“Open your legs to me!”
I did as I was told and Joshua sank into me, grabbed my hips and began to hammer me into the bed.
“You are mine! Say it!”
“I am yours.” I could barely get the words out, the pounding felt so good.
“Louder Sarah, say it!” His thrusts were long, fast and deep and he gave me goose bumps all over.
“I am yours!”
“Hold the rails on the headboard!”
I reached above me and grabbed on as he pounded me into the mattress.
“Say it again!”
“I am yours!”
The slapping sound of flesh meeting flesh filled the air as my juices were flowing down my thighs. I wrapped my legs around his hips, pulling him deep, undulating my hips, and he let out a loud groan as he could no longer hold back and his body shuddered as he came deep inside me.
We both collapsed onto the bed and Joshua lay panting, trying to catch his breath. He looked over at me and smoothed my hair out of my eyes, his hand lingering on my face as he leaned in for a kiss. “Sex with you just gets better and better. I love you Sarah.”
“I love you too.”
CHAPTER 3
The next morning, Joshua left early for the airport and he told me he would give me a call when he arrived in Paris. I helped Mara get the girls ready for school and then kissed them goodbye as I left for work. I went to the office earlier than normal that morning because I wanted to be there when Mr. Santorini arrived. My assistant, Carol, was already there when I got in. I didn’t expect anything less, she was the best assistant I had ever had. She was prompt, tenacious, smart and had a meticulous attention to detail. If I needed something she always figured out how to get it.
Carol walked into my office and I could tell that she was ready to start the day. “Good morning Sarah!” We had agreed years ago that she would call me Sarah instead of Mrs. Hunter. Although I was her superior, I wanted her to feel comfortable around me and I wanted her to feel that she could come to me with any question or problem. We had a very open relationship and that helped to build the trust between us.
“Good morning Carol! It seems we have a busy month ahead of us with the visit from our out of town guest."
"I have everything set up for Mr. Santorini in the guest office and he should be arriving here around 8:00 AM. I confirmed that he arrived yesterday afternoon and he is set up comfortably at his hotel. You have a meeting with Jake, Brad, Michael, and Mr. Santorini at 9:00 AM in conference room three. I have all of your talking points listed for you and I have the file for the Milan office on your desk."
"Carol I don't know what I would do without you."
"Hopefully we will never find out!" With that, she trotted off to her desk.
I closed my office door so that I could review the reports in the file before the 9:00 AM meeting. At 7:55 AM, Carol knocked on my door to let me know that Mr. Santorini had arrived. I started to ask her why she didn't call me on the phone and she ducked into my office and quietly closed the door behind her with a wide eyed look on her face.
"Carol, what's wrong?"
She lowered her voice to a whisper. "Sarah, a piece of heaven has just walked into our office. Mr. Santorini is absolutely beautiful, I mean he is the cat’s meow, all that and a bag of chips, the be-all end-all; whatever you want to call it. The man is gorgeous!"
I laughed at Carol's enthusiastic description of Mr. Santorini. She was newly divorced and was constantly looking for her next boyfriend.
"That's nice Carol, did you show Mr. Santorini to his office?"
"Of course I did, after I picked my jaw up off of the ground!" She quietly closed my door behind her as she left.
I giggled at her exaggeration, silently curious to see what the fuss was all about. I stood up, straightened my jacket and smoothed my hair before heading down the hall to the guest office. As I stepped into the doorway I saw a head of dark, thick, wavy hair buried in a pile of papers. I lightly tapped on the door and Mr. Santorini glanced up and then quickly stood up and walked over to me, his hand outstretched. Aside from my husband he was the most beautiful man I had ever seen, so it turns out that Carol was not exaggerating.
"Mrs. Hunter? It is such a pleasure to finally meet you." That Italian accent could make a woman's toes curl.
"Mr. Santorini. Please call me Sarah and it is so nice to have you here in New York. I take it your hotel accommodations are to your satisfaction?"
"Oh, please call me Paolo. And yes, the Hotel Elysee is wonderful, it’s very beautiful.” He flashed a set of perfect white teeth at me and it was easy to see that he would be hard to resist. I touched my wedding ring to snap myself back to reality.
“Oh good, I am so pleased. The meeting with Jake Hunter, Michael Collins, and Brad Johnson will begin at 9:00 so I will come to your office at 8:50 to walk with you to the conference room.”
“Okay, Mrs Hunter, I mean Sarah, thank you. I will see you then.”
I went back to my office to go over my notes for the meeting and then made a couple of business calls. I was just finishing up a call with our Chicago office when Carol stuck her head in the door.
“Well? Was I right?” She whispered so as not to be overheard.
I chuckled at her enthusiasm about Mr. Santorini. “Yes Carol, you were right. Now let me get back to work, I have to get a few more things done before the meeting.”
She giggled as she ducked away, she was used to me shooing her away when I was buried in work. At 8:50 I walked over to get Paolo for the meeting, and we met Jake, Michael and Brad in the conference room. Our meeting lasted for three hours and all of us were ready for lunch when it was over. We took Paolo to the Bull and the Bear in the Waldorf Astoria and later that night we took him to Philippe for dinner. Joshua called me right before we left for dinner to let me know that he had made it to Paris safely, we chatted for a few minutes and I let him know that Paolo had arrived, then he told me that he would call me in the morning.
Later that night during dinner, I found that Paolo enjoyed his alcohol when he was not working and he liked to wink at me. What should have been a two hour business dinner, turned into a four hour dinner. He became more flirtatious with each drink and Brad , Michael and I just laughed it off so as not to make a scene. Jake didn’t join us for dinner because he had a new baby at home and that was perfectly fine with me, so I had dinner with Paolo, Brad and Michael.
I told both Brad and Michael that they could leave after about three hours because they had a long drive back to the suburbs. They were hesitant to do so but I insisted. I told them I would be fine and I would see that Paolo made it back to his hotel safely. I knew that Joshua would be upset if he knew about this but there was no reason to have Brad and Michael getting home at 1:00 a.m. It was nearing 11:00 p.m. and I just wanted to drop Paolo off and get home. I hadn’t had a chance to say goodnight to my girls in person and I absolutely hated the nights that that had to happen. I called them quickly before we left for dinner and again when they were going to bed but I had missed the in person goodnight kiss. It was only under circumstances like this, where I had to entertain an important client or partner from our office, and Joshua was out of town, that I had to miss kissing my girls goodnight. Joshua and I had agreed that we would allow this to happen no more than twice a year.
Paolo inched closer to me, put his arm around me and rubbed my arm and I quickly moved away from him.
“Paolo, I should probably see you back to your hotel because we have a big day tomorrow.”
“I would love to have you come back to my hotel room Sarah. I can be very discreet.” He leaned in toward me and whispered the last part, his breath reeking of alcohol, and then he tried to kiss me.
I pulled away, holding myself back from slapping him across the face. Through gritted teeth and with a smile on my face, I politely put him in his place. “Paolo, you know I am a married woman and I am going to overlook your comment and what you just did because you may have had
one too many drinks tonight. Now, it is time to go and I am going to make sure you get back to your hotel and then tomorrow, you are going to arrive at work bright and early and we are going to get a lot of work done.” I stood up and looked down at him, my voice firm. “Let’s go.”
He looked upset and confused, the way a drunk looks if you take away their drink, and then he stood up using the back of the chair to steady himself. We walked in silence to the car that was waiting for us, and then I walked him up to his room because he had to lean on me to keep from falling over. I deposited him at his door and he reached out to try to kiss me again and I pulled away.
“Sarah, I…”. I cut him off right there.
“Goodnight Mr. Santorini.” I waited for him to go into his room and then I left. I rolled my eyes as I thought about what a drunken ass he had turned into. I was exhausted as I got into the car that was waiting for me. Should I tell Joshua about what Paolo tried to do tonight? I knew that doing so would upset him so I decided to sweep it under the rug. When I got home I quietly went into each girl’s room and softly kissed them on the cheek so as not to wake them. Then I retired to my room and was asleep before my head hit the pillow.
CHAPTER 4
The next morning, Paolo came to my office to apologize for his behavior. “I was completely out of line and I am beyond embarrassed for the way that I disrespected you Mrs. Hunter. My behavior was unprofessional and I must beg your forgiveness for having tried to kiss you, I…” Just then I noticed Jake standing in my doorway with a shocked look on his face. Oh no, this is not good. I knew that Jake would tell Joshua and then all hell would break loose. I have to pull Jake aside before he gets to Joshua.
I interrupted Paolo when I noticed Jake standing there. “Jake, did you need something?”
Paolo looked worried when he saw that Jake was behind him and I saw a look of panic spread across his face and it looked as if he realized that Jake must have heard him. “Well, I should let you get back to work. I just wanted to relay that message to you Mrs. Hunter.” Paolo quickly left my office before Jake could say anything.
“What was that about Sarah? Did I hear him say that he tried to kiss you last night?” Jake did not look happy.
“It was a simple misunderstanding, he had too much to drink and I think he thought I was an old girlfriend or something.” I waved my hand in the air and I tried so hard to brush it off so that Jake wouldn’t make a big deal.
“And I think that you are trying to minimize what really happened. Was Paolo inappropriate with you? He has never crossed the line and there has never been a report of inappropriate behavior related to him, but if he did cross the line, that will not be tolerated. Yes, he has been instrumental in growing the business in Milan, but his inappropriate behavior will not be tolerated here and is unacceptable. I don’t care who he is.” Jake was the spitting image of his brother when he was upset and the same fire that flashed across Joshua’s eyes, flashed across Jake’s in that moment. “Joshua will have to know about this Sarah.”
“No Jake, please let’s just keep this between us, there is no need to upset him.”
“Sarah, you know that I can’t keep this from him, besides, if Paolo did this to you, the wife of the CEO of the company, who knows how many other women he’s done this to. We can’t have a loose cannon like that working for us, someone like that could ruin our reputation. I’m sorry but Joshua has to know.”
When he put it that way I had to agree with him, although I wished we could have just kept it between us. Joshua was going to be livid. He still didn’t want me to so much as look at another man; that is something that had never changed. Now, when he got word of this, I knew that Paolo’s days were numbered.
Jake left my office and I felt a sense of dread because I knew he was going to his office to give Joshua a call. Twenty minutes later, my phone rang and I knew it was my husband.
“Is it true?!” No hello, no how are you, just straight to the point. I could feel his blood boiling through the telephone.
“Joshua it was not as bad as Jake may have led you to believe.”
“Sarah, did Paolo attempt to kiss you?” Joshua was stern as he strained to get the words out.
“Yes, but…”
“Where were Michael and Brad?!” His voiced boomed through the telephone and although he was an ocean away, I could feel his anger as if he were in the room with me.
“This is what I was trying to tell you. Paolo had a few too many drinks and the dinner dragged on for four hours. Brad and Michael had long drives home to the suburbs so I told them they could leave. Paolo had been perfectly respectable up to that point. How was I to know that he would turn into a drunken ass?”
“You told them they could leave you alone with him? Did you not hear anything I said when I specifically told you not to be alone with him?!!” The crescendo in his voice escalated until he was yelling into the phone.
“Joshua, please calm down.”
He was silent on the other end and I began to feel nervous because he had never been this upset with me for disobeying an order. I usually followed his orders but every now and then I would question something he wanted me to do, but I would never go against him. Never, that is, until now. I should have known better and I was silently kicking myself for not obeying him.
“I have to go, I will contact you later.” His voice was as cold as ice and I flinched when I heard the click in my ear. Did he really just hang up on me? Joshua had never hung on me before so I sat there stunned, holding the receiver in my hand. I had to figure out how to make this right. I called him back but he didn’t answer. Great. I decided that I would push it out of my mind for the time being because I had a lot of work to do. Thirty minutes later Carol came running to my office.
“Sarah! Mr. Santorini has been relieved of his duties effective immediately, I just read the memo that Mary prepared!” Mary was Joshua’s long time administrative assistant. “His return flight to Milan has been booked and a car will be here to take him to his hotel in 20 minutes.” She looked shocked as she relayed the information to me in an excited whisper so as not to be overheard.
I was floored. I knew that Paolo would probably get fired over this but I didn’t think that it would happen so fast. Joshua had always been possessive of me and it was something that I had accepted a long time ago. We had a very candid discussion about his jealousy issues before we got married because I needed to understand why he was like that. He told me that when he was in his twenties, his girlfriend at the time got pregnant and he wanted to keep the baby but she didn’t. He told her that he would raise it and she didn’t have to have any part of it if she did not want to, that he was prepared to take care of everything for the baby. His words fell on deaf ears because she had no interest in having a baby grow in her belly and, according to her, “ruin her figure.” She had an abortion without telling him and when he found out he was devastated. Ever since then he said he felt as though he had to be in control of everything, and he didn’t want to lose anything ever again, because he did not have control over that situation.
I understood him better after he told me that and my heart broke for him knowing that he had gone through such pain. We had an understanding between us that I would obey his orders and in order to do that I had to fully trust him, which I did. I knew that he would never hurt me and that he had my best interests at heart, so I had no problem obeying his every command.
I did what I knew how to do best when I was stressed, I threw myself into work and barely took a break for the rest of the day. Joshua didn’t call me the rest of the day, and with the six hour time difference I didn’t expect to hear from him when I got home because it would be so late in Paris. I did my best to not let the fact that he had not called me get to me. I knew he would call the girls when they got home from school, he never went an entire day without speaking to them, no matter where he was in the world. I got home a little before six and our chef was just finishing preparing dinner for us. My girls wer
e excited because the chef prepared gourmet mac and cheese for them for dinner, and then after dinner we played for a while, I gave them their baths and Mara helped me put them to bed.
I kept myself busy for the rest of the night so that I wouldn’t think about how upset Joshua was with me. When all was quiet, I climbed into bed and settled into a good book which was something I never had the chance to do. I was immersed in the story so deeply that time got away from me and it was nearly 1:00 a.m. when I turned out the lights. My head had just touched my pillow when the phone rang and I quickly grabbed the phone so as not to wake the girls.
“Hello?”
“Hi, were you awake?” Joshua’s deep voice penetrated the phone and my belly flipped because I was so happy to hear from him.
“Hi honey, yes I was awake, I just turned out the lights. Are you still upset with me?”
Boxed Set: The Billionaire’s Desire Complete Collection (Books 1-3 and Bonus Books 1 and 2) (Submitting to the Billionaire) Page 16