“What happened then?” Ben asked quickly scribbling notes from Alex’s previous statement on his pad.
“Simon invited me to his penthouse for dinner the next night. He said he was hoping to change my mind about the partnership,” Alex says, “when I got there...he wasn’t there but, his wife was. She told me that Simon had been called away for the evening. She said he’d tried to call and reschedule but, he couldn’t get hold of me.”
He pauses and takes a long sip of his water before continuing.
“To make a long story short,” Alex says. “Simon’s wife came on to me pretty strong after that. We had a few drinks and...I know I shouldn’t have. I knew it at the time but...I’d just gotten out of a relationship and I was lonely and...anyway, we went up to the bedroom and things...happened.”
“You had an affair with Mosoti’s wife?” Ben asks excitedly. It’s clear that this is a big scoop for him.
“It was just one night,” Alex insists. “It’s what happened after that that is more important.”
“Ok, so what did happen after that?” Ben asks eagerly, jotting the story down as fast as he can.
Alex takes another calming breath and continues.
“It turns out she and Simon had planned the whole thing,” Alex says. “Simon confronted me about it the next morning. He threatened to tell everyone about how I brutally raped his wife. He said that she would back him up. That is, unless I decided to make him a full partner. If I did that, no one else needed to know what happened.”
“And, do you have someone to corroborate your story?” Ben asks. Alex takes out a small piece of paper and slides it over to Ben.
“That’s Samantha Mosoti’s number,” Alex says. “She was Simon’s wife at the time. They divorced a year ago.”
“And you’re sure she’ll stick to your side of the story?” Ben asks, looking at the paper.
“I’ve talked to her,” Alex says, “and she’s willing to tell the truth now. In fact, I think she’s looking forward to it. She sees it as a way to get back at Simon.”
Ben nods and slowly puts the paper in his jacket pocket.
“Well, it’s a big story,” Ben says. “If I hurry, I could probably get it in in time for the morning edition.”
“Thank you,” Alex says softly.
“No, thank you,” Ben says with a chuckle. “You have no idea how many business reporters dream of the chance to take Simon Mosoti down. Everyone’s known he’s a slimy bastard for years. Now, we’ve finally got some proof.”
With another word of thanks, Ben gathers his things and leaves the deli.
Gabe, Alex and I sit in silence for several moments. Finally, Gabe speaks.
“I guess I owe you an apology,” Gabe says, “I should’ve known you wouldn’t agree to get rid of me.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Alex says. “I expect to see you at work again tomorrow morning.”
Gabe smiles at him and gives him a mock salute.
“You’ve got it, Boss.”
Once lunch is finished, Gabe heads out, eager to tell his wife the good news.
“Emma will be thrilled that I’m headed back to work,” Gabe said.
Alex and I walk slowly back towards the office. We don’t speak for a few moments then, suddenly, Alex stops short and turns to me.
“Do you want to take the rest of the day off?” he asks me.
“To do what?” I ask. Alex shrugs.
“I don’t know,” he answers. “Whatever you like. After the help you gave me this morning, I think you’ve earned it.”
“I guess I could take you up on that,” I answer, “on one condition.”
“What’s that?” he asks.
“You have to walk me home,” I say.
“I think I can do that,” he says, smiling at me, as he takes my hand in his.
We head towards my apartment walking hand in hand in silence. When we finally reach the building, we stop at the double doors.
“This is it,” I say. He moves awkwardly away from me and looks down as though he’s a teenager on a first date. Unsure whether to kiss the girl or not.
“Do you want to come up?” I ask, making the decision for him.
“Just for a few minutes? Or…” he leaves the rest of the sentence hanging. A mischievous smile finds its way to my lips.
“Or,” I answer. His eyes widen and he smiles as well.
“I think I know what I want to do with my time off,” I say, pulling him inside.
“What’s that?” he asks with a chuckle as we reach the stairwell. I reach up and pull his mouth down to mine. We share a swift kiss before I open the door and lead him two flights up the stairs to my floor.
A soon as I open the door to my apartment, I gasp in surprise as Alex pulls me to him, pressing my body forcefully against his.
He kisses me. It’s not a soft tender kiss, like the one he gave me that night with Simon; nor is it the lustful kiss Simon forced on my mouth. This is something in between. It’s the kiss of a desperate man. A man who has held himself in check for far too long.
Before I know it, we’re tearing each other’s clothes off and I know we won’t make it to the bedroom. I maneuver us over to the couch and flop down onto it.
Alex unbuckles my bra and tosses it aside as I hurriedly push his unbuttoned shirt off of his shoulders. He moves his hand to his belt and slides both his pants and boxers off of his hips as he kisses my throat, my chest and moves his mouth to suckle at each of my breasts in turn.
He moves his mouth to kiss along my stomach before he reaches my pants. He gently unbuttons and unzips them, then slides them down my hips along with my underwear.
He stares at my naked body for a moment and I feel goosebumps as I once again see a look of utter awe fill his face.
“You are so beautiful,” he mutters. He kisses my lips and I feel him gently enter into me. I wrap my arms and legs around him.
As I do, I know one thing to be true: I’m safe here.
While Alex is with me, it feels like no one will ever be able to hurt me again. Not even Simon. Even though neither of us knows what will happen tomorrow or how Simon will react to the story. I know that Alex and I, the two of us, together, will be able to weather whatever he has in store.
Epilogue
We don’t have to wait long to see Simon’s reaction. Just as Ben promised, he was able to get the story in the early edition of the paper the next day. And, just as he had predicted, the fallout was huge.
Everyone in the company was talking about it when I walked in the next morning. Even the news channels on the televisions in the lobby mentioned it, along with calls for Simon to step down as a full partner in the company.
It’s not a surprise, therefore, when Simon bursts into the office at ten o’clock this morning demanding to speak to Alex.
“I’m sorry,” I tell him calmly. “Alex is busy at the moment. He’s not taking any calls or walk-ins.”
“Don’t try to pull that shit with me,” Simon growls at me, his sophisticated façade gone completely. “I know he’s in there and I’m going to see him.”
“You know I can’t do that, Simon,” I answer him, sounding much calmer than I feel. “You have to have an appointment.”
“Then make me a goddamn appointment you stupid—”
Before I can find out what horrible name Simon plans on calling me, I hear the door to Alex’s office open.
“Evie, something wrong?” he asks, looking calmly from me to Simon.
“I’m going to have a word with you,” Simon says striding past him and straight into Alex’s office.
Alex sighs and follows him in. Before he closes the door, he gives me a secret smile. I think about going to door to listen but, it soon becomes clear that I don’t have to.
“WE HAD A DEAL!” Simon’s voice yells so loudly that I see employees beyond the glass doors stop in their tracks and look towards the office.
“You agreed to this! Now, I find out you’ve gone behind
my back and—”
I hear Alex interrupt him, but, his voice is softer than Simon’s. I can’t exactly make out what he says.
“I DON’T GIVE A SHIT ABOUT THAT FRIEND OF YOURS!” Simon screams. This time, one of the employees tentatively makes his way to the door and looks in.
“Is...is everything okay?” he asks, “I mean, does Alex need someone to call security?”
“Actually,” I say giving him a calm smile that seems to confuse him, “that’s a great idea.”
I put a call into security before making my way to Alex’s office. I knock on the door before opening it.
I look at Simon. Hair askew, red-faced with sweat patches appearing on his brow. He doesn’t look even remotely handsome now.
“Alex, I wanted to let you know, security is on its way,” I tell him. “Some of the staff were getting nervous so I called them.”
Simon suddenly turns on me.
“This is you, isn’t it?” he says.
“Simon, leave her out of this,” Alex says, warningly. He moves from behind his desk and closer to Simon.
“This little slut convinced you to turn your back on me, didn’t she?” Though he’s talking to Alex, his eyes, no longer bright and gleaming are fixed on me.
“This stupid little—”
Before he’s had a chance to finish the sentence, Alex’s fist flies to Simon’s face and sends him reeling backward.
Two men from Security come in to find Simon staring slack-jawed at Alex as though he can’t believe what’s just happened.
They escort Simon out. As soon as they do, Alex closes the office door and pulls me into a hug.
“Thank you, Evie,” he says, “for everything. I promise you’ll never have to worry about Gabe losing his job again.”
“Are you just saying that so I’ll keep sleeping with you?” I ask looking up at him with a flirty smile.
“No,” he answers, “but, I hope you’ll keep sleeping with me anyway.”
“You’ll never have to worry about that either,” I answer before pulling him down for another kiss.
At last, at long last, I feel completely safe in Alex’s arms.
THE END
Bonus Story 15 of 40
The Date
Enrico
“No dad,” I answered firmly, determined to stick to my guns with this one. My father might be the powerful sort of man that can boss the rest of the world around, but I’m not having it. I flatly refuse to. “I won’t do it.”
“Son, don’t be so ridiculous. It’s just one date – a few hours. If you do this right, it will secure things between me and Mr. Bellingham.” Then he landed the final shot. “This is your future we’re talking about here, your inheritance. Don’t you want to work towards that now, to make it great before you even get it?”
This was what it always came down to – the business that my father ran, the one that he wanted to pass onto me. The one that I wasn’t even sure that I wanted.
I knew that my father’s company was a well-established front for something more – he was pretty open about that with me, but I’d made it clear for a very long time that I wasn’t even slightly interested in anything he did that involved breaking the law.
He kept telling me that I needed to grow up, that I couldn’t escape it forever, but I wasn’t certain that I actually wanted to follow in his footsteps. I was secretly harboring a secret desire to make a better life for myself. One as an artist, but of course I couldn’t tell him that.
If only my mother hadn’t died in childbirth. I often found myself wondering how different my life would have been had she been around.
“But dad I don’t even know Bella…” I protested a little further.
“Don’t give me that.” He gave me a wry smile. “You’ve been on plenty of dates in your life young man, you know how to treat a lady.”
He was right of course. Girls seemed to go wild for my dark skin, my hazelnut eyes and my tall muscular figure. It was safe to say that I was a bit of a stud in high school – but that was just something else that I’d been changing as I’d grown older, and of course dad hadn’t noticed. He only saw what he wanted to see.
“But…”
“There are no buts,” he finally commanded, ending the conversation. “I need you to take her out, and I need you to show her the time of her life. I don’t know what is holding her father back from this merger, but I need you to either find out, or give such a damn good impression that she goes home talking you up to him.”
“Do you really think that this will work?” I asked doubtfully.
“Of course it will,” he replied, waving his hand dismissively at me. “I trust you.”
And there it was. Those words sending daggers through my heart once more. How could he trust me, when he didn’t even damn well know me?
“Here’s her number, text her now.”
As he handed me the slip of paper, I noticed a little something in his eyes. Something that showed that maybe, just maybe he didn’t quite trust me after all.
“Okay, okay.” I muttered, feeling more and more like a petulant teenager the more I spoke.
I quickly wrote, feeling stupid the entire time, and hit send before I could talk myself out of it.
Hi Bella,
It’s Enrico Abattelli. We briefly met around Christmas time when our fathers were meeting, I’m not sure if you remember?
Anyway I just wanted to know if you’d like to go out for a drink sometime?
E
I felt like an idiot as I re-read my words, but then I forced myself not to care. I wasn’t actually trying to impress this chick – in fact, it would get me out of it if she said no! It would save us both a big hassle.
I mean, it wasn’t like she wasn’t very good looking with her long auburn hair, her violet colored eyes and her rocking body – but I wasn’t interested. I wanted my next date to be serious, to be with someone I actually wanted to be with. I felt like I was done fooling around with everyone that walks. I felt like I’d moved on from that version of me – and that this dumb date would push me backwards.
Plus, Bella was a prissy bitch.
When I met her, she seemed to stick her nose up at me, almost as if she knew that I was beneath her. Sure, she came from old money, whereas my dad earned his money recently… in his own unique way, but that was no reason for her to pass judgment on me!
I would just have to hope that she refused, because the more that I thought about it, the more a night in her presence seemed like a bad idea.
One that would not end well.
*****
Bella
“Urgh, daddy no,” I whined, praying for him to look at me. “He’s dreadful. I don’t want to go on a date with him. I only told you because I thought you’d instantly see how inappropriate it is, and that you’d finally realize that the Abattelli family is not one that you should be going into business with.”
I wasn’t even sure why my father was giving these vulgar people the time of day. They were crass, rude, and had a terrible reputation in the community. Sure, we’d been losing money recently, and I knew that he was worried about what the future held for us, but there had to be another solution, surely?
“Bella, I just want you to spend an hour with the guy, find out more about him and his family. I’m not asking for the world. You’re very perceptive, and I know you think that they are bad news – if you can prove that to me, then I’ll halt what we’re doing.”
Even as he said that he was hesitant, like he really didn’t want to give up this merger – it was the only thing that would keep his business afloat in his eyes.
“Why can’t Pru go?” I whined. “She loves going on dates,” I finished cruelly. My sister was famous for her… open behavior, but of course daddy didn’t want to see that side of her. He wanted to believe that she was sweet and innocent, his little princess.
“Your sister is engaged,” he snapped back, causing me to roll my eyes. Engaged for the third time in
as many years wasn’t something to celebrate as far as I was concerned. “Enrico obviously wants to go out with you. Come on Bella,” he pleaded. “Just do this for me?”
And then he killed me by giving me the puppy dog eyes – the ones that showed me that if I didn’t do this then I was never going to hear the end of it.
“Fine,” I finally replied. “Whatever.”
Thanks Enrico,
That sounds lovely. Friday at 8pm?
Bella
There. At least if I did it early on a Friday, I’d be able to go out afterwards. This shitty ‘date’ wouldn’t have to ruin my entire evening.
“Done. Happy?”
But of course daddy didn’t answer. He was involved in his paperwork once more, so I stormed out of his office and stomped up into my bedroom.
Of course, I wasn’t going to get the privacy that I so badly needed, because I could hear mum and Prudence arguing in her room, just across the hallway from mine, and I had to find out what was going on.
“…I just can’t understand why…”
“What’s going on?” I went around the door with a gleeful look on my face. Me and my sister had been raised by an army of nanny’s – which it seemed that mother had finally started to feel bad about (nineteen years too late in my opinion), and because of this she kept trying to instill discipline. Pru was twenty-three, she was an adult now, she’d already been everywhere and done everything. There was no way my mum was going to win this never ending battle with her.
Luckily, Pru was terrible, so much worse than me, which meant that she needed much more attention than I did, leaving me to live my life in relative peace.
“Just fuck off Bella,” my sister snarled, shooting me an evil look, which just made me happier. Sure, she was my sister and I loved her because of that, but our disjointed childhood, plus my underlying jealousy because of how much prettier and smarter than me she’d always been, had led to an extremely competitive relationship between us.
Two Wolves For Lizette Page 51