Make Me Yours: A BWWM Billionaire Love Story (13 page)

To his surprise the contact who
had called him, Mr. Van der Roodt was not alone; he was with a
tall attractive woman who was giving him the eye…and the
smile. Dean smirked internally wondering what kind of con these
people were trying to run. Did they think they could seduce him into
falling in line with their wishes? Had they not heard of the latest
scandal making the rounds among the country club set, about him and
the
totally unsuitable female
he’d taken up with? Dean smiled to himself and walked toward
them, mentally daring them to do their worst.

“
Mr. Wesson, a pleasure
to finally meet you,” the white guy he assumed was Van der
Roodt said. Dean nodded his acknowledgment and then turned to the
female whose ethnicity was less certain. She was tall, almost his
height, with auburn hair that was possibly not natural. Her dusky
complexion was perfectly clear of blemish and her honey brown eyes
stared at him with interest.

“
May I present my
companion…Ms. Adriana Stuijt? She’s our head of A&R,”
guy said.

“
Interesting name,”
Dean murmured.

Adriana smiled at him and then sat down so they
could sit as well. A waiter appeared as if by magic placing a bread
basket on the table and distributing menus. Dean glanced at it,
trying to find something he was interested in eating. Nothing jumped
out at him; in fact if he was being honest he would rather be in
Meaghan’s hospital office sharing her deli sandwich than here
at this fancy restaurant trying to choose between foie gras, or duck
confit. He was inclined to go with the latter since he was pretty
sure this restaurant didn’t do sandwiches. Maybe he could take
a doggy bag back to Meaghan; food was just that much more fun to eat
with her in the room.

Once orders had been taken and the waiter had
brought their food along with an appropriately expensive bottle of
white wine, Van der Roodt fired his opening salvo.

“
First of all, allow me
to invite you to call me Jan. Mr Van der Roodt is quite a mouthful
and I’d like us to be on friendlier terms than that,” he
said smiling.

Dean made a non-committal sound. He wasn’t
that easily won over.

Jan continued to speak as if Dean had acquiesced.
“As I’m sure you know, we’re one of the biggest
suppliers of rough diamonds and we’re looking for a new partner
in the distribution process here in America who undertakes the
process of cutting and polishing, basically turning our rough
diamonds into jewels. Your company has shown great resilience in the
wake of the financial crisis and with the peaceful handover of power
from your father to you without any major fluctuations. We would like
to congratulate you on your stability and offer you the opportunity
to work with one of the best in class in the business. We can all
profit insanely from this partnership,” he finished.

Dean just looked at him, nodding his head to
indicate understanding but otherwise not indicating in any way
whether he was in favor or not of this idea. Adriana leaned forward
so her cleavage was peeking out of the v-neck of her red business
suit.

“
Mr. Wesson, may I call
you Dean?” she asked in a soft sultry tone and continued
speaking before he had a chance to refuse. “We would like to
invite you to a benefit that De Beers is holding at the Museum of
Modern Art. Proceeds will go to casualties of the Blood Diamond
trade. I’m sure that is a cause you could get behind. And it
would give you a chance to really get to know who we are,” she
said.

Dean perked up for the first time in the
conversation. “I see. And when is this event?”

Jan and Adrianna exchanged muted triumphant
glances and Dean pretended not to notice.

“
It’s on the tenth
of next month,” Adriana said putting her hand strategically on
the table, near to his. “I’d be honored to escort you to
the event,” she added searching his face hopefully. Dean mouth
twisted in a wry smile.

“
I think I can find my
own plus one. Thank you for asking though,” he said.

Adriana sat back, visibly disappointed.
“Well…anyway. We look forward to seeing you there.”
Her accent had thickened, with more emphasis on the consonants and a
slightly sing song cadence to her speech. Dean still couldn’t
place her origins but he guessed that it was also at least partly
from southern Africa. He considered asking her straight out but
didn’t want to seem prejudiced. His glance flipped to her hair,
assessing it for natural curliness but it was straightened either
artificially or naturally; Dean couldn’t really tell. He jerked
back suddenly, wondering why he was so interested in Adriana’s
hair anyway, or her ethnicity…it was none of his business. He
stood up, preparing to leave and they stood up with him.

“
Well this has been
interesting. Have your people call my people to set up a more formal
presentation.”

Jan inclined his head. “Will do. And we’ll
send you that official invite for the benefit,” he hesitated
slightly. “Will there be a plus one?” he asked
diffidently.

Dean quirked his eyebrow. “Why of course,”
he said with a smirk. Jan inclined his head again in acknowledgment
and then Dean turned around and left. He felt the need to get away
from these people for some reason.

*****

“
Hey Meaghan, what was
going on in your office earlier?” Nurse Rachette asked her as
she came to drop off the reports at reception.

“
What do you mean?”
she asked her, feeling her face warm.

“
I mean…there’s
a rumor that a little raunchiness took place there this afternoon.
True or false and is it that white guy who keeps coming to see you?”
the nurse asked leaning forward confidentially. Her and Meaghan were
not really friends; more like familiar acquaintances. Meaghan had
cultivated her because it was necessary to have a nurse on your side
if one was to survive the grueling schedule they were under. She
wasn’t sure though, if spilling about her personal life was
really merited to keep nurse Rachette’s goodwill. After all it
was exactly none of her business what Meaghan got up to behind closed
doors. Granted these closed doors were at work but still…the
theory applied.

“
I don’t know what
you’re talking about,” she said, signing her reports in
with a glance at the nurse and then walking off. She’d let her
make of that what she would.

“
Hi Megs,” Mr.
Henley waved to her as she walked past the waiting room. He’d
taken to coming for his diabetes medication at this clinic ever since
she started working here.

“
Hey Mr. Henley,
alright?” she asked stopping to exchange a word.

“
Great,” he replied
grinning, preening a bit that the big shot doctor had stopped to
speak to him. “How is that boyfriend of yours?” he asked.

It was Meaghan’s turn to grin. “Great,”
she said.

Mr. Henley gave her two thumbs up and she went on,
continuing with her day with as minimum of fuss as she could manage
in the circumstances.

“
We have an invitation to
attend a benefit next month,” Dean told her over dinner much to
her intense surprise.

“
What?” she asked.
“Since when do ‘we’ go to benefits? Isn’t
that more something you’d do with your mom?”

“
Yeah before when you
were my dirty little secret,” Dean said with a sly grin. “But
now that we’re ‘out’ I don’t see any reason
why we can’t go together.”

Meaghan swallowed, forking some spaghetti into her
mouth and chewing and swallowing thoughtfully before she answered. “I
suppose technically you’re correct.”

“
There’s no
technically about it,” he said a bit curtly.

“
Okay so is it now
mandatory that I attend these events?” she asked not really
wanting to mix with his snobbish friends and endure their judgment.
It would be easier if Bain attended such events but he was also eager
to avoid his set’s arbitrary judgments so he tended to ignore
these society events too.

“
Not mandatory no. But I
thought it way past time you were seen on my arm. Don’t you
want
people
to know we’re together?” Dean was frowning at her.

Meaghan took a deep breath; she
didn’t know how to tell Dean about her reservations without
making him feel like she was rejecting or denigrating his lifestyle.
Which was pretty ironic because these things usually ran the other
way around.
She
was
the one who grew up in a trailer park; she had no right not to want
to rub shoulders with the rich and famous of New York City now that
her handsome billionaire boyfriend wanted to parade her on his arm…it
was decidedly awkward not to be enthusiastic about this invitation.
So Meaghan tried to dredge up some eagerness from the depths of her
being.

“
Of course I want people
to know,” she said concentrating on wrapping spaghetti around
her fork. Dean was staring at her and then shook his head.

“
It doesn’t seem
like it,” he said.

Meaghan stopped playing with her fork. “Well
I’m sorry you feel that-“ she began to say staring at
him.

“
Don’t play with me
Meaghan,” Dean cut in rather curtly, badly startling Meaghan.
She dropped her fork onto her plate, mouth slightly open as she
stared at him speechlessly. She picked up her fork again and forked
some spaghetti into her mouth, waiting impassively for him to
continue. The silence stretched uncomfortably and Meaghan felt
compelled to fill it.

“
You’d do very well
working with ISIS. Interrogation technique is on fleek,” she
murmured with a small smile. Dean smiled reluctantly back but didn’t
let her attempt to lighten the mood distract him. He continued to
stare at her with narrowed eyes until she put her fork down again and
stared back at him with a sigh.

“
Okay fine, I am a little
nervous about…all this. I’m not sure how wise it would
be to rock the boat now. I mean we’ve done the essential bit;
your dad and mom know who I am to you. That’s the important
thing right?” she said.

“
So you
are
ashamed,” Dean pressed.

“
I’m not.
Really,
”
she insisted as she saw his hurt disbelief. “I just…it's
hard. People have expectations of me that I either don’t meet
or surpass depending on what they were anticipating. I feel like
there’s a spotlight on me every time I’m around your
friends – and most of them knew me from high school. I imagine
it’ll be ten thousand times worse when it’s mostly a
bunch of rich snobby strangers I’ve never met.”

Dean continued to stare at her in disbelief for a
moment and then he barked a laugh, “That’s funny.”

“
Why is that funny?”
Meaghan asked preparing to be indifferent.

“
It’s funny because
after everything you’ve been through in your life, you’re
intimidated by a bunch of tame blue bloods?” he asked with a
smirk.

“
Tame my ass,”
Meaghan murmured in an aggrieved undertone. “Y’all are a
bunch of sharks.”

“
Ooooh, poor Meaghan
scared of the scary blue blood sharks with the long teeth,”
Dean sing songed, making fun of her.

“
Well I am,”
Meaghan said firmly chin in the air, “and I am not ashamed.”

“
Well you should be; that
is totally pathetic. You should know that the head of A&R, this
new firm, already tried to hit on me. So if you want me to go all
alone and
expose
us to the danger of having my head turned…” he
threatened.

“
Please. If I have to
watch you like a Doberman this relationship ain’t worth it,”
Meaghan countered.

“
Well too bad. You’re
going, whether you like it or not. It’s part of your girlfriend
duties.” Dean declared.

“
Great,” Meaghan
replied but not like she meant it.

*****

“
Bain, you have to come
for this benefit,” Meaghan said desperately.

“
I do?” Bain asked
watching the lady doing his nails closely because sometimes they
removed too much cuticle for his taste.

“
Yes!” Meaghan said
almost pulling her own fingers out of her manicurist’s hands
causing her to utter a weak protest. Meaghan turned to her. “Sorry
Mei,” she said before returning her attention to Bain.

“
Why?” Bain asked
as he had another beautician place cucumbers on his eyes. He was
forced to lie back and close them much to his chagrin because he
could
feel
his manicurist taking too much off his nails. “Not too much
okay?” he said warningly.

“
Yes sah Mr. Bain,”
the manicurist said. Meaghan smiled at the fake Asian accent. Just
last week she’d ran across Mei at the train station talking in
fast and furious Brooklynese to this other beautician. She’d
ducked away so they didn’t see her; no need to embarrass anyone
needlessly after all; and she guessed she could understand pandering
to stereotypes if it helped one to make their daily bread. She turned
back to Bain.

“
Look, you know
everyone’s going to be looking at me, judging me, talking about
me behind my back…I need an ally I can count on. Please Bain,”
she wheedled.

“
I thought Dean had your
back…or don’t you trust him?” Bain needled in
return.