Dance for the Billionaire (11 page)

“Dominic, I’ve just started this job.  I can’t ask for time off already!”

“Of course you can.  I’ll approve it.”

“I already get funny looks from some members of the team.  I don’t want to confirm their suspicions by being off the same time as you are.”

Dominic gave a tsk of frustration, before he said, “I have to make a trip there to take care of some unfinished business personally.  I’ll take them down with me and get everything sorted.”

“You would do that for me?”

“It’s nothing,” he dismissed.  “Derek is a government official—”

“He works for the government?”  Chantelle had imagined a muscled thug who always got things done, like the ones she’d seemed in gangster movies.  “You made him sound like an enforcer!”

“He has his ways.”

Chantelle pulled Dominic’s full bottom lip between hers, deciding that she preferred not to know more about those ways, or the means the man employed to get things done.

***

The next two weeks flew by in a whirlwind of activity.  The news that she could finally go home to Jamaica seemed to have snapped Carol Payne out of her drunken daze.  She spent several day sorting through the dozens of outfits she had owned from the time she and her husband had been regular partygoers.  She binned a few, donated other to the local charity and kept several that had surprisingly come back into the style in the cyclic world that was fashion.  Chantelle and Cerise even managed to snag five tops between them.

Her mother didn’t give up drinking altogether, but instead of finding an empty bottle every day in the rubbish bin, Chantelle found one every three to four days.

The night before she left, her mother sat her down and spoke to her like the mother she should have always been.  “I know that Dominic made all this possible.  I won’t ask for details.  I’m thankful, but I will beg you, don’t hang your hat where your hand can’t reach.  I did that with your father.  From the time I was thirteen I coveted the pretty brown skin bowy who lived down the road.  He didn’t even know my proper name when I asked him to marry me.  But, I got what I deserved, though.  I had another man, the neighbor’s son.  He was a farmer with no education.  He wasn’t good enough for me when I got the chance to come to England.  You know I didn’t tell a single soul that I married your father before we left?  We took different cars to the airport and only spoke to each other when we got on the plane.  I thought he was keeping my secret.  I didn’t know he had a bigger one.”

“Mum, all that’s behind you now.  This is a chance for you to start over.”  Chantelle smiled at her mother and teased, “Even find yourself a nice man.”

Her mother laughed and then made a wry face as she got to her feet.  “Once he’s not a pretty bowy!”

“’Night, Mum.”

“Goodnight, Chantelle.”

She watched her mother leave the room and felt like sobbing like she was a three-year-old.  Her mother may not have been the most reliable in the last years, but there was a time when she had been a sexy, vibrant woman—part of a gorgeous couple who had outshone their friends.  Their spotless house, beautiful children and seemingly loving marriage had been the envy of other couples.  The topple off her throne would have been deeply wounding for her mother if her father had left her for another woman; that he’d left her for a man had been more devastating a blow than her mother could have dealt with at the time.

Though there had been times her mother hadn’t emerged from her bedroom for days, it had been comforting to know that she was there in the house.

Chantelle was going to miss her.

And there would be no Dominic to offer comfort for the next week, but at least the timing coincided perfectly with her time of month.

They had taken far too many chances in the last two weeks, making love almost every lunch time in the luxurious three-bedroom penthouse flat Dominic had rented, a few minutes walk from the office, and occasionally ending up there after work when Dominic couldn’t get enough of her in the measly lunch hour.  The man was insatiable!  To be fair, she was only a little better.  Sex was a drug she had discovered and she couldn’t get enough of it.

Dominic often worked from home, so thankfully his absences weren’t noticed.  She was entitled to a lunch break and although there were times she must have come back to the office looking well and truly pleasured, no one could suspect it had anything to do with Dominic.

What was far more telling was the hungry look in his eyes whenever he saw her.  Sooner or later someone at the office would notice it and the secret would be out.  They argued constantly about her desire to keep the relationship a secret.

“We’re both mature adults.  What’s the damned problem?” he’d asked impatiently when she’d told him that she planned to walk several corners away from his house—to where one had dropped off earlier—to hail a taxi home.

They had just collapsed exhausted onto the mammoth bed in his home after three hours of mind-blowing sex, the week after their tryst in his office.  When she’d realized that he had full-streaming movies and music services, she’d excitedly chosen to watch
Sparkle.
 The movie had played on in the background without her seeing any of it until much later that evening.  Refusing his offer of a lift home, she’d left an exhausted-looking but annoyed Dominic who had ordered her to call him as soon as she’d arrived safely home.

Many women would jump at the chance to be seen on his arm, Chantelle knew, but their relationship wouldn’t last for long if his previous relationships were anything to go by.  Men like Dominic got bored easily and moved on.  She didn’t want to forever be known as the ‘ex-girlfriend of billionaire playboy Dominic O’Brien’.

Winning the Institute of Architecture’s Most-Promising Designer Award could propel her, head and shoulders, above the year’s other graduates.  Her name would be known in the right places and she could expect job offers from several companies.  She would stay with O’Brien’s—they had after all given her the break she’d desperately needed—and complete at least one project successfully, but afterwards she would move on and forge a successful career for herself.

By then, she and Dominic would have long been history. 

Chapter Nine

“Lastly, I’ve decided that Chantelle will project manage the Thamesview Project with me until my father’s return next month,” Dominic informed the assembled management team.

Chantelle, sitting towards the end of the long table and feasting on her first sight of Dominic in five days, thought she’d misheard him.

He wanted her to work on the biggest project the company had ever handled!

For a moment there was stunned silence in the room.  Then Preston jumped up and said, “What did the hell did you say?”

“You heard me correctly, so sit down, Preston!” Dominic commanded curtly.  “My father’s keen to have a different approach on this project.  Chantelle’s ideal with her fresh ideas and younger perspective.”

“I’m sure her youth is the reason you chose her for the job!” the older man retorted scornfully. “Just don’t pretend that you’re doing it for your father’s benefit!”

“This is still my father’s company, so naturally I include him in all major decisions.  I have his approval on this.”  Dominic’s voice was so cold, it sent a shiver down Chantelle’s spine.  “Since Chantelle has been with the company she’s taken a keen interest in the project without being prompted.  She sent me a list of suggestions for the project which I forwarded to my father yesterday.  He’s excited by her ideas.  I had a tough time convincing him to have another month’s recuperation.”

“I’m sure your father’s not aware that you hired your bit of fluff.  But if you think—”

“Preston, I will not have any member of my management team referred to in such a derogatory way!”  Dominic forcibly cut the man’s tirade short.  “You have exactly one minute to apologize to Ms Payne, or leave this room, clear your desk and leave the company.”

“I don’t have to apol…”  Something in Dominic’s stony, determined face made the older man falter.  “Chantelle…Ms Payne, I apologize for my comment.”

“Apology accepted.”  Chantelle inclined her head graciously but felt like she was bleeding inside.

“My father retires in four years and I would like to see him finally win the ‘Building of the Year’ which has twice eluded him.  With the Thamesview Project we have the chance to start from the ground up.  The local council hasn’t imposed any restrictions, so we can give our imaginations free reign.  As usual I expect all of you to contribute your ideas, but the final decisions will be mine and my father’s.  Thank you for your time, ladies and gentlemen.  I’m off to sleep off my jetlag.  See you all tomorrow.”

Chantelle avoided Dominic’s gaze as she gathered her notepad and the printed slides she’d used as a guide to turn the page appropriately while Lauren for given an earlier PowerPoint presentation.

For the first time she wished that the walls of her offices were solid wood and not the clear tempered glass that gave perfect privacy in terms of sound, but allowed a panoramic view of the entire floor. She wanted to bury her head in her arms in mortification.  Instead she sat in her large executive chair, stiffened her spine and woke up her computer from sleep mode, knowing that details of Preston’s unprofessional outburst would gradually filter through the office.

Her brand new iPhone beeped, indicating an incoming message.

Sorry about Preston. He’s an old shit!  12:05?  X

There was no way she was going to sneak out to meet him for lunch today! 

17:35.  I’m going to grab a bagel for lunch and eat it at my desk. xx

His reply came seconds later:
Okay, but you’ll pay for making me wait. X

Her high-heeled, dark grey pumps prevented her toes from curling at his diabolical promise.  The lace in her bra stretched to allow her nipples to harden and then seemed to deliberately retract and chafe against them.  She squirmed against her chair to soothe the sudden ache she’d developed below, already wishing that she could throw caution to the wind and meet him for lunch and be filled with his hot meat for most of those fifty minutes, instead of the hot Salt Beef bagel she planned to order.

Dominic had returned from Jamaica only hours ago. He was probably as horny as hell.  He would have been looking forward to sating his lust at lunch.  Now she was making him wait another five hours.

He would make her pay.

He exacted the most delicious punishments.

***

Chantelle turned the key, pushed the door open and stepped into the flat.  She immediately found herself flattened against the wall by a naked male body, a rod of steel pressing insistently into her lower abdomen.

“Take your clothes off and lie facedown on the bed, now!”

“What no kiss, no ‘I missed you’?” she teased, sliding her arms around his broad shoulders and pulling his head down until their lips met.

“You know damned well I missed you!” he ground out before crushing her lips beneath his in a scorching kiss that immediately drenched her silk panties, again.  His hands slid under her skirt, cupped her bottom and pressed her hard against his erection.  “We both missed you.”

“I missed you, too.”

“But not enough to meet me at lunch time.”  He stepped back and started to quickly and efficiently undress her.

“I’ve had lunch at my desk all week,” she protested.  “It would have looked suspicious if I had gone for my lunch-time walk the day you returned.”

“So why didn’t you come to the flat while I was away as you’d planned?” he demanded, propelling her towards the master bedroom and onto the bed.

“It’s been raining cats and dogs all week!”  She shivered as he snapped the pair of handcuffs over her left wrist and attached it to the cast-iron bed frame—not because the fur-lined metal was cold, but in anticipation of the torture he’d planned for her. “I hate getting my feet wet.”