Chapter 11
CHAPTER ELEVEN
ALORA
Wearing a charcoal suit and a crisp white shirt, he is sitting behind my desk.
In. My. Chair.
He runs his tongue over his teeth as if annoyed. “I don’t like to be kept waiting.”
“And I don’t like you sitting in my chair,” I fire back.
Jonty scuttles to the front of the store, scared for his life.
“What are you doing here?” I whisper angrily.
“Waiting for my internship to begin.”
“There is no internship,” I spit as I look around. I discreetly close my office door. “You know damn well there isn’t.”
“Ha.” He leans back in my chair. “What the hell did I pay for, then?”
“You paid for the right to be a fucking idiot.”
He smirks and raises his chin. “What kind of employer curses at their intern?”
“What kind of a man tells someone that he is going to fuck their girlfriend so hard that she won’t remember their name?”
His eyes dance with mischief. “He told you?”
“Yes, he told me,” I fume.
“He’s even wimpier than I thought.”
“How is telling me wimpy?”
“Well, if someone said that to me about my woman—” his dark eyes hold mine, “—they wouldn’t live to tell the tale, let alone go running home to Mommy.”
“You might not live to tell the tale,” I spit. “Get out of my chair.”
“No.” He keeps sitting there. “When I am in this office, this will be my chair.”
“Edward.” I pinch the bridge of my nose. “I don’t know what you’re playing at.”
“I’m playing at five hundred thousand euros and you…had better start cooperating.”
“That was before I knew you were goading my boyfriend,” I whisper angrily.
“I do wonder.” He spins back and forth on my chair. “What did he say about you kissing me?”
My eyes bulge from their sockets. “Keep your voice down,” I whisper as I look around guiltily. “Do not ever speak of that again, and you, kissed me not the other way around.”
He smirks as his eyes hold mine and damn it, why is he so fucking attractive?
It’s criminal.
“So….” He steeples his fingers in front of him. “What happens now?”
“What happens now?” I repeat.
“Yes, what happens now?”
Who the hell knows what happens now, not me that’s for sure.
I grab a feather duster and hold it out to him. “Go…clean something.”
“The only thing I’m going to be cleaning are the cobwebs out of your vagina.” His eyes dance with delight. He’s playing with me now and honestly, his attempt at humor is way off. I’m on the edge of losing my living shit.
“Edward,” I fume. “I mean it.”
He stands. “So do I.”
“And I do not have cobwebs in my vagina.”
“I seriously doubt that.” He snatches the feather duster from me and walks out into the shop. I flop into the chair and put my head into my hands, this is a literal disaster.
Helene walks in and closes the door behind her, she peeks at Edward through the glass door. “What is happening right now?” she whispers as she cranes her neck to look at him. “Why is he here?”
“He won the auction.”
“What?”
“I know.” I throw my hands up in disbelief.
“But isn’t that…the owner of the casino?”
“Uh-huh.”
Jonty walks into the office and closes the door behind him. “What the hell is going on?”
“He’s the owner of the casino,” Helene whispers as she continues to peer through the blinds at him. “He’s like a gazillionaire.”
“I’m so confused right now,” Jonty whispers. “Why does he want an internship at an antique store when he could afford to buy the whole of fucking France?”
“I don’t know,” I lie. “Just keep him busy.”
“Doing what?” he asks.
“I don’t know, teach him stuff,” I stammer.
“Like what?” Jonty asks.
“I could teach him a thing or two.” Helene smirks as she watches him.
I seriously doubt that.
“What should I teach him?” Jonty asks again.
“I don’t know.” I hold my hands up. “Go…show him how to use the cash register.”
“Okay.” He frowns. “Do you think he wants to buy our store?”
“Maybe,” I lie.
“Right….” He cranes his neck to watch him. “Are you thinking of selling?”
“Oh my god, Jonty!” I snap. “I need to think in peace for a moment, please go out there and do something useful.”
“Fine.” He disappears out into the front of the store, leaving the door open, and all is silent for five minutes. “Don’t touch that,” I hear him say.
“Interns touch everything,” I hear Edward’s voice fire back. “Isn’t that the point of interning?”
“That egg is an ancient artifact.”
“That has dust on it.”
A comeback for everything. I feel my temperature rise even higher.
“God, he’s so fucking hot, right?” Helene murmurs as she watches him through the blinds.
That’s it!
I can’t hold this in for one moment longer…. I have to talk this out.
“I have something to tell you,” I whisper. “But you have to swear on your life not to tell a soul.”
“It’s me.” She shrugs. “Who am I going to tell?”
“I know him. I mean I knew him before.” I wobble my head around as I search for the right way to put this. “Like really knew him if you get my drift.”
Her eyes widen. “Oh my god. You slept with him?”
“Sshh,” I splutter. “Keep your voice down.”
“Well, did you?” She holds her face as she waits for my answer.
I shrug. “Maybe a little bit.”
“Was it good?”
“Very.”
“I fucking knew it.” She throws her hands up in the air. “He has huge, big dick energy. I can smell it a mile off.”
Sure does.
“Anyway,” I whisper. “He bid on the auction on Saturday night and now he is here to make my life miserable because he and Pascal hate each other.”
“Screw Pascal,” she whispers. “This guy is way hotter.”
“He’s got a girlfriend. A princess.” I widen my eyes.
“You could totally take her,” she huffs as she once again spies on him through the blinds.
“I’m not interested in him like that.”
“Oh my god,” she murmurs.
“What?” I get up and go to the window to see what she’s looking at; Edward has taken off his suit coat and is leaning over a chair. His tight ass and thick quad muscles are on display.
“He is so fucking fine.” She sighs dreamily.
Don’t I know it….
“He’s taken. I’m taken…. This won’t be an issue.”
“So can I sleep with him?”
“Absolutely not.”
For half an hour I have sat at my desk and listened to Jonty and Edward bicker while Helene watches him with love heart eyes, and for the life of me I don’t know what to say or do.
His little cleaning-out-vagina comment indicates that he’s still in flirt mode, and this has to come to an end once and for all. This is not happening in any shape or form.
Having him around is playing with fire, a fire that could burn my life to the ground.
“And in here is another camera.” Jonty opens the office door and gestures up to the camera.
“What are you doing?” I ask.
“Just showing him where all of the security cameras are.”
“Why?”
“You know.” Jonty widens his eyes. “Interning need-to-know stuff.”
“Right.” I concentrate on keeping my eyes on my computer screen so that I don’t have to look at his fuckable face.
“Out through this back door is the bathroom, it’s off this little courtyard, see,” I hear Jonty explain. “But there’s a camera out here too. See.”
“Is this courtyard secure?”
“Well, it has a brick wall around it so nobody can get in,” Jonty replies.
“Because nobody ever jumped a brick wall before,” I hear Edward mutter under his breath.
Such a smart-ass.
They walk back out the front of the store and I can hear them chatting. Okay, new plan. I’m just going to go out there and act normal…. If he wants to be an intern then fine, let’s intern.
I walk out to find Jonty serving someone and Edward is talking to a group of women in the corner.
I watch him from across the store; wearing his designer suit and his swanky shoes, he looks so out of place here, the feather duster in his hand doesn’t help the matter.
I edge closer so I can hear what they are saying.
“This is a nice piece,” he tells them as he runs his hand up an armoire.
“Divine,” the woman says as her eyes follow his hand. “What year?”
“At a guess, I’d say 1870s.”
Hmm, not bad. 1875 to be exact.
“I’ll think about it.” The woman smiles.
“This piece is sold,” he tells her.
“Oh.” Her face falls. “It doesn’t say sold.”
“I know, I hadn’t put the sign on it yet. Someone just called and asked to purchase it.” He runs his hand up along it again as if admiring it. “Such a beautiful piece.”
I roll my eyes at his dramatics, he’s a bad actor.
“Well, if the sign isn’t on it yet it isn’t technically sold,” she replies.
“True,” he replies. “But If I sold it to you—” he looks left and right, “—you can’t tell anyone.”
“Alright.” She exchanges glances with her friends. “I’ll take it. Do you deliver?”
What the hell?
“I don’t know, I’ll check.” He walks over to Jonty and me. “This lovely lady is taking the armoire, help her please.” He passes me the feather duster and throws me a wink.
Excuse me?
“Lovely to meet you, ladies.” He shakes their hands. “Jonty, clean it up before it goes out, please.”
Jonty looks at him deadpan and Edward raises an eyebrow in a silent dare.
“Thank you, Edward,” I snap. “I’ll take over from here.” I smile an over-the-top smile at the ladies. “What a find. I wanted this piece myself.”
An hour later I finish serving someone and Edward is nowhere to be seen. Where is he? I walk around the store and check all the alcoves, nope…. He’s not here.
“Where did he go?” I mouth to Jonty.
He shrugs. “He left.”
“Oh.” I frown, odd of him to leave without saying something. I walk to the front door and walk out; I look left and then right and then my eyes land on something inside the café on the opposite side of the street.
Edward is sitting at a table drinking coffee like a king.
Seriously?
“I’m going out for a little bit,” I tell Jonty and Helene.
“Okay.”
I cross the street and make my way in and sit at the table opposite Edward. He raises an eyebrow in question.
“What are you doing?” I ask.
“Taking a break.”
“You didn’t do any work yet.”
“I sold an armoire.” He dusts his suit jacket off. “What exactly did you do?”
“I’ve been very busy in my office.”
“Doing what?”
Having a panic attack.
“Paperwork,” I lie.