Fashioned for Love

by Anna Hartman

  Before neither of them had time to think, he turned her around, lifted her chin and kissed her in the lips. First inquisitively and a gently and as he felt her responding to the kiss and her body pressing against his, the kiss became, more demanding. The fireworks were still going on as he lifted her up and carried her inside and turned left towards the Tower suite she was staying at. She had forgotten to lock the door so he just pushed it open and placed her down on the bed.

  She looked magnificent in her silver evening gown lying on the midnight blue bedspread, her cheeks flushed and lips ripe and swollen from all the kissing. Brockley had to stand back and admire the view for a moment. She was unlike any woman he had ever been with, strong, independent, intelligent and devastatingly beautiful in her unique way. The dramatic, razor sharp cheekbones were softened by the small button nose and the far set huge green eyes that seemed to change colour depending on her mood.

  Rosalind held his gaze and those amazing eyes challenging him.

  Brockley couldn’t stay away any longer, he stepped closer and leaned over Rosalind slowly starting to kiss her neck working his way down to her shoulders. As he gently pushed the pushed the shoulder strap aside Rosalind moaned with pleasure and her fingers started to undo Brockley's bow tie and button with the urgency only ever experienced by two people who had waited for each other all their lives.

  As Brockley’s shirt came off he moved himself on top of Rosalind who’s dress was now exposing her breasts. Brockley started lifting up her skirt, stroking her smooth bare legs as his hands moved up, eventually his fingers found their way to silky smoothness of her knickers, as he brushed the crotch gently he could feel her wetness, he slid his fingers inside her pants and

  They made love three times that night, first fiercely, almost angrily letting out all the pent out emotion of the last year and a half and after getting the first rush of lust out of their system they laid down looking at each other, before making love again, this time more gently, lingering in the embrace.

  As the sun started to rise Brockley held her close and stroked her cheek.

  He smiled “You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to do this”

  “Probably not any longer than I have, but I think we should pretend it never happened.”

  “why, it happened and it was great”

  “But if I’m going to work for you I don’t want people to think I get there for any other reason but pure merit”

  “ So you are taking me up on my offer? “

  She nodded

  “Rosalind, we are adults what we get up to outside the office hours is our business and although you are completely irresistible I was going to do my best to keep my hands off you in the office”

  Rosalind laughed “yeah, that will be hard”

  He took her hand and slowly moved it down until she could feel his hardness against the palm of her hand

  “you mean hard like this”

  “Mmmm, maybe not quite that hard.”

  She climbed on top of him and slowly slid him inside her. Every move was a caress, every caress brought them closer to the top.

  Afterwards she curled inside his body and fell into a deep sleep.

  When Rosalind woke up the next morning Brockley was already awake, looking at her with a soft smile playing on his lips. Those amazing kissable lips that had brought her so much pleasure the night before.

  But Rosalind didn’t want to be just another notch on his bedpost and she was angry with herself for having been so easy. She said something about having to be at her mother’s to help with her new year’s luncheon and jumped out of the bed and straight into the bathroom.

  There under a hot shower she cried. Last night had been so good and her feelings for Brockley had grown and it had been even better than she had expected. But he was a player, he had a woman in every town, beautiful dates featured in the society pages of magazines and he was so completely out of her league.

  She was a former spoilt rich girl and now charity case, looks wise average although with a good eye to make the most of her looks, but not the supermodel calibre that all his girlfriends were. She didn’t hear the door open but suddenly she felt his body pressing against her nakedness. His hands caressed her breasts and started to travel down to her waist and hips . Oh god, she knew she shouldn’t but maybe she should let herself feel him inside her one more time, just to savour the memory when he’d move on.

  He pushed her against the tiled wall of the shower cubicle, it felt nice and cool against her cheek and chest and as he felt his hardness on her bottom, she arched her back and pushed her bottom towards Brockley, he tilted her hips even more, used one of his hands to pull her arms above her head holding her wrist so she couldn’t escape and then she felt his hardness against her vagina, ready to enter her. And just pushed himself in.

  It was so passionate and Rosalind experienced the most powerful orgasm of her life. Afterwards she was just trembling and he held her, washed her whole body and then picked a soft white towel wrapped it around her and carried her to bed.

  “That was amazing” He said his voice hoarse.

  “mmm” she didn’t trust herself to say anything more without bursting into tears.

  There was a gentle knock on the door. And Rosalind sat up quickly, who was that?

  “Oh, I ordered some breakfast.” She had no time to escape so there she was naked apart from the towel when the waiter walked in and pushed the brass trolley laid with a luxury brunch into the room.

  “Good morning ma’am” He opened the bottle of champagne and poured it into two glasses, made sure the table was properly set and didn’t bat an eyelid even if he recognised the nearly naked girl on the bed.

  They drank the strong fresh coffee and she nibbled on the croissant but she didn’t really feel like eating.

  I really must go now she said and started putting her clothes on.

  “So you are starting on Monday then?” Brockley asked

  “What do you mean?”

  “Have you already forgotten I offered you a job last night and you accepted or did you think it was just a trick to get you into bed?”

  “No, I just thought it wasn’t a serious offer”

  “Rosalind we have worked together for 18 months, have I ever not been worth my word?”

  “No, I suppose not, I just…”

  “shhh” He kissed her silent.

  “Be in the office at 9:30”

  So it was strictly business nothing about going out for dinner, spending another night together, just about work. Although thrilled about the job opportunity she was sad and disappointed for not having captured his heart. That she had just been another notch in his bedpost.

  CHAPTER 8

  The papers were full of the glamour and glitz of the opening party, Rosalind was featured in a small photo mentioning that she belonged to the family that owned the house, but Brockley and his pretty blonde date Annabelle were in so many pictures. Grinning his hand around her tiny waist, dancing to a slow song, gazing into each other’s eyes. In the heat of the moment the night before Rosalind had forgotten that Brockley even had a date. But of course he did, a handsome, charming, successful man. He could have anybody he wanted; last night he had wanted Rosalind.

  She was never going to compete with someone like Annabelle, someone older, more sophisticated and so beautiful. Rosalind was quite ordinary, her best features being her chestnut hair and jade green eyes but she wasn’t a great beauty. With the right styling and carefully applied make up she could be even called pretty but he’d only ever seen her like that last night, but by the morning she had smudged make. Her body was straight up and down, no waist but good breasts and nice round bottom, legs a bit too chunky for short skirts but with her training as a fashion designer gave her the advantage to know how to look great in clothes, but last night he had seen her without them, the cellulite, the soft slightly rounded stomach.

  So Rosalind decided the only thing to do was to be so damn good at her jo
b that he’d be very impressed and forget all about last night. She would lick her wounds and focus on her career, wherever it would lead.

  Rosalind did not hear from Brockley for the rest of the week but she did receive an email from his assistant welcoming her to the team and telling her that her job title would be Design assistant and to show up at 9:30 on Monday and report to Charlie whom she knew well after having worked with her for the past year.

  She used the weekend to move into the spare room of Abigail’s flat, it was a great little flat in a mansion block just off Kings road in Chelsea, funded not by her PR salary but by her wealthy and powerful father who was making up the fact he had never spent any time with his kids by showering them with gifts and apartments a young person living in London wouldn’t dare to dream about. The flat had two bedrooms, two bathrooms a cute open plan lounge and kitchen with a balcony. Abigail’s taste in interiors was eclectic and she picked things up on her travels and then just made them go together . She had bought some cute wooden letters from a children’s shop and spelled Rosalind on her bedroom door, other than that the bedroom had bottle green curtains, a comfortable queen size bed made up with plain white sheets. There was a wall to ceiling wardrobe and a Gustavian antique dresser, that was all. Rosalind decided to get a desk and a small armchair too so she could work in her room and relax with a book.

  She spent a long time thinking about what to wear. She wanted to look professional without looking boring and sexy without looking obvious. Also as she would be part of the design team so she wanted to show off her creativity too. Finally she settled in navy cigarette pants a matching fitted jacket and a white wrap around shirt, matched with sky high heels and her father’s briefcase, the one she had brought with her to the previous meeting in Brockley’s office. She somehow felt that she had her father with her, protecting and guiding her when she carried that bag. She wore red lipstick that matched perfectly the soles of her shoes.

  She arrived to the office 9:30 on the dot. It was nice to get dressed up for work after the last year she’d spent in her jeans, and safety gear in the building site.

  She signed in at the reception and waited for Charlie to collect her .

  And there she was magnificent as ever, her willowy body dressed in pair of palazzo pants and a velvet jacket. She told Rosalind that Brockley had been called abroad to a last minute problem with a new property deal so she would be more than happy to show Rosalind the ropes and make her feel welcome, after all, Rosalind would be reporting to her.

  Rosalind wasn’t sure if the breakfast waiter from new year’s day had been discreet or was her being found naked in Brockley’s bed the talk of the town, but she couldn’t read Charlie’s face. She was as friendly and professional as she always was.

  “Right, I don’t think you’ll have your own office quite yet so you’ll be sharing with Sally. I hope that’s ok, my office is just next door and the team assistant will look after your everyday needs, order your stationery, sort out your expenses, book your travel and so on. We expect everybody to fetch their own coffees and not to treat the support staff as slaves which you are probably familiar with after having work with us all last year.

  We have a design team meeting every Friday and you are expected to dial in if you are abroad and if that’s not possible then to email a brief status update on all your projects to me before the meeting.

  You’ll be working closely with Sally assisting her in her projects as she is currently snowed under and later of course managing your own projects but I feel strongly that working closely with somebody is the quickest way to learn about the business and understand how we do things here. As you know ,very few hotel companies actually have their in house design team as it is a lot more cost effective to just use agencies as and when you need them but Brockley sees things differently. He see the design as the heart of the business so we get involved in projects very early on. Often he consults us before he completes on the property and expects us to be brutally honest even when our views differ from his. He is a tough but very fair boss. You do your job well and you’ll be well looked after and rewarded both financially and by getting bigger and more high profile projects.

  So you title is design assistant, I will let Brockley’s personal assistant to talk to you about money, benefits etc. So welcome on board Rosalind, I am looking forward to working with you and watch you flourish.” Charlie smiled and her smile was genuine and welcoming.

  Rosalind took her seat opposite Sally who had just arrived carrying a steaming cup of coffee and beaming like she always did. She showed Rosalind where to get her coffee and basic stationery and then sat down with her to introduce her to the projects she was currently working on. The day just flew by and Rosalind didn’t even have time to think about Brockley. Charlie and Sally took her out for lunch and filled her in about how the company was organised what projects were about to start in the next few months. There would be the new hotel in New York city, the first inner city property in the USA on top of the country and beach hotels they already had in New England, Nantucket and California, there was five European hotels to be refurbished and their agents were scouting for potential properties all over the world.

  Rosalind was buzzing with excitement when she left the office that afternoon and made her way on the stuffy cramped district line to Sloane Square, stopping at Waitrose to pick up chicken, vegetables and wine for dinner, she wanted to cook a meal for Abigail and chat to her about everything that had happened, a nice change from obsessing about her boss.

  Rosalind had just opened the bottle wine and poured herself a large glass when Abi came in. She kicked off her shoes in the hallway and burst into the kitchen.

  “Oh, I’m so happy to come home to you! What are you cooking? Smells delish!”

  “Just some grilled chicken breast and sautéed veggies and wine! I felt we needed wine to celebrate us living together again and my first day at work”

  “So how was the hot boss?”

  “Not there, unfortunately. In US at the moment and not quite sure when he’ll be back. But that’s probably a good thing as it gives me the chance to focus on getting to know the company, the people and my job”

  “True, so do you think anybody knows about you two?”

  “I doubt it, at least nobody behaved weirdly. Come on, help me set the table and we’ll have dinner”

  They drank the entire bottle of wine and talked about Rosalind’s new job and surprisingly didn’t really talk about Brockley Graham much.”

  There was no sign of Brockley in the office the next day either and by Thursday she had lulled into a false sense of security that she could just enjoy her job without having to deal with mixed emotions.

  Brockley didn’t turn up until the Friday and then walked unannounced to the design team meeting accompanied by an attractive and sharply dressed blonde about his age.

  He took his place on the head of the table and the blonde sat next to him, she had those icy good looks that helped people take beautiful women more seriously than they would if they were smiley and sweet.

  Charlie and Sally said hello to the woman who responded with a nod.

  “Rosalind, this is Alice the head of operations, she’s based in New York heading up the expansion across the pond” Brockley introduced her.

  Rosalind stood up and offered her hand to the other woman. “Hello I’m Rosalind Langley, I’ve officially just started but I was involved in the refurbishing of Langley House all last year”

  “Oh yes, Brockley told me about you, apparently you have a lot of talent and a great vision, Nice to put a face to a name. I’m Alice Graham”

  “Graham? Are you related?” She blurted out before thinking and kicked herself mentally afterwards. What a stupid thing to say.

  Alice smiled coolly “You could say that. I’m his wife”

  Rosalind felt her world crash down, he was married not just to some trophy wife, but to this gorgeous woman who obviously had a very important job within the c
ompany. So the night had meant nothing to Brockley, it had been just a silly one night stand and for some sick reason he wanted his mistress and wife both working for him.

  “Oh, I’m sorry of course. How silly of me.” She tried to keep her voice even and polite and not giving her emotional turmoil away.

  Sally looked at her and smiled gently, after working together on Langley house and now sitting opposite each other she had got to know Rosalind well and could read her face like an open book. She should have told her about Alice but there hasn’t been a situation when it would have felt natural and besides she had not realised that something was going on until now.

  “Don’t worry Miss Langley, very few people do. We like to keep our private lives private”

  Rosalind felt tears burning her eyes and couldn’t even look at Brockley, had she done so she would have noticed a look of tenderness and concern in his eyes. A look that didn’t go amiss on Alice and Charlie.

  They finished the topics on their agenda. Alice gave a quick brief on the US project and then returned to their desks.

  Alice walked to Brockley’s office and closed the door behind her.

  “Oh the poor girl, her face was a picture when she found out I am your wife” Alice laughed

  “Alice, there’s no need to be cruel and anyway you don’t normally make it known that we are still married on paper, maybe it’s time to change that”

  “Sorry but she looked like an adoring little puppy, obviously clueless about what you are really like”

  “I’m not like that anymore and you know it”

  “Ok I’ll make it up to you and tell her that we are about to divorce and haven’t really lived as a married couple for more than five years”

  “No, don’t ! Just stay away from her. She is a sweet girl and I suspect will be a very valuable asset to the company”

  “Then maybe you shouldn’t have slept with her to begin with”

  “Well that was a mistake and a heat of a moment thing” But worth it, he thought to himself. There was no point to give Alice any more ammunition.