by Zante, Lily
“Thanks,” murmured Savannah under her breath, and hoped she wouldn’t run into her again.
Chapter 4
Tobias noticed the smirk on her face as Candace strutted into his office to hand him his lunch. “What’s so funny?”
“It seems we take on just about anyone.”
Puzzled, he lifted an eyebrow.
“That woman,” Candace continued, “from the toy store last week; the one with the kid you took pity on.”
Last week was a lifetime away in Tobias’s life. “What woman?”
“At the charity event at the toy store, for the adoption centers. That woman with that big hole in her tights. She’s in 218.”
Now he remembered. The woman whose son had wanted to stay. The one with the inhaler. “She’s working here?”
Candace nodded. “That’s exactly what I thought. She’s working here. Can you believe it?”
He shrugged, not sure he understood what she was getting at. “What’s so strange?”
Candace stifled a laugh and wrapped her shiny nails around the fur collars of her coat, holding it snug against her neck. “She doesn’t even look the type.”
“I didn’t know we had a type,” Tobias responded, smoothly. He hadn’t been a type—this local boy from Queens. But someone had believed in him, had mentored him and given him a chance. Someone had seen something in the young, dyslexic child whom teachers had given up on. He had a fast and clever brain and a killer instinct which had helped him to make killer deals that made him millions.
For all her talk, the only thing Candace had going for her was that she was his PA, and that in itself gave her prestige.
“She’s wearing a cheap ten dollar suit. It doesn’t look to me as if she’s even run a brush through her hair. And you should see her shoes. Orange paint!” Candace wrinkled her perfect nose.
“If she can do the job, I don’t care.”
“I don’t understand why Briony couldn’t get one of her regular people to do that job. It’s those customer files you wanted scanned and digitized. It’s something a three year old could do.”
“I don’t want a three year old or anyone who works for this company, for that matter to go through my customer files. I want someone to come in and quickly finish the job.” He unwrapped his salt beef sandwich and waited for her to leave.
Candace hoisted her slim and slender fingers on her hips. “I’d forgotten how paranoid you are, Tobias.”
“I don’t trust anyone.”
“Don’t worry,” she turned to walk out of his office. “I doubt that woman can even read.” She gave him a wicked smile, confirming her bitch status. She did a good job for him though, and so he let her be. He tore into his sandwich and considered the idea of the woman who now worked on the same floor as him. For a moment he wondered how her son was but just as quickly the thought was dismissed as his attention quickly drifted to his emails.
It was only later, when he got out of the elevator after meeting with one of his managers, that Tobias’s curiosity got the better of him. Instead of returning to his office, he walked a few doors down, to room 218. The boy so reminded him of himself, that Tobias’s interest in him drove him to hover outside Room 218, wondering how to casually walk in and enquire about the child.
Not one to make conversation with people at the best of times, Tobias decided against it. While he was interested to hear how the boy was doing, he had no desire to talk to his mother and he started to walk away but the sound of something big and heavy falling, punctuated by a frightened shriek at the end, stopped him.
He rushed back and flung the door wide open.
“Oh…SHIT!” The woman lay sprawled on the floor with her legs akimbo and surrounded by a heap of plastic boxes that had fallen. Only one stack of boxed remained standing.
“Are you alright?” he asked, as he knelt beside her. She stared up at him, eyes wide, her hair falling around her shoulders. She scrambled up to a sitting position.
“Are you hurt?” He glanced over her, clearly noticing that her skirt had ridden up to her thighs and that the middle button of her shirt had come undone.
“I was trying to get one of those boxes down.”
The boxes were heavy and she could have been hurt. “Are you insane?” He asked, not without a hint of irritation, as he held out his hand and pulled her up to him.
“No,” she snapped and let go of his hand as if it was on fire. She smoothed her skirt down. “They were piled on top of one another and I’d finished the others—” She began but he wasn’t interested in explanations.
“You could have hurt yourself.”
“I’m fine, really, I am.”
“A lawsuit is the last thing I need.”
She let out a cry of indignation. “I would never—”
“Your blouse,” he said, his gaze falling to her chest and the button that had gaped open revealing an off-white bra. He turned away as she colored the shade of blood red. She turned her back to him as she did up her button. Now wouldn’t be the time to tell her that the back of her tights had a hole in them. Again.
“How’s your son?”
She turned to face him, smoothing down her skirt and her hair, as she tried to put herself together again. But Briony walked in just then, “What happened in here?” she asked, looking around at the pile of boxes that had tumbled onto the floor. Paper from a few of them had fallen out, scattering all over.
“She was trying to get it down.” Tobias explained.
“You finished the other boxes?” Briony looked surprised.
“They were half-full,” the woman explained.
“Didn’t you go through the safety rules with her?” Tobias asked Briony.
“I—” Briony’s face flushed.
“It wasn’t her fault.” The woman jumped to Briony’s defense. “I thought I could lift the lid off and get a few bundles out.”
Briony shook her head. “Next time call maintenance on 1111 and get someone to lift the boxes onto the floor for you. Or come and see me if you need anything. I’m in 222.”
“I will. Sorry,” the temp mumbled.
“Let me introduce you both,” said Briony. “This is Tobias Stone, and this is Savannah Page. She’s with us for three weeks.”
They looked at one another and exchanged forced smiles.
“That will be all, Briony,” Tobias said, turning to Briony and watched her leave the room.
“It wasn’t her fault,” the woman insisted, adjusting her clothes once more. Tobias kept his lips pursed together. “You shouldn’t jump to the wrong conclusions so quickly.”
“Jump to the wrong conclusion? That’s rich, coming from someone who thought I worked at the department store.”
“It’s even worse that you didn’t work at the store and spoke to my son. I’ve taught him not to talk to strangers and you should have known better than to tell him to come inside.”
“You were so busy on the phone, you didn’t seem to be paying him any attention.”
He could see that she didn’t like the sound of that, the way she narrowed her eyes at him. He stepped towards the door and opened it, then turned around.
“Jacob—how is he?” No matter how much she tried to smooth her hair down, there was a curl that always fell forward into her eyes.
“He’s fine. Why?” She looked at him as if to ask what business it was of his. The way she stood with her hands on her hips, it was obvious that she couldn’t wait for him to leave.
“I was just wondering, that’s all. I saw he needed his inhaler.”
“Too much unnecessary excitement over toys.” She made it sound like an accusation.
He hadn’t known asthma to be brought on by excitement and chose not to reply to her comment.
“Candace tells me that you’re working here for a few weeks.”
“Until Christmas. What are you doing here?” Amusement filled the smile he gave her and he watched her brush the dust off her sleeves.
“I work
here, too.”
Displeasure twisted her features and she looked away, as if considering what impact this might have on her. “Nice to meet you, but I have work to do.”
“As do I,” he said, sliding his cell phone out of his back trouser pocket. “If you’ll excuse me.” She bent down to pick up the papers that had fallen everywhere as he left the room.
Four hours of back to back meetings this morning had left him feeling tightly wound up and maybe he’d slot Naomi in later this evening.
Chapter 5
“If you’ll excuse me.”
She shrugged, relieved to see the back of him, and bent down to collect the papers. When she had tidied everything up, she left her office and knocked on Briony’s door.
“You don’t have to knock,” said Briony, when Savannah walked into the large one-room office where three other women sat with a desk in each corner, all of them facing the middle. Savannah braced herself and walked over, ready to make her apology.
“I’m sorry about what just happened.” The last thing she wanted was to displease Briony and she couldn’t afford to get off to a bad start. She needed this contract and hoped that many more offers of work would follow. “I didn’t mean for you to get into trouble on my account.”
Briony chuckled. “Don’t worry about it. Tobias is not the easiest of people to work for.”
“He’s your boss?”
“He’s the main man,” Briony replied. “He owns the company.”
“Which company?” Savannah asked, thinking she had misheard.
“Stone Enterprises.”
“He owns this entire building?”
“Yes. Didn’t you know?”
Savannah shook her head. She had no idea that the hard-faced and cold man she’d met was even capable of making friends, let alone running companies as large as this.
“How long have you been in New York, Savannah?”
“Since summer.”
“And you’ve never heard of Tobias Stone? Or the Stone building? Which is this one, by the way.”
“My son said he’d seen him on TV.”
“Your son is way more clued in.” Briony laughed “On a more serious note, if you need help to get the rest of the boxes down, you must call maintenance. You can’t risk hurting your back or incurring some other injury.”
“I will. I’m sorry it happened.”
Briony got up and put her coat on. “You’re a fast worker. I like that.” She nodded her head approvingly. “We need people like you, just don’t injure yourself.”
Her praise brought a smile to Savannah’s face.
“Call maintenance when the others need shifting.” Briony reminded her.
“I will. Thanks.”
“Now that you’re here, would you mind going to the tenth floor? I’m going to lunch but you could go and ask for your security badge at reception there. This way you’ll be able to walk right in tomorrow morning without me needing to come and fetch you from ground floor reception.”
“Thanks.” She left Briony’s office feeling happier, only to find the elevator doors had opened. She rushed to get in and it was only as the doors shut that she saw the elevator was going up.
Damn.
Seeing that the button to the 30th floor had already been pressed, she decided to wait until the elevator arrived at the 30th before she pressed the button to descend again.
“Where are you going?” The moment she heard the voice, she instantly regretted getting in.
Trust her to get into the same elevator as Tobias Stone. She stared up and looked into his narrowed eyes which were now the color of slate.
“I—uh—I’m going up,” she replied, trying to keep her voice level. Knowing who he was suddenly made her tread carefully and she didn’t feel as well equipped to shoot off snarky comments.
“You’re coming to my penthouse? With me?” His voice was laced with a mocking tone and yet his words sent electric shivers down her spine.
His penthouse?
On the 30th floor?
There was no way to get out of this except to come clean. “Seeing that I didn’t know you had a penthouse on the 30th.” Seeing that I didn’t even know who you were until a few moments ago. “I think we both know that I need to go down.”
“Go down?” His lips curled up, and it was the first hint of a smile, albeit a very naughty smile, that he gave her. She sensed that Tobias Stone was a man of hidden meaning and innuendo. But it didn’t explain why it made her stomach dance as though the wings of a butterfly had brushed against it.
“I—I—” she cleared her throat. “I need to collect my security tag from the tenth.”
He said nothing, but even without looking at him she felt him giving her the once-over. She suffered in silence the awkward and slow ride to the topmost floor and kept her attention on the elevator buttons, avoiding eye contact with Mr. Stone. Yet heat prickled slowly along her skin. Something about him, about being in a confined space with him, was causing her body to react and in a strange way.
The door opened and he walked out, leaving her to slowly exhale and slump back in relief against the elevator wall.
If she was curious for a glimpse into his penthouse, she was disappointed. She saw only a hallway, carpeted this time in light gray, with black wallpaper. At the end of the hallway was a door. She continued to stare as Tobias Stone reached the door, her heartrate accelerating like wildfire. He paused before it and she wondered if he would turn around.
Her mouth fell open and crazy thoughts swirled around in her head. She knew that he knew she was watching him, and she quickly forced herself to press the button to close the doors. She leaned back against the elevator wall and hit the button to the tenth.
She was overcome with relief as the elevator slowly descended. What was it that had sent her heartrate rocketing? Was it the idea of what lay beyond the doors to his penthouse, or the smell of power that automatically came with so much wealth?
She didn’t want to know. When the elevator stopped at the tenth floor she walked out, encircled in giddiness.
It reminded her of the early days when Colt had first kissed her, way before his fist left blue marks all over her body.
Chapter 6
Tobias walked into his penthouse and poured himself a shot of whiskey.
He didn’t usually drink in the afternoon. But he’d just heard that this morning’s negotiations had fallen through and it didn’t look as if they were any closer to doing business with this company. It always pissed him off when a multi-million dollar deal slipped through his hands.
He loosened his tie and threw off his jacket, letting the dark, grassy taste of whiskey slide down his throat as he stared out of his high-rise penthouse. He saw nothing but small specks of dirt down below; people scurrying around like busy ants. Instead of looking down, he much preferred to look out at the New York skyline, to see the city lying before him and to know that he was in the upper echelons of it; he who had been a poor dyslexic child whom most people had been convinced would amount to nothing.
And look at him now. He had everything.
Almost everything.
There had been a time years ago when he had believed he had almost everything. But no more. He’d lost it in the blink of an eye. Had lost them.
He poured himself another shot of whiskey since he had no meetings or any other business lined up in the afternoon. Walking around the cool white marble floor, he stretched out his neck, trying to get the muscles to loosen up. It was peaceful here. The wide open apartment gave him a sense of solitude when he craved peace. When he’d bought the building, one of the designers had laughingly suggested that he could have the topmost floor as a penthouse suite. It was an idea that had excited him and he’d decided to go for it much to the surprise, and delight, of the designer.
Though he never slept here, it was a good, open space, his own space to escape to. Or when he liked to screw. Excitement coursed through his body and he considered whether to call Naomi ove
r tonight.
His was the type of tightness that she was good at releasing, and paying her by the hour meant he didn’t have to go through the rest of that romancing crap. He didn’t even have to talk to her. Staring at his watch he tried to estimate whether to go home for the day. Losing the deal had ruined his mood…he could do with Naomi setting the world to rights for a few hours whether she came here or to his private residence. She didn’t even ask any questions. She just serviced him. That was the best thing about their arrangement.
She was the only other person who had the key to this floor—it was the only way to get here and since the employees only needed to go as far as the 29th floor, there was no chance any of them would ever go as far as the penthouse. He found it amusing that the new temp had managed to catch a glimpse of the floor that very few people had access to.
When his cell phone rang, and he saw Candace’s name on it, he was tempted to ignore it. But he knew she only contacted him if it was an important matter. Reluctantly, he answered it.
“Yes?”
“Where are you?”
“In my penthouse.”
“Tobias, you have a meeting in an hour’s time with Oliver Rothschild.”
Fuck. He’d forgotten. It had only been arranged this morning.
“The driver’s coming for you in ten.”
“I’ll be down shortly.”
Oliver’s meetings often ended up in a strip joint once the business portion was over, and he had no desire to go there. He drained his glass and knew he needed mouthwash. After the heavy meeting with Oliver Rothschild he knew he would need to call Naomi to his private residence later.
Chapter 7
“Mommmeeeeee!”
Savannah ran out of the kitchen and almost tripped as she rushed to the living room. Jacob sat, excitedly pointing to the screen.
“What is it, Jacob?”
“Look, Mommmy. I told you.” He smiled his widest, cheeriest smile.
“The billionaire hedge fund wonder kid, Tobias Stone, lost the…” She stared at the screen still wearing her rubber cleaning gloves. There, in all his glory, was Tobias Stone. A journalist had intercepted him as he was walking towards a building. Watching him, she could see that he barely looked at the screen, choosing to look away, and his responses were concise, to the point. He barely smiled. The all too brief clip showed him then disappear through the revolving doors of the building. The sub heading mentioned a multi-million dollar deal falling through and then the next TV clip showed Tobias Stone with children around a Christmas tree. It looked as if they were in the toy store, the night she had met him.
