Chapter 2
Pierre
“We need you to approve the new security systems before we roll them out,” Callie Patterson, Pierre’s executive assistant said as she handed him a clipboard. He looked at her and then at the paperwork in his hand.
“Wait, which security systems were these again?” he asked as he looked at her.
“First Community Bank. The security measures to reinforce their secure room,” Callie said raising an eyebrow. She was surprised he had to be reminded of that conversation since it had been all the company had been about for the last few days.
“Oh yeah, that,” he muttered as he reached for a pen from his inside jacket pocket. She looked at him as he scribbled his signature at the bottom of the page.
“Are you okay?” she asked and he nodded.
“Yes, why are you asking?” he asked as he handed back the paperwork to her.
“Well, you’ve been a little out of it lately,” she said. “The last few months to be exact.”
Pierre shrugged.
“I’m just tired, Callie,” he pointed out as he hit the elevator button. “It’s been a rough couple of months.”
He really didn’t want to get into anything with Callie. Not right now. He knew exactly what she was going for and he was not about to fall for it. Not again. Not this time.
“Do you need me to do something about it? Because you know I can,” she said and Pierre shook his head.
“Callie, we are still at the office. Remember my rules?” he asked as the elevator doors opened.
“Again with the rules,” Callie said in a soft voice and she rolled her eyes. They stepped into the elevator and Pierre sighed loudly before he turned to look at her.
“What do you mean ‘again with the rules’?” he asked when the elevator doors closed.
“It’s just the way you act when you are around me in the office…it’s very different compared to the way you do when we are alone at our suite.”
Pierre had been right about what was going through her head and it was getting annoying. He had been very clear that his arrangement with Callie was purely physical. He was not one to make personal romantic connections that lasted. Especially not one with Callie. It was not that she was not attractive. Callie was beautiful, the perfect woman – some would have said. She was tall, athletic and everyone who saw her always asked where she had her tits done even though she had never had any work done. She had the perfect waist bust ratio that so many women struggled to achieve. But even though she was the perfect woman to most men, she was not the kind of woman Pierre was looking to settle down with, not that he was even ready to settle down yet.
“This is exactly what I am talking about Callie,” Pierre started as he looked at her. “At the office, I am Mr. Savant and you are my assistant. That’s just it but when we are alone, we can be anything we like.”
“But why can’t that magic spread to the office?” she asked and he turned to look at her.
She expected him to say something but instead he pinned her against one wall of the elevator so suddenly that the clipboard in her hand dropped to the floor with a loud clutter. She was breathing hard as she looked into his eyes. He had one hand slowly pulling her pencil skirt up and almost instinctively, she spread her legs allowing his hand to find its way up to her already warm core.
“Remember, I make the rules here, Callie,” he said in a soft voice as he gently caressed her already swollen clit. She bit her lower lip and her breathing had been reduced to slow gasping breaths. “We meet when I say we meet. We fuck when I say we do and I tie you up when I see it fit.” He brought his other hand up from her shoulder and held a lock of her hair. She let out a small whimper when he gently yanked at her hair. “Understand?” he asked and she nodded.
“Use your words, Callie.”
“Yes,” she said when she managed to find her voice.
“Good. Don’t ever forget that,” he said as he let go of her hair and straightened his jacket.
“So, would today be one of those days you want me at the suite?” Callie asked as she picked up the clipboard. Pierre shook his head.
“I am on my way to Switzerland for the convention, remember?” he said. The elevator doors opened and he looked at her. They’d already had this conversation. There was some business that had to be taken care of in New York and the only person who was well versed enough to handle it was Callie. The rest of the team – his team were already in Switzerland laying the groundwork for all the potential business they would be leaving with. Callie would be flying in a day after Pierre and by the way she was looking at him and talking to him, he knew that she would have done anything to be with him on his private jet.
“I know but I can handle everything virtually. You know that,” Callie pointed out but he shook his head.
“You and I both know that Sinclair Roswell is all about personal contact and he was very clear. If it wasn’t me then it had to be you.” He looked at her and shook his head. “Where’s your head at, Callie? These are two very important commitments for SSL. We cannot miss either of them.”
He stepped out of the elevator and made his way to his car as she followed him closely.
“But Pierre, the whole point of having your own jet is the fact that they cannot leave without you,” Callie said as he unlocked the car. “Why don’t you just…” she started before he banged his hand against the side of the car, shutting her up.
“Pour l'amour de Dieu Callie!” He glared at her. “Why the hell are you trying to get under my skin?”
“I’m not…I’m just…” she started before he opened the passenger door for her. “What are you doing?”
“Get in,” he commanded.
“Why?” she asked and he clenched his fist. It was all he could do not to shove her into the car like a crazed kidnapper. “You will be late for your flight.”
“You said it. My jet, my rules.”
Callie looked at him for a long second before she reluctantly climbed into the passenger seat. Her heart was racing as she looked at him walking around the front of his car to get into the driver’s seat.
“Buckle up,” he ordered as he started the car engine. He was quiet as he pulled out of the SSL parking lot. She wanted to ask what was going on, where he was taking her but then again, she had brought this on herself. Whatever was happening at that moment, it was all her fault. It took a few minutes before it finally dawned on her where he was taking her – he was taking her to his place in the Upper East Side. The quiet twenty minute drive seemed to take longer than usual, maybe because he was being unusually quiet. When he finally pulled up in front of his apartment building, her heart was beating so hard and fast she could almost hear it.
“Come up with me,” Pierre said in a commanding tone before he got out of the car.
Callie took a long deep breath and got out of the car. She gave a polite smile to the doorman as they walked past towards the elevator. For some reason, she still had the clipboard with her. She was hugging it tightly as they rode up to his apartment. As soon as they were in his apartment, he turned around and pinned her against the closed door. He was standing so close to her that she could feel his warm breath on her cheek.
“I think there is something you don’t understand,” he said in a hush whisper. “This arrangement we have is simply physical. No emotion. No attachments and definitely no public appearances.”
“But Switzerland is just business…” she started but he never gave her a chance to say anything. He unbuckled his belt and let his pants drop to the floor.
“You have to make it up to me,” he said. “Right now.”
“Yes sir,” Callie said nodding. She got on her knees and slowly pulled off his boxer shorts. She went down on her knees and took him into her mouth in one swift move, his hand firmly on the back of her head. She knew better than to try to deny him especially now that she had pissed him off. She was gagging and breathing hard as he pushed himself deeper and deeper into her throat. He was not usually like this but he needed to remind her where her place was.
Both Callie and Pierre knew that the only other way everything would have worked out would have been for Pierre to handle the pending business himself but the convention was something he couldn’t miss. Not even a minute of it. This was the first convention in years where he knew there were millions in potential clients, software and systems. He even had it on good authority that a new cyber security firm from Hamburg was bringing on board a kickass firewall that would make what Homeland and the CIA had look like child’s play. There were no two ways about it. Pierre was a big believer in being the best and he had managed to be ahead of the competition for this long by always having the upper hand. And there was no way in hell he was going to let an insecure booty call make him lose out on his winning streak.
She was breathing hard as he exploded in her mouth.
“Handle the business here and be on the earliest flight to Zurich,” Pierre said as he pulled his cock out of his mouth. “And Callie,” he said as he pulled his pants up.
“Yes, Mr. Savant?” she asked as he looked up at him.
“Never, ever second guess me again.”
*****
There were three different personalities as far as Pierre Savant’s story went. The tabloids painted him as an attractive single man, eye candy to be more specific. Serious publications such as Forbes and Business Weekly named him as one of the most influential businessmen of the 21st Century. To his family members and close family, he was the sensitive man who was still struggling to get over his divorce with his wife of twelve years, Rafaela Montenegro, a retired fashion model. As far as he knew it, he was a different person depending on the kind of crowd he was facing. On this particular day, he was the sensitive man.
The divorcee.
The man struggling with a difficult woman just so he could get to see his kids four times a year.
Today, Pierre was just tired. Apart from the pending business he had charged Callie with back in New York, he also had his own pending business. He could not tell her that one of his daughters had called him in an extremely scared voice to tell him that mommy wouldn’t wake up. He was not a big believer in sharing personal info with his staff and especially not Callie. As far as he could see, she was a loose cannon, one that he could not afford to have fired. Sometimes he wished he could go back and just have a simple professional relationship with her. But that ship had sailed. Callie was a great no strings attached partner but lately, it seemed that she had more than a few strings attached. She might have been a great assistant, sometimes, even an excellent one but the complications she was bringing lately were proving strenuous to their relationship to say the least. Especially at work.
At that moment, all he could think of was handling the situation at hand without losing his cool which was particularly hard because all he could think of was his kids. His reason for waking up every morning. His very heartbeat.
The eight hours he was in transit to Nice seemed to be the longest ever. He hated the fact that it had been three years since his divorce from Rafaela and yet, he still had to make good with his ex-wife.
“Where are they?” he asked when he got to Rafaela’s house in the French Riviera.
“Mr. Savant…” Frances, Rafaela’s maid said when she opened the door.
“Where are my girls, Frances?” Pierre was walking into the house, quickly as he looked in every room in his way. The maid seemed to be tongue tied as he raced up the stairs. He opened the first bedroom and sighed in relief when he saw his twin daughters asleep on their mother’s bed. He leaned against the doorframe and crossed his arms over his chest.
“How long have they been asleep?” he asked Frances who was standing behind him.
“Two maybe three hours,” Frances said.
“And Rafaela?”
“She had a party last night with some workmates and….” Frances started before he turned around and looked at her. The look in his eyes was enough to make her stop talking.
“I don’t care what she did last night. All I want to know is where she is.”
“When she woke up….”
“So she did wake up after all. Did the doctor see her?” Pierre asked cutting her short. Frances shook her head.
“She just took her car and left.”
“Left for…where exactly? Where did she go?” Pierre pressed.
“I don’t know, Mr. Savant.” Frances shrugged. “She usually comes back after a few hours.”
“Usually?” he asked and Frances nodded.
“She usually sleeps off the alcohol and the…” her voice trailed off but he knew what she wanted to say.
“She sleeps off the alcohol and the drugs.” Frances nodded. “Why haven’t you ever called me?”
“Mrs. Rafaela told me that if I ever told anyone that she would kill me and the way she said it, I know she meant it.”
Pierre knew of Rafaela’s threats a little too well. Heck, he had been on the receiving end of some of them in the past.
“The kids…where were they during the party?” he asked and she bit her lower lip.
“They were in their room.”
He looked at her and shrugged.
“In their room?” he asked. “And what…the guests….” He was struggling to find the right words but it was almost impossible to say what he was thinking. He knew the kind of parties Rafaela threw. It was always her and her peers in the fashion industry which meant that this must have been some kind of C & C party: Champagne and Cocaine. Last he checked, she had been getting help but if she was throwing parties with her ‘workmates’ it meant that she was exposing his girls to the very elements he was trying to protect them from. He could tell that Frances had been busy trying to clean up the house but he could almost picture what had been happening the previous evening.
“Last time it was not as bad as last night and…” Frances said and he raised an eyebrow.
“Wait, last time?” he asked and the color drained from her face when she realized that she had said too much. “You need to tell me, Frances. Right now…I mean my girls are here with her and… Please Frances. Please tell me… Has this happened before? She has thrown another kind of party with alcohol and drugs with my girls just down the hall?” he asked as he looked into her brown eyes.
He could tell that Frances was scared, probably because she didn’t want to lose her job.
“Frances. Please tell me,” he said, his heart racing. It took a long minute before Frances nodded reluctantly. He ran his fingers through his hair as he took long deep breaths to calm himself down.
“Pack the girls a bag, Frances. Right now.” He walked into the room and sat on the edge of the bed looking at the girls. This was it. This was the straw that had finally broken the camel’s back. He was done bending to Rafaela’s rules.
“What do you mean…but Mrs Rafaela…” Frances started but he shook his head.
“I don’t care about Rafaela right now,” Pierre said through gritted teeth. “She brought drugs and alcohol into my house with my kids in it. This is a deal breaker.”
“But what do I say when Mrs…” Frances started before he shook his head.
“You won’t say anything because you are coming with us.”
“Monsieur Savant?”
“I know you travel with Rafaela a lot which means you have a passport, right?” Pierre asked as he reached into his jacket pocket and she nodded. “I’ll not have my kids under the care of some stranger. I pay your salary after all. It’s just that…we will be cutting out the middleman this time.”
Frances’ lips were open as if she wanted to say something but somehow, she just couldn’t speak.
“The plane is already on the runway, Frances. We’ll be wheels up in an hour.”
“An hour? But that’s is barely enough time to…” she started before he turned, putting a hand up.
“Make. It. Work.” The commanding tone in his voice was enough to make her know that she needed to do whatever he’d asked. And fast.
Pierre had just dialed Callie’s number when one of his daughters’ eyes fluttered open. He smiled and hung up as he looked at her.
“Hey baby,” he said as the girl, Ariadne rubbed her sleepy eyes.
“Papa, you are not supposed to be here until next week,” she said as she got up to hug him. He held her tightly and kissed the side of her head before he pulled away.
“Well, Adele I couldn’t wait to see you.”
“Papa, you got us mixed up again I’m Ariadne. She is Adele,” Ariadne said in a soft voice and Pierre smiled.
“Of course…how could I get my girls so mixed up?” he asked just as Adele stirred in her sleep before she woke up. “Hey there sleepy head.” He gently tucked a lock of Adele’s hair behind her ear before pulling her up to give her a hug.
“You’re here,” Adele said and he nodded.
“I am but we’re not staying. You two better get ready,” he said in a soft voice. “You are coming with me.”
“But we are not supposed to come until the summer,” Ariadne said and he nodded.
“I know but mommy is a little busy so, you and aunt Frances are going to SoCal.”
“What about you?” Adele asked, still a little sleepy.
“I have some business to handle but I will Skype you every single day until I am back home.” He gently stroked Adele’s hair. “You are going to have fun in SoCal. You guys love that house. Remember the pool and if you get tired of the pool, Frances can take you down to the beach.”
“How long will you be gone?” Ariadne asked and Pierre shrugged.
“Just a few days. A week on the higher side but I should be back home and playing in the pool with the two of you by Saturday morning.”
“Can’t we come with you?” Adele asked and Pierre shook his head.
“You will have more fun without me. I promise. Plus I got you a surprise there but only if you promise to walk and clean up after the surprise,” he said as he looked at his daughters’ blue-green eyes grow wide.
“You got us a puppy!” Ariadne squealed and he feigned seriousness.
“I cannot disclose the nature of the surprise…” Pierre started saying before the two six year olds jumped on him excitedly. He laughed as he fell back on the bed holding each girl in either hand. “Okay…okay…go get ready. We don’t want to be late.” The girls pulled away and he stood up.
“Get dressed. I’ll wait downstairs,” he said as he reached for his phone again.
He made his way to the living room as he dialed Callie’s phone again.
“Hey, I need you to organize how a Siberian husky pup will get to my South California home by the morning. Actually if you can do it today, the better,” he started before she even had a chance to say anything. “I also need a crisis management firm. The very best there is…I don’t care how much it will cost.”
“Wait…so, Siberian husky puppy…I know a guy in Santa Barbara so that’s sorted but why the hell do you need a dog?” Callie asked. The way she was talking made Pierre know that she was probably writing everything down.
“It’s not for me,” Pierre said.
“Oh…okay. And a crisis management firm…” he heard Callie sigh. “Wait, you work with one of the country’s leading crisis management firms. Pittman and Associates.”
“Oh yeah.” That had completely skipped his mind. At the mention of Pittman and Associates, his mind went back to the first time they had worked together, specifically to a woman he met there: Arnold Pittman’s right hand, Chloe White. He had only seen her once but he couldn't get her off his mind. Sometimes, he thought of her when he was inside Callie. Others might have considered Callie the ideal woman but there was something about Chloe that just screamed perfection. He had always been attracted to independent women and Chloe was all that and a whole lot more. She had perfectly flawless brown skin and her natural curves were nothing if not pure temptation. The first time he had seen her he could not help but think she was the reason the word ‘sex’ was created. She was simply gorgeous in every sense of the word. And working with her again, and on a project so close to his heart…it was a sure way of ensuring that he stayed as close to her as he possibly could. Maybe the stars would align in his favor and he could finally have her.
“I did meet the CEO when we were signing the partnership agreement…heck, I don’t know the first thing about crisis management.”
“So….” Callie started.
“I don’t know…” he ran his fingers through his hair. He knew that contracting a crisis firm was a bit of a reach even for him but he was desperate. He was in a crisis after all.
“Pittman and Associates have handled some of the world’s worst situations…I mean, Senator Cleary’s affair, the rigged presidential election…” Callie’s voice trailed off. “Pittman may be the CEO but the real magic worker is his second in command. Chloe White.”
“Like I don’t know that,” he thought.
“Then that is the person I want to talk to,” he said in a soft voice.
“Can I ask what this is about, Mr. Savant?” Callie asked and Pierre shook his head as if she could see him.
“No, you may not. Just send me her contact info. ASAP.” He sat down when he hung up and took another long deep breath. “Well, what are the odds?” he thought as he looked around. He could tell that Frances had been hard at work cleaning up because the imminent smell of bleach was literally all over the place. He could almost picture what the place had been like a few hours ago. Drunk models and actors doing blow just meters away from his children.
He looked at his phone when he heard a text come in: Callie’s text. He didn’t waste any time. He dialed the number Callie had sent and listened to it ringing.
“Chloe White,” he heard a soft voice say.
“Chloe, hello. I would like to contract your services as soon as possible,” Pierre said.
“Okay but you should go through my boss Arnold Pitt…” Chloe started but he was not about to let her finish.
“I already have Arnold Pittman’s name on my contact list but I have it on good authority that you are the name behind the magic.”
“Well, thanks but…I can’t do anything until next week. I am at a week-long convention in Switzerland,” she said.
“That’s perfect because I am en-route to Zurich. I can meet you as soon as I land,” he said. “I’ll see you then.”
“Wait, who is…” she started saying but he had already hung up. He looked up at his daughters who were walking into the living room in matching outfits.
“Ready to go, les filles?” he asked as he looked at Ariadne, Adele and Frances.
“This time Rafaela, you will not get to keep my children,” he thought as he took Adele and Ariadne’s hands in his own.