Of course. There was a reason for hostile takeovers to be called hostile.
“So... there is no chance to recover?” I asked.
Dad sighed.
“I’ll do what I can. But I don’t think so.”
I thought for a few minutes. I knew Theo Lambert from the magazines (who wouldn’t?), but I didn’t know a lot about his group. There was one thing I was pretty sure about, though.
“Dad, the Lambert Group is not in the publishing business,” I said. “Real estate, hotels, transportation, logistics, technology, they do it all. But they have never printed a book. Why do they want Everwood?”
His sad smile grew even sadder. Aren’t you still so young and naïve?, he seemed to ask me with his big clear eyes.
“Books? They don’t care about books. They want the place. A pretty place beside the river to build something else. A resort, an apartment complex, a shopping center, whatever. As soon as they put their hands on our stock, they will get rid of everything.” He looked at the window again. When he spoke, his voice sounded fragile, broken. “Everything I’ve built. My life. They’ll destroy my life.”
His heart agreed, evidently, because two weeks later it decided to quit in protest. Dad was buying groceries when it happened. He dropped to the floor so suddenly that people thought he was dead. He was taken to a hospital and resuscitated, but a few hours later he went into a coma. I stood beside him all night, awake, looking for any signs of recovery. Nothing happened. The following day, I started looking for a way to destroy Theo Lambert.
THE CALL
“I’m Theo Lambert. You’re hired,” he said. He didn’t even say hello.
So Callie was right. Theo had barely waited one day before calling me. I guessed that he’d waited a day just to save face. There was no denying it: he was obviously hooked.
“I’m honored,” I said.
“It’s not an easy job,” Theo warned.
I don’t care about the fucking job except for the fact that I will be there to fuck you over.
“I’m confident that I’ll do it well. Thanks for the opportunity, Theo.”
“Can you start right now?”
“Like right now?” I asked stupidly.
“Yes, right now. I need you to come over. I’ll text you the address.”
The address was downtown, just a block from the Lambert Tower. I checked it to make sure as the taxi took me through the busy streets. I told the driver to stop near the corner, paid him, and walked the rest of the way. Callie had borrowed my car, so I had the chance to get acquainted with the surroundings, instead of wasting time looking for an available parking space.
I had no clue what I was supposed to do. Theo had only told me that I had to be there. At the address he gave me I found a tall apartment building, but he had given me no indication of which apartment it was. Should I wait for him in front of the building, go inside and announce myself at the desk, or...?
“Miss Bold?”
I turned around to see the man standing on the sidewalk. He was wearing a neat gray suit, and his expression was as empty as if he’d had no face at all. He invited me to enter the building with a silent gesture, and as I walked in, he opened the glass door for me, with an impersonal politeness that I found pretty unsettling.
“Welcome, Miss Bold,” a young woman said as I approached the desk. “Floor 10, apartment B.”
I thought of sending Theo a message to ask what the fuck all this was about, but I figured that I’d better get to the tenth floor and see what was waiting for me up there. It would make very little difference. So I took the elevator.
To my surprise, I found Theo himself inside the apartment. He was sitting on a couch, looking through the glass wall, enjoying the most beautiful view of the city. The river could be seen from there, and after a few seconds I could make out the shape of the Everwood Press building. Enjoying the view of your new acquisition, asshole? Are you already seeing a shopping center down there? I thought bitterly.
“Lara. Come in,” Theo said, sitting up. He grabbed a glass and a bottle of sparkling water, which he offered me. “What do you think?”
“Good morning,” I said, still bitter. “What do you think about what?”
“This place,” he replied, blinking in surprise. “Do you like it?”
I like it, yes. Such a nice view. The dark purple walls are charming. There is a bar and a media center. And what a beautiful couch. How many people lost the work of all their lives to pay for it?
“It’s nice,” I said dryly. “Why does my opinion matter?” Is this the place where you bring your chicks?
“Because this place,” he said quietly, “is where you’ll live. Most of the time.”
I blinked twice.
“What?”
“We need to be close. You can’t be taking the subway or driving for forty minutes every day,” Theo said. “Even if I send you a limo, it will get stuck in traffic. Sometimes I will need you quickly and that won’t do.”
He showed me a keyring with two identical sets of keys.
“Here, take one of these,” he said, detaching one of the sets and offering it to me.
I was having a hard time assimilating the whole situation. I took the keys before realizing what he meant.
“And you’ll keep the other one?” I asked when it clicked.
“Is that a problem?” Theo said.
Of course it’s a problem, you sick fuck. But I’d have to agree if I wanted to be close to him. Objecting now could mean getting fired on the spot, and goodbye secret plan.
“Not at all,” I said. And it was settled.
I would need to move in, which was not a simple operation. Even a young single woman has to carry lots of things from one apartment to the next one. Fortunately, Theo offered to send a truck from a moving company and three guys to take care of all my things. I wouldn’t even need to pack. They would do everything.
“How cool. And you know these guys because...?”
“... I own the company,” he replied.
“Of course.”
WORKING FOR THE ENEMY
I actually started working with Theo the following day, after his guys had helped me move to my new apartment. I asked Callie to take care of the old one (well, of my real apartment) and visit it once in a while, to check that everything was OK. Callie sounded a bit alarmed when I told her that I was moving, but now that the plan was in motion, she couldn’t back down. She agreed to everything.
Theo had given me a dedicated smartphone to use at my job as his assistant. “Never forget your cell phone. Never,” he told me as he handed me the device. “I won’t,” I assured him. To which he naturally replied: “Of course.”
The smartphone started ringing almost as soon as he gave it to me, with a constant influx of SMS and Whatsapp messages that would last until very late in the night. There were also tons of voice messages that I could listen to because Theo had helpfully given me the PIN for the mailbox. The following day, the ringing started around 5am and kept on and on: text messages, Whatsapp messages, voice messages, one after the other. Every single one of them was from some young woman. They pleaded for attention, complained about unreturned calls, sought encounters, professed love and devotion and insisted on business opportunities that were just thinly veiled excuses to meet in person. Theo had just forwarded all messages from his own phone to mine. I checked all the messages, muted some, and tuned out the rest after a while.
Is he doing this on purpose? I thought. Does he want me to know how successful he is with women? If so, it was a childish attitude. There was no doubt that he, as a handsome, charming and powerful man, was successful with women, and no amount of confirmation would change the way I thought of him.
My sleep was ruined, so I decided to go to work early on my first day.
* * *
It was about 8 am when I arrived at the King of Hearts. When the elevator door opened, I saw Theo talking to a handsome man in a prolix suit, maybe ten years his s
enior, whose accent sounded slightly foreign. They both shook my hand and then Theo introduced me to the man.
“Lara, this is Sandor Vandell. I talked to you about him, remember?”
Sandor Vandell. The head of acquisitions. Of course I remembered. We’ll have a lot to talk about one of these days, I thought. For now, I just smiled politely and introduced myself.
“Come here, please,” Theo said as he waved at Sandor. We both entered his office as the head of acquisitions stepped into the elevator. “Any important messages?”
“Well, I don’t think so, though there are many people who really miss you,” I retorted.
“What about you?”
“Me?”
“Did you miss me?”
I stared at him, incredulous. How self-serving could this man be? I was beginning to think that my enemy was no more than a man-child, and since his question didn’t really merit an answer, I just took a seat across his desk.
“So, where do we start?” I asked, crossing my legs and holding up my pen and notebook.
A LESSON
The first few weeks working for Theo were weird, awkward, but charming in their own way. I had to learn to be always available, 24/7, for any whims or requests he had at any given moment. But I also had to learn to avoid falling into the trap of his eyes and his smile... One second he’d be giving me complicated instructions about business meetings, and the next one he’d be hitting on me like there’s no tomorrow.
I had to avoid making any mistakes or risk suffering his ultra short temper. But, of course, everyone makes mistakes. I was bound to make some, working under all that pressure, while I maintained my charade.
Like the day I switched around two of his appointments for the week.
In truth, I was switching his appointments around all the time, for reasons of efficiency, priority, and availability of both parts –but this time, he’d arranged one of these meetings himself. Turns out the guy was a lifelong friend of his who he hadn’t seen in years, but I only knew him as a business partner. That didn’t go well.
Or, seeing thing from a different perspective, it went wonderfully.
“When is Sam coming?” he asked me that day, as he entered his office hurriedly.
“He’s not coming today,” I reported, standing up. “I moved your meeting for tomorrow. Today you’ll see Vanessa, who’ll run the EquiMind numbers for you.”
There were a couple of seconds of absolute silence. Then, Theo walked out of his office and into mine really slowly, with an astonished expression that I tragically misread as admiration. I was pretty proud of what I had done.
“You did what?”
“I switched the appointments. Since you and Sam are going to talk about EquiMind, and you haven’t seen the numbers yet, I moved Vanessa for today so that you—”
“You moved it?”
In retrospect, it’s embarrassing to admit that I misread his reaction again. I was genuinely expecting him to congratulate me for a smart move. I wanted to win him over, and making things easier and more efficient for him seemed to be a good way to do it.
“I moved it,” I repeated, “because you and Sam are going to talk about EquiM...”
“I heard you the first time,” he hissed. His voice suddenly became alarmingly soft, like a velvet glove covering an iron fist. “You see, that’s not how this works.”
I realized then that he was so close to me that I had trouble focusing my eyes on his. Even his mouth... oh God, his mouth... with its smell of fresh mint and whatever it was that he treated himself to, was at barely four inches from mine. I reeled back and my buttocks found the edge of the desk. I leant backward as he advanced towards me, unrelenting.
“Then h-how does it work?” I asked, my voice failing me.
“It works this way: you do exactly what I tell you,” he said. “You’re my assistant now, not my counselor. If I tell you to arrange a meeting at a set time and date, you pay attention and do as I told you. Understood?”
This last word he said with his nose almost touching mine. I felt the warmth blow of his breath on my mouth, and my lips opened on their own accord. My eyes were half-closed as I surrendered to the intensity of his gaze.
“Y-yes. Understood. Yes.”
“Turn around,” Theo Lambert whispered.
“Wh-what?”
“Turn around.”
I froze in place, my eyes fixated on his, my hands clutching at the desk. His smell was filling my nostrils, awakening a primal instinct deep inside me. I knew what was about to come... and I wanted it.
“Turn. Around,” Theo Lambert repeated more firmly. There was a sharp edge in his voice that made me obey this time. “Say what you did.”
“I... I didn’t pay attention.”
“What?”
“I didn’t pay at—oh!” He didn’t let me finish. His hand landed on my right buttock with a smacking sound that seemed to blow away all my prejudices. “I didn’t pay attention!” I repeated.
“Are you a bad girl?”
“Yes, I am a... ouch!” He spanked me again. “I’m a bad girl!”
“Are you going to be good?”
“Yes! Yes! OUCH! Oh, yes!”
I kept saying yes as he hit my ass again and again. I felt a tremendous heat radiating from my buttocks to the rest of my body, making my face flush and burn in shame. What am I doing? I thought.
“That’s what I thought,” Theo said after a good while, stepping back. Without him close to me, I became aware of my situation. I was leaning over the desk, with my face almost touching the surface, my ass pointing up and my breasts resting on the glass. Humiliation came at once as I stood up and tried to make my face recover its natural color. I turned around and stared at Theo, his beautiful blue eyes penetrating my soul.
“Do you... do you want me to be good or bad?”
I didn’t know where my audacity was coming from. I was not like that, not by any stretch. But Theo turned me into a different person. It was like a chemical reaction between two components that couldn’t be more different but developed an unexpected affinity when put together.
“I want you to be what I need at every moment,” he said.
What an asshole.
“Will you hurt me?”
“Yes. And you’ll learn. And then it won’t hurt anymore.”
DANGEROUS
I desperately needed to talk to someone about what had just happened; more generally, about what was happening to me, with Theo, right from the moment I met him for the first time. It felt so wrong, but at the same time so right, that I didn’t know what to think or feel anymore. It was too much to bear, and I needed someone with a pair of ears and a sane brain to listen to me. So, that night, I phoned Callie.
“Hi, what’s up?” she asked jovially. I heard giggles in the background. Turns out she was with some friends. When I told her I needed to talk about something, she said: “OK, let me go to another room first. It’s getting silly in here.” I heard more giggles and protests as her friends booed her for saying that.
I told Callie about the situation. As I was explaining it to her, it sounded unbelievable even to me. “He’s so hot,” I said, but at the same time I was telling myself, So what? Is he not the man who sent your father to the hospital? What are you thinking? And yet, even as I talked to Callie, my body felt strangely hot, as if Theo was fondling it and groping it right then and there.
Callie listened and kept silent for a minute after I finished my explanation. Then she uttered a single word.
“Really?”
“Well... yes, really,” I replied.
“Are you out of your fucking mind?”
I didn’t know what I expected from her, to be honest. She was reacting like a normal person.
“I’m not. Well, I... I don’t know,” I said. I realized, at that instant, that it was very likely that I was out of my mind indeed.
“Lara, you hate the man. Your father is lying in a hospital bed—”
“I
know. I KNOW!” I screamed, suddenly letting out all the anger that had been growing inside me. Not a small part of it was anger against myself, for allowing this to happen.
After a long silence, during which I thought Callie had ended the call, she spoke again, softly, letting her voice carry her love for me as a friend.
“Look, I know what it’s like. Did you hear those giggles? I was telling the girls about my new conquest. I’ve been seeing one of Theo’s friends. He’s a multimillionaire too. So don’t think I can’t possibly understand you. There’s something about them... these men... they can really turn you on, am I right? They’re charming and beautiful and they have travelled the world and they know how to treat people, including women. Especially women. Also, they are not wasting their lives. For good or bad, they are making a difference. But you don’t want this man. You want to destroy him. For what he’s done to your father. Remember?”
“I do. I do remember. I just...” I stopped, not knowing what to say. I felt my face reddening, as if I was a little child who’d got caught in some mischief.
“Lara, listen to me,” Callie said. “This is dangerous. You know what kind of man he is. Also, you’re lying to him, hiding who you are, because you’re out to harm him. You can’t let your guard down. Understood?”
I did understand. Truly. But Theo’s eyes kept bouncing inside my head, hitting neuron after neuron, as if they were a terrible virus that was infecting my brain.
I still felt the touch of his skin on mine, his hand hitting my buttocks, once and twice and then again, making my flesh tremble and spreading heat all over my body. I’d never been a submissive woman, but Theo was something else: he had awoken something inside me, something I’d never suspected was in there.
“Listen,” Callie said. “Go out. Clear your mind. Date someone. Maurice. Why not him? He’s crazy for you.”
“Maurice? Maurice is cute, but...” I searched for words. I didn’t know what was wrong with Maurice exactly. He was just not... hot? “He’s not... I don’t know. I guess I should give him a chance. But I just... I just don’t feel it, you know? He doesn’t move me.”
A Vote For Lust: A Bad Boy Political Romance Page 12
