Derek shook his head. “Keep them. I don’t want them.”
“I can’t keep them. The shoes are Jimmy Choo!”
Derek pushed the items back toward Arianne. “A gift. Besides, they look wonderful on you.”
“That they do,” agreed Taylor.
Stunned at being given the dress and shoes, Arianne was momentarily at a loss what to say. “Uh, uh, thank you. But you have to take the jewelry. These are real.” She held up an earring. Derek shrugged his shoulders. “Here. Take them. I can’t. What if I were to lose one?” She handed him the string of crystals, the pearl necklace and the pair of earrings. He dropped them into his jacket pocket.
Derek turned his attention to her roommate. “Taylor what do you do?”
“I’m a chef.”
Finally able to relax, Arianne nestled down into her chair next to the couch. “He’s starting a catering business.”
“I work at Tito’s, but, I’ve always wanted to run my own catering service.”
“Give me your business card. I’ll see what I can do.”
Taylor glanced at Arianne who nodded her head. He opened a desk drawer and pulled out a card. “I got these a couple of weeks ago.” He handed over the crisp white card. Derek pulled one of his business cards from his wallet. Clicking his pen he scribbled on the back and handed it to Taylor.
“Seventy-five per cent off?”
“The kitchen supply store out on Greenway,” said Derek.
“I know it.”
“Show them the card. They’ll honor it. If they don’t, threaten to call my number on the front.”
Staring at the card, Taylor said, “Thank-you. But you don’t need to try and buy me.”
“I’m not. It’s a business connection.”
“So now, I owe you something?”
“Taylor.“
“It’s okay Arianne. No, you owe me nothing. It is tough to get a break in this city and I am handing you a break. If you don’t want it then throw the card away. If you have a brain in your head, you’ll use it.”
Taylor put the card into his wallet. “Okay, my turn. How rich are you?”
“Billions.”
“How did you get to be so rich when you’re our age? Inherit it? Daddy die and leave you all his money?”
“Nope, John Davenport is still alive.”
“But I thought—” Arianne paused. “Oh, they’re divorced.”
Derek nodded. “I majored in business at college.”
“Which college?”
“Harvard.”
“I should have guessed,” said Taylor.
“My father decided to have a mid-life crisis. He intended to sell his share of the company and give everything away. He wanted to go native on some tropical island.” Derek sipped his coffee. “There are moments when I think it is the best way to be. Anyway, if he had sold the company, it would have been my inheritance he was getting rid of, so I bought his share.”
Arianne almost choked on her coffee. “What?”
“My classmates nicknamed it the coup d’etat of the century. I borrowed the money based on my supposed inheritance from his estate, my trust fund from my grandfather’s estate and potential future earnings and bought it out from under him. Gave him a comfortable pension and now I own Davenport Enterprises. That was six years ago.”
Taylor’s voice rose an octave. “You bought your father’s company?”
“Then increased its value by 15 per cent. I graduated second in my class.”
“Prof was impressed?” asked Arianne.
“No, actually he said he expected nothing less from me. Mean old cuss. Impossible to please.” Derek finished his coffee. “Have I passed inspection Taylor?”
“I think so.”
Arianne hung her head to hide her smile.
“What did you two do this evening?” Taylor asked. “Or should I not ask?”
“We had dinner with the Mayor and the Vice President. I met the Vice President! We talked about a sculpture and then the Mayor joined us and….“ Arianne continued to ramble for twenty minutes about the evening.
Lost in his thoughts, Derek shook his head.
Taylor glanced at Derek “What happened to you? As she talked, you went away.”
“Sorry. I was thinking about how amazed she was with this evening and yet how boring these events are.”
“Well, when I have been to my thousandth one, I’ll probably be bored too,” agreed Arianne. “What would you have rather been doing? What does Derek do when he gets to lock Mr. Davenport away?”
“Goes to a bar and gets drunk. Goes to a hockey game. But I should be going. It is getting late.” He put on his overcoat. “Glad you had a good time, Arianne. Nice meeting you Taylor. Don’t get up. I can let myself out.”
Arianne watched out the window as the limousine’s taillights faded in the distance. “So, what do you think?” she asked Taylor.
“I think you’ve fallen in love with your Mr. Davenport.”
She turned away from the window. “I know. I discovered that today. It isn’t written all over my face, is it?”
“No, but I know you pretty good.”
“Think he likes me? His mother doesn’t.”
“You met his mother? You only meet the parents when it’s getting serious.”
“Or when she shows up at a dinner. That was an accidental meeting. Kind of difficult, too. She had set him up with his former girlfriend, but they broke up and momma didn’t know it because she’d been down in the islands.”
“What is his apartment like?”
“Buckingham Palace in a penthouse. I sank into the carpet. He has a housekeeper named Gail—a very nice lady—discreet—asked no questions. Taylor what am I going to do? When I first started out, I thought about trapping him because he was rich and good-looking. But now, I just want him to fall in love with me.”
Taylor scratched his chin. “What’s the difference? Either way he’s in love with you. It’s a win/win.”
“Not really. If he falls in love with me because I tricked him into it that’s not fair to him. The relationship would be a fake. And I think that’s what he was running from when I first met him. I want him to decide he’s in love with me because of who I am as a person. Not because of who I pretend to be.” She rubbed her face and sighed. “How do I know if he even likes me? Yes, I know I’m rambling.”
“If he invited you out for dinner, he likes you.”
“Well again that was an accident. We both fell asleep and it was kind of late so he invited me out for dinner.” She smiled. “I’m really glad I went.”
“So today was a good one?”
“Yes, today was a very good one.”
Chapter Eight
As Derek’s lips caressed the back of her neck, he asked, “So what room are you painting blue?”
Startled from her bliss of a passionate afternoon, Arianne mumbled, “My bedroom. It was a sickly shade of pink. Wait a moment. How do you know that?”
He kissed her neck. “You have a spot of blue paint, right there.” He lifted her right arm and kissed the inside of her upper arm. “And a spot, right there. I did quite a good search, and those were the only two places I could find.”
“I thought I got all of them. I should have known there’s always more.”
“Why don’t you hire a painter?”
“Too expensive.”
Derek pulled her naked body in closer to his. “I don’t…your salary isn’t enough?”
“Way more than enough. Actually, stupidly enough. But, well, see when I had my last job I thought it would last forever and I never saved a penny. This job I know is sort of contractual. There is an end point. So I have been saving up so I can have some time to find another job when I need to.”
Derek was quiet for so long, Arianne thought he had fallen asleep. “Psst. You asleep?” she whispered. A gentle kiss in the middle of her neck was his answer. “Can I borrow this place next Friday? It’ll be just me. Taylor is having a
big party and I need a place to go. I tried calling my friend, Sheila, but—”
“Shit!” Derek sat up and rubbed his face. “I was supposed to call someone this morning. You’re really messing me up.”
“Me!”
“Yes, I spend all day Monday thinking about what is going to happen on Tuesday. Then I spend all Tuesday morning watching the damn clock. Wednesday, I remember what happened the day before. So my work week has been cut in half. And it’s all your fault. I’m out of here. Yes, you can use the place next Friday. The elevator card will work any day of the week.”
Within five minutes he had dressed, kissed her forehead and left. Two minutes later the elevator doors reopened. He tossed the envelope onto the dining room table. “I am getting so scatterbrained. And yet they let me run a multinational…where are my keys? Have you seen my…what’s my cell phone doing on the couch?”
Arianne picked his car keys up from the coffee table, tossed them to him and waved good-bye as the elevators closed. She waited a few moments to see if he had successfully left then entered the bathroom. Grabbing a bottle of bubble bath, she turned on the faucet and prepared to settle down into a long, hot bath.
* * * *
Sliding her access card through the slot Arianne waited for the elevator to descend to where she waited in the parking garage. It was strange to be going to the apartment on a Friday night and knowing Derek would not be there. When the doors opened, she shifted her backpack to the other shoulder and entered. With a gentle motion, the elevator began its fifty-six story climb. She readied her blue card and when she felt the motion cease, she slid it through the reader. Stepping into the apartment, she laid her backpack on the floor, looked up and said, “What are you doing here?”
“Hiding. What are you doing here?”
She kicked off her snow boots and shook the snow from her hair then hung her winter coat up in the closet. “I asked if I could use the place.”
“No, you said next Friday. That would not be today that would be next Friday.”
Walking around to the couch, she sat on the end opposite to Derek. “My bad. And what do you mean hiding?” Reaching out, she opened the pizza box. “May I?”
Derek nodded.
She selected a slice and bit off the end.
Swallowing a mouthful of beer, Derek said, “Hiding, as in not wanting to be found. There’s a case of beer in the fridge.”
“Hmm, good pizza. Hiding from who? Whom? Why?”
“Women. And their mothers. Four girls called this week hoping I’d ask them out. They’ll call or drop by, using the excuse they’d like to go clubbing. I’m not going to be there. That’s the true reason I have this place. It’s my home away from home. Only Gail knows about it. I really thought you meant next Friday. Sorry.”
She returned with a beer and another for Derek. “Oh, it’s not a problem. I prefer the company. I had to get out of the apartment. Taylor’s parties can be—”
“I get the picture. All I was going to do was chug beer, scarf pizza and watch TV.”
Arianne chuckled. “Scarf pizza is not a term that sophisticated Derek Davenport should even know.”
“I did go to college and I did live in a frat house. And I learned a lot of very unsophisticated terminology.” His cell phone rang. He glanced at the number. “Excuse me. I have to take this. Here.” He tossed her the TV remote and wandered over to the bedroom.
Arianne had settled into a romantic comedy when Derek returned. “I almost forgot about you.”
“Sorry. But when you are an international company the office never closes. Get all the problems in North America settled and put to bed and Asia wakes up.”
“You don’t much like your life do you?” asked Arianne.
“It’s not that. The responsibility gets me down. Hell, I’m only twenty-eight and I’ve been head of Davenport Enterprises since I was twenty-four. It’s been a long hard fight against the older established board members. They resented this young punk taking over.” Glancing out the balcony doors, he sighed. “I think it’s the weather that’s got me down. I am so sick of snow and it’s only late January.”
She tapped the couch cushion next to her. “Get yourself and me another beer and come sit.”
“I’ll get you a beer, but you aren’t on duty. You don’t need to entertain me.” He returned with two beers. His was already half empty.
“Sit. Come on, butt down. Good boy. Now watch the movie. Laugh at the funny parts.”
Derek stretched his feet out and rested them on the coffee table.
“My mom always yelled at me when I did that.”
“My coffee table. I can put my feet up if I want. Get your feet off my coffee table.” He shoved Arianne legs aside.
“Hey, if you can put your feet up, so can I.”
“Says who and what army?” His cell phone replied for Arianne. Dropping his head, he answered it. “Davenport. He said what?” He walked toward the bedroom. “Does he know who the fuck he’s dealing with?” The door cut off the rest of his conversation.
Arianne stared at the back of the door and sighed. For two hours she surfed channels while Derek worked. When she had given up hope, the door opened. He crossed the room and plopped onto the couch next to her.
“Give me the phone.” She snapped her fingers. “See this button. This means off. Press it like this and the phone doesn’t ring. It’s like magic.” She stuffed the phone under a sofa cushion.
Derek smiled, then started to chuckle. “You’re crazy.”
“No, it’s simple reality. If you can’t hear the phone ring then you can’t answer it and then you can relax. Your mom is right. You are pretty pale. When was the last time you took a holiday?”
“Over Christmas. Went skiing.”
Arianne popped up her eyebrows. “You hate snow and you went skiing?”
“Had to. It’s expected. Young single male spends Christmas in mountains in his private ski chalet with some snow bunny. Made all the society papers.”
“I didn’t know you’d gone.”
He rubbed his forehead. “Left on Wednesday came home Sunday. I wonder if I was smart enough to stock this place with some scotch.” He stood and headed for the dining room.
Arianne caught his hand. “Something’s really bugging you. Sit. No. Wait a moment.” She turned off the television. Scurrying around the apartment, she shut off the lights and brought out some candles she’d discovered in the kitchen. After lighting them she asked, “Does that fireplace work or is it a fake?”
Derek opened the grill, turned a dial and a soft flame erupted. Arianne spread the bed’s comforter on the floor, placed the candles around and tapped the spot next to where she sat. “Much more cozy. Stretch out and tell me your troubles.”
* * * *
The soft glow of the candles and fire reflected off her hair. Derek’s fingers ached to touch her but it was wrong. She wasn’t working for him. But he wanted her. He wanted to feel her flesh on his. To feel himself inside her. To experience her. Thoughts of her had begun to consume his every waking moment. He let her pull his shoes off and rub the muscles in his very tight neck.
“What makes you happy, Derek? Whoa, did you tense up!” She pulled his shirt over his head. “That neck is going to need some expert attention. You’ve got quite a knot there.”
Derek stared at the fire and struggled with his thoughts and emotions. She was just an employee. She was with him only for the money. To her it was simply a job. Yet, he was the one who set the rules and said no emotional involvement. Why was it that he was breaking the rule then? He was at a loss as to how to proceed. He’d have to fire her so he could date her, but then she would have no job and no money. He could pay her but then she turns into his employee again.
Her voice broke into his mental conversation. “You asked me what is it you could give me and now I am asking you.” She knelt before him. “What is it I can give you to make you happy? What is the one thing you want?”
The words c
ame out of his mouth before he could stop them. “You. I want you.” He pulled her close and kissed her. “The only time I’m happy is when we are together—when we are making love. The rest of the world disappears when it is just you and I.” His gaze never left her face. “I know it’s wrong, but I can’t help it.”
With a gentle push she forced him to lie down. She planted soft kisses on his belly working her way up his chest. He placed his hand on her and stopped her. “No. Stop. This is wrong.”
“I’m doing this because I want to Derek. I want you as much as you want me. I have a confession. When I first found out who you were, you know, rich businessman, I became intrigued on the idea of getting you to fall in love with me. What girl wouldn’t? It’s like a fairy tale. But something changed.” She smiled. “The day I was your slave. Something changed that day. I wanted to serve you. I wanted to do nothing, but give you joy and pleasure. Not because you pay me, but because it makes me feel good to see you consumed with me.”
His fingertips aimlessly trailed down the side of her head to her ear and drew small circles around her earlobe. He did not reply. For the first time in his life he was caught completely off guard.
“I don’t know whether it was the incredible eroticism of that day, or if it happened over time. I do know that when you ordered me to submit I did so willingly.”
His voice was low. “I can’t fall in love with you Arianne. And I sure as hell can’t marry you.”
“Out of curiosity. Why not?”
He snorted. “I doubt they’d let us. The establishment. The people who move in the same circles I do. They would scorn and ridicule you and make your life miserable because you are not one of us.”
“How different can our lives be?”
“I lost a hundred and fifteen million dollars today. A deal fell through.” He shrugged his shoulders. “I’m not upset. It’s all part of the game.”
She sat up. “A hundred and fifteen million dollars?”
“Yes, but I had a deal go sweet and made a hundred and seventy five mil Monday. When you compare the winners and losers, I’m ahead sixty million dollars this week.”
A Kept Woman Page 7