by Shayne Ford
Minutes later, we enter the ballroom brimming with lights. More than a hundred guests are here tonight, their voices drowning the sound of live music.
He makes the rounds, and I follow him. He meets a lot of people he had done business with. Some of them are business partners prospects.
We take seats at a table where a few other couples sit. Two chairs remain empty, but not for long. Close to ten o’clock an elegant woman accompanied by a handsome man fill those seats too.
She slides next to Lex, the handsome man accompanying her––who I quickly learn is her assistant, sits at her right.
Unlike me, he doesn’t have a crush on his boss. It doesn’t take long before I realize that men notice him more often than women, and the attraction seemingly is mutual.
Lex and the woman begin to talk about their business affairs, their conversation stretching for a few good minutes.
I listen to them attentively.
The woman, a statuesque brunette with dark eyes, flawless skin and plump lips runs a Marketing and Advertising Agency.
Very much interested in landing a new account, she makes a tempting proposal to Lex. The woman is not only beautiful but also smart. And conniving if I’m truthful.
He’s affable with her, listening to her intently. Their talk is all business, and I don’t sense anything else going on. But if there were, she’s in a completely different league than me.
I can’t say she doesn’t like him because she does. There’s no wedding ring on her finger, and she seems to be at least a decade older than him, but age doesn’t play a role when beauty, brains, and money are involved.
His eyes glint with respect for her, and even a shred of admiration.
Something rubs me the wrong way.
A new song comes on, and he invites her to dance. Flushed to her hairline, she accepts. He holds his hand out for her as she pushes out of her chair.
My blood slugs through my veins as my eyes follow their silhouettes all the way to the dance floor where they get swallowed by the crowd.
My chest feels heavy.
I keep my gaze on them, every bit of that image charring my brain.
I feel bad. Physically bad. I run a trembling hand over my brow and swallow hard.
His arm curls around her waist, his billion dollar smile flashing on his lips. Her eyes gleam with pleasure.
He leans toward her and whispers something in her ear. I crush a curse between my lips.
Tossing her head back, she lets out a melodious laughter that sets off her perfect lips and grin. Her hair bounces down her back, her chest moving as she laughs. Her body arches in his embrace.
This is flirting at its best, and the woman seems to be a master. She’s so far from the blonde who tugged at his dick the other night.
She is a seasoned, sultry woman who can have any man she wants if she puts her mind to it.
“Do you want to dance?”
The voice pulls me out of my misery.
I flick my head to the side.
“Hi. My name is Nicholas,” says the man who works for the temptress.
We connect hands.
“Hi. I’m Dahlia.”
“She never cares to make the introductions,” he says, and I chuckle softly out of politeness if nothing else. “Dance?”
He tilts an eyebrow, his face finally coming into focus.
“Yeah... Sure.”
He rises to his feet, takes my hand and leads me to the dance floor. Slowly, we spin, not far from where Lex, and the goddess twirl, embraced.
Nicholas, a brown-haired man not much older than me proves to be a seasoned dancer. His arm drapes around my waist as he gently leads me.
“How long have you been working for Lex Harrington?” he asks.
“A few weeks. Why?” I ask suspiciously.
He glances at me and smiles.
“How long have you been in love with him?”
My blood drains from my face. I can’t even muster a grin.
“About the same time,” I admit.
We share a quiet chuckle that helps me to relax.
“Are you good at reading people or I am so obvious?”
He purses his lips, a smile spilling in his eyes.
“Both, but...” he says as my grin falls from my lips, “you may not be obvious to the casual bystander, but you sure are to him.”
“Shit,” I murmur.
“It’s not necessarily something bad,” he says as we twirl to a different corner. “I think he likes you too.”
“He also likes your boss, it seems. Probably more than he likes me,” I mutter, swinging my gaze across the room, just in time to catch sight of the woman singsonging another melodious thrill.
“That comes with the territory,” he says, but this is not exactly what I wanted to hear. “Men like him never fall without a battle,” he says, shooting a glance in Lex’s direction as well. “And there’s always a long line of contenders. But life with a man like him can be extra sweet if you learn his secrets and know how to make him yours.”
What is he talking about?
I can’t figure out Lex one minute from another, let alone his deep-seated secrets.
“Battle? Contenders? Do I look like a queen with an army?” I ask, smiling.
He laughs softly.
“A lot is going for you, sweetheart.”
I laugh as if he just shared a good joke.
“What if I don’t know how to use what I have.”
“I think you do, but the man is not an easy ride, and you look like the kind who easily gets lost.”
I look at him, intrigued.
“Your heart is already his,” he says as we connected eyes briefly. “But you already knew that.”
“Do you know him?” I ask.
“We met a couple of times before.”
“Is he always that friendly with your boss?”
“Uh-huh. But that doesn’t mean a thing.”
“She likes him.”
“He’s not the only man she likes, and he figured her out quickly. He’s pretty much like her. People playing this kind of game at that level usually stay away from each other. There’s no fun, no chase. They know the tricks. The outcome. And what’s worse, they know there’s no prize waiting for them at the end.”
“What do you mean?”
“These are not the kind of people who give away their hearts. They like to play. A lot. But not to get caught in the game. He could easily fuck her,” he says bluntly. “But at the end of the day, she’d go her way and so would he.”
He pauses while I ponder.
“In other words, they need clueless people like me?”
He smiles.
“I wouldn’t say clueless.”
“Ignorant.”
He laughs.
“Give it whatever name you wish. What you have is exactly what attracts him to you.”
I stay quiet for a moment.
“You know why clueless people are fun?” he asks.
I smile.
“No.”
“They’re unpredictable. That’s what makes them such a good chase. And sometimes that’s exactly what blindsides a man like him and makes him fall when he expects the least. It’s the nature’s way of getting back at them.”
I study his face for a moment. He makes sense. Yes, he does, but...
“Clueless people are also easy targets,” I say.
“That’s true. But someone like him would never pick a woman just for the sake of it. Someone he wouldn’t like. That’s why I said he likes you, but it’s certainly up to you how you play your card.”
I swing my eyes back to Lex and the seductress. He tightens his arm around her. I suddenly feel disheartened.
“How would you play your card if you were me?” I murmur.
11
DAHLIA
Nicholas’ gaze lingers on Lex.
It doesn’t take a genius to realize he finds him extremely attractive as well.
He shifts his eyes back to me
. I look at him full of hope.
“Why do you think he finds you attractive?” he asks.
“Besides being clueless and unpredictable?”
“Uh-huh. And aside from the fact that you are beautiful,” he says casually, a warm smile filling his eyes.
“I don’t know if he really likes me. Sometimes he does. But sometimes it feels as if he doesn’t.”
“What does he do when he doesn’t like you?”
“He makes my life a living hell.”
“He totally likes you,” he says.
I grin.
“You think?”
“Yes.”
“And yet he’s hugging your boss right now.”
“As I said before, my boss is not a mystery to him.”
“How am I a mystery to him?”
“Do you know everything about yourself?”
I shake my head.
“Probably not.”
“Yeah...That’s exactly why you intrigue him. In a way, you’re like an unwritten book,” he says. “He can’t predict how you’d react to him. Trust me when I say this, he’s seen everything. He knows women. He doesn’t have a problem getting what he wants, and he doesn’t have to settle for less than what he truly likes.”
The tune comes to an end.
He walks me back to the table while Lex and his dance partner stride across the room and stop at a different table in the opposite corner.
I turn to Nicholas, who brings his drink to his lips.
“What do you think he likes?”
He studies me for a moment as he sips his wine.
“He likes a woman who can take him by surprise. Someone who can keep him guessing. A woman who knows how to claim him. He gets hard all right, but the man also has a brain. He loves power and to conquer, but he also likes to be enslaved by it.”
My shoulders slump.
“Well if that’s the case, the battle is lost. There’s not much left to conquer,” I mutter.
He tilts his head to the side, searching my eyes for a moment. His lips curl into a slow grin.
“Sex is only a part of it, sweetheart. And If he fucked you more than once, he’s already hooked.”
I wish he were right. But there are so many things, Nicholas doesn’t know about him.
And some of them, I don’t even know.
“So... You didn’t tell me what you’d do if you were me,” I say.
“I’d forced him out of his game. I’d push his buttons. I’d dig deep into his emotions.”
I swing my eyes at him. He looks at me in silence.
“It’s risky.”
“And yet, it’s stimulating. I bet he’d love it.”
“That’s like saying to get better at the game he’s already mastering.”
He laughs softly.
“Yeah... Something like that.”
“What else?” I ask hurriedly as Lex and Nicholas’ boss stride across the room.
He trains his eyes on Lex and ponders for a moment.
“I’d fuck his brains out,” he says, without tearing his gaze away from Lex.
Passion threads through his voice, and then I realize. He’d do it literally.
Smiling, he looks at me.
“That’s how you get him.”
DAHLIA
“Everything good?” Lex asks as he walks up on Nicholas and me sharing a moment of silence.
He pulls a chair out for his companion.
“Yes,” I throw at him, averting my eyes.
The woman runs her eyes on both of us. I quickly move away from Nicholas.
Lex, the publicist and the men we met the first night in London start talking business not far from me.
Nicholas finds a couple of friends and migrates to a different table. People start to mingle and move around.
A hand lands on my shoulder as a slow tune starts drifting through the air again.
“Do you want to dance?” asks a thick, honey-like voice.
I look up and over my shoulder.
From the nearby table, Nicholas catches sight of the man and me. Furtively, he motions me to go.
Not even in his thirties, the man fashions a tuxedo and a perfect smile not to mention arresting, good looks.
Out of the corner of my eye, I notice Lex’s stare, and then I remember Nicholas words.
A grin slides promptly onto my face.
“Sure.”
He holds his hand out for me as I rise to my feet and gingerly clasp his fingers. Back arched, hair tumbling down, bottom push out I strut at his side.
Smiling ear to ear, I sashay all the way to the middle of the dance floor, hoping that the heat I feel on my back is Lex’s stare.
The man wraps me in his embrace as we start to dance. Through some miracle, I manage to calm down my heart, and soon, I start enjoying his company.
Ashton Blackmore is the owner of a luxury hotel chain in Europe. His name sounded familiar. He throws a compliment or two my way, and I begin to like him.
Forcing myself not to gaze in Lex’s direction, I focus solely on him.
It works.
I start to care less about Lex and more about the dark haired stranger who smoothly twirls with me on the dance floor.
It helps that Ashton Blackmore keeps me entertained with his witty humor and relaxed attitude. Soon, we’re flirting, and I laugh at every joke he says.
As the dance come to an end, he invites me to the terrace.
“Let me grab my clutch.”
He’s waiting for me patiently as I sneak back to the table and furtively collect my purse from my chair. Just as I spin around, I catch Lex’s eyes, or should I say, a sight of his glare.
Before he can say anything––it’s so obvious that he wants to express his opinion, I pull away.
On my way to the terrace, I secretly wave at Nicholas. He gives me a wink and a thumbs up.
We barely make it to the patio, and my phone starts buzzing. Ashton Blackmore glances at me as I ignore it for the second time.
“You need to take that?” he says, a smile creasing his arched lips.
“Nah-uh,” I say, grinning back at him.
“Okay. I’ll get something to drink. What do you want?”
“I’m good,” I say, leaning against the handrail.
He turns around and walks away.
I pull the clutch open and fumble for my phone.
Two missed calls from Lex. A text message lights up my screen as I get ready to shove my phone back into my purse.
Lex: What are you doing?
There’s no emoji out there for how pissed he must be.
I drop my phone in my purse when a thought surfaces in my head. I pull it back out.
Me: Good. You?
A few moments pass by, and as I try to power it off, the screen lights up again.
Lex: Which part of the question didn’t you understand?
Oh, my fingers can’t type the reply fast enough.
Me: I can ask you the same thing.
I flip my clutch open and toss my phone inside.
“Everything okay?” asks Ashton as he nears me with one drink in each hand.
“I brought you something anyway,” he says and hands me a glass of white wine.
A fine layer of mist covers the delicate glass.
“It’s good. Try it,” he says, smiling.
I dip my lips into the golden liquid.
An aroma of sweet grapes explodes in my mouth.
“Mmm... It’s really good.”
The phone vibrates again.
Startled, I almost spill my drink on my dress.
“Is there something wrong with your phone?” he asks, his lips curling into a knowing smile as he lifts his glass to his mouth.
“You’d think so...” I say jokingly, and he lets out a soft chuckle.
“Maybe you should put a stop to it,” he says, giving me a flirting smile, and I start to really like him.
“Yeah, maybe,” I say, my cheeks burning from the win
e, and him.
Grinning, I lock Ashton’s eyes, and just when I start reading something interesting in his eyes, my smile falls from my lips.
Lex strides across the terrace, his eyes slicing me. My blood drains from my body.
“It’s not that easy to put a stop to it...” I murmur, my voice trailing off.
His eyes could easily kill me.
Ashton Blackmore glances casually over his shoulder just as Lex pulls to a short stop next to us.
“Miss Fox, may I have a word with you?” he says with a menacing voice.
“Everything okay?” Ashton Blackmore intervenes.
A moment of silence falls between us.
They glance at me.
“Ashton,” I say, sounding intimate with him as if we woke up in the same bed. “This is my boss, Alexander Harrington.” I turn to Lex who sears me with his gaze. “Mr. Harrington,” I say, extremely business-like, “this is my friend Ashton Blackmore, the owner of Blackmore Hotels. I’m sure you’ve heard about him.”
Biting his lip, Lex makes an effort to act civil.
They shake hands, and quickly delve into a business-related conversation as I sip the rest of my wine and ping pong my eyes back and forth between them, watching them with interest as if they’re ticking devices ready to go off.
Tension sets in Lex’s jaw as he makes every effort to speak cordially. Ashton Blackmore, hardly a newbie at this game, gets a kick out of it.
“If you don’t mind, I need my assistant for the rest of the evening,” he says to Ashton, who watches us from above the rim of his glass.
“Sure,” he says, not buying it one bit.
“Miss Fox?” Lex mutters.
He motions to the exit as I collect my clutch taking my sweet time. Something tells me he’d like nothing better than yank me up on his shoulder and carry me out like the angry caveman he is right now.
I say goodbye to Ashton who winks at me as if he knows what’s going on, and smiling, I rush ahead of Lex.
He catches up with me and grabs my elbow.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
“Excuse me?” I pull my arm out of his lock, glaring at him. “This is a party, isn’t it?”
“And you’re paid to be here with me. Have you forgotten?”
“And here I am,” I say, raising my voice.
He pulls me to the side.
“You’re not supposed to flirt while you’re doing your job,” he says, dead serious.