Erard led me straight across the corridor. In front of us, two huge wooden doors that looked as if King Kong might be imprisoned behind them. He marched in without knocking, pushing the doors wide.
Oh. My. God. I was flying.
The meeting room was double height, the ceiling maybe twenty feet above me. Somewhere vaguely behind me, I remembered that there was a door and a corridor, but they were forgotten because all around me was…sky.
We were in one corner of the very top floor of the skyscraper and two entire walls were glass. It felt as if the floor was floating in mid air, fifty stories up.
“Tell them I’m sorry,” Erard said. “My translator was injured in an accident, and you have kindly stepped in as a replacement.”
My eyes were still locked on the view. I could see Central Park. I could see cars and buses and tiny dots that must be people. I finally looked at Erard. “Hmm?” I asked, my eyes wide.
He smiled at me, amused.
It clicked that he’d asked me to say something and I mentally rewound. I became aware of the other people in the room, eight of them, all gathered around a conference table, some of them still getting to their feet. They all stood up when we walked in, I realized. No, when he walked in. Who was this guy?
I translated what Erard had said into English and everyone nodded apologetically and offered their understanding and hopes for a speedy recovery. Erard sat down at the head of the table and indicated that I should sit next to him. I sank into the plush leather chair, casting worried glances at the other people at the table. There were five men and three women and every one of them was dressed in a suit that cost at least a month of my rent. They were all desperately trying to look nonchalant, but I kept catching them glancing at me, mystified. What’s a waitress doing at our meeting?
I was wondering the same thing. I only knew that, every time I looked at Erard, at those lips and cheekbones, strong and elegant at the same time, I knew that I would happily walk into a biker bar if it meant being close to him.
He’s not interested in you, I told myself again.
“Please remind them that this is just an introductory meeting to discuss terms,” Erard said in French. “Nothing is binding. Nothing is absolute.” His voice slowed as he looked at me. “We’re just…getting to know one another.”
I held his gaze for a moment longer than was necessary and then quickly nodded and went to translate. “Wait,” I asked. “I don’t know your name. What do I call you?”
He grinned. “Vannier. Erard Vannier.” He was sitting back in his chair, as lazily relaxed as if he was lounging around at home. His eyes gave something that I almost would have said was a twinkle, if I hadn’t known better. Guys didn’t twinkle their eyes at me, especially not ones like him.
I cleared my throat. “Mr. Vannier says….” I began. I saw his smile widen and wondered why. I plunged on and the meeting began.
The first few minutes were terrifying. I barely had time to look at Erard, because most of the talking was done by the others and I had to laser-focus on them, making sure I didn’t miss a word. Then I’d spin and repeat what they’d said to Erard, and he’d nod and smile and think for a second and then trot out a short reply.
On about the tenth exchange, I caught a glimpse of his reflection in the shiny surface of someone’s laptop lid. I could see him quite clearly, sitting next to me, but he wasn’t looking where I was, down the table towards the others. He was looking to his side. He was looking at me.
I swallowed and felt the heat rise in my face. No, not my face…my whole damn body. And it wasn’t the same kind of embarrassed heat I usually got when someone stared at me. This was coming from somewhere deeper inside, somewhere right at the core of me.
I turned to Erard to translate for him and he smiled so patiently and indulgently and goddamn gorgeously that I mistook décennie (ten days) for décade and told him the negotiations would take about ten years to complete. His smile broadened for a second, but he didn’t call me on it and I was very grateful for that.
After a while, it started to get easier. I could feel long-disused cogs starting to turn in my brain, dusty vocabulary being trundled out of the archives and into the sunlight. My initial fear burned away and I started to relax a little. I even began to enjoy myself. I can do this, I realized, amazed. And this is so much better than working at the diner. Listening to Erard’s words was like bathing in honey—I would have closed my eyes, I enjoyed it so much, if that wouldn’t have made me look even weirder. I actually forgot he was speaking to me in French, the translation began to flow so easily.
That’s when Erard threw me the first curveball. “Tell them yes on the media department but there’ll need to be concessions on their side when it comes to purchasing. Also, I want to delicately lick your breasts until you come.”
I got as far as translating concessions before the end of the sentence registered in my brain. My head snapped back to Erard as if on a spring.
He was grinning at me. And not in a teasing, evil way. In a teasing, sexy way. As if he actually meant it.
My whole body seemed to vibrate, as if someone had strummed me like a guitar string. The heat flashed through my body, soaking into every part of me. I swallowed and gaped and then translated just the first sentence.
“None of them speak French,” Erard told me.
I looked around at the eight other people at the table. No one looked shocked or amazed at what he’d said…but would they? What if they did understand and were just hiding it?
My mouth moved, but no words came out.
“Have I offended you?” asked Erard. “That was not my intention.”
Yes, I thought automatically. Of course you have! You can’t just say something like that to a woman!
“I meant what I said,” Erard told me.
The heat roiled and swelled inside me. I closed my eyes for a second. He’s just taunting you, I thought. No one’s interested in a woman who looks like you. He’s kidding.
I opened my eyes and met his gaze. Oh God. He wasn’t kidding.
Get the whole thing right now on your Kindle, at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk
Other Stories in this Series
The British Nanny and Her Billionaire Employer
20 year-old British nanny Kate has spent a great year looking after billionaire Jered's kids...unaware that since his divorce, her handsome employer's been seeing her in a new light. But when she's caught in the rain and soaked through, Jered sees her strip off for a shower and his lust becomes too much for him. She's shocked when he seduces her...and takes her virginity.
What Kate doesn't know is that Jered wants more than just sex. He wants to explore her young body and initiate every part of it, from her prim, nervous mouth to her tight, toned ass. The posh Brit is about to get a lesson from an American man who knows exactly what he wants, and won't stop until he gets it.
Get it at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk
The Lawyer and the Outlaw Biker
Miranda has spent her whole life following a plan, and her dark fantasies about rough, dominating men have remained no more than daydreams. But when she breaks down on a desert road and accepts help from muscled biker Kyle, she has to make a decision: take the safe, sensible course of action or give herself up to her lust?
She doesn't know that this biker's after more than just sex. Kyle doesn't believe in condoms, and he wants his new girl bred. Miranda's about to discover that the best things in life are unplanned...
Get it at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk
The Stewardess and the Billionaire CEO
Kaitlyn has always denied the dark cravings that lie within her...a need to be tied, teased and taken. Everything changes when she meets billionaire Drew on the London to LA flight. He shows her what it's like to submit...but there's a problem. This dom wants more--he wants to impregnate the beautiful young stewardess...even if it means taking her in public, at 30,000 feet....
Get it at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk
Fresh-faced intern Christina has been secretly lusting after Senator McKalvin ever since she joined his re-election campaign. But though he's handsome and powerful, he's twice her age: he couldn't possibly be interested in an inexperienced twenty year-old!
Brendan McKalvin is sick of playing the good guy for the media. When it looks like he's about to lose the election, he throws caution to the wind...and what better way to let his dark side loose than by seducing his beautiful young intern and getting her pregnant?
But what starts as a moment of madness on the senator's desk turns into something deeper. Will Brendan choose to win the election...or win Christina's heart?
Get it at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk
The Maid and the Billionaire Prince
Anabelle has her whole life planned out and babies aren’t even on the horizon. When Prince Taros comes to stay in the hotel where she works, he sounds like exactly the sort of man she hates: rich, arrogant and fiercely traditional.
Then she meets him.
Will Taros be confounded by a woman who knows her own mind…or entranced by her? And will Anabelle stick to her beliefs or allow herself to be seduced by a man who wants her in his bed…and carrying his child?
Get it at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk
The Cocktail Waitress and the Card Shark
Julie believes she’s a magnet for bad luck. Trapped in a dead-end job as a casino waitress, her dreams of medical school in tatters, the last thing she needs is a smooth-talking gambler trying to get her into bed.
But Taylor, a professional card shark, is looking for more than sex. If he can convince her that good luck can come her way, Julie might just be his salvation. His lessons will take her to the heights of passion and the edge of reason…but dare she make the riskiest bet of all—one that involves her fertile body?
Get it at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk
The Lady and the Pirate (A double length special!)
When black sails appear on the horizon, bookish Katherine finds herself first threatened, then saved by Captain Mullen and his band of pirates. Shy and nervous around men, with a thirst for knowledge that her suitors find “improper,” she knows she’s no one’s fantasy. So why does the gorgeous pirate captain keep looking at her that way?
Robert Mullen thought he’d closed his heart and lashed down his feelings when he led his ex-navy crew into piracy. But as soon as Katherine comes aboard, he starts to wonder if he has one last shot at happiness. A life, a home, a family…she could give him everything he wants. But she’s from a completely different world.
She wants him. He needs her. But if he’s going to possess her completely, he wants more than just her body. He wants her to have his child.
Get it at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk
The Nurse and the Soldier
Torn from the safety of a Chicago ER, nurse Mei Li is struggling to adjust to life in a desert war zone. She works around the clock to save the wounded…but who’s going to save her?
Enter Private Pete Belling. Counting the days until the end of his tour, the last thing he expected to find in the desert was love. Fraternizing with the medical staff is strictly forbidden. But when he meets Mei Li, he’s ready to break all the rules to be with her.
They begin a secret romance, meeting for risky encounters and always seconds from discovery. But when Pete’s sent on a mission he might not come back from, he asks Mei Li if she’ll help him leave behind a legacy. Can she risk getting pregnant by the man she loves…when she knows he could be dead tomorrow?
Get it at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk
The Curvy Waitress and the Billionaire French Count
Broke, stuck in a dead-end job and uncomfortable with her curvy body, New York waitress Holly thinks life can’t get any worse…until she accidentally whacks a customer with a tray, breaking his nose.
But the customer, now unable to speak, is the personal translator of drop-dead gorgeous Erard, a billionaire French Count who speaks no English. When he discovers that Holly is fluent in French, he takes her with him as his interpreter.
Thrown into a world of luxury and wealth, Holly learns that her new boss finds her curves delicious. But will he be able to convince her she’s perfect the way she is? And can she accept his brand of hedonistic, carefree lovemaking: no inhibitions, no fears…no condoms?
Get it at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk
© Copyright Victoria Wessex 2014
The right of Victoria Wessex to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1988
All characters, events, organizations and companies in this book, other than those clearly in the public domain, are fictitious or are used fictitiously and any resemblance to any real persons, living or dead, events, organizations or companies is purely coincidental.
Cover characters are models. Images licensed from (and copyright remains with) the photographers/owners as follows: couple - Hot Damn Designs, sunrise - Wujekspeed / Depositphotos.
This book contains explicit material and is for adults only. All characters portrayed are intended to be over 18 years of age, even where not explicitly stated.
This story exists in a world of fantasy. Always practice safer sex and keep your play safe, sane and consensual.
Contents
Title Page
Also by Victoria Wessex
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Epilogue
Extract from The Curvy Waitress and the Billionaire French Count
Other Stories in this Series
Copyright
The Curvy Vet and the Billionaire Cowboy (He Wanted Me Pregnant!) Page 7
