Taken By The Billionaire (2 page)

Fuck it, if I could help the girl I would.

“Do you have a resume?” I asked. Then, clicking my fingers and smiling like I’d just had a brainwave of Einstein proportions I said that I was just about to fire my assistant for letting her get into the office in the first place. “There’s Alexandra’s job if you want it?” I finished.

Kylie smiled weakly at my attempt at humor. I hadn’t been serious about firing Alexandra, not totally anyway, but I would be talking to her later that day. Rest assured, there was no way she would be getting away with it.

Kylie brushed the comment aside and showed what I would come to recognize as her core of steel, single-minded determination. “No,” she said, her tone insistent. “What I mean is I want the lead in your new film.”

Astounded by the ridiculousness of that request I nevertheless kept a poker face and quashed my immediate response of:
You’re taking the fucking piss?
Instead I replied with, “So you’re an actress?”

Diffident, Kylie’s head dipped as she studied her shoes. “No,” she responded in a small voice. “At least not yet; I don’t have any experience.”

“Do you know how big the budget is on my next project?” I asked gently.

Kylie shook her head.

“Without mentioning numbers,” I continued, “I’ll tell you. It’s huge, probably enough to buy a medium-sized country.” I paused to let that sink in. “It’d be too big a risk,” I added. “As much as I admire your ambition, Kylie, there’s just no way that I can give you that role.”

The contrite manner of a couple of seconds ago vanished in an instant. “What I want, Mister Taylor is a chance to show everyone, especially that bitch and my precious ex-fiancé,
that I’m as good as …” She paused and shook her head, knuckles whitening as she clenched her fists “… No,” she continued. “I don’t want to be
as
good, I want to prove I’m better than she
is. And I want to make Rafe
sorry he ever cheated on me.”

She went all mental then. Ranting and raving and waving her arms, calling her sister names of the most uncomplimentary nature.

“Mister Taylor,” she hissed, eyes flashing as she finally cooled a little and, passion spent for the moment, slumped back in her chair. “I might not have the experience, but I’m determined.” Kylie’s chest heaved with emotion, the twin swellings of her breasts drawing my eyes. “Please, Mister Taylor, I’ll do anything for that role. I’m begging you. I’m desperate to get back at Jenny. I know you can’t stand her, that’s why I came to you. You know what she’s like. I thought you’d understand better than anyone else in the business. I know you’re supposed to be a tough cookie and that you work your people hard. I’ve heard about your reputation, that you’re all macho and difficult to please. But I’ve also heard you’re totally professional, firm but fair.

“Please give me that role, Mister Taylor. I won’t let you down. I promise. Anything you say, just name it, I’ll do it.”

“You’d bring me coffee whenever I called for it?” I joked, grinning after her complimentary speech.

The girl’s personality shone through when, without missing a beat, she gave a wry grin of her own. “Anytime. Day or night, Mister Taylor.”

“Even at two in the morning? To my house?”

Then, to my surprise, my body responded to the thought of Kylie actually bringing me a coffee in the middle of the night. I could see her, hair all tousled from my bed, her lips swollen from my kisses, swamped by my bathrobe as she handed me the cup and then let the robe slide off her shoulders. I felt my heartbeat quicken in my chest while, as my cock stiffened, I stared into the girl’s face. My tongue felt huge in my mouth as I said in a voice thick with desire, “Would you bring my coffee right to my bed, Kylie?”

She stared at me for a long moment, perhaps deciding if I was only flirting or if my treacly tone meant I had a darker motive in mind.

“I’ll even wear Playboy bunny ears if it’ll get me the job, Mister Taylor.” Then she grinned at me to show that maybe she was only joining in the playful banter.

“That,” I said with a widening smile, my lust simmering off the boil, “would get you’re the role for sure.” I spread my hands in a ‘what can I do’ gesture, paused and then, as gently as I could, let the girl down. “If only you had some experience.”

When Kylie’s face crumpled I felt like shit for my unintended cruelty.

I looked at her sitting there, fractured by her sister’s total disregard for anyone but herself.

“Somebody took a chance on you, Mister Taylor,” Kylie said, her chin lifting, refusing to be cowed.

I admired her guts, after all I was a big player in the industry; I’d have expected my reputation to have intimidated the girl. I’ve read the magazine articles about me; I know my reputation as a macho man with an ego the size of a planet, so I was impressed by what I saw as a rare display of courage. I also saw something in Kylie’s face that again put me in mind of Stella, whom I’d loved and lost.

“You only made it to the big time, Mister Taylor, because someone gave you a chance. And you did, you made it.” She swept an arm to encompass my office, nodding at the unprepossessing statuette behind me. “Someone saw what you were capable of and backed you. That’s what I’m asking you to do now, for me, to take a chance on me.”

That floored me. The simple truth in those words was undeniable. That was exactly how I saw it myself. Another emotion besides lust percolated my thinking, maybe there was something in Kylie. She reminded me a lot of Stella, and I realized that the difference between Kylie and a million other girls was that she excited my imagination as well as arousing me physically.

The embryo of a plan formed in my racing mind, an admittedly dark plan, the fragments slowly coming together in a deep corner even as I nodded in agreement at the truth of Kylie’s words.

“I’ll agree to
think
about thinking about offering you the part, the lead, but what I want is for you to have dinner with me tonight. I want to get to know you better before I make up my mind. I like you, Kylie,” I said sincerely. “I admire your attitude, I like your looks.” I let my eyes linger on her for just long enough to give her a hint I had an interest in her physically, but not too long so I came across as a perv. “I think you’ve got hidden depths and that you might
just
be as good as you hope you are. I’ll tell you now, however, that if I do decide you’re right for the part, there will be a condition attached.”

“What condition, Mister Taylor?”

“I don’t want to go into that just now. I haven’t fully thought it through myself. But I’ll tell you something, you’ve struck me in a way that’s got me thinking, Kylie. So what do you say, dinner?”

Of course, Kylie agreed, she just didn’t know what else I had in mind. I needed time to work on her, to get to know her better before I laid all my cards on the table.

***

I stared in admiration when Kylie walked into the restaurant. The girl looked gorgeous in a scoop-necked dress that hinted at her body beneath. In contrast to the slutty style of her sister, who flashed as much flesh as it was legal to expose, Kylie possessed grace and style that went some way towards reassuring me that, if she agreed to the condition, she might just pull off the coup she desperately wanted.

When I stood to greet her I noticed the appreciative glances of the male customers and staff as Kylie walked towards me.

Yeah, guys. Look at her. Aren’t you green with envy?

“You look fantastic!” I said with genuine enthusiasm as I pressed a gentle kiss against Kylie’s cheek. I caught a waft of her scent and felt a stirring in my cock but somehow resisted the temptation to put my hands all over her.

Well aware of my pulsing cock, and so aroused I experienced a reckless urge to take Kylie into the bathroom and fuck her in one of the stalls, I said, “When you burst into my office you looked like the girl next door, now
look at you. Fuck, you look hot.
”

Kylie blushed a pretty pink as she accepted the compliment with a gracious smile.

She settled onto the chair opposite and appraised me with a frank gaze across the short gap between us. “So,” Kylie began, “Is this some kind of casting-couch deal?”

Bold with a primitive flare of desire I went on the offensive immediately. “If it was, Kylie,” I replied, pouring wine into her glass. “Would that be such a bad thing?”

The atmosphere between us crackled, charged with the insinuation in my question; I knew Kylie felt the same spark when I saw her eyelids flicker for a moment, and although she masked her emotions quickly, lifting the wine glass to her lips and sipping at the expensive red wine I’d chosen, I saw her hand trembling.

“I … I couldn’t do that, Mister Taylor,” she replied, her eyes sliding from my stare.

“Really?” I murmured, and casually laid my hand on the table within an inch of her fingers.

Kylie flinched and stared at the back of my hand like it was some kind of predator about to attack her tender flesh. I saw the vein in the girl’s throat throb with life, and I felt the elemental urge of lust for her I’d experienced in my office while I imagined pressing my lips against that flutter in Kylie’s neck. I also noticed that although she’d flinched she let her hand remain near mine.

Kylie looked into my face, her eyes searching. “I don’t know you, Mister Taylor,” she whispered. “And, after Rafe—”

“—Rafe is an idiot for falling for Jenny’s crap,” I interjected forcefully. “I can tell you now, Kylie, whatever happens, that bloke will regret losing you. I can see you’re special.”

Kylie, as I’d noticed in my office, could switch personalities in a heartbeat, shifting from modest and almost shy to near belligerence quickly. “You’re just saying that so I’ll sleep with you,” she accused acidly, lifting the glass from the table and taking a sip.

“Maybe, maybe not,
”
I replied, looking directly at her.
“
But I wouldn’t mess you around. I know how you feel, Kylie. I’ve had a few romantic knocks in my time. I lost a woman once,” I confessed, my voice appropriately sombre. “Not my wife, Marianne, I don’t mean that cheating bitch, I mean someone else from way back, and I’ll regret how I treated her for the rest of my life. I was an arsehole and deserved everything I got.”

“
I want to know more about that story sometime later.
How did you know I’d like this wine?” Kylie asked, wrong-footing me yet again.

Irritation at Kylie’s apparent indifference at my deeply personal revelation soured my mood, and

I shrugged and lifted my hand from the table as I leaned back in the chair to sip my own wine.

“I didn’t know you’d like it, Kylie. I chose it because
I
like it.”

“You’re pretty damned confident, aren’t you Mister Taylor, to just assume like that.”

“Don’t you like a confident man, Kylie?” I countered, and leaned in suddenly to bring my face a few inches from hers. With resentment still curdling my guts I spat the words, “I’m confident enough to knock back your sister if she came on to me. I wouldn’t cheat on you like that arsehole, Rafe – what kind of name is that for a man, anyway?”

Our gazes locked, and for a moment I thought I’d gone too far. She might hate the man’s guts but she probably still loved him, which would only make the pain worse. A tiny muscle worked in Kylie’s jaw, and I saw she had half a mind to slap my face. A smack across the chops would have been worth it to see that level of passion blazing in her eyes.

We were close enough to kiss, and maybe I should have kissed her then, just taken hold of her face with both hands and done it.

All the while our eyes fought their battle, long seconds ticking by, neither one of us willing to back down. I imagined the taste of her mouth; I could see myself kissing the pale lip-gloss from those
glistening lips
.

In the end it was Kylie who succumbed, blinking and looking away.