7. Chapter Seven
Chapter Seven
M addie
I stop by Julia’s desk as I’m about to leave the office.
She turns up her face with a smile. “How was your second day? Anything interesting happen?”
Did she hear me and Chance? I search her face. She’s only asking to be friendly, right?
“No, no. Just the usual.” I shrug.
Her eyes narrow.
Before she can prod some more, I ask, “Hey, do you know where I can find work appropriate outfits?” I gesture at my outfit. “The boss thinks this isn’t it.”
Julia presses out a sympathetic smile. “I didn’t want to tell you, but yeah, this is extremely cute but it has everyone talking.”
“Ugh.” I slap my forehead. “I’m ready to get something else. So, where do I go?”
“You know what?” Julia stands. “I’m done with work. How about we go together?”
“Great, let’s.”
We take a cab to a busy street and Julia alights in front of a store.
“What’s your budget?” she asks as we walk in.
“I don’t know. I’m guessing things are priced differently here than in the city.”
“Very different.” She walks down an aisle. “We just need to know the price range we can go for. This is where I shop. It has high end, low end, and middle end.” She chuckled. “You get my meaning.”
“Whatever is fine, I guess. Chance gave me his card and didn’t really put a spending limit on it.”
Julia halts and spins around. Her eyes are orbs and I back up a bit. She follows me step for step until she grabs me by the shoulder. “What did you say?”
“Chance gave me his card?”
“Yes, and no spending limit?!” She gapes.
“Yes, he didn’t s—”
She takes my hand and races us out of the store. How she’s able to manage that in heels is a mystery to me.
“Julia? Where are we going?”
“You mean you can buy anything? Then we are going to the biggest, bestest store!”
She pulls me into another building with a doorman and a staff rushing to welcome us.
“I’ll take a glass of champagne, please,” Julia says with a flourish.
I say nothing and she shoulders me.
“Same,” I murmur.
While that staff is occupied with bringing us the wine, another comes over and asks what we need. We are shown to a sitting area while a rack of outfits are wheeled to us.
Julia sips on her wine, nodding to selections or saying nah.
“More wine.” She holds out her empty glass.
“Julia!” I elbow her side.
She laughs. “Girl, this is the dream. You better live it.”
I follow suit and relax, pretending I can actually afford this kind of service.
We move on to testing the clothes and they all feel decadent on my skin, fitting my frame perfectly.
“I’m not sure what to go with!” I tell Julia when I’m done.
“Why do we have to choose?” She winks. “You have the magic card.”
Jesus. “You’re wild.”
She giggles and asks the staff to bag all of them.
I have a mini heart attack when I see the bill. I grip the card tight, sure it’s illegal to spend this much money on mere clothes.
Julia snatches it from me and hands it over to the cashier.
Once that’s over, we arm ourselves with two bags in each hand and step out into the clear night.
“Now we need to get you bags and shoes.” Julia races along, looking into the next store.
“Julia…” I warn. “Haven’t we spent too much already?”
She spins to me. “What?” There’s a frown scrunching up her nose. “What are you talking about too much?”
“Well, just because he didn’t put a spending limit doesn’t mean I should empty the account.”
She laughs like I’ve told a joke. “Maddie, please. You’re so precious.” She draws close. “Look, even if you tried, you wouldn’t get to the last dollar of Chance Easton’s account.”
I frown. “What does that mean?”
“That he’s rich, rich.” She throws a cursory glance around us. “Billionaire rich, and that’s just him. His brothers, his family, they own all of this.” She waved her hands around us.
My stomach knots. “The street?”
“The whole Island and half of the businesses here. The rest pay a hefty fee to them to operate.”
“Wow.”
“Yeah.” She nods. “So saying you can’t buy some shoes and bags, that’s like an insult to him. If he gave you his card, he means you should do with it as you please.”
I’m unable to breathe. When I learned Chance is the CEO of his company, I assumed it was just that small world he controlled. Not the entire fucking world I now live in.
“You okay?” She tilts her head to the side.
“Yes.” I nod quickly.
Oh, god . I fucked him. I went down on him and rode his cock and now… I’m just a city girl. Nothing to my name. And he’s… he’s… practically a god here.
“Come on.” Julia pulls me along and into another store.
I don’t feel less guilty spending more of his money just because he’s rich. But Julia is a force and I go along with it.
Low-key, getting nice things feels nice.
By the time we’re done, I’m smiling for no reason. Maybe because of the too many wines the stores provided us automatically.
We stand on the sidewalk, done for the night.
“Thank you so much, Jules.”
“Hey, you called me Jules.” She pokes my cheek. “My mom calls me that.”
We giggle and she hugs me.
“Thanks for inviting me along, Maddie. It’s nice to have a glimpse of what it means to be Mr. Easton’s special girl.”
The alcohol haze drops a notch. “What?”
“Everyone at the office thinks so.” Her smile is fond. “He gives you special treatment.”
“No, no,” I say. “He’s been nothing but professional.”
“Yeah, right.” She winks. “Like it’s everyday he hands a staff member his card to shop.”
I swallow. “But—”
“Nothing, darling. Enjoy being the favorite.” She doesn’t allow me to say more as she waves a cab down and helps me stuff the many bags in the trunk.
I get in the backseat and wave. “Thanks a lot.”
“See you tomorrow.” She blows me a kiss.
We drive off and I lean back, replaying her words. I’m not certain how to feel or what to do next. So I close my eyes instead and enjoy the feel of the air sweeping across my face.
Chance appears behind my eyelids, just the way he was this morning. Sitting in his office chair, looking every bit powerful and sinful with his cock sticking out of him.
There was no way I could keep myself from riding him. Even now, I press my thighs together as my imagination runs wild.
Tires screech and I’m jerked forward suddenly. The seatbelt bites into my skin and slams me back into the seat.
My eyes widen and I’m gasping for breath. “What happened?” I unclip the seat belt and lean forward.
“This car just cut in front of us,” the driver complains, then devolves into a tirade.
I hear nothing as I take in the car. It’s night but I can tell—the black, sleek vehicle is just like the one that trailed me earlier.
Panic sends my heart to my throat. “Drive, drive!” I pull on my driver’s shoulder. “Go! Now!”
He doesn’t wait for more. He reverses and cuts a wide arc around the car.
I turn in time to see a man dressed in all black getting out of the black car. There’s something in his hand that looks like a fucking gun.
“Faster!” I gasp.
“Don’t worry, miss. I know all the back roads they can’t follow.”
True to his word, the cab driver goes in circles, passing neighborhoods I’ve never seen before he stops in front of the Resort. There’s no one following us.
For the first time since we were cut off, I take a full breath.
While the cab driver takes my stuff out of the trunk, I search my purse looking for any amount that can show my gratitude. I end up emptying it and handing over all the bills, including change.
He doesn’t look at it as he collects it. “Stay safe, miss. Those men looked dangerous.”
I nod shakily. “Thank you.”
He gets into his car then and drives off.
I watch his headlights disappear in the distance before hefting my bags and racing to the villa.
The next morning, I find Chance in his office as early as eight a.m. His eyes lift from his laptop and then he does a double take. I’m in a matte pink dress that hugs my skin and stops just below my knees with shoes to match.
His eyes turn warm with appreciation and my belly flips in response. I picked what I liked to wear the previous night, but seeing that he likes it too causes a warm rush to flood me.
“Good morning.” I place the card on the desk and slide it back. “I got all I needed, thank you.”
His eyes tear away from my body and he meets my face. “Are you sure?”
What? Didn’t he see the alerts of how much I spent? I keep my face serene though. “Yes.”
He takes the card then and slips it into a drawer. “And you remember Sunday dinner, right?”
I nod. “Of course.” I can’t forget it if I tried. I’d be meeting all the Eastons. Daunting didn’t begin to cover it. “And you’ll tell them we’re not really dating?”
He pauses. “I will.”
“Okay.”
“Is everything all right?” His brows furrow as I remain there.
I debate telling him about last night. I’m only here for a few weeks. If I’m careful, then I won’t run into those men again.
But last night’s experience left me tossing and turning until three a.m. Even now, I don’t feel like myself and it took a thick layer of concealer to hide the dark circles under my eyes. I can’t function in this stressed out state.
“No, it’s not.”
Chance is on his feet in an instant and he comes round the table to cup my face.
“Tell me. What’s wrong?”
I gulp. Looking at him this close, his forehead knitted and a frown pulling his lips down, I can’t help but feel he’s worried about me because it’s me. Will he hold his other employees so tenderly? Or would he look like he was ready to bulldoze through whatever the problem is?
“You can tell me anything, Maddie.” His voice is warm and hoarse and concerned.
I break. Tears well up in my eyes, but I swallow them down.
“Someone was following me yesterday,” I sound shaky, but I can’t help it. I feel shaken. “In the morning on my way to work and after when Julia and I went to shop.”
I explain how the cab driver saved me.
“Am I being paranoid?”
“No, you’re not,” Chance says firmly, thumbing my cheeks in a soothing, rhythmic way. “Why didn’t you tell me when it first happened?”
“I… I didn’t want to bother you. Maybe I was imagining things. I don’t know.”
“Never keep anything from me, okay? No matter how crazy you think it sounds.”
I nod.
He turns away and picks up his phone. “I need to get someone to watch you. Make sure no one follows you and you’re always safe.”
“Um… is that really necessary?”
He turns to me with an anguished look on his face.
“Most certainly, yes.” Whoever is at the other end picks and he speaks into the phone.
Almost as quickly as it started, the call ends.
He places his phone back on the desk. “It’s done.
By evening, you’ll have someone watching your back wherever you are. ”
I swallow. “Thank you.”
He nodded firmly.
I turn to leave, but a hand on my arm stops me.
He pulls me back against his chest.
“Where do you think you’re going?” His arms wrap around me, firm and comforting.
I melt into his touch, burying my face in his chest. I pull a deep breath of his coffee and coconut scent. It sends relief through my limbs.
Everything will be alright. I just know it.