The Arrangement (7 page)

The
last thing she ever intended was to cause Lucas problems at work. She
knew all too well how much he loved his job and loved working for her
father.

‘I
don’t know why that could be,’ insisted Scarlett.

‘Well,
I just thought that I would let you know just how important this
movie deal is. It is worth millions of pounds and will be very good
for Lucas’s career. He just needs the thing that is distracting
him to STOP.’ There was extra emphasis on the word “stop”.

No
one said what, but they both knew what he meant.

‘I
just don’t want to see his work deteriorate.’ A second
voice said something in the background. ‘Well, I have to
disappear. I have a meeting to attend. It was lovely talking to you
again dear.’

Scarlett
went to reply, but the phone line went dead.

She
wore a mask of seriousness, as she took in a long slow breath in
through her nose and exhaled out through her mouth. ‘So, Dad is
the one behind all of this.’ She looked down at the shopping
bags still sitting on the hallway floor. The sense of defiance she
had lived with throughout most of her childhood appeared within her
soul like a phoenix rising from the ashes. ‘No. I will not roll
over and die. This is my life. What right does he have to do this to
me? I am a grown woman and I am getting married. Two of us can play
this game.’ And with that Scarlett picked up the rest of the
shopping bags and headed for the kitchen. It was time to put on the
most romantic dinner Lucas would ever have.

***

‘I
appreciate the gesture, but Scarlett has made me lunch,’
protested Lucas.

‘I
am sure it is very nice, but you have to come out of your office and
socialise from time to time. We are supposed to be friends and I
thought it would be nice to have lunch with my friend,’ replied
Craig.

They
walked in through the café entrance and came to an abrupt
stop. Craig seemed to scan the room for something, or someone in
particular. It had gone beyond lunchtime, which was why the ground
floor café of the towering skyscraper was pretty much empty.
Most people would have returned to their offices or respected floors.

‘It
is this way.’ Craig made a beeline for a booth in the far
corner of the room.

It
all started to make sense.

Emma
was sitting all alone at the table. The gorgeous secretary looked up
at them with eyes wide. It was the type of face that asked “have
I done something wrong?”

‘Do
you mind if we join you?’ asked Craig.

He
forcefully nudged Lucas into the booth, so that he sat opposite her.

‘I
will grab us something to eat. Do you want anything, anything at
all?’ he directed this last part towards Emma.

‘No,
thank you,’ she replied.

With
that Craig disappeared off towards the till area leaving Lucas and
Emma alone. It didn’t take long for a strange awkward silence
to fall between them. Nervous glances and forced smiles were
exchanged, as they both searched the library of their brains for
something to say that would force the uncomfortable cloud of silence
away.

‘Have
you lived in the city long?’ it was the best Lucas could come
up with.

Emma
seemed happy that someone had finally broken the silence. ‘I
only recently moved out this way,’ she admitted, and then added
no other content.

The
silence was making its comeback.

‘What
decided to bring you out here? Was it to be closer to family?’

‘No,
it wasn’t really for family reasons.’ Emma sipped at her
cup of tea. ‘I broke up with my boyfriend of five years and
decided that it was time to move to pastures new.’

‘Oh
right.’ Lucas wasn’t quite sure what to say to that. ‘I
am sorry to hear about you and your boyfriend.’

Emma
shrugged.

His
eyes unconsciously dropped down towards her chest. Even this small
gesture caused her breasts to heave. ‘These things happen in
life.’ Lucas lifted his eyes back towards her sweet gentle
face. She was watching him. A sickening sensation dropped like a bomb
into the pit of his stomach.

Had
she seen him looking at her breasts?

Her
red lips broke into a smile.

‘Have
you lived out here long?’

Lucas
could feel his cheeks warming, which only seemed to make Emma smile
even wider. Did she like the way he was looking at her?

‘I
have lived here for most of my life,’ replied Lucas. ‘I
have moved about quite a bit, but never far from the city.’

He
found it strange how quickly their roles were reserved. She had
looked so shy and innocent when they had turned up at the table, but
after being caught looking at her breasts Lucas felt so small and
embarrassed. He could feel her light blue eyes upon him, as he
pretended to look out towards the tills to check on Craig’s
progress.

‘So,
are you married?’ asked Emma.

The
question slightly stumped Lucas for a moment.

‘Um,
no.’ Lucas noticed something sparkle behind her eyes. ‘But
I am engaged,’ he was quick to add.

‘Congratulations,’
replied Emma. ‘When is the big day?’

‘It
is still a few months away.’ Lucas let out a depressed sigh. He
didn’t mean too, and he especially didn’t mean to in
front of Emma, but every conversation about the wedding just brought
up images of Scarlett’s beautiful body and the fact that he
wasn’t allowed to touch it for another three months.

‘You
don’t seem too happy about it,’ commented Emma.

She
took a small bite of her sandwich. A small drop of mayonnaise sat
upon her cheek. ‘You have something here.’ Lucas pointed
to his own face to demonstrate the exact location. Emma giggled and
used her finger to wipe it off. What happened next instantly gave
Lucas the idea that he needed a shower. With her eyes locked onto
his, Emma sucked seductively on her finger. She slid it in between
her soft red lips before slowly pulling it back out.

Lucas
swallowed down the lump that had gathered in his throat.

He
was practically drooling.

‘So,
are you happy about it?’ she repeated the question.

‘Oh,
yes. I am very happy about the wedding.’ He tried to forget
what had just happened. ‘It is just a very complicated
situation.’

‘Aren’t
all relationships?’ she returned her attention to her lunch.
‘But I am here if you ever need someone to talk to.’

‘Thank
you. That is very kind.’

‘Do
not worry about it.’ She smiled a sweet gentle smile. ‘It
doesn’t matter if it is night or day I am just a phone call
away.’ Her sweet smile twisted into something slightly naughty
and tempting.

‘Here
we go.’ Craig pushed a tray full of food onto the table. ‘So,
what are we talking about?’

***

Lucas
placed his head down on the desk and sighed. The image of Emma
sucking the mayonnaise of her finger kept replaying over and over
within his mind. Had she deliberately done that to be sexy? And what
did she mean he could call her any time day or night? Maybe he was
reading too much into it.

Something
dangerous pulsed between his legs.

He
couldn’t stop picturing the look of lust in her eyes, as she
sucked on her finger. He was one hundred percent sure he was not
seeing things. Emma had to have been flirting with him. It had all
started when she had caught him checking out her breasts.

His
wrist watch bleeped.

Lucas
lifted his head, pulled back his sleeve, and checked the time.

It
had just gone five o’clock. It was normally around about this
time that he grabbed his coat and headed off home, but what was the
point? Scarlett was either going to be still pissed at him for what
happened last night, or she was going to be wearing something sexy
and trying to get into his pants. Right now, he didn’t want to
face either of those options. It took every ounce of self-control in
his body to not to make love to her, but it was like everywhere he
looked these days he saw something that turned him on and got his
blood boiling.

He
wouldn’t be able to hold out much longer.

‘No,’
he told the empty office. ‘I will stay here for another hour.’

***

Scarlett
smiled at her reflection. The dress was beautiful. She had spent
several hours going through her wardrobe trying to find the perfect
dress to wear. She wanted something elegant and sexy, without being
too much of a slut. She had tried slutty and Lucas had turned his
nose up at her. This time she was going to go the other direction and
not let him see the things she knew he liked to see. The dress was
free flowing and went all the way down to the ground. The top half
hugged her body tightly and showed all her natural curves from her
hips to her breasts. No cleavage was on display, but the dress was so
tight around her breasts that she didn’t need to show anything
because, in essence, Lucas would see everything without actually
being able to see anything. Two thin shoulder straps kept the whole
piece up. It was the type of dress she reserved for those very
important work receptions. To this date she had only wore the dress
twice, but tonight was very much placed in the important days of her
life. She just hoped that this dress did the trick because she was
running out of ideas on how to seduce her fiancée.

***

Lucas
slipped on his coat and switched off the office light. He had stalled
for long enough. It was time to go home and face the music. He
stepped out the office door and came to an abrupt stop. Emma was bent
over directly in front of him. She was working her way through a box
of files on the floor and hadn’t noticed his arrival. Lucas
looked down at curve of her ass. Something lustful and primal began
to roar within his soul. Emma suddenly looked back over her shoulder
to find her handsome young boss standing directly behind her with his
eyes locked upon her ass.

A
dangerous smile split her lips.

‘Hello,
Lucas.’

‘Oh,
yes, Hi.’ Lucas shuffled by her. He started to head down the
corridor towards the elevator when a thought occurred to him and he
stopped. ‘What are you doing here so late?’

‘I
wanted to get all the files sorted,’ she admitted.

Lucas
looked at the pile of paperwork upon her desk. It was at least half
the size it was at the start of the day. She must have really put a
shift in to get so much of that mess sorted.

‘This
will take you longer than a day to do,’ he pointed out.

‘I
have started to get that feeling,’ she laughed, but he could
see she was tired.

‘Why
don’t you go home for the night?’

‘I
think I will.’

He
nodded his head to her and began to march down the corridor. He
nearly made it too the elevator before his body turned, as if with a
mind of its own, and he headed straight back to where he came from.
Emma had just enough time to collect her coat and handbag.

‘I
will give you a lift home,’ he told her.

‘Oh
no.’ She shook her head from side to side. ‘I couldn’t
impose.’

‘Ha,’
Lucas laughed. ‘It is no imposition. I will feel bad if you
don’t let me.’

Emma
smiled that sweet smile that made his heart flutter. ‘Thank
you, Lucas.’

***

Scarlett
reached for the kitchen counter and flicked off the stereo. “The
Forty Most Romantic Songs of the Last Ten Years” C.D came to an
abrupt stop. A horrible silence swept into the house. There was a
type of silence that was a place devoid of sound, but right now the
house held something even worse. It felt empty and hollow. She looked
at the feast of food upon the kitchen table that she had worked so
hard to make. It had gone cold. All day she had worked on preparing
this meal fit for a king, but Lucas was nowhere in sight. Normally,
when he worked late he would call her to give her a heads up, but
tonight there was nothing.

She
pushed back her chair and straightened out her long flowing dress.

Carefully,
she moved around the table and blew out the candles one by one.

Darkness
fell upon the house.

Within
her chest she could feel her heart breaking. It was like a crack
splintering down a mirror. Tears began to gather within her eyes, as
she took one final look at the dinner she had put her heart and soul
into. It was like someone had punched her in the stomach she felt so
sick. She stepped out into the hallway and picked up the phone.

She
dialled Lucas’s office.

It
rang.

It
rang some more.

It
rang beyond the point most people would have waited for. She knew now
that no one was going to answer. It begged the question “where
was he?” a tear rolled down her cheek. She moved slowly up the
stairs towards her bed and began to sob.

***

Laughter
filled the interior of the car. The initial shyness that Emma had
displayed was long since gone. Once she started talking there was no
stopping her. Lucas liked the fact she was so easy to talk to. It was
a natural thing.

‘You
don’t think he does, do you?’ asked Emma.

‘I’m
afraid so,’ laughed Lucas.

‘Oh
god,’ she said in a rather over dramatic way. ‘You can’t
be serious?’

‘I
am. I think he really fancies you.’

‘Craig,
fancies me?’ Emma shook her head from side to side. ‘He
is nice to talk to, but…’

Lucas
finished for her. ‘He is not a lot to look at.’

‘I
am glad you said that and not me,’ giggled Emma. ‘I don’t
really see the attraction myself. There are loads of gorgeous women
working at that place. I don’t understand why he likes me.’

‘I
can see why,’ replied Lucas.

The
words left his mouth before he could stop them.

Emma
bit her bottom lip and looked at his side on.

It
was strange how such a tiny gesture captivated his full attention.