The Billionaire's Personal Secretary

Derrick furrowed his brow. “If you know something, if you’re hiding something from me, especially about my father or my future, or any of the choices I have to make regarding Franklin and Felicia, then I implore you to tell me! Please… you can’t leave me sitting here with these kind of choices before me, life-changing choices, and not give me all of the information. What if the things you know might have an impact on the choice that I make? How could you live with yourself, knowing that you held anything back from me that might alter my future and what I decide to do with it?”

Greg shook his head. “I cannot. Your father was extremely explicit about his instructions. I’m here to handle it all for you, not to influence you in any way. I know you understand that. Please don’t ask me to go against your father’s wishes. I just can’t do that.”

With a frustrated sigh of resignation, Derrick sat back in his chair. “Alright. You win. I won’t ask anymore. So, I guess it just comes down to me telling you when the wedding will be, is that right?”

Greg nodded. “Yes. If you marry her, I need to know when the wedding will be, and you can send me details about that. When it’s over and you are legally married to Felicia Van Buren, I can complete the work that your father set for me to do. Well, Davenport and I, but it will be done then.”

“Very well. I’ll send you the information when I know it.” Derrick stood up again and reached his hand out toward Greg, who took it. “I do wish you’d tell me what you know. If you have a change of heart, I would like to know about it. I hope you do. I hope you give this some real thought. You might have served my father to the best of your ability, but he is gone now, and you are serving me. I need you to do that to the best of your ability, and that includes telling me everything that you know so that I can have all the information I need to make the best decisions that I can.”

Taking his hand, Greg nodded. “Thank you for your time, Mr. Madison. I will be in contact with you.” He turned then and walked out of the office, pausing at the door to look back over his shoulder at Derrick. His mouth twitched again, and he frowned before he turned once more and walked out.

Derrick watched the door close, and he rubbed his finger over his chin thoughtfully, wondering what it was that Greg was keeping from him, and wondering even more than that what it might be that his father would hold back from him that might change his mind about anything that he was doing. He didn’t like not knowing, but he knew that he did not wish to defy anything that his father wanted to do, or wanted to have him do. Franklin had made it quite clear that his father had wanted him to join their two businesses, their two families, and to create a lasting and powerful legacy. He could not let his father down, no matter what he wanted, no matter how much it bothered him that he would be marrying a woman he did not love and probably never would. He had an obligation to his father, his grandfather, and the whole of the Madison line before him, to their company, to everything that every Madison before him had built up and created, and he could not let them down, any of them, especially his beloved father.

There would be a wedding, and Felicia would become his bride, his wife, his partner for the rest of his life. He would be intimate with her at least enough to have children with her, but beyond that, he had no physical or emotional interest in her at all. It was going to be a long and lonely life, but he was willing to do it for the betterment of his estate and the generations of Madison’s to come after him. He was willing to do it for his father, though it came at a steep price.

He would make himself forget what it was like to be with a woman he wanted, with a woman who dominated his every thought, who made him ne

ed her like the very air that he breathed. He would turn away from that when the time came, and he had to face the responsibilities of his future. He would let her go and never touch her again. Never allow himself to succumb to his burning desires for her, his need for her presence, even for the comfort of her smile and her voice in his ears. He would be true to what his father had asked of him. He would marry Felicia, and that would be the end of his young and passionate days. There was no more to it than that.

In the days that followed, it seemed to both Eva and Derrick as if the moments that they found themselves alone together were growing increasingly often, and intimacy burned hotter and brighter between them the more they shared it. They both knew that it was going to come to an end in a short while, and both of them were desperate to hold on to every chance that they could have with each other until that happened, swearing that they would stop when the marriage happened, and they both knew without a doubt that the other meant it when that was said. His vow of marriage would be sacred to them both, and they would not continue their passionate alliance.

Eva and Derrick found themselves loving one another in almost countless times and places—in his limousine, in the office, in the stairwell at the office, in elevators, in hotel rooms on short business trips, in his condo, in her condo, and even once in a dressing room at a clothing store. They could not hold back the desire that they each felt for one another, and neither of them wanted to. There was such a powerful and magnetic draw between them both that they were compelled to be close, to answer that need and desire every chance that they could, even though they both knew that it was going to come to an end and that there would be no chance for them in the future. It only seemed to make the present more precious to them; it made the fires between them burn hotter, the desire more desperate, the emotions more acute, and the releases together much more profound.

They had begun doing small things for each other, little tokens of their affection, little ways that they loved to show each other how much they cared and how often they were on one another’s minds, from sensual texts when they weren’t together to him making sure that she had fresh roses on her desk, to her leaving little sexy little notes in his desk, and him treating her to massages to put her to sleep or cooking for her when they were at either one of their homes. There were no end of little ways that they shared their care and emotions with each other. There seemed to be no end to the pillow talks that lasted for hours throughout the nights that they shared together. There was no end to the array of topics that they discussed, or insights and opinions that they shared, other than the fact that neither one of them was willing to talk about his impending marriage.

One night, moments after Eva and Derrick had shared overwhelming orgasms, holding each other tightly in their arms, he rested beside her and gazed at her, looking as though he was lost in her eyes. He leaned forward and kissed her softly.

“God, I love you,” he whispered. He hadn’t meant to say it, though he had certainly been feeling it and thinking it, but at that moment, he discovered that he didn’t want to hold it in any longer. He wanted to share it with her. He wanted her to know it, and to know it without any doubt, without any shadow of doubt in her heart or her mind.

She stared at him, barely willing to believe that she had just heard him speak the words that he had spoken. After a silent beat, she blinked. “Do you really mean that?” she asked incredulously.

He kissed her softly again and nodded. “I do mean it, with every part of me. I love you, Eva. I love the way you smile, I love the way you feel in my arms, and I love your laugh; you have a wonderful laugh. I love the light in your eyes; I love the way you smell and the way you look at everything with such a positive outlook. I love the way you think and the way you make coffee for me. I love the way you know exactly what I’m thinking most of the time and I don’t have to say anything, I can just look at you, and you know. I love the way that you love me, the way that you are so giving and passionate in my arms. I love the way that you let me love you, like there’s nothing you could want that I don’t already give to you. You’re an uninhibited woman, and you follow your heart and your mind, and I love that about you. I love seeing your toothbrush next to mine. I love sharing secret smiles with you. I love just about everything about you, Eva. I love you.”

Tears stung at the back of her eyes, and she swallowed hard, reaching up to touch his face. “I never thought I was going to hear you say anything like that. I thought we had kind of silently outlawed that kind of thing because it might hurt too much when we say goodbye…” she trailed off quietly.

He shrugged a little and touched her lips with his fingertips. “I know what you mean. Maybe I shouldn’t have said it. I kept telling myself not to say it, and I’ve wanted to say it for some time now, but right now I just… I just needed you to know it. I don’t want to get to the end of our road and have you wondering, have you doubting, have you thinking that I might have just been using you for your body and your passion all of this time. We’re so much more than that. You mean so much more than that to me, and it’s so important to me that you know it. I want you to know just how much I love you and why I love you. I want you to know why you’re the first thing I think of when I wake up in the morning and why you’re the last thing I think of when I fall asleep at night, whether you’re beside me or not. Whether you already think it or not, I want you to know it, without a doubt. I want you to know that I think about you all during the day, that you’re on my mind so much. I want you to know that my heart misses you when you’re gone and that my body aches for you when I can’t have you. I want you to remember that all of your life because we both know that we don’t have very much longer together, and when this beautiful blissful time between us is through, I want you to know that I have loved you, and I will always love you, more than anyone else has ever. You have to know that. I want you to know that. I love you, with everything in me. Always.”

She could only smile as she blinked back tears and leaned forward to kiss him softly in return. “I love you like that, too. Everything you said and more, just like that. I love you, too, baby.” She kissed him slowly and sweetly, and in the moments that followed, their kiss of love and tenderness became a kiss of heated passion, and they shared everything that they could with one another again, losing themselves in each other’s arms.

The friendship that had started off with sizzling sparks had taken hold and grown deep and strong, and they found that they had swiftly become confidants for one another, able to share anything they wanted with one another, able to be themselves, fully themselves, in each other’s company. It became a kind of painful game to them to keep their affair a secret from the world at large. They had to work at keeping it from their business associates, from his chauffeur, from the doorman at his building, and from anyone who came to visit at the office, and they managed to do it perfectly, although there was one visitor to the office who tested every limit of their capabilities.

Eva was sitting at her desk with a smile on her lovely face as she glanced at the fresh roses that had just been delivered to her. She breathed them in with a long and deep breath, and it relaxed and delighted her. The door opened, and a tall blonde woman walked in. Her clothing was some of the most expensively designed fashion that Eva had ever seen. Her hair was impeccably coiffed, twisted up on her head at the back in a chignon.

When she approached Eva’s desk, Eva caught the scent of her perfume and was fairly sure that it was Chanel No. 5. The woman’s makeup was perfect. Eva gave her a welcoming smile.

“How can I help you?” she asked, looking up into the woman’s light eyes.

The woman furrowed her brow ever so slightly and looked down her surgically enhanced nose at Eva. “I’m here to see Derrick. I am his fiancé. My name is Felicia,” she spoke shortly. “Would you please let him know that I’m here.” It was a statement, not a question.

Eva felt a knot form almost immediately in her throat. It hadn’t occurred to her that s

he had no idea what the woman her lover was going to marry looked like. She had never imagined her. She hadn’t let herself think of her at all. She hadn’t let her mind go to Felicia whatsoever. It was the most pain-free way she had found of dealing with it. Total avoidance. Don’t think about her; don’t talk about her. Just pretend that it was her and Derrick wound around each other in heart mind and soul, until there was nothing in the universe except the two of them. The last day would come, a dark day, and it was coming no matter what. She knew that, and that was all that she had needed or wanted to know. There was no detail about it that she had been curious about or that she wanted to know; there was no point in thinking about it or about the woman who was going to be the end of her and Derrick. She only wanted to focus on the good things and leave the rest alone, not giving it a single moment of her time or consideration.

Suddenly, there she was before Eva, the reason it was all going to end. The reason that Eva would hurt more in her life than she ever had before, and Eva had no doubt in her mind that it was going to last every day of her life until she was no longer living on the earth. She took a veiled deep breath and lifted her chin.

“He’s in his office. I’ll let him know that you’re here.” She made herself speak, though she knew that it sounded as mechanical as it felt. It was as if everything in her had frozen and could not move at much more than a snail’s pace.

Felicia narrowed her eyes a little and waved her hand dismissively. “Oh, never mind about that. I’ll just go in. Don’t bother with anything.”