Rose Blood

by Jessica Miles

  She was still coming to terms with the rather strange end to her evening. Marcus had simply disappeared from the room with scarcely a word said. His driver had arrived a few minutes later and had escorted her to the car and she had been driven home. It had been odd, downright peculiar in fact. One minute heat and passion, the next, gone…

  She initially thought it was perhaps something she had done or said, but thinking the events over and over, she could see no particular fault of hers.

  Had Marcus simply changed his mind?

  Anyway… if he didn’t have the decency to at least say goodnight, she wasn’t going to bother with him. He was just a fund after all. A big pot of money. End of! Still, she couldn’t get him out of her mind. He had really got her going and swept her off her feet with his playboy charm, his perfect pre kiss and scorching hot samples…

  As she left the lift and turned to enter the office she had a rather big surprise. On the top of her desk sat a bunch of pink roses in a beautiful hand tie arrangement with a whipped up massive white bow. She was quite sure Harry hadn’t sent them judging by the look on his face right now. He wouldn’t have anyway… no way would he be this blatant in the office. How had Marcus got these here so fast… it was only 8 in the morning! Money helped obviously.

  As she approached her desk a loud round of cheering and whistling sounded out from her work colleagues. She looked around in disgust. They were making all kinds of obscene gestures.

  She gave them the finger up sign with two hands.

  “The show’s over you sad bunch of bastards…” She sat down at her desk in front of the flowers. She wasn’t quite sure what to do with them. She turned her head to Harry who sat still and stony faced staring at his screens next to her.

  “Good night, was it?” he asked in a quiet voice.

  “Harry, I don’t know what all this is for…” she said gesturing with her head at the roses. Another lie…

  “Read the note… that may remind you”

  She picked the note out from inside.

  “Rose – Thank you for a lovely evening and that sample. Sorry I had to rush off – M.”

  “I didn’t sleep with him Harry.” No, she hadn’t, but she had wanted to so much. Guilty feelings consumed her every fibre.

  “What was he sampling exactly Rose?”

  “Oh that… it was just a goodnight kiss.” She tried to sound casual but wasn’t sure she managed it very well . “And Harry, you know what I have to do eventually. Is this moody sulking going to go on and on for months, because if it is, we’d better end our little fling before it gets even more difficult for us. I can’t even think straight already because of you.”

  He put his head in his hands.

  “Rose, it’s not a fling for me! I love you and this whole arrangement is killing me. How can I let you do this, tell me…” his quiet voice caught and a strange sound emerged. He wouldn’t break down in front of her. He would have to get through this little scene somehow.

  He swallowed hard and finally coaxed the words he didn’t want to say to come out.

  “I think we should hold off until you finish your job with him Rose, I just won’t share you.” He whispered.

  “Maybe that’s best Harry. Not just for you, but for me too… it’s too tough on me.” She was speaking the painful truth. She wasn’t a two guy girl. Well she liked to think she wasn’t, but actually she wasn’t sure any more. One man should be quite enough to concentrate on, especially if her job depended on it. Her eyes were misting up badly. She felt so bad for Harry and for herself too… they definitely had something great going between them. What dreadful timing this all was. It was partly her fault starting all this up right now. She felt so sick and almost numbed out with the amount of acute emotional stress that was churning around inside… A tear rolled down her cheek…

  He got up and left the room. He needed some fresh air and a chance to think. His eyes were blurring up.

  She wiped away the tear and moved the roses to the shelf on top of her desk, blocking out the view of overweight Fridge who had been smirking rather evilly at her from the next group of desks to theirs. God she hated the men in here sometimes… Finally she got started with her day. Mike wasn’t in the office. She was glad she wouldn’t be subject to any inquisition about the extra duties today. She was just about hanging onto herself as it was. She really needed to get on with her work. She had a lot of clients and one really big one to manage. It was a lot of responsibility. She couldn’t sit around lovesick, distraught or moody all day long.

  Harry didn’t come back until quite late that morning. She had taken a quick look at his accounts for him whilst he went AWOL. There was nothing that needed doing to them so she left everything as it was. He was icily silent next to her. She couldn’t expect him to be otherwise. The two times she spoke to him she got a one word answer.

  At 4pm Harry had left and she sat looking at her final day’s efforts. 0.2% wasn’t as much as she’d have liked. She might need to take a more risky route to get her 3% on Monday. Taking big risks wasn’t her way. She’d seen catastrophe strike many times before through taking too much risk on. She might have to resign herself to losing the challenge, it had been a little steep… if only she’d said 2%… she’d have made it by now. She sent Marcus an email and added a couple of words he couldn’t miss.

  “Fund value 1.533 billion, daily gain + 0.2%, Cumulative compound 2.6% - Nearly There! – R”

  A few minutes later a reply appeared.

  “I am more than happy with that. You can stop now! Don’t make any more on Monday. I hope you are feeling okay today, it really was a more than an enjoyable evening – M”

  “I am fine… Flowers lovely, but please no more to the office. I am still somewhat confused about you – very odd”

  They started to have a back and forth email discussion.

  “I am a rather unusual and different type of person Rose”

  “Look, I am not into anything weird or kinky … So Mr D, if that’s your thing, it’s a no-goer 3% or not!”

  “Rose, really…!”

  “Just making it clear I’m not up for that”

  “Have a pleasant weekend”

  “You didn’t say no to weird or kinky”

  “I want to keep you guessing”

  Marcus was quite sure his needs would seem more than a little weird to Rose, but kinky…? Maybe they were…

  Rose closed down her trading systems and left the office. She thought she would go straight home this evening and have an early night. She didn’t want to go out, she was definitely not in the mood for boisterous trader style conversation. She actually felt very down about not being with Harry tonight, he was in her mind almost all the time… almost….

  As she left the lift Harry was sitting and waiting for her in the lobby. He got up and came straight up to her. Her heart lurched at the gorgeous sight of him.

  “Can I talk to you please?”

  “Harry of course you can… I always want to talk to you, you must know that.”

  “Can we go somewhere private, not the bar…”

  “We can go in one of the meeting rooms”

  “That’s fine, just for 5 minutes Rose”

  She was almost certain he was changing his mind again and she would have to go along with whatever it was because quite honestly she couldn’t resist him at all … they made their way to a small meeting room on the first floor. He closed the door behind them.

  “Come here for a minute…” he pulled her towards him.

  Well that didn’t take long, she thought as she stepped into his heavenly arms …

  “Tell me what you feel right now… when I do this” – he gave her a very soft and trembling loving kiss that made her face and neck tingle and her heart squeeze tightly.

  “I feel you love me…”

  “Anything else? Let me do it again…” He held her more tightly and gave her another which made her whole body tingle and squeeze so much she thought it might
be about to explode. He legs went completely from beneath her and she hung on to him…

  “Yes … I might just love you too Harry…” she breathed

  “You know you do”

  Then he gave her another very sexy loving one. He couldn’t have put any more sexy love into it if he tried.

  “I can’t do without you babe. I just can’t.” His eyes were getting damp again…

  She put her forehead against his… Tears started pouring down her cheeks… she might want Marcus rather a lot and after 4 large glasses of wine, but she wanted Harry so much more. Tons more in fact and stone cold sober too. He was becoming her every waking thought. She really needed to avoid Marcus’s company at all costs. He distracted her no end with his hot good looks, playboy charm and witty conversation.

  He didn’t know it but he was ruining things for them.

  “I know, I can’t do without you either Harry. I don’t know what to do about us just now.”

  “Come back with me Rose. Stay at mine this weekend. Let’s not think about anyone else. Let’s just be us, all alone, all weekend.”

  “Oh Harry… I so want that. I thought you’d never ask.” She was planning to stay at a girlfriend’s for the weekend because she didn’t want to be alone, but not anymore.

  Chapter 15

  If there was the tiniest shred of doubt in her mind about the strength of her feelings for Harry they had evaporated completely now. As she lay snuggled up next to him in the early hours of Sunday morning she was quite sure she would marry him and have his children tomorrow if he asked. Her whole life had lightened up with her human sun shining so brightly upon it.

  They had talked about serious things. He wanted her to move in with him soon. He suggested she find a new job, as soon as the account with DeVere was secured at the end of the trial period. Then they could get on with their lives without his overbearing presence spoiling it all.

  This idea actually appealed to her greatly. She didn’t want to work for Mike Harding any more, not after he had put her in this dreadful situation to suit his own ends. All that remained was to keep away from Marcus for a short while. She needed to get her to her privately propositioned goal on Monday and get him to sign, then it would be almost over… Harry could take the fund on soon after that.

  Rose had no idea that Marcus had other plans for her. As of this week avoiding him was going to be impossible.

  Chapter 16

  Marcus was lying in his bed. He picked up his phone and called Jack Bartlett. He ran the company computer systems and was also an IT whiz kid and genius hacker. He had certain people who looked after certain things in his life. Jack didn’t know everything about him. Not like Benet and Jeff did. It was Sunday morning but his people were on call any time. They worked very flexible hours and in return he was a very good employer. He paid them all very well. Money inspired loyalty in his mind. People would do anything for it. They type of money he paid them anyway.

  “Jack, I have a job for you. I want you to gather some personal details on a Miss Rose Porter. Address 16c Cheshire Gardens, Highgate. She works at Polygon Investments, Cabot Square in Canary Wharf. I want you to dig around and get all the usual stuff on her. Personal history, doctor’s records, family, the lot… okay…? I need it done by tomorrow lunchtime latest or sooner if you can. And Jack, I’ll make it worth your while…”

  “Right, got all that, I’ll get started, I’ll let you know how I’m doing later on today”

  “Thanks Jack. It’s appreciated.” He ended the call to Jack and called Jeff.

  “Jeff, put a tail on Rose from tomorrow and get a list of all the phone calls she makes and who they are. I want to know what she does, her friends, any men she’s seeing, and where she goes the next couple of days…”

  “Gotcha Marc, I’ll sort it with Lila. Is she goin’ on yer list?”

  “Oh yes Jeff, this one is definitely on my full list. I want you to look into preparing the spare suite for her on the second floor. I want to make it into an office, you can keep the bed but set a desk up and she’ll need good IT connections and dealing systems… talk to Jack about it, tell him she’s a fund manager, he’ll find out what she needs.”

  He put the phone down and stretched on his bed smiling to himself. He was looking forward to having her about, whether he won their little challenge or not. It had been a long time since he had been so completely enamoured with a woman.

  Chapter 17

  Rose sat at her desk Monday morning with a serene smile on her face. She was so loved up she couldn’t get any higher. She sneaked a quick look at Harry. Yep, he looked about the same…

  She had one day left to get the account to 3% and needed 0.4% to do it. She sat and had a think about it. It might be possible to run an open futures position today, there was always movement in those, but with that came a little risk. She might be prepared to gamble it today. If she didn’t hit the 3, she may as well only reach 2, the effect was the same – losing her bet … it was worth a punt in her mind.

  She got up and went over to the proprietary desk to chat to Dirty. He was lazing back in his chair reading a Loaded magazine. He looked up and so did Nick and Epic, a nickname he had earned from his monumental temper outbursts. She didn’t come down the lion’s den end of the office very often, and for good reason. They often watched porn when they got bored… it made her feel very uncomfortable…

  “Dec if I could interrupt your little break for a moment – I need to pull a favour. I want to run an open position on Futures sometime today to get a little bit more growth on the big fund I have so we can secure it here. What do you suggest?”

  “Want me to be suggestive do ‘ya sweet pants?” He replied in his usual gutter style…

  “Dec… I’m talking work here!”

  “Well if we’re talking seriously, at the moment I’d go for German Bunds or maybe 3 month September or December euribors, there’s a good spread, but it could go either way… how much you wanna do?” He sat up straight and looked her up and down very thoroughly.

  “How about 500 mill?” She ignored his current appraisal of her chest.

  “Yeah – could do that intraday on my account, I have a big enough margin… what’s in it for me sweet pants?” He gave her a leering look.

  “My eternal thanks?” She had a feeling that wasn’t going to cut it.

  “What about some of what you dished out to DeVere…”

  Nick sniggered loudly when Dirty said this… he was obviously enjoying the entertainment.

  “Well that should be easy enough Dec, as that is fucking nothing at all…” Her voice rose with anger.

  “Why don’t I believe you for a second? Flowers for nothing? Give me a fucking break…”

  “That was to say thank you for attending his evening event at short notice” Why was she explaining herself by telling half truths to this dirty minded moron…? And worse still he actually had it almost right as well…

  “We all read the note Ro… I was gonna scan it and email it round the company, but my mate Charlie over there said no, it might get me in trouble…“

  She was seething inside.

  “Look why are we having this conversation about nothing important Dec? Can’t you just help a fellow workmate out for once without there being something in it for you. We are a team in here, aren’t we?” She tried to appeal to his nicer side, if there was one… she doubted it though.

  “Nope – always have an angle. Don’t do without getting done, that’s my motto. What’s a quick fuck to you anyway Ro? You and Harry have them all the time, so I hear”

  “WHAT…?” This was more than a shocking change of subject matter. She was almost shaking with anger at this point.

  “Everyone knows. He told us the other night on the way down to ABO.”

  “He would never, ever do that” She was absolutely certain he wouldn’t have told anyone.

  “No you’re right, he didn’t… but your face just did… it was just a hunch before, yeah, that
and the fucking cloud of steam around your two desks.” He gave her the most evil look ever.

  “Look, what Harry and I get up to in our spare time is of no concern of yours. I am asking you one more time. Will you run that for me today Declan Morgan? I’ll buy you a bottle of the best Champagne in the bar, final offer…” The man was a complete and utter manipulative, filthy disgusting bastard. She felt so humiliated.

  “Only if you serve it to me naked…”

  “Right. Forget it then.” That will be the last time she ever spoke to him again… She walked off to a chorus of him whistling behind her.

  She arrived back at her desk and sat down with a sick feeling. Her loved up mood had evaporated for the moment.

  “Rose what was all that about?” Harry asked with concern.

  “Well it was a few things, but the big upshot is we don’t have to keep ‘us’ a secret any more Harry, because I just told everyone…”

  “Really? Announcing it at Dirty’s desk doesn’t sound like your style. What did he say to you Rose?” His voice took on a hard edge.

  “Let’s just say he tricked me somewhat. Caught me off guard. My stupid fault entirely. Sorry Harry.”

  “Look don’t be sorry – I don’t mind. I’m pleased they all know. I don’t care who knows about us Rose… What did you want from that lot anyhow?”

  “I wanted to run an open futures position today on the DeVere fund. I have a little wager with DeVere that I could get him 3% in a week… I’m 0.4% away. I thought it was maybe worth asking Dec to help out with an internal position… but it was just a waste of time talking to him, he’s a pig”

  “What happens if you don’t get the 3%?”

  You couldn’t slip things past Harry, he was sharper than a knife.

  “Nothing bad… If I get the 3%, we don’t have to have a one month trial, he’ll sign straight away. I did it to take the pressure off me, so I didn’t have to keep on impressing him, over a whole long fucking month…” She wasn’t about to go into the other part, DeVere’s little counter proposition… Oh no…