“I’m serious about this, I even made an oath to love you. Don’t doubt me.”
“I don’t doubt you, I know you will disappoint me and I’m not ready for this. I actually came here to forget about a betrayal and I’m not going through it for the second time, so I’ll save you time. This was nothing and we can go back to our lives as usual, you can go back to your blonde girlfriend.” She looked at him in the eye then smiled. She pretended to be okay but deep down she was hurting.
“So this is about Angie, I now get it. She is my ex girlfriend who loves publicity and works for the T.V station that was interviewing me, that is why she was there.” She pulled her suitcase and left him standing there.
Charlie lowered the proposals and looked at the door his secretary closed behind her. A monkey, he thought in disgust as the door closed shut with a quiet disturbing click. A prim, red head scared of her shadow monkey. What the hell was Mrs. Hammond thinking when she hired this monkey to replace her as a secretary? He knew that there was only one way to find out, he pushed back his chair and strode from his office. His new secretary, the monkey as he already dubbed her, looked up from her desk as he passed.
“Where are you going sir?”, she asked in surprise.
“I’m going out.”
“You just got here sir,” he ignored her as he stepped into the elevator, he punched the button for ground floor. He didn’t understand why Clare hadn’t called him. Maybe she was not into him, he thought. All women called him after the first date and he was stupid enough to not ask for her number, instead he left his like he always do. She was playing hard to get and it was driving him crazy. For two weeks now, he has been ignoring calls from his ex girlfriend who is persistent. He wanted Clare so badly; he couldn’t get her out of his mind. This was not him, he was ready to fight for her but it would be pointless if she didn’t feel the same way about him. He looked up as he counted the floors as the elevator moved.
Twenty minutes later, he was standing at the door of his former secretary’s house. He waited impatiently for her to respond to his knock. She opened the door and he brushed past her. “Who is that monkey?”, he asked.
“Monkey?”, she responded in confusion while she closed the door behind him. “You mean the new employee I got you?”, she continued. He pulled out a chair and sat down. “Yeah, she’s the one I’m talking about. What’s the deal?”, she sat next to him.
“I see that you two have met,”, she said, looking pleasant.
“Yes and she’s a monkey, what were you thinking? She’ll never work out.”
“But she’s perfect,” she insisted as if surprised by his assessment. “She’s very organized, extremely intelligent and loyal to a fault. I know you want a woman by your side and that’s why I hired a young and pretty woman for you. The break up really hit you hard and you can start having fun like you did before. She’s single and ready to work odd hours your schedule demands.”
“She’s a monkey,” he said disagreeably. “She’ll never stand up to the pressure of this job.”
“You want to say that she’ll never withstand your temper and tantrums.” His cell phone rang, it was his secretary. He wanted to ignore it but the look on Mrs Hammond’s eyes scared him.
“Hello sir, someone called to talked to you sir,”
“I’m in a meeting and can’t talk to anyone right now,” he answered and before he could hang up she blurted. “It’s miss Clare Wilkins, she said you meet her at ‘El Paraiso’ restaurant. Should I tell her you are…. he hanged up before she could finish talking. He stood up and left the house rushing.
“See you soon, I can now see that this monkey has started to be efficient.” He said as he opened the door.
****
Upon the first glance, the woman appeared so sexy and divine. The color in her cheeks, the light bone structure and the way she moved led to the conclusion that she was sassy.
“Have a seat, Ms. Clare. I appreciate your calling.” He pulled out a chair for her to sit. She nodded and sat down. She wore a dress that showed her lean legs. A single strand of pearl encircled her neck. Her hair was tied in a neat bun, revealing her long sexy neck. “You look beautiful.”, said Charlie.
“Thank you.” She noticed he was starring at her over the wine glass, his hand held the glass with the stem shooting up between his fingers. “I’ll have a glass of red wine.” She told the waiter.
“This hotel is lovely. I like it.” He said
“I knew you would love it. It’s Mexican.”
She shrugged her shoulder letting the thin straps of her black dress fall off her shoulder. She lifted her legs under the table, brushing against his inner thighs. His eyes jumped in surprise but he kept his composure, except for a distinguished flicker of a smile across his lips. She licked the corner of her mouth, which made him horny. She wanted to execute her plan now of driving him crazy and then dumping him. She was tired of men taking advantage of women, she knew that the chances of her plan working out were slim but she had to try it out and she also missed him a lot.
“Our food isn’t due for a while now, I need to freshen up.” She stood up and headed to the restrooms. He was six feet behind her; she could still feel his eyes staring at her ass. She pushed the door open and started to reapply her makeup. He walked in from behind and grabbed her nipples gently. She spun around and kissed him gently in the mouth.
“We can’t do this, someone might see us.” She said
“That’s the best part, us being caught.” She was spontaneous, this was not one of her skills but whenever she was with him, something wild always ignite inside her. She was not afraid of anything in the world. At this moment, she forgot her plan and she just wanted to enjoy the moment.
Her eyes opened, only a slit, but she could see the dark part of his irises. “Kiss me again, Charlie. I like it when you kiss me……………and do other things.” She was a pro. Her touches were of a woman who had pleased many men and knew how to do it. The knowledge excited him more than her wrapping him and bringing him to climax.
“Are you safe.” He asked, not sure if he could stop even if she said no.
“It’s always safe with me.” She whispered against his lips and kissed him again, making her tongue to mate with his in tutored enthusiasm. She could feel the rich ambrosia of his mouth. He made a feral sound, low in his throat that sent shivers throughout her body. He pulled her forward, tugging his hands around her hips and lifted her on top of the counter next to the sink. She unbuttoned his shirt and yanked his belt and trouser in a primal and predatory manner. He folded the dress up to her waist.
Glancing down, her eyes went wide and pleased. Her warm hands grabbed the cheeks of his ass and pushed him towards her, “give it to me so hard.” She moaned. He wanted to arouse her with everything he knew about making love; it was how to attempt a woman to desire.
“Do you want me? Clare”
“Yes, yes, I do want you.” She said weakly.
He surged inside her with one swift thrust. She cried out softly. “Yes, yes, yes.” He thrusted against her again while still holding her hips with hard hands. Once again their mouth came down each other, the quality of their kiss as out of control as their body surge together. Zings of pleasure radiated from their body. He bucked and shuddered, a primal groan tearing from their throat and erupting from their mouth. His body went rigid and then relaxed.
“Wow.” She said in a chocked voice.
“Oh my God! Someone is coming. Hide!” She jumped down and pulled down her dress. She pretended to make her hair. She opened the door and peeped outside.
“I’ll walk out first. She whispered. She sat in the chair and waited for him like nothing had happened. She was sure that this game will only hurt her but she wanted to risk. Charlie arrived at the table smiling, he stared at her eyes.
So why did you call me after a very long time?” he asked curiously.
“I didn’t want to bother a busy man like you.” She looked nervous and people k
ept staring at her.
“I like it that you called. I’m honored and have a surprise for you.” He put his hand on hers and squeezed it firmly.
“What is the surprise?” she smiled.
“I already booked a ticket for us. We are going to Mexico for a vacation. I will not take no for an answer, it’s already done.”
“Yes I will go with you under one condition,” she sipped her wine.
“Anything for you,”
“We don’t do what we just did in public places again.”
“I can’t keep my hands off you, is it my fault that you drive me crazy?” he smiled. She couldn’t believe she had moved on easily. She was not ready to date him but she was sure she wanted to have fun and be around him all the time. She looked around the restaurant and realized that everyone was watching them.
She knew they mistook her with all the ladies Charlie dated or maybe they wondered why a billionaire would go to a middle class restaurant. She ordered for the check and paid. That was unusual to Charlie; all the ladies he met always wanted him to pay even the working class women. This made him like her more, he was sure she was not interested in his money. He held her hand as they walked out.
Parked in his silver Mercedes-Benz C-Class, Tom and Shanice watched the two love birds tromp down the street. Dusk had fallen and there was a definite chill in the air. Tom wondered where they were going, but then decided that he didn’t even care. He watched them do some stupid looking dance step and then he looked as if they were singing. He sensed that the man was the fiancé; he wanted to know who the fiancé was. He was starting to be convinced that he was wrong and Clare had moved on. Clare’s friend told him that Clare had moved on and was getting married. He laughed and to that when they met at the coffee shop.
He was looking for Clare to give him back his engagement ring, apparently he wanted to propose to Shanice to make Clare jealous but he was too late. From the look of things, Clare looked happier with the man who was holding her hand while they sing.
He rolled down the window to listen. The singing floated through the window, soon after, the "Wow, that’s so cute." Shanice said in delight.
“Look at those fools.” He said.
“Do you think that he is Clare’s fiancé?" Shanice asked.
“Babe, I told you, there is no fiancé.” he paused, “But if this dude is Clare’s fiancé, it would be the biggest joke in the world. This guy is a billionaire and there’s no way they were dating. Maybe she needs him to do her a favor. The guy looked well built and Tom convinced himself that Clare’s friend was lying but deep down he felt like he lost the battle.
Shanice and Tom watched as the two love birds did their impromptu concert. “What the hell are these moron’s doing?”
“It looks as if they are having fun,” Shanice said, still looking across the street.
Tom snorted “Right.”
Driving his car to the next corner, Tom pulled close to the curb and put the car in park. When he opened the door, he heard Shanice ask, “Where are you going?”
Glancing back at her he said, “Just saying hello to an old friend.”
As he slid from the car he heard Shanice mutter something before he heard her door open and she stepped out of the car as well.
“Nice performance.” he said, his gloved hands clapped and the sound seemed to echo around them.
“What the hell do you want Tom?” Clare said, stepping around the group and in front of Charlie protectively.
“I just wanted to say hi to my old friend. How you been Clare?”
She gave no response.
Tom grinned cheekily. “Hey Tom.” Clare sneered in that way that made Tom think of a snarling Pit bull. “Simmer down there, Cujo. This is just a little neighborly greeting.”
Tom noticed that Clare suddenly looked tensed. Most likely she’s afraid of an altercation occurring between, me and her fiancé, he arrogantly thought. She probably doesn’t want to see me kick her fiancés’ ass. Tom thought
Charlie slipped his hand in hers. He whispered something to her that Tom couldn’t understand.
Clare looked up at him with a look of adoration and what the hell? Love?
“Ah, so this is the moron that I was told about?” Charlie said when he turned back to Tom. Clare only nodded from where she stood to his left. He moved slightly, positioning himself marginally in front of Clare. “Ah,” Charlie said in what sounded to Tom like an exaggerated French accent. “I told my babe, that when I met you, I would shake your hand. You see, if it were not for you cheating on her with some bimbos who only God knows from where, I would not have met my babe. Non?”
Tony frowned, looking from Clare, to the man next to her. Eyes turning back on the male, Tony glanced down at their still joined hands before his eyes settled back on Clare. “You have got to be fucking kidding!”
Clare tensed, not looking forward to the altercation between her fake fiancé and Tom. Tom was mostly all mouth. He was always mouthing off at someone, even when they were kids.
But, Charlie was a hothead. And it would not take much for Tom to say something to make her fake fiancé want to beat Tom to a pulp. And Clare did not want to see her fake fiancé get in trouble over the jerk.
She stepped closer to Charlie, slipping his hand into hers, meeting her eyes he spoke low. Charlie realized that her speaking low made their conversation sound intimate, but it was still loud enough for Tom to hear.
“I want us to get out of here and make love.” With his back turned to them, no one saw when Charlie gave Clare a small wink and smiled
She looked up at him, eyes as huge as an owls wondering, “Uh?” Instead of saying anything she just nodded. She enjoyed the look on Tom’s face and considered it the revenge she needed.
****
Clare didn’t usually hate Mondays. She knew a lot of people who did, but not her. In fact, she loved Mondays. She saw it as do over day. If she had a problem that she couldn’t solve at work the previous week, or she had an extremely crappy Saturday when nothing just seemed to go right, no matter what she did, she always had Monday. She was anxious about going to Mexico with Charlie.
The first thing that tipped her off that her Monday was going to be on the tail end of ‘What-the-hell’, was the rain.
No, not just rain, she woke up to what sounded like a monsoon taking place outside. She always looked happy while waking up on Mondays but today she was not ready to take in what was happening. She tossed and turned with anger, all her preparations for Monday was going to waste. She had made her hair and was going to wear her lucky dress for Charlie.
Clare’s heart dropped. “No.” She groaned, pulling the pillow over her head. She couldn’t sleep; she was used to waking up early on Mondays. She knew something like this could happen, the problem was, she was not prepared for it.
On Saturday morning, bright and early, Clare had risen at 6am. Before leaving the house, she’d checked, and then re-checked the five-day forecast, to be sure that she would get a few good days out of her new hairdo, before it went south. Then she’d happily left the house before 7:30, so she’d be one of the first clients in line, and hummed her way to the hairdresser to get a new hairstyle that she’d seen pictured in a magazine and lusted after for several weeks. She always wanted to look good every Mondays because it was her favorite day and she was meeting Charlie in his house. She was ready to rock the week with her new hairstyle.
Clare would often say that she had the sort of hair that if she looked out the window during a rainy day, glanced at a picture of, or even thought about rain, her curls would go limp. She couldn’t believe everything was going to be spoiled because of the damn rain.
The weather forecast had called for sunshine and blue skies, not three or five, but seven days in a row, so she’d happily gone to the hairdresser. She’d wanted this hairstyle so badly and that’s why she went to the hairdresser. The weather looked cool until Monday.
“What a total waste.” She said to herself as she c
urled up in bed. She never anticipated this and she decided never to trust the weather channels. Sometimes they are all wrong.
Now it was raining so hard that if asked, she would swear to anyone that she’d seen a sailor in a rowboat floating past her front yard. And it was then that she had a gut wrenching feeling that something was going to happen to ruin not her day, but her entire week. This made her angry; she wanted the entire week to be good at least to work well with her new look. She didn’t want to think about it, she wanted to pretend that everything was going to fine the entire week.
Clare was excited about the trip to Mexico with Charlie. They have been planning for this trip for a while and she couldn’t believe it was only a week away. She hurried through his door. She wanted to show him all the lingerie she bought for the vacation. Too excited to rest and to call him, she decided to surprise him. The door was not locked, his house was big inside but every space was occupied. The air reeked of incense, the house was dim and there was some kind of sound coming from his bedroom. She began to smile.
He was home. Charlie was not easily available; she hanged her jacket on the hook. She laid down her purse and placed her car keys in the crystal bowl that was on the antique table. She smelled his cologne. She walked slowly to his bedroom. The bedroom door was slightly open which made her stop on her tracks, something caught her attention.
She peeped through the opening and saw Charlie on the phone. He was talking to someone on the speaker phone. She could hear a woman’s voice. He was confessing his love to her. He did most of the talking. She listened carefully to their conversation then barged in; he was surprised to see her. He changed his tone and pretended to talk to a colleague, even the woman hanged up seconds earlier. She waited for him to end the pretend call.
“Why are you here without telling me you were coming?” he asked
“Who were you talking to?” she asked furiously.
You can’t answer a question with another question, but I’ll answer you. That was a colleague from work, he wanted us to have a meeting by next week but I told him I had other commitments like our trip.” He moved closer to her.
ROMANCE: BAD BOY ROMANCE: Bad Boy Brother (Stepbrother Interracial College Romance) (Contemporary Stepsister Taboo Romance) Page 199