Finally he removed her blindfold.
She blinked in the brightness of the room, even though it was fairly dim compared to the rest of the apartment.
Red was sitting next to her. She was lying on her side now. He leaned down and stroked her hair and looked into her eyes.
She was startled by what she saw there, what she saw in him. It was a need so intense, so great that it defied her imagination. His need, his hunger for her surpassed anything she could rationalize. And it occurred to her that he still wanted her just as much, if not more now then he did twenty minutes ago. He had not been able to satiate himself, his lust. He was unquenchable.
She wanted to please him the way he’d pleased her. “I’ll do anything, sir,” she whispered to him.
“Give yourself to me,” he said instantly.
“I already have, sir.”
“Not yet.”
“Yes, sir.”
“No, but you will.” He smiled. His smile was pained somehow.
“I’ve never felt this before, sir.”
“This is only the beginning.”
He stood up and she could tell from his demeanor that their encounter was coming to an end. They left the room and he locked the door behind them. Nicole found that she wanted to go back there, to lie down and look into his eyes again and share that intimacy again.
He was colder now, more boss than lover, and he took out his phone and played with it momentarily. When he looked up at her, his expression was neutral. “Outside, my driver waits.”
“You’re staying here, sir?”
“Don’t worry about what I do.”
“Of course, sir,” she said, but couldn’t hide the sarcasm in her voice. Nor did she want to.
She gathered her purse and took a deep breath. She was drenched in sweat and the driver would surely know what had gone on. But then, she suspected he’d seen this kind of thing before.
The thought of other women undergoing this exact ritual angered her.
Red was on his phone when she left, standing in the middle of the apartment.
“Well, thanks for showing me a good time, sir,” she said, again with as much sarcasm as she could muster. And then she left.
He didn’t speak a word to her.
***
Nicole didn’t hear from Red or see him the rest of that day, nor did she see or hear from him for the rest of the week.
Needless to say, she was depressed and anxious. She did her work as faithfully as she could, although she was constantly distracted with thoughts of Red. Looking up from her computer and hoping to glimpse him coming towards her with that enigmatic smile on his face.
Having lunch with Remi and always keeping an eye out for Red to come strolling past the way he did that first day, while Remi went on and on about her cowboy ad that was still the biggest pain in her ass.
Nicole found she was getting into the swing of things at work, mostly because it was easy. Glen usually had her making copies, sending faxes or running out to pick up lunch from Café Metro. Edward was rarely around, and when he was, tended to mostly be in Glen or Remi’s offices—sometimes she’d walk by and hear them yelling at one another. And then the next minute they’d be laughing.
Remi was the only one that gave Nicole any real work to do. Mostly researching images, occasionally she’d ask Nicole to swing by and look at some of the advertising concepts she was working on.
Work was easy. The hard part was waiting for contact from Red.
One morning she heard a couple of the girls in nearby cubicles whispering about him. She couldn’t hear much, because they were trying to be quiet. Just snatches of conversation.
“…unbelievably hot in that Armani suit…the one with the purple tie?”
“Red…told someone that he could buy and sell them the way he sells his used Bentley.”
“…so funny. When he looks my way I just melt…”
“I would give anything…”
Laughter, hushed whispers.
“How big it is?”
“I’ve heard he’s huge.”
More laughter. She hated those girls. Moments later, peering around her cubicle, she saw them. The type of girls she absolutely despised with their high-end designer bags and shoes and clothes, their two hundred dollar salon hair treatments, their manicures and perfect teeth. What would they do if they knew she’d been with Red and not them?
Nicole sat back down at her desk and smiled secretly. But the smile died when she thought about how long it had been since she’d seen or heard from him.
***
The weekend was interminable. Friday night, she and Danielle went out to a local dive bar and had margaritas. Danielle was in rare form, flirting with any halfway attractive guy, mostly trying to get free drinks. She had no shame when it came to grifting her way through a night on the town.