Billionaire Bad Boys of Romance 2(30)

“What’s going on in there?”

I recognized the voice immediately. It was the old man who had gone for a swim.

“Fuck!” muttered Jaime. “I’m not going to rush this.” He leaped up from the bench and stormed out the shower, leaving me tied up and throbbing. I assumed he was going to return right away with our robes. Hurry!

The door re-opened. I gasped. The little old man, shuffled into the shower. His skin was prune-like from his long swim, and a towel was wrapped around his waist. It fell to the wet tiled floor upon seeing me, naked and bound to the handicapped railing. He was not a pretty sight.

“I want whatever he had,” he said brightly.

Oh, fuck! He wasn’t just an old man. He was a dirty old man! Oh God! Had Jaime abandoned me? Left me helplessly stranded with this horny geezer?

My panic button sounded. Just as my mind skipped to the worst possible scenario, Jaime burst through the shower door. He was wearing his beltless robe and had mine draped over his arm. His large balls and cock, now in a relaxed state, peeked out of the robe opening.

“Excuse me, sir,” he said calmly. “My girlfriend needs to take her meds.”

Girlfriend? Meds?

He quickly unbound me and helped me put on my robe. I was mortified every which way. Before I could say a word, he swept me up into his arms. The old man looked at us, baffled. “Sorry,” said Jaime, as he kick-opened the door and carried me out. “She swoons in showers.” Amusement flickered in his eyes.

Once outside the shower, I was simmering mad. “What the fuck! Where the hell did you go? Why did you leave me for so long?” Each question flew out faster than the one before.

A sheepish grin spread across his beautiful face. “Sorry. I had to take a leak. And jerk myself off.” He gently set me down on my feet.

I blew out air to release the rage that was consuming me.

“Don’t be mad at me. It wasn’t my fault. I’ll make it up for it at dinner.”

My lips snarled. “There’s not going to be any dinner.”

He fisted a clump of my loose tangled hair and tugged at it hard. “Hey, remember what you said. A deal is a deal.”

My words. Another life lesson from Madame Paulette. I scoffed at him. “Do you have a place in mind?”

“Raoul’s. It’s very expensive.”

I scrunched my face. “Fine. Meet me downstairs at the entrance of the hotel at eight.”

“Perfect.”

Damn it. I was stuck with dinner. And the possibility that this challenging man who knew how to make me fall apart was going to be in my life in more ways than one.





Chapter 9

I spent the rest of the day running around the city doing store checks. We had retail outlets in every borough—except Brooklyn. Borofskyland. It irritated Victor that I refused to open a Brooklyn store; it was a missed opportunity, especially since Brooklyn, now a chic place to live, catered to affluent Gen X’ers. The money-hungry opportunist didn’t understand it was one place I could never go back to. It held a terrible memory for me and it was too risky. Boris was still living there according to Intelius.com, and I was sure that he’d recognize me immediately.

Thank goodness, I had Nigel to get me around because the city traffic was impossible. As he expertly navigated it, transporting me from one store to the next, I couldn’t stop thinking about Jaime Zander. He was unraveling me, bringing me to sensual and emotional places I’d never been before. And I was letting him. I hardly knew this man. It had to stop, especially if we ended up working together. The last thing I needed in either my personal or professional life was a fucked up relationship. I made an executive decision. Over dinner, I was going to bring this all to an end. Just keep everything to business.#p#分页标题#e#

The store visits were a welcome distraction. For the most part, the city retail outlets were all in good order. I enjoyed spending time with the general managers as well as their sales assistants. It was also good to observe first-hand the shopping patterns of customers. I even chatted with some and got some valuable consumer insights. All were very excited about the possibility of Gloria’s Secret sex toys.

I caught up with Kevin and Vivien at the Fifth Avenue flagship store in the mid afternoon. We were having a special in-store event there—a fashion show. A scaled-down version of our big extravaganza. There was going to be coverage by one of the local cable channels as well as by numerous bloggers. Gift cards and coupons were being offered to shoppers in attendance. Kevin, as always, was handling everything beautifully. Vivien, however, wore a resentful expression. She had actually e-mailed me that she wanted to go shopping while she was in Manhattan. I had to remind her this was a business trip, not a vacation.