CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
MY FAITHFUL HEART
It wasn't long after the Joseph incident that another outside force attempted to assail our marriage.
I wasn't the only one that struggled with jealousy in our marriage, though she managed hers much differently than I did mine.
We were staying in New York for a spell. Luckily Bianca didn't mind traveling, since it was something we did often. She said the changes of scene were nice, and that she liked to paint in different places.
I was working more hours than usual at the Cavendish Manhattan property. I'd been gone from the city a long time, and had to play catch up on a few crucial business ventures.
Clark had stayed back in Vegas, unfortunately, to represent me at some meetings for the casino. He was more than my bodyguard. He assisted me in all things, was a partner in several ventures, but still worked as a personal assistant/jack of all trades. I paid him dual salaries for it, because the more he could do for me the better, as I trusted him implicitly. He'd been with me since I was very young, and I knew he was loyal to a fault.
His absence was particularly unfortunate, as I needed extra assistance in the New York hotel, and since I didn't want to shake up the normal of order of things there for a temporary stay, I had to hire a new assistant.
I had the hiring handled for me, my only requirement that the assistant be competent and able to work long hours for the next two weeks.
I'd weaned myself off micromanaging a while back, and I wasn't going to start again now.
The assistant's name was Winona, and her main purpose was paperwork and coffee. Important stuff.
She was eye catching. I wasn't blind, and I noticed right away that she had the kind of looks that could stop a man in his tracks.
Hourglass curves, deep red hair that was tousled like she'd just come out of a man's bed, with a face that was simply stunning to look at, green eyes that were a startling emerald that I personally thought must have been contacts.
If that wasn't enough, she dressed provocatively and carried herself with the kind of sensuality that a man like me could recognize for what it was. She oozed sex. Everything she did spoke of her fixation on it. She was the kind of woman a man saw in the office and figured she'd just finished fucking someone in the elevator on the way up, because she just needed it that bad, that constantly.
She was the kind of woman I'd have taken the bait from a few years ago.
And bait was just what she was throwing out. She wasn't subtle. I caught her vibe right away. I'd been single not so very long ago. I knew the signs, hadn't forgotten a single trick, from her sidelong stares to her flashes of cleavage, I recognized them all.
I wasn't flirtatious with her. I didn't think I'd ever been particularly flirtatious, even before. I'd been polite but to the point. Now there was no point. Any woman expressing interest in me who was not my wife was nothing but a nuisance.
She was so obvious, in fact, that I found myself addressing it on the first day.
"You're here to do a job," I told her, voice bland. She was bent over my table, pretending to work on something, her cleavage just about falling out of her top. She'd been posing that way for a good five minutes.
"A simple job, no more, no less," I continued. "If you had some other expectations coming into this, I'm going to disabuse you of the notion right now. Do your work, act and dress appropriately, or leave.
She looked up at me, straightened, smoothing her dress, hands running over her voluptuous body to do so. She blinked her eyes slowly, several times, just staring at me.
I thought she might be going for a seductive stare.
Pointedly, I yawned.
Her mouth tightened, and she nodded, then went back to what she was doing.
I sighed. "You have your own desk, out in reception. I'm not particularly keen on sharing mine."
That at least got her out of my hair for a bit.
On her third day, I went into my office's adjacent bedroom, locking the door behind me, and made a phone call to Bianca that was meant to be a simple checking in to say hi call.
Instead, I ended up with my dick out, jacking off into a napkin as she told me what she was doing to herself on the other end.
It was ridiculous. Just out of hand. I'd made love to her that morning, just before work, and still I couldn't help myself. I only let her hang up after she'd promised to come visit me for lunch.
I'd been in the bedroom about forty-five minutes, and I came back out to find Winona was in my office.
She looked startled. She was by my desk but I couldn't for the life of me figure out what she'd been doing.
"What are you doing?" I asked her.
She licked her lips, smoothing her tight dress over her hips. "I—um came to ask you if you needed anything."
I didn't believe her. My eyes narrowed, I looked around my desk, but could see nothing out of place.
"No," I said curtly. "Go work on the tasks I set you to this morning."
"Who's the new girl?" Bianca asked when she came to visit me a few hours later.
I was behind my desk, signing yet another round of tedious paperwork.
"New assistant. Winona. I don't think she's going to last long."
She was studying my face, her expression very blank.
"What?" I finally asked her.
"Have you slept with her?" she asked quietly.
I was horrified. "Of course not! What kind of a question is that?"
"Not recently. I don't mean, have you slept with her just now, I mean, in the past, sometime before me?"
"No. I wasn't even the one to hire her, but frankly, I'm questioning the competency of whoever did. I'm about one more annoyance away from firing her."
"She's been hitting on you," she guessed.
I grimaced. "She's definitely letting me know she's interested."
She didn't say anything more about it, just walking from the office to the bedroom. I'd already unlocked it for her.
I was too distracted to work with her in there. I didn't last five minutes before I followed her.
I had only planned to take an hour lunch out of the busy day, but we wound up in there for three.
And we didn't eat, well, not lunch anyway.
I straddled her thigh, her other leg hugged to my chest. I leaned forward, stretching her deliciously wide while I moved in great heavy thrusts inside of her.
I'd been going for a very long time, taking her almost lazily after so many rounds. When I finally felt my balls drawing up, my seed pumping to my tip, then shooting into her, it caught me by surprise. I hadn't even been trying to come. At this point I'd been just enjoying the feel of her, my cock putting in time memorizing her cunt, savoring the fuck.
I let her leg down, moving to lie directly on top of her, putting enough weight on her to make her breathing more labored.
Her eyes were closed, and I thought she might have already drifted off.
"I don't like Winona," she said quietly. "She's trouble, I think."
I processed that, moving both our bodies around until I was spooning her from behind. "Should I just fire her, then?"
She looked tempted by the notion but shook her head. "Just be careful of her. Be cautious, and don't trust her. The way she looked at me . . . I didn't like it."
Winona made me paranoid, especially after Bianca's warning. I always locked everything up, but I took to double checking things like that a lot. The last thing I needed was to have her crawl into my office bed and make a scene.
It was the next day that I just decided to fire her. She wasn't worth the thought it took to wonder if she was going to be a problem.
She was leaning over my desk again, doing the same damn thing she kept doing, working on my desk when I'd expressly told her not to, her breasts spilling out of her shirt.
"Don't use my desk. Use your desk. How many times do I need to tell you that?"
As I spoke, I'd already made up my mind, but I wasn't planning to deal with her myself. I didn't have the time to spare on trivialities like that. Besides, the idiot office manager who'd hired her should have the honor. I'd wait until she left my office to make the call.
Only, she didn't move away, but moved farther forward, her hands going to the buttons at her neckline, and then beginning to unbutton. Her breasts spilled right out. She wasn't wearing a bra.
What did she think, that I'd be overcome at the sight of some big fake tits?
Needless to say, I was not.
"Okay, that is it. You're done. Collect your things. You are out of here. I'd prefer not to have security escort you, but I won't hesitate."
She did the strangest thing then. One of the most baffling things I'd ever witnessed in my life. So crazy it left me speechless. And slow to react.
First, she took off running. Just sprinted from my office to reception then back again, coming back with a phone in her hand.
Looking deranged, her tits still hanging out of her clothes, she moved to my bookshelf, propping the phone there, camera lens facing the room
She was recording us with her phone.
I got up and moved to the door. I knew it was a fucking setup. I would remove myself and have security take her out.
Her face strangely blank, she shrugged out of her dress. She was naked under, not even wearing panties.
I made it halfway across the room when her rushing naked form made full contact with my retreating clothed one.
She was determined, throwing her arms around me, jumping up to try to straddle me as I attempted to move from the room.
I shouted, loudly, for security. Trying to get away from her, not wanting to put my hands on her, but also wanting her to stop.
Luckily, they responded quickly, pulling her off me, taking her out of there.
"Be sure she is banned from the premises. Revoke any access."
My office manager, Lenny, a man in his forties who had been given the position just over a year prior, went straight for the phone I mentioned to him that she'd left on the bookshelf.
"Erase that video," I told him. "I've no idea what she wanted with it, but I want it gone. Wipe the entire phone, actually. Who knows what else she was up to.
He nodded and agreed, and left with the phone.
I was frazzled. I wanted, first and foremost, to change out of my clothes, that that strange naked woman had been all over. I went to my attached suite, quickly showering and changing into another suit.
I wanted to forget that the entire incident had ever happened.
By the time I got home to Bianca, I just didn't want to talk about it. The whole thing had been odd and pointless, left a bad taste in my mouth, and I just wanted to put it behind me.
We were back in Vegas when the news hit.
A video had been leaked, a drastically doctored video that made it look very bad, made it look like I'd been embracing a naked woman in my office, instead of warding her off.
My first and biggest question: Who had leaked it?
My office manager had a whole hell of a lot to answer for.
My first and biggest concern: Bianca.
Of course. What else?
I was at the casino when it hit. I left right away, as soon as I saw and heard what had been leaked, in fact.
Bianca was not at home and had not answered her phone. It nearly sent me into a panic.
Stephan had not answered his either. A sick feeling was crawling persistently through my belly, snaking its way up to my chest.
Javier picked up on the first ring. "She's with him," he told me.
"Is she all right? Is she upset?"
"Yes. She's upset. Someone emailed her something, a message about, I don't know, whatever is happening with that video."
"How upset?'
Long pause, then, "Very. She's . . . I heard her say to Stephan that you'd lied to her. I think that's the part she's freaking out about."
"Lied? About what?"
"About sleeping with that girl."
She'd seen the video and believed the worst.
It more than stung. It sliced me right open.
In spite of how it all looked, I'd hoped she just knew me better, knew that my faithful heart was unassailable.
"She really thinks I slept with another woman?" I asked, feeling lost.
"No! Not like that. She thinks you lied about sleeping with her before, as in before Bianca."
"I just met that woman a few days ago," I told him.
"I don't know what to tell you. You should just come over, talk to her."
I did. She and Stephan were in their den. He had his arm around her, and she wasn't looking at me.
I watched her face, an all too familiar out of control, helpless feeling overtaking me.
Her face was closed off, expression very blank, and when Bianca didn't want you to read her, she was unreadable.
It was so cold, her anger, her silent condemnation.
I couldn't stand it. I'd rather she raged and caused a scene. Instead, she closed me off, closed herself off, while she processed, sometimes asked a few questions, and then eventually came back around.
It was always on her timeline, though, and often after spending copious amounts of time with Stephan, who could soothe her as no one else could.
I looked at Stephan, knowing this wouldn't go over well, but, "Can we have some privacy please?"
He looked at Bianca. Much to my relief, she nodded for him to go.
I sat beside her, but not close, not touching.
She was so untouchable then, and I couldn't stand to even try to when she was like this. That wasn't what I came to her for. Until it was right again, I didn't want to touch her, not even for comfort.
"It was all staged. Clark is getting the full video now. It will show you very clearly that I was not a willing participant in that.
"I know that. I saw your face in the video. I could just tell. That's not what's bothering me. You lied to me."
We hadn't had an interaction like this in a very long time. She was acting like she didn't trust me, and I just couldn't stand it.
She grabbed her phone, scrolled through it briefly, and then handed it to me.
I squinted at the picture on the screen, then cringed. It was a photo of me. My college days, I saw. At a frat party. I had my arm around a girl with dark hair. Her hand was on my crotch.
I remembered the college me, and though I didn't remember her, or that night. I knew the college me had fucked her right after taking that picture, or at least it was more likely than not what had happened.
The hair was different, and she was much younger here, but the picture was clear enough that I could tell it was Winona.
I glanced up at her. "I didn't remember her, I swear. Whoever sent you this did a lot of homework into an obscure and unmemorable night in my past. Why? I couldn't tell you, but I did not remember this, did not remember her. I swear it. I never would have lied to you on purpose. I never would have let her work there for even five minutes, for that matter, had I known.
Finally she looked at me, studied me for a long time, as though working something out in her head.
"You really slept with that many women that you could run into some and not remember?"
I looked down at my hands, wishing my answer were different, for her sake. "Most of them, I think. Yes. I'm sorry."
She shifted beside me and suddenly she was burrowing into me, her arms wrapping tight.
Shudders of relief rocked through my body.
There she was, my lover was back, just how I needed her.
Touchable.
I could breathe again, the tight thing gripping my chest finally loosening, my hands running over her.
Time passed. And I held her.
"I owe you an apology," she said eventually. "I'm sorry that for that little blip in time, I felt some doubt in you. It was just, everything was laid out so convincingly, so fitted to my own insecurities. Those pictures were so awful, and then to find out you had slept with her and told me otherwise. The idea that you would hide it from me and be working with her, it really messed with my head."
"I swear, I didn't know, didn't remember her at all.
"I know. I know. I believe you. I just, when you've led a life like mine, with so much heartache, and then become so happy you can hardly stand, I guess I was just waiting for something, something to ruin it all. I'm sorry I was susceptible to that awful stunt. I swear to you that it will not happen again.
It took about three days, but finally the rest of the story came out, or most of it.
The woman was mentally unstable, obviously, but the press found proof of it now, and released it.
And the rest of the video was found (thanks to ninja Clark and Lenny's hard drive) the part that showed the whole interaction, un-doctored. Even without audio, it was pretty obvious I'd been ambushed by a crazy woman, and had not been an active or willing participant.
My phone rang. It was my buddy Parker. "Hey, man," I answered. "How are you? How are Sophia and Elliot?"
"We're fine. Listen, I have something to tell you, something I just found out that I figure you need to know."
"Okay. Go on," I said slowly. His tone spoke of something ominous.
"That scandal. That setup with the naked woman in your office that was plastered all over the press—"
"Yes, I'm well aware of all of that. What about it?" It was the last thing I wanted to talk about.
"Jules was behind it. She was working with your office manager. She was sleeping with him. She set it up. All of it. She was working with that deranged woman. They were old friends from college."
I was shocked, though maybe I shouldn't have been. "Why? What on earth could she possibly have to gain from it?"
"I think she's come unhinged, to be honest. Either she's deluded herself that if your wife left you, she'd have a shot, or it was just some sick sort of revenge. Whatever her motivation, things are going to change now for her. She's won't bother you anymore, I assure you. I just wanted you to know. You see, my parents are aware of her part in it. With you being married now, with no contact with Jules, even they are seeing just how serious her problems are. They've cut her off, won't support her, won't give her a dime unless she gets herself help."
"God, your sister is a psycho bitch."
He wasn't offended. "Yes, yes she is."
"Thank you letting me know."
"Of course. Hopefully it will bring you some peace of mind to understand what all was behind that."
"It does."