by Helen Cooper
“Nothing.” She snapped at him, infuriated that he would question her.
“I hope you didn’t fuck my brother Louise.” He snarled.
“What’s it to you?” She turned away from him.
“I don’t hire sluts as my assistant’s Louise.”
“Whatever. You mean unless they are your slut.”
“David’s not a good guy for you Louise. Trust me.” His voice was low.
“And you are?” She turned around to face him. “Are you a good guy for me Richard?”
He took her hands and brought her to him. “I don’t do love Louise.” His eyes looked pain.
“Who mentioned love?” She turned away from him pained and confused. She just wanted to go home and think. She didn’t understand what she was thinking or feeling. She spent the rest of the time on the beach with her eyes closed pretending to be sleeping and getting a tan. No one bothered her until they were ready to go and then Gemma sat on Ben’s lap on the drive back. Richard sat in the front seat and she sat at the back pretending to sleep again.
She jumped out of the car quickly and was about to run into the house when David called after her. “Hey Louise, can I have a quick chat with you.” She looked back at him feeling annoyed inside but waited for him.
“Look I wanted to apologize for earlier. I was out of hand and I wanted to say sorry.” He grinned, his boyish smile again. “I’d love it if you would let me take you out to dinner next week, let me get to know you better.”
She smiled at him reluctantly, not wanting to forgive him but easily succumbing to his baby blues. “Okay, we can go next week.” She walked into the house and Richard was waiting for her by the doorway. She sighed as he grabbed her arm.
“Wait a second Louise I need to talk to you.” He growled. David looked at him and rolled his eyes.
“I guess my brother has work stuff to discuss again. I’ll see you later Louise.”
“What do you want now?” Louise’s voice was low and mean.
“I want to amend our deal.” He moved in closer to her.
“How so?” She looked at him with narrowed eyes.
“I want to sleep with you past this weekend.” He stared into her eyes. “I think you would like that too.”
She stared at him in shock, not quite sure she was hearing him correctly. “Let me get this straight, you stopped me so you could tell me you want to continue fucking me?” He pushed her up against the wall and crushed her breasts against his chest. His fingers played with the hair next to her ear.
“I want to ravish you and make sweet love to you yes. I want to take you on rides so high, you will never want to get off.” He licked down her neck as he slipped his fingers between her legs. Louise’s heart started pounding and she did nothing to stop him. “I want to make you mine in every sense of the word until you are screaming my name in ecstasy.” He slipped a finger into her. “I want you to masturbate to thoughts of me.” He whispered in her ear and Louise closed her eyes. His voice was liquid sensuality and his fingers were bringing her to the brink of another orgasm. “What do you say Louise, will you amend the deal?”
She opened her eyes as she came on his fingers and nodded her head. The doorbell interrupted them and Richard stepped back away from her.
“There you are darling. I’ve been missing you. Didn’t you get my calls?” A tall slinky redhead waltzed through the foyer and headed straight to Richard. She flung her arms around him and gave him a big kiss. She turned to Louise and frowned. “Hello, who are you?”
Louise frowned back at her, heart pounding. “Louise, you?”
The lady laughed, a fake common laugh. “I’m Monique, Richard’s girlfriend.”
Louise stood there frozen, trying to smile. She tried to make eye contact with Richard but he was immediately escorted away by the redhead.
“Excuse us dear, but we have a lot to talk about.” Monique looked back at her haughtily and dragged Richard to the living room.
Louise walked up the stairs slowly and felt a headache coming on and tears in her eyes. She felt well and truly used and she knew all she wanted to do was have a hot bath and a good cry.
Chapter 9
Louise walked up quickly to her room. She felt like it was her new refuge. It had become the place to run away to when she needed to think. She looked at herself in the mirror and glared at her reflection. It was her own fault that she felt like a cheap fool.
She sat on the bed wondering what to do. Her heart was beating rapidly and her face felt hot. She wanted to go downstairs and scream at Richard and she wanted to slap Monique. How could he have cheated on his girlfriend with her? She laughed manically, isn't that what she had technically done as well? Cheat on Ben with him. No matter that she couldn't stand Ben and she didn't want to be in a relationship with him. She sighed to herself, just as she was starting to kind of like Richard, this had to happen and she once again felt like crap.
She heard a knock at the door and she bit her lip, worried that it was Ben come to shout at her again or laugh in her face or Richard, there to attempt some poor attempt at a lie. She sat there and ignored the knocking.
"Louise, are you there?" She heard David's voice, soft and excited at the door. She walked to the door slowly and put on a big smile.
"Hey." She found herself searching his face to figure out if he knew what was going on.
"Hey, I'm glad you answered. I was wondering if you would like to go dancing tonight." He beamed at her, "It'll be fun, I know a cool little salsa place."
"Oh, I don't know. I'm not such a good dancer."
"More the reason to come, I'm an excellent teacher." He grinned at her and she felt herself caving. His blond hair was shining and she wanted to run her hands through it to see if it was as spiky as it looked. She stared into his sparkling blue eyes and felt a tinge of regret that it wasn't Richard's condescending brown eyes looking back at her.
"Maybe." she smiled half-heartedly. "Let me shower and I will let you know."
"Sure. See you downstairs in a bit."
Louise closed the door and sighed. What was happening to her? Just a couple of days ago she would have died for David to ask her out. In fact, of all the Beekman brother's, he was the one who seemed to be the most combative with her. And as far as she knew he was single. She walked to the shower feeling sorry for herself. She had half hoped that Richard would have appeared at the door and tried to explain himself. I mean she would understand if he had come and said that Monique was some girl from his past that he didn't really care about but had never made the time to dump her. She could, well would understand that. She didn't want to think that he actually cared about Monique. She felt something eat inside of her as she thought about the beautiful redhead. She was definitely gorgeous and had a body Louis was envious of. She was as slim as a model and while Louise knew she wasn't fat she definitely had a few extra pounds.
She realized that Richard had not promised her anything and likely wanted her as a booty call or some sort of assistant with sexual benefits but there was something about him that made her heart beat really rapidly and that hadn't happened since she was a little kid.
She sang to herself while in the shower. "I'm going to wash that man right out of my hair. I'm going to wash that man right out of my hair." She scrubbed herself hard as she could, doing everything she could think to get a bright and lustrous skin tone for the evening. She wanted to look amazing so that both Monique and Richard would look at her and think wow. She didn't give any thought to David at until she started getting dressed. She wanted to look sexy but she didn't want David to think that she was dolling herself up for him. That just wouldn't do, there was no way that she could sleep with two brothers in a weekend that just wouldn't do. Especially when she had been dating their brother. Louise contemplated signing up for a therapist when she got back to New York; it seemed to her that she had some extreme issues to take care of. If she had just dumped Ben ages ago, none of this would have happened and she wouldn't be
feeling like her heart was breaking.
She settled on a sexy gold sequined dress that she had bought at Forever 21. The dress was a little short and snug because it didn't really fit her properly. They hadn't had her size and she had bought it with a promise that she would lose some weight and be able to fit into the chair. Unfortunately that hasn't happened. She decided to go all out with her makeup and put on a deep black mascara and eyeliner that brought out the golden brown speckles in her eyes. She applied some gold shimmer to her eyelids and a deep red lipstick to her lips. She licked her lips after she applied some glittery lip-gloss and smiled at her reflection in the mirror. She spent the next 30 minutes straightening out her naturally wavy hair and ran her hands through the silky softness that her Chi had helped her create. She finished her new look with a generous spray of Vera Wang's Princess perfume and delighted in her new look and smell. She looked and felt great and she tried hard to ignore that feeling of self-doubt and depression from taking over her.
"You barely know this man Louise, get it together." She muttered to herself as she thought of svelte Monique. She sighed and grabbed her clutch and hurried down the stairs. She groaned to herself when she saw Ben waiting at the bottom of the stairs and stopped herself from running back to her room. Taking a big deep breath, she smiled at him and wished him a good evening.
"You have no chance with Richard." His voice was low and he sounded sorry for her. "He'll never leave Monique for you. You gambled on the wrong brother."
She turned around and looked at him with a determined look on her face. "Look Ben, I'm sorry that things went the way that they did but you know that we had no real connection. Please let's not fool ourselves here. I hope that one day you can forgive me."
He looked at her dismissively. "You are a first class fool Louise, trust me, no good will come of this." Ben spun around and walked to the living room. Louise stood there frozen, she didn't know what to do, she already felt as if Ben was right. She was a fool to have gotten caught in Richard's spell. He was as dark and sensuous a man she had ever met but she also knew that her involvement with him would lead to nothing but bad luck for her.
"Wow, looking hot." David interrupted her reverie and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "You clean up well Louise."
She smiled at him and noticed that he was looking very dapper with his black pants and crisp white shirt. The contrast of the white against his tanned neck and face seemed to make his skin glow like a golden statue. The sun had bleached his blond hair and he looked the epitome of the handsome rich playboy.
"You look very nice yourself." She kept her voice cool so as to not lead him on. She realized at she stared at his gorgeous face and body that he felt absolutely nothing for him. She froze as she heard a high tinkling laugh walking towards them from the living room. Her heart started beating rapidly and she felt a nervous tension in her stomach. Not two seconds later she saw the source of the laughter, Monique and Richard enter the room. Monique looked stunning, as Louise knew that she would. She was wearing a silk green emerald dress with a plunging neckline, her breasts were pretty much exposed except for the nipples and her long red hair hung in curls around her face. She looked at Louise and dismissed her with one glance. She smiled brightly at David and gave him a hug. It was a huge hug and she pressed herself into his chest.
"My dear David, how handsome you look tonight." She purred at him and Louise ignored her. She felt Richard standing next to her staring at her.
"Good evening Louise." His voice had an amused lilt to it and she turned towards him to see what he found so humorous.
"Hello Richard." She nodded her head and her breath caught. He was gorgeous and she felt Once again as if she were in the presence of a Greek God. He was wearing a black suit and his hair was still wet from having recently bee in the shower. The jet black of his hair looked silky and smooth and his eyes seemed to be liquid coal, ready to take her into him and heat her up.
"Is that all I get?" He murmured in her ear. "A hello?"
“Would you rather I kiss you, in front of your girlfriend?" Louise hissed back at him angrily. "Or perhaps you'd like me to go down on you and shock everyone?"
"Yes, I think that would please me." He grabbed her hand and ran it against the crotch of his trousers. She gasped and stepped back.
"How dare you!"
"You asked me what I wanted." He smiled at her darkly and smoothly slid into a conversation with David who had just turned around. "So where are you two off to?"
"We're going salsa dancing. I'm going to teach Louise some moves."
Monique squealed. "Oh, I love salsa dancing." She started to shimmy and sway her hips and Louise tried to frown her dissent at David who was looking at her questioningly.
"Sounds like a fun night. Monique and I will join you, I'll go fetch the Mercedes and meet you all in the front."
"Okay, sounds great." David smiled at his brother, happy to finally see him relaxing and trying to enjoy himself.
"Louise come with me, I want to talk to you about your new job."
"It’s okay." She mumbled at him, wishing that the excitement that was coursing through her body would stop.
"Come." He grabbed her arm and pulled her with him through the front door.
"Stop manhandling me, you asshole." She glared at him and swallowed as he came up towards her.
"It seems like you know a lot of naughty words. Whatever should I do with you." he growled in her face and pushed her against the wall. His lips came close to hers and she licked her lips.
"Don't even think about trying to kiss me." She snarled at him while secretly hoping to feel his lips on hers.
"Is that some sort of dare Louise?" He growled before his lips came crushing down on hers. She felt her body responding to his as she felt the saltiness of his tongue in her mouth. Her tongue darted into his mouth and she kissed him back passionately;
Something in her wanted to believe that he was about to tell her that Monique was a mistake and that he was going to breakup with her.
"I knew you wanted me." He grinned at her as pulled away.
"What about Monique?" She breathed out harshly.
"Monique is my girlfriend, but that doesn't mean much." Richard stared at haughtily. "I seem to remember you sleeping with me when you were still dating Ben."
"But that's not the same." She bit her lip. "You knew about Ben."
"And now you know about Monique." He stared at her unsmiling. "We can have a lot of fun Louise."
"I'm ready to go now." She turned away from him and he opened the door and got in the car. She got into the front seat next to him. “I didn’t know about Monique when I slept with you.” She mumbled.
"Well now you know about Monique."
"I don't want to date a guy who is in a relationship." She frowned at him. "That's not who I am."
"Who said anything about dating?" He cocked his head and stared at her. "I'm not interested in relationships or love Louise, please don't get confused about my intentions here."
She felt a stirring in her stomach and looked away from him. "We better go get the car, the others will be wondering where we are." she walked away from him and into the garage, waiting next to the passenger door if his luxurious Mercedes sedan.
"I didn't mean to upset you." he caressed her hair. "I forgot about Monique when I met you Louise. I'm not an emotional man. I do not believe in love or happily ever after’s. Sex is a base feeling and action. I'm attracted to you and I want you. Monique does not care if I'm with someone else. We have an arrangement and she understands what I want and need. I'm a businessman, I need a beautiful woman on my arm."
Louise closed her eyes as he whispered furtively to her; she could feel his breath warm on her neck. She felt her heart cracking as he talked about how beautiful Monique was. She turned her face away from him and out her hand on the door handle.
"Please, let's just go." Her voice was high and squeaky and she hoped that he didn't realize just how much she was hurting.
They pulled around to the front of the house in silence and Louise saw David and Monique laughing about something. She frowned, upset with David for being so friendly to Monique. She had hoped that David would also dislike Monique so she wouldn't feel so alone in her hatred of the slinky redhead.
David opened the back door for Monique and they got into the car laughing.
"What are you two giggling about?" Richard's voice was smooth and curious. "Not my salsa skills I hope."
"No dear brother, we were talking about the newest Monty movie; it was hilarious, have you seen it?"
"No, I don't have time for stupid movies."
"But Richard you promised to take me to the newest Bradley Cooper movie in a few weeks." Monique's voice was whiney.
"Sorry dear. That's not going to happen, I'll be in London on business for the next month." Richard's voice sounded anything but sorry and Louise smiled to herself.
