‘That’s not what I want,’ Luke said.
‘Then what are you gonna do with it, then?’ Tom’s job wasn’t at risk but he’d still felt the sharp end of the bitch’s tongue enough times to want to watch her swivel.
‘I’ve already got a buyer but before I hand it over I want revenge. I’ve worked my butt off for that bitch for the last five years and all I ever get from Kara Kavanagh is grief. She treats me like a kid and humiliates me at every opportunity. It’s time she learnt her lesson.’ For once Luke was actually looking forward to Kara Kavanagh’s imminent arrival at the office.
***
Kara was feeling a tad hung over this morning. Drinking at lunchtime upset her body rhythm but she wasn’t complaining.
She showered and made herself a large black coffee. She needed to be on top form today. Luke Granger could be a tricky bastard at the best of times and today he was going to be cornered and at his most dangerous. She didn’t want to do anything that might give him the ammunition to go to a tribunal and bring Jack Finnegan down out of his ivory penthouse tower and on to her back.
She wondered if she should perhaps run it past him but decided against it. He’d employed her to do his job so that he wouldn’t have to and that meant the buck stopped with her.
Kara’s fingers wandered to the ring between her legs and as she did William’s smile filled her mind. It was very distracting and in the most tantalising of ways.
Kara drained her coffee cup and went back upstairs to dress. She needed to stop acting like a love sick teenager and get herself into work mode, but it was difficult. Her stomach was in constant turmoil.
She chose a sombre navy business suit with a simple cream lace chemise underneath the short jacket, teamed with navy stockings and a pair of navy court shoes.
When she got back downstairs her car was waiting for her. She picked up her briefcase, locked the door and pocketed the key.
Kara studied Luke Granger’s file on the ride into the city. The traffic was typically Monday morning crazy. She could have walked there quicker but today she was in no hurry to arrive. Today the ride acted as a kind of buffer between work and her private life. Kara smiled. She actually had a private life to juggle with at last.
Kara’s mind wandered back to William and she gazed out of the window planning their next date in her head. She wanted him to come to her house. She wanted to cook for him and share her bed with him. She wanted to see his head resting on the pillow next to her when she woke up in the morning, and feel his hand between her legs tugging on the ring he’d placed there…his ring.
A car horn blaring in the lane next to them brought her back to reality. She looked back down at the file on her lap.
Luke Granger had got into the firm via the back door long before Kara’s arrival and despite his lack of ability and poor results he’d somehow managed to keep his job. She had no idea why but Jack seemed to have a soft spot for him.
The car pulled up outside the office of A.I.R Financial and the concierge rushed to the kerbside to open her door. Kara put on her dark glasses and climbed out.
‘Good morning Miss Kavanagh.’
‘Morning George.’
She walked inside and smiled at the receptionist, collected her post and headed for the lift. She was firing on all cylinders now and she was hoping to sack Luke Granger, chair a shorter than normal meeting and then spend the rest of the day in her office catching up on what she’d shelved on Friday.
‘Nice weekend, Kara?’ Her secretary handed her a cup of black coffee.
‘Very nice, thank you, Julie. Get me Luke Granger the minute he comes in, please.’ Kara didn’t share her life with her secretary in the same way as some of her staff did, even though this morning she wanted to shout from the roof tops: I’ve got a boyfriend and he’s the most gorgeous thing to have ever pulled on a pair of white cotton boxer shorts!
Kara sat at her desk to go through her mail.
The knock on her door made her jump.
‘Come in.’
The door opened and Luke Granger stood in the gap with a huge smug grin plastered over his pasty face.
Something wasn’t right.
‘Come in and shut the door, Luke.’ Contrary to popular opinion amongst her staff, she didn’t get any pleasure out of dismissing people, but in this business every cog in the machine had to be well oiled and working at top efficiency and Luke Granger wasn’t. She simply couldn’t afford to carry him anymore. He was a slacker and a liar and he upset the dynamics of her team.
She stood up.
‘You look a little tired, Kara.’ He walked right up to her. Kara backed away, putting her desk between them again. There was something different about the snivelling little shit this morning and she didn’t like it.
‘Why don’t you sit down and take the weight off your feet?’ he suggested.
‘I don’t need health advice from the man who’s taken sixteen weeks off sick this year,’ she shot back.
‘We had an appointment on Friday. Where the fuck were you?’ He shouted at her.
‘I cancelled it, Luke. Didn’t you get my message?’ Kara didn’t like this.
‘No, I bloody didn’t. I wasted good fucking drinking time waiting for you. I call that shit management. You should sack yourself.’ He giggled but the sound held more menace than humour.
‘Luke, there’s no need to be rude. We both know that this day is long overdue and I’m truly sorry that it had to come to this (she was lying) but I’m going to have to ask you to clear your desk and leave A.I.R Financial with immediate effect.’ She was the only woman in an office full of arrogant, headstrong men. She couldn’t afford to give an inch. She had to keep them in their place. She had to keep cracking the whip – if she didn’t she’d have Jack Finnegan on her back asking if the job was too much for a girl. Sometimes she felt it was but it seemed the whole damn country was looking up to her as their role model these days and she didn’t want to let anyone down – least of all her parents who were so proud of her achievements.
He opened his mouth as if to speak but then seemed to think better of it and turned and left without another word.
‘Shitless wanker,’ she whispered and checked her watch. She had a half hour before the meeting but she wanted to get up to the conference room and prepare everything beforehand.
She collected her papers and walked along the corridor, wondering if her decision to keep William’s ring in place had been a wise one as every time it rubbed against the inside of her thigh it sent a delicious tingle straight to the centre of her groin. It was distracting and definitely not conducive to work. But she was loathe to take it out.
Monday morning meetings were a time for Kara to motivate her men for the week ahead and much as she was enjoying the sensation of its gentle tugs between her legs she had to function on a high level amongst a room full of posturing testosterone. The constant reminder of its presence was making that difficult but it was too late to take it out now.
‘Morning Miss Kavanagh.’ She acknowledged each call with a smile and a brief nod of the head as she tracked a path towards the conference room. She was a popular boss – or maybe the staff were just relieved to have her cracking the whip instead of Jack Finnegan. Jack could be fierce and a little unconventional in his approach. He tended to rub people up the wrong way.
When Kara opened the conference room door she found Tom Halfpenny and Luke Granger sitting with their feet on the table drinking whisky.
‘What are you still doing here?’ She addressed Granger but he only smiled at her and made no effort to move – nor did Tom Halfpenny who wasn’t normally renowned for sticking his head above the parapet. Kara began to panic. She didn’t know what was going on but she knew she had to get on top of it before anyone else arrived on the scene.
‘Get your fucking feet off my table unless you want to join the unemployment queue behind Granger.’ She picked on the weakest link, hoping that Halfpenny would back down and that Granger might fo
llow once he realised he was on his own. Her pulse was thumping at her temple. She was a little unnerved by this strange turn of events. She really could have done without dissent in the ranks today.
Neither of them moved.
‘Sit down, Kara, we’ve got a rather special promotional video for you to watch,’ Luke Granger announced smugly.
‘You might want to shut the door,’ Tom added with a grin.
Kara pushed the door to and then swung around to look at the wall mounted TV screen as Granger pointed the remote and she came face to face with a three foot tall naked image of herself in freeze frame.
She froze. This was her worst nightmare coming true before her eyes. She couldn’t understand what was happening. How had they got this picture? Was it out of the morning paper? Had a rogue paparazzi climbed up the Virginia creeper that clung to the front of William’s house, and taken these shots through the window. But she wasn’t exactly that important.
Granger flicked a switch on the remote and the frozen frame came to life.
‘No,’ she whispered as she took in the shameful tableau. ‘No,’ she said again as she stared at her own flushed face, mouth stretched wide in the throes of a scream as William held the belt above his head ready to thrash her again. ‘No! No! No!’ she cried. She could hardly deny it was her. Her cheeks were flushed, her pupils dilated and her breasts hanging below her as her restraints forced her to lean forwards, and the ring – William’s ring that she loved so much – was clearly visible between her spread legs.
‘No! This can’t be happening. Turn it off.’
No one moved or said a word for what seemed an eternity and then Granger piped up:
‘So, did you have a good weekend, Kara?’ The pair of them collapsed in a fit of hysterical, raucous laughter like naughty school boys.
Kara felt sick. She swallowed back the bitter tasting bile that had appeared in her throat.
‘How did you get this?’ She couldn’t bear the thought that William had set her up – that he was not a property developer at all but an undercover reporter looking for a salacious front page story. It was unthinkable. There had to be another explanation.
‘I bought it,’ Granger said.
‘Who from?’ She was still holding out hope that a sleazy newspaper was somehow involved.
‘Your man whore of course.’ Granger pointed at the screen and Kara looked up just as William raised his belt to strike her. Kara closed her eyes and looked away but the sound of her scream filled the room and echoed in her head.
‘Oh! Don’t tell me you actually thought he wanted you?’ Luke taunted. ‘I had to pay him to take you to bed.’
Kara felt as if she was sinking in quick sand. It was constricting her breathing. Her head was throbbing. She needed to get out of here. She looked towards the door but Granger was ahead of her. He got up from his chair and turned the key in the lock.
The bastard had her well and truly stitched up and he knew it. All she could do now was front it out. If it was money they were after she’d pay whatever it took to get out of this mess before anyone else found out. She couldn’t let Jack find out – or her parents. The shame would kill them if this ever became public? Kara shivered as if someone had just walked over her grave. She tried to engage her business head. She needed to close this thing down. She needed to contain the problem and make a damage limitation plan. She had to treat it like any other problem that presented itself, or risk losing her mind as well as her job and her reputation in one fell swoop.
‘How much do you want?’ She tried to keep her voice both calm and assertive. She couldn’t let them know how scared she really was. She swallowed back the tears that threatened to give her away. She wouldn’t give them the satisfaction of seeing her cry.
‘Let’s start with a flash of your ringed cunt.’ Granger grinned.
Kara instinctively backed away from him.
‘Come on darling, lift your skirt and give us a peek at that ring. You can’t really deny it, can you?’ He closed in on her. Kara backed up against the wall, her cheeks burning with rage and humiliation.
‘You evil little pervert,’ she hissed through clenched teeth. ‘You shitless fucking wanker! Do you really think you can get away with this?’ So much for staying calm.
‘Uh, yes, I do, actually and I think you should apologise to me, as well – that’s what I think. What do you think, Tom?’ Granger turned to Tom.
‘I don’t know, Luke. I…I’m not sure about this.’ Halfpenny was backing out. Kara began to hope that she could get out of this.
‘Fuck you, lightweight. I haven’t finished with her yet. You’ll just have to watch.’
Kara looked at Tom, appealing with her eyes, trying to prick his conscience. He looked away.
‘Come on, bitch. I want to watch you peel off your knickers and bend over the table for me.’
‘Never!’ Kara spat back. She would rather be raped than do what he asked voluntarily but she was hoping it wouldn’t come to that. She was hoping that Tom Halfpenny would come to her rescue if Granger went too far.
‘Something tells me the boss won’t think quite so highly of his pretty little blue eyed, can-do-no-wrong figurehead when he finds out what she does with her weekends off.’ Granger closed in on her. ‘And you can wave goodbye to your Woman of the Year award…unless they’ve introduced a special category for pornography,’ he snorted, pleased with his own joke.
‘It’s a pity you didn’t put as much effort into making money for the company as you did on planning this pathetic little escapade,’ Kara bit back. She couldn’t show her fear. She wasn’t prepared to walk away from the career she’d sacrificed so much for. She’d clawed her way to the top and clung on by her fingertips, resisting Jack Finnegan’s continuous advances in her bid to get here under her own merit and now she was here she wasn’t about to let it go without a fight but even she knew that the only way to shut Granger up was to offer him money.
‘I’m prepared to offer you five hundred thousand. That’s my best offer. And obviously, for that amount I’d expect all the copies you’ve made of this and for both of you to leave the company.’
‘Wait! I don’t want to lose my job. Let her go, Luke.’
‘He’s gonna take you down with him,’ Kara spoke to Tom. He was the weak link.
‘You really are a cool fucking customer, aren’t you,’ Luke Granger spat. ‘Did you really think you’d get away with it that easily?’
‘Take it or leave it.’ She folded her arms across her chest in an act of defiance, indicating that she was done with negotiating.
‘Oh, I’ll take your money – but I wanna see you sucking on my cock, first.’
‘Is that such a wise idea? Aren’t you afraid I might bite it off?’
Granger was getting riled. He wasn’t as clever as he liked to think and it was obvious he hadn’t expected Kara to fight back quite so fiercely.
‘Do it or I’ll take my belt to you.’ Granger started to unbuckle the belt from his trousers. Kara looked at Tom. He was no help. She was on her own.
‘Touch me with that and I won’t give you a penny. I’d rather scupper my own ship than let you take over the helm.’ She was bluffing. She’d do anything to keep this thing contained in this room but Granger didn’t know that.
‘I don’t believe you,’ Granger said. ‘Now show us your cunt…you cunt.’ He laughed at his own crude joke and made a grab for her skirt. Kara backed away but he grabbed her arm. Kara struggled and kicked out as Granger held her against the wall and pushed her skirt up around her waist.
He was going to rape her! Panic clouded her vision. She had to get out of here.
She kicked out at Granger as hard as she could and caught him full and square between the legs. He collapsed to the floor clutching his crotch.
‘You bitch!’ he wheezed through clenched teeth.
Kara ran to the door but the key was missing. Granger was struggling to his feet. If she didn’t think of something quick she was
lost.
Kara turned her back on him and started banging on the door.
‘HELLO!’ Someone knocked from the other side. Kara let out a sigh of relief and tidied her clothes.
‘If you don’t open the door everyone’s going to know what you’re up to and then your chance to extort money out of me will be lost,’ Kara warned with far more confidence than she felt.
Granger was holding his crotch, his face still contorted with pain but he pulled the key out of his pocket and threw it at her.
‘I’ll get you for this,’ he wheezed.
Kara took a deep breath and opened the door. A couple of her team were standing outside.
‘What happened?’
‘The door was jammed,’ she said. ‘Oh, and the meeting’s cancelled this morning,’ Kara announced without further explanation and walked away.
The journey back to her office took forever. Everyone suddenly seemed to have something they wanted to ask her. She did her best to remain polite and in control but inside she was slowly dying.
Once her office door was in sight Kara made a run for it, locked it behind her and promptly threw up in the toilet.
She had never cancelled a meeting before. There would be gossip, but most people already knew that Luke Granger was living on borrowed time. Hopefully they’d just assume that she’d been bawling him out. It wouldn’t further Granger’s cause to advertise his intentions. The more people knew about this the less it would be worth to him. She figured he’d be back sooner rather than later and that ultimately she’d have to pay up to keep him quiet but the longer she could stall him the more chance she had of finding another way out of this. Although in her heart she knew this was never really going to go away. She’d have to wear it like a dirty pair of underwear for the rest of her life, always scared that someone would discover her secret and tell it to the world. She wasn’t sure she could live that way.
Kara splashed her face with cold water and then filled a glass. She still felt sick. She sipped on it slowly. The water tasted foul and warm but as she drank her eyes rested on the CCTV cameras set high on the wall in her office.
The Gigolo Page 6