He pauses and I have to admit I’m intrigued. Does he have a network of casinos? Is he going to offer me some sort of area manager position? I’d definitely be open to that.
“I’ll make you a fifty percent owner of The Macau, and after five years you can buy me out at the going market rate.”
My eyes widen in shock. “What?”
“You didn’t hear wrong,” he says softly.
“Why?” I gasp out the word that is going round and round in my head like a dog chasing its own tail.
“In exchange for a few weeks of your time. During that time, you will act as my fiancée, and—”
I jump to my feet so quickly the fabulous velvet antique chair underneath me lands on the ground with a loud crashing sound. Ignoring it I glare bolts of fire at Alex. I’m so fucking angry I feel like I might burst into flames any moment.
“How dare you?” I yell furiously. “You waltz in here all mysterious and flirty and think you can buy me? I don’t know what kind of people you usually employ, but let me tell you something. I am not that kind of woman and I never will be. And quite frankly, I’m disgusted you would even suggest such a thing.”
Alex looks at me calmly as I shout at him. “Do you think it is possible, Cindy, that you could be holding the wrong end of the stick?”
I find that hard to believe. How else could he have meant it? I fold my arms across my chest and raising an eyebrow, wait for his explanation.
“If anything, I should be the one that’s offended here. Think about it, do you really think I have to pay for sex?”
I have to admit it does seem extremely unlikely a man like him would have to pay for sex. He must have a string of women queuing up to get into his bed. And to pay that much for a few weeks of sex was sheer madness. And he didn’t look mad. Quite the opposite. As a matter of fact, more and more he is looking like the sane one in our exchange … but that doesn’t change the fact he’s just asked me to be his girlfriend for a few weeks in exchange for money.
“What exactly could your proposition mean except what I thought it meant?” I ask intrigued, but refusing to show it.
“If you’ll just sit back down, I’ll explain everything, I promise. And once I’ve explained, if you don’t want to do it, then I’ll understand. It won’t in any way affect your job here,” he says quietly.
“I won’t be fired?” I ask, in disbelief.
“No, of course not,” he says, looking slightly annoyed that I would even think such a thing. “This is a personal matter outside of the business. Even if you don’t have the sense to see a good deal when one is offered to you, it doesn’t mean you’re bad at running the casino.”
I ignore the dig at my business acumen and choose instead to focus on his deal. I have no intention of being a whore for any amount of money, but since he’s claimed I got the wrong end of the stick, I’m now extremely curious to hear him out. Half of the casino I have given my lifeblood to for years is an unbelievable deal. It will change my life forever and I’d be crazy to not at least wait around to find out what I’d have to do to get it.
I turn around, pick up the chair I knocked over, and sit back down. “Ok, I’m listening.”
“I have a great aunt back in Russia who is very important to me, but I haven’t always done right by her. She’s old now, and I don’t know how long she has left,” he explains, his face and voice utterly expressionless.
I know instinctively he’s telling the truth. People who tell the truth don’t have to varnish their words or create drama in order to be believed.
“Anyway,” he adds, “she has this crazy notion in her head that I need a good wife to look after me. Clearly, I don’t, but she’s stuck on the idea, and I know she won’t be happy until she thinks I’ve found someone. She’s done a lot for me over the years, and I want her to die happy. I’d like to go visit her this weekend, and I want to take a fiancée with me.”
“And that’s where I would come in.”
“Yes,” Alex nods. “That’s what I meant about being my girlfriend for a few weeks, broken down into perhaps three, but most probably only two trips. You wouldn’t actually have to do anything with me. Your job is to be the best actress half a casino can buy. Babushka is a wily old fox and she will see through a wooden performance. I need you to be … and he began to tick the qualities off on his fingers.
“One, beautiful (easy – you already are),
Two, fiery (my aunt will expect the woman I chose to be a fireball),
Three, charming (I’ve seen you with difficult customers and I believe you have that in spades).
And finally, head over heels in love (that’s the bit where you’ll look deep into my eyes as if you can’t believe your luck that you’ve caught such a man).”
Once more, Alex has taken me by surprise. I wouldn’t have picked him as someone who would care so much about an elderly aunt’s feelings to go to all this trouble. The proposal, at face value, sounds like a no brainer. Charm an elderly woman and make her happy for a relatively brief period. But I have a feeling there’s more to it than that. It sounds too easy. Surely no one in their right mind will dream of giving away half a casino for something so simple.
He must have taken my silence as hesitation, because he continues on.
“I assure you I will be perfectly respectful towards you at all times. We will have separate rooms and treat it like a business arrangement. So what do you think?”
“I think flying to a foreign country with a man I’ve just met, particularly one with enough resources to buy a casino on a whim is probably a bad idea. I don’t know if I can trust you or not,” I say honestly.
“That’s a sensible reaction.” He smiles as if what I have said is not a negative, but another step towards his goal. “I can’t say I blame you for being wary. All I can do is assure you that no harm will come to you. I am a man of my word. You are welcome to check out my reputation before you agree. I just want to be able to make an old woman happy.”
I’m inclined to believe him on that score, but something is niggling at me and I don’t know what it is. It comes to me suddenly and I blurt it out.
“You’re a … er … good-looking man,” I start to say when he interrupts me.
“Are you afraid you won’t be able to keep your hands to yourself? Don’t worry, Cindy, I swear I’ll somehow fight you off.” His eyes gleam with amusement.
I roll my eyes. “That’s not what I meant and you know it. What I meant was you can’t be short of an admirer or two. So why me? Why not whisk some woman away for a couple of weeks with her dream man and save yourself a whole lot of money?”
“Let me start with the second part of your question. Do you think it would be fair of me to lead some woman on and let her think we have a real relationship when I would just be using her?”
“Hmmm.” Wow, I really didn’t expect a man like him to care about that side of the situation.
“There’s another more important reason too. I want this to go smoothly. I don’t want to get out there and end up spending the whole week bickering and breaking my aunt’s heart because I only realize when I’m there that I don’t get on with the person I take.”
“How do you know we won’t get there and realize we don’t get on and end up bickering just as hard? You might have heard stories from Lord Alstree’s business manager about my work ethic, but you don’t know me as a person.”
“Well it won’t matter, will it?” he says with a shrug.
His blunt response takes me by surprise. I frown. Does he think that I am someone who will just swoon at his every word?
“It’s a business deal, Cindy. You’ll be getting paid handsomely to do a job. And that job is being nice to me and acting like you’re my fiancée in public. It doesn’t matter if you don’t like me as long as you do what you’re being paid to do.”
“Ok, that makes sense,” I concede. At least he’s not arrogant enough to assume there’s no chance of me not liking him. “But I still don�
�t understand why you’ve chosen me. You must have female friends who could do this as a business arrangement.”
“Would you believe me if I told you that you … are exactly the kind of woman my great aunt would fall in love with?” Alex asks with a twinkle in his eye.
My eyes widen. “What kind of woman is that?”
He laughs. “If I tell you I will spoil it. Just be yourself and she will fall for you hook, line and sinker.”
I scowl. “It sounds wrong when you say it like that.”
“Wrong?” he queries, one eyebrow arched.
“Deceitful. We would be fooling an old lady.”
“All of life is deceitful. When you wore your push-up bra this morning you made the decision to deceive every man that looked at you.”
I blushed. He couldn’t possibly know about my push-up bra. He had to be guessing.
He watched the color that flooded into my cheeks with interest. “My aunt wants me to be married. I don’t want to be married. You want a casino and you don’t have one, I think my proposal is an elegant solution that will keep everybody happy.”
“Why did you offer me half the casino? I would have done it for less.”
“Other than the fact that I find I get a startlingly better performance when I overpay my staff, I also didn’t want to risk the deal because the bait I offered wasn’t juicy enough.”
“Actually, the job sounds too good to be true. Too easy.”
“There’s a little more to it.”
My heart drops a little. I knew it was too good to be true.
“One of the reasons I chose you,” he continues, “is because I’ve seen how you handle difficult customers and keep the peace. I’ve seen how you read people and instinctively know how to handle them. You’re going to need those skills.”
“You’re not exactly making your great aunt sound like the sweet old dear I was imagining,” I say with a frown.
“It’s not my great aunt. She really is the sweet old dear you’re imagining. The problem will be the rest of my relatives. Let’s just say they won’t exactly be welcoming.”
“Why?”
“It’s too complicated to go into, but it is also surplus information. Just manage them the way you would your most belligerent customers and you’ll be fine.”
I’m still not sure what to make of any of this and I don’t quite know what to say. I guess I am intrigued enough by the offer that I don’t want to just flat out turn it down, but I’m not quite ready to agree to it either.
On the one hand, my instincts are telling me to run away from this deal and never look back. But on the other hand, they’re also telling me this might be the doorway through which a whole new world of adventure opens up.
Just imagine … I’ll be able to buy him out in five years!
Oh my God!
I’ll be the owner of my own casino!
The Macau will be mine! Mine! Mine!
Put like that I have no problem dealing with awkward people and I can talk myself into fooling a little old lady especially since it is all for her own good.
“Are you afraid of me, Cindy?” Alex asks suddenly, cutting through my thoughts.
His question is so far out of left field that I just answer it honestly without even thinking about it. “No. Should I be?”
“No.” He smiles. “A lot of people are but let me tell you this, I’m the only person in my family with the sort of past and connections that could make people afraid of me. So if you’re not afraid of me, the rest of my relatives will be a walk in the park.”
I’m sure his words are meant to be reassuring, but I can’t help but wonder if they’re not a cleverly veiled threat. He’s letting me know he has contacts, a past. Yet still I don’t feel afraid of him. The more I think about it, the more I know why I’m stalling on giving him an answer to his proposition.
I am not afraid I’ll get out there and he’ll murder me and bury me in a shallow grave somewhere. I am afraid I’ll get out there and fall for him and make a total fool of myself because that sexual attraction I felt when I first saw him has never gone away. It is in the background pulsing relentlessly.
Even when I was furious with him for thinking he could buy me like a prostitute and I flew out of my chair it was there, throbbing, throbbing, throbbing, like the heartbeat of a fetus, strong, sure, and undeniable. It wants to live. It has a will of its own. To abort it I will have to tear it away from my body and it will forever haunt me as a lump of flesh, blood and guts.
“While I don’t want to pressure you, I really do need an answer,” he murmurs.
“Can I take the rest of the night to think about it and let you know tomorrow?”
“Of course.” He smiles that slow, sure smile.
I get to my feet and head for the door. He calls my name and I pause in front of the door and turn back to see him watching me thoughtfully.
“I told you there would be no hard feelings if you say no, and I meant it,” he says.
I nod. “You’ll have your answer this time tomorrow.”
Cindy
I lie in bed and think of his strong hands touching the chips, almost caressing them, and I feel heat start pooling in my core. As if he was actually stroking my skin. Groaning at my needy response I turn to my side and press my legs together tightly. It doesn’t help the least bit. My whole body feels like it is throbbing for him.
How long has it been since I last had sex?
A year?
Jesus, it hasn’t been that long, surely. I frown. Actually, it may be even longer than that. I’ve been so invested in my career there was no time for fun and games. I roll on to my back and stare at the ceiling. It explains why I’m so hot and flustered for him. That and the fact that he is a very, very fuckable guy, after all. All that raw magnetism. Just thinking of those stormy eyes makes electricity race through my body. My skin tingles with anticipation.
Fuck it!
I slip my fingers into my panties and close my eyes. Suddenly, I’m back outside his office. This time I don’t knock.
This time I walk in, and he doesn’t talk. He looks up. Our eyes meet across the room, then he gets up and crosses the room in that wildly powerful panther-like stride of his. He grabs me by the upper-arms and slams me hard up against the door.
I open my mouth to protest, and he clamps his hand over my mouth and says, “You talk too much, Miss Forrester.” Then he pulls my skirt up to my waist, rips my panties off my body and stuffs them in my mouth.
My whole body is shaking with excitement as he rips my blouse open. Buttons fly everywhere. He makes short work of my bra clasp and my breasts pop out. Immediately he bends his head, swirls his hot, velvety tongue around one nipple, then sucks it into his mouth. His mouth is heaven.
In the darkness of my bedroom I reach into the drawer by my bedside and let my hand close around my trusty old vibrator. I switch it on and push it into my wetness. A muffled moan escapes me …
… as he sucks my nipple hard.
Holding me pressed tightly against the door, he kicks my legs so they spread wide open.
“Don’t fucking move,” he orders.
I don’t even breathe when he knees between my legs, grabs my ass, and pulls me tightly towards his face. His five o’clock shadow rasps against my skin. And it feels delicious. He thrusts his tongue into my pussy, and tongue-fucks me like he can’t get enough. The uncivilized, feral way he eats me makes me go crazy. My fingers rake through his hair and I grind my pussy against his mouth. I feel my juices start to gush into his mouth. I am so close it feels as if I am going to cum in his mouth.
But he stands suddenly.
“Do you want everyone in the casino to know I fucked you?” he growls.
I shouldn’t want that, but I find my head nodding.
He yanks my panties out of my mouth, and before I can even take a breath, he has grabbed my hips roughly and whirled me around to face the door. As my forearms hit the wood, he tilts my body so that my ass is juttin
g out. I scream in shock and pleasure when he rams his cock into me. Balls deep in one swift violent movement. He has entered me bare. Without protection. We are skin on skin. The way I have never been with any man in my life. Before I can even get used to the way his cock stretches me, he begins to fuck me like a madman. Like he damn well owns me. Completely and fully.
There is no way I will be able to walk out of the casino now without every single person knowing Alex Obolensky has fucked me in his office.
My hand thrusts the vibrator faster and faster into me, but I cannot match the speed of his cock inside me.
My body bows and locks and I come harder than I have ever come, on my own or with any man. For a long time, I lie staring at the ceiling, the vibrator still pulsating inside me. Shocked by the intensity of my orgasm.
Sleep becomes impossible.
I spend the rest of the night lying awake, Alex’s proposal going around and around inside my head. I promised him I would think about it, and I meant it, but I didn’t expect it to take up this much head space. I honestly thought that once I was alone, without his smoldering eyes on me, making the decision would be easy. I didn’t expect those eyes to follow me home. Each time I tried to think rationally about the offer, all I could see were those beautifully stormy eyes boring into my soul.
Dawn creeps into the sky and I’m not even a little bit closer to making a decision.
Several times I decided I’m definitely not going to do it, but then a little voice speaks up in my head asking me if I’m actually mad? Half a casino for a few weeks of what is in essence an acting job!
Then I decide I definitely am going to do it because owning my own casino is my biggest dream, until another maddening little voice speaks up and asks me if that’s a good idea. I have never reacted to any man the way I do with him. What if I fall in love with him? He has danger stamped all over him. What’s the point of money if you’re going to get your heart cut to ribbons in a metal shredder?
Nice Day For A White Wedding Page 4
