Heidi and the Kaiser (12 page)

Then he stood, taking a deep breath, pulling up his trousers, tucking, arranging.

“Clean up and go out to lunch with your friend,” he directed, walking toward the window and pulling the curtain aside to gaze out.

She sat up on her elbows, dazed, blinking at him. “But—”

“Go.” He glanced over his shoulder at her, his eyes softening at the sight of her still sprawled out over the surface of his desk. “I trust you, Heidi. You know the rules. I didn’t say you couldn’t have friends. I said you couldn’t fuck them.”

“Yes, sir.” She slid off the desk, straightening her skirt, smoothing her hair.

“Unless I say you can.” His smile tightened as he looked back out the window, his motion a dismissal. She was almost out the door when he said, “Wear the backless Valentino for Cavelli tonight. The black one. I have Doreen coming to your apartment to do your hair and makeup at five.”

“Thank you, sir.”

She wanted to go and put her arms around him, but she didn’t. Instead, she did as she was told, cleaning up in the bathroom and then taking the elevator down, calling Lenny on the way and telling him that yes, a hot dog and a walk in Central Park was the perfect way to spend her now-late lunch, and no, nothing was wrong, why did he ask?

* * * *

“You really don’t want to come up…do you?” Heidi tried to dissuade Cavelli, even though she hadn’t discovered a thing of interest over dinner and the night was about to come to an end. How much humiliation was she willing to take? Could she really go to Kaiser in the morning with nothing? But now after the ride in the limo and a dinner, ironically, at Atelier’s, the thought of Cavelli seeing her little apartment was just too shameful to imagine.

“Ah, but bella, Kaiser said you’d show me your sketches.” Cavelli’s eyes crinkled in the corners when he smiled and then winked at her.

Heidi almost laughed at the cliché but just turned and put her key in the door instead. She seriously doubted the veracity of the statement of course—Kaiser hadn’t even asked to see her sketches himself. “Well you’ll have to forgive my modest little apartment, then,” she apologized, leading him to the elevator.

“Most of the people in this business started humbly,” Cavelli noted as the elevator took them up.

“You?” Heidi asked, raising her eyebrows in mock surprise. She knew better.

Cavelli grinned and winked at her. “Well…not me.”

“Not Andrea Paxton, either,” Heidi muttered, fumbling with her keys again as she approached her apartment door. She’d been diligent about cleaning before she left, anticipating, although dreading, Cavelli’s visit as a possibility.

“Ah, Andrea, yes.” He followed her in and Heidi winced as he looked around, taking in the little L-shaped space that constituted kitchen and living room. There were just two other rooms, a bedroom that barely fit a twin bed and a bathroom that had a shower so small it was hard even for her to turn around in. Cavelli didn’t seem fazed by her simple and rather sparse furniture choices, taking a seat on the futon and spreading his arms comfortably across the back. “Andrea will make quite a name for herself.”

“Kaiser thinks so,” Heidi agreed, making a face he couldn’t see as she turned to put her purse and wrap on a chair.

“Kaiser has good judgment,” he remarked, his face then spreading with a smile.

“But he doesn’t know everything about Andrea Paxton.”

“You can say that again…” she mumbled, trying to decide if she should sit on the futon beside him—dangerous territory—or pull a kitchen chair over.

“Look at the books!” he exclaimed, nodding toward the floor to ceiling bookshelves. There was no television, but the shelves were stuffed to overflowing with books.

“I’ve always been a reader,” she admitted, flushing. “Little worlds, every one.”

Cavelli smiled, patting the futon beside him, giving her little choice in the matter.

“You are a special one, bella.”

Heidi hesitated, going to her book shelves and pulling down an oversized portfolio, deciding to keep up the pretense, if nothing else. “My sketches are in here…if you really wanted to see them.”

“Of course!” He smiled, sitting up as she set the book on the coffee table. “How about a cognac? Brandy?”

She smiled. It would be his umpteenth of the night, but of course, she had nothing like it. “I have wine. It’s not Dom Perignon, but it’s not Thunderbird, either.”

He chuckled. “Whatever you have is fine.”

Heidi found a brandy snifter sitting on her kitchen counter filled with what she was sure was a very expensive, very aged cognac. Kaiser must have known he would want it. She didn’t bother to wonder how he had gotten into her apartment—she was sure he had sent someone, perhaps even paid the super. Somehow, he’d managed to get done what he wanted done—he always did.

“Make yourself one,” Cavelli called as Heidi poured the cognac into a glass, which had also been provided.

“Oh, I don’t drink much…” She’d already been too gluttonous with the champagne over dinner, at Cavelli’s insistence, and her head was more than a little fuzzy.

“Make yourself one,” he insisted and Heidi sighed, pouring herself a glass and taking them both over to the futon.

“These are good,” Cavelli remarked as she set the glass down, holding hers, and sitting beside him. “These are
very
good.”

“You’re kind.” She smiled, shaking her head, sipping the fiery amber-colored liquid in her hand for courage. She couldn’t believe that Roberto Cavelli was sitting in her apartment looking at her designs. A month ago she would have thought it impossible.

“No,” he assured her. “Far from it. I am a mercenary old bastard…and these could make me money. In fact, they remind me…” He frowned, tapping his finger on one of her designs, and Heidi just knew he was going to mention Andrea again and didn’t want to have to go there.

“I seem to have a better selection of spirits than I previously thought,” she said, lifting her glass so he could see. His eyebrows went up and he found his own glass on the table, breathing in the alcohol’s scent.

“Oh that’s fine!” he remarked, lifting his glass in salute before taking a drink.

“Ahhh, that does the trick. Drink up!”

She obliged, taking another burning sip.

“Do you have more like these?” he asked, pointing to her sketch book.

“Yes.”

He smiled, leaning back on the futon again, his gaze moving over her, assessing.

“Are you as prolific an artist as you are a reader?”

“I am,” she admitted, flushing, whether from embarrassment or the heat of the alcohol, she wasn’t sure.

“Come here, bella.” He waved his arm, pulling her closer when she got in range, the smell of cognac on his breath as he nuzzled her ear. “How would you like to work for me?”

She froze. “Is that a serious offer?”

“Very serious.” The fact that his hand was moving over her breast through her blouse didn’t lend much credence to the seriousness of his proposal, but somehow she believed him anyway. “Kaiser says you are…very willing.”

She remembered her promise.
Whatever it takes.
But she had probed every aspect of his business possible and had uncovered nothing tonight. Maybe there was no secret, nothing Cavelli was hiding. Was it a test, perhaps? Kaiser testing her willingness?

“I am,” she agreed, determined to pass if it
was
a test after all as Cavelli pressed her firmly down to her knees between his Dolce and Gabbana trousered thighs. He unzipped himself, but she took his slowly hardening member in her hand, his half-lidded gaze never leaving her.

When she took him into her mouth, he groaned, his hand moving in her hair, pressing her down until she was taking all of him—not an inconsiderable feat, the old guy hadn’t just been lucky enough to be born with a silver spoon in his mouth, he also hadn’t been at all short-changed in either the width or girth department.

“Ahhh bella, what a find you are!” he murmured as she tongued the tip of his cock, hoping Kaiser had really meant for her to do this. “Has Kaiser seen these?”

Heidi shook her head, moving his cock delightfully from side to side as she did, making him arch with pleasure.

“No?” He laughed, taking his cock in hand—there was plenty of it below Heidi’s mouth to grab onto—and stroking it against her lips. “He is such a fool. Blind.”

She continued to lick and suck at the head as he jerked himself off, his breath coming faster. What a relief, she thought, if he came like this, and she didn’t have to do anything else to prove her loyalty… But Cavelli moved to yank her blouse open, her bra down, exposing her breasts to his view. He fondled them both at turns as she sucked him, squeezing and pulling at her nipples.

“Ahhh bella, that’s good!” he groaned as she found a faster rhythm, stroking and sucking together, feeling his balls tighten in her other hand. “Oh god, what a triumph that would be,” he murmured, closing his eyes and thrusting deep into her throat, making her fight her gag reflex. “Stealing two of Kaiser’s prize treasures…”

“Two?” Heidi managed to gasp out before taking him into her mouth again, working hard as he rolled his hips and drove them upward.

“You…ahhhhhh…” He grimaced as the first wave of his cum pulsed like white heat into her waiting mouth. “You and ahhhhhhhhh-ahhhhh Andreaaaaaaaaaahhhh…”

Heidi swallowed him obediently, her tongue working the head of his cock, making sure not a bit of his cum dribbled onto his trousers. When the last shuddering drop was milked from his cock, she tucked him neatly back in and zipped him up. He looked down at her, spent, smiling a contented smile. She wondered if he’d even realized what he said?

“Andrea’s premiere is in Paris with Kaiser,” she murmured, moving to sit beside him on the futon.

He glanced at her, still smiling that lazy smile. “She may premiere with Kaiser, but she’s already signed with me. For double the price.”

Oh my god.
Heidi stared at him. Clearly his confession hadn’t been an accident.

Why was he telling her this?

“Double?” she choked out. She knew how much Kaiser was paying Andrea for her designs—
my designs.

“I want you.” Cavelli’s eyes brightened as he grabbed her, pulling her close and kissing her hard. Heidi fought an urge to pull away. “I will double anything he’s offered.”

She shook her head. “But he hasn’t…”

“He will,” he insisted, his eyes hardening as he fondled her breast, slipping another hand down to cup her pussy. She was wearing panties tonight, of course. “But you will already be mine. Yes? Yes…”

It wasn’t even a question—he was sure he could buy her.
Can he?
Heidi straightened herself out as he released her and stood, drinking the last of his cognac and setting the glass back down on the table.

“Stay where you are for now,” Cavelli directed with a nod. “It pleases me. I will contact you after Paris.”

She watched him, speechless, as he strode toward the door, turning to look at her with a fond smile. “Goodnight, Bella.”

“Goodnight, Mr.— ”

“Roberto,” he insisted, closing the door before he heard her reply.

“Goodnight, Roberto,” she murmured, stunned by his arrogance and assumptions. Did he really believe she would abandon Kaiser as quickly as Andrea had?

No. She wouldn’t She couldn’t. She wasn’t so easy. Was she?

“Kaiser…sir?” Heidi poked her head into his office, finding him sitting at his desk writing something on a notepad.

“What is it, Heidi?” He sighed, not looking up or turning around.

“I was just wondering…these dresses in the hallway. None of them are tagged?”

She cleared her throat apologetically. The job had became familiar enough that, most of the time, she didn’t have to ask him superfluous questions anymore, but all of the dresses from the show had come tagged and there were twenty of them hanging on a rack she didn’t have any idea what to do with.

He put his pen down, leaning back in his chair and whirling around, his face spreading with a smile. “Ah, they’ve arrived.”

She blinked and shrugged. “They have?”

“That’s your Paris wardrobe.”

“My…” Heidi looked back at the rack of dresses with wide, disbelieving eyes.

“Mine?”

“Do you like them?”

“Like them?” she squeaked, rushing back into the vestibule to flip through, dress after dress, all of them unique and elegant and stunning. There was day wear, evening wear, even, Heidi noted with a happy sigh, several boxes full of underwear, bras, garters and stockings, all displayed in bounteous reams of tissue paper.

“I take it that’s a yes?” he chuckled.

“Yes!”

He slipped his arms around her from behind. “I like making you happy.”

“I like feeling happy,” she agreed, turning in his arms, smiling up at him.

“Do you know what would make
me
happy?”

She grinned and began to slide through the circle of his arms, heading down to her knees.

“
Besides
that.” He laughed, grabbing her by her elbows and pulling her up.

“Please tell me you found out what Cavelli’s up to.”

“I did.” She moved out of his arms, frowning, turning back to the dresses as if she was interested, but suddenly they had lost all of their appeal.

“And?”

She sighed. “You’re not going to like it.”

“I imagine not.” He chuckled. “So?”

“He’s stealing Andrea Paxton.” She just blurted it out, just like that.