Chapter 14
Key Six
There was a knock at the door.
This is it, Victoria thought. He’s come here to fire me.
She walked towards the door, took a deep breath and opened it.
It was Mrs. Sellers.
“Mr. Chase regrets he cannot join you for dinner, Victoria,” the elderly housekeeper said. “He had to leave. However, he’s requesting that you stay over Sunday night till Tuesday morning.”
“Why?” As soon as she spoke, Victoria realized she may have sounded hysterical. “I mean, does he need me for ...”
“Mr. Chase is leaving for a business trip to Beijing on Saturday. He’ll be gone for a few days, and he would like it if you kept Benson company while he’s gone. Could you come by on Sunday?”
“Oh, yes, I’ll be happy to,” Victoria said. I’m not getting fired after all.
“He will, of course, compensate you for your time, and you’re free to attend to your other job and social activities during that time.”
“I am?”
Mrs. Sellers smiled. “Of course. You don’t have to be here all day. He just needs you to check on Benson - make sure he does his homework and has everything he needs for school.”
“All right. I’ll be here on Sunday. Is there anything else?”
“Dinner will be ready in half an hour.”
“Thank you.”
As she closed her bedroom door, Victoria felt like a huge weight on her shoulders disappeared. She wondered, however, why Sebastian suddenly left the house.
The memory of when he’d lashed out at her at his study still made her heart hurt. She was an adult who had never been ashamed of her life choices, and yet one word from Sebastian and her confidence was shattered. His probing questions and that judgmental look on his face made her question her self-worth, made her feel small.
And yet ... all that time she spent with him — dinner, shopping, having a quiet talk in his study — made her forget the rest of the world existed. When he wasn’t criticizing her, he was kind and thoughtful and he actually listened to what she had to say.
Not to mention the fact that the way he looked at her made her knees weak.
Victoria walked across her enormous room and plopped down on the bed, burying her head on a pillow, trying to find comfort in the warm, scented sheets. She’s had crap jobs before. An overbearing, judgmental boss was nothing she’d had to deal with before. Why was this one bothering her so much? He was gorgeous and smart and rich, yes, but that didn’t explain why she craved his approval so much.
She wasn’t stupid — she didn’t harbor any hope that he could be interested in her as a woman. They didn’t seem to have anything in common. She was a waitress who served coffee and doughnuts, and he could walk into any fancy restaurant without a reservation and still be seated at the best table. He had sophisticated tastes, and she couldn’t recognize a three-thousand-dollar coat if it landed on her lap. He was a successful, powerful businessman, and she was a failure as a writer.
This had to stop. Victoria needed to stop thinking about him, stop wondering what he thought of her, stop caring so much about his opinion of her. She would do her job, and if he had anything else to say about her clothes or her writing, she would smile and ignore it. The way she did with all her previous employers.
If only she could just stop thinking about how good he smelled, or how her heart skipped a beat whenever she saw him. Or which one of the many, many rooms in this enormous house he would sleep in tonight.
The next day, Victoria’s phone rang while she was changing after her shift at the Foxhole. “We’re going out,” Nicolette said without preamble.
“Tonight? Aren’t you busy?” Victoria said.
“Client canceled. He had to go out of town for business. You’re not working at Chase’s house tonight, are you?”
“No, I’m done for the week. I’m not sure I can afford to go out tonight, though.” Victoria had just wired her paycheck to her mother, and she wouldn’t be getting another one till next weekend. “I’ll be getting some extra cash next week,” she added, remembering the extra days Sebastian would be paying her for. “We could go out then.”
“I might not get a Friday night off for some time, sweetie. I’ll take care of everything tonight, and you can pay me back next week, ok? C’mon, you have all those nice new clothes, you need to take them out for a spin.”
Victoria laughed. “Okay. I’ll be on my way home in a bit.”
She had to admit she could use some fun. Nicolette insisted on dressing her for the evening out, even putting on her make-up and doing her hair.
“Why didn’t you ever offer to do my hair before?” Victoria asked. She was sitting at the dresser, trying to keep still as Nicolette took off the curlers she had Victoria wear for half an hour. Her red locks bounced in shiny waves around her shoulders.
“Hmmm. Maybe I just don’t want your nice dress ruined by your usual ponytail,” Nicolette said. “There, isn’t that better?”
Victoria smiled at her reflection. “Wow. I look older.”
“Sophisticated, you mean. You’ll have the boys drooling at the club tonight, especially in that dress.”
“I don’t even know why I have this.” Victoria winced, looking down at her low neckline. She was wearing a black cocktail dress that showed off her cleavage and half her back. “Did Deborah think I’d be needing this for tutoring a ten-year-old boy?”
“What makes you think Chase didn’t personally choose that himself?” Nicolette put her hands on Victoria’s bare shoulders and leaned over, her head beside Victoria’s. “Maybe he wants you to do more than just tutor his son.”
“Very funny, Nic.”
“Seriously, he hasn’t made a move on you yet?”
“No! I mean ... not really.”
“Well, either he has or he hasn’t, which is it?”
Victoria took a deep breath. “He asked me — hypothetically — if I would pay him to sleep with me.”
“I’m sorry, what?”
“We were discussing your... job,” Victoria said, relieved she had someone to finally talk to about it. “Then said that if I was okay with you sleeping with men for money, then I ought to be okay with paying men for sex. Then he asked me if I’d pay him for sex.”
Nicolette let out an exaggerated gasp. “Please tell me you said yes.”
“He was bluffing, ok? He went on about how full of crap I was, how I never seemed to follow through with what I want.”
“I don’t understand.” Nicolette frowned. “Was he hitting on you or giving you a lecture?”
“Giving me a lecture.” Victoria sighed. “He made me seem like a stupid kid who wasn’t doing anything with her life.”
“Jesus, your boss is weird.”
“He’s not as weird as you think, I’m probably just explaining it wrong,” Victoria said. “Mostly because I don’t understand him myself.”
“He’s weird, Vic. Does he not have anything else to do with his time than lecture you about your life choices?”
“Actually he’s really busy. I barely see him when I’m over there.”
“Yeah, well, forget him. Let’s go. Time for you to have fun.”
There was a long queue outside Key Six but Nicolette confidently walked directly up to the entrance, with Victoria following nervously. As soon as he saw Nicolette, the bouncer grinned and unhooked the velvet rope to let them through. “Cute date, Ms. West,” he said.
“Thanks, Sam,” Nicolette said. “This is my roommate, Victoria.”
“Nice to meet you,” Victoria said, smiling. When they were inside, she whispered to her friend’s ear, trying to be heard over the loud music, “You come here a lot?”
“A couple of my clients like it here,” Nicolette said. “I always make sure they tip the staff generously. They love me for it.”
Key Six was one of the more expensive clubs in the area. Even Victoria could see how posh the interior was, and how well-heeled the clientele looked. A tall, beautiful blonde African-American woman in a manager’s suit approached them, a smile on her face. “Ms. West, how lovely to see you tonight. Did you reserve a table?”
“Clara, hi,” Nicolette said. “I’m afraid a table reservation is too steep for us. My friend and I were just going to hang out at the bar tonight.”
“If you like, I could give you table twelve. Compliments of the house. It’s a little small, but if it’s just the two of you...”
“Thank you! We’ll take it.”
“Wow,” Victoria said as they sat down. The table was for two, with one couch that was only big enough to fit three people. “They really do love you here.”
“It’s just so nice to be here with a girlfriend for a change,” Nicolette said. “Do you like it?”
“Yes!” Victoria could barely hear her over the music. She didn’t go to clubs often, but with the energy of the people around her and the hypnotic beat of the music, she was starting to relax and enjoy herself.
“Two martinis, please,” Nicolette said to the waiter, a tall, cute, blond who eyed her appreciatively.
“Are all the waiters here this gorgeous?” Victoria asked, her eyes following another tall waiter walking past their table. He was black and had a shaved, perfectly-shaped head and amazing arms.
Nicolette laughed. “You’re drooling, girl. And the wait staff aren’t the only pretty ones here. Check out the guys over there.”
Turning toward where Nicolette was looking, Victoria saw three men at a table staring at them, smiling. She turned away quickly.
“Cute, right?”
Victoria nodded. “Wait, are we here to pick up boys?”
“We’re here to do whatever you want, Vic.”
The waiter arrived with a bottle of champagne. He set down an ice bucket by their table, and two flute glasses in front of them. “Compliments of Mr. Kirkconnell,” he said, pouring the bubbly wine into their glasses.
“Who?” Victoria said.
“Ardan!” Nicolette leaned forward, resting her elbow on her knee crossed over her other leg. “Fancy seeing you here. I thought you’d be at Fire tonight.”
A tall, dark-haired man in a black shirt and tie appeared in front of them. He bent down and gave Nicolette a kiss on the cheek. “Not in the mood for it, gorgeous,” he said.
“Really?” Nicolette said, looking at him suspiciously.
“Seriously!” he said. He turned to Victoria and smiled. “Somehow, I’m even more glad I came here.”
The first thing Victoria noticed was his dark eyes, framed by incredibly long eyelashes. Then her eyes fell on the sensual curve of his lips.
“Victoria, this is Ardan,” Nicolette said. “You here with anyone, Ardan?”
“A couple of guys from work,” he said to Nicolette, but his eyes stayed on Victoria. “But I’m sure they won’t mind if I ditch them for you.”