A Very Corporate Affair book 3 (The Corporate series)

by Latham, D

Ivan laughed, "trust you to say it like it is. Yes, I'm probably a bit undeveloped in the relationship area. I never really had to try to get a woman before, they usually flung themselves at me, and were devastated when I got bored with them."

  "Maybe they should have called you out for being a tosser more often."

  "Possibly." He smiled his movie star smile.

  We made our way back to the house, and once the girls were delivered into the care of their team, we set off for Windsor. It didn't take long from Sussex, and within an hour, we were pulling up outside a pair of enormous iron gates. "I hope Nico changed the codes," muttered Ivan, as our driver tapped away at the keypad.

  The gates opened, and we continued down a long driveway, towards a large, faux Georgian house. "Wow. This place is enormous!" I exclaimed. It was way bigger than Ivan's Sussex home, which was huge by most people's standards.

  "I'm hoping all my codes for the internal security work, otherwise we'll have alarms going off, and god knows what else." He pulled out a set of keys, and opened the front door. As soon as we stepped inside, a beeping noise began, and Ivan tapped some numbers into an alarm pad near the door. We both breathed a sigh of relief when the beeping stopped.

  "What happened to all his household staff, and security detail?" I was curious.

  "I let them go immediately. I didn't want anyone in here. Nico came over to secure everything external, set up our own security system, and make sure it was safe."

  "So you knew your codes would work then?"

  "Oh yes, the external ones, not the internal ones. Sorry, I was having a dumb moment."

  We explored the downstairs. It was opulent in a rather overdone sort of way, with lots of gilding, and ornate furnishings. "Very typical oligarch taste," Ivan said, wrinkling his nose a little. The kitchen was vast, and beautifully fitted. It also contained every gadget a cook could ever want.

  "What are you going to do with all this stuff? And the house?" I asked.

  "Sell the house I suppose, I don't want it for anything. I know it's bigger than Sussex, and worth a lot more, but Windsor is more built up, and less private, although the security here is very good, and it has got woodland. I'm not sure what to do with the contents. They're way too good to just throw out, but are not my taste."

  "Donate to charity maybe? Or rent the whole thing out?"

  "Could do. It does seem a shame to just sell it, and I don't need the money." How the other half live.

  We went upstairs to check out the bedrooms. The master bedroom was strangely traditional, a bit like the bedrooms at Conniscliffe, with heavy drapes, and old paintings hung round the walls. "I'd put a bet on that these are black market paintings. If they were kosher, he'd have hung them downstairs, and shown off about them."

  I looked closely at the signatures, trying to decipher who they were by. I made out Degas, and one by Van Gogh. "I'd suggest these be returned to their rightful owners if they really are stolen. This is the ideal opportunity."

  "True. I'll speak to Oscar, see if he knows anything about them." He pulled out his phone, switched it on, and snapped some photos. "Dascha's apartment is the other side of the house, so shall we check out the rest of these rooms first?" He nosed around the walk in wardrobe, before checking behind each of the paintings. I looked quizzically at him. "Looking for the safe," he said.

  "Study, I would have thought." I replied.

  We worked our way through the rooms, until we came across Vlad's study. Ivan searched through cupboards, and behind pictures, until he found the safe hidden behind an abstract painting. He tried all the keys on the ring, finally managing to open it with the second to last one. I peered in, over Ivan's shoulder. The safe appeared to be full of cash, stacks of it, in fifty pound notes, banded in£1000 packs. Ivan pulled it out of the safe, and piled it onto the desk. I counted it up. There were 600 packs, so£600000. "My god, why did he have so much cash here?"

  "That would have been his day to day petty cash. It's not much considering what he was worth. Six hundred grand wouldn't last him long with Dascha around. There must be another, larger safe somewhere." Ivan carried on ferreting around in the safe, slipping a couple of flash drives in his pocket, and reading some papers. "There's a letter here for Dascha, in the event of his death. The main safe is in his bedroom, and he gives the code. Come, let's look." He piled the cash back in the safe and locked it, replacing the picture across it. We went back to the bedroom, and pushed the bed across, revealing a trapdoor.

  Ivan lifted it up, to reveal a safe door, set into the floor. He tapped in the code, and we heard a click. He heaved the heavy door open, and we both leaned forward, although I had a peculiar sense that we were intruding into something private.

  The safe was stuffed with cash. We had no way of knowing how much was in there, without emptying it out, as we couldn't see how deep the box was. Ivan began pulling it out, heaping it on the floor beside him, while I counted it. It took us ages, as the box went down about a metre, and was at least a metre wide. It ended up at just under eight million, plus some diamonds, and a pack of deeds, which Ivan would need to look at closely, as they were written in Russian.

  "I've never seen so much money. It's unreal." I exclaimed, thinking that had Ivan not returned, it would have all been mine, a vaguely unsettling thought.

  "The problem with lots of cash is how to spend it. Money laundering laws are pretty strict nowadays. Cash like that is usually murky. There's only so many clothes you can buy, and meals you can eat. When you start trying to pay for cars and houses with it, it attracts attention." He piled it back into the safe, apart from a large stack. "You can have some fun with this, treat yourself."

  "I couldn't accept this, you know that."

  "I don't want it for anything. Use it for your holiday then." He moved it aside while we pushed the bed back into position. "Now, the bit I'm dreading, Dascha's apartment." He picked up the folder of deeds, and the stack of money, and placed it all on a table at the top of the stairs, before leading me down the corridor to the left hand side of the house.

  Her room was ultra modern, with a sleek, white, padded bed, and acres of white carpet. Although very stylish, it was a cold, rather impersonal room, made by a designer, with no hint as to the person who had once inhabited it. "How come she moved in with her dad, rather than getting her own place?" I asked.

  "She hated being alone, so couldn't have lived by herself. When I kicked her out, it was the natural place to go. She was a really strange woman."

  "How old was she?"

  "30." I looked around the room, there were two doors leading off it. Ivan opened one, and poked his head round. "Bathroom," he announced. I opened the other, and walked through into a vast wardrobe room, larger than most people's bedrooms.

  "Oh.My.God. Look at the stuff in here." There were rails of clothes, an entire wall devoted to shelves of shoes, and a storage unit displaying handbags of every shape, size and colour. "I guess you weren't joking when you said she liked to spend." I picked up a Chanel handbag, and turned it over in my hands. It looked pristine, as though it had never been used. I opened it to find a lipstick, and a wad of cash.

  "What do you want to do with all this?" Ivan asked. I looked at him quizzically.

  "That's not my decision to make. This all belongs to you."

  "Ok, I'll phrase that differently, would you like to have any of this? It's no use to me, but it seems criminal to just throw it all away. You're welcome to it, that's if you want it. Some people are squeamish about having things that belonged to someone else." I moved to the shoe racks. She was size six, same as me. I looked at the Jimmy Choos, and Laboutins covetously. I'm not too proud to have all this.

  I moved to the clothes rails, all were size eight, the same as me. She had been slightly taller, but a decent tailor could sort that. "Would you think I was skanky if I asked to keep all this?"

  "Not at all. It would be criminal to waste it. She may have been a nasty cow, but she had very good taste in clothes. Most of thi
s probably hasn't even been worn. I'll arrange for Nico to get it shipped to your place." He pulled open some drawers, pulling a face at her underwear drawer. There was no way I was asking to keep that.

  A couple of the drawers contained jewellery. Ivan picked up a handbag, and threw all the pieces into it, before zipping it up, and handing it to me. "You may as well take that home. I bought her most of that, so I'd rather you had it."

  "Isn't it a bit weird, seeing me wearing all her stuff?" Ivan shrugged.

  "Not really, it's just clothes and objects. I barely took any notice of her at the best of times, so I wouldn't have a clue if you were wearing something of hers or not."

  We moved on, and went to the next room down the corridor. It turned out to be fitted out for her bizarre sexual tastes, with paddles, canes and whips on a rack along one wall, a padded bench, and various restraining devices fitted to the walls and the ceiling. "Gross," announced Ivan. "This can all be slung out straightaway."

  It took us most of the afternoon to explore the house and grounds. Nico had set up a security team, based in a small, separate building, to watch the property round the clock. There were banks of CCTV monitors, and sensors around the perimeter of the land. It must have cost a fortune. Ivan sent a guard out into Windsor to pick us up a Starbucks, as there was no fresh milk, and we sat and drank our coffees in the park-like garden, while Nico organised some men and a van to load up all the contents of the dressing room.

  "Did you come here often when Vlad was alive?" I asked.

  "Fairly often. I got along ok with him, and he encouraged me a lot in my business. Gave me the seed money to start up, and introduced me to a lot of contacts. He thought Dascha and I would marry, so he wanted me to be successful so that I could take care of her. At least that's what he told me at the time," he said, rather mysteriously.

  "How come nothing happened to you when you dumped her?"

  "His only saving grace was that he was an animal lover. Bella and Tania were the puppies of two of his spaniels, both gone now sadly, but he loved both pups, and was appalled when Dascha went for Bella. Said he didn't blame me for leaving her. He loved his daughter, but he wasn't blind to her. Hence why I was able to escape unharmed." Why do you look like you're lying?

  I rang James to see if he'd be home to let the van people deliver all the clothes and stuff. He sounded a bit strange, but told me he wasn't going out, and it would be fine to send them straight to the flat. Ivan picked up his files, handed me the stack of cash, locked up, and we headed back to Sussex.

  Chapter 8

  "Stay here tonight as well? We don't have to be at our meeting till ten tomorrow, plenty of time for you to get ready in the morning."

  "I have a load of paperwork to do. I was planning to go home this evening, plus of course, I have a room full of clothes to sort out."

  He put his knife and fork down, and pouted slightly. "I like Sunday nights with you. Don't worry, I won't jump you. I'll even sleep in my own bed."

  "I really need to get back, and get myself organised for tomorrow. I have a busy week ahead."

  "What about next weekend?"

  "I'm out Saturday night, and I'm going away Sunday morning remember?"

  He pouted some more, "Out where?"

  "The law society awards. My friend Lucy's coming with me. It's a work thing. I could do without it, what with going away the next day, but work want me to attend. It's good for networking."

  "Hmm, probably be a bunch of lawyers all chatting you up."

  "That'd be nice. I've not been chatted up for ages."

  "I hope you're joking."

  "Yeah, I'm joking. I'm off men."

  "I've been nice all weekend. Even you have to admit that."

  "Yeah, you've been lovely. If this carries on, you might redeem yourself one day. I haven't forgotten your bad behaviour you know."

  "You're a hard woman."

  I arrived home about half six, dropped off by Nico, who insisted on seeing me into the lift. Given that I had a bag of jewellery, and a bag of cash, it probably wasn't a bad idea. I let myself in and called out a cheery 'hi, I'm home.'

  James was in the kitchen, wiping down the surfaces. "Hiya. Did you know that the contents of Imelda Marcos' shoe rack, and the whole of Harrods ladies wear department arrived earlier?"

  "Yeah. It's a bit of a long story."

  "Shall I make us a coffee, and you can tell me?"

  "Sure." I hopped up onto a stool, and watched as he made lattes. "Where's Janine?"

  "Gone home. So come on, who bought you all that stuff?" I told him about the house at Windsor, and the dressing room. I pulled the jewellery out, and we looked at the various pieces. "Is this all real?" He asked, turning a sapphire pendant over in his hands.

  "Apparently. I gather she used to spend Ivan's money like water. She had a rich daddy as well, so he probably spoilt her too." He whistled through his teeth.

  "What's in the other bag?"

  "We found a load of cash. Ivan gave me some for our holiday. I've not even counted it yet."

  "About our holiday...." James trailed off.

  "This is where you tell me you want to take Janine instead of me, isn't it?"

  "She's a bit suspicious of you, and after what happened the other night, I don't really blame her. I thought that maybe she could come with us, get to know you. She might be better about you living here."

  "I've decided to buy a place. It's about time I had my own home, so Janine doesn't have to worry, I'll be out of the way soon enough. Listen, I'm sure I can go to Tuscany with Oscar, so please don't feel bad, just take Janine." I was upset about missing out on our holiday, but tried to hide it. James looked really sheepish about the whole thing, and given how weird he was about drunken-shag-gate, I wasn't entirely sure spending two weeks together was a good idea. I certainly didn't want to play gooseberry with the pair of them.

  "Are you sure? I don't mind you coming too."

  "I'll give it a miss, thanks. Now, if you don't mind, I'll crack on with sorting out these clothes. I need to do some laundry too." I could feel the tears welling up, and didn't want James to see them.

  "Do you want something to eat? I filled the fridge back up."

  "I ate at Ivan's thanks." I took my coffee, and my bags, and headed to my bedroom. It looked like a warehouse, with boxes everywhere. I set my coffee down, and let the tears spill out. It was a mixture of disappointment at not going on a holiday I'd been looking forward to, and the sense of having lost James as a friend, that had upset me so much. There was a knock at the door. "Not now James," I said. He ignored me, and came in, plonking himself down next to me on the bed.

  "I knew you were upset."

  "It's nothing, don't worry." I sniffed loudly, and began to look in one of the boxes, avoiding his eyes.

  "It's not 'nothing' if you're crying. Come on, tell me." He pulled me by the hand to sit down.

  "I'm just disappointed, that's all. I turned down offers of holidays with both Ivan and Oscar, and had an argument with Ivan about going with you, and all for nothing. I get ditched when something better comes along." James looked a bit horrified.

  "Oh Elle, I'm so sorry. I just assumed that with all these men chasing around after you, that you wouldn't be bothered, and would've rather gone with Ivan. If I'd known how upset you'd be, I wouldn't have asked Janine to come."

  I sniffed in a very unladylike way, "it's not just that, ever since you got back, you've been weird with me, as if you don't want me around, I made the decision to move out yesterday. I'm viewing a flat tomorrow. If needs be, I can stay at Ivan's until it all goes through."

  "You don't need to do that, Elle, I'm really sorry if I made you feel uncomfortable. I'm embarrassed about our drunken night, and I feel guilty for cheating on Janine."

  "We don't know for sure that we cheated on anyone."

  James looked down at the floor. "Yeah, we did....I didn't tell you the whole truth."

  "I suggest you enlighten me now then."

&n
bsp; "Alright, but promise me you won't be angry?"

  "I promise."

  "We came up in the lift, and you were ranting about the Ruskie, saying you were nice to shag. I challenged you to prove it, and you dragged me into the flat by my T-shirt, stripped off, and I fancied you too much to stop. I shagged you just the once, and then you passed out, and I feel like a total shit for taking advantage of you when you were drunk. The next morning, I was horrified at what I'd done."

  "Why were you so embarrassed at me seeing you nude?" It was a question that had been bugging me. James blushed.

  "I don't know. Fear of not measuring up to the big dicked alpha males that you normally go out with I suppose. They don't have to get you pissed first do they? I did, because I knew that sober you wouldn't have ever considered it."

  I felt total sympathy for him. He looked so ashamed and contrite. "James, I never had any inkling that you had the remotest interest in me at all. I just thought you considered me a friend, or a sort of kid sister. I would've handled things differently if I'd known."

  James gave me a searching look. "How would you have handled things then?"

  "I would have jumped you that morning when we woke up, rather than being so stupidly embarrassed about it. I was curious about you too." That's it, the cat's out of the bag.

  James didn't reply, just stared at me for a few moments, before leaning in, and giving me the softest kiss. We both let the kiss linger, a small, chaste connection, before he pressed a little more firmly, his tongue meeting mine, shyly at first, before becoming bolder. His arms wrapped around me, pulling me close. I relaxed into his embrace, and wrapped my arms around his waist, feeling him physically for the first time. It felt.....wrong.

  He must have felt the same, as he pulled away. "I wanted to do that for the longest time, but..." He trailed off.

  "It didn't feel right, did it?" I said softly. He shook his head.

  "I'm so sorry Elle, I thought it would be all fireworks and celestial choruses, but..."

  "Same for me. Want to know what I think?" He nodded, "I think you're in love with Janine, and I'm in love with the Ruskie Ratbag. We're both good looking people, so there was always going to be an attraction, but now we've acknowledged and explored it, we can admit that it's either not the right time, or that the chemistry isn't there, and let it go."