Chapter 18
Chapter Eighteen
L iam
Elisabetta is trembling as my fingertips continue to caress her. Her skin is soft, silky, and warm, and it feels incredible knowing that I am making her react like this. I wish we were somewhere private, somewhere where there was absolutely no possibility of us being caught. I want to watch her lips trembling, I want to have her begging me to continue, I want to hear my name spoken on her lips in lust. Her eyes are hazy as she gazes at me, and I’m tempted to lean down and kiss her passionately.
For a few moments, I wish I had hired a private plane so she wouldn’t have to worry about people seeing or hearing us. I debate ushering a flight attendant over to call the captain for me, but I know that would be utterly ridiculous. But something about this woman has me thinking absurd thoughts. I made sure we took a commercial flight because I didn't want to look like I was boasting about my wealth. I didn’t want her to think I was trying to impress her with my money.
Elisabetta came from money and was used to the finer things in life. I didn’t want her to think that I thought my money made me better than anyone else. Especially since I was privy to the fact that her father was struggling financially. I knew that she knew that now, and I also knew that she didn't know the ins and outs like I did. But I wasn’t going to think about that now.
“Ooh...” she mumbles in a high-pitched tone as she twitches in her seat, and I smile to myself at how vocal she is in her reactions. The sound of her purrs and whimpers under the touch of my fingers makes me hard, and I wonder what she would do if she knew just how involved in her family situation I really was.
A feeling of dread weighs on my shoulders. It isn't my fault that her father is broke or that he’s made bad business investments, but I am capitalizing on his misfortune now. There are no ifs, ands, or buts about that. If I were taken to a court of law, the judge would definitely decide against me. I knew that Elisabetta would also decide against me if she were to decide my fate, but that is something I choose not to think about.
I don’t live well with guilt.
I reason with myself that she knows as well as I do that life is a game of chess or poker. Every step we take and every decision we make is a gamble. Even right now, as she purrs in happiness, the situation between us is still like a card game in flux. Her queen is going up against my king, and we are both hoping for the best outcome. We both want to come out on top.
We both want the other to capitulate.
However, I know what she doesn’t. That there is no way I can lose.
I have a stacked hand of aces.
"Oh my gosh," she whispers as my finger slides deep inside of her. I wish it was something else, but I can't dwell on that right now. "Liam, oh my gosh!" she moans as I continue to finger her, my thumb flicking against her clit. She's wet, and I can tell by the quickening of her walls that she's going to come soon. "Oh my gosh, Liam, you need to stop," she cries out. "This is?—"
"Keep going," I say, softly whispering in her ear. Her eyes fly open, and she looks at me, dazed and confused and completely and utterly in bliss. "You're nearly there, Elisabetta," I say, kissing the side of her face. "Come for me."
And then, just as I knew she would, I feel her pussy lips tighten on my fingers, and then she lets out a loud moan as she orgasms, her entire body shaking, the wetness seeping down my fingers. My thumb rubs against her clit faster and faster, and she moans yet again, and finally, her body stills.
I pull my fingers out of her slowly. She looks at me. "You wanna watch me?" I ask her. Her look turns to one of confusion, and I just grin as I pull my hand out from under the blanket and raise my fingers to my lips. I suck them, loving the taste of her. Her jaw drops slightly.
"I want you to taste me," I say to her. "Don't you want that?"
"I'm not gonna give you a blowjob on a plane where anyone could see." She shakes her head, looking at me in awe as I continue to suck her juices.
"Maybe not now, but maybe on the plane ride back?" I ask her, and she just rolls her eyes.
"I'm not looking to get arrested for public?—"
"Public what?" I say, hoping she’s going to admit what we both want.
"Public indecency." She grins at me. "You might not mind if you get arrested because you have plenty of money, but I find myself in a precarious situation where I no longer have the sort of money that I thought I did."
"You have my paycheck."
"And how much are you paying me a year?" she asks, not looking impressed. I don’t know how she can look so demure and stunning at the same time.
I chuckle. "I think it's about $75,000."
"Exactly. I used to live off of $75,000 every three months.” She scoffs. “$75,000 is not enough to keep me in the lifestyle I’ve become accustomed to.” She looks down at my Rolex watch and makes a face as if to say, And it wouldn’t be enough for you either.
"Really?" I ask her in surprise.
"Yeah, my dad used to give me twenty-five grand a month." She shrugs as my eyes widen. "And now I'm wishing I’d saved more of it."
"How much do you have saved?" I ask her, curious if she’s been investing in the stock market. With an average 8 percent rate of return, she could be sitting on a tidy sum of money.
"You don't even wanna know."
"A couple hundred grand?"
She stares at me blankly, a wry smile on her face. "Not even close."
"A couple of million?"
She bursts out laughing then. "Would I be agreeing to marry some random-ass man who's probably old enough to be my granddad if I had a million dollars?"
"You wouldn't do that for your father?"
"I mean, I would give him the million dollars so he could pay off his debts, and I would live my best life."
"Working for me, huh?"
"No, I'm not living my best life working for you. It was all fun and games taking the job when I thought I didn't need it, but now?—"
"Now you know you need it."
"Not for long, though," she says.
"But you still want me."
"And that means what?" she asks me.
"It means that you're attracted to me."
"I'm not a liar. I never said I wasn't."
"That is true, you don't lie." I stare at her for a couple of seconds, and my head starts pounding because the fact of the matter is, while I hadn't technically lied to her, I definitely wasn't telling the truth.
"So, what are we going to do on this island exactly? Please tell me."
"You're changing the subject," I whisper, grinning madly at her.
"I'm not changing the subject. I am just trying to make sure that I'm the best assistant you've ever had, and I'm definitely not going to qualify for that title if I don't even know exactly what's going on. How many resorts are we visiting and?—"
"All in due time, Elisabetta." I grin at her. "There's no need to worry your sweet little head."
"I'm more than just a sweet angel, you know?"
"I know. You're a wicked girl, too."
"No, I mean, I'm more than my looks. I have brains. I have?—"
"That’s why you're accompanying me on this trip."
"Oh, I thought it was for the sex," she says blithely.
And I shake my head. "We haven't had sex, and while I'm not gonna lie and say that I don't hope we do, that was not the primary reason for me inviting you on this trip. I very much am in need of and would appreciate your feedback on…" I pause. I don't know exactly how far to keep this going.
"Continue. Or are you just trying to think of a lie?"
"I'm not trying to think of a lie. I would just like your opinion on if you think the destination is something or somewhere you would like to visit."
"Okay. I mean, you could've showed me photos."
"Photos don't make up for the experience," I say. "I've definitely learned that the hard way."
"Oh?" She tilts her head to the side and looks at me consideringly. "You say that like you're talking about specifically."
"Maybe." I shrug.
"Do you wish to tell me more?"
"Not really." I shake my head. "I actually have some emails to catch up on and?—"
"No, no, no, you're not about to do that, Liam Gallagher." She reaches out and grabs my hand and squeezes. "You literally just finger-fucked me on the plane. There's no way in hell you're now gonna go and read your emails or whatever just so you can get out of talking to me."
"Um, I didn't realize that there was a quid pro quo for me giving you pleasure."
"I didn't ask you for the pleasure."
"You certainly didn't say you didn’t want it."
"I mean, if you're offering to give me something that delicious"—she grins—"I'm not gonna say no, but it's not like I begged you for it."
"I would like that, you know?" I say smoothly, looking at her lips. Her eyes look confused for a second, and she leans forward. I realize that her hands are still on my wrist, and I kind of like the feel of her.
"Are you going to explain further?" she asks.
"I would kind of like you to beg me to pleasure you, but maybe next time with my tongue?"
She stares at me for a couple of seconds, and her lips twitch.
"What's so funny?" I ask her.
"I think it's hilarious that you think that I would have to beg you to pleasure me with anything. I bet you're dying to get your tongue right between my legs." She licks her lips. "Aren't you?"
"Maybe," I shrug, "but maybe I'll only do it if you ask."
"Well, then, you'll be waiting a long time," she says. "And frankly, there are many tongues that would more than be adequate."
"What are you trying to say? There's another man's tongue you'd rather have between your legs?"
"I mean, in a couple of months, it will likely be my husband's." She shudders slightly and looks out of the window.
"That doesn't please you?" I ask her.
She turns back to look at me, and there's a flash of anger in her eyes. "No. Who do you think I am? I mean, I'm doing this to help my father, but do I look like the sort of woman that wants to slut herself out to some man I don't even know? Fuck, no! It makes me curdle up inside to think that my father would do this to me."
She's pissed, and I'm taken aback. This is the first time I've heard her so angry and hurt.
"I thought he loved me, but obviously, I was wrong. I just don't even understand how he could do this to me." She takes a deep breath. "But it's fine. I'll do it because it's my duty, and I love him, and I love my family, but?—"
"You don't have to do it if you don’t want to." My eyes bore into hers, and she shrugs.
She lets out a low laugh. "What am I gonna do, continue working as your shitty-ass assistant?"
"If you want to," I say softly. "I wouldn't fire you."
"We both know that I'm likely not going to be able to do everything that you want. Let's be real." She takes a deep breath. "You own a multi-billion-dollar company or million-dollar company. I don't even know because that's how great of an assistant I am. I don't know Excel, I can't type that fast, and I'm not really interested in doing administrative skills."
"And that's why I put you into a different role," I say softly.
"And that was nice of you, though I'm not really sure why you would do that, seeing as you needed an assistant. You must be so behind. I mean, I do feel guilty. I saw all the paperwork you had on your table in your apartment, and…"
She bites down on her lower lip. "Look, I hate to say this, but if you wanna fire me because I can't do the job, that's fine. I just beg of you, please don't make Juniper, Skye, or Lila work for you. You're not a horrible guy, but you're really hard on them. It's really stressful to them, and I love them, and I just?—"
"Hey," I say. "This has been eating at you, hasn't it?"
"I mean, a little bit," she shrugs. "I just don't understand."
"What don't you understand?"
"I mean, they told me the sort of things you said and did to them when they were working for you, and you haven’t been that hard on me at all yet." She blinks. "And I don't understand why not."
I know we're in dangerous territory now, and she's correct. I'd been hard on Skye and Lila and Juniper because I needed them to complain about me. I needed her to step up and take this role, but the fact of the matter was, I also needed to ride her hard. I needed her to get so pissed off that she would happily flee to Italy to do her father's bidding.
I haven't gotten to that level yet, but I know that a part of me would not forgive myself if I didn't. That is part of the deal, even though I know the deal has changed.
"Maybe because I was trying to be nice to you for the first couple of weeks, but I don't have to be. I mean, it's up to you."
"Is it because you want me to suck your cock?" she says.
My eyes widen, and she laughs bitterly.
"I mean, I just wanna be straight up here. Is the reason you're being nicer to me because you want to fuck me? You know you can't fuck Skye or Lila or Juniper because they're all with men at the law firm, partners, and you know that if you even attempted to get into their pants, they would drop you as a client so fast. So, my question is, are you just hoping that this is an assistantship with benefits?"
"Would that be so bad? Isn't that?—"
"Yeah, it would be bad. I don't want to be hired or used because?—"
"Listen to me and listen to me closely, Elisabetta, and I say this in all honesty. I did not hire you because I wanted to fuck you. I hired you because I have a deal that I need to go through, and I needed someone to take care of things for me." My voice trails off as I realize I can't tell her the exact truth. I feel guilty.
Her hand drops away from mine, and she looks out of the window.
"What? What is it?" I say, feeling suddenly upset at the loss of her touch.
"I can tell you're lying."
"Excuse me?" I blink at her.
"When you lie or say something you don't truly feel, you act differently. Your expression is different." She turns back to me and studies my face. "I feel like I am an amoeba under a microscope, and it makes me extremely uncomfortable."
"I don't know what you're talking about," I say, shrugging nonchalantly.
"You're not a great actor. Something is up that you're not telling me."
"I 100 percent swear to God that I did not hire you because I wanted to fuck you." I look into her eyes and grab her hands. "Is it true that I'm attracted to you? Yes. Is it true that I do wanna fuck you? Yes. Is it also true that had nothing to do with the reason why I hired you? Yes."
"So you hired me because you think I'm gonna be a great assistant or marketing manager or whatever my new role is? Really?" She juts her chin out, and I know that I can't lie.
"No," I say softly. "That's not why I hired you."
"Then why?" she says.
I take a deep breath and run my fingers through my hair before looking over at her. “I hate repeating myself, but let’s just say that there's a business deal that I need to go through and?—"
She sighs. "You know what? It doesn't matter. Forget about it."
I blink. "Wait, what?"
"If it's to do with business, then whatever."
"You believe me?"
She nods slowly. "All you seem to care about is business. That always comes first in your life, right? I mean, I think you've mentioned that before."
"Business is very important to me." I nod slowly. "Money, power, everything that conveys, it means something."
"What does it really mean if you don't have love?" she says, shaking her head.
"Love can be bought," I say, thinking about Elizabeth Charity Montgomery. "Just because someone says they love you doesn't mean it's true."
"That's true," she says softly. "Doesn't really mean anything at all, does it?"