by Marian Tee
He smiled in approval. “Good girl.”
Serenity sighed again. “It’s just so hard,” she confessed. “I don’t understand how you’re able to fake it the whole time—”
Willem choked. “Fake it?” He spoke the words in mock anger. “I would have killed anyone else for saying such words to me—”
“But I’m different,” Serenity countered. “You told me – no, you actually ordered me to always be honest with you, and I honestly think you’re faking it every time you do business.” She wrinkled her nose, remembering the news reports she had devoured and which had all hailed Willem as the “smoothest-talking bastard of Europe.”
“Exactly,” Willem said blandly. “I said be honest and not insult me.” But he was smiling as he spoke because in truth, he had ordered Serenity to be honest with him and she had delighted him in return by always speaking her mind.
Sensing his good mood, she blurted out, “How are you and Shane?” She knew, of course, that she was pushing it, every time she asked the billionaire about her sister. She knew that he might one day catch on and realize the real reason why she was asking. She knew all this, but she couldn’t help it.
“We’re doing well,” Willem answered evasively. He always found these questions about his relationship with Shane unpleasant, but he never told Serenity not to ask them. He owed her the truth – or as much truth he could afford to her. At present, he considered her too young and innocent to understand that Shane, for all intentions and purposes, was nothing but a regular bed partner, and it was a role Serenity’s own sister didn’t mind at all having.
“I’m glad to hear that.” Serenity was proud of the way she was able to keep her voice steady despite the way her heart had started aching. They were doing well. The words echoed endlessly in her mind. What if they did so much better than well, to the point of getting engaged and, eventually, tying the knot?
“D-do you meet often then?” She bit her lip the moment the words slipped out. Oh, how masochistic she was where the billionaire was concerned.
“We had dinner just the other day.” Willem shifted in his chair uncomfortably. It was true that he had enjoyed dinner with Shane, but afterwards, he had also fucked Serenity’s sister in the backseat.
“That’s nice.” She swallowed the lump in her throat. “Really nice,” she heard herself say lamely even as she found herself gradually becoming numb with heartache. Before she knew what she was doing, she was already reaching for her alarm clock and, after flipping the switch on the back, its buzzing alarm blasted through the room, giving her an excuse to cut the call short.
Hearing it, Willem said, “You’ll be getting ready for school then.”
“Yes, I’m afraid I have to.”
“I’ll call you again tonight?”
“Yes, sir,” she managed to answer in a teasing voice.
“Willem.”
She smiled even as tears pricked her eyes. “Willem,” she said obediently.
“Goodbye.”
“Goodbye.”
She allowed the tears to fall only when she heard the billionaire drop the call. Her fingers uncurled, and her phone tumbled down to her bed.
How she loved him.
More tears scaled down Serenity’s face.
But she knew he would never love her back.
Chapter Five
Anneke and Fleur watched in amusement as their eldest brother unwrapped his last gift with the greatest care. But it did not end with that, with the billionaire taking his time arranging the wooden frame on his desk.
Serenity, Fleur mouthed at her older sister. She was willing to bet her inheritance on it.
Anneke nodded. Willem had a well-known rule against receiving gifts from women outside their family, but they knew he had made an exception for the charmingly reserved teenager he had taken under his wing.
If only Serenity’s sister was just as charming, Anneke thought with a private sigh.
When another five minutes had passed and Willem still wasn’t finished fussing about with his gift, Fleur approached her brother, asking teasingly, “Is that going to take you forever?”
“If necessary.” Willem’s tone was mild, his concentration on his precious task unbroken.
Peering over his shoulder, she saw that the fifteen-year-old had sent her billionaire brother a framed haiku about the value of time, which read like a tongue-in-cheek warning about his workaholic tendencies.
Good for you, Fleur thought in approval.
Another five minutes had passed before Willem finally straightened. “All done.”
His sisters said in unison, “Thank God.”
“Because I’m totally starving,” Fleur added.
Even though the two women had their cars parked in the driveway, they automatically joined Willem in his limousine, wanting to spend more time with their older brother.
“What’s Serenity’s gift?” Anneke asked as the chauffeur closed the passenger door.
Fleur beat Willem to answering. “If I have to sum it up, it’s basically a warning that he’d work himself to death at the rate he’s going.”
“Oh.” Anneke’s lips twitched. “She has a point.”
Willem only shrugged. “My annual checkups say otherwise.” But he also changed the subject, not in the mood to be nagged by his younger sisters. “When was the last time either of you spoke to Nic?” Nicolaas was the youngest in their family, and as the troubleshooter for the business, he was more often traveling around the world than not.
“Just yesterday,” Fleur answered. One of the conditions Willem had required before allowing any of them to leave the nest was that they were to strictly keep in touch with each other.
“Maybe a week ago for me,” Anneke murmured. “But I did get to speak to Jaak.” Of her three male siblings, Jaak was the most easygoing, almost callously so when it came to women. “He’s still in Phuket, last time I heard.”
Willem sighed. “As long as he’s still alive.” Although he did not approve of Jaak’s hedonistic lifestyle, he had also never interfered, knowing that his brother was old enough to make his own decisions, right or wrong.
His sisters, however, were a different matter. Looking at them, Willem liked to think that he had raised both of them well – or at least as well as he could, having been thrown into the deep end by a pair of self-centered adults who had only known how to make babies but not how to care for them.
“How are you and your husband?” he asked Anneke.
She shrugged. Although she was twenty-eight, she looked a lot younger mostly because of her petite frame and dimpled looks.
“You do know we will have to talk about him soon, don’t you?”
“I’m not sure why we should.” Anneke’s tone was unusually tight. “It’s only a matter of time before our divorce pushes through.”
Sensing that her two older siblings were about to butt heads, Fleur knew it was time for another change of subject. She said the first thing that came to her mind. “What if Shane saw Serenity’s gift on your desk?”
Willem frowned at the interruption, but courtesy bade him to answer, and so he said simply, “She won’t.”
Fleur blinked. “You’ve stopped seeing her then?”
Willem shook his head. “What I mean is that Shane won’t see it because I’ll make sure she doesn’t.”
It was Anneke’s turn to frown. “You mean you’re going to hide it every time Shane comes to visit?”
At the same time, Fleur asked, “You mean Shane still doesn’t know you’re her baby sister’s honorary bo—” Anneke shot her a warning look. “—dyguard,” she finished. She had been about to say ‘boyfriend’ but since it was Willem’s birthday today, she decided to be generous and not make any waves.
Willem looked at his sisters oddly. “Why do you insist on making this an issue when it’s not? Shane is just competitive with her sister, but they don’t hate each other.” Even now, he remembered the first and only time he had tried to bring up Serenity wi
th her older sister, remembered the way Shane’s rosebud lips had turned down in an unpleasant manner. He had taken his cue from there and had not made the same mistake again.
“You two have been competitive with each other growing up,” he reminded them. “It’s the same with Shane and Serenity, and I would rather not be one of their bones of contention.”
Fleur and Anneke looked at each other, both of them wondering how it was possible for someone as intelligent as Willem to be so incredibly dumb when it came to women. The two of them had been competitive growing up, but Shane and Serenity were different. Shane was jealous of Serenity, and her jealousy grew as, with every year, it became more obvious that her younger sister was destined to outshine her in every way.
Fleur started to speak when Willem’s phone rang, and when she saw the way her oldest brother’s face softened, she closed her mouth. Serenity was calling, and knowing how long their phone conversations could take, she knew it would be quite a while before Willem would put the phone down.
“Serenity says hi,” Willem was telling them.
“Hi.” Fleur and Anneke again answered in unison.
Willem’s gaze narrowed. One of these days, he would ask how they could be so nice to Serenity and yet be such bitches to her older sister.
Not wanting Willem to accidentally hear what she had to say, Fleur quickly pulled out her phone and texted her sister.
Fleur: He’s so blind.
Anneke: I know. He’s hopeless. But I also know you and I’m telling you now – YOU CANNOT INTERFERE.
Fleur: You know me too well.
Anneke: That, and because I think it’s too early anyway.
Fleur: Because she’s too young?
Fleur paused after typing the words. Fifteen and twenty-nine, she mused. It could have been worse. It could have been a twenty or thirty-year gap. Or maybe not. What was age anyway to two people in love, even when they didn’t know it themselves?
Her phone beeped then, and she looked down to read her sister’s reply.
Anneke: I’m not talking about S. I mean Willem. I don’t think he’s ready to fall in love yet.
Fleur: God, he’s so blind, it’s not funny. I’m just worried if we let things continue at this pace, it’s the big sister who’s going to get him to the altar.
Anneke: Trust me. That won’t happen. Just look at him now.
Fleur peeked at her brother, who was seated on the row opposite her and Anneke. He was murmuring in a low, pleasant voice, his handsome face serious and unsmiling.
But oh, those blue eyes of Willem.
If only she could show Shane how her brother looked every time he was speaking to Serenity on the phone.
Anneke was right, Fleur thought. There was nothing to worry about. Anyone only had to look at Willem now to know that the Dutch billionaire’s heart already had an owner.
Chapter Six
“You must think very highly of yourself,” Willem drawled, “to demand to speak with me, even knowing I’m in the middle of a meeting.”
At hearing their CEO speak such words, all of the executives in the room quaked in their seats and privately wondered who indeed would be brave and stupid enough to do such a thing. Willem de Konigh might be known as a class act all around, but the people who worked for and with him knew that his courteous manners were but a mask for his perfectionist streak.
From the other end of the line, said brave and stupid girl asked innocently, “Are you in a meeting?”
“No. I’m not in a meeting.” He delivered the lie without hesitation and ignored the way his executives gaped at him.
He knew what they were thinking, of course. Willem de Konigh, Netherlands’ most infamous workaholic, was taking time out from his meeting to enjoy a personal phone call. The Financial Times would shit itself if it learned about this.
“I’m glad,” Serenity was saying with a sigh. “I really need someone to talk to.”
The troubled note in Serenity’s voice made him frown. “What’s wrong?” He rose from his seat as he spoke and gestured for his executives to continue without him before turning towards the adjoining door.
Leaving the conference room, he went back to his office, and when the door swung shut behind him, he commanded, “Talk.”
Serenity rolled her eyes at the order. “Do you really expect everyone to jump and do your bidding at all times?”
“Talk.” Willem had no time for pleasantries. The longer he talked to her, the more he was convinced that something was seriously wrong.
Serenity let out another sigh. “It’s nothing, I—” A scuffle, and when she spoke again, it was like she had her hand cupped over the mouthpiece, as if Serenity was preventing someone else from hearing her. “I have to go, it’s—”
In the background, Willem heard a distinctly male voice ask jovially, “Well, my beautiful ice princess? What’s it to be? Yes or no?”
The call ended.
Willem stared at his phone incredulously. What the fuck?
A sense of foreboding struck him, and acting on his instincts, Willem switched his computer on, keyed in his password, and accessed the real-time footage of his company’s cameras. With a few clicks, he was able to tap into the CCTV cameras installed on Serenity’s floor.
Serenity showed up on the screen, blonde hair plaited, her slender body sheathed in a long-sleeved turtleneck wool dress. She looked her usual, stunning self. His gaze narrowed at her pale, strained face. She also looked like she was facing hell.
Willem switched the volume on.
A young, dark-haired guy was perched on the side of her desk, and despite the charming smile he wore on his attractive face, there was no doubting the abrasiveness of his words as he half-whined, half-threatened, “It’s just one date, Serenity. Take pity on me. Just one date before your internship ends. Everyone’s going to think you’re cruel and cold-hearted if you refuse me in front of all of them.”
****
She should have told Willem about this, Serenity thought while doing her best to ignore the fact that her head trainer had somehow turned her desk into his personal chill space.
As she listened to Wayne tell the other interns about his plans for his date with her, which he was absolutely sure would happen tonight, Serenity wondered if maybe it should have been the other way around.
Maybe she should have told everyone about Willem instead?
Even now, she was still confused, having never encountered this kind of problem before. When Daniel had still been alive, she had been homeschooled. And when Melanie had taken her in, she had been placed in a boarding school exclusively for girls. Nothing in her life had involved boys – nothing except for Willem, that is, and he was so different from Wayne.
Willem, despite being who he was, had never used his power or money to intimidate her. But Wayne had. From the very start, he had made Serenity feel guilty for not returning his interest in her. Every day, she had to suffer his ogling, play deaf to his suggestive words, and dodge his teasing attempts at copping a feel. And every time she did all that, she would wonder if she had herself to blame, wonder if there was something she had said or done that would make Wayne treat only her and no one else in such a manner.
The answer was no, of course, but Serenity was too naïve to know this.
Wayne, however, was not.
He had taken one look at the sixteen-year-old and knew that he had to have her. She was beautiful and pure, the proverbial Sleeping Beauty just waiting to be fucked.
As far as Wayne was concerned, he was that person, and he had systematically taken steps to ensure it. First, he had dealt with the other male interns. He had seen it in their eyes that they saw the same thing he did. Her innocence, her dislike of causing trouble – to the point of letting others take advantage of her – Wayne knew if he didn’t make his move soon, the others would. To keep the coast clear, he had made certain the younger men understood that he had first dibs on Serenity and that he wouldn’t hesitate to kill their chances of wo
rking for DKE if they tried to get in his way.
After that, he had dealt with the female interns, isolating Serenity from everyone else by constantly praising her beauty and her work, knowing it would piss the others off and prevent them from making friends with his ice princess.
He wanted her alone and vulnerable, wanted her to feel that in the end, all she had was Wayne.
But Serenity had proved to be a lot tougher than he expected. She had not seemed to mind that the male interns avoided her or that the female interns disliked her guts for being pretty and perfect.
Too bad for her, Wayne thought, he was also a lot more persistent than most men.
Still perched on the edge of Serenity’s desk, Wayne studied his target smugly, knowing he had successfully backed the younger girl into a corner. Even if she said no to him now, the others would be quick to jump on her. If he were patient, it would only be a matter of time before guilt would make her say yes.
Bending forward, Willem tugged at a loose blonde lock, trying to make Serenity look up at him. “Are you really going to ignore me forever?” he whined. His back to the door, Wayne was unable to see the glass doors of the training center silently sliding open and the CEO of the company walking inside.
Everyone in the center was shocked into immobility, and all they could do was watch in horrified fascination as the Dutch billionaire walked straight to where their head trainer was.
“It’s just one date,” Wayne cajoled. “If you give me a chance, I think you’re going to enjoy yourself more than you expect.” He wetted his lips as he spoke, unable to keep himself from imagining how he would enjoy the date as well. As soon as he had this pretty filly in his car, he would place his hand on her lap and finally get a feel of those beautiful long legs of hers. She would struggle, of course, but that was expected. Girls always played coy. But in the end, they wanted what men wanted. A rough fucking—