by E M Courier
“You were still in your office, I didn’t want to go home until you did. I thought you might still need me for something. I overheard you saying how busy you are.”
Alexander sighs. “I should’ve sent you home earlier. You weren’t needed but I thought by nine o’clock you would’ve called it a day.”
Scarlett starts packing up her things and Alexander stands there waiting for her. She gives him a strange look. He watches as she pulls out a subway pass from her purse.
“I’ll drive you home, it’s late.”
“You don’t have to,” she shakes her head.
He doesn’t argue back—besides he always gets what he wants. He waits for her to fill her tote bag with her items and follows her to the elevator. They ride down in silence, but she doesn’t protest as she follows him to his black Mercedes Benz. He holds the door open for her and he swears he can see her blush at the simple gesture. Crawling into the leather seat of the drivers side, he reeves the engine—showing off only slightly—before driving into the night. He already knows where she lives, but he asks her anyways. He knows the neighbor and knows that it is a piece of shit apartment building, run by a piece of shit landlord who charges too much for rent.
Quickly looking at her, he sees her from a profile view. Her nose has a bump in the middle, he wonders if it is because she broke it. She has high cheekbones that are rosy and eyes rimmed with long dark lashes.
Parking in front of her apartment building, he wishes she would invite him in. But she thanks him for the ride and disappears leaving him with frustrating feelings. Next time he’ll drive her home he’ll work up a conversation, one that will get her to slowly start trusting him. Only in time will his plan work.
His apartment is big, expensive, and lonely. The eerie quiet of no one to come home to is deafening. The only company the penthouse knows are the weekly house cleaners, the cook, his siblings once in a blue moon, and the girls he takes home that only spend a few hours that night. Lately there has been no company. Just him waking up early to work out, showering, getting ready for work, and working until he is forced to come home from exhaustion and overexertion.
Turning the light on in his master bedroom, he nearly has a heart attack. Sitting on his bed is his brother, Liam. A large grin plastered on his too-charming face. Annoyed at his brother’s antics and already thinking Olive has put him up to whatever this is, he asks, “What are you doing here? Don’t you have a club to be at?”
“I’m glad you brought that up because who was at the club last night,” he pauses for Alexander to answer. “Scarlett. I know what you’re doing and it needs to stop. She is innocent.”
“She will lead me to her father.”
“And she will hate you for it.”
“I don’t care,” he hisses.
“You don’t care about ruining that girls life?”
His jaw ticks. “I seem to be the only one in this family who cares.”
“Jesus Christ, Alexander. We all care, but we are moving on with our lives.”
“Well, I can’t.”
Alexander walks into his bathroom and begins running the water in his kiddie pool sized bathtub. Normally he uses his shower, but his overworked and sore muscles could really use a long soak in warm water. Liam follows him in the bathroom sporting the same worried expression Olive had just hours earlier. He loves his siblings more than life itself, but he really wishes they would lay off him. Their constant need for checking up on him, has him on edge. The late night phone calls just to make sure he got in okay and the uninvited visits in his office just to make sure he made it to work, make him want to explode. He feels like a child who needs ababsitter, not tomenion they make him feel incompetent.
Isn’t it the older brother who is supposed to check in on his little siblings, not the other way around?
“Her father is all she has left,” Liam says quietly.
Alexander ignites his brothers attempts at making him changing his mind, but his plan is already embedded in his mind—it has been for years—and there is no way he’s altering or dropping it. Taking off his clothes he throws them in the hamper and steps into his tub slowly soaking and moaning as he does so.
“She lost just as much as you did.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” A crease forms between Alexander’s eyebrows. .
“You’re not the only one who hired a private investigator.”
Liam walks out of the bathroom leaving Alexander more puzzled when he should be feeling pleased now that his brothers absence left much needed privacy and silence for his soak.
***
Scarlett was flustered the entire car ride. She could see him stealing glances at her through the corner of her eyes. His car was expensive, more than her entire apartment and everything in it put together. The car smelled like him, the musky citrus cologne that makes her want to bury her nose deep into his chest and inhale him.
Realizing how ridiculous she sounds, she shakes the thought of her boss from her head. The only thing she should be worrying about is her father. Ever since he called she’s been worried. She left her nomadic life with her father because she wanted to stay in one place and actually make friends and keep a job, but she has always worried about his mental health. He travels alone and sometimes she fears he isn’t eating right or maybe he ran out of money and had to sleep on a peak bench.
Him not having a cell phone is what worries her the most. He always used payphones or phone booths to make his calls. Always afraid that someone was tracking him. Many times she told him to see a doctor, but he doesn’t trust doctors. Once when she broke her nose her father refused to take her, only buying her ice to put on it.
She doesn’t want to feel like she abandoned the only person she calls family in her life. As crazy as he is, Scarlett would do anything for her father loving him more than she has ever loved another soul.
Tristian and Jo are making out on the couch when Scarlett enters through the apartment door. They don’t seem bothered by her entrance even though she purposely slams the door to get them to stop. Sometimes she wishes Jo wouldn’t bring someone home just so she has someone to talk to at night. Lately either Tristian is over or she wants to go to the club. She just wants to sit on the couch with Jo, wrap up in her favorite fluffy pink blanket, put on an episode of The Golden Girls, and confide in her best friend.
Even though she’s never had a true home, she’s been feeling homesick lately, missing her dad. Hearing his voice today made her heart soar, but it was quick and she didn’t even get to tell him everything she wanted to.
Stepping into her neat room, she can hear Jo’s giggles from the other room. Scarlett lays down on her bed, tired with an aching headache. Her worrying hasn’t subsided and she stares at her phone waiting and hoping for her father to call.
The next morning she was surprised when the black Mercedes Benz that took her home last night is still in front of her apartment building. The windows are too darkly tinted to tell if anyone is sitting is the driver's seat. Until, the window goes down revealing her boss.
“Did you get any sleep last night?” Scarlett teases. “Or did you wait here all night?”
He chuckles. “I figured since you don’t have a car, I would pick you up.”
“That’s very nice of you but…” she bites at her lower lip.
“But?” He raises an eyebrow.
“I don’t have any gas money to give you.”
He shakes his head. “I don’t need gas money. Now get in, or we’ll be late for work.”
Smiling, she walks around the nicest car she has ever seen and sits in the passenger side. She’s never owned a car, her and her father always took the bus or sometimes they’d have enough money to buy a train ticket. As she got older all her job money went to paying off some student debt, bills, and buying clothes. Never did she have enough money to afford even the cheapest of cars. A subway pass she could afford.
The leather seats are comfortable below her and the air co
nditioning feels cool against her skin on a hot July morning. The drive is smooth unlike the bumpy and noisy bus rides. In fact the drive feels so relaxing she starts to close her eyes.
“I take it you like the car?”
She peels her eyes open to find Alexander staring at her. Shyly, she nods her head. “Very much. I’ve never been in a car so nice.” She strokes the seats loving the leather feel.
“I could show you my others.”
“Your others what?” Scarlett asks confused.
“Cars.”
Her eyes widen. “You have more than one car?”
“Fourteen in fact,” he smirks. “I’m a collector.”
Scarlett has to remind herself that Alexander is a billionaire. The cost of one of his cars could solve all of Scarlett’s money problems for the rest of her life. She starts to feel a touch of envy.
“So...no?” For once his voice falters in confidence and Scarlett swore for a moment he frowned.
Remembering the question her eyebrows raise in surprise. Was he asking her out on a date? “Sure. I’d love to see them.”
He doesn’t say anything back, he wears a smug expression the entire drive to the office.
When they reach the 75th floor Alexander’s siblings are standing, arms crossed and pissed expressions, at his office door.
“Where have you been?” His sister Olive nags. “You were supposed to be in the office at seven,” she looks at her diamond encrusted watch, “it’s nearly eight-thirty.”
“I picked up my secretary, is that a crime?” Alexander pushes past them to unlock his office door.
“Alexander,” Olive’s voice sounds in warning.
They all follow him into the office except for Liam who stands staring at her. He gives her a heartwarming smile exposing dimples that make her want to melt. Although none of the Novak siblings are related, they are all breathtakingly gorgeous.
“I see you made home okay after the club,” he leans against the wall watching me settle into my desk outside Alexander’s office. “Any creepy crawlers in the night bother you?”
“No,” she snorts.
“Good,” he grins exposing perfect white teeth. “Hey...uhm...has my brother been giving you any trouble? I told you if—”
“I know, I can come to you if he’s bothering me. He’s been a perfect gentleman offering me rides home to and from work instead of taking the subway.”
“I could give you rides home. I go home much earlier than Alexander does. This way you still don’t have to take that disgusting subway and you can be home hours before midnight.”
“Oh, thank you,” she scratches at the back of her neck, “I don’t want to be a burden and I don’t feel comfortable leaving the office unless my boss does. He might need me for something.”
“And so far has he?”
“What?”
“At nine...ten...eleven o’clock. Has he needed you?”
“Well no. Not ye—”
“Then it’s okay to go home. Alexander stays here to busy himself. He doesn’t need to busy you. I’ll drive you home tonight.” Before she can answer back he enters Alexander’s office.
Her phone vibrates in the desk drawer catching her attention. Her heart leaps when she sees the number unknown.
“Daddy?”
“Scar,” his gruff tone sounds relieved.
“Daddy, how are you? What’s been going on? I miss you. I love you,” she tries to cram in everything afraid that their conversation will be cut short again.
“I love you, too. Listen, I know you love New York and you have a job but I really want you to come live with me.”
Frowning, “I can’t. I’m tired of moving all the time. I have a life here and things are finally starting to look up.”
“I found a remote place to stay. No neighbors, just a drive away from town. A small population. Hell, I don’t think you can even find this place on a map. We can stay there.”
Scarlett is silent for a heartbeat. She doesn’t know how to answer him. All her life she dreamt of having one place to stay, but she has that now and in her favorite city in the entire country. “I can’t,” remorse fills her tone. “I can’t just drop everything. What about Jo, my apartment, my job?”
“Scarlett,” he says sadly, “I’m your father. I’m not getting any younger and I want to spend my life seeing you. You know I can’t come to New York. Please, come visit your old man. Stay with me.”
“Dad,” she pinches the bridge of her nose. “I just started this job but maybe sometime in the next few weeks I can take some time off to visit you.”
“No.”
“No?” She feels hurt.
“If you take time off they will want to know where and then they will know my location. I won’t be safe. You need to leave your job and come live with me.”
“Let me visit you,” she pleads. “Where are you?”
The line clicks as he once again hangs up on her. She wishes things could be different, but giving up the life she now has to go back to a life dictated by her father’s paranoia isn’t the future she wants for herself.
***
CHAPTER THREE
Alexander decides to cut work early to Scarlett home thinking maybe she’ll say yes to going out to dinner or making taking him up on his offer to go see his cars.
When he locks his office for the night he sees Liam standing at Scarlett’s desk waiting for her to pack up her things. His forehead wrinkles in confusion.
“Scarlett, I thought I was taking you home?”
She looks between the two brothers, not knowing how to answer as she stammers.
“Since you’re always so busy in the office, I offered to take her home,” Liam smiles politely while Alexander has a look capable of murder.
“Well, I’m not busy so you can go home. I’m taking Scarlett for dinner and then dropping her off at her apartment.”
“You are?” Liam and Scarlett say in unison.
“I am,” he holds his hand out for Scarlett to take.
Much to his relief she grabs his hand, but he doesn’t miss the apologetic look she flashes Liam as he leads her to the elevator.
“I didn’t know we were having dinner tonight,” she scratches her head.
He is all too aware that their hands are still interlocked the entire elevator ride and when they step out. The simple gesture makes his heart flutter, annoyance flashes in his mind. He wasn’t supposed to find her attractive.
“I’d like to get to know my secretary better.”
“I don’t have any money for dinner,” her cheeks flush with embarrassment.
“That’s why I’m paying,” he holds up his car door.
Alexander has always liked his girls easy. He never had time for relationships—except for that one time—he dated a girl named Ava his senior year of high school. Relationships were too much work and he realized he liked sex better than commitment. He never had visions of his future with a wife and kid, his visions were of money and power. There’s something about Scarlett that makes his stomach twist and his heart leap. He can tell by her quiet demeanor and the way she doesn’t know what to do with her hands when she talks that she isn’t easy. The way she avoids his stare when he talks to her and the way she blushes at the simplest of things tells him that she has very seldom been with a man if not at all.
That does something to the beast inside of him. The thought of being the first to take her. He shifts in his seat making room for his growing erection. Scarlett doesn’t speak, she looks out the window and taps her index finger against her thigh. It’s hard not to notice that her dress has rode up exposing her upper thigh dressed in flesh colored pantyhose.
Her hair reminds him of coffee, rich brown and silky. Her smell is warm vanilla—his favorite flavor of ice cream. Her legs remind him of smooth creamy butterscotch in those pantyhose and those blue eyes the color of a swimming pool. Lips red like cherries and his mouth waters at the thought of them tasting like one, too.
Sn
ap out of it.
Remember the plan.
His focus is plastered on the road trying not to let his eyes wander over to the beauty in his passenger seat. Hands clenching the steering wheel he forces all inappropriate thoughts about her. This isn’t a really date, this is getting close to her so she’ll lead him to her father. There will be no night cap—no fucking until they pass out.
The nicest restaurant in the city is owned by his father’s closest friend. Most people wait months for a reservation but the props of being a Novak is he doesn’t have to wait for a table.
The restaurant has dining outside and although the night is beautiful with skies clear enough to see the stars, he opts for a more private table. The waiter brings them to a secluded part of the restaurant a table for two in the back far away from anyone who could eavesdrop or bother them.
Scarlett is too busy looking around, her jaw dropped. She stares at the crystal chandelier, the fine china, the expensive fixtures. Inhaling the sweet aroma of expensive quality food he can see that she is nearly drooling. He watches as she licks her lips. Walking around to the side she picks to sit at, he pulls out the antique looking white cushioned chair for her.
The waiter brings the most expensive bottle of white wine they have pouring it in glasses more expensive than the Scarlett’s dress. She looks hesitant, but he raises his glass to her, silently toasting.
To revenge.
Her hand shakes as she brings the glass to her mouth. All of this must be overwhelming for her. He doubts she’s ever been to a place half this fancy. Still, she is quiet not uttering a word when he wishes she would. Instead, she pulls out the leather menu. He knows she is looking for the least expensive thing on the menu, but he won’t have that.
“I’m going to order for the both of us.”
She slowly puts the menu wanting to protest.
“Trust me.”
Nodding her head she puts the menu away and takes another sip of her wine. He hopes this will loosen her up. He can see the tension in her shoulders and the awkwardness of her posture.
“Tell me about yourself,” he leans back in his chair, locking his hands together and resting them on his lap.