by Serena Grey
I can’t wait to see her tonight.
I don’t want to ask myself what the point is. She’s little more than a child. If I left Ashford at this very moment, there would be more than enough women, willing, eager even, to help me forget her.
Except I don’t want to forget.
There can’t be many choices for hotels in Ashford. In a few minutes, Steve is already parked in front of a six-storey building with a sign that says ‘The Ashford Fairview’.
It will do, I decide, picking up my phone from the seat beside me. I’m about to step out of the car when I see the reminder flash on the screen.
Lunch with Carole Banks.
I frown. I had forgotten all about Carole. How could I not, when my mind has been, and still is, on Sophie. I can always call Carole and postpone. Right now, what I have is a driving desire to see Sophie again.
I almost step out of the car before the folly of the decision I’ve just made makes a full impact in my brain.
I’m postponing a meeting that could save my company just so I can see a girl.
An eighteen-year-old girl.
It’s insane.
I frown. “Let’s go back to Seattle, Steve,” I say, a little annoyed with myself. “I have things to do.”
~§~§~§~§~
Under Steve’s guidance, the Jaguar eats up the distance, staying just below the speed limit, and we get to the city in less than half an hour.
He drops me off on the sidewalk, in front of the glass revolving doors of the multi-storey edifice that is Preston Corp. These days, I no longer spend a few seconds just standing outside, relishing the knowledge that it’s mine. It just is, and I’m not going to let anyone take it away.
I clear the marble and glass reception area, acknowledging the greetings without pausing. I take the elevator to the penthouse floor, going through the security doors and giving a cursory nod to the receptionist as I walk past her.
My office is at the end of the floor. To get there, I pass by the office where my assistants Linda and Cole are busy at their computers. They both look up when I walk in.
“Good morning Mr. Preston.”
“Good morning Linda, Cole.” I don’t pause in my stride, going directly into my office. Once inside, I ignore the desk and go to stand at the floor to ceiling windows through which I can see the city spread out below me. The office is large, slightly less than a quarter of the entire penthouse floor space, with a bar, seating areas and a very large teleconferencing screen opposite my desk, but it is here, at the windows, that I get most of my work done.
I frown and push images of soft green eyes and wavy gold hair out of my mind. If my suspicions are correct, and Carole has gotten an offer for her shares, my lunch with her will tell me whom I’m going to have to deal with.
I spend a few more minutes at the windows, drawing up, and discarding plans in my head. I’m still there when Linda comes in with a list of all the things I have to attend to.
~§~§~§~§~
An hour later, I walk into the hotel restaurant where I’m meeting Carole for lunch. A smiling, middle-aged man in an immaculate suit introduces himself as the host and leads me to a table. As I take my seat, I see Carole walk in through the entrance.
She looks beautiful, as usual, red curls framing her oval face like a high maintenance halo. Today, her lips are deep scarlet against her pale skin, and set in a smug smile.
She pauses at the door, and then, when she’s sure that all the eyes in the restaurant are on her, she saunters inside. I watch as she whispers something to the host, leaning towards him - not too close to be indecent, but close enough that he probably loses some of the blood flow to his brain. I watch as he nods, his eyes drinking her in, before he leads to my table.
I get up as he pulls out her chair, after which Carole dismisses him with a light pat on his arm and takes her seat.
“David!” She smiles. Her voice is a whispery, teasing, girlish sound, diligently cultivated and maintained.
“Carole.” I settle back into my seat.
“It’s been so long since we saw each other, David.” She says, giving me her debutante smile. She leans forward, her voice turning intimate. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were avoiding me.”
“Why in the world would I do that?” My sarcasm isn’t lost on her. She watches me archly as I pick up a menu and glance through it. After a brief pause, she does the same. When she seems ready to make her order, I signal for the waiter.
“I’m exhausted.” She exclaims, after we’ve ordered. “I feel like I’ve been in a plane for years.” Her eyes are on my face, looking expectant as she waits for a response. When I don’t show any interest, she continues anyway. “I just returned to town.” She says. “I’ve been staying at this lovely villa in the south of France.”
The last thing I want is for her to treat me to a story of her aimless globetrotting, or of another poor sucker who has fallen for her charms. I don’t say anything. She either takes my silence for interest, or just decides to tell me anyway.
“The Villa belongs to Toby Felt,” She pauses, searching my face, “Have you heard of him? The investor? He’s a really charming man.” She smiles, “and he knows exactly how to treat a lady.”
My interest perks up, and not because of her obvious attempt to make me jealous. I couldn’t care less who Carole’s flavor of the month is, but Toby Felt isn’t just an investor, he’s a corporate raider, the kind of man who would acquire control of a company and sell off all the assets for his personal gain. If he’s behind the attempt on Preston Corp, it would totally explain why he’s sweetening Carole up with extended stays at his luxury villa.
“Some women find all men charming as long as they have money to spend.” I reply, keeping my face impassive.
“You think I’m one of such women?” She looks affronted. “For your information David, I don’t think you’re charming, no matter how much you have to spend.”
“I am truly heartbroken.” I state drily.
Just then, our food arrives, and as we eat, I listen to Carole’s small talk with half an ear. I’m determined for her to come out and tell me what she wants without any prompting from me. The moment she senses my apprehension about the takeover, her demands will skyrocket.
“What did you want to discuss, Carole?” I ask lightly, interrupting her chatter. “Why did you ask me to lunch?”
She stops and considers me for a moment. “Why did you accept?” She counters, “Usually you’d just tell me that you’re busy.”
I shrug. “I usually am.”
Her lips form a pout. “Maybe I just wanted to talk about us, David”
I chuckle. “Don’t be ridiculous Carole, there is no us.”
Her shoulders stiffen, and I can tell that she’s not happy with my reply. Then she relaxes and leans back in her chair. “But there used to be,” She manages a wistful expression, “and there could be again.”
“I wouldn’t be too sure about that,” I’m amused despite myself. “You can’t have run out of men to play games with, Carole. I’m sure if you look around you’d find a couple of eager playthings.”
She shrugs, looking up at me from under long lashes in an expression I assume I’m supposed to find sexy, “Maybe I want the one I can’t have.” She says.
“And that would be?”
“You.”
I snort. “Tell me, when was the last time you heard from that fitness guy you used to screw.”
“Enrique?” She laughs. “Not recently. He didn’t serve his purpose you know. Look at you, not even a little bit jealous that I cheated on you with him.”
“Perhaps you didn’t serve his purpose either.” I tell her. “The last time I saw him he didn’t seem very happy with you.”
Her eyes narrow. “What do you mean?”
I shrug. I don’t intend to tell her of the desperate fitness instructor’s attempt to blackmail me with a very explicit video of him and Carole. He hadn’t seen her in months, and
she wasn’t taking his calls. So he came to me, making the mistaken assumption that I and Carole were still together.
She watches me in silence. When I don’t offer any elaboration, she sighs. “I have an offer I thought you might be interested in.”
Finally. I let her stew for a bit before I respond. “Which is?”
“I don’t know... you’re so mean and distant. I’m beginning to think you don’t deserve my help.” She frowns. “Maybe I’d prefer for you to lose your company.” She continues musingly, “I do hate you for leaving me, you know. Plus I’ve made a lot of silly investments with the money Daddy left me, and I need to sell my shares in Preston Corp to the highest bidder.”
“Or maybe you just want something from me Carole.” I say wryly, “Tell me what it is.”
“David...” She breathes, her voice lowering to an intimate whisper, “You already know what I want.”
I raise a brow. “No. I must confess that I don’t.”
“Don’t act obtuse David. Think about it,” Her voice is eager. “We were so good together, socially we’re a perfect couple. I have a perfect education, a perfect family, friends, and connections. I can navigate any society we ever find ourselves. I would be an asset to you David, and you know it.”
While you screw the fitness instructor, and anybody else you choose to play your games with, because every male within panting distance has to be crazy about you and no one else, I think silently. Thanks but no thanks.
“What I’m saying David, is that we should get married.” She smiles, as if she hasn’t just made the most ridiculous proposal ever. “You know it’s what Daddy always wanted. I’d give you my shares then. Think about it, nobody could ever take Preston Corp from you.”
I stare coldly at her, “I’d rather just buy your shares Carole. Everything else you’re offering means nothing to me.”
Her eyes narrow. “Thinks about what I’ve said, Toby Felt is offering me a lot, and he doesn’t have the disadvantage of having dumped me before.”
Toby Felt.
She’s watching my face for my reaction. When I don’t give her any, she shrugs again. “He has a huge vision of adding Preston Corp to his conglomerate. It’s like India to his Alexander.”
I don’t remind her that Alexander died trying to take India. “You’re not going to sell him your shares, Carole.”
“Why not?”
“Because you’re going to sell them to me.”
“Well David,” She gives me a sidelong glance, “You know exactly how to make me do that.” She gets up. “I have to leave now.” She says sweetly. “Thanks for lunch.”
I watch her leave, my mind on overdrive, I will find a thousand ways to get what I want, but there’s no way in hell I’ll succumb to anyone’s blackmail.
~§~§~§~§~
I have to find a way to deal with Carole. I should have known she wouldn’t make it easy, but who could have anticipated such an unreasonable demand, even from Carole?
And Toby Felt, I need to find out everything possible about him, the companies he’s acquired in the past and his strategies for his acquisitions. Then I’ll prepare a new strategy for retaining control of my company.
I could make it easy, I think, as I dismiss the meeting I’ve called in my office. I could make it easy on myself, save company time and resources, and get the results I want in one easy step.
In the hidden drawer under my desk, there’s a flash drive, and it contains one video file.
While Carole’s fitness instructor and sometime lover Enrique had been in my office trying to convince me to pay him an inordinately large amount of money so he wouldn’t release his video of Carole on the internet. I made a few calls. In minutes, there was a team was at his apartment retrieving every trace of the file from his computer, and tracing every device to which he had ever copied it. Luckily, they’d found everything and brought them to me.
Then I told Enrique that if he brought me every copy he had, I would consider paying him. When he called me an hour later, swearing and cursing, I knew for sure that we had found every copy. I had them all destroyed, except for the copy in the flash drive, the one he’d given me himself. I kept it as proof.
Then I let him know that if he ever tried to blackmail me again, he would die in jail.
That’s how much I detest blackmail.
Which is unfortunate, considering that at this moment, blackmail can get me what I want, very easily.
I toss the drive back into the drawer and leave the desk. I walk along the length of the glass walls, staring outside, while my mind works furiously.
There’s no way I’m going to lose my company to Toby Felt’s need to massage his ego. No damn way.
Carole’s terms, of course, are out of the question. I need to get control of the situation on my own terms.
I glance at my watch. It’s almost four o clock. I’ve already asked Linda to find the phone number for the gift shop in Ashford. Efficient as always, she has it printed on a sheet of paper on my desk.
With everything I have on my mind, the sensible thing would be to call Sophie, and tell her how sorry I am that I can’t take her to dinner.
And I would do that, if I didn’t have this strange compulsion to see her blush again.
Chapter Three
STEVE DRIVES ME OVER TO MY apartment, where I take a shower and change my clothes. I drive myself to Ashford, taking the BMW convertible. I’m not keen to have Steve trailing along on a date.
The image of Sophie’s face stays in my mind as I drive. The logical part of my brain keeps asking why the urge to see her again is so incredibly strong. I frown, tapping my fingers on the wheel. I have too much to worry about to be driving out of the city just to have dinner with a girl, and yet, in half an hour, at almost exactly five o clock, I’m pulling into the front of the gift shop.
I step out of the car, looking into the shop through the glass. The lights are on, but it looks empty. At first, I get a sick feeling that she has gone, but then I see her enter the shop through a door at the back, and overwhelming relief floods through me.
What is happening to me?
I like my relationships uncomplicated. I don’t do romance, I don’t do commitment, and women have learned not to expect those things from me.
What I do is sex. No. Strings. Attached.
A concept which, I’m sure, is alien to the eighteen-year-old girl inside the shop looking at me. This is bound to end in complications. This is something I don’t need.
Yet I can’t stay away.
I watch her as she runs a hand over her hair, smoothing her ponytail. I wish she would let it hang free. I can imagine the soft waves framing her face and falling to her shoulders. I can imagine a lot of things, and none of them are halfway decent.
She comes towards the front of the shop, locking it up behind her as she steps onto the sidewalk.
“Hi.” She says, her soft voice washes over me, reminding me why I’ve abandoned everything I have to do, to come here, to her.
“Hello Sophie.” She’s blushing. I don’t know why, but I find her flaming cheeks enthralling. “Ready?” I ask.
She nods.
I turn towards the car, placing one hand on her back to guide her. My fingers are itching to touch her, and just that slight contact causes a distinct heaviness in my groin.
I want her so badly I need a cold shower just thinking about it, and right now, the cold shower seems like the best idea. The alternative is just asking for trouble, and trouble is exactly what I don’t need.
“So where do you want to go?” I ask, as I slide into the driver’s seat.
She frowns. “Where would you like to go?” She replies.
I pause. I have no idea where anything is in this town. I suppose I should have thought of where to take her, since I made the invitation. I chuckle inwardly as I consider driving to the city, but I doubt she would want that.
She ought to be able to recommend a place though. “You know the town,” I ask.
“Don’t you?”
She shakes her head, silent. I don’t know many eighteen year olds, but I doubt there are many left who aren’t savvy about everything around them. But then, she’s unlike any eighteen year old I have ever seen. She’s unlike anyone I’ve ever met.
“You didn’t grow up here?” I ask.
“I’ve been away at boarding school,” She turns her face away, towards the window, “and anyway, I’ve never been very outgoing.”
She has a small frown on her face. I find myself hoping that I haven’t made her feel somehow inadequate. I’m about to tell her not to worry, that I’m sure I’ll find something, when she turns back to me and tells me about some seafood place.
I start the car and enter the name of the restaurant into the GPS.
“Can we stop by my place?” Her voice is tentative.
I turn to look at her. “Of course.” I say, noting that she looks worried. It’s only dinner. I don’t care if we get burgers and eat in the car. I just want to satisfy this crazy desire to be around her, to indulge the weird excitement that being with her gives me.
I drive, following her directions to a brick walk-up not too far from the shop. “I won’t be long,” She tells me, climbing out of the car in a rush. I run through scenarios in my mind. Perhaps she has a pet to feed, or maybe she’s decided that I’m a serial killer and is now running screaming for the safety of her home.
After a few minutes, she reappears, and I go around to open the door for her, admiring her figure as she walks towards me in a pretty blue dress. She must have been worried about not being properly dressed. As much as I like the dress, I wish she hadn’t bothered, I wouldn’t have minded if she had been wearing a grass skirt.
“Nice dress.” I say, joining her inside the car.
“Thank you.” Her perfect lips curve into a small smile.
I start the engine. “You didn’t have to change on my account though,” I add, “You already looked great.”
There is a long pause. “I wanted to.” She says finally.
