Buying the Virgin
Chapter 97: The Girl Who Was Hunted - Chapter Thirteen
MICHAEL
Breakfast at home: over toast, juice and coffee, Charlotte’s phone beeps.
She barely looks at it, obviously knowing what the tone is.
“S’cuse me,” she mutters, vanishing into the bedroom, leaving her phone on the table.
James’ eyes meet mine, his expression quizzical. I lean over, looking at her phone screen.
“What is it?” he asks.
“Mmm… Calendar Reminder…. ‘Take your pill’.”
He nods, looking thoughtful. We sit in awkward silence for a few seconds.
“You think she wants children?” he asks.
“Not sure. Certainly, she’s not mentioned it, so I’m guessing she’s not interested right now. In a few years, who knows?”
After another pause…. “And, do you?”
“It’s a big house…”
James stares into space, looking pensive.
Time to take the bull by the horns.
“James…”
“Mmm?”
“For the avoidance of doubt…. If Charlotte should fall pregnant, I will adopt, in the womb, any child she bears…”
He glances up for a second, no more, then drops his eyelids in acknowledgement, looking happier.
*****
CHARLOTTE
Down in my small office in the Haswell Building, nothing else being asked of me just now, I am busy with a college assignment. There is a knock.
“Door’s open…”
A familiar face appears. “Hello, Charlotte. They told me you were down here. I was in the area, so I thought I’d call by.”
It is Daniel, originally introduced to me by my Master and Michael for one of our ‘parties’. However, he blotted his copy-book the last time we met, by making an unsubtle attempt to tempt me away from my two Lovers. He has not been invited to my company since.
And I am not comfortable with him turning up, unbidden, in my office; just the two of us.
“Hello, Daniel. What can I do for you?”
might like to go out for
“No thanks. I’m busy.”
“Another evening then?”
I don’t fool around.” I hold up my left hand, displaying my ring finger with its twinned bands of yellow, red and
don’t fool around? The last time I met you, you were fooling around with three of us. And the first time, as
If you want to play, you have
I’m lying, and doubtless, Daniel knows it. I squeeze by him out of the office, making my way up to the canteen, where I can work
*****
“You’ve missed a bit.”
I stroke
“Ah, yes. Thank you.”
“You seem nervous?”
head one way and the other. “I’m always a bit edgy when there’s a meeting with the Thorntons. Thornton Junior is a bit of a firebrand, and I’m
all fingers and thumbs. After watching him, three times, trying to get the tie straight, I turn him at the shoulders, undo the tie
are the Thorntons,
in the City Project. Thornton Senior runs the show from their end. Thornton Junior thinks he
has the
happy about it apparently, but his ego was appeased by quite a lot of the Project being
famously fragile male
is wry. “Interesting you should put it like that. Apparently, the idea to do it that way
“Are you a shareholder?”
was part of the directorship deal. Haswell likes to have all his associates on
keep all the
“Yup.”
wanted it
it’s worth a great deal of money…. After all, I
wanted it anyway, Master, with or without
before you’ve even started earning
*****
needs for the meeting.
your notebook. I want
the attendees, trying to identify the Thorntons. I assume that they are the two men, one elderly, one much younger, who sit
seat himself several chairs away, then sees me. He looks again, very unsubtly checking me out. I look away, but he moves from his original seat to the one next to
next to me. He’s good-looking, in an oily sort of way, but his smile
Hi there. You’re
new, yes.” I make a show of arranging my notebook, ready to take the minutes. and trying
desktop, and I lean backwards, “And what’s your name again?” he asks, his voice oily. “I didn’t
because I hadn’t given
smarmy; “No, I meant your
“Ms.” I snap.
holds out his hand, still with his fake smile. “I’m
I take it, shaking briefly. His hand is
“Nice ring,” he says.
“Isn’t it?”
God! Surely, he’ll take