Chapter 15
Chapter Fifteen
V eronica
The next week in the club went a bit more smoothly than last week’s nightmare with clients. I was sure Rupert was still somehow messing with my whole schedule because all of a sudden, none of my usual clients wanted sex. Rowan kept denying it, but it was my intuition that kept telling me otherwise. Something definitely felt off.
I didn’t really care as long as they were paying me, but I had a big date coming up with this multibillionaire from Abu Dhabi. This made me a little nervous because I had no idea what to expect. The guy was properly intense, and I wasn’t sure how Rupert would feel about all this. I just had to hope he wasn’t going to be causing me any more trouble, especially after the last weekend in Paris.
He’d been pretty cold toward me this weekend. He’d barely said a few words to me when I’d seen him in the club this week.I didn’t know what his deal was and why he was acting so strangely. He’d practically thrown me out of his house on Wednesday night after I’d asked him about that photo I’d found in his bedroom. The photo seemed innocent, and I figured that maybe Rupert had been ill or maybe something had happened that he’d had to shave his head. Either way, I didn’t want to come across as too nosy, so I decided to give him his space. That man was so hot and cold all the time.
“Now I know why you set me up on that blind date on Friday night,” Laura said to me when I accepted the call from her on Monday morning.
My roommate was such a sweet girl, and she liked her new boss. Apparently, he’d made her come with his fingers in that club during the night when I’d seen Rupert. She’d finally confessed this to me a while back, and I’d squeaked with excitement. I hadn’t seen Laura much since she’d started her new job, and since the PM had asked her to move in, I was only able to catch up with her on the weekends when I wasn’t working.
That previous weekend when she was home, I’d made her go on a date I’d set up for her, thinking she needed to have some fun. She’d mentioned that Spencer was driving her crazy, and I thought she could make him a little jealous. She didn’t really want to go, but I’d told awhite lie about him being stood up by someone else, so she’d agreed.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, but tell me what happened. Didn’t you have a great time with that guy? You texted me to say he was very handsome. You know I wouldn’t have set you up with some random man,” I asked her, concerned. The truth was that I was dying to know what had happened, but since I was out most of Saturday, this was the only time I could catch up with Laura. She’d texted me on Sunday saying she was staying with her parents for the night.
“No, Veronica, everything was going well until Spencer showed up and told me he needed me because of some sort of emergency with Maja. I was so embarrassed and, of course, Lucian introduced himself to him,” she explained.
I gasped, not believing that Spencer had actually decided to ruin Laura’s date. This was totally not expected.
“Wow,” I said. “So what was he doing there?”
“He was also on a date,” Laura said. “But apparently he cancelled the whole thing when he saw me coming in with Lucian, then made this shit up about needing me and walked me out of the restaurant. By the way, Lucian was really sweet. He’s obviously interested in me, even though I’ve no idea what to do about that yet.”
Silence stretched out on the other side of the phone while I tried to figure out if my friend Marrisa knew that Spencer was going to be in the same restaurant as Laura. To me this whole thing almost seemed like a setup, but I didn’t want to worry my roommate. She already had a lot on her plate.
“Listen, we both know that you want each other, so he probably saw you, got jealous, and ruined your date. Men can be total children sometimes, and it doesn’t matter how much power they have. So what happened after that?”
More silence from Laura. Maybe I was getting a bit ahead of myself, but the truth was that they both were going to lose their minds for each other. Spencer had probably lost his marbles when he’d seen Laura on a date with another guy. The man was infuriating, just like his brother, and I didn’t even know him that well.
“He took me to his fuck pad because he wanted to talk to me and then started drilling me on why I was even on a date in the first place. I was so angry with him and after we made out, I pushed him off me and slapped him,” she hissed into the phone. “I slapped the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Veronica.”
I squealed like a child, and Laura groaned. This story was getting better and better. Damn, I didn’t know my girl had it in her and I was so proud of her.
“Oh my God, you didn’t?” I cried. “I can just picture him. I bet no one has ever slapped him before, but good for you, Laura. Finally, you put him in his place, so now you can finally do the do.”
“Hello? I think there’s something wrong with you. I’m not getting involved with my boss, who also isthe leader of this fucking country. He’s arrogant and obnoxious. I hate his guts!”
“You’ll be banging like rabbits by the end of the week, and you’ll love every second of it,” I declared, completely disregarding what she’d just told me. I was too bloody excited because this whole thing was progressing faster than I’d expected.
Spencer Banks had it bad for Laura. It was so obvious. She could deny it as much as she wanted, but I knew it.
“I’m hanging up now. My mum is calling me,” she said quickly.
“Hold on, we need to talk about—”
“Bye, Veronica,” she said, and then the line went dead.
I stared at the phone, smirking to myself that she’d hung up on me. It was clear like the sun that Laura was attracted to her boss who was also a single father and very much available. Maybe I was exaggerating slightly, but the fact of the matter was that Spencer wanted her, too.
Laura always shared all the details with me, so I was confused on why she was suddenly so cryptic. I didn’t think she’d slept with him yet. She wasn’t like that and could be pretty self-conscious about sex because her ex-boyfriend had messed her up, making her feel small and insignificant. But sooner or later, Laura would spill.
For now though, I had to concentrate on my own issues. Rupert was Spencer’s brother, so that complicated things for me a little.
Since it was Monday today, I decided to head over to the gym and try my first session doing hot yoga. I’d been lazy lately, but I needed to get back in shape as I used to work out regularly.
By the time I left the studio, I was dripping with sweat. The session had been intense, especially in this heat, but I’d enjoyed it more than I thought I would. When I got home, I had a quick dinner, then booked myself for another four sessions throughout the week.
That evening, I had a phone call from Rowan. Apparently, I had another unexpected client who needed an escort for some sort of banquet in Chelsea. It seemed that this week wasn’t going to be as tedious as I’d thought.
“Hey, Maja, how are you doing? I’m Veronica, Laura’s roommate. It’s really nice to meet you,” I said after I’d agreed to meet Laura in the park on Wednesday afternoon. I hugged both Laura and Maja once I’d introduced myself to Miss Banks. She was cute, and when I stared at her for a little while, I thought she looked a lot like Laura, somehow, despite the fact they were not related. Or maybe I was just imagining things. I felt good today in my cute yellow jumpsuit and a bunch of bracelets on both of my wrists that I’d once bought during a trip to Thailand.
Maja’s eyes widened as she stared at me with stunning wide blue eyes. Her father was dark-haired, so she must have inherited a lot of genes from her mother, who was apparently not in the picture.
“Wow, I love these. I wanted to wear some to school, but they wouldn’t let me. You are so cool.” Maja touched my jewelry.
I laughed and sat on the blanket. Today was starting to be a scorcher.
“Here, have these. I’ve several more at home.” I handed Maja some of my funky bracelets.
“Thank you so much. Oh! There’s Bianca. Let me show these to her,” she said excitedly, then stood and walked to her friend.
I looked forward to having a bit of time with Laura. We had a lot to catch up on.
As I glanced around, I noticed several security agents watching us from afar. It was so cool that Laura had round-the-clock security when she was working for the Bankses. She definitely fit into this lifestyle.
“Don’t wander off too far!” Laura called out to her charge.
“So tell me, what did Spencer do this time?” I asked, wanting to get into the juicy details straight away. I lay down on the blanket to soak up some sun. This was truly blissful, especially since my body was aching after another session of hot yoga.
“There’s a lot that happened this week,” she said.
We hadn’t had a chance to talk since that telephone conversation about Spencer ruining Laura’s date, so I was burning with curiosity to know what she was up to. She quickly filled me in about the incident of Maja punching some boy at school and Spencer taking over. Apparently, Spencer was furious with what had happened and acted completely out of the character. He’d fiercely protected his daughter who was only trying to protect herself from this bully kid.
“Wow, Laura, this is huge and totally unexpected. So he actually wiped the floor with that bitchy headmistress?” I asked as we both watched Maja and her friend who were talking by the tree.
“Yes, and I couldn’t really believe it myself, but he was so good at handling that! He made a huge impression on me,” she said with a sigh.
Then she went on to tell me about their afternoon in Harrods. Spencer took them both for ice cream, which wasn’t always easy because of his security. This was a good sign, and I was shocked about the school incident because Spencer wasn’t the kind of guy who would willingly interfere in such trivial matters, but obviously I’d made a wrong assumption about him.
“Now tell me, how is work and Rupert? Do you see him often?” Laura asked.
“He comes in with Matthews, but we barely talk. He doesn’t want me to work as an escort. He also knows I’ll never find a job that pays so well. Content creation takes time, and I still have to build my profile on Instagram,” I explained, thinking about that evening in his house when he seemed a completely changed man. In the end, I thought it wasn’t even worth talking about it.
“So he hasn’t tried to ask you out or anything? Oh, Veronica, I know you like him. You said it yourself that he was the best sex you’ve ever had,” Laura reminded me.
My stomach clenched a little because I suddenly wanted to be back in Greece with him. I wished Clara and I had extended our trip, then I could have spent more time with him.
“True, and he did ask me out a few times, but he was also rude and cold, so I said I wasn’t interested. Rupert wants me for himself. He keeps saying he doesn’t like sharing, but we aren’t even dating and he should know he can’t just dictate how I should live my life,” I told her, mindlessly picking at some grapes Laura had brought with her, then popping one in my mouth. This man was so unpredictable, so I wasn’t sure what to think anymore.
“At least he’s not dry humping you against the wall. I think both of them need to see a therapist,” Laura quipped, then lay down next to me when both girls started playing with a Frisbee next to our blanket.
Dry humping against the wall—well, Laura wasn’t exactly right about that. “It’s better to stay away from powerful and affluent men. All they give us is trouble. We’re better off being single,” I said.
“I couldn’t agree more.”