Pawn of the Billionaire (7 page)

“Thanks,” I muttered.

‘Thank you, Toni.” His low voice was warm and caressing, and my heart leapt. Maybe he did care. I could feel the whole sway of emotions going to center around whether this man was pleased with me or not, and my belly tightened.

“I expect you’d like a shower,” he murmured. “I hope you find everything you need.” He went to the adjoining door to my room and opened it for me after unlocking it. “Dinner is at eight. I’ll knock at seven-thirty and we’ll have a drink before dining.”

That told me what I should be doing, and I nodded weakly and went into my room. The door behind me closed, and I heard the key turn in the lock. I looked back and stared at the door. I noticed there wasn’t a key on my side. That was going to make it interesting to try and sleep tonight, and I thought petulantly about wedging a chair under the handle before I went to bed.

I went to explore the bathroom, looking forward to gallons of hot water and clouds of luxurious steam.

I threw off the robe after selecting the toiletries I’d need. It wasn’t until I was standing under the most powerful shower I’d ever experienced, that I realized my only clothes were still in his bedroom, and the door was bolted.

I wondered what time he’d arranged for me to get back home later to pick up my stuff. It seemed that I’d be living here now. At least I supposed, until we had to live in England.

I
stood
and stared at the door after I locked it. I could picture her going through to the bathroom, throwing off that robe. I could see her long, shapely legs and the curve of her ass as she bent to pick up the robe when it slipped from her hand. And my cock stirred and rose again. God, I needed to fuck her again. I’d been able to sense her arousal, but also her reluctance to give me her release, to lose control.

And yet, her increased excitement when I’d restrained her hands had excited me too. Her breathing rate had accelerated and she’d got wetter while trying to fight me. Pondering, I walked towards my bathroom. This was going to be very diverting. Then I noticed the clothes I’d stripped from her. Of course, she had nothing else yet. I picked them up with distaste. Still, they’d have to do. I went back and unlocked the door to her bedroom, walking in without knocking. This was my house and I didn’t care who knew it.

She didn’t hear me. I could hear the sound of the shower. So I laid the clothes on her bed and went back to my room, smiling. She’d know I’d been in when she found them.

In my bathroom, I set the shower remote to come up to temperature and dropped my robe. While relaxing in the clouds of steam, I thought about her body, about the sort of clothes she should wear, and I was glad Anne Russell would be arriving tomorrow. She was a ladies’ maid of the old school, and I’d borrowed her from the Masons.

I made a face at myself in the mirror as I trimmed my shave. I was glad now that Penny Mason had answered the phone when I rang to find out about the roofing work they’d had done. That had given me the confidence to ring her again this morning and ask about a maid to be a companion to Toni, to sort out her wardrobe and the other more personal stuff that I couldn’t be bothered with. And Anne Russell would do that for me.

I smiled at my reflection. There was a lot I wanted to be bothered with, though. I was very glad at the way she’d responded to the restraint. That meant that I could push the boundaries a little more next time, and my hand tingled as I imagined it connecting sharply with her shapely ass.

I had to stop thinking like this. It was a Monday. I’d lost the whole day thinking about her, making plans for her. I needed to call the team, check up on what was happening. I couldn’t let things slide. I smiled. Tomorrow I might be rather busy with her too.

A
t seven-thirty
, I knocked on the outer door to her sitting room and waited until I heard her quiet ‘Come in’ call. I’d had another think about how soon I wanted to push her privacy boundaries.

“I hope you feel refreshed and ready for dinner.” I gave her my arm, and she tucked her hand into the crook of my elbow after a little hesitation. I thought she might as well start learning gracious living. Down in the living room, I poured her a sherry and brought the glass over to her. Then I stared, preoccupied, out of the window. I was beginning to think that teaching her the traditional manners of life and the wild sexual adventures that I wanted of her might be difficult for me to keep separate in my mind — meaning she’d have no chance.

I heard the click of a chess piece, and turned. She’d picked up the queen and was admiring it. I didn’t like the set, but it had been given to me by a fellow developer when he’d visited me, and I needed to keep it out because he visited often. It was too ostentatious, too gaudy for me. I smiled as I watched her smooth her hand down the piece. Most women fell for the bling, very few could play. I turned back to the window, hearing the pieces as she quietly moved them, thinking she was looking at each in turn.

I remembered my duty as host and turned to entertain her, when all I really wanted was to cancel dinner and get her back into bed. But I pushed the thought away and went towards her. Then I saw she’d been moving the white pieces into the classic opening formation, the one all the beginners learned first. King and queen’s pawns first. Bishops out, knights protecting the center, and then castling. She’d been taught the basics.

“Do you play?” This might be an interesting development. Chess was a very serious business but maybe I could bring in some form of punishment play for when she lost. I was smiling as I knelt beside her at the low board.

“Oh, yes!” Her face was animated. “I used to love it at school, but I don’t know anyone now who plays.” Her smile dropped from her face. I remembered that her life was empty of people at the moment.

“I’m glad to find that you play. I enjoy a game myself.” No need to tell her that I played national tournaments. Playing a beginner would feel excruciating.

Dinner was all right. She had good manners for the situation at the moment, but I would need to make some adjustments to them to be suitable for back home.

The only difficulty was the problem I had focusing on her as a person. I wanted to get her back to bed and fuck ourselves stupid. I hadn’t been this besotted with anyone for a long time. But I was a good actor. I didn’t think she noticed anything amiss, and I could see that she had a warm glow from our session earlier in the afternoon.

She happily chatted about her life before her grandmother had died, and how she’d had her hopes and dreams of the future shattered.

That evening I took her through to my study for coffee. While we chatted I showed her my old chess set. “We must have a game or two in a few days.” I picked up the king, polishing him with my thumb. “I like this set better than the one in the sitting room.”

“Oh, yes. So do I,” she murmured, her hand reverently smoothing along the inlaid board.

L
ater that night
, I saw her up to her room. She looked exhausted, and I reluctantly thought I’d have to put aside any thoughts of fucking her again. My body didn’t care, I was on full charm offensive and I could see she was aroused, in the sparkle of her eyes and the faint flush along her cheeks. We stood in the hallway a moment when I’d opened the door for her, and she looked up at me with a luminous gaze and bit her lip slightly.

“Will you come in for moment?”

“Thank you.” I inclined my head and followed her in. Then she saw her things. She didn’t have much, the room was still bare to my eyes. But what she did have had been brought over from her accommodation and arranged on the shelves and table. The smile dropped off her face and she marched through to the bedroom, and I listened to the slamming of drawers and cupboard doors.

When she stepped back into view, I saw her lips were compressed and there were angry red spots on her cheeks.

“All my things. All of them. Someone’s been to my home and brought back all my things.” She came up close to me. God, she was magnificent. Edward would crap himself when she did that to him.

I didn’t.

“Yes. I expect you heard me on the phone to Lawrence, arranging the collection of your things so that you could stay here from tonight.”

“No. Arranging a collection time for me to go over and get them,” she insisted.

I shook my head. “No. There was no need for you ever to go back there. Toni,” I caught her elbow as she turned away. “This is something you’ve committed to, to having a staff presence in your life.” I turned her towards me.

“This is how you will be living now. The staff here are utterly discreet, you can trust them absolutely. But they are here. All the time, when needed. And you have to get used to it.”

She stared at me, her eyes narrowed. It took a couple of minutes, but eventually her eyes dropped. “So I’ll have to get used to it. I don’t have to like it.” She took a step towards the door. “Thank you for seeing me up here. Goodnight.”

And with those words, she stepped through to her bedroom and shut the door.

T
he next morning
, I sat over breakfast reading the Times. All the broadsheets from London were taken in for breakfast each day. I liked the real newspapers, they reminded me of long-ago holidays at home, my father muttering about various news stories, my mother replying gently, a smile on her face, as she managed her husband and children in such a way that we — I, too — hadn’t had an inkling what she was doing.

I smiled as I rustled the papers. Toni would be magnificent in that role, I just knew it. Then the smile was wiped off my face. I saw Edward would be sitting at the table with her, not me.

I scowled and threw the paper down. I couldn’t let her go. Could I? I’d spent a restless night thinking of her alone in her room, angry at the invasion of her privacy as she saw it. I’d wanted her, wanted to spend last night with her body curled up in my embrace, and I hadn’t been able to, because I’d made her angry.

She had a lot to learn, and I knew I couldn’t go too far, too fast. But on the other hand, I had to move fast enough that she changed soon, changed so completely that she couldn’t ever go back and reject the future that I had planned for her.

I had to forget that the future didn’t involve her being here with me, but in England. At least I knew that when she’d be there, she’d be safe and comfortable.

I smiled. But until then I had her here, with me. Until I tired of her, and I always did tire of them. I knew that then it wouldn’t hurt, giving her up. I just had to stop thinking of the future and enjoy the now.

Then she was there, standing beside the table, looking rather unsure of herself.

I smiled up at her. “Good morning, Toni. Have a seat. I’m afraid I start breakfast early on a work day.”

“Good morning,” she said as she perched on a chair, looking over the table. I folded up the papers.

“Make yourself at home, Toni. If you’d like anything cooked, David will arrange that for you. All the other stuff is over on the sideboard,” and I waved a hand over to the side of the room.

David moved forward, and bent slightly. “Tea or coffee, madam?”

She jumped. “Oh. Tea, please.” She cast me a nervous glance. “Would I be able to have a bacon sandwich? Is that allowed?”

I looked over at her. “Maybe that should be an occasional treat, Toni. It’s not very ladylike.”

She sighed, “I suppose so.” Then she smiled and turned to David. “May I have bacon and egg, please? With mushrooms?”

Conversation continued over breakfast.

I patted my lips with the napkin. “I thought that today I could arrange a team to work with you on your business idea.” I tried to sound nonchalant. “But perhaps we can go through the sort of team you’ll need.” I was surprised to see her eyes cloud with caution.

“I don’t think I need that yet.” She sounded careful. “I’d like to try and do it myself. But I don’t have a computer and internet. That’s why I go to the library.”

“Well, that’s easy enough to sort out today.” I thought I knew why she was being cautious. Many, many people wrote to me with ideas for apps, ideas that were so precious to them that they wouldn’t even tell me about them unless I contracted them. I didn’t buy a single one. In my experience, the idea was the easy part.

“What programs do you need? PC or Mac?” I wasn’t quite ready for the signs of confusion on her face.

“Well, I’m not sure. If you really do mean to help me, there’s a program that will make it easier, but I was going to have to learn a free program, because the other’s too expensive for me.”

I got up and went around to her chair. “Toni. I promised to help you develop your idea. And I will. But I do need to know what we’re dealing with here. Is it a manufacturing thing we need to do? Or a design thing? Or technology?”

I waited for her answer.

She shrugged and said, “Well, I’ve been planning an app.” She looked up at me, grinning mischievously. “When you first gave me your card, I thought you’d somehow discovered about it and wanted to steal it. That’s why I was so confused when you suddenly talked about my grandmother.”

I found myself grinning back. “So coincidences do happen.” I got serious again. “I’m glad you felt you could tell me. But I want to ask why you want to learn to code it yourself? Because it’s really not easy.” I dropped into the chair next to her. “The skill is in the idea, making the user able to make use of it easily. Knowing how you want it to look, how you want it to work, now that’s yours.” I leaned forward and tapped her forehead. “But, making the app work, coding it, making it stable, that’s technical work. It could take you years. But if you like, I can allocate you someone from my company. I trust them all, and they can do the drudge work and get your app up and released to the world much more quickly than you can imagine.”

I watched her face light up. I didn’t tell her that there wasn’t a chance in hell that her idea was any good. Even my creative team was having a hard time coming up with new stuff. There was so much already available, and people who’d read that apps would make you rich quick usually found their idea was already implemented.

I stood up. “All right, we’ll go with that. But now, if you’re ready, I want us to go up to your sitting room and discuss the rest of the day.” I wanted to discuss the day all right, and I didn’t want to do it in front of my staff.

I
had
my excuse when we entered her rooms. I had no idea how it was possible to be so untidy with so few belongings, but she’d managed it without trouble. I stared around, let my face get serious.

“Antonia. Did you find living in one room was difficult if you didn’t tidy up after yourself?”

She went pink. “Of course I kept everything tidy.” She bit her lip and looked around. “It’s just… I was angry. I’m going to choose where I put my own things.” She tipped her head up defiantly. “It’s my stuff, and I’ll decide where it belongs.”

“I can tell you this, young woman, nothing belongs on the floor!” My hand grabbed her arm before she saw it coming, and I drew her to stand in front of me. Close, so she had to tip her head back to look up at me.

She was angry, but I could see that her breathing was also increasing by being so close to each other, and a slight flush had appeared on her cheeks. I thought of her ass cheeks with a becoming pink flush and felt myself hardening at the thought.

“We’ve agreed that I’ll teach you how to become an appropriate person to become an English Countess.” I looked intently at her face. “Untidiness is not becoming. I think you need to learn a lesson here, and I think that you need to go over my knee and get a proper punishment.”