by Mia Caldwell
What was wrong with her? She had refused his advances only to turn around and fall into the arms of a low-class handyman? Despite his anger, Roger could not help but admire Raina’s curves. But the last straw was seeing the handyman run his hands over those very curves that Roger was admiring. The maintenance man’s hands grabbed her hips as he pulled her against his pelvis, and Raina kissed the man, twining her arms around his neck.
Roger’s loins ached with longing and his brain roiled with a mixture of anger and jealousy. When the two parted and Raina went into her office, Roger felt like he had run a marathon of emotions. A cold hard anger jolted him back to the present and he knew the time had come to finally get rid of the bitch.
He had an idea, but he needed Raina out of her office.
The idea had been growing in his mind for a while, but a part of him had realized how drastic it was. Now, seeing Raina and that handyman (in public, in the hallway of all places!) convinced him that his plan was perfect for her.
That bitch would learn that there were some people you just never crossed.
Roger watched Raina leave her office with some files, heading towards the conference room, minutes later other staff members followed her, including Kelly.
He turned and abruptly left the control room with quick, sure steps. He headed for Raina’s office, making sure no one saw him, and he shut the door.
He could barely contain his excitement as he sat on her chair and flicked on the computer. Raina followed all the cost cutting measures that Roger had all the employees trained on, including shutting off the computer when not using it.
Too bad she wasn’t as smart when it came to looking out for herself.
Roger had looked up her work email and password and he had visualized this moment for so long, that his fingers moved automatically across the keyboard.
The first email he wrote was to an email address he had made up days earlier, to one of his supplier shell companies.
It wasn’t necessary to write the emails, but it would give a nice touch when Christian saw the supplier accounts which would be Raina’s personal bank account details. Roger knew Christian would insist on an investigation, and that investigation would only further confirm Raina’s deception
Roger shut off the computer when he was done. He was a little hesitant about the next step which was to have Raina’s account details inserted into the supplier system.
When it all came to light, Roger knew that there was a possibility that Raina would go jail. In fact, he had no doubt that his nephew Christian would go all the way to punish her for stealing from Del Mar.
Perhaps he should give her another chance, Roger thought, remembering the handyman’s hands on Raina’s hips. He swung on her chair and fantasized about how it would feel to touch her himself, to have his hands run over her body the way that man’s had.
He could feel his body growing hot and his erection growing. Damn, Raina! She had gotten under his skin more than the other women had. Probably because no other woman had dared to reject him before.
The only way to get over her was to have her, and Roger felt his determination return. No one had ever humiliated him before, and Raina would not be the first.
Roger leaned back in the chair, his face curving into a smug grimace, and he decided to wait for her. Soon, Roger heard voices coming from the hallway and he smiled in anticipation.
The door was pushed open and Raina walked in, followed closely by Kelly. They were laughing about something but when they saw him, they stopped abruptly. Kelly’s face fell when she saw him behind Raina’s desk.
Seeing the women together like that gave Roger an idea. Raina was curvy, while Kelly was slim, opposites of each other.
“Hello ladies, what a pleasure to see you this morning,” Roger said with a smirk. “The two most gorgeous women in the Del Mar group of hotels.”
“Morning Roger, I have to run,” Kelly’s words were a jumble and she fled before he could even respond.
He was not pleased she had gone, but he would not chase her. Not now, anyway.
Raina stood at the door, her palm on the handle, watching him warily.
Maybe it was just as well that Kelly had left. Raina didn’t look as though she would be so receptive to his idea—the three of them tumbling over each other in bed.
Roger would have given anything for what he knew would have been the experience of a lifetime. Still, Raina would do for now, and he would be generous enough to give her one more chance.
“So, did you give my proposition further thought?” Roger asked, ignoring the memory of her sharp teeth on his tongue.
Raina backed against the door. “I think I made it pretty clear that I have no interest in pursuing a relationship in the work place.”
Roger sneered. “But that’s a lie, my dear. You’ve been seen hanging all over low life scum in the hallways.” His rage was growing. “Did you think I wouldn’t find out about your little tryst with the handyman? What can a man like that do for you? Be a smart woman …” He leered at her. ‘I can give you the world. But I’ll give you this week only to think about it. If I were you …”
He stood and walked toward her, lingering, pausing to give her a light slap on her backside, and then walked away from Raina’s office laughing softly.
He was glad that he had given her another chance. It would be worth it to take her and punish her for her disrespect in bed.
But, if she agreed it would leave him with the problem of who to blame the theft on. But then he got a flash of inspiration.
His plan of a threesome might just work. It was crazy how the two women had captured his imagination and if he was honest with himself, Roger was enjoying the chase immensely.
Kelly would not be as difficult to convince as Raina. She would play along if she knew her job was on the line and if she didn’t, he could just as easily blame the thefts on her.
It felt good to know that at the moment he could control the destiny of the two little whores. He thought idly of the handyman and dismissed him as unimportant.
11
Something had happened to Raina and she felt it from the moment she woke up. She knew that she was falling in love with Christopher, and all day, he was never far from her mind. She had even been so imprudent as to embrace him at work—something she would never have dared before.
She didn’t know if love was making her stupidly giddy, or if she had just decided to throw caution to the wind, knowing that at any moment Roger would probably fire her. Who gave a damn anymore in that case about rules like getting caught kissing in the hallway?
After the staff meeting, she and Kelly had lingered in the conference room to catch up.
“Something’s up with you, Raina, I haven’t seen you this happy in ages. Spit it out!” Kelly said, perching herself on the edge of the table. Raina bubbled with the excitement of wanting to share her news with somebody.
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, knowing that her happiness was making her glow with joy.
“It’s Christopher,” she finally said, reveling in speaking out his name as if in doing so it made what they had more real.
“What about him? Something’s happened between the two of you? I knew it!” Kelly gushed. “Go on, tell all.”
“Well, I don’t know what to say—I can’t even put a name to what we have.” Raina said and proceeded to tell Kelly all that had transpired since she invited him to sleep in the basement.
“You did what?” Kelly was astonished. Never had she known Raina to be so reckless.
“I felt sorry for him, he had nowhere to live.” Raina said her tone defensive.
“Look, I’m happy for you Raina but inviting him to live in your basement is a huge risk.”
“He’s a good person, I feel it in my bones,” Raina said.
“OK, just be careful alright?”
Raina saw the concern in her friend’s eyes and nodded. They left the conference room together and headed to Raina’s office, lau
ghing as Raina shared in hushed tones all that had transpired between her and Christopher.
But upon entering her office Raina’s face fell when she saw Roger seated on her chair, looking at her with a lascivious sneer. The elation she had felt moments ago drained from her body.
That traitor, Kelly fled, leaving her alone to face Pervy Rog. She held on to the image of Christopher as Roger went on about wanting to take her for his own.
The very thought made her want to throw up.
After he left, she leaned on her desk, dry heaving, unwilling to sit on the chair that Roger had occupied seconds earlier. He was a sick man; of that much she was sure.
She wrapped her arms around herself, shivering, feeling dirty even from just the way his eyes had undressed her.
Christopher had gone back to her house earlier in the day, his shift ending before hers had. She couldn’t wait to hurry home to him, and when she arrived back at her house she parked her car and jumped out, her body and mind aching to seeing him.
She couldn’t believe that a day apart fill her with so much longing, but that’s how Raina felt as she pushed the door open.
Christopher was in the dining room and the greetings on her lips froze when she saw what he was reading, bent over the table.
Damn it!
Her bills.
She had left the open folder of past due notices on the dining table that morning in her rush to leave that morning. He must have seen them sitting out.
“Hi,” she said softly.
“Hey you,” Christopher said.
He stood up, walked to her and drew her into his arms. His expression was somber, and she did not blame him. Would he want to get away from her as fast as possible? He had financial problems himself, but after seeing hers he certainly wouldn’t want to add to his own struggles by getting involved with someone as deeply in debt as she was.
“Cup of coffee?” he asked, surprising Raina.
She nodded, pleased that he had not launched into questions about her situation.
He went to the kitchen and she sank into an armchair.
Raina needed a little time to herself to gather her thoughts. She had taken the documents and bills and flicked through them. She could only imagine what was on Christopher’s mind.
Still, she would be honest with him. If there was anything she believed in, it was honesty. Without that she knew their relationship didn’t stand a chance.
She would make it clear that she expected nothing from him and that she could take care of her own problems. He returned minutes later, bearing two cups of coffee.
“How was your day?” he said with that gorgeous smile that turned her legs to jelly.
“It was fine, and yours?” Raina said tightly, thinking of Roger. No point in telling Christopher any of that at this point. When Pervy Rog eventually fired her, she could tell him then.…
“Good, I got a lot done after I came back here. Your door handles are all fixed as well, and I figured out what was shorting the outside lights.”
Raina smiled, feeling awash with gratitude.
“Thank you so much,” she said. She felt the tension about what was unsaid between them as she sipped on her coffee.
She hesitated, then sighed. No time like the present. “I see you now know my deepest secrets?” Raina tried to sound light and carefree, but her voice was a bit too strangled for that. She waved the papers in her hand.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to pry. They were just lying there,” Christian explained though he did not look remorseful in the slightest. “Raina, how did you get yourself in such a mess? Medical bills over two hundred thousand dollars? Missed mortgage payments? What happened?”
Raina closed her eyes for a moment. This would be the moment that decided whether he stayed with her or not. This was the moment of truth.
Hesitantly, she began her story …
“It started when my sister, Mira and her husband Byron were killed in a car accident on the highway. It was a semi-truck and the investigators think he must have passed out after drinking too much. The truck swerved out of its lane and hit Mira and Bryce’s car head on. It veered into a wall and they were crushed against it by the truck. The driver died on the spot and so did Byron. Mira was rushed to hospital.” Raina said, her voice breaking.
She looked up at him, her wide brown eyes shimmering with unshed tears. “The kids don’t know the whole story—not about how awful it was. I saw the pictures of the wreck. They didn’t stand a chance against that truck.” She bit her lip, and then resumed speaking.
She was not aware of Christopher moving from his chair to hers. She only felt his hands on her cold ones.
“The police called me that morning with the news. They had tried just about every number. I drove to Arizona immediately to be with my sister and to pick the kids up from school,” Raina said in a wavering voice. She had never told anyone else the details of the accident.
“When I saw her in hospital, my heart broke into pieces. She was not the big sister I knew. She was covered in bandages, so that only her eyes were visible. She never opened them for the seven days that she was there and she didn’t say a word. The doctors said that she was brain dead and only the machines were keeping her alive.”
Raina could not explain the helplessness that she had felt during that time. The feeling of losing control. She could see Mira’s life ebbing away and even before the doctors told her about the life support machine, she knew it in her heart that Mira had left them. They had explained that as the next of kin, it was up to her to decide whether or not to have the machines switched off.
She had agonized over the decision day and night. Even if by some miracle, Mira regained consciousness, she would be a vegetable. Raina remembered her sister’s zest for life, her sense of adventure. She and Byron had been off on one of their impromptu excursions on the day of the accident.
That was just like Mira to drop everything to take a few hours to enjoy life. She could hear her laughter ringing loud as she convinced Byron to go along with her plan. Byron was the serious one but he had been perfect for Mira. They brought out the best in each one of them. It had been the hardest decision of her life, but after much prayer and agonizing heartache, Raina had decided to have the life machine switched off. It had been the right thing to do.
She had missed her sister every day since.
The children had kept her sane, but they had lost a mother and a father and their own grief was overwhelming. They had needed her to be strong for them.
“Mira and I had been so close, we spoke every day.” Raina said, and then her control left and she cried deep, bitter sobs.
Mira and Byron had been buried together in Arizona, where they had spent all their married life. Raina did not recall much of the funeral, only the girls hanging on to her waist and Jeremiah in her arms. The next few months had been spent trying to help the children move, adapt to a new home, a new school and a new life.
“Mira and Bryce’s insurance did not cover all the hospital bills, and because I inherited their ‘estate,’ such as it was, to care for the children, it meant that I had to inherit their debts too. What they had wasn’t close to being enough to cover their bills, but I couldn’t just let the house in Arizona that the kids had grown up in go. It was too painful for them—the only memories they had of their parents were there. So I kept it, and I’ve been renting it out for the time being—but with the recession a few years ago, the mortgage was so much more than what I could get for rent. And for my own mortgage, well—I’ve missed a few payments, which I intend to pay soon. I hope to have some money coming in shortly. It should be a nice little chunk of change.” Raina sniffed.
She had decided it was time to sell the Arizona house. It was too much for her to hold on to, and now the children had another home. It would be hard on them, but they were in a better position to handle it now. Selling the house wouldn’t pay off all the debts, but it would certainly make a good dent in them.
Christophe
r cradled her in his arms.
“I have no words to tell you how sorry I am. You’ve had to be an amazingly strong woman,” he said with feeling. “I’m here for you. No matter what you need.”
“Thank you,” Raina said, amazed at how easily she said it. It had never been easy for her to accept help from anyone, but she felt at ease with him.
“I promise you that things will get better,” Christopher said with a conviction that gave Raina hope.
“I thought you’d run off when I finally told you everything,” Raina said in a shaky voice.
“You can’t get rid of me that easily,” Christopher teased and Raina held on to him tighter. “Not now that I’ve found you. I gave up on finding someone like you years ago.” he whispered fiercely. She was leaning against him, her head on his shoulder, and he brushed her forehead with his lips.
She heard something in his voice that she couldn’t quite place.
“Why?” Raina said her interest piqued.
Christopher was silent for a moment and she sat up to look at his face. He appeared to be wrestling with his next words and she waited patiently.
“Well, people are rarely honest, aren’t they. There’s always something they want from you and you realize that the relationship is not genuine. I love honesty between two people who care for each other, that’s all. I’ve never met a more real person such as you Raina and I’m glad you’re in my life.”
Over dinner that evening, Raina’s mind was on Christopher’s words about honesty. She hadn’t been completely honest with him, and it ate away at her. She didn’t want him to think she was asking for anything from him.
She hadn’t told him how close she was to losing her job. With the loss of her job, there was no chance that she could keep the Arizona house or the one she and the kids were living in. And as to where she and the kids would live, she had no idea.
Roger meant every word, Raina knew. He would do everything in his power to get her fired from her job if she did not sleep with him. She shivered at the thought.