Eternally Seduced(3)

When I turned to leave, I saw Constantijin blocking my way, his back to  me as he firmly bid Bottle Blonde goodbye. As Constantijin turned  towards me, Bottle Blonde threw me a vicious glance of loathing. I  pretended not to notice because if I did, it would be like a war between  one slut and another and I was no slut  –  even though my body had been  begging to differ from the moment Constantijin started his visual  seduction.         

     



 

Nodding a polite goodbye to him, I kept my head down as I tried to  sidestep him and leave. But he was suddenly in front of me, blocking my  way again. This time, I couldn't help looking up with a mixture of  suspicion and exasperation. I felt just a bit of sexual frustration,  too, but that was neither here nor there.

Constantijin only grinned at the look I gave him, throwing up his hands  in the air as the door slammed shut behind Bottle Blonde's exaggeratedly  swaying hips. "I mean no harm, Ms. Everleigh," he said with exaggerated  wide-eyed innocence.

It took everything in me not to smile back and keep frowning, even  though he looked even more irresistible when he was so obviously  flirting  –  with me. The thought was such a huge turn-on I didn't know  what to do with my body anymore. Should I throw myself at him? Should I  run out of the room and never look back? My virginity was under threat,  after all.

"I look forward to interviewing you later." The way he said the words  made it obvious he had something entirely different in mind.

I physically tried planting the slim heels of my shoes into the ground,  knowing if I didn't, my body would automatically lean towards him, an  instinctive response to the seductive spell he was so expertly weaving  around me.

Looking at his proffered hand suspiciously, I slowly took it for a shake.

And not a second later, I knew I was right to distrust him.  Constantijin's hand immediately locked around mine and he used it to  haul me towards him. I stumbled onto him, and the tips of my nipples  brushed against his chest.

Constantijin inhaled sharply. "You are so fucking sexy."

I tried to struggle out of his hold. "Please stop this," I managed to say. "I'm not interested."

One hand still imprisoning mine, he used his other hand to cup my chin and make me look up.

His smile was breathtaking, and it made my nipples harden even more. "Of course you are," he whispered.

He had already released me by the time I managed to get all my wits  back. Constantijin was opening the door, his tone business-like and  perfectly at odds with the sensual heat in his gaze. "Till later, Ms.  Everleigh."

When the door closed behind me and a voice on the PA system announced  the name of the first interviewee, I practically ran to the restroom so I  could call Alyx privately.

"You won't believe what just happened," I half-shrieked when she answered.

Alyx answered promptly, "You were fired," and made some weird guzzling  sound afterwards. She was thirty floors down, bribed into waiting for me  with a drink-all-you-can treat at Starbucks. Daria  –  our other best  friend and who completed our decades-old-threesome  –  would have been  with her, too, if she wasn't currently sailing the Mediterranean on her  honeymoon with her Greek tycoon.

I glared at my iPhone, wishing I had just FaceTimed Alyx so she would see exactly what I thought of her verbal show of support.

"Very funny." Not waiting for her to answer since Alyx was unbeatable  when it came to smartass comebacks, I said right after, "Constantijin  Kastein is flirting with me."

I waited for her reaction with a madly beating heart. Alyx was a  journalist and she knew everything about anyone who mattered. One look  at Constantijin and you knew he absolutely mattered, more so than a  billion people's lives probably.

Alyx didn't disappoint, and when she actually stopped slurping down her  frappe to exclaim, ‘Whoa', the pace of my heartbeat shot up  dramatically.

"Constantijin Kastein  –  the VP of your company? The guy BBC dubbed as  the King of European Media and Netherland's #1 Playboy? The one Hello  magazine had on its cover last month and a spread of his twenty-three  properties all over the world and his forty-something collection of  sports cars and classics? That Constantijin?"

Of all the things she said, just one thing stood out in my mind. He was  the #1 Playboy in his whole country? No wonder my nipples were still  hard as pebbles. How many women did he have to bed to get that kind of  title? The thought of that beautiful body next to another woman's  created a twinge of pain in my heart, but I told myself it was out of  disgust. I was looking for true love, not sex. I had to remember that.

"Yes," I finally said glumly. "That's the one."

"Why do you sound sad?" Alyx demanded. "Isn't that a good thing? It would mean that he's dynamite in bed!"

I couldn't help giggling, but only because Alyx talked as if she had  oodles of experience when I knew she was as much a virgin as I was.  "Like you'd know."

"I watch porn. You don't."

"I'm blushing for you," I said, and it was true.

"Look, Yanna. You know I don't believe in your true love nonsense. If  Constantijin Kastein wants you, I say go for it. You can't ask for a  more perfect guy to deflower you---"

"Alyx!" I couldn't believe what she was saying.

"I'm just being honest," she said defensively.

"You're, like, not helping, you know?"

"You're, like, totally turned on, aren't you?"

Just this moment, I wished she wasn't such a true friend. That way, she wouldn't have found it so easy to see through me.

"Yanna Everleigh for interview."

I jumped at the words, stunned that even the restroom also had speakers  connected to the building's PA system. I glanced at my watch, my eyes  widening when I realized that only ten minutes had passed. Wasn't I  supposed to be the last one he interviewed? They were all interviewed  then?

"I got to go," I told Alyx, near to hyperventilating at the thought of  going face to face with Constantijin again. God, I was so hopelessly  entranced by him.

"Don't forget to use a condom," Alyx managed to sneak in just before I  ended the call. I glared at my iPhone the second time even as our call  ended. Condom? Yeah, right.

Standing in front of the glass doors, I had to take another deep breath  before knocking. My heartbeat was still thumping so loudly it completely  drowned out the sound of my knock. I turned the knob with shaky fingers  and went in, murmuring, "Mr. Kastein?"

As the door closed shut behind me, I saw Constantijin standing in the  middle of the room, his back to me. He seemed to be gazing at the  magnificent view outside the 180-degree windows spanning half of the  room. When he turned around, I couldn't help but swallow.

He didn't have to say a word for me to know what he wanted.

The blazingly hungry look in his silvery gray eyes was more than enough.

"Call me by my name," he invited huskily.

I hastily averted my gaze before he could command me into doing anything  he wanted with his eyes alone. "I don't think that's appropriate, Mr.  Kastein." I wanted to sound prim and standoffish, but I couldn't fool  myself into ignoring the breathless quality of my voice. I sounded just  as hungry and frustrated as he seemed.

Shit.

When the silence lengthened, I found myself glancing at him. He was  smiling, a dangerously sexy smile that had my hand unconsciously  creeping upward to my chest. It was a futile effort to calm my erratic  heartbeat.

"Yanna?"

"Y-yes?"

"I didn't interview the others."

That stumped me. "W-what?"

"I knew right away who I should hire or not. But you … " He frowned. "I really do need to interview you."

He did? Why did he?

"I will objectively evaluate your answers and I make no promises about your chances for getting the job."

I nodded, still not looking at him.

"But after that … " He paused.

When the silence stretched, I was unable to resist the temptation.

My knees buckled at the promise in his eyes. But it was gone in a flash,  replaced by an impassive mask falling over his face as he spoke. "Sit  down and we'll start the interview."

When I practically collapsed on the seat he had courteously pulled out  for me, I had to pretend I didn't hear him laugh outright. He took the  seat next to me again, pushing his seat closer to mine, closer and  closer until our knees touched once more.

I glared at him.

His eyes laughed at me, as if daring me to be the first to acknowledge what was happening between us.

Constantijin said solemnly, "So it says in your resume you used to work  for your father's pharmaceutical company. Why did you leave?"

Still painstakingly aware of the heat from his body and the way my knees  tingled every time he moved and his knees bumped against mine, I said  haltingly, "It wasn't for me."

"But if I take you … "