Chapter 6 #2
I nod, making notes. ‘And you understand things are a little trickier in other jurisdictions? The US is particularly unfavourable as things stand.’
‘Yes. We’re also looking into how we could make the drone safer and more visible. Or at least the new company will. There are always hurdles to surmount where something is innovative.’
‘Okay. Well I can come up with a briefing paper for you, specifically covering tax and intellectual property. If you think of any other areas you’d like me to explore in more detail, let me know, otherwise I’ll give an overview of the pertinent points.’
‘Excellent.’
‘When do you need it?’
‘Tomorrow would be ideal. Wednesday morning at the latest.’
Picking my head up from my notepad, I try to remind myself he’s a client but I can’t help my eyes from rolling. Does he really think I have no other work to do besides his?
‘I’m not trying to be difficult,’ he says, reading my mind. ‘I’m flying out to Hong Kong early Wednesday morning to discuss the deal with Shangzen. I’d like to have had the opportunity to digest the paper before my meeting with Mr Cheung and his board.’
‘I didn’t realise you were planning to go away.’
‘Scarlett, you know I work away a lot. I thought you understood that?’
‘I know. I do. I just thought, what with things the way they are at the moment.’
He leans forward on the table towards me. ‘Are you uncomfortable in the apartment without me?’
I hadn’t even thought of being alone in the Shard. ‘I don’t know. I haven’t been there alone since—’
‘Jackson will be there. I could ask him to stay in a bedroom closer to ours if that would make you more comfortable.’
‘That would make me much less comfortable.’
‘I can’t understand why,’ he says, his lips slightly upturning.
I squirm a little in my seat, not knowing quite how to phrase my next question. ‘Are you actually allowed to leave the country?’
Gregory sits back sharply. ‘I’ve not been charged.’ The mood in the room instantly changes and I wish I’d never said anything.
‘I could come with you, you know, if you need legal support?’ I hate how unbelievably needy I sound.
There’s a shimmer of amusement in his eyes. ‘I’ll only be gone a couple of days. I’ll be back by the weekend. We have plans.’
‘We do?’
‘Yes. It’s Opening Meet of the season on Saturday. I thought you’d come with me.’
‘Opening Meet?’
‘Fox hunting.’
‘Like the fox hunting that’s banned?’
‘Hmm, not exactly. There’re rules around leaving fake scent, rather than chasing real foxes, but people still hunt.’
‘So you ride horses?’
‘I ride a horse. Yes.’
My mind floods with images of Mr Darcy and white knights, except it’s Gregory’s toned pecs beneath the see-through, wet shirt.
‘You’ll come.’
I bite my gums. ‘That’s not a question.’
‘You’re very observant, Miss Heath. You’ll need a dinner dress and some country clothes.’
‘Country clothes?’
‘Yes. I’ve already arranged for you to see Julia on Thursday evening. She’ll find you something appropriate.’
I sigh, more huffily than I really intend. ‘I can pick my own clothes, Gregory, and I don’t need your Harrods stylist to force unnecessarily expensive brands on me.’
‘Fine.’
‘Fine?’ Surely I didn’t just get my own way.
‘I’ll make sure she doesn’t tell you the price or brand name of any item.’ There’s an unmistakeable and frankly irritating arrogance about him.
‘I have clothes. You can’t buy me something new every time we go out together.’
‘Why not?’
Urgh! ‘You infuriate me.’
‘And your attempt at defiance rather infuriates me,’ he muses, forming a steeple with his fingers. ‘In fact, I think I ought to take you home right now and teach you a lesson.’
My eyes blink in shock but my heart rate increases at the thought of him spanking me. The feeling of sinful pleasure that only Gregory has ever shown me. ‘I can’t finish for the day; I have work to do and chargeable hours targets to meet.’
The roll of his jaw tells me he’s as tightly wound as I am.
‘I wonder if you’ll ever do as I ask without pushing all my buttons first.’
‘Unlikely.’ I close my notebook. ‘Unless you give me an incentive.’
‘What happens if I do?’
My thighs pulse in response to him. I glance down, expecting to see the throbbing of blood pumping to my sex. My nipples harden against the lace of my bra.
A low, rumbling growl leaves his chest. ‘Fuck your targets.’ He charges towards me and attacks my mouth with his, pulling me up to stand.
My notebook falls to the floor as I dig my fingers into his thick, dark hair, yanking hard.
Frustrated with myself for being so easy to give in to him.
Angry that there’s so much going on in my head, I can’t think straight.
Pissed that I’m trapped in a situation and the only way I can think to fix it is to tell the truth but I’m being stopped from doing so.
‘Home. Now.’
With one hard grind of his hips against mine, I’m groaning agreement into his mouth and desperate for him to fuck me. Hard. Rough. Ferocious. The way I’m feeling.
‘Not here,’ he says, although his length pressed up against me tells me he’s as ready as I am.
He separates us, leaving me pining and furious. He retrieves my notebook from the floor and watches me pack away my files as he taps his phone screen and holds it to his ear. ‘We’re ready now,’ he snaps.
His eyes are darker than ever.
We leave the meeting room feigning good ethics, walking side by side but not so close that passing staff would suspect our relationship is anything other than CEO and legal advisor.
Kenneth opens the rear door of the Mercedes and I crawl inside.
Gregory slips into the other side and pins Kenneth through the rear-view mirror until he rolls up the partition between the front and back of the car.
It’s a look that tells me I’m not alone in needing to vent what’s pent-up inside.
‘I never thought I’d actually need Jackson to come back,’ Gregory says.
‘How’s Kenneth supposed to know your demanding ways after a few days?’
He turns his head on his headrest to face me as the car is maneuvered into traffic. ‘My demanding ways?’
I move across the seat, hitching my skirt to straddle his hips, pinning his shoulders to the leather. ‘Your isms,’ I say, biting his lobe. ‘Your quirks.’ I dig my teeth into his neck. ‘Your obsessive ways.’
He pulls my chin and holds it where my eyes are level with his, his grip too tight.
‘There’s only one thing I’m obsessed with right now.
’ He kisses me chastely and pulls the back of my thighs, pressing me tighter to him, letting me feel him grow beneath me.
‘You have no idea what you do to me. I can’t stand seeing you like I did today.
Knowing what I’ve brought on you. I need you to talk to me and listen to me. ’
‘You’ve got to stop seeing this as your problem, Gregory. It’s our problem. And I do listen to you. We’re doing all of this your way, not mine.’
He drags his fingers through my hair. ‘You shouldn’t have gone to work today.’
If I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have introduced Dubai, yet another dilemma, to my presently screwed-up life. ‘What do you want me to do? Let Pearson ruin another life? He’s already doing a good enough job as it is without me losing my career too.’
‘Don’t say that, Scarlett. I won’t let him taint you. I won’t let my past spoil who you are.’
‘He murdered my dad, and I killed him for it. I’d say I’m already spoiled.’
He tugs harder on my hair and bites down on my lip, hurting me in a way I want. ‘No,’ he growls into my mouth.
My legs part further, drawing me down onto his crotch.
‘Keep talking to me, baby, please. I need to know how you’re feeling. I need you to be okay. I have to protect you.’
I roll my pelvis against him, desperate to feel him, for us to connect in a way that lets me know he wants me. ‘Why? Why do you need to protect me?’ Tell me. Please. Say those three words.
The Mercedes jerks to a stop and Kenneth drops us at the front entrance to the Shard.
The interruption fuels the raging fire inside me.
Gregory tells Kenneth to take my files to the apartment once the car is parked then offers a firm hand to help me out.
The same hand drags me frantically through the doors of the Shard.
The sooner we reach the apartment, the better.
As we wait, Gregory glances from me to the lift repeatedly.
Eyes dark. Jaw set. The chatter of suits entertaining and tourists making their way up to the viewing platform surrounds us.
‘Gregory, I thought that was you.’
The voice belongs to a balding, upper-middle-class suit with a hearty tummy and the scent of wine already on his breath.
‘Francis, it’s been a while,’ Gregory offers in a less than friendly tone.
‘How are you, old boy?’
‘Well. And you?’
‘Fair to middling, fair to middling.’
Awkward silence descends and Francis flicks his head in my direction.
‘Francis, allow me to introduce you to Scarlett Heath.’ Gregory steps to one side and places a possessive hand on my lower back as I shake Francis’s hand.
‘An absolute delight, I’m sure.’ Francis runs greedy eyes from my head to my toes, making my skin crawl.
‘Francis is a director of Carter’s Private Equity House,’ Gregory explains. In other words, Francis has the power to make big investments in business ventures.
Suddenly, it’s clear to me why Gregory’s entertaining a man he obviously dislikes.
‘Yes, I’ve worked on a deal of yours recently, actually.’
‘You’re an accountant?’ Francis asks.
‘She’s a lawyer,’ Gregory says, his chest puffed to full stretch. ‘Excuse us, Francis.’ Gregory tosses his head in the direction of our lift, the only one to service the residential floors of the building, and guides me forward.
‘See you Saturday then, old boy!’ Francis calls, seemingly oblivious to the animosity teeming out of Gregory.