“Maria, this is Sophie.”
“Hi,” Sophie said awkwardly. “Which one is Maria?”
“They both are,” Alex said as the two women bowed their heads in silent greeting. Maybe they were more like monks staying completely and constantly silent rather than being like nuns.
“They, like you, are fugitives from decent society,” Alex winked at her. “Though their return is less than possible.”
“You mean you think mine is?”
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” he said, drawing her into the house. “One day at a time. One night at a time.”
It was too late for a tour, and she was too tired to want one. Alex took her to a bedroom with a floor to ceiling window which looked out over a waterfall. She could see the flowing water illuminated in the moonlight. One of the walls of the room was highly irregular, a feature she considered architectural until she put her hand on it and felt cold stone.
“That is the actual cliff wall,” Alex told her.
“Wow. This place is spectacular. But you already know that.”
“The bed should be comfortable,” Alex gestured toward the bed, a super-king-sized monster with a cozy comforter. She was sure it had no doubt been constructed by hand. Everything in this place spoke to quality. Only the best was good enough for Alex.
“Are you going to put me to bed again?” She tried for a playful smile, though she didn’t feel playful. She felt nervous. Too nervous to be truly tired. This obviously wasn’t his bedroom. It screamed guest bedroom…
He reached for her, big hands clasping her waist.
“What are you doing?”
“Unzipping your skirt,” he told her. “You need to take your clothes off before you get into bed, don’t you?”
“I usually do that for myself.”
It was too late. Her skirt was already slipping over her hips and making its sinuous way over her thighs, the internal lining caressing her skin in a sensual slide.
Alex was able to transform the mundane into the special. When her skirt had pooled at her feet, he stepped around to face her and began to unbutton her shirt slowly, one button at a time. She found herself holding her breath as his powerful fingers slipped the pearly buttons from their holding places and her shirt fell open from her collarbone all the way down to her navel.
She was standing in front of him in her underwear now, feeling her ass tingle with the memory of the spanking he had given her in the sky.
“Beautiful,” he murmured to himself, running his middle fingers down her shoulders and arms, then back up again. “You really are quite delicious, Sophie. I wonder if this is the view Carlyle expected to enjoy when he hired you to thoroughly ruin his books.”
“Hey! I never ruined anything.”
“You were an agent of chaos,” Alex said firmly. “I told you as much in the office.”
“I did my job as well as I could.”
“In any company, that is a dangerous game to play.”
She let out a little snort. “Is that really why you didn’t like me? Because I did my job?”
“I liked you very much the moment I saw you,” Alex confessed without any shame. “You were smart, quick-witted, wicked mouthed… stop smiling, young lady. None of those traits served you well.”
The smile fell off her lips, not because he told her not to smile, but because he was basically blaming her for what had happened to her.
“I didn’t do this to me. Christo did this to me. He’s a shady bastard…”
“You antagonized him in the board meeting, and you were in the office very late at night, when good girls would have been safely at home in their beds. It’s not your fault Christo was plotting, but it is your fault you got in his way.”
“That is some serious victim blaming," she complained.
“Blame is pointless. You were in the path of a freight train, and you'd basically tied yourself to the tracks. You can take responsibility for that, and understand that you have a lot to learn, or you can be willfully impudent and play a dumb victim.”
Chapter 12
“You’re famous.”
“Huh?” She was sleepy.
She was also out on the balcony perched next to the waterfall, sitting amid verdant nature, listening to the calls of what were no doubt specially genetically engineered birds. A good night’s sleep had given way to a beautiful tropical morning.
Alex was still clad in his perfectly tailored suit. Was he going to do business on the island? Was there a secret boardroom somewhere here? Or perhaps he was so used to being dressed for business he didn’t even know how to relax on his own island.
He slid his tablet across the table, and let her see the top story on the news website. She was very familiar with it even though she hadn’t seen it before, because it was Her. Fucking. Face.