His Every Desire

by Ashley Blake

  We sat at a table near the window, ordered our food and nibbled on gougères while we waited for our main dish. Evan looked at me and smiled.

  “So, how was your first day?”

  “I loved everything about it. I cannot believe that I am actually here and I am going to be a part of that gorgeous building. I feel so fortunate.”

  “Yes, I have to agree. It’s pretty amazing.”

  “Hey, Jean-Luc told me that Mrs. Locke will be here for the gala. I can’t believe that I am going to actually meet her. Wait, do you think I’ll get to meet her?” Panic set in as I realized I had just assumed I would meet the elusive Diane Locke. She was a big deal and I don’t know why I thought she would want to take the time to meet little ol’ me. She was a very busy woman and I was sure there was going to be a line of people waiting to spend time with her.

  “It really depends on how busy she is. She likes to socialize with friends she hasn’t seen in a while, but I bet you’ll get to meet her. She’s human just like you and me so don’t go getting all star struck.”

  I giggled and playfully swatted him with my napkin.

  “That’s easy for you to say, you’re related to her.”

  “I know, but despite her notoriety, Aunt Diane is a really nice, down to earth woman.”

  “So what is the family connection exactly?”

  “My mom, Ellen, was one of Aunt Diane’s sisters, so my brother Kipton and I are Christian and Tyler’s first cousins.”

  “I didn’t know you have a brother.”

  “Yes, well half-brother, and a half-sister Nicole, but that doesn’t matter to me, they are my brother and sister.”

  “So you have different fathers?”

  “Yes, and this is how crazy this family is. Christian’s father’s brother, Timothy, is my brother and sister’s father. He married Aunt Diane’s other sister, Linda.”

  “No way, so their last name is Locke also?”

  “Yes.”

  “Why didn’t you go live with him after your parents died? I hope I’m not being insensitive.”

  “Not at all, sweetie. He’s not so much into having kids around and I liked my aunt and uncle better. You’ll meet everyone at the gala. They will all be here.”

  “Oh wow, a mini family reunion, cool. Well, I can’t wait to meet Mrs. Locke. It will definitely be one of the many highlights of this trip.”

  “Oh sweetie, we are going to have tons of highlights on this trip. This is the city of love so we definitely have to find someone for you while you’re here. If you’re single, that is. If not, you have to have a Paris fling!”

  I couldn’t tell him that the last thing I wanted to do was have a fling with someone because I was head over heels for my boss. No one could know that…at least not yet. I decided to shift the attention over to Evan.

  “What about you? We need to find someone for you, don’t we? Or are you even single? I guess I never asked you.”

  “Oh I’m spoken for, sort of I guess. It’s really new, I just met him last week but he seems pretty amazing so far.”

  “Oooh, tell me about him. How did you meet him?”

  I really did want to know about Evan’s new guy and it also took the attention off of me.

  “We met at a friend’s party. He came with a friend of a friend and it was fireworks from the beginning. He’s really cool and laid back. I’m much more high strung than he is so he balances me out.”

  “He’s sounds great, Evan. What does he do?”

  “He’s a reporter.”

  I perked up. “Oh? Is it someone I’ve seen on TV?”

  “Yes, but I don’t want to say who yet. I don’t want to jinx anything but I hope it goes somewhere. As much as I love to be here in Paris I kind of wish this trip had come along months after we’d met. But we’ll se what happens.”

  “Well, I hope it all works out for you. You deserve a good guy Evan. I can tell you’re one of the good ones.”

  He looked at me with sincere appreciation.

  “Thank you. That’s the nicest thing anyone has said to me in a long time.”

  I smiled at him. “You’re welcome. You’re pretty cool, Evan. I’m glad you’re here on this trip.”

  “Right back at ya, sweetie. So, any guy have a hold on your heart?”

  I couldn’t tell him that Christian had a vice grip on my heart and that I had no interest in even looking at another man. No, I had to play coy.

  “Nah, work is my boyfriend right now. I am completely focused on my career and I don’t want to screw this up.”

  “But you are so fabulous, you have to at least have a fling while you’re here. It is something you will remember for the rest of your life.”

  “We’ll see. Maybe after we finish the project.”

  “By then it will be time to go home! We have the weekends off, so you know what we’re going to do?”

  I gave him a small smile. “I’m almost afraid to ask.”

  “We’re going clubbing this weekend and I won’t take no for an answer. It is going to be amazing. I’ll get some people from work to come with us and we’ll have a great time.”

  “Okay, that actually sounds like fun. I can’t wait to check out Paris night life!”

  We took a car back to the hotel and I was so exhausted from the day I just collapsed into bed. It had been a great day and I couldn’t wait to get back to work the next day. We had a good group of people working together in our store and we were all on the same page. I felt really fortunate that I was hooked up with the team I had especially for my first big project with the company. Little did I know that the next day everything was about to change.

  Chapter Twelve

  Evan and I rode over to the site the next day and when we walked in there was an impeccably dressed, gorgeous man looking around the store. I assumed he was a consumer who had slipped in, was trespassing and was curious to see the progress of the mall. I could not have been more wrong. Evan walked over to him and when the guy turned around Evan gave him a big hug.

  “Pierre Toussant, it has been ages! How are you? What are you doing here?”

  Pierre playfully hit Evan in the arm and smiled at him. “Evan Davis, it is so good to see you! I am here to help with the project.”

  A look of confusion fell over Evan’s face as he quickly looked around the store.

  “I thought Jean-Luc was our point person here.”

  “He was, but he had a family emergency and he had to go back to his hometown. Unfortunately, he will not be able to complete this project.”

  Evan looked worried.” Oh no, well I hope everything is okay.”

  “I told him to keep in touch and give us updates so hopefully we will hear something soon.”

  Evan glanced over at me and then looked back at Pierre.

  “Oh my goodness, how rude of me. Pierre Toussant I would like for you to meet Eva Steele, she is our newest employee and from what I’ve seen so far, she is a design genius.”

  When Pierre looked at me with his bright green eyes I found myself completely tongue-tied. The man was, without question, beautiful. He took my hand, giving the back of it a gentle kiss.

  “Enchanté.”

  I was really surprised by my reaction to him. He was so gorgeous I could barely think and I just stood there staring at him, probably looking like a complete idiot.

  Sexy? Check. Beautiful? Check. Trouble? Check. I did not need this man around because he was going to be way too much of a distraction for me.

  Evan looked at me, his brow was furrowed a bit, and he broke the silence.

  “I think Eva is a bit overwhelmed with everything, But she really does speak!”

  That jolted me out of my daze and I was completely embarrassed.

  “Oh my goodness, I am so sorry, I guess I’m just a little bit surprised that things have changed. Does this mean we need to go over everything again that we did yesterday?” I looked at Evan for guidance. “Because we all seemed to be on the same page and I’m just wo
ndering if we need to start over from zero.”

  Pierre jumped in. “Absolutely not, I know Jean-Luc’s work and I am confident that whatever you decided yesterday will be wonderful. You just need to catch me up to speed and we can continue with your vision.”

  I was happy to hear that because we really had spent a great deal of time the previous day designing our plan. We worked a full day and near the end of the day a stunning blonde woman breezed into the store and gave Pierre a double kiss. I kind of felt a sense of relief as I assumed she was his girlfriend or wife. It bothered me that I was even remotely attracted to him. He was so attractive and I guess seeing two such beautiful men in such a short span of time threw me off. Christian had been gone for a day and already another man had caught my eye? What was going on? I pushed those thoughts out of my mind and chalked it up to missing Christian because I was pretty sure if he was around, I wouldn’t even look at anyone else.

  Evan went over to the blonde and gave her a double kiss. “Michelle, it is so good to see you. What a nice surprise that I get to see two old friends in one day. What are you doing here?”

  “Pierre told me about this wonderful project so I just thought I would come and take a look for myself. Is Christian around?”

  Something in the way she asked that question made the hairs on my arms stand on end. Why was she asking about Christian?

  “Before we talk about that, I would like for you to meet Eva Steele, our newest employee.”

  She barely could be bothered to look at me as she shook my hand with a limp wrist, giving me a forced smile.

  “Nice to meet you.” She turned to Evan.” About Christian?”

  “He is in Switzerland for the week. Did you want me to get a message to him?”

  I could hear something in Evan’s voice; there was something going on with this woman and Christian, or at least there probably had been something at some point.

  She gave him a tiny smirk and tossed her hair over her shoulder.

  “No chéri, I will get a hold of him myself. This structure is beautiful, by the way. It is the talk in all of Paris!” She breezed out the door just as quickly as she had breezed in.

  I turned to look at Evan.” Who was that?”

  “Oh her? That is one of Christian’s ex-girlfriends.”

  Of course she was, and of course she looked like that. I hated how being around so many attractive, well-dressed people made me feel less than adequate. I was a very pretty girl, I knew that, but the people I was now working with were all stunning and I hated that I was starting to feel insecure. I had to remind myself that Christian came after me, and he really liked me. But I wished there was something I could do to fancy up my appearance. I vowed that once I received my first paycheck, I was going to upgrade my wardrobe.

  “She is very beautiful.”

  Evan nodded and then a small smirk touch the corner of his mouth. “She is also trouble and I hope she stays away while we’re here. They had a very volatile relationship and we just don’t need her energy around us right now.”

  To me volatile meant that there were strong feelings there on some level and I hoped that Christian was not still harboring anything for her. She clearly was still after him and the last thing I needed was to have to worry about some woman going after Christian. I looked at Evan afraid to ask my next question, but I had to know.

  “Do you think they will get together?”

  He looked at me, his eyes searching mine and I could see a look of recognition flood his face.

  “Oh no. Tell me I’m wrong. My cousin has gotten to you hasn’t he? Damn it, I knew it was too good to be true. I was hoping that for once he would keep his hands to himself but, sweetie,” he gently lifted my chin as he studied my eyes, “I can see that he has you hooked.”

  I did my best to deny anything was going on.

  “What? No, I was just curious about her because she’s so, you know, fancy, and so is he. I have never been around people like this before so it is fascinating to see this kind of stuff going on right in front of me.”

  Thankfully, I seemed to convince him because he breathed a deep sigh of relief.

  “Oh, thank goodness! I thought you had been swept up in his bullshit.” He quickly put his hand over his mouth and shook his head. “I didn’t mean for that to come out the way it did. I love my cousin, but I also know the kind of man he is and you’re just too nice of a girl to fall for any of his stuff.”

  “Me? Yeah, I’m not interested in getting involved in any sort of messy anything at work. I think it’s important to keep work and personal life separate. I’ve never been one to advocate dating the boss.”

  I felt like a heel as the lies just rolled off of my tongue. If things ever went anywhere real with Christian I would just explain why I had to lie and hope that he would forgive me.

  “Yes, that can get very messy. But I know what you mean wanting to know if anything is going on with those two. When they were dating it was like a soap opera every other day with the bickering and accusations.”

  “Accusations?”

  “Oh yes. Michelle is the world’s least trustful person so she accused Christian of cheating all the time. He finally got sick of it and dumped her. Apparently she hasn’t gotten the memo. She won’t leave him alone.”

  Pierre started to walk over to us and Evan quickly looked at me.

  “This conversation stays between us.”

  I nodded in agreement as Pierre approached us.

  “I wanted to get your opinion on a couple of things if you both have a minute.”

  We jumped back into work mode for another hour and then called it a day. I was mentally and physically exhausted when I finally turned in for the night. So there was a woman who wanted Christian in Chicago and a woman who wanted him in Paris. I wondered how many other women were there around the world who wanted to snag the elusive billionaire? I couldn’t deal with the thought of him having so many women everywhere so I pushed it out of my mind and thankfully, fell asleep.

  The rest of the week passed pretty quickly and we were able to make a lot of progress. Christian called me a couple of times and it just solidified my feelings for him and made me miss him even more. I could not wait until he returned to Paris. By Friday, Evan was itching to go out and he had invited a bunch of people from work to join us, including Pierre. I understood that they were good friends but I really wished he was not going with us. He was nice enough but he was also a huge flirt and took every opportunity he could to flirt with me when Evan was not around. At first I found him charming but then he just became annoying and I really wished Jean-Luc could have come back to work with us. I almost didn’t want to go out with everyone but I wasn’t going to let one person ruin my time in Paris.

  Chapter Thirteen

  The club was everything I had imagined it would be and more. It was packed and luckily, with Pierre’s connections, we were able to sit in a VIP area and had unlimited drinks. I wasn’t a big drinker but it was nice to get the royal treatment. Evan pulled me onto the dance floor as soon as we got there and we danced for what felt like forever. I was sweaty and needed a break so I went to hang out in the VIP area. I chatted with one of the girls as I cooled down and was laughing at something she said when Pierre came over to us. Like clockwork, she got up and left us alone. It was weird the way she did that, almost like he had some sort of magic power telling her to leave us alone.

  No one else was around us; they were either dancing or wandering around the club. Pierre put his arm along the back of my chair and practically leered at me.

  “Alone at last.”

  I was so uncomfortable, but I couldn’t be rude to him because he was one of my bosses.

  “Yes, we are.”

  “Tell me, Eva, how are you liking Paris so far?”

  I was relieved that he picked a neutral topic. I could talk about how wonderful Paris was all night.

  “I absolutely love it here, it is so beautiful. Everything about Paris has exceeded
my expectations. You are from here, correct?”

  “Yes, I am, I am so happy to hear that you are enjoying your stay. I know you have been swamped with work but you really must take some time to see the city. Do you have plans tomorrow?”

  I could see where he was going with his question and I needed to nip that in the bud. There was no way that I was going to do anything with him by myself. No way.

  “Yes, I do have plans. Evan and I have a long day of sightseeing planned and we are getting started bright and early.”