‘Of course,’ Lindsey replied and popped back down the stairs again.
She felt a little confused as she followed the dim elegant hallway down towards the lounge. Had she done something to offend him, she wondered, or was he always this standoffish? If so, why had he invited her on this whole extravagant daytrip in the first place, if only to snub her and leave her on her own? She thought about what his assistant had said on the dock, about how temperamental the guy was.
‘Shit,’ she whispered to herself, ‘you better not
be
screwing this up Lindsey.’
She pushed open the cabin door and stepped into the lounge and immediately, she forgot all of her concerns.
She stood in the doorway and marveled at the opulent room around her. Classy wasn’t the word. Luxurious was an understatement. The room was one of the finest she’d ever been in, on land or on sea.
Across from the door was the bar Leo had referred her to. Above a crystal cabinet filled with all manner of impressive wines and liquors, a huge stuffed marlin hung against a wooden trophy board. If Dewhurst’s reputation was anything to go by then the guy had probably caught the monster himself.
Lindsey cleared her throat and made her way over to the bar. On the counter was a bottle of vodka and – afraid to interfere with any of the more expensive-looking bottles in the cabinet – Lindsey opened it and poured a little into a glass. She reached into the ice container and shoveled a healthy load of ice into her glass. She took a stuffed olive from a jar and put it in the drink to garnish.
With her glass in hand, she stepped out from behind the bar and considered the room more closely. Across from the huge white leather couch, a large flat-screen TV almost the size of a small cinema was embedded in the wall. To her left, she spotted a framed photograph and stepped closer to get a better look. She sipped her vodka as she considered the photo. The liquor was really good, so good that she didn’t want to think about how much the bottle was probably worth.
But the picture was much more interesting. It showed three men, handsome but disheveled, smiling merrily and toasting the photographer with glasses of dark liquid. They wore Hawaiian shirts stained with sweat and frayed straw hats on their heads. The men were obviously quite drunk. One of them was Leo Dewhurst.
‘Well I’ll be damned,’ Lindsey smiled to
herself
, inspecting the photograph.
Looked like she wasn’t the only one with a vice or two.
‘Interesting isn’t it?’ Leo said, from the doorway, ‘three of the most powerful men in the world and yet in that one moment of leisure no different than any other man at all.’
Lindsey froze. ‘Mr. Dewhurst,’ she said, ‘you surprised me. I didn’t hear you come in.’
Leo ignored her. He walked towards her. ‘But of course you recognized me, didn’t you?’ he said, referring to the photo. ‘A perceptive up and comer like you, I’d imagine you don’t miss much. But then, did you recognize the others as well?’
Lindsey looked back at the picture. Dewhurst had caught her off guard and she couldn’t think of anything to say.
‘My companions are Sam Ellmann of Ellmann Enterprises and Drake Masterson, the CEO of Moonies’ Investment,’ Leo continued. ‘We’d been drinking for four days in the wilderness of the south Thailand jungle when that photo was taken. Not one of us without enough power in his hands to topple the entire world and yet for that brief sojourn we were just men, simple men with simple tastes, sampling the oldest pleasures life has to offer.’
‘Fascinating,’ Lindsey said. It was the best she could come up with.
‘Indeed,’ Leo said in a tone of voice that suggested he was unimpressed with her reaction. ‘They’re a marvelous pair of men.
True gallants.
Though I hear old Drake is about to tie the knot these days, with his secretary no less. The poor bastard fell afoul of the oldest trick in the book.’
Lindsey said nothing. The implication of his words offended her slightly. Leo walked to the bar and fixed himself a drink.
‘Beautiful
specimen,
isn’t she?’ he said, raising his glass to the silver marlin affixed to the wall.
‘Yes,’ Lindsey said, ‘very impressive, did you catch it yourself?’
‘Miss Kennedy,’ the industrialist replied, ‘I would not permit it in my lounge if I had not.’ He smiled suddenly, a cruel glint his eye. ‘But do you think you would be up to the task yourself?’
‘What do you mean?’ she asked.
‘I mean, do you think you would have it in you to conquer such a creature yourself?’
Lindsey smiled. She was little embarrassed and confused by his line of conversation now. ‘Well,’ she said, ‘quite frankly, I’m not sure. I’ve never been deep sea fishing before.’
Leo sipped his drink. ‘Good,’ he said, ‘an honest answer at least, I can’t fault you on that. But Miss Kennedy, don’t you realize that the kind of predation I demand from my higher ups insists that they should be able to undertake the kind of task I’m referring to, in an instant? I need hunters, Miss
Kennedy,
I need men with killer instinct.’
A wave of displeasure washed over her. The higher echelons of Dewhurst Industries was, like most other global corporations, governed by a monopoly of males, but Lindsey had never had any reason to suspect that the discrimination ran any deeper there than the usual. Until now that was.
‘You understand of course, what I’m getting at?’ Leo continued, ‘let’s not beat around the bush here, Miss Kennedy. I need to know that my top executives will have that killer’s instinct –that willingness to take whatever they want, when they want it – and I must say that for the most part, I do. But the question is: will I really have that knowledge with you?’
Lindsey sighed.
The sexist bastard.
Now not only did she have to prove that she had what it takes to join the upper cream of the company, but she also had to prove that women in general were just as suited for such things as men? Damn it.
Leo smiled as he considered her. ‘Perhaps this is not the job for you,’ he said, ‘hmm?
‘Mr. Dewhurst sir,’ Lindsey began, ‘let me assure you that I have killer instinct in spades. In fact, if you look at my record with the company, my exemplary record, you will see that a pattern of ambition and hunger has governed me for the past ten years.’
‘You know,’ Dewhurst continued, still smiling strangely, ‘I
do
need another assistant out west. My PA in Los Angeles is getting married to one of my executives. I’d imagine a girl like you would be right at home out there.’
Lindsey’s heart sunk in her chest.
Assistant?
Was this guy serious? She cleared her throat. ‘Aha,’ she said, ‘I think that would be a little bit beneath my qualifications, don’t you?’
Leo walked towards her swiftly. He stood a full foot and a half taller than she did and this close she had to crane her head to look up at him. It was a little demeaning and she sensed that that was exactly the intended purpose.
‘Actually,’ he said, ‘no I don’t. I think that it might be the best thing for everybody. Like I said, I need an executive with a hunter’s spirit. I think it’s clear you’d be much better suited to a more
feminine
position, no?’ He smiled down at her condescendingly. She could tell that he was taking more pleasure from this than he should and it infuriated her.
‘Bullshit,’ she said, ‘with all respect Mr.
Dewhurst,
I’ve been shooting for this my whole life. There isn’t another person in the company better suited to this position – male or female.’
Leo frowned. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said, ‘I’ve made up my mind.’
Lindsey stared at him. She couldn’t believe it. Just like that he was killing her dreams. ‘But why?’ she asked.
‘Because you’re just a girl,’ he said, ‘just a little lady and I need someone who I can know for sure isn’t going to run off to get married or pregnant in a year or two. I need a man I can rely on, Miss Kennedy.’ He smiled again. ‘But as I said, I do have a position in LA that I think would be perfect for you. Better paid even, than what you make right now.’
Lindsey’s blood began to boil. This bastard had planned it like this all along. He’d taken her out here on this boat just to humiliate her and then force her to accept a demeaning position, far beneath her experience. He’d probably joke about this over scotch with his spoilt asshole friends at the country club later on.
No. Not after all that effort, all those sleepless nights and eighteen-hour work days. This was unacceptable.
‘You know what?’ she said, ‘fuck LA,
fuck
your assistant job. I heard you were a smart, out-of-the-box thinker, but if you can’t see what you’re missing out on with me, well then you know what? Fuck you too Mr. Dewhurst.’
Leo Dewhurst stared at her. The smile was far from his lips now. It looked like he wasn’t used to that kind of abuse. Not used to it at all.
‘
What the hell did you say to me?
’ he whispered.
Lindsey looked up at him. She considered her options. Either way, it looked like she’d just lost out on ten years worth of hard work, but she guessed it’d been that way before she insulted him anyway.
‘To paraphrase Mr. Dewhurst,’ she said, ‘I told you to take your assistant’s job and shove it up your ass.’
Dewhurst’s hand shot out like a whip and snatched her by the wrist. He smiled wickedly. ‘Why you little bitch,’ he said, ‘I’ll give you one single chance to take that back before it’s too late.’
Lindsey stared back at him unflinchingly. His grip on her hand was tight but she wasn’t frightened. Even though her heart pounded in her chest and her belly was warm with excitement, she wasn’t one bit scared of this chauvinist, bullying prick.
‘Shove it up you ass, Mr. Dewhurst sir,’ she said, ‘I’m not afraid of you.’
He narrowed his eyes. ‘Are you insane?’ he asked, ‘you do know who I am, right? I mean this isn’t just some big misunderstanding here, is it?’
Lindsey smiled too, her eyes level into his. She couldn’t help but feel a little turned on by this situation, in spite of herself. It excited her, to go toe to toe with the bastard like this. To show him what a real woman was like, how she stood her ground. The guy had probably never met one in his whole pampered life.
‘Mr. Dewhurst,’ she said, ‘I think you better turn this boat around. I quit.’
The industrialist nodded to himself. ‘You don’t quit, he said, ‘you’re fired.’
‘Take me back to the harbor you petty child.’ Lindsey sneered. Dewhurst obviously didn’t like that. He looked pretty taken aback.
‘Fine,’ he said, pulling her roughly by the wrist, ‘but if I’m to go up to the control room by
myself
then I certainly can’t leave you here alone.
A spiteful little bitch like you, who knows what you might get up to?’
He dragged her towards the bar. Lindsey let herself be taken by him. This game excited her and, after all, what else did she have left to lose now?
‘Then I’ll come with you,’ she said.
‘No you won’t. You’ll stay right here.’
Leo pulled open a drawer and took out a long reel of twine. Roughly, he grabbed Lindsey’s other wrist and forced it behind her back. With the speed of somebody well used to fastening prey, he tied her hands to the metal pole underneath the bar. A surge of sexual energy rushed through her as he wrapped the twine painfully tight around her wrists. She felt a flush in her cheeks.
‘You bastard,’ she grinned, ‘I’ll sue the hell out of you for this. You’re finished.’
‘Ha,’ Dewhurst sneered, ‘nobody will believe you. And even if they do my lawyers are the best in the world. You’d never win.’
Lindsey struggled against her binds as Leo stood back triumphant before her. He was right of
course,
taking legal action against a Dewhurst was a surefire road to total bankruptcy.
‘The scandal would still ruin you,’ she said.
Leo shrugged.
‘Maybe, maybe not.
Don’t underestimate the public’s appetite for tales of a playboy’s misbehaviors.’
‘Pig!’
Lindsey accused. She didn’t want him to leave her yet. Beneath her light summer dress the heat was rushing to her cunt and she wanted to play with him a little longer. As Leo smiled at her devilishly, she spat a hunk of saliva at him. It landed on the knee of his pants and as she followed the mark with her eyes she saw that he too was aroused. His cock was massive and hard as rock beneath his expensive trousers.
‘Insolent bitch!’ he shouted and stepped towards her. He grabbed her by the hips and pulled her body towards him. She grunted with throaty pleasure against the force of his hold and looked up at him with fevered defiance.
‘There’s nothing special about you,’ she said, ‘you’re just a spoilt little boy, playing with toys.’
A flash of anger appeared on his handsome face and he reached up as if to slap her before restraining himself.
‘See,’ Lindsey smiled, relishing how much she was getting to him here. She may have been the one tied to the bar but still, not all of the power was his. ‘You can’t even hit me, can you?’
Leo raised his hand again in warning and then grabbed a coil of her hair. Her scalp stung as he dragged her head to the side, but it was pleasurable pain nonetheless. Down below, she pressed her thighs tight together. They were slippery with her juices as they ran down her legs.