The Temp

by Cates, A. K

  He clicked open one image, the woman’s profile expanding on the screen. This one was a feisty one, it hadn’t taken much dirt or persuasion to turn her, mould her to his will all those years ago. Yes…she would do. She was the type not to keep something as juicy as this to herself. Good.

  He glanced at his silver wristwatch; the creature of habit might be at the club or waiting for him in some slutty little outfit…wrapped around his finger.

  …And Eve Allure would be set on a dangerous path, a ticking time bomb if things went as planned.

  20

  Day 4-Thursday-The Office

  “Eve, a bunch of us girls are going out tonight. Did you want to come?” Celeste said. Her butt rested on the edge of Eve’s desk inside her cubicle walls, too close for comfort. She threw up a look at the boss behind the glass. Celeste’s blood red lips formed a pout moments later. Her black liquorice nails were sharpened to points and drumming the edge of Eve’s desk. She normally was more refined, now she looked the spitting image of Snake eyes. She wore a patent leather skirt with a matt black figure hugging blazer and white silk blouse. “Such eye candy,” she winked. “Shame he’s the boss. So, tonight, drinks? Some much needed male attention?”

  “I can’t. I have too much work on,” Eve said. Eve didn’t go out or socialise, she didn’t know how. Frankly having Celeste sit on her desk and converse like she was her best friend was surely an odd day for her.

  “Sugar, I simply wanted to help you prove those rumours wrong,” she teetered. Rumour? Eve’s pulse quickened instinctively.

  “What rumours?” Eve stilled over the keyboard giving Celeste her full attention.

  “I heard from Janie, who heard it from Barb, who heard it from Angelica, who heard it from”-

  “Heard what?”

  “If it’s only rumour tell me and everyone else so and we can clear this up or better yet show them.”

  “Show them what?”

  Celeste leaned in and lowered her voice. “Well, you’ve never been with a man before. What are you like twenty five give or take? You’ve had your cherry popped haven’t you? It’s a right of passage.”

  Her mouth dropped.

  Oh my god. She drowned out whatever else Celeste said next. Her throat seized, her blood thickening in her veins. She skimmed above her cubicle walls. Time numbed her senses and she sensed every pair of eyes flit her way and back. Have you heard the news? Little temping Eve’s never done it before. What is she hiding under there? Strangers talking about her, whispering her name, even if it wasn’t the case, even if they spoke of something else, it was all she could think of. Virgin. Virgin. Virgin. Virgin. Virgin. Virgin.

  Eve pressed her hands over her ears in an effort to block out the voices in her head. She stood up throwing the chair back. Her hands gripped the edges of her desk.

  “I think the rumour started naturally because you’re so uptight. You’re always working and so what’s the word?” Celeste inclined her head. “Straight laced. Dear, it’s ok if you’ve never been with a man before,” she laughed a shrill laugh meaning it was anything but ok. She rose off the desk and sauntered off, her hips swaying in her wake. The poison of her words leached hard and fast into Eve’s veins.

  Angelica sauntered passed. “I didn’t know whether to believe it.”

  “And yet you told people anyway,” Eve said.

  “Oh, no, I would never,” Angelica gasped in mock shock.

  “If anything, I had the opposite in mind.” Eve’s brow shot up. Angelica’s gaze flittered to the glass office. “First Trigger, now Roman Pierce, my, my, we do get around.” Snake eyes sneered and swayed down the corridor before Eve could even muster a retort.

  She had nothing. No one, no work colleague had ever spoken to Eve like that and given her precarious situation she doubted she could even make a complaint. Her knuckles turned white against the desk. Virgin. Virgin. Virgin. The words came back to haunt her. Her face blanched, she was frozen, her fists balling and un-balling, her heart slamming like the breaks of a car.

  “You know where I am, if you change your mind,” Celeste walked on by, a coffee cup in hand, adding fuel to the already stoking fire. Eve watched the woman disappear around a cubicle. Angela. Celeste. They know. They all know and they’re laughing at her. Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god.

  She started hyperventilating. Not like the confined steel box, nothing like that, this was worse. Everybody knows. How could they?

  The phone rang and she jumped.

  It was Roman, her boss in the glass office behind her. She didn’t pick up, she simply turned to the office and his gaze met her head on. He knows too. No. He had to know. How could he not?

  The phone rang again. Bring. BRRING!

  She couldn’t move.

  He got up from behind the desk and walked over to the glass door. “Eve is everything”-she didn’t give him a chance to finish. She bolted. She couldn’t be here, she couldn’t have them knowing and laughing about her. She rushed to the lobby pressing the elevator button again and again and again.

  “Come on,” tears streamed down her cheeks.

  Finally the elevator dinged open. She was in and pushing the button to close the doors when Roman walked in.

  “Eve, what’s wrong?”

  “Please, I need to leave”-the doors closed.

  They were locked in together.

  She could take the elevator every once in a while if she breathed evenly enough. It wasn’t enough now. Her pulse raced. Her ears numbed from the pressure. Her breathing was constricted.

  “I need air,” her chest rose and fell; there was too much pressure on her ears.

  “Eve, calm down you’re hyperventilating.” Eve didn’t look at him as the tears flowed freely, she turned away from him.

  “Why did you follow me?” her fingers pressed against the walls, she was locked in the corner of the elevator.

  “I had to get some fresh air.”

  “That was my line.”

  “I’m taking it.”

  He stood next to her shoulder to shoulder, his warmth pressing against her arm. Her senses swam; this was the longest elevator ride ever. When the box finally stilled Eve jumped out and jogged into the lobby.

  She had to get away.

  His hand grabbed hers in a heartbeat, his touch filling her senses.

  “What, let go Rome, I’m not your problem.”

  “You are. You’re mine,” his voice was hoarse.

  He steered her down the street and to the park.

  Eve swallowed back her fear and her tears. Did Roman say she was his?

  “I’m not,” she wanted to fight back, at least feel like she could stand on her own two feet. Her hand was hot in his. He steered her to a bench in the park.

  “Is there someone else?” he sat down pulling her along with him, his hand still in hers.

  “What?”

  “The man in the coffee house.”

  “Nick? No, we’re friends,” Eve stammered remembering what Trisha had said. If Nick really liked her it still came as a shock.

  “Then what is it? Why did you leave?”

  “You already know, the whole office does. I’m not going to say it.”

  “I don’t know,” his attention was on her. “I don’t. Tell me.”

  “No.” Eve slumped against the bench and clasped her hands over her knees, taking her hand from him leaving her cold.

  “You’re upset. You can’t go back there”-Eve glanced up at him. “At least not until you’re ok again. You’re make-up is smudged. Whatever you’re afraid of facing, they’d know they got to you. You’re better than them.” Eve had a flash of Snake eyes and her cold smile and cold words. Them. She had a flash of the blackmailers. Was she better than them? In this game of deception, she couldn’t be sure anymore.

  “You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Eve wiped her cheeks.

  “I do. Come on, let’s go to lunch,” he tugged her hand.

  “Rome-”

&nb
sp; “Don’t say my name like that unless you can follow through,” his voice cut through.

  She bit her tongue as they rose and walked out of the park hand in hand. Once they left the park she let him lead her to a nearby restaurant. They were seated immediately at the far back in a private corner.

  The waiter brought over the menus.

  “What are you eating? It’s on me,” his eyes softened.

  “I’m not hungry.”

  “You should eat. At least have dessert.” Eve shook her head. Roman handed the waiter the menus. “We’ll have one of each of the specials.”

  “Right away.”

  Roman braced both hands over the table. “What’s bothering you, Eve?”

  “I’d rather we didn’t talk about it.”

  “Alright, then.”

  “I’d rather not talk about anything.”

  “Got it.”

  Eve picked up a spoon, her misshapen face blinking back, her mascara was smudged in a very unladylike manor. What would they think? “I’m going to the bathroom to clean myself up,” she rose feeling heavy and groggy.

  The bathroom was eloquently decked in a marble vanity and classic taps. Eve wiped away the evidence of her emotions with the softest of tissues. She braced herself over the sink. What was she doing here? A moment ago she was in the office with Celeste laughing at her. And Snake eyes. There was a woman who hated her on sight for whatever reason she couldn’t fathom.

  Now she was here, with Roman Pierce in a restaurant. Eve sat back down a few minutes later. Before her sat a chocolate brownie with ice cream and a strawberry cheesecake.

  “Can I talk now?” his voice was all innocence.

  Eve’s mouth stretched. “I’ve never known you to ask permission.”

  “I didn’t know which one you wanted.” Eve dipped her spoon into the brownie and pushed the other plate towards him. They ate their desserts in silence. Occasionally Eve would look up. Roman would look up. She didn’t know what to say, knowing anything would most likely ruin this moment. It wasn’t long after they were walking back down the street towards Roman Industries Ltd.

  “You haven’t said anything for a while,” Roman pressed the button for the elevator. The lobby was startlingly different, less threatening in this light. Eve didn’t respond as they got in. It was the two of them alone in the elevator. “What will it take for you to submit to me?” What would it take? Eve considered a moment.

  It was Roman she was standing with, Roman, a man who didn’t do permanence and romance.

  He didn’t do forever.

  Eve smiled with wet eyes. “Nothing you can give me.”

  She stepped out of the elevator.

  “Thank you for the cake Mr Pierce.”

  21

  Day 5-Friday-The Office

  “I can’t make you permanent,” Roman said.

  “Why not?” Eve said. “Am I not doing a good job?”

  “It’s not that and you know it.”

  “Then what is it?” she wanted him to say it, at least admit why, out loud.

  Roman held up a newspaper, he placed the paper down on the desk. “This.”

  Her eyes skimmed across the front page. “Oh,” her breath left her in a whoosh. She took the paper, “it was only five minutes, how did they-” She was staring at a picture of her and Roman sitting together on the bench in the park.

  The headline read; BILLIONAIRE’S NEW LOVE?

  “They can’t jump to any conclusions if we sat on the same bench,” she said. Her face flustered, why was she fighting it? Wasn’t this what she’d always wanted? Her and Roman and oh how they looked so cute together.

  “The story continues, turn over to page 11,” Roman said.

  Eve flicked through the paper and found the next photo. It was of them walking through the park hand in hand.

  “A picture is worth a thousand words,” her words died away. “You read this newspaper?”

  “It’s a celebrity gossip paper, so no.”

  “But you’ve been in it a few times.”

  His brow shot up, “you read this paper?”

  “I don’t have to. I’ve seen pictures of you on the web.” Eve turned away as if she were admitting to her interest in him. She didn’t want to mention those pictures she’d seen had him with other women. Billionaire. Businessman. Playboy. He’d been playing this game a long time.

  Roman was staring straight at her as he leaned in.

  “Be mine.”

  “No.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because I’ve seen the other photos, the other women. I told you it’s not an option.”

  “The other women are the past. You haven’t told me why you won’t be with me.”

  Eve turned away from his desk lowering the newspaper.

  Roman got up and moved around to where she stood, his footfalls gently coming up behind her. “Why do you resist me?” he sat against the desk.

  “Maybe I’m trying to protect myself.”

  “You think I’m bad for you.”

  “Not necessarily,” Eve shrugged, averting her stare.

  “There’s something you’re not telling me.”

  “Everybody has secrets.”

  “You’re deflecting.”

  “You’re persisting.”

  “I want you Eve,” he said. His words melted her bones like butter. Eve sunk into the chair opposite him.

  “You have an appointment due in a few minutes.”

  “Stop resisting me.”

  “Are you eating out today or shall I order in?”

  “I think you like this. You saying no, me saying yes.”

  Eve blinked. “It’s nice to feel wanted.”

  “Nice,” Roman lingered on the word. “You’re not giving me anything here, Eve.”

  The phone rung on her desk, telling her to move on and also that she hadn’t closed the door properly; someone could have heard their conversation.

  “I should go,” Eve whispered.

  “Don’t.”

  Eve bit her lip. “If that’s all, Mr Pierce, I’m sure that’s your eleven o’clock.”

  “Wait.” She stopped. “In case you change your mind,” he pulled out a card from his pocket and handed it to her with his name and address on the back.

  Eve studied the card. “You live in a hotel?”

  “I own a hotel and live in it. My private line is on that card.”

  “Oh,” she couldn’t breathe nor think. She had to go, standing here evading him was too awkward for words. Eve left moments later, her heart beating out of its chest, her head swimming. The card burned against her fingers. She shouldn’t be contemplating Roman Pierce. He was mesmerising and off limits, she was trying to protect him, wasn’t she? And herself.

  Eve busied herself with work for the next few hours. She didn’t want to think about the possibility of Roman Pierce in her bed or the card burning a whole in her blazer pocket. It would only give her so many more questions.

  When finally Eve glanced up again it was seven o’clock.

  How had she worked all the way passed lunch? Had Roman even left the room? She turned round and met his gaze full on.

  It was Friday night, what was he doing here at this hour?

  “Evee dearest, did you want to join us tonight?” Celeste sauntered passed. Celeste’s attention shot to the glass office and she turned away with a frown. Eve turned back to Roman who was busy typing away at his laptop. “Oh well, if you have better things to do”-Celeste started walking away.

  “No, I’m coming,” Eve shot up from the desk.

  “Good, see you in a few minutes.”

  Eve grabbed her bag and blazer. She hated Celeste more by the minute almost as much as Angelica. On the other hand, she hadn’t wanted to do this alone. She needed to, for the sake of her dignity. This was it. The moment she’d been waiting for.

  She walked on unsteady feet into Roman Pierce’s office.

  “This is it,” Eve blinked at the ground. “I
’m off.” Sweat beaded her forehead, prickling her neck.

  “You’re returning to Trigger’s office?”

  “I guess so,” Eve kept her attention to the floor, hugging her blazer to her.

  “Maybe I’ll see you on Monday,” his words shot to her like rejection.

  “Maybe.” Eve couldn’t remember leaving the office, only that she was down in the lobby the next moment and heading towards a club with a bunch of work women. She wasn’t aware of anything anymore.

  Not the first glass of wine.

  Not the second.

  Not the shots.

  The only thing she could recall was rejection.

  *

  Roman’s phone buzzed at midnight. The screen lit up and her name blinked back at him. He rubbed his eyes; he’d closed them momentarily while he sat on the lounge in the office. Eve had left. He’d watched her go; he should’ve stopped her, said something, anything. He didn’t know what had changed his mind.

  Eve was hot one minute, cold the next. He couldn’t be sure if she really wanted him, not after what had happened in the restaurant, her silence had buried itself deep within him. He stared at the package on his desk. He should’ve given it to her. He should have been out to dinner with some friends but he’d cancelled at last minute. He wasn’t one to cancel anything, so it had surprised him as much as his friends.

  He picked up the phone. “Eve. You changed your mind.”

  “Where do you get off Rome?” her words slurred and loud music blared in the background.

  “Have you been drinking?” his jaw tensed, gripping his temple.

  “What’s it to you?”

  Roman sat up. “Eve, where are you?”

  “Like you care, all you want is to get in my pants.”

  “Eve I care, tell me where you are,” his voice was hard.

  “What does it matter?”

  “Are you alright?” there was an underlying edge he didn’t recognise.

  “Why do you care?” she snapped.

  “I care Eve, I don’t want you to get hurt.”

  “I’m fine. I’m with Celeste and Snake bitch.”

  “Stay there I’m coming to get you.” Roman got up and grabbed his car keys, slamming the front door and pressing the elevator button seconds later. The blaring of the music over the phone suddenly stopped.