever he thought of saying, it just wasn’t enough powerful enough to merit what he felt inside. If only emotions and inclinations could be translated into short, powerful statements.
His own shadow was cast thanks to a bright light coming from the window and a shaded area behind him. Bella got to see the shadow of Bastien Darque—tall, daunting and with limbs that seemed to stretch beyond their parameters. Whatever he was running from, whatever mistakes he made, they retained power over him in a way he resented. A dilemma he never overcame, hence his desire to become the caricature of billionaire control freak, rather than a man truly on top of the world.
That was what Bella observed as the most powerful man she ever met walked away slowly.
Tomorrow would be a new adventure.
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Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6