Chapter 03
I found Brooke waiting for me outside with the limousine. The beautiful woman wore a tense expression when we stepped out, and I saw her exchange a glance with the secretary. When the secretary nodded to her unspoken question, Brooke gave a great sigh of relief and turned a beaming smile on me, opening the door as I approached.
“Ava and I will drive you to your new residence,” she said as I stepped into the back of the sleek limo, “If there is anything you require from your father's rooms, I will send someone to pack them up for you and it will be waiting when we arrive.”
“The luggage I sent home from school,” I said, “That should have all my clothes in it, I can’t think of anything else I might need.”
“Excellent. Ava, you can head out,” she said, and the driver gave a sharp nod and pulled out onto the road.
A couple minutes passed in silence as I sat staring out the window, thinking about my father’s letter when Brooke interrupted my thoughts.
“You’re taking this all rather well,” she said, setting her leather bag aside and unbuttoning her tight jacket, “I thought you might be furious with your father’s final demands.”
“To be honest, it didn’t really surprise me,” I said, “Father has always loved self-reliance and the value of an ‘honest day’s work’. I should have expected something like this. By the way, I told the lawyers that I wanted you to run the company in my absence.”
“I value your faith in me young master, and I promise I won’t disappoint you,” the woman said it with a grateful nod, then her eyes focused on me with a burning intensity, “You should know your father took great care in planning all of this out. We had in mind that there would be certain… benefits to a young man living alone in this particular apartment building.”
“What benefits?” I asked curiously, turning to look at her.
“Are you still a virgin, Connor?” Her question stunned me, and I felt my face turn a bright shade of red, my cheeks burning. I glanced up to see the driver glance back in the mirror, her eyes wide with curiosity.
“That’s none of your business!” I said, masking my embarrassment with anger.
“On the contrary, it’s precisely my business,” she said leaning over and pulling a small bottle of champagne out of a side compartment. She unscrewed the cap and poured us each a glass, pushing mine into my hand with a sly smile.
“And why is that?” I asked, holding the glass of cold bubbles, “Does my father plan to control that part of my life as well?”
“Not control,” she said, “Enlighten. And it wasn’t your father's plan, at least not entirely, I handled the details. Now let’s toast.”
“Toast what?” I asked, bitterness lacing my words.
“Toast the beginning of your real education,” she said, raising her glass and clinking it with mine. There was an excitement dancing in her eyes that made me nervous. As I took a sip of my drink, she downed hers entirely and refilled it.
“My education in fixing sinks and changing locks?”
“You should understand something about your father and I’s relationship,” Brooke said with a slight shake of her head, setting her glass aside she finished unbuttoning her coat, “We were never intimate, and I never desired to be with him in that way.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
The woman was spinning my head with her changes in topic, and I tried not to stare as she shrugged out of her coat and set the garment aside on the bench seat. She was in just her tight blouse, and the smooth tan skin of her arms and shoulders wanted to draw my gaze, but I schooled my eyes away.
“Because I want to allay any suspicions you might have later on about my motivations. You see, this year is about more than ‘an honest day’s work’ as you put it. I know you have a good work ethic. I’ve followed you closely these last few years and know what you’re capable of. You’re brilliant and thoughtful, but you lack two necessary characteristics that would keep you from being a world-class CEO.”
“Oh yea,” I asked, wanting to be annoyed, but mostly intrigued, “what’s that?”
“First, you lack confidence, both in yourself and others,” she lifted her long slender leg and began sliding the heel off her elegant foot. My mouth went dry as she lifted her second leg and dropped that heel to the floor of the limo beside the first. She pulled the legs beneath her, sitting sideways and putting an arm up on the backrest of her seat, staring at me with bright eyes.
“You’re handsome, educated, connected, and one of the wealthiest bachelors in the world,” her eyes bore into mine, and I found myself entranced as she spoke.
I’d never received such compliments from anyone, let alone such a beautiful woman. I’d always thought of Brooke as one of my fathers’ people, another of his faceless drones. Now that she gave me all her attention and spoke about me with familiarity, anxiety scrambled its wicked fingers through my brain.
“You see right there,” she said, pointing at me, “That’s what I’m talking about. You’re getting uncomfortable and awkward and soon won’t even be able to say two words to me. You need to get past this block you have with women. That’s one of the things you’ll be working on this year.”
“How?” I asked after a few uncomfortable moments of silence, my fingers twisted together almost painfully as I shifted in my seat, all too aware of the drivers smiling eyes as she kept glancing back at us in the mirror.
“There are a couple ways,” Brooke said with a mischievous smile, “The building you’ll be living in has five tenants, each is a woman, and each has something profound to teach you over the course of this year. But that’s not all, because I will oversee your… education… personally, and will ensure that by the end of the year, you’re a supremely confident man. Tell me, Connor, do you find me attractive?”