Chapter 12
Chapter Twelve
L iam
I stare at Elisabetta as we get into the cab. I can tell that she’s thinking heavily about something. I wonder what her father said to her on the phone to have her looking so perplexed.
“Is everything okay?” I ask her again. “You’re not…”
“I’m fine,” she said, giving me a weak smile.
“So, Liam…”
“Yes?” I ask her.
“Tell me why you want to take me to dinner.”
“Do you really need to ask me that?” I stare at her for a couple of seconds. “I just told you why.”
“Because you want to sleep with me, right?”
She looks me in the eye as if she doesn’t believe me. And I wonder why.
“Is this about Lucinda?” I ask her. “Are you still upset that…”
“I don’t give a fuck about Lucinda,” she says. “Whatever you have with Lucinda is between you and her.” She shrugs.
“Okay, then. Tell me how you really feel.”
I’m not used to a woman talking to me like this. I’m not used to a woman not wanting more, not wanting to dazzle and seduce and be with me, and it takes me aback a bit. Because I like Elisabetta. I like how honest she is. I like how sexual she is. I like that she doesn’t care about voicing her opinion to me; she’s not scared of me. She’s not in awe of me, yet I know I need to break her. I know I need to ensure this is the worst job she’s ever had, even though she’s never had a job before.
I stare at her for a couple of seconds and run my fingers down the side of her face.
“What if I told you I wanted you to suck me off right now?” I lean back and spread my legs wide open. “Would you do it?”
She looks at me in disgust. “Are you fucking crazy? No, I wouldn’t do it.”
“That’s a shame.” I run my fingers over my hardness.
She stares at me and just shakes her head.
I grab her hand, waiting to see if she’s going to pull away, but she doesn’t. I lay it gently on the top of my cock and wait to see what she’ll do.
She idly runs her fingers back and forth. I try not to groan as she seizes the length. I look at her trembling lips.
“Like what you feel?” I say.
I can see the taxi driver staring in the rearview mirror, and I make eye contact with him. He gives me a wicked smile, and I wink. He continues driving, and I look over at her.
“So?”
“So, what? You’ve got an average-sized cock. Whoop-de-do. Good for you.”
“So, Mr. Average would like to meet…”
“No. Enough,” she says.
“Enough about what?” I frown.
“I’m not going to have this back and forth with you, where you’re going on about wanting to get inside my pussy. You’ll get inside my pussy when I say you can. But it’s not about to happen anytime soon. And, if fact, I actually think I’m going to go on a couple of dates and see if I meet a man that I actually want to be in my pussy more than you because you kind of annoy me.”
“I kind of annoy you.” I stare at her. “Really? That’s why you want to work for me?”
“I wanted to work for you because you were a jackass in disguise, and I wanted to save Juniper and Lyla from having to work for you. And you know what? I understand why…”
“Why? Because you had to work so hard for me?” I burst out laughing. “Because I let you skip work to go to my bedroom and masturbate? Because…”
“Fine,” she says. “Look, we both know that we’re horny for each other, but I think you’re a bit of a jackass, and I don’t even know what your story is with this other lady yet.”
“Five seconds ago, you told me you didn’t care.”
“Well, five seconds ago, I didn’t care because I didn’t care about you. In all reality— Never mind,” she says, looking out the window.
“In all reality, what?” I want to know what she was going to say.
“In all reality, this is just a fucked-up situation, and I’ve just got so much to think about right now and…”
“And what?” I stare at her. “What did your dad say?”
She takes a deep breath and lets it escape heavily. “You don’t even want to know.”
“Tell me.”
“My dad wants me to get married, and he’s having a party for me in a couple of months.”
“He is?” I frown. How have I not heard about this before?
“He’s having a party for what?”
“To introduce me to eligible bachelors,” she says, shrugging. “I guess I’m meant to meet my future husband there. Yay me!”
I stare at her for a couple of seconds. “I thought your dad just wanted you to go to Italy to hang out.”
She stares at me. “I don’t think I ever said that to you.”
“Yeah. You didn’t. I can’t think, but maybe Max and Gabe were talking about it, or maybe it was Remington. I can’t really remember. I’m guessing Skye or someone told them about it.”
“Yeah, maybe.” She stares at me. “Maybe.”
I wonder if she is getting suspicious, or maybe she was already suspicious, and this was deepening her suspicions. I’m going to have to be careful about what I say.
“So, Liam Gallagher.”
“Yes, dear.”
“Tell me more about you.”
“What do you want to know?”
“How did you get started in this business? Was it passed down to you from your parents?”
I stare at her for a couple of seconds and shake my head slowly.
“No. In fact, my story is pretty typical of a lot of men my age. My mother was working class. Her parents worked at a market selling vegetables, and my dad, decades ago, was part of the ruling class.”
“The ruling class.” She stares at me.
“Aristocrats,” I say. “His great-great-grandfather was the duke of something or other.”
“You don’t know?” She continues to stare at me.
“Well, of course, I know, but I don’t want to be pompous and say. Anyway, they lost their money, their land, and their title. Or rather, I should say, they sold the title.”
“Oh, I didn’t know you could do that.”
“There are many things you can do when the law looks the other way. Anyway, my father had pretensions of grandeur even though he had no money, and my mother was happy to be married to someone who, years ago, was someone notable.”
“Oh.” Elisabetta frowned. “That sounds a little miserable.”
“It sounds more miserable than it was,” I say. “They did their best, and they loved me, and they loved Daisy. And my father did okay for himself. He started a small, little business and was able to provide for us, and I was able to go to some of the best schools, and because of that, I’ve been able to make a lot of money.”
“Because you’re just fabulous,” she deadpans.
“Because I’m ruthless,” I say.
She stares, and I can tell she’s waiting for me to laugh.
“Which is not a joke,” I say. “If you think grumpy is an adjective to describe me, then you’ve not met some of my former coworkers in the UK.”
“Ruthless,” she says. “Like ruthless in what ways?”
“In every way possible.” I stare at her, and then I shrug. “But I’m a multi-millionaire now.”
“Thought you were a billionaire,” she says.
“Yeah, I think my net worth is probably in the billions now.” I shrug. “I don’t keep track.”
“That’s a lie.” She shakes her head. “You were just doing your accounts in your shitty little apartment. You keep track. I bet you know to the dollar what your worth is.”
“No, I don’t,” I remark. “I know to the pound, though.
“To the pound, eh?” She shakes her head and smiles. “British through and through.”
“That I am.”
“So, do you think you’ll always live in England, or are you going to split your time more?”
“I would never live in the States,” I say. “I mean, not permanently.”
I shake my head. “I love my home too much. I do like being here, spending a couple of months at a time, but I think we always love the place where we grew up, you know? Fond memories.”
“What if your wife wants to live somewhere else?”
“I’m never getting married.” I shake my head. “That’s not something I worry about.”
“What if Daisy and Harriet want to live somewhere else?”
I stare at her. She’s more attuned to me than I thought she was. “Then I would seriously consider moving because they are my life,” I say.
“Your sister works?” she asks me.
“Kind of. She’s an artist.”
“Oh, is her husband rich?”
“Harriet’s father is not in the picture,” I say. “But that’s okay. Luckily for them, I make a lot of money, and I’m able to support them.”
“Lucky them,” she says. “Not that I’m independent or anything; my dad has supported me my entire life.”
“Well, how does that make you feel?” I ask her.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, do you feel like you have a sense of purpose in life?”
She stares at me for a few moments, not saying anything. “You’re quite perceptive, aren’t you, Liam?”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because, no, I don’t really feel like I have a purpose in life. I don’t really know what I want to do, where I want to be, or what I want to achieve. I’ve never really had to, you know?”
She sighs. “I mean, I may have to now, but that’s another story.”
“What do you mean you may have to now?”
She blinks, and I can see that her eyes are watery.
“Hey, is everything okay?”
She shakes her head slowly, “I don’t know. My dad, well, he kind of said that he’s got no money, and I don’t really know what’s going on. He said that he wants me to get married and…”
“You said that, right? That he’s throwing a ball for you so that you can meet some eligible men, and then you decide whether you want to date them or not.”
“That’s what I thought it was going to be,” she says. “Now he’s saying that it’s actually an engagement party.”
“An engagement party?” I frown. “What do you mean?”
“I mean that it’s an engagement party.”
“But you don’t even have a boyfriend.”
“Exactly.”
“You were just lying on my bed masturbating. I mean, that’s got nothing to do with it, but…”
“Exactly.”
“So, how do you have an engagement party coming up? Do you have a fiancé, and I didn’t know about it?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “This sounds absolutely crazy, but I could have a fiancé that my father has set up for me and just not told me. I just don’t understand anything. In all reality, I don’t really even know my father. I don’t know what he does for a living. I don’t…” She sighs. “Anyway, I didn’t mean to go off. It’s just been a crazy day.”
“It’s okay. Do you want to go home?” I ask her. “I feel like you’re overwhelmed, and maybe going back to the office to work is not the right move today.”
She nods. “That would be great, but I feel like I took this job, and already I’m kind of slacking. I don’t want people to look at me and be like, ‘She’s just fucking the boss, and that’s why she got the job.’”
“I mean, you’re not fucking me, so no one should think that.”
“Yeah, but if anyone sees us, they’ll think we’re fucking.”
“Because you can’t keep your eyes off me?”
“No, because you can’t keep your eyes off me !”
I laugh. “What’s your address?”
“Why? You’re not coming over.”
“So I can give it to the taxi driver to take you home.”
“No, you said you wanted to…”
“It can wait until tomorrow,” I say, cutting her off. “Today’s been a long day, and I think we both need to decompress.”
“Okay,” she says, nodding. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. Give your address to the taxi driver, and I’ll have him head there.”
“Okay.” She gives the taxi driver the address, and we both sit back.
I look at my phone, and I see that she’s staring at hers. I wonder what she’s thinking. I wonder what’s going on. What the hell is her father thinking about setting up an engagement party for her? That’s absolutely crazy talk. I need to get to the bottom of this. I feel like I’m somehow caught up in a spiderweb that I didn’t even realize was being spun.
I bite down on my lower lip. This shit is getting way more complicated than I anticipated. All I wanted to do was have a hotel empire and make my next billion. To prove myself. To show everyone that I’m a man who shouldn’t be toyed with.
We pull up outside a building, and the cab stops.
“This is me,” Elisabetta says.
“Okay.” I slide out of the cab and hurry over to open the door for her.
She gets out and frowns. “Thanks. You didn’t have to do that.”
“It’s okay.” I ask the cab driver how much and give him a fifty dollar note. I tap the back of the cab, and he drives off.
“You’re not coming up,” she says, staring at me. “You know that, right?”
“I know,” I say, though I’m slightly disappointed. A part of me hoped she’d invite me up for part two.
“So then, why did you send the taxi away?”
“I can walk from here. I like walking.”
“Uh-huh, okay.” She says, staring at me.“So…”
“So…” I say. “Hug?”
“I don’t think so,” she says, shaking her head. “Not appropriate.”
“Of course,” I say, grinning at her. “It would be extremely inappropriate for me, as your boss, to give you a hug goodbye after watching you masturbate about an hour ago.”
“Are you going to keep bringing that up?” she asks me, raising a single eyebrow. “Have you never seen a woman masturbate before?”
I stare at her and smirk.
“Perhaps I was the first naked body you’ve seen.”
“Perhaps.” I grin. “And if you were, it was a marvelous first body to see.”
Her face tinges pink, and I grin.
“Very marvelous.”
“Whatever!” she says, rolling her eyes. “I’m going up now.”
“Have a good evening.”
“You, too,” she says, holding out her hand. “We’re going to shake hands.”
I stare at her in disbelief. “Really?”
“Yeah, unless you don’t want to.”
I reach over and shake her hand. “It was a pleasure working with you today, Elisabetta.”
“You, too, Mr. Gallagher.”
“I’ll see you tomorrow at 8:00?”
“On the dot,” she says. She walks toward the front of her building, stops, and looks back at me. She stares at me for a couple of seconds, turns, and walks into the building without giving me a second glance.
I stand there and let out three deep sighs.
I pull out my phone and call Lucinda.
“I didn’t think you were going to call me back. I thought you were going to have me get on a plane.”
“Now, why would I do that, Lucinda?” My voice is sharp, and I realize that I’m in this far too deep, and I hate that. This was meant to be a simple deal, and now everything is far too complicated.
“Because you miss me, and you want to see me,” she says sarcastically.
“As much as I love you, Lucinda, and as much as I think you’re the best assistant in the world, I do not need to see you. How are the files going for the new Lindatin case?”
“Fine. They’re nearly done. They’ll be in your inbox in the next hour.”
“Perfect,” I say. “And what about the Emotiva assessment?”
“They’ll be done by the end of next week. We need to get some surveyors in to look at the land, but I think everything is going according to plan.”
“Perfect. So, what did you want to speak to me about?”
“It’s about this entire charade that you’re on.”
“Yes,” I say.
“Does that poor girl know that she is not really your assistant?”
“Lucinda.”
“I mean, seriously, I can’t believe no one has figured this out yet.”
“Lucinda, what is this all about?”
“There’s something you need to know. Something that one of the private investigators dug up.”
“Yeah, and that is?”
“It’s about that Elisabetta girl.
“Elisabetta Franco?”
“Yes. There’s something you should know. Something that’s going to make this a lot more complicated than you initially thought.”
Fuck . I think to myself. What now?