Pretty Wicked (3 page)

‘
All right. Speak
soon.’

‘
Lexi?’

‘
Yeah?’

‘
Nothing. I’ll tell you
tonight.’

‘
OK, talk
later.’

‘
Bye, bye,
darling.’

I replaced the receiver and stared out of
the window. My phone buzzed. I looked at it and took a deep breath.
I depressed the buzzer and Janey Masters’ glib, self-serving voice,
a voice that knew how to put my teeth on edge, filled my office
space.

‘
Come in here, can’t you?’
she whined.

‘
Be right in, Janey,’ I
said, and getting off my swivel chair made for her
office.

Janey Masters was reed thin and very chic.
She wore her hair in a shining bob, painted her lips and nails
French red, and loosely draped exorbitantly expensive scarves
around her scrawny neck. She had decided many years ago to retain
only a small portion of her soul.

‘
Close the door,’ she
said, not taking her eyes away from some papers on her
desk.

I closed the door and went forward.

‘
Have you seen the email
about this afternoon’s meeting with Miko Barokas yet?’

‘
No, but Natalie told me
about it.’

She raised her head. ‘The
takeover was all very cloak and dagger. Bit odd if you ask me.
Have
you
heard
anything on the grapevine?’

I shook my head.

‘
Right. Well, will you go
a little earlier and save me a seat up front?’

I bit my lip. Shit. There went my plan to
sneak in and hide somewhere at the back. ‘Of course.’

‘
Thanks,’ she said and
dropped her head to her work.

I stood there uncertainly. ‘Was there
anything else?’

‘
No, you can go
now.’

Honestly, she could have told me on the
phone. Sometimes I didn’t feel like middle management at all, more
like her girl Friday with her constant efforts to make me get her
lunch and pick up her dry cleaning ‘since I will be in the area
anyway’.

~~~~~

I
closed her office door and made my way to the toilets. There
was no one else there so I rested my palms against the tiled wall
and looked, really looked, at myself in the mirror. I looked pale,
but it was impossible to decipher the expression in my eyes. It
could have been hate as much as it could have been pain or a
terrible, terrible love. All kinds of unfamiliar emotions ran wild
inside me.

I stepped back, away from my own expression.
I had nothing to be afraid or ashamed of. I was not the one who had
behaved badly. He may have been drop dead, hold all the phones
gorgeous, but he was also a shallow jerk and I hated him. What he
did to me was unforgivable.

It pushed me into therapy for years and
caused me untold emotional pain. The end effect was a path of
needless cosmetic surgeries. The doctors had already warned me that
if I carried on I would become a real freak, like those celebrities
with the hideously swollen cheek implants, balloon lips, and eyes
that slanted upwards into their foreheads.

I lifted my chin and stared into my own
reflection. I was not going to run from my past or my old demons
anymore. I was here first, and I did a first rate job, even if
Janey Masters would rather die than admit it. I squared my
shoulders, tucked in a corner of my plain white blouse that had
come out of my brown, pencil line skirt and left the bathroom.

At one forty-five I made my way to the green
room and left a note on one of the front seats to book it for
Janey. Then I left the room and went back to my office to wait
nervously for another nail biting ten minutes.

At one fifty-five I slipped into the meeting
room to the sight of a furious Janey gesturing to me. Great,
somebody had removed my note and taken the seat. In a panic I ran
out of the meeting room into one of the nearby offices. I borrowed
a chair from behind one of the tables and rolled it into the
corridor. I glanced at my watch. Two minutes to two. I lengthened
my stride, but three yards away from the door to the green room I
saw Miko striding toward it from the opposite direction.

For a moment I was torn between getting a
strip or two torn off me by Janey or running into him again. I
decided to have a strip or two torn off me and I slowed right down,
but instead of opening the door and going in, he stood with the
door open waiting for me. If he was surprised to see me he didn’t
show it. Instead his face was totally impassive, and his eyes black
and impenetrable. Cursing inwardly, I pushed the chair toward
him.

‘
Mr. Barokas,’ I said
civilly, my face bright red as I sailed through the door he was
holding open for me. Everybody turned to look at me and Janey was
giving me the evil eye, until, that is, she saw Miko, and then she
melted into a puddle. I pushed the chair right to the front of the
room and Janey walked to it, smiled tightly, and sat
down.

Hastily, I made my way to the back next to
one of the guys in Accounts. He grinned at me and made space. I
leaned against the wall and watched Len from Human Resources
welcome and introduce Miko to everybody.

Then Miko stood and took the floor. He spoke
about his vision for our company in the future. Riveting stuff. He
was articulate, focused and utterly charming. The charisma was
oozing out of him. In fact, he was so smooth he reminded me of oil
pouring from a bottle. No gaps, no coughs, no ums or ahs while his
brain found the right word to buy our loyalty. His tone was
actually hypnotic.

The room was totally silent. Captivated by
his dynamic energy, I watched as he prowled the floor restlessly
with the taut grace and power of an animal in the wild. I looked
around. Like me, everyone else in that room was staring at him. But
for different reasons. They all wanted to be as smooth as him. He
made them think they could be as smooth as silk.

Once, he turned suddenly, caught, and held,
my eyes for some seconds. The intensity of his gaze was searing. It
made me feel almost giddy, and I dropped my gaze hastily.

By the time he thanked
everybody and said how much he looked forward to working with us
all, he had everybody eating out of his hand. He reminded me of
Leonardo DiCaprio in the
Wolf of Wall
Street
. After he had requested senior
management to join him in the boardroom, he broke into a grin,
boyish and confident.

‘
That’s it for today,’ he
finished, and the room erupted into enthusiastic applause. He
walked toward Janey and said something to her, and she swiveled her
head around and stared at me. Oh shit. Now what? I began to edge
toward the door.

‘
Ms. Lexi
Johnson.’

I stopped and slowly turned my head in the
direction of his voice. He was smiling at me and Janey was
scowling. ‘Could you come here one moment please?’

I steadied my nerves and started walking
toward him.

‘
Are you feeling better
now?’

I cleared my throat. ‘Much better. Thank
you.’

I felt my cheeks become warm at the way he
was staring at me. I darted a glance at doesn’t-laugh-hardly-smiles
Janey, and she was looking at me with a mixture of fury and
envy.

‘
I didn’t realize you two
had met,’ she said sweetly.

‘
I…er…bumped into Mr.
Barokas at the coffee shop without realizing who he
was.’

Janey smiled coldly. ‘Were you poorly
earlier?’

‘
It was nothing really. I
felt a bit faint at the coffee shop. I thought I might be pregnant.
But...’ I smiled brightly. ‘False alarm. Must have been something I
ate.’

Her eyes flickered. She was a cunning fox.
She knew I was up to something.

I took my eyes away from her and looked at
Miko. He was gazing at me with a look I saw in men’s eyes all the
time. Wow! He wanted to fuck me. A part of my brain celebrated. The
idea that he found me, the freak, attractive was so heady I almost
felt high with pleasure and confidence.

I had successfully reinvented myself. Made
myself someone the great Miko Barokas actually desired.

‘
Well,’ I said looking up
through my eyelashes shyly and slyly at him. ‘Thank you for
rescuing me.’

‘
Not at all.’

‘
I guess I better be going
then,’ I purred and turned to leave.

‘
Ms. Johnson?’

I turned around slowly. ‘Yes, Mr.
Barokas.’

‘
Do I detect a slight
American accent? Have you spent time in America?’

‘
Yes, I spent a few years
there,’ I confirmed vaguely, and then smiled knowingly.

He would have said more if Janey had not
interrupted. ‘Please come this way, Mr. Barokas. The rest of the
senior management are waiting for you.’

For a few more seconds he stood looking at
me, then he nodded, and followed Janey out of the meeting room.

The breath I had been holding came out in a
whoosh. I watched them walk away with a small smile. I had enjoyed
that. Flirting with him. Playing with him the way a cat plays with
a mouse. Once he had done that to me and now it was my turn. I
turned away humming to myself.

It was just the two most important laws of
the universe working. As ye sow, so ye shall reap, and another
little known one, the law of giving and hospitality: if you believe
something to be true, then sometime in your life you will be called
upon to demonstrate that particular truth.

I believed myself to be out of love and in
hate with him. Now was when I demonstrated what I claimed. Now was
when I took revenge. My palms were sweaty. I went back to the
bathroom to wash my hands. When I looked at the mirror I was
surprised. What a difference three hours could make. I watched the
expression on my face. It was full of cold intention. I would make
him suffer as he had once made me.

I was at my desk when Janey came in, more
than an hour later. She looked put out, but was trying not to show
it.

‘
Have you finished with
that McCallum report?’

‘
Nearly.

‘
Good. Um… Are you doing
anything tonight?’

‘
I’m having dinner with
Nigel.’

A triumphant smile slid
across her red mouth. ‘Oh, what a shame! I
was
going to invite you for drinks
at Jamie’s, but you’re obviously not going to stand up Nigel for
the likes of us. We’ll go out another time.’

Jamie’s was the local restaurant bar in the
next street. I looked into her thin face and knew exactly what had
happened. Miko had asked her to invite me along.

‘
What a coincidence,’ I
said smoothly. ‘That is exactly where Nigel is taking
me.’

She looked at me as if she was seeing me for
the first time. The way a woman does when she is sizing up her
competition. She drew herself up to her full height. ‘Super. We’ll
see you and…Nigel there, then.’

‘
That’ll be nice.’
Something told me I’d soon be out job hunting, but I was not
backing down. Miko was getting what he gave even if I lost my job
in the process. I needed closure and this was closure.

Utterly unrepentant, I watched her rigid
body stalk out of my room.

~~~~~

N
igel picked me up from work, and shame on me, I was too
caught up in my own twisted thoughts of revenge to see just how
excited he was. The man had a secret and he was dying to spill it.
And when I finally realized it was too late.

We walked into Jamie’s, and Luigi, the
manager, danced his way up to us. I loved Luigi. He was so over the
top and so Italian he was almost a parody. But he made the place
tick. Gave it drama. That evening he let his bold eyes travel
admiringly down my body. I didn’t take offense. It was part of his
job.

‘
I have the best table
saved for you,’ he smilingly whispered to Nigel, and then turning
around hissed at one of his waiters.

From the corner of my eye I could see my
work colleagues gathered around Miko, hanging on his every word as
if he was some prophet. God! People are such sheep, so easily led,
I thought disgustedly. Just as I was about to turn my eyes away,
Miko looked up and caught me looking. And suddenly it was as if
there was no one else in the room but us. Something passed between
us. As if he had reached out and touched me.

I shivered and broke the connection.

This was not the way it was supposed to
work. I took a long breath and looked again at him. He was still
gazing at me. I smiled slowly. A come hither look. An invitation.
Something shifted in his eyes. He had caught the invitation. Good.
That was more like it. I turned away. Nigel put his hand on the
small of my back and led me away to our table.

At the table we ordered our food and as I
leaned back in my chair I saw Miko make his way toward us. His eyes
were on me and I realized he was as helpless as a moth to a flame
in the wake of his desire for me. For the new me. The me that was
tucked and nipped and dyed into perfection. When he stood at our
table, he seemed very darkly handsome compared to Nigel’s fair and
proper English features.

‘
Hello, Lexi.’

‘
Mr. Barokas, Nigel
Palmer. Nigel, Miko Barokas.’ I turned smoothly toward Nigel. ‘Mr.
Barokas just acquired Salinger Inc.’

Nigel stood and shook hands with Miko. Then
he did an odd thing. He sat back down and catching my hand from
under the table brought it up to the surface, and held it tightly
inside his pale one. I saw Miko’s eyes rush to our clasped hands.
Perhaps Nigel had felt the bristling sexual tension that was coming
in waves from Miko and was laying his claim.