Chapter 12
Chapter Twelve
R upert
Her lips were so soft. She tasted like spice and fine red wine. Forcing her mouth open with mine, I deepened the kiss and pinned her to my body. I was more relaxed than I needed to be. I devoured her, holding her jaw in place when I dug my cock into her centre. Fuck, I wanted more—needed more. This was a temporary blip of judgement on my part, but once I tasted her, I didn’t want to let go of her.
She released a moan as the flashbacks from our Greek encounter flashed through my mind.
“No, Rupert, this is not happening. I’d better go,” she said, then pushed me away.
But I didn’t let go of her. I kept her close.
“I hate you!”she shouted out.
I smirked and then kissed her harder, forcing my tongue inside her mouth. I was so painfully hard that I felt that kiss touching the depths of my soul. Heat ripped through me, scorching my skin.
“I hate you too, Veronica. And sometimes … sometimes I hate you so much that I can’t think of anything else. You’re in my head all the time and I fucking detest every second that I’m longing for your touch,” I growled, finally pulling away and panting like an asthmatic.
Her face was flushed, her eyes burning into me, her mouth swollen.
We both breathed hard, staring at each other without saying anything. We didn’t need to, because I knew exactly what was going through her mind.
“We are done here,” she said before slipping through the door, leaving me alone, yearning for her.
My ego hurt and I was too stunned to go after her. Either way, it was a bad idea. She didn’t want me, didn’t want this. Her taste lingered on my lips even after I removed all my clothes, took anvice cold shower, and went to bed. I hated how I acted so irrationally around her.
I hated the fact that she’d probably gone back to the hotel room and slept next to that old dude. It took everything in me not to barge into her room and demand for her to stay with me. Rowan would have been pissed because after all, that guy was the client who was paying us six figures for the weekend with Veronica. I couldn’t ruin our reputation like that.
Eventually, I managed to drift off, but in the morning, I felt like I hadn’t slept at all. I was exhausted, knowing that I couldn’t carry on like this.
I had to let her go once and for all.
“I need you to set me up with someone,” I said to Spencer on Tuesday afternoon after I’d showed up in his office unexpectedly.
His assistant had given me a surprised glance, then offered a small smile. I didn’t know what was going on with me lately. Spencer frowned, then cleared his throat.
“That would be all, Cath, thank you,” he said.
I was relieved when she left. I needed to pull myself together. Veronica was messing around with my head. Spencer looked like a proper Prime Minister behind the wooden desk. The fucker was handsome, and he knew it.
“Are you all right there? Maybe you should see a doctor?” he asked, leaning backwards. “I don’t play the matchmaker—that’s Mum’s job. Why don’t you ask her to set you up with someone? She probably has women lined up for you already.”
“I don’t want to get Mum involved. I need you to set me up with someone from this office. Veronica is messing around with my head. Fuck, I think I’m going to lose my mind,” I admitted.
As expected, Spencer seemed shocked because I never acted this way. I didn’t share shit like this with him. We were close but never talked about our feelings with each other. We just weren’t cut out for this kind of thing. He parted his lips to say something, but he didn’t.
“I messed around with her client list and then I followed her to Paris, despite the fact that I should have been working.”
“That’s certainly fucked-up, but since we’re sharing, then hear me out. I fingered Laura in the back room that night in the club and I’ve been wanking myself like crazy since that night. I’m walking with permanent blue balls. I can’t stop thinking about my fucking nanny,” he revealed, then exhaled sharply like he’d just shared a huge secret with me.
I shook my head. So Spencer had a thing for his nanny.
“I fucked Veronica ten ways till Sunday. She was the best lay I ever had,” I admitted, unsure where all this was even coming from. “We need to do something about it.”
“All right, I’ll set you up with someone, and I’ll tell Jeremy to get me a date,” Spencer suggested.
I smiled. This wasn’t a solution, but at least it would be a step forward. Most of all, I couldn’t fucking believe we were sharing such intimate details with each other. This was a breakthrough.
“Fine, but no one will know about this, otherwise I will ruin you,” I warned him.
He smirked.
“You can’t ruin me, I’m the PM, remember?” He linked his hands at the back of his head.
“Tomato … tomato, brother. Let’s make a deal,” I muttered, and then we shook hands.
I couldn’t bloody believe that this was happening for real, but Spencer was right. This was the solution for now, to keep Veronica out of my head.
After I left Spencer’s office, I went over to see Rowan. I couldn’t avoid him forever, and he’d already called me. I knew what he wanted to discuss, and there was no point in delaying this further. I had to speak to him to clear the air. My driver took me to the club. I stepped out and took a few deep breaths, then started walking to go see my business partner.
As usual, he was upstairs, so I headed over to him. He smiled when he saw me.
“We had a great weekend. The clients were pleased, and the girls earned some big money,” he announced.
His words caught me off guard. Matthews didn’t seem annoyed whatsoever, which was bizarre. I was expecting a lecture from him at the least, but he was calm.
“What’s up, Rupert?”
“Nothing, nothing much, why?” I wondered why he didn’t ask any questions about Veronica.
He’d told me to stay away from her clients, although I hadn’t listened and managed to change a few things through our booking system after I’d charmed one of the girls who was our admin. Maybe Veronica didn’t tell him anything. She knew this would cause me a lot of problems, so maybe she’d kept it quiet.
Rowan’s green eyes studied me intensely, and I held my breath. This obsession with Veronica needed to end fast, otherwise it would cause problems for me. Spencer was going to come through on his promise, and once I was on a date with the right woman, Veronica would become a distant memory.
“You seem not like yourself since you came in. Tell me what happened?” He chewed the top of the pen.
I sat next to him and looked through all the reports. We were both reinvesting a lot of money lately to put into discreet advertising.
“It’s nothing, don’t worry about it,” I lied, because I was fucking too embarrassed to say anything else.
“It’s about Veronica, right? Apparently, she had a great weekend with that older client. He wants to book her again. It seemed that your matching skills are working out for the best,” Rowan explained.
I nodded, still thinking how strange it was that Veronica had kept it all quiet. Maybe she was planning to bury me another way.
“Good to hear. Have a look at those figures?” I wanted to instantly change the subject. I needed to get my head straight and simply fuck someone else, even after the first date. I’d done this shit many times before, but lately I’d felt out of practice ever since my mystery girl had come back into the picture. We both knew this couldn’t go anywhere, at least while she continued to work in the club, and I wasn’t prepared to share her with all these rich fuckers.
I headed home around five. The traffic at that time was a nightmare. I scrolled through my contacts, wondering if any of the women I used to see would be suitable. Angelica Mason, Ava Darrow, Cath Pickard. I kept moving my finger over Ramona. I remembered she was wild in bed, but we’d never been out on a date. I didn’t even know if we were going to be compatible. Then the voice inside my head reminded me to wait for Spencer. He was going to come through on his promise.
In the end, my driver dropped me home. Around five years ago I’d bought a house in Mayfair. It was a renovation project, but I’d increased its value by four hundred grand. I loved this house, but it bothered me that I was going home to an empty place. Right before I’d met Veronica in Greece, I was partying like crazy, I slept with new beautiful women every other weekend, and I loved that lifestyle … then boom. I had the most amazing sex in my lifetime, and the next day she was gone. She’d been on my mind ever since that night.
I went home, changed, had a shower, and then went to the living room to put my favourite crime show on. In a way I felt a little pathetic, and sometimes on the weekends I had my niece, but deep down I was fucking missing being in a relationship with a woman.
I made myself a drink and then watched the show, thinking that maybe there was something wrong with me, but then I reminded myself that Spencer had fingered his own nanny, for Christ’s sake. It seemed that both of them were driving us crazy, and this was shocking because the pair of women had completely different personalities. To be honest, I still couldn’t fucking forget the fact that Laura had kneed me between my legs at my parents’ house. Spencer needed to watch out, because she could ruin him like Veronica was slowly ruining me.
Close to seven, I was getting hungry so I had to cook something. Then minutes later my doorbell rang, and when I got up I thought it strange as I wasn’t expecting anyone. I opened the door and my jaw dropped.
“Veronica? What the hell are you doing here?”