She looked surprised, but still wary. I managed a smile and had to clarify my previous statement. I wasn’t ashamed to be with her, but I wasn’t making some sort of commitment either. “It’s a dinner party, Aleena. We both have to attend. Why not go together?”
8
Aleena
Why not go together?
Easy question, right?
Except when I still didn’t know what ‘together’ meant.
Now, after all those days of brooding and wondering why we hadn’t ever gone out on a date, here I was, standing in front of a mirror, brushing makeup onto my eyelids and half-wishing I’d told Dominic to find somebody else.
Somebody like…oh, Penelope Rittenour.
She would have loved to have gone to this party with Dominic. I could practically see her picking out wedding patterns. In the past couple of weeks, Dominic and I had traveled back and forth between New York and Philadelphia so often, I felt like I was running into my own shadow and when I wasn’t running into my shadow, I was running into hers.
She seemed to have developed a radar and knew exactly when to be in the New York office, coming in just as we were or leaving a nearby spa just as we happened by. She’d dropped heavy hints about spending a day in Philadelphia and it would be so lovely to have some companionship.
I, of course, had been completely ignored during these conversations. I hadn’t really minded, not wanting to waste the breath it would have taken to speak to her.
The phone rang, pulling me out of my thoughts and I took the call, putting Molly on speaker so I could finish my makeup.
“You haven’t gone and chickened out yet?” Molly asked. I chuckled under my breath and Molly laughed. “Come on. You’ve been wanting him to ask you out on a real date and now he’s doing it. Why are you so nervous?”
We’d been up until midnight talking. I’d thought it would help settle the nerves. It hadn’t.
“I don’t know,” I said, sighing. Straightening, I studied my reflection, angling my head left, then right. I’d made an appointment with a stylist the concierge had recommended. I hardly ever bothered paying somebody to do my hair, but this dinner party was important. Besides, I’d hoped the small bit of pampering would make me relax.
It hadn’t.
But at least my hair looked damned good, smooth and straight, pulled up and back into a complicated twist that I’d never have been able to manage on my own. Butterflies, bunny rabbits and buffalos seemed to be dancing around in my belly and I pressed my hand to it, hoping they’d get the point and settle down.
“I should have said no.” Hindsight was such a bitch. “I mean, come on, Moll. He didn’t really ask me out. He was pointing out the fact that both of us had to go and that he’d want me there the whole time. Of course he’d need me there. It’s an important business venture.”
“You’re being stupid. Of course you’re both working. If he didn’t want you to think of it as a date or anything, he just wouldn’t have said anything about it. He wanted to make sure you knew it was a date and wasn’t planning to bring anybody.” Molly explained everything with the same tone she’d use when talking to an idiot.
Rolling my eyes at the phone, I thought about arguing with her and pointing out all the holes in that argument. But I caught sight of the time. Groaning, I said, “I need to finish getting ready.”
“Oh, please do…hey, I’m hanging up. Wait! Face-time! I wanna see your dress.”
I went to argue, but she’d already hung up. The phone chimed again and when Molly’s face appeared on the phone, I made a face at her.
She wolf-whistled at me when I put the phone back down and turned to get my dress. “Love the panties, Aleena. So much sexier than what you usually wear!”
I ignored her and tugged the dress off the hanger.
I’d found it online a few weeks ago and bought it on a whim. It wasn’t a designer piece—or, well, it was, but not the sort of designer piece that Fawna had taken me shopping for. It was a retro-styled ivory silk wiggle dress and thanks to the built-in shape-wear, it fit like a dream and outlined every curve I had.
It took some wiggling to get into it and I was grimacing by the time I smoothed it into place. “I wonder if that’s where the name for the stupid design came from,” I muttered, turning around and looking into Molly’s grinning face.
“I feel like I should be tucking a dollar into your bra or something,” she said.
“Pervert.” I stuck my tongue out and looked at my reflection. “How do I look?”
“Like some starlet straight out of the glamour days of Hollywood.”
I glanced at the phone and quirked an eyebrow at Molly.
She made a little X over her chest. “Cross my heart. You look amazing. I wish I had the T and A for that sort of style.”
“T and A?”
“Tits and ass, girl.” Molly wiggled her eyebrows at me. “You’re going to knock him dead.”
Sighing, I went back to studying myself in the mirror. I’d swiped out the chain on my grandmother’s necklace for a slightly longer one, leaving the pendant to nestle between my breasts but I looked…bare. The dress lay low on my shoulders and while my skin glowed softly against the ivory silk, I felt like I needed something else.
I didn’t have anything though.
“Aleena?”
“Yes?” I asked absently.
“Try to have fun, okay?”
“Yeah.” I smiled, but it looked as fake as it felt. This was going to be a disaster. I knew it. “Of course, I’ll have fun.”
I had the suite across from Dominic’s.
Our two rooms were the only ones on the top floor. His was the presidential suite, although palatial would probably have been more accurate.
Mine wasn’t anything to sneer at though and I wished I’d had the time to appreciate it more, but as it was, the only thing I’d done was collapse on the lake-size bed or collapse into the lake-size Jacuzzi tub or watch TV from the massive couch. That is, when I wasn’t working my ass off, which had been ninety-nine percent of the time.
Right now, I was standing at the window, staring out over the skyline of Philadelphia. It was so different from New York. They were both old cities, but so much of the new in New York had swallowed up the old. In Philadelphia, they blended. Two things that should have been at odds, that shouldn’t have looked right side-by-side, came together in this wonderful, enchanting city.
I pressed a hand to the glass, warmed by the sun and tried to will away the tension knotting my shoulders.
Dominic had told me that he’d like to leave at five. The party started at seven, but he wanted to go over everything with Eddie and have time to get his pieces in position. I wondered if he liked to play chess.
The door to my suite opened. Dominic. He had a copy of my room key. Tucked inside my wallet, I had a copy of his too. Not that I’d felt inclined to use it. Things still felt so unsettled between us. I felt uneasy and the sensation grew as his gaze settled on the nape of my neck.
Slowly, I shifted my attention to the wavy reflection the window provided. I could just barely see Dominic’s outline, but I didn’t need to see him to know what he was doing. He was watching me. When he started toward me, my heart skipped a beat and then started to race.
He stopped just a few inches behind me and rested a hand on the curve of my waist. “You look lovely.”
“Thank you.”
“Part of me wants to tug on this zipper…”
I shivered as his fingers brushed the tab.
“Peel this dress off of you and bend you over.” Dominic murmured the words into my ear. As he did so, he took one of my hands and pressed it to the glass. “This way…”
He caught the other hand and guided it into place and then nudged me low. “I could take you like this.”
I shuddered as I felt him rub his cock against my covered ass.
“But I think I’ll wait until tonight.”
The hand he’d put on my waist slid ar
ound and I gasped when he pressed two fingers against me. Involuntarily, I shuddered and rocked against him, drawing out a slow, startled moan. He rubbed me through my clothing, teasing me, taunting me.
When I started to pant, his motions grew quicker, and panic cut through arousal. Abruptly, I pulled away. Moving a few feet to the side, I looked down at my hands. They were shaking.
“The party,” I reminded him.
He rubbed at his top lip with his right hand, his eyes burning, pupils wide. “The party.” His gaze slid across me, the heat in it so powerful, I felt as though he’d physically ran his hands over me. He reached inside his coat and held out a box. “A gift. I saw your dress and thought you might wear this with it.”
I lowered my eyes and stared at the box. It was flat and white. White velvet, I realized, as I slowly took it from him. I gasped when I flipped open the lid.
What lay inside knocked the breath right out of me.
Diamonds. They sparkled like stars on a bed of gleaming metal and my fingers itched to touch, but I didn’t dare.
Snapping the box shut, I said, “I can’t accept this.” I pushed it back toward him.
“You can,” he insisted as he took the box.
I figured out why quickly enough. He took the necklace out and came to stand behind me, the jewels held in his hands. He put it on my neck with the skill of a man who’d done that sort of thing more than once.
“Dominic, I can’t wear this,” I said weakly.
“Yes, you can.” He trailed a finger along my neck, under the chain that held my grandmother’s necklace. He carefully unlatched it and set it aside. “You wear this one. Wearing another necklace is no different.”
“My grandmother’s necklace doesn’t have diamonds on it the size of grapes!” I turned and glared at him.
He seemed to have been waiting for just that.
Before I’d even realized what was happening, I was pressed between him and the window, and his tongue was in my mouth. Fuck. I couldn’t think straight when he was touching me. Despite the fact that I had so many reservations, that I had questions that needed answers, desire flooded me and I curled my tongue around his and sucked.
He curved his hand around my neck, his thumb pressing into the hollow in the base. He pulled back and murmured against my lips. “I want you to do that with my cock in your mouth.”
His blue eyes glittered down at me and I shuddered. Licking my lips, I tried to think of what to say, but he pulled back, the reluctance clear on his face.
“We need to go. Now.” His gaze slid over me and my nipples tightened, chafing against my bra. “Otherwise, we won’t be going anywhere.” He didn’t step back though. Instead, he turned his face into my hair and said softly, “I’m going to spend half the night thinking about that, Aleena. How it will feel when I finally have you on your knees in front of me, taking my cock into your mouth, one slow inch at a time.”
My mouth went dry.
It didn’t dawn on me until later that I’d completely forgotten to keep arguing with him about the necklace.
“Well, isn’t this…lovely?”
That voice grated on my ears and I was glad I’d had my back turned when she approached. Next to me, Dominic stiffened and I saw the surprise in his eyes when he looked at the woman who’d just descended the stairs of the hotel’s grand ballroom.
Eddie White, from what Dominic had told me, had been in the matchmaking game almost since before such a thing existed. He’d been one of the pioneers, quick, clever, and thorough. And somehow, it appeared that Penelope Rittenour had managed to con her way into being one of his few guests.
Eddie had given us the final headcount just a few days ago, told us the names of all the key personnel and mentioned while most of his people were married and would be bringing their spouses, a few would be coming alone or bringing significant others. We were just going over the list now and I saw she’d been added, her name glared at me from the bottom of the page.
“Penelope,” Dominic said, his tone neutral.
That didn’t slow her down. She continued her slow, sensual glide down the steps, never once looking away from Dominic’s face. It was like I didn’t even exist.
“I must say, I’m surprised to see you here,” Dominic said when she came to a stop in front of the small table where we had been discussing a few last minute details.
“Dominic.” Penelope touched her tongue to her lower lip. She wore a deep, deep shade of red on her pretty mouth, just a few shades darker than the dress she wore. The red was stunning against her ivory complexion and I had to admit, she looked amazing. Slowly, she slid her tongue along the curve of her lip and then she smiled and cocked her head to the side. “It’s wonderful to see you.”
“As I said, it’s surprising to see you.”
“Well.” Her lashes fell to shield her eyes for a moment and then she looked back at him. “I’d mentioned I had business here. I ran into Eddie and heard about his dinner party. When he mentioned you’d be here…” Her gaze slid to me and then away. “I’d love if we could have some time to talk. Alone. Eddie said you hadn’t made plans to bring a date.”
The bottom of my stomach clutched and then fell out.
“Eddie’s mistaken.” Dominic touched his hand to my lower back. “Aleena’s my companion tonight, Penelope.”
His thumb swept along my spine, burning through my dress. I clutched at the folder I’d been holding, staring blindly at Penelope.
Aleena’s my companion…
Penelope seemed to have the same trouble processing those words as I did, but I wasn’t sure it was for the same reason. Companion. Not date. Not lover or girlfriend. Companion.
What the hell did that mean?
Penelope laughed.
It was an overly loud, almost braying sort of noise that made the work going on us around fall silent for the briefest of moments. She didn’t notice or care. “I’m sorry. You didn’t…” She laughed again, but it was quieter, like she’d gathered herself. She shook her head and leaned closer, as though the table between us and the distance of two feet might account for some of her confusion. “It seemed like you said you brought your secretary as your date. Dominic, your sense of humor has been very strange lately.”
“Aleena isn’t my secretary,” Dominic said. He looked down at me. “We’ll need to wrap this up elsewhere.” He turned back to Penelope. “And I’m afraid I don’t see what amuses you or strikes you as humorous about my choice of company.”
While she continued to gape at us, Dominic gathered up the pages we’d been studying and then held out his hand. Feeling strangely numb, I accepted.
“Now just where has Dominic been keeping you?”
The voice was low, full of the kind of warning that preceded the kind of leering I’d gotten used to from certain people and the alcohol it floated on was almost enough to make me feel lightheaded.
We were two hours into the so-called party.
The senior staff at Devoted were standing around with fake smiles. The man in front of me was the son of some CEO and when he reached out to trace his finger down my arm, I backed away.
“Oh, don’t be like that,” he slurred. He leaned in a little closer and reached out, brushing his hand down my arm. When the heel of his hand grazed my breast, his smile widened and we both knew it wasn’t an accident.
This time, I didn’t put just a step between us.
I put a few feet.
He chuckled and skimmed me with a look that made me feel dirty. “I bet you’re just as sweet as sugar…brown sugar, no doubt. Brown and rich and sweet and…”
I didn’t let myself cringe or even cross my arms as a shield against his lecherous gaze. Instead, I gave him a cold glare. “You’re about as original as you are sober, and witty too. How observant of you to notice that I’m brown, Mr. Pence.”
He blinked at me, surprised.
“Is this the part where I’m supposed to stammer and get nervous or self-conscious? Or just be quiet wh
ile you make crude remarks to me?” I asked. “After all, isn’t that my place?”
“Aleena!” Penelope gasped.
I had no idea where she’d come from and I turned my head, glaring at her.
“Really, that is hardly the way to talk to one of Mr. Snow’s future business partners,” she said, glaring down her nose at me.
“Actually, he’s one of Mr. Snow’s future subordinates,” I said, watching as she hooked an arm through Mitchell Pence’s. I knew Dominic wouldn’t want it coming out like this, but my nerves had been stretched to the breaking point and this made them snap. “They didn’t have a merger. The Winter Corporation is buying Devoted and rebranding it as the nest branch of Trouver L’Amour. There’s a difference.”
Pence’s face went an ugly shade of red. “You stupid black bitch—”
“I’ll handle this, Mitch,” Penelope said softly, patting his arm. She leaned in and whispered something into his ear. The two of them were quiet a moment and then he gave a low, dirty laugh, his eyes moving to rest on the bodice of my dress as Penelope turned her gaze back to me.
“Regardless of the details of the acquisition, Mr. Pence is a pillar of this community who deserves more respect than you seem to be capable of giving him, Ms. Davison. Perhaps—”
“Respect?” Crossing my arms over my chest to keep me from slapping her, I took a few steps towards her. I didn’t particularly want to be closer to either of them, but I preferred keep my voice down and still make sure she heard what I had to say. “Tell me…just how much respect should I show a man who invades my personal space and makes lewd comments toward me, Ms. Rittenour?”
She sniffed. “You receive the respect you earn in this life, and since we all know the real reason you’re here—”
“You are...” I shook my head. “You know what. You’re not even worth it.” I turned and walked away.
I just wanted to get out of there.
I found something of a refuge near the patio doors that opened out into the night. Miriam Beckman was there with her husband and she smiled at me with a guarded warmth. “I think it went rather well, all things considering,” she said when I paused to say hello.