by Eve, Melody
“Mother, I need you to do something,” I say cutting her off. I don’t have time to chat about her French boyfriend right now. I need to know if this photo is authentic or a copy. “All right, what do you need, dear?”
“In the living room there’s a big gold photo album. Open it up and see if any of the pictures of Millie and me are missing. It would be one where she’s pregnant, and we are walking down Michigan Avenue specifically.”
“What’s going on, Roman? Has something happened?”
“Mom, please just look.”
“All right, hold on a second. I’m in the kitchen.”
“Mom, have we had any strangers in the house recently? A repairman possibly or a delivery?”
“No, not that I know of, but Ella handles most of those kinds of things. Okay, here it is, let me see…” I can hear her open the album and flip through the pages. “Oh, yes right here, this page is blank. Is it a large photo? The whole page is empty.”
“Yes, an eight by ten. Mom, I want you to get Leeza and Ella and Frank together and brainstorm about possible strangers who have been in the house since we came home from London. I’m sending Anthony out to reset the alarms and pull the CCTV footage, so watch for him.”
“Are we in danger?”
“I don’t think so, but someone has been in the house. They took that photo and put it on Aria’s desk at the bookstore where she would find it. Anthony will bring his team out and secure the house, and everything should be fine. I’m calling him when I hang up. Aria and I are going to have lunch, and I’m leaving work early.”
“Okay, should I cancel dinner for tonight?”
“Yes, I don’t want any strangers in the house until we get this figured out.”
“Pierre is hardly a stranger, Roman.”
“He’s a stranger to me. Just do as I ask.”
“All right, if you feel that strongly about it.”
“I do. I’ll see you in a little while.”
“Okay, goodbye.”
I hang up and dial Anthony right away to give him an update on what’s happened and tell him to take his team to my house. He will, but he informs me the background checks will have to be put on hold. We come to an agreement that it’s more important right now that he check the house.
“If we aren’t safe at your house, where are we going to stay?”
“We are going to stay at my house,” I say firmly. No one is going to scare me out of my own home. “Anthony will change all the codes on the security system and go through the place. I have CCTV, so we can look back at the footage and see who it was.”
“This is crazy. Why would someone want to do this? It doesn’t make any sense.”
“I’ve been thinking about that, and I think it’s David. Who else would want to break us up?”
“I know he was determined that night at my apartment, but I got the feeling he understood how I felt about you. I thought he would back down.”
“Apparently not. Everything’s going to be all right, don’t worry. I won’t let anything happen to you. Now come, we need to eat before the food is cold. I want to ravish you before we leave.”
“Here? In the bank? Isn’t that kind of…”
“Kinky?”
“No…”
“Romantic?”
“No…”
“Risky?”
“Yes, that and unprofessional. What if someone walks in? What if your secretary hears us?”
I smile and stand sliding her off my lap and helping her to her feet. “It’s not unprofessional if no one sees us. I have a lock on my door, and the room is soundproofed, so when I am yelling at an employee, they aren’t humiliated.”
“You yell at your employees?”
“I do. Not often mind you, they know their jobs, and everyone works hard to do them well.”
I pull out a white upholstered chair for her, and she sits. I remove the cover from her plate revealing a cheeseburger and fries. “Tandoori’s? Oh my gosh, how did you…” She says letting the rest of her sentence trail off when she realizes I know all of her favorite things because I’ve been getting to know her from afar for years.
“You used to have this delivered for lunch when you were especially busy at the store. Tandoori’s doesn’t deliver, how did you manage that?” I ask sitting down across from her.
Her sweet smile catches me off guard. She’s been so stressed since we met that I’d almost forgotten this expression.
“The owner heard me gushing about it once when I was there with…” she pauses before going on, “… with Lynn, and he came over to sit with us. Mr. Tandoori told me I was a breath of fresh air and the most beautiful girl he’s seen in years. Then he told me to call and order whatever I wanted from the menu anytime, and he would deliver it for free.”
“Old Tandoori was smitten, he has exquisite taste.”
“He was such a flirt for a man his age. We, err, I, got a kick out of him.”
“Lynn didn’t eat up the attention?”
“He made such a fuss over me I think it made her mad, so no.”
“Serves her right. How did you two become friends anyway?” I remove the cover from my plate and begin to cut my steak. I really need to start eating less red meat.
She dips a French fry into a small carafe of catsup. “The owner of David’s team has this big party every year, and she was there. We never had much in common, but I wanted to fit in with David’s crowd, so we started hanging out a lot and eventually became good friends, or so I thought.”
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked. Not the best lunch conversation. How was work this morning other than feeling watched and finding a picture of my wife and me?” She rolls her eyes, and I press on. “Are you getting along with Monica?”
I feel like shit for bringing her down when I should be helping her forget her miserable first day back at work. My topic change is abrupt, but I’m sure she not only understands but appreciates it.
“Work was good, other than the aforementioned events. I love Monica, she’s so down to earth, and she really knows her books. She worked in the library when she was in high school and wanted to go to college until she got pregnant.”
“Yes, she mentioned that.” I was sure they would get along. I’m glad I was right. Aria needs good friends, people with common interests who care about her. I think Monica fits the bill.
“And her little girl, oh my gosh, she’s like this tiny princess with her dark hair, chubby cheeks, and flawless skin. Has she shown you pictures? She needs to get a modeling contract and use the money she earns for college. Heck, she could be a model, too. She’s gorgeous.”
“She is an attractive woman, and yes, she’s shown me photos of her baby. She looks just like her, which is fortunate since she isn’t crazy about her ex.”
“Oh yeah? She didn’t mention him.” She stops eating and places her hands in her lap to focus on me. “How do you know so much about her? You’ve been gone as long as I have.”
“I had two Skype interviews with her before I hired her, and I had my private investigator do a …”
“Background check on her, of course,” she says cutting me off.
“What do you have against background checks?”
“I don’t know, they’re just so… invasive. I mean, don’t you trust anybody at their word?”
“Absolutely not. People lie for power, wealth, status, and a slew of less important things. I determine what kind of person I’m dealing with by looking at their past, the way they behave now, and their plans for the future. The only way I can get an accurate picture is by investigating them.”
“And what if you had found out that I had been a heroin addict in the past? Would you still have pursued me?”
“If you had cleaned up and weren’t living that lifestyle and didn’t have any chronic illnesses as a result of your addictions, then yes.”
“I like to trust people at their word. It’s how you build relationships. When people become close, they begi
n to open up about themselves, and if the other person already knows everything, then what’s left?”
“I know a lot about you, and we seem to be doing well.”
“Sometimes I feel like you know too much. I have nothing to share, you know it all.”
She looks down at her food to prove her point. “I don’t know it all. I didn’t know you loved babies until just now.”
“I do love babies and children. I wish I could have had at least one of my own.”
“Are you positive you can’t?”
“My gynecologist said it was highly unlikely, as in nearly impossible, but you already know that, don’t you?”
I shrug. It was in my background check, but I don’t want to be insensitive.
“Do you want a family?”
Her eyes meet mine, and she doesn’t need to answer. I can see it there, the longing for a child to love and call her own. “Have you ever thought about other alternatives?”
“Like adoption?”
“Yes, or medical procedures that might increase your chances of conceiving.”
“Not really. David didn’t want kids, and since I couldn’t have any, we never really talked about it.”
“You never discussed having children? Wasn’t that presumptuous of him to assume because you couldn’t have children, that you didn’t want to?”
“It never came up. After a few years, it was like we were roommates instead of a couple in love. I know it sounds ridiculous that I would stay in a relationship like that, but it was comfortable, and I suppose I was set in my ways. I didn’t consider any other options. Our families assumed we would get married, so we did, or almost. Actually, I should send Lynn a thank you note. If she hadn’t been sleeping with him, I would never have met you.”
“Oh, yes you would have. Cheating or no cheating, I would have involved myself in your life before you married that swine.”
No way would I have stood by and watched them get married. No way.
11
Roman
She giggles, and I’m glad to see her happy.
“So, I actually didn’t work all morning,” she says with a sly smile. She takes a big bite of her burger and chews while somehow still smiling. She’s adorable.
“Oh really, Anthony didn’t call to tell me you’d left.”
She chews for a minute, swallows, and answers. “That’s because I slipped out the back door.” Her eyes pop open, and she does a little dance in her seat.
“You’re bad. What am I going to do with you?” I ask and take a long drink of the three fingers of Scotch the caterers left for me. I have a feeling I’m going to need a regular mid-day drink trying to keep track of this woman.
“Well, I was going to go back to the hotel and rest. The store was giving me the creeps after I found that photograph, and I wanted to get out of there. But then I saw this shop around the corner, and I decided to duck in and do a little shopping. I wanted to surprise you.”
“Surprise me? With what?”
She glances over at the door to my office. “Is that locked?”
I stand and cross the room to lock it sensing that whatever she wants to surprise me with is going to make me a very happy man. “It is now.”
She stands up and glances at the floor-to-ceiling windows that run the length of my office. “No one can see through the glass, it’s treated.” My words give her confidence, and she slips out of her dull, flat Mary Jane shoes. She kicks them under the table and reaches into a bag I didn’t notice she had with her from a local lingerie shop.
She removes a shoe box containing a pair of stiletto heels and places them on the floor in front of her. Then she steps out of her long broom skirt and pulls her blouse off over her head, which causes her hair to come out of its hair tie.
She slips her pretty feet into the shoes and before me stands a goddess donning a black transparent lace corset, black stockings, and a garter belt. She is stunning, sexier than I ever could have guessed she’d look in something like this.
“My God, lady, are you trying to stop my heart?” If she’s going to be surprising me in outfits like this, I really must stop eating red meat, or I’ll keel over.
She lifts her hand to bite her fingernail nervously with a shy smile playing on her lips. The combination of innocence and sex kitten has me hard as a rock.
“No. Do you like it?” She fidgets in the heels transferring her weight back and forth from one foot to the other.
“Do I like it?” I take a step forward and begin to circle her like she’s my prey because she is. I raise my hand to my mouth. “Hmm, well, let me get a better look at you from every angle.” Her eyes follow me until I’m behind her. She can’t see me when I tip my head back and stare at the ceiling for a moment trying to compose myself. The way her ass peeks out from under the lace of the corset accentuating her curves is making me lose my mind.
No woman has ever affected me like this, no woman has ever looked this damn good in lingerie, and no woman has ever stolen my heart so completely the way Aria has.
I step closer and press my front to her back lightly trailing my fingers up her sides to her arms and resting my hands on her shoulders. “You are utterly fuckable, unimaginably sexy, and positively the most gorgeous creature I’ve ever laid eyes on,” I say softly in her ear.
A shiver runs through her, and I turn her around. “I wish we were at home, so I could take my time removing every piece of this slowly. But, since we’re not, and we need to get home, I’m going to give it to you fast and dirty. How does that sound?”
She chews on her lip. “Good?”
“Is that a question?”
“No, I mean that sounds good, really good,” she says her voice stronger and surer.
I take her hand and lead her to my desk where I lift her up to sit where I spend hours every day toiling over numbers. I keep a tidy desk, so there is nothing in her way when I lower her back onto the wood. Pulling my desk chair up, I sit down and prop her feet on the arms. Her stilettos make the calves of her legs look even more toned than they are. I kiss her fishnet-covered ankles and start a trail up the inside of her thigh to her core where I find the corset damp with her desire.
I make a mental note to return to that lingerie shop to purchase one of everything when I find that the only things separating my mouth from her sex are three small snaps. I caress her through the silky fabric, and she gasps reaching up to hold onto the edge of my desk.
I unsnap the corset and waste no time burying my face between her legs, licking and sucking her to a near instant orgasm that has her arching her back off the surface unabashedly. Still feeling the sparks of her climax, I unbutton my suit pants and pull out my aching cock and fill her with it pushing in until I’m balls deep.
I stop to feel her wet core still contracting around my pulsing dick, so I can take in the image of her spread out on my desk covered in sheer black lace that she bought to please me. And please me it does.
I slide out and back in once slowly supporting her legs before I begin an onslaught of pounding thrusts. The sound of our bodies slapping together and pieces of metal on her corset scratching my desk fill the room. I lift her legs to my shoulders to enter her deeper, and she moans in approval.
“Are you ready, baby?”
She whimpers, and I reach between her legs and stroke her clit as I make my final thrusts bringing us to climax simultaneously. I wasn’t kidding about the office being soundproof, and it’s a good thing because I roar with my release, and she cries out. Desperately spreading her arms out grasping at her sides, she searches for something else to hold onto and finding nothing, she claws at the wood.
“Oh my God, oh my God…” she pants rolling her head from side to side.
I bend down to kiss her chest, and her arms circle me holding on for dear life. “That… was… amazing,” I pant.
“I should tip the saleswoman at that store, huh?” she asks, and I chuckle.
“If she works on commission, she’s goi
ng to be rich. I’m buying everything in that store, especially the shoes.”
“You’re a shoe guy then, huh?”
“Not just any shoes, these shoes,” I say reaching behind me to touch the spiky heel.
“She said they were the hottest shoes ever made.”
“And she was correct. In fact, I don’t ever want you to take them off.”
She laughs under me. “I’m lucky I didn’t sprain my ankle walking across your office. I probably would have if you weren’t holding me.”
“You can practice a lot then. I’m sure you’ll get better in time.”
“Roman, the only place I’ll ever wear these shoes is in the bedroom with you. These things are pointy torture devices, and they’re definitely not my style.”
“Fair enough. As long as you put them on in the bedroom, I’ll be satisfied.”
As if on cue, my phone buzzes in my pocket, and we are ripped from bliss back into the real world. “We should get going. Anthony is going to meet us at the house, and I want to go over some things with him.”
She nods, and the stress that I’ve grown to recognize on her face returns. Before I slide out, I lean down and kiss her mouth softly. “Everything will be all right. I promise, we will find who is doing this and make them stop.”
She smiles a quick, weak smile, and I stand to button my pants feeling like a failure. She doubts me, I can tell. I need to prove to her that David is not going to bother her anymore, and I’m going to do it tonight.
I watch her slip out of her new ensemble and fold it neatly to put in her shopping bag where her regular pink cotton panties and matching bra are stowed away. While she dresses, I call Ingrid and have her cancel the rest of my appointments for the day, including my haircut. She sounds surprised, but ever the professional, she agrees to move things around for me.
“Ready?” I ask as she swings her oversized purse over her shoulder.
“Yes.”
“Do you have the photo?”