by Simply BWWM
After dinner, drinks were brought to the table and Julian’s eyes were still trained on her. “I feel as though I’ve gotten to know you a little better, but I’m still not convinced,” he said, taking her in and leaning closer to her.
He knew that she wasn’t going to get in the back of his limo that night. She wasn’t quite anxious enough, she wasn’t hot enough for him; which surprised him as most women were ravenously hungry for him, his power, and his money. He knew he might have to work just a little bit to get himself inside of her.
She frowned slightly. “I’m not quite sure what else I could tell you that would be relevant or helpful. You know now how much it means to me and how much I want it,” she said, trying not to sound disappointed that she hadn’t gotten what she wanted from him.
He smiled slowly and gazed at her. “I know how much you want it…” he said in a low voice. “And I want to give it to you… I do, but I want you to show me just how hard you’re willing to work for it. What kind of sacrifices you’re willing to make to get it?” He leaned closer, his eyes locked on hers.
“Come with me tomorrow. I’m taking my sailboat out to sea. Come sailing with me and spend the day with me out there. Let’s talk some more.” He lifted his glass of brandy and sipped it without ever taking his steady gaze from her.
She sighed. “Kathy was going to have me do some photo work tomorrow…” she said hesitantly. She was telling the owner of the company that she couldn’t go with him because she had to work for him. The irony of that situation was not lost on her at all.
He chuckled. “I’ll call Kathy. Your schedule will be cleared tomorrow. Come with me.” He spoke firmly, as if it wasn’t an option or a request. She knew he meant it. She realized that she may have convinced him just a little more than she had first guessed, and that if he was that serious about spending time with her, he might very well be considering giving her the cover. She wondered just how close she was to having it.
“Okay,” she said, lifting her chin and giving him a nod. “I’ll go. Thank you for the opportunity and for talking to Kathy. I really appreciate all that you are doing for me.” She did appreciate it, but her eyes and her mind were ever on the cover.
Julian grinned and tipped his brandy snifter back, swallowing the dark amber liquid in one take. He set the glass down heavily on the table and a quiet laugh sounded from deep in him. “Good. Good girl. I’ll give you the address before we leave. Be there at ten in the morning.”
Gabriella wondered what she was really getting herself into. “I will.” She nodded. “Thank you for your time and thank you for dinner,” she told him with a smile. There was a knot of uncertainty in her belly, but she knew that she was much closer to her goal than she had been that morning, and any kind of progress was good.
He walked her out of the restaurant and just as she was about to say good night, he slipped his arm around her waist and pulled her close to him. She gasped, breathing in his cologne as he nuzzled his mouth close to her neck and her ear for a moment. He pressed his lips lightly to her cheek and held them there for a fleeting instant before letting her go completely and smiling at her surprise.
“Good night, Gabriella. I’ll see you in the morning. You’ll want to bring your swimsuit and a change of clothes.” He winked at her, giving her a nod, and then he turned and stepped into the back seat of his limousine.
She stared after him as his car pulled away. She was still completely uncertain about what she had gotten herself into. Her fingers drifted up to her cheek and brushed the place where he had kissed her, hoping that it was nothing more than a farewell gesture.
Chapter3
Gabriella awoke the next morning wondering how real the night before had been, and not completely trusting Julian Medici, she called Kathy’s office to be certain of what would be happening that day.
Kathy confirmed that Gabriella would not be going in and that Julian had called to say she would be working for him that day. Her tone was icy and her words were short, but Gabriella knew then that Julian meant what he said. She hung up the phone with Kathy and readied a day bag with her swimsuit and extra clothes.
An hour later, she was standing on the dock where Julian’s sailboat was, and he was stepping off the boat to greet her. He strode toward her in his white pressed pants with his polo shirt unbuttoned enough that dark curls of hair peeked out through the top of it. He gave her a grin and she smiled back.
When he reached her, he stopped directly in front of her and reached both of his arms around her waist, pulling her intimately close to him in his embrace, leaning in to kiss her cheek softly, lingering there a moment before he leaned back and looked at her with a sly smile.
“You smell incredible. I like that perfume on you.” He held her a moment longer and she tried to make her heart slow down just a little. She felt more nervous than she had the night before at dinner; almost like an animal uncertain if it was in danger or not.
She took a small breath and leaned back from him. “Thank you,” she said quietly. Little seeds of awkwardness and doubt began to drift through her, and she wondered again what she was doing there with him, and how much her time with him really pertained to her getting the cover of the magazine.
He watched her and his expression changed subtly. He could see that she wasn’t warming up to him, and he discovered that he was slightly put out by the unusual phenomenon. Julian was much more accustomed to women coming onto him all the time, and working to get their attention and interest was something he never had to do. He let her go and hid the frown that he felt coming on.
“Well, we should get going. Welcome aboard, Gabriella,” he said coolly, reaching for her hand to help her up onto the sailboat. She let him help her, but once they were both on the boat, he noticed that she pulled away from him and kept a little closed off from him. Irritation laced its way through him and he smiled and got the sailboat pushed away from the dock and headed out to sea.
She turned her attention from Julian to the moment and the feel of the cool wind on her skin and in her hair, and the wide open ocean out in front of them. It was a beautiful day; the golden sun glinted brightly off of the vast expanse of blue before them, glittering like diamonds scattered as far as she could see, and Gabriella found herself breathing it in, letting it relax her and soothe the small tensions that had been building in her. It wasn’t a bad way to have a day off from work, gliding along on the sea as they were.
Julian watched her as he sailed them along the coastline, his eyes taking in all of her form, her beauty, and her mood. He had been so sure the night before that he would have her riding him in the back seat of his car, but by the end of dinner, he knew she wasn’t getting into his car with him, and he had decided that she needed a little more coaxing. She wanted the cover. She was an intelligent woman. She must realize that the easiest way to get it would be to seduce him, but she had kept up a wall and a little distance. He was perturbed by it and the more he watched her, the more he wanted her. She was complicated and distant, and he was completely unaccustomed to having to do much work at all to get a woman to please him any way he wanted her to.
He was bothered by her disinterest in him, and he decided that she could take a little more convincing. It wouldn’t be that hard, he decided. He could take her to his home; his sprawling mansion on the coast, take her to his bed and do everything to her that had been playing through his thoughts since he had met her. There would be no way that she could not want him if he got her into his home and his bedroom.
She’d be amazed at his wealth, his power, his gorgeous body, and they would be alone with no distractions, no interference, and he could lay it on the line then, if she wasn’t already pleading to climb onto his lap, he could tell her that the only way he would give her the cover would be if she would work in his bed for it. He thought of the hours he would keep her there, and all of the things he wanted to do to her, and have her do to him.
“Let’s stop at my place for lunch,” he mentioned
a short while later, his eyes intense on her, his hands tight on the wheel of the boat. “I’m getting to be very hungry.” As he spoke, he held her eyes with his, and she reached her arms around herself instinctively, wondering if he meant that he was speaking of food or not.
She wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt, but the fire in his eyes told her that he was thinking of something far different than what he was saying aloud. She shrugged nonchalantly. “I guess so. I’m a little hungry too,” she answered. “I’d love a salad,” she added, just in case he wasn’t talking about food.
He chuckled and nodded. “I’ll see what I can come up with for you at the house,” he replied and she looked at him in surprise.
“At the house?” she asked, wondering just what he had in mind.
He lifted his chin and nodded to the small golden hills off to one side of the boat. “Yes, I thought we’d have lunch at my home, since we’re so close. It would be handy,” he said with a sly grin.
She turned to look and saw that there was a dock and a boathouse on a deserted beach, not too far from a little beach house that was nestled onto a sandy dune at the base of a hill. The beach house was good sized, pristine and picturesque, but it was nothing compared to the back of the enormous mansion that rose up from the top of the hill, commanding everything around it in a powerful and dominant way. She had never seen a home so big in her life.
It was an Italian villa; cream colored with a terra cotta roof and windows all around it on every side. There was a wide and exquisitely manicured garden filled with statuary and fountains that stretched from the back of the mansion out to the edge of the hill where the land ended and the hill sloped down sharply to the beach below.
A road went from the beach house up to the main house, winding along the round edge of the hill, and disappearing from view in places until it reappeared at the crest of the land and the side of the gardens. It was elegant and breathtaking, and as Gabriella looked at it, she could only shake her head as she tried to take it in. She had no idea how anyone could live in a place so surreal and beautiful. It looked like a dream, or a dream of a dream.
“That’s where you live?” she asked in wide-eyed wonder as he pulled the sailboat up to the dock.
He chuckled. He knew she’d be completely impressed with it, and he grinned to think how much she would love his enormous bedroom. “Yes, I live here. It’s a beautiful place. Do you like it?” he asked, reaching for her hand to help her to the dock from the boat.
“I love it. It’s amazing!” she breathed. “I’ve never seen anything like it.” She walked slowly down the dock, looking at the beach house and small part of the grounds of the mansion that she could see from where they were.
He walked over to a car that was parked at the boathouse and opened the passenger door for her. “I’m pleased that you like it. I’m looking forward to showing you more of it.” He said as he gazed at her while he shut the door. They drove up the hill and she stared at the gardens as they passed them, and then at the house as they pulled up to it.
He parked the car at the back of the house and helped her from her seat, taking her hand in his and walking with her as her attention was completely taken be the beauty and wonder all around her. He walked her into the back of the home and she gasped as she passed through the door into what in her mind could only have been described as a palace.
The floors and pillars were marble, there were massive crystal chandeliers hanging in the bigger rooms, enormous intricately woven oriental rugs were set about, museum quality paintings hanging on the twenty-foot-high walls, and wide arched doorways between the rooms that they passed through.
He watched her from the corner of his eye, smiling to himself, knowing that she was mesmerized and would be so easy to lay back in his bed, spellbound as she was by his home, his lifestyle, and he mused to himself, by his body once she saw it. She would be begging him to take her over and over, and he would take her in every way he wanted to for hours, all afternoon. Heat and tension pulled at his groin and he felt himself harden yet again for her.
They entered the kitchen and he instructed the older woman who seemingly appeared from nowhere to make lunch for them. She nodded and vanished as quickly as she had come, and Julian poured each of them a glass of champagne.
“I’m glad that you like it here,” he said, handing her glass to her and drawing near her. “The Medici home is one of the most beautiful on the coast, but it shines a little brighter because you’re in it right now,” he told her, reaching his arm around her and nuzzling her neck with his nose and mouth again.
The dream bubble around Gabriella suddenly seemed to pop, and reality poured in like cold water crashing forcefully all around her. She realized then as she felt his mouth moving along her skin, leaving warm wet kisses on her neck, that he fully intended to seduce her there at his home where she would have no way to leave, no way out, no recourse or option. Anger and panic shot through her and she pulled away from him, looking at him sharply.
“Julian, I hope you know that I’m here only so that we can discuss the cover of the magazine. I have no interest in any other kind of interaction with you. This is nothing more than business… you know that, don’t you?” she said firmly as she looked at him directly.
The tension in him tightened and he took in a breath, watching her closely, trying to judge everything happening between them. She stood before him in her dark blue bikini, her body svelte and toned, her skin frosted over by the sheer gauzy swimsuit cover she wore, and all he could focus on was how hard he was growing.
He he wanted to tear the cover and the suit from her body and lay her down beneath him. He envisioned filling her with himself, running his hands and his mouth over her, making her cry out his name with ecstasy until he came. But there she was, standing there looking stubborn and defiant, telling him that it was all business.
He was confounded by her, and it served to irritate him further, and turn him on even more. It was beginning to feel like a cat and mouse game; a power play. He regarded her quietly for a moment before speaking in a calm tone.
“Gabriella, of course we are here to discuss business. I just happen to find you attractive…” he stepped toward her and she held her ground, her eyes steady on him. “…irresistibly so. Can I help it if I’m drawn to you? You would deny me the little pleasure of a soft touch? An innocent kiss on your cheek? A small taste of your neck when I embrace you? These are such insignificant things…” He spoke slowly and deliberately as he stood a breath away from her, his fingers lifting to touch her shoulder lightly and then drift down her arm as he spoke more.
“They are merely appreciative flirts, that’s all. Little teases and sweet little enticements.” He leaned close to her again and spoke into her ear softly. “Do I want more? Oh yes… my dear, I would so love to enjoy more of you, but I am taking my time.
We are here for business, it’s true, but there’s no reason why we couldn’t have some pleasure while we are here together. Don’t you agree, my little cover girl?” he teased, his lips grazing her ear before he stood back and looked at her with hungry eyes.
She felt her stomach twist and turn as she looked up at him. She was thoroughly disgusted. She knew then just what he wanted her to do and what he was getting at. She was determined to beat him at his own game.
“I think we should focus on the business,” she replied coolly. “I would like to change for lunch. Is there somewhere that I could do that?” she asked, lifting her chin resolutely. She didn’t want to be in her bikini around him at all, knowing what he was thinking.
He shrugged. She was playing hard to get, he thought. She wanted him to come after her. He would. He wanted her bad enough then that he was willing to play her game and take his time, and he knew that it would make it all the more sweeter when he laid her back in his bed and buried himself in her. He’d have won her then, and she would be his trophy; his delicious prize, at least for a week or so.
Julian smiled at her. �
�Of course. Just down that hallway you’ll find the indoor pool room and there are changing rooms.” He was disappointed that she would be taking her swimsuit off, but he appreciated the view as she walked away from him and left the room.
Gabriella was fuming as she headed down the hall. Everything he had said to her the night before and all that day suddenly clicked into place and she knew that he had been wanting to get her into his bed the entire time in exchange for the cover.
She wasn’t about to lose the cover, and she knew that he had the power to stop her from being on it, just as much as he had the power to put her on it. She wondered if he had any genuine interest in her or if it was only lustful sex that he had on his mind. He had taken a good deal of time the night before getting to know her, and that made her wonder just what it was that he was after. Whatever it was, she thought to herself, he wasn’t getting it until she had the cover, and then she would how she felt about him at that point and make a decision as to whether she wanted anything with him.
She yanked open the door to the pool room and immediately collided with someone. Gasping, she stepped back hurriedly and lost her balance. Two strong arms reached out for her, wrapping around her as their hands clasped her back firmly and she looked up with wide eyes, finding herself in the arms of a strange and beautiful man.
He looked down at her and blinked, unable to breathe for a moment. It had happened so fast; he’d been coming from the pool, opened the door, and suddenly she had walked right into him from out of nowhere. He’d seen her nearly fall and his instant reaction was to catch her, but it had placed her in his embrace, and as he stared down at her silvery blue eyes looking back up at him, he felt like he was falling into them slowly, as if there was some gravity in her lovely face that was pulling him, drawing him gradually in, and somehow he felt as if he didn’t want it to stop.
She drew a sharp breath and he realized that he was still holding her. “Are you all right?” he asked in his soft deep voice.