Dark Facade (Book Three) (Dark Facade Series)

by Hubbard, Sylvia

  A chill went down Maxine’s back. “Why Nicole? Why do they come back?” her voice sounded lost and barely audio.

  “Some women feel this is all they have. Some feel they’d much rather take this than a lover who is supposed to care about them that beats them around. At least here, they know abuse will come eventually and their hearts never have to get broken, their love doesn’t have to be rejected and the only thing they sacrifice is their pride and body. And in return for their sacrifices, they get money, material things, cars, even some have gotten houses and the ability to provide for their family.”

  “Or permanent jobs that are lucrative?” Maxine said sarcastically.

  Nicole defended. “Like I said, some women feel this is all they have. I had a master who saw the good in me and saw my talents. He bought me out and put me where I am now. I never had a chance to go to college or have things in my life come to me well. It was an opportunity that I couldn’t pass up. We do what we have to do to survive, Maxine. What these women and you go through here no one will ever know about, but at least it’s better than hustling on the streets or looking for love or attention in all the wrong places.”

  Maxine had heard enough. “Goodnight, Nicole,” she said flatly, but didn’t give Nicole a chance to return the goodnight before hanging up, truly disgusted and desperately thinking of a way to get out of what she had gotten herself into without returning to the chamber.

  When nothing came to mind, she resolved after crying herself to sleep that she would have to return to the organization if they requested her for the weekend and then beg Philippe to buy her out by all means necessary.

  * * ***

  Sleep was few and far between for her during the night and she found herself awaking early Friday about five again to get dress, do her hair, put on what she deemed was nice. It was almost tempting to wear the expensive suit she had been given on her last day at the compound and packed in the expensive bag, but she changed her mind.

  Instead, she wore a simple gray shirt and black dress pants with a black tie. She pulled her hair in a low ponytail, tucked under to hide the length.

  All last weekend, she had worn make up and jewelry, but now she was just wearing clothes. She didn’t even bother to gloss her lips.

  The plain Jane of the office; Hardly being noticed and not looking attractive. Being invisible and drawing little notice was her specialty and she didn’t mind that men never approached her. She felt she had gotten into enough trouble with them when she was young.

  ‘Besides, Philippe wasn’t going to be there,’ she teased to herself. Rolling her eyes heavenwards to herself for her silly thoughts, she grabbed her case and left to go the office. She resolved not to think about Philippe, get through this presentation and set her mind to handle this weekend bravely.

  No one was at the office when she arrived early and she had time to go over her full presentation before the office staff arrived. The objective Mr. Bianchi had given her had been formidable. Her research of the company had been rushed. On top of that the services that they wanted to present to new clientele had been in-depth and complex so instead of studying about who they were, she had to study more about what they offered and client services.

  Maxine tried not to think about everything that could go wrong and hoped everything went well in the presentation.

  An office intern came to help her with the set up and brought in refreshments. Maxine was told that every one important would be there by eleven.

  Nervous butterflies scattered in her stomach and she had to go to her office alone to take several deep breaths. This was her first presentation alone and she usually sat back to watch Lisa do the magic ‘Just don’t look at the crowd. Don’t care about reaction and present what you have. It’s good, Maxine,’ she heard Lisa’s voice in her head.

  * * ***

  Awaking Friday, Philippe didn’t immediately get out of the bed. So many things ran though his head as he pondered how to deal with what he had found out.

  Ewan had tried to contact him several times through the week and Philippe could only say so much to the man. Philippe was angry with his father for the selfishness on Ewan’s part.

  Yet, what really bothered him was how was he supposed to find a way for Maxine to forgive him? Once she knew the truth, she could possibly never forgive him.

  Looking at the empty pillow beside him, wishing she was there, Philippe knew in his heart, he didn’t want to live another day without her.

  Even though it had only been a week, he missed the taste and touch of her. Just her proximity could make him hard.

  Lying there thinking about her… his body was aroused and he griped the base of his manhood vividly remembering their last night together. He hadn’t done this in a long time, but his body called for release. The taste of her lips, her sweat on his tongue, her essence in his mouth; Hearing her cry in ecstasy as he brought her pleasure… yes… Yes… YES! Fuck!

  Warm fluid coated his wrist and he shuddered angry it was over with so soon and amazed how his body has responded so fast.

  He wanted her by his side. Hell, he wanted her to be his wife and was willing to sacrifice everything for her.

  Dedric was down in the kitchen when Philippe came down fully dress. Wearing only pajama bottoms he looked amused at his father.

  “I spoke with Mrs. Stone this morning. Her husband’s coming in next week. Are you nervous?”

  “Why should I be nervous?” Philippe asked apprehensively.

  “The man accused of being a serial killer.”

  “I’m more curious about Abigail Stone than her husband. To marry a man like that is curious.”

  Dedric agreed with a nod. “She’s awesome. I can’t wait for you to meet her. She said she’s excited about meeting with you; Something about me talking about you too much.” His son blushed sheepishly and then decided to change the subject. “How’d you sleep?”

  “Not well, if you must know.”

  “Oh I know you didn’t,” his son said. “You were angry all night. Shouted out some curse words I didn’t even know.”

  A little embarrassed, Philippe questioned. “I was that loud?”

  “What’s up, Father?” Dedric asked seriously.

  “It’s just a lot on my mind. I’m going to be away for the weekend.”

  “Again? Whoa, this is serious.”

  Philippe heard his text message alert and looked at the screen on his phone. Pierre was outside in the company car. “No house parties.”

  “What about an orgy?” Dedric teased.

  Philippe ignored his son, grabbed his brief and walked out the door to head to the important presentation. By the time they arrived, he had a general idea what he needed to do for this weekend, but it all depended on if he could convince Maxine to come.

  Philippe entered the office and barely noticed his surroundings. Not sleeping well all night he went with the motions of being introduced to Mr. Kenneth Bianchi. His business relations was mostly with Romero Bellini, co-partner in Chicago and even when the man went to get married, Philippe still had few relations with Kenneth. He’d known about the company and was proud of his son for choosing the company.

  Philippe was proud his son had his instinct to spot a good business and put aside any prejudices.

  Surprisingly they hit it off instantly. Kenneth was very amicable despite his semi nerdy demeanor.

  “So have you seen it?” Philippe asked. “I couldn’t get anything out of Romero about this. And Pierre was in the dark as well.”

  “Your presentation?” Kenneth asked. “Actually, to be honest, I haven’t. With the rush Pierre placed on us, she’s been busy all week getting it together.”

  Philippe felt skeptical and he saw the same look on Pierre’s face as well. “You do understand how important all of this is, right?”

  “I do,” Kenneth said assuredly. “I don’t doubt that we will be pleased. Her work has always been impressive.”

  “A female?” Romero questioned.
“You placed a female as lead on the account.”

  “Not just because she was a female, cousin,” Kenneth snorted. “And your Bellini blood is showing.”

  Romero shrugged and walked off to the conference room.

  “What was that about?” Philippe asked. “He’s a newly married man. I would think he wouldn’t be as irritable as he used to be.”

  “He’s different around her,” Kenneth said tightly. “My cousin along with his other brothers and cousins aren’t too fond of women in power, on a personal note. They have this belief they are only good for one thing and their value lies by how good their orifices feel.” Kenneth flushed. “Sorry for being so blunt, but they have always irritated me on their way of thinking.”

  There was a layer of animosity in Kenneth’s words, but Philippe surmised this man’s anger didn’t lie in the current situation. He decided to lighten the mood. “Next you’ll tell me they have an aversion to white people,” Philippe teased.

  Kenneth chuckled. “Not that I know of… yet,” he said, carrying the joke on.

  They both laughed as they proceeded to the conference room to set up. Everyone was in there, except the presenter and Philippe found himself just as interested to see what this “woman” would do that Kenneth seemed to have so much faith in.

  “If this is a fuck up,” Pierre whispered to Philippe. “I apologize in advance. I know how much this means to you, Dad.”

  Pierre really couldn’t fathom how much this meant to him. When he was young he had run away to get away from his father, but now that he was older and his children were invested into the company, he didn’t want to just run away. He wanted to be able to walk away and lie a normal life. Yet, with so many responsibilities and promises made, he needed a plan. The part of his plan deeply depended upon the success of this presentation. His stomach was in knots, but outwardly he kept a very cool appearance.

  “It’s not as if I can fire you,” Philippe teased.

  “I know the presenters previous works have been phenomenal which is why I didn’t hesitate when Mr. Bianchi told me she was on the account. I had a really strong gut feeling she will impress us.” Pierre implored. “I even spoke to a lot of the accounts that used her work and was very amazed by her creativity and ingenuity.”

  Philippe knew Pierre was trying to ease his mind. If he were like Ewan, he would have walked right out of there, but Philippe wanted to give his son a chance to take charge and he wanted to know this part of his plan was in good hands. “Let’s hold off on anything until we see what she has.”

  The room suddenly became quiet as a supervisor announced that they were about to begin. The door opened and a dowdy looking black woman stepped in.

  She didn’t make eye contact as she quickly thanked everyone for being there and the lights dimmed while a very impressive PowerPoint Presentation came on the screen at the front of the conference. The presenter stayed in the back, but her voice carried over everyone.

  “Ericson Corporation challenged us to find a way to reach new customers with new technologies on their old ways. You wanted us to find a way to show possible new clientele your services without flying the country demonstrating over and over the excellence that you provide.” She went on to speak about how it was researched how potential clients look for companies like Ericson to represent them and how the clients wanted information fast. “Using FTP connections, Ericson has a real possibility to become closer to not only their new customers but their old as well.” Her nervousness could be clearly heard, but as she started talking of the technical aspects which were the most important in her presentation, her voice became relaxed.

  Philippe thought he was hearing Maxine, but then shook his head blaming his libido for interfering with business.

  The screen changed and she presented the impressive graphic customer service software. “Meet Lisa, Ericson’s new online proprietary full customer service software. She not only introduces all services for Ericson Corporation, but she will also be able to interact with customers whether they use a headset or a mouse, Lisa will be able to interact with customers on a three dimensional level…” The presenter went on to amaze everyone with the details and her remarkable technical creative skills.

  The room was dead silence as Lisa, a simulated computer generated version of a former co-worker, as Philippe found out later, was able to answer several questions when prompted by the supervisor. What Lisa didn’t know she would just say to call customer service for more information or give them the direct number to the department that handled that subject.

  Philippe was more than impressed, he was flabbergasted. This was not just breaking the technology barrier, this would blow his competitors out the water.

  When the lights came on, everyone’s eyes were adjusting to the darkness as Kenneth Bianchi asked her, “You thought of this all by yourself?”

  The woman didn’t answer right away because she was looking at Philippe as if she had seen a ghost.

  Kenneth looked over at Romero who nodded his approval and then he looked at Philippe and Pierre.

  “What did you think of it, Mr. Darkore?”

  Pierre looked to his father for approval. Philippe could see Pierre was just as highly impressed as he was.

  Philippe answered Kenneth. “It was highly impressive. I cannot wait for our technical team to work with yours on getting it implemented immediately,” Philippe said still confused as to why the woman was now breathing as if she was about to pass out and staring at him as if she couldn’t stop.

  “Are you alright?” Romero asked, noticing that she was having what looked like a stroke.

  She was hyperventilating in front of everyone and for some reason it was almost amazing to watch.

  Kenneth stood up and ordered someone to bring her a glass of water.

  Philippe didn’t know how he should react. Was this usual for her? No one seemed to be reacting to this. It was as if no one really knew how to handle what was going on.

  When a glass of water was brought to her, her legs seemed to go weak. She leaned over to get the glass, grip a chair for support and raised her neck to drink.

  His startling blue eyes moved down noting the curvature of her neck to the familiar piece of jewelry resting on her collarbone and his heart stopped.

  CHAPTER 29

  Slamming the glass down and wiping her mouth with the back of her sleeve, she took several deep breaths and knew the moment when he finally recognized her.

  It was as if her world had turned into slow motion and he rose up slowly out of his chair. Was he shaking? In anger? Confusion?

  …Just like she was trembling for the same reason.

  She couldn’t tear her eyes off of him and he couldn’t tear his sharp stark eyes off of her.

  “I need a moment alone with her,” Philippe said almost in a whisper, but Pierre and Kenneth had heard.

  Maxine had only known what Philippe ordered because she was watching his face so intently and read his lips… Lips she still desired to kiss and rip off his face at the same time.

  Damn!

  Kenneth ordered the room to clear immediately and everyone did, except for Kenneth.

  “Is everything all right?” he asked worriedly, because Philippe and Maxine had not broken eye contact.

  “It will be,” Philippe promised. “Just a few moments, Mr. Bianchi and assure Pierre as well. I wish to personally congratulate, Ms. Moore in private.”

  The door closed and she was almost glad that they had a large wooden conference table between them.

  “I didn’t know this was your company,” she confessed, wishing for another glass of water because her mouth felt so dry.

  He moved around the table and came up to her. The intensity in his eyes that radiated heat from his body was almost felt by her. Sweat broke out at her temple and she could feel his warm breath on her lips.

  Had someone turned up the temperature in the room suddenly?

  Damn! Why had she not put out enough water for her?


  When he still didn’t speak even though he was inches from her, she said, “You sent that woman to find me.”

  “I had to see you,” he said quietly. “I didn’t care about the rules. I had to know you were okay.”

  Sarcastically, she snorted, “You cared?”

  He had NERVE to be concerned NOW!

  “You didn’t show it, Philippe,” she spat.

  “Why did you disobey, Maxine?”

  She didn’t want to tell him, so acerbically, she said, “I’m a glutton for punishment, I guess. You’ve seen my back.”

  Philippe winced and frowned dangerously. Was he angry? Did he want to punish her? They weren’t in the compound. He couldn’t hurt her. Yet, she saw his body tighten as if someone had hit him and she saw his fingers ball into a fist.

  Would he hit her now?

  She couldn’t remember the rules of how to act in case one did meet their Master or a member from the society outside of the compound by mistake.

  And this was a mistake.

  She could see initially he was shocked as she was… almost more! And was that elation for a brief moment on his face as he recognized her?

  By then her anger over what had happened had come to the surface enough for her attitude to change.

  Damn, you’re not winning any brownie points, stupid! You need him to buy you out. Tell him your desire not to go back.

  “I don’t want to go back to that place, Philippe.” She touched the chain on her neck. “I’ll do anything for you.”

  He narrowed his eyes suspiciously. “Anything?” he asked as if she meant to say something else.

  “Anything!” she swore, but a sob escaped as if she were going to her death.

  His composure relaxed suddenly. Looking at the screen behind her, he said, “That was the most amazing presentation I’ve ever seen. How’d you come up with that?”

  Maxine was very aware that he had changed the subject suddenly, but answered his question. “I just did,” she said with a shrugged. “It just came to me suddenly, I guess.”

  “Thank you,” Philippe said. “It was the only obstacle keeping me from doing what I needed to do. I had almost given up getting that done, but this…” He sighed as if all was right in the world. “This gives me the perfect chance to break away.” He looked at her again. “You’ve done everything right for me, Maxine, but I’ve brought you nothing except misery, haven’t I?”