The Billionaire's Secretive Enchantress (The Berutelli Escape) (19 page)

He took another moment to skim through his other messages.  One in particular he needed to read.  From his human resources director, he found out that Ms. Sydney Watson was a graduate student at NYU who had excellent qualifications although not as much experience.  Due to the flu virus that was knocking out people left and right, there were limited resources from which they could pull people to assist. 

Sydney.  He tested the name out in his mind and thought that it suited her perfectly.  A bit spicy, still elegant despite her atrocious suit.  The suit was probably due to her student status though and not just to bad taste or an innate thriftiness. 

A graduate student, huh?  He liked that about her.  Ambitious, smart…probably an overachiever. 

The next few days suddenly didn’t seem so grim, he thought as he walked out to greet Jim McMahan, his next appointment.  Normally, Judy would send his appointments to him but he decided to switch things around a bit while Ms. Sydney Watson was here. 

Sydney smiled to the older gentleman as she handed him a cup of coffee.  “Is there anything else I can get you while you wait, Mr. McMahan?” she asked, her eyes smiling in reaction to the twinkle in the older man’s eyes.  He’d arrived a few minutes early to His Highness’ meeting time and they’d been chatting while she fixed him a cup of coffee.  He was a very jovial sort of gentleman who was telling her stories about his grandchildren’s latest exploits. 

“Jim,” the deep voice snapped behind her and Sydney stood up quickly, trying to hide the spark of anger that instantly flared up inside of her.  Why was he even out here?  Judy’s instructions were very clear.  Mr. Carson would respond to the appointment message when he was ready for his visitors to come into his office.  Nowhere in the instructions did Judy say that Mr. Grouchy Bear would come out and greet his guests.  He was supposed to be in his cave, figuring out who was going to be shredded next with his claws. 

The two men disappeared into the inner office and Sydney breathed a sigh of relief now that she was once again away from His Highness.  She pulled out Judy’s instructions and read through them once again.  She would not make a mistake this week!  She would not give His Highness any reason to get rid of her.  But if she discovered that he was just too obnoxious, she wouldn’t hesitate to simply walk out of here.  He needed cause to get rid of her.  She just needed to call into her temp agency and tell them she wouldn’t work for the man any longer.  They’d probably understand.  Even applaud her! 

Sydney worked harder that day and over the next three days than she ever had in her life!  She couldn’t believe how much the man worked.  And even when he wasn’t working, he went to social events, making contacts and sending her instructions through e-mail, while he was socializing!  He made business deals at midnight and expected the issues to be summarized and typed up by the time he walked into the office at seven o’clock the next morning.

Sydney wanted badly to tell him to stuff his job, but she also couldn’t deny the excitement she felt as she worked throughout the day, trying desperately hard to keep up with the man.  He didn’t make any more snide comments, but when she wasn’t as fast as he wanted her to be, she definitely knew it.  There was just something in his eyes when she responded to him that told her everything she needed to know. 

By early Friday afternoon, she was exhausted, but still thrilled that she’d been able to keep up with the man.  She wasn’t positive, but Sydney didn’t think she’d made any horrible mistakes.  At least nothing he could taunt her with.  In that, she considered the week a huge success.  Just a few more hours, she told herself, and she’d be free of this evil, insensitive, annoying and arrogant jerk. 

“Come with me, Ms. Carson,” he snapped, walking by her desk just as she was about to pull out her peanut butter sandwich.  She was starving and wanted nothing more than to ignore his summons.  But she folded the wax paper back over her sandwich and followed him, carrying her notebook and pen because he shot orders at her so quickly she couldn’t remember all of his instructions unless she was writing them down.

In the elevator, she looked up at him, not sure what was going on. “What is next on the agenda?” she asked.  She suspected that she should probably tack on a ‘sir’ after that question, to show her respect, but
she just couldn’t do it.  This man didn’t deserve her respect since he didn’t give any.  “I don’t remember any meeting on your calendar.”  She replied stiffly, keeping to the opposite side of the elevator from him.  She hated feeling so short next to him so if she stood farther away, it didn’t feel like he was towering over her so much.  Besides, his broad shoulders tended to take up more space that she thought he should be allowed. 

He didn’t bother to look at her as he responded.  “Lunch.  If I have to watch you eat another peanut butter sandwich, I might just have to throw it out the window.”  He exited the elevator and walked out of the building, just assuming she would follow. 

Sydney glared at his back with growing impatience.  Who was he to judge her lunch menu?  And how dare he simply command her to follow him.  Well, to be honest, he didn’t command.  He just assumed she would follow him.

She debated it long and hard.  He was already out of the building when she stepped out of the elevator, ignoring the crowd of people waiting impatiently to get on.  She should just turn around and get right back on, eat her sandwich and ignore him. 

When he stopped at the curb and turned around to wait for her, she couldn’t see, but she could definitely feel him raise that dark, impatient eyebrow in her direction.

With anger spurring her on, she stormed out of the building to confront him.  Gracious, she commanded to herself silently.  Be gracious and professional. 

“Thank you so much for the generous offer,” she said, her tone laced with sarcasm since he hadn’t offered anything at all.  “But I must decline your kind-hearted lunch invitation.” 

She was just about to turn around when he stopped her.  “Get into the car, Ms. Watson.”  His voice was firm, filled with authority that just further increased her anger. 

She was just about to argue with him again when he leaned forward and said, “If you don’t get into the car this moment, I guarantee that I will order an entire buffet of food to be delivered to your office and will stand there and watch you eat it.  So if you don’t want to deal with the enormous amount of food I will have delivered so you don’t eat that pathetic sandwich, I suggest you get into the car and order something off of the menu at the very nice restaurant I am taking you to.”

Sydney didn’t doubt that he would do exactly that.  She debated calling his bluff, but she just wasn’t sure about him.  When her stomach grumbled in hunger, she had to grit her teeth at his raised eyebrows. 

Ducking into the back of the limousine, she slid as far away from him as possible, not wanting to catch that spicy, male scent of his, or even risk a possible touch by his arm.  The limousine was large, but he was an enormous man with bulging muscles on his shoulders and biceps, not to mention those incredibly long legs of his. 

A flash of the man naked whipped through her mind and she blushed at the idea.  Thankfully the back of the car was dark so he probably didn’t notice her pink cheeks but she pushed the image aside, forcing her mind to go over all the things she still needed to get done today so she could finish at a relatively early hour.  It was Friday, after all!  This evening, she was looking forward to meeting her friends at the bar down
the street from her apartment, to tell them all about her horrible week and all the frustrations that had been heaped upon her by this obnoxious man.  A pitcher of beer, some cheap, greasy food, the laughter and commiseration from her friends and this whole week could be put back into perspective. 

They drove to the restaurant in silence, Sydney trying very hard to keep her mind from picturing him without the suit on.  She had no clue what he was thinking.  But that was generally the case.  Unless he was showing impatience or irritation, there weren’t any emotions on His Highness’ face.  She thought she might have seen a flash of amusement a time or two over the week in his eyes.  But since the man didn’t have a sense of humor, she was sure she’d been mistaken. 

The restaurant his driver pulled up next to was one of those exclusive places that no one could get into unless they booked a table a year in advance.  But His Highness walked in and Sydney almost stomped her foot in disgust when people actually moved out of the way for him.  The hostess obviously recognized him, gushing over his presence.  There were others waiting for a table already, but the blond, bimbo hostess completely ignored them and led them to one of the best tables.  Sydney sat in the chair and smiled graciously at the waiter who pushed her chair in and snapped her napkin out, laying it across her lap.  She thought it seemed a bit overdone, but she wasn’t a regular patron of these kinds of establishments so she wasn’t sure what the protocol was. 

“That will be all,” Dominic snapped.  He couldn’t control the sharp stab of jealousy towards the waiter when Sydney smiled her thanks.  She was stunningly gorgeous all the time, but her smile softened her features, transforming her face into a gut-wrenching beauty that made all of his possessive instinct jerk to attention. 

He also suspected that the waiter was purposely standing behind her in order to get a look down Sydney’s polyester blouse.  It was poorly made so it didn’t lay properly on her shoulders.  He was relatively sure that she had no idea that she was offering titillating views of those full, soft-looking breasts to whoever was behind or beside her.  He knew simply because he’d been the recipient of those glimpses.  And he certainly didn’t appreciate the waiter doing what he wanted to do. 

Sydney’s smile faded when she turned back to the man sitting across from her.  She didn’t want to look at him so she let her eyes wander around the restaurant.  “You didn’t need to take me out to lunch.  My sandwich was perfectly healthy but this is very nice,” she said, noticing with fascination that the mayor of the city was sitting at a table down below them in the main area.  There was even a famous actress in one corner.  “Everyone here seems to be very well dressed,” she said, her hand moving up to self-consciously touch her brown suit that she’d found at a consignment shop last year.  It had probably been made over forty years ago, but the material was still good and it fit her.  Well, it fit her well enough.  And the price had been only ten dollars.  That definitely fit her extremely tight budget. 

When he didn’t respond in any way, she turned back to him, her eyes nervously lifting to see what he was doing. 

When she found him staring right back at her, obviously patiently waiting for her to look at him, she felt as if her whole body started to flame up with a reaction she didn’t completely understand.  Her heart was suddenly racing, her face felt flushed and the muscles in her stomach tightened.  She sat up straighter, trying to hide her reaction.  This just felt….wrong! 

“That’s better,” he said and leaned forward, taking his own napkin and laying it over his lap.  He signaled to the wine steward who appeared by his elbow immediately.  “Bring us the 2010 Louis Jadot Montrachet.” 

He didn’t ask and the waiter didn’t hesitate.  Apparently, His Highness didn’t need to request anything.  His commands were followed by one and all.  She tried to suppress her resentment, but she had trouble getting a sub sandwich at the local market and yet he could order a stupid bottle of wine just by raising his little finger. 

“You look irritated.  Do you not like white wine?”

She took a deep breath and tried to calm down.  “Wine would be lovely, although I might just fall asleep this afternoon.  I’ll blame it on you because a sandwich doesn’t have the same effect.”  She sat up in her chair, calmly placing her hands on her lap and decided to pretend that all of this elegance was commonplace for her.  She had been intimidated by the man all week, she refused to be intimidated by a mere restaurant.

He chuckled, amazed that she would dare to be so impertinent.  “I’ll accept the consequences of our lunch time fare,” he came back.  “So you’re a graduate student.  What are you studying?”

He ignored the waiter when he came back with the wine.  He absently took a sip, approving of the vintage immediately.  The man came around to her side of the table and poured her a glass of the wine, then left after placing the bottle in a bucket of ice. 

“I’m studying psychology,” she replied, not even wanting to reveal that much to this man.  She didn’t want him to know anything about her.  Once Judy was back, she prayed she would never run into him again.

Sydney was surprised by how sad that idea made her.  Why would she be sad that she’d be free of his tyrannical presence?  “What did you study in college?” she asked, switching the focus back to him.

“Business, of course.  Haven’t you read up about me?”

She shook her head and took a sip of the wine.  But instead of giving him a set down for assuming she would be researching him, she was shocked at the explosion of tastes in her mouth.  “Wow!” she exclaimed, louder than she had meant to be.  She glanced around, relieved that no one had noticed her outburst.  “This is incredible wine!” she almost whispered. 

Dominic chuckled.  “I’m glad there’s something about me that you finally approve of.”

She ignored his gibe and took another sip, still stunned by the crispness and surprising flavor.  “This is really excellent,” she said again, putting the glass down so she wouldn’t drink it all at once.