Mara worked on her calm, disinterested face on the way to the office. It fooled no one. The entire staff was waiting in the conference room when she arrived, clustered around the table, guarding Derek’s present like he’d hired them to do it. Even in her Jil Sander boots, Mara could only see the top of it. It looked like a floral arrangement.
“I can’t believe Derek Hardiman is in love with you,” Himeko said as soon as she saw her. “I wanna kill you.”
Chase shoved their employee aside. “Shall I get rid of the vermin?”
“No!” several cried.
Mara moved toward the table. “It’s okay. It might be easier with more people here.”
Tegan frowned. “Why is it hard?”
“Yeah? Is Derek Hardiman a dick?” Christopher asked. “And how did you meet him? Does he follow you on Instagram?”
“Mara doesn’t have Instagram,” Chase snarled. “And how do you little nightmares know it’s from Derek Hardiman?”
Christopher rolled his eyes. “Because he was here the other day, and the flowers say ‘from DMH.’ As in ‘Derek Michael Hardiman.’ As in ‘Derek Hardiman.’”
“That doesn’t prove anything.”
Christopher examined his nails. “I heard you on the phone when it arrived saying that Derek Hardiman was stalking Mara.”
Chase’s mouth fell open and Mara joined the team in laughter. She wasn’t happy to be caught out, but Chase’s forever-shock that the team he’d handpicked was capable of deductive reasoning was always funny.
Himeko rounded on her. “How did you and Derek meet? Did you get in touch because of the house?”
“Enough questions,” Chase snapped, saving her again. “Mara, open the present. If you don’t want it, we can throw it in the trash.”
“I can’t even see it.” She stood on her tippy toes. “Isn’t it flowers?”
“Minions! Move!”
The staff parted to reveal a huge wooden chest topped with fresh lilies. Mara gasped.
“Two people brought it in,” Tegan said excitedly. “It looks like treasure.”
“Overcompensatory treasure,” Chase muttered.
Himeko’s eyes went wide. “Do you think Derek Hardiman is bad in bed?”
“I think you should go do your job.”
Christopher sidled to Mara’s side. “Ignore her,” he said with a look at Chase. “I’ve been stalking Derek on Instagram to see if he’s mentioned you but there’s nothing but workout videos. Do you want me to tag you both in something and see what he says?”
Mara’s blood went cold. “No, that’s okay.”
The chest was big enough for a child to curl up inside. Mara pulled open the brass latch with difficulty. She lifted the lid and a sweet, powerful scent swept the room.
Amir sniffed. “What is that?”
“Musk lollies.” Mara could almost taste the words as she said them.
A huge bag of them lay on top of whatever else Derek had crammed into the chest. She slit the plastic seal and placed a lolly on her tongue. It tasted like her childhood. The backs of her eyes burned.
“Alright,” Chase said in a hard voice. “Anyone who’d like to have a job can get the fuck out.”
“You can’t keep threatening to fire us,” Christopher said as everyone else filed out of the room
Chase put his hands on his hips. “Can’t I? Stay and find out.”
Beneath the lollies was a bag of chocolate aniseed rings. Another odd, old-fashioned sweet she’d loved as a girl. They barely sold them in candy stores anymore, but somehow, he’d found them. And there were soy candles, and expensive body lotion and a hardback set of fantasy novels she’d never heard of. Chase lifted the glossy pink bottle. “Armand de Brignac. Jesus.”
Mara gave a weak smile. “I have no idea what he’s doing.”
“I assume he’s not actually compensating for a terrible sexual performance?”
Mara recalled the hard snarl on Derek’s face as his cock parted her like butter. “Um… no.”
“Here’s a card.” Chase pulled a cream slip from inside the chest. There was a yellow butterfly on the cover. The sight of it stung. She took the card, praying it would be tacky or mean. Anything she could dismiss.
The Grand Hyatt. 7pm, Thursday. I’ll wear a suit. You wear this.
“What does he have to say for himself?”
Mara re-read the card. It didn’t make sense. “What’s still in the chest?”
“This.” Chase pulled up a flat gray box. “Any ideas?”
“Some.” She placed it on the table and lifted the lid, shifting away expensive tissue paper. It was a bodysuit of such pale blue it was almost lilac. There was a slit between the legs and open cups with silver buckles over the nipples.
“Jesus Christ.” Chase flicked one of the nipple buckles. “That’s… futuristic.”
Hidden beneath the one-piece were a black silk eye mask and several long ribbons. For a second, she wondered how she was supposed to wear them. Then realised they were for tying her up. Her cheeks burned.
“He’s coming in a bit hot, isn’t he?” Chase remarked.
“He wants to meet in a hotel on Thursday.”
“Are you going to go?”
She folded the bodysuit on top of the ribbons. “I’m not sure.”
“Well, I have some concerns.”
“Such as?”
He gave her a pointed look. “Your health and well-being. You’ve been a total zombie since your night together.”
“I’m not a zom—”
“And then there’s your future. As long as I’ve known you, you’ve never wanted a boyfriend and whatever Derek Hardiman wants, it doesn’t seem to be casual.”
“I’ll explain it to him. I’ll tell him I’m a bachelorette.”
“Assuming he’ll believe you, have you considered that he might be doing this to get the house?”
Mara hadn’t. The idea was bitter as orange peel.
“I don’t think he’s doing that,” Chase said quickly. “But it might be worth keeping in mind if this does become a regular thing.”
“I don’t want it to be.”
“You might want to tell Derek Hardiman that. He seems to have other ideas.”
“I know,” Mara said miserably. “Coffee?”
Chase checked his watch. “No, I’ve gotta go. I’ve got that call with Danny. Do you want to get one after?”
“No, I don’t want to hang around in everyone’s way.”
Chase opened his mouth then closed it.
“What?”
“Well, you wouldn’t be hanging around if you had an office. Your own space.”
She flinched. “You know I don’t want an office.”
“But you’re the CEO!”
Mara tried to imagine swanning in after a facial and sitting behind her desk. Being there when Chase brought investors to the office. She would feel like such a fraud. She shook her head. “Go call Danny. I’ll see you later.”
Chase gave her an exasperated look as he left the room. Mara hated disappointing him, but there was no way she was taking up space in their already cramped office just to pretend to be important. Her gaze fell to the chest, bursting with champagne and candy. There was so much in the box it was incredible it all fit. And that tiny bodysuit… She’d look like a sex slave in it. A doll, dressed up for Derek’s amusement.
I’ll wear a suit. You wear this…
She’d never seen Derek in a suit, but she could imagine. The tattoos curling from the hem of his sleeves, his wide shoulders perfectly encased in a blazer. She swallowed thickly, her mouth literally watering.
But she couldn’t meet him in his hotel room. She couldn’t give in again. It wouldn’t be the same. This time Derek wouldn’t even be pretending to let her control things. He’d take her with all the power and possessiveness in his body.
You wear this…
It was a command, just like in the old days. He hadn’t changed. And he didn’t know she’d changed. He still saw her as the girl who baked cookies for him in her pink apron. ‘I’ll be Tarzan, you be Jane.’ That was what the card really said. But he hadn’t earned the right to Daddy her, and no amount of lingerie could change that. And why was he being so flashy? He’d always been generous, but there was thousands of dollars’ worth of stuff in the chest. Maybe more. He didn’t know she was rich. Was he trying to dazzle her into giving him what he wanted? She’d met a lot of men who played that card in Europe, and she hadn’t liked any of them. Was Derek capable of that kind of sleazy behaviour? Her stomach turned over.
“Mara?” Tegan stuck their head through the door.
“Hi. Did you want to see the chest?”
“Nah. Do you need some help carrying the chest to the car?”
“Thank you,” she said, relieved not to have to bother someone. “I’ll give you an aniseed ring.”
“What the fuck is that?”
“You’ll see.”
It was a slow journey, carting the huge box and flowers to her Porsche. She and Tegan took breaks, too proud to call anyone else for help. Had it been Derek’s intention to make the office guys carry it? To warn them that she was accounted for? It was far-fetched but Derek had a jealous streak a mile wide. God knew what would happen if he found out about Troy…
He won’t, she told herself as she and Tegan slid the chest into her backseat. You’re not seeing Derek. And even if you did, you wouldn’t talk about Troy. And even if we did talk about Troy, Derek was gone and it didn’t mean anything.
Tegan strapped the chest into the backseat like a baby chair, tossing the lilies beside it. Mara gave them an aniseed ring, but Tegan had one taste before spitting it into the gutter. “Sorry. They’re insanely gross.”
“It is an acquired taste,” Mara admitted, popping a chocolate circle into her own mouth. It tasted like winters by the fire. “Thanks for the help.”
“That’s okay.” Tegan gave her a shifty look. “Are you gonna meet up with Derek Hardiman?”
“I… don’t know.”
“Are you worried he’s a dog?”
Mara’s heart stopped. “Why do you say that?”
Tegan cast a quick look around. “I know something that might help you decide what to do. Want to hear it?”
Mara nodded, barely sure if she was telling the truth. “Go on.”
“So, my friend was at a club, like, two years ago and she was making out with Derek…”
Mara fought to keep her face composed.
“… but she was way too drunk. She threw up in the bathroom and she thought he’d be all pissed, but he was super nice. He got her a water and paid for her Uber home.”
Tegan looked at her as though she should say something. Mara unstuck her mouth. “That was nice.”
“Yeah.” Tegan shifted from foot to foot. “Not to tell you what to do—fuck whoever you want. But if you’re holding back because you think Derek Hardiman is, like, a gross player because of all the stories, I thought you should know he might not be. People talk a lot of shit.”
“They do,” she agreed. “Thanks, Tegan. I appreciate it.”
“Anytime.” They cast a sidelong look at her flowers. “It’s a pretty cool present. I’ve never been sent flowers.”
Mara made a mental note to have some delivered anonymously to Tegan in a few months—when they had forgotten about the conversation. “They are beautiful.”
“Yeah. See you round.”
Mara watched Tegan slop back to the office. She was glad she’d heard the story. It didn’t change her experiences, but it did imply that despite his wealth and fame, Derek was still the man she’d known him to be.
She pictured the pale blue bodysuit. The cold buckles that would close over her nipples. A sizzle ran the length of her chest, into her stomach. She got in her car and drove. Her Porsche felt slower, weighed down with Derek’s gifts. There were five days until she was supposed to meet him at The Grand Hyatt. She would make up her mind then.