by Zante, Lily
“I didn’t call you,” he said slowly, gritting his teeth together.
“I missed you,” she countered, walking towards him and putting her arms around his waist. “A whole week has passed and you never called, not even during Christ—”
“We had a deal.” He moved her hands away.
“I know,” she said, sounding unsure for the first time. He stared down at her perfectly shaped lips now painted burgundy. With her wavy blond hair and brown eyes and eyebrows, she looked a cross between a newbie movie-star and a rock princess. “I was worried about you, Tobias. What’s changed? You don’t call. I haven’t seen you for a while, and you’ve been distant lately.”
“This was never meant to be a relationship. I made that very clear from that start. You do understand that, don’t you?”
Her forehead puckered. “I know that. I know the deal we have—”
“Then you must know I pay for your services as and when I need them.”
She placed her hands around his waist once more, “I understand, Tobias. But I’ve been waiting for you and I miss you.” She leaned in and slipped a kiss on the side of his face, but he moved his face away quickly and stepped back. “I will call you when I want to fuck you. Do you understand?” He threw his words at her like cold water over her feelings. Her eyes glistened.
“I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.”
“Why did it happen this time?”
“I was worried about you. You never returned any of my texts. It’s not like you, Tobias.”
He stared at her, at the open invitation that she was, leaving nothing to the imagination. He could screw her right now, and she’d be fine with whatever he did to her. A man’s dream, and here she was, ready and waiting for him; only, he’d lost his appetite lately. Naomi was too easy. Not that it had ever been about the thrill of the chase with her. She was a sure thing. He got what he paid for.
Savannah Page, on the other hand, was something else. She offered more in the way of mental stimulation and she managed to do it in her sensible shoes and clothes that clearly looked as though they’d seen better days. He couldn’t figure it out—his interest in her—but knew only that she had something that piqued it.
Mistaking his silent contemplation as a sign of his weakness, Naomi started to unbutton her shirt.
“Don’t,” he warned.
“I’m here now.”
He moved toward her and gripped her wrist to stop her from undoing the last few buttons. “I said, ‘Don’t.’”
“You want me, Tobias. I can see it in your eyes.” He clenched his jaw tightly, allowing his mind to drift to the thoughts of what she could do. She was a great lay. Sensational.
“Let me,” she reached down to unzip him but he grabbed her wrist.
“Get dressed and leave.”
“Is there someone else? Is that it?” She challenged him. Then softening, “You can still have me. I’m discreet. You know I am.”
“You broke our agreement.”
“I’m sorry,” she whined, the pleading in her voice grating on him. “Don’t do this.”
“Are you telling me what to do?”
She stepped back and quickly regained her composure. “No. No, I—” she started to button up her shirt.
“Never break my rules again.”
“I won’t. I promise. It won’t happen again, Tobias.” She slipped on her jacket and grabbed her handbag, following him to the door. He said nothing as they got into the elevator but he could tell that she was anxious. She was probably worried that she had messed things up.
He had nothing to say, not even to put her out of that wretched misery he could see so clearly on her perfectly made-up face. They weren’t so different after all, he decided. Her and Candace. Naomi fixed him when it came to sex and Candace fixed him when it came to office duties.
In between the two was a wide open void in which he floundered, lost and bitter. When the elevator stopped at the 21st floor, he turned to give her a final parting nod.
“I’ll wait for you to call me,” she said quietly.
He stepped out and almost walked into Savannah Page.
Chapter 9
“Hi,” said Savannah when she saw Tobias getting out of the elevator. The smile on her face slid to the floor as her gaze fell on the woman who remained in the elevator. “I’ll wait for you to call me.”
He rushed out without replying and Savannah caught a glimpse of the faint telltale lipstick stain on the side of his face.
This was his wife?
And they’d both been in the penthouse.
She smiled at the woman and said, ‘Hi.’ The woman smiled back but said nothing and then looked away as though she didn’t want to talk.
Savannah settled back against the elevator wall and stared. She had often wondered what Tobias Stone’s wife was like and here she was with a clear view of the other woman’s side profile. The woman stared at the door, her face was turned away but Savannah’s quiet observation took in her attire from top to bottom. She was smartly dressed, smart and sexy, and she was pretty too. When a few more people got in at subsequent floors, she was able to observe without it being so obvious.
She felt a twinge of something. Disappointment, or was it jealousy? Self-conscious, she smoothed her hair down and stared at her sensible pumps before stealing a gaze at the woman’s shiny blood red sling backs with tiny pencil-tip heels. Her shoes matched her handbag. She shuffled her feet together and clung tighter to her tattered dark brown handbag. The inside seam was ripped and sometimes her possessions would disappear in the space between the lining and the cheap leather, making it hard for her to find her keys or cell phone which always seemed to slip into that gap.
Maybe she would treat herself to a pair of shoes at some point, even though she couldn’t compete with the woman, and why was she even thinking of competing? Tobias Stone’s wife had no worries in life. The woman probably had a daily routine that was so very different from hers.
The elevator emptied at the ground level and Savannah watched her closely from a few steps behind. Once she had gone through the revolving doors, she soon lost sight of her.
She crossed the road to go and headed towards the coffee shop. During the whole of this week she hadn’t brought sandwiches with her to work. Instead she’d given into the luxury of buying her lunch, feeling at last as though she finally belonged in this city that never slept. Now if only she could secure a permanent job, her plan for this year would be well underway.
After lunch she had half a box of files left which she worked through half-heartedly. She’d lost her enthusiasm. Feeling a little lonely, she emailed Briony to give her an update and was surprised to receive an instant reply from her:
“You didn’t take my advice and slow down, did you?”
Savannah replied:
“I don’t know what ‘slow down’ means. Speed is built into my DNA.”
She was still smiling to herself when Briony’s reply came through:
“If you’re done for the day, then you might as well leave. I’ll see you next week.”
And at that moment, the phone rang. The sound of Tobias’s voice made her jump, not because he was loud, but because she had convinced herself that he wouldn’t be in anymore.
“I have another document that needs fixing. Could you come and do your magic?”
She closed her email. “I’ll be over,” she replied, her stomach quivering already. Better to get it over and done with.
Seeing that his door was already open, she walked in to find him sitting on the couch with files strewn open beside him and on his desk.
“The document’s open on the screen,” he told her.
“Are you having an end of year tidy up?” she asked, noting that his office had never looked messier. He attempted a smile but the skin around his eyes was tight, and he looked irritated. “Something like that.”
She sat down and started to work. “It’s easy enough to fix,” she said.
&nbs
p; “What is?”
“The template. I could show you how to, if you want.”
He shook his head in irritation. “You can show Candace when she’s back. I don’t need to know.”
She was about to tell him that she would be leaving tomorrow but judging from his previous reply, she decided not to say anything. Tobias doesn’t concern himself with such lowly matters. Briony had said something like that. Savannah glanced over at him and watched briefly as he flicked through his papers. Tension hung low and heavy in the room and she wasn’t sure what had happened but he seemed to have closed up again.
She got up. “It’s done. Was there anything else?” She asked as she walked towards the door. He continued to scribble away, seeming overly busy with his paperwork.
She stared at the faint lipstick mark on his face. “You have a slight—”
He looked up and she coughed lightly, pointing vaguely at her own cheek. “A lipstick mark on your cheek.” At first he frowned, then scrubbed his face roughly.
“It’s gone,” she offered, wanting to be helpful. Something about the way he avoided eye contact with her gave her the courage to push forward when her gut instinct warned her to back off. But she’d already seen his wife and she felt it was only polite to ask. Her curiosity was getting the better of her. “Did she like it? The gift?”
“What gift?”
“The blue gift box? Did your wife like it?” Savannah asked.
His face hardened at her words and she got the heavy feeling that she had pried too far into his life.
“My wife?” He asked quietly. “You think she’s my wife?” She knew in that instant that the woman she’d seen was not. “I’m sorry, I assumed…” But it was too late to take back her words. She left quickly, without saying another word.
Back in the safety of her room, she collapsed in her chair and stared at the screen. And then she had an idea. She started to search online for information on Tobias Stone.
And what she found made her heart sink. She stared at the screen, her insides feeling cold and as she re-read the article. Not content, she searched some more and clicked on every single link to do with him. It all pointed to the same thing. How the clever boy from Queens had built his empire.
And how he’d lost his young wife in a tragic car accident years ago.
There was no mention of Naomi anywhere and though he appeared on many lists—in the hot, young bachelors list, the most desired men in NY list, and in the wealthiest young men lists—there was hardly any coverage of him with women.
After a while of perusing through the information on Tobias Stone, Savannah held her head in her hands and contemplated the man’s reaction. It hadn’t been so bad, given his circumstances.
The poor man.
Chapter 10
Mistaking Naomi for his wife was the worst insult to Ivy’s memory. Tobias threw down his pen and got up as soon as Savannah had disappeared.
It was bad enough that Naomi had pissed him off this morning, and now this. He stared at the papers strewn everywhere. This was what happened when his mind was in disarray.
If Savannah Page didn’t know that his wife had died, she must have been one of the few women in New York to be ignorant of the fact.
The press intrusion into his life at that time had been merciless. He had proved their accusations of a cover-up to be false and he had told them everything. He hadn’t held anything back. But he was bait, a billionaire who had fallen down and one whom many wanted to see stay down.
It had taken him a year to get through the outcome of what had happened, and to walk away from it and attempt to carry on with his life. Despite the verdict, he still blamed himself. Nobody could take that away from him.
He had managed to successfully avoid being connected to any one woman since then. Truth was, he wasn’t interested in anyone. It had done wonders for his business, taking him to wealth beyond his wildest dreams. But personally and emotionally, he was a broken man who hid his emotions, or tried to.
He got through his days with his sole aim of building his business and taking it to newer heights. Men of his position and power never sat back on their laurels. It was like an addiction, wanting more, being the best, more wealthy, more successful and killing off the competition. It was far easier than going through the pain of falling in love and having it ripped out of his hands.
Being left behind was brutal.
Now this temp had managed to wriggle under his skin and asked questions that nobody else had dared, mostly through ignorance, but she also stood up to him. Each time he spoke to her, she seemed to have a knack for unsettling him. And yet he was drawn to her out of curiosity.
When his cell phone rang and Xavier’s name blinked at him, he was forced to dispense with his thoughts and he took the call reluctantly, knowing that if he didn’t his mom and his brother would spend all of the next day bugging him.
“He answers,” Xavier muttered.
“What is it?”
“Great to hear from you too, Bro.”
Tobias hung his head. “What do you want, Xavier?”
“It’s New Year’s Eve tomorrow.”
“And?” He had managed to avoid his family over Christmas and hoped to do the same over New Year’s. Seeing them for Thanksgiving had been enough. They didn’t normally badger him but because he was in New York this year, they seemed to think he would be especially lonely for their company.
“How about we get together? We haven’t seen you, not even for Christmas. Mom was real mad.”
“I know.” He’d have to fix that at some point. His father didn’t hound him but his mother more than made up for it.
“She’s worried about you, that’s all.”
“I’m fine.”
“Are you?” Xavier asked.
Tobias made a gruff noise and scratched his forehead. “Yes.” He wished they would leave him alone. He was fine. He hadn’t fallen to pieces, his company was booming and the share price of his stock was increasing. What more proof did they want?
“Come out tomorrow evening. I’m arranging something with some of the guys. You should come along instead of sitting around on your own doing nothing.”
Tobias closed his eyes, trying to find an excuse. He preferred his own company and wanted to see the New Year in alone, with only a bottle of whiskey for comfort and company. They all worried about him, but he wasn’t an alcoholic. He’d seen the lives that had been destroyed by one drunk and he wasn’t about to make the same mistake. He was a control freak, wasn’t that what Savannah Page had called him? Control freaks like Tobias Stone would not allow themselves to drink to their death.
“What do you say?” His brother asked as a knock at the door, hard and insistent, clamored for his attention.
“Okay,” Tobias replied, hoping to get rid of him quickly. He’d find a suitable excuse tomorrow.
“I’ll swing by tomorrow,” Xavier threatened.
Tobias slid the cell phone onto his desk and answered his door. Savannah Page stood outside twisting her fingers and looking nervous and he was curious to find out why.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“For earlier. I’m sorry. I didn’t know about your wife.” Her face turned red and the muscles in his body tightened.
She’d only just found out?
“I had no idea,” she warbled on, speaking in the silence that hung between them when he declined to answer. “I’m sorry for mistaking Naomi for your wife.”
Enough.
He wasn’t used to talking to anyone about Ivy. The court case had been hard enough and he didn’t want memories of that time to be ruffled up again. Now this woman who barely knew him and knew nothing about Ivy was bringing it up again. He stepped forward and grabbed her wrist. “Don’t. Ever. Say. Anything. About. My. Wife. Again.” He said slowly, before realizing that he had gripped her tightly. He quickly loosened his hold. “And don’t ever make the mistake of thinking Naomi is her.”
Her brows pinched together and she seemed to crumple before his eyes. Pulling her hand free, she rubbed her wrist as she stumbled backwards, lowering her head, but not before he saw the look of anguish in her eyes. And then she rushed away.
He’d gone too far and he knew it.
Chapter 11
Shock dulled her brain as she stumbled back to her room, reeling from his actions.
She was glad she hadn’t spoken to Briony about extra work—she’d be glad to see the last of Stone Enterprises and the tyrant of a man who ran the company. Turning off her PC, she left the office an hour before it was time to go home.
Her mood blackened further as she sat on the subway, her thoughts a firestorm of chaos as she recounted what had happened. Every interaction with that man left her feeling as though she’d been stamped and trodden on.
“What happened to you?” Rosalee asked, when she returned home later that evening.
“Nothing,” replied Savannah, bravely trying to muster a smile. She kissed Jacob who’d come running to her but he raced off again before she’d had a chance to speak to him.
“Nothing?” Rosalee stared at her closely. “That face does not suit you.” Savannah loved Rosalee’s expressions, and this one made her smile. “That one I like,” said the elderly woman, approving. “Are you working tomorrow?”
That didn’t sound too good. “I am,” she replied slowly. “Is it a problem?”
“Not at all. My son and his family are visiting tomorrow but it is not a problem. I can look after Jacob at my place.”
She felt as if she’d given Rosalee no choice in the matter. If her son and his family were coming over tomorrow, then Jacob would only get in the way. She considered the possibility of taking a day off sick and after the sort of day she’d had she didn’t want to risk running into Stone again. Of course being a temp, she wouldn’t get paid for it, but she didn’t want to take Jacob into work either. Getting too lax about things at Stone Enterprises, as she’d recently found out, bit her where it hurt.