Rose Blood (14 page)

He led her into his room and his lust for her took over… they lay down together on his bed.

“Marc… let me love you, I want to do everything for you, if this is our goodbye.”

“I can’t promise I’ll be able to let you Rose, but you can try really hard if you like” That would be just perfect… just what he needed from her, she was playing right into his hands.

“… and Marc, at the end, I’d like you to bite me again… one last time, okay?”

“Try and stop me”

Chapter 32

Rose sat in the car as Jeff ran her home at 2pm. Her mind was consumed with Marcus. They had been together all night… making love over and over again… normal human style… He didn’t bite her until the early hours of the morning when they were too tired to do anything else … he had fallen asleep across her, his face still covered in her blood. When they woke this morning he’d kissed her some more and they’d carried on again until lunchtime when she finally forced herself out of his bed and his life.

It would take her a long time to get truly over this, over her deep feelings for him, she thought. It was so incredibly sad her insides ached with it all. Their hottest vampire love scenes swamped her mind yet again… it was going to be hard to forget him… if she ever could.

As the car approached her old home she felt strange, different somehow… out of step. Harry was arriving at 4pm and she wanted to make sure everything was tidy in there for him. Jeff took all her cases indoors and they said a teary goodbye. She tidied up for some time and sat waiting for Harry. She waited and waited and waited… but he didn’t come.

Chapter 33

Harry came downstairs to the foyer at 3.30… he was a little late finishing up with all the extra work he now had. Tonight he would see her again. His heart was somersaulting with joy at the easy end to this. She had told Marcus all about them and he had let he go, just like that… He was quite amazed in fact. He would have thought Marcus would have tried harder to keep her.  He was about to walk across the Plaza to the DLR when he was approached by a short and stocky tough looking guy.

“Mr Taylor is it…?  I’m Jeff Richards, Mr DeVere’s driver and assistant. He’s asked me to come and get yer from work … he needs to see yer urgent like and then I’ll run yer back to Rose after. It’s a surprise visit, so don’t let her know…”

“I don’t know about this, Rose is expecting me. Let me call her first.” he got out his phone to call her but Jeff swiped it out of his hand. “What the fuck…?”

“No calls lad… It’s a surprise, like I said… Now then… Mr DeVere is waiting. It won’t take long. Come with me and don’t even think about leaving, I’m an ex pro fighter and spend two hours a day in the gym… I wouldn’t recommend taking me on in any way mate.”

Harrison allowed himself to be escorted to the car and driven to Kensington. It took quite a while in the heavy traffic and he started to fret about Rose waiting for him in her flat. He also started to fret rather more about Marcus DeVere… What did he have in mind… threats, mutilation, murder? The man had so much money he could arrange it and never be found out.

They arrived at the gates and passed through and then through the doors beyond to the underground parking area. Jeff returned his phone whilst he escorted him up in the lift. Harry started to take the DeVere experience in. By the time he arrived in the living room where Marcus was waiting for him he was already fully absorbing and understanding the kind of lifestyle Rose had been living for the last week… and he was sure he hadn’t seen the half of it….

“Ah Mr Taylor, there you are. Sorry about this, I don’t usually kidnap people from work, Jeff was quite upset he had to do this for me.  So… let’s get to the reason for this meeting shall we. It appears we have a dilemma. We both have a very strong interest in the same woman”

“I have far more than a strong interest, I have loved her for 3 years in fact…”

“3 years, 3 weeks, no matter… the purpose of bringing you here today is to discuss, man to man, what to do about it. I have let her go home for now, until things are finally decided… I thought it best, only fair.”

“There’s nothing to discuss. If she’s done with you, she’s marrying me. I tell you now NOTHING will keep us from seeing each other… whatever your exclusivity clause says…”

“Harry… if I were to tell you that she loved me more that you and I can prove it, would that change things?”

“I know Rose better than you. She doesn’t love you Marcus”

“Well I have a little something that says otherwise, want to see it?”

“Nothing will convince me otherwise, whatever it is”

“I think you may be wrong this once, please indulge me”

“Do your worst then”

Marcus picked up his remote control and turned on his massive TV, turning up the volume. There in front of him in a black and white image were Rose and Marcus on a white bed… She was doing things he didn’t want to watch, but he did force himself for a few minutes… he felt sick inside seeing it but the worse part of all was hearing what she was saying. In between all the other very graphic sounds coming out of the TV she said she loved him… six times before he stopped counting and his brain started to shut down. That was all he could take…

Rose out of control all over Marcus saying she loved him. This had destroyed him completely.

“Turn the fucking thing off. I get it loud and clear.”

Marcus pressed the remote button off.

“So, what will you do Harry, run back to your loving little Rose? She’s waiting for you… probably getting quite worried by now…”

“What I do when I leave here is none of your fucking business.” With that he turned and left. He wasn’t going home tonight or to Rose. He was going to drown his sorrows and forget about the world in the nearest hotel bar.

Marcus watched him leave with a smile…  he turned the TV back on and watched some more Rose… Seeing her felt like a knife in his heart. He was still watching it half an hour later when his phone rang.

It was her.

Chapter 34

Rose was more than concerned. Her phone calls went unanswered and her texts too. She started to worry about him. Had he had an accident? She’d spoken to him at 1pm, just a few hours ago… what could be the problem otherwise?

She finally gave in at 5pm and ordered a cab to run her to his flat. She arrived to find it  unoccupied. She tried the door buzzer several times, to be absolutely sure before she left for her flat again. She arrived back home and sat on her bed thinking. She called Harry yet again, still no answer.

The she called Marcus. A cold and chilling thought was forming in her mind.

“What have you done to Harry…”

“I haven’t done anything Rose, but I did pick him up from work to discuss some things.”

“Discuss what things? What’s going on? I’m coming over…”

“No need, we’re finished now. He’s up to speed”

“What do you mean up to speed…?”

“I thought he might like to know just how much you love me, to put it all in perspective for him, so I showed him a little of the first hour of what we did together last night, from my bedroom CCTV recordings… the parts where you told me you love me again and again… it was so touching Rose”

“Oh no Marcus! What have you done …?” That part of last night had been really wild, even by her standards…. It was her star performance for him, her goodbye sex fest and just choc full of so many ‘I love yous’.  This would kill Harry… She had never felt so sick in her life.

“No Rose…. Just stop and think. What have
you
done?”

He ended the call. That was his big goodbye. She’d never forget it.

Chapter 35

She sat in her flat heartbroken. She had lost him. Harry would never want her after that. She had acted like a woman possessed with Marcus. There was nothing she hadn’t done… and all on camera… her mind filled with shame and fury at Marcus. He had tricked her, he was no gentleman at all… he knew he’d lost her so he made sure she lost Harry as well. It was a vindictive truly evil thing to do, whether this had anything to do with his being a vampire, she didn’t know, but one thing was for sure, he couldn’t love her at all to behave this way.  She couldn’t believe he had staged last night so coldly, filming it as he had.

It had been so loving in her mind… she had loved him… he had loved her…

But as her mind started churning things over and over… she was staring to see more than his betrayal – she was starting to see her own. She had never stopped to think about Marcus. He wasn’t the womaniser she had first thought he was, he was a deep and extremely private person.  She had never thought about how much she meant to him or how hurt he would be. He had spent time getting to know her, he had tried to love her and she had shoved it back in his face with a double helping of Harry… she felt sick to her stomach with herself. She had betrayed them both, Marcus and Harry.

She lay on her bed sobbing herself to sleep. Tomorrow she had to get up and go to work and face Harry. She would try and hold it together, if she could. It was hard enough walking into the office again anyway, continuing with her old life after so much had happened, but this was going to be hellfire and damnation on top.

Chapter 36

At 8am she took a deep breath and walked into her office. Harry was there, at his desk. He didn’t look up or say a word as she arrived at her desk. She took in his handsome profile with a heart and gut wrenching feeling. She would never stop loving him. Never, ever, ever. She started to well up.

“Ro, come in a moment please love….” Mike called to her from his room.

She walked in and shut the door, she felt sure something very personal was going to go down yet again.

“Look, I’m sorry this has all got so messy. It’s a real shame…  I’ve given the DeVere account to the Corporate desk for now. He still wants us to manage it, we’re under contract for a year as you know. But some parts relating to you have been removed on the agreement of all parties involved… Ro, I do hope everything works out okay for you two.” He motioned towards Harry with his head…

“No too late, that’s dead in the water Mike.” She was struggling with this nicer Mike Harding, waiting for something evil and nasty to emerge….

“Well I’m sorry to hear that, maybe it’s for the best though. Working together and all that. It can make things difficult.”

He really did look sorry… not that she cared whether he had a conscience or not. Her life was in ruins. Her reputation somewhat if not completely tarnished. She would hand in her notice and find another job. In fact she would write it out right now. It was too much to expect them to sit together out there like old work buddies.

“Thanks Mike… I need to get on, do a few things, can you keep my accounts shared out till tomorrow?”

“Yeah, that’s fine Ro, take all the time you need….”

She left his office and sat down at her desk. Harry wasn’t there, probably at the coffee machine, she thought, or anywhere else he could avoid her in fact. She turned on her screens and accessed her emails for a last quick look through. She was professional to the end.

She opened a word document and began to type out her resignation letter. Her eyes were blurring a little with the awful dreadful finality of it.  She sat back to read it as Harry walked up behind her and placed a drink in front of her.

“Thought you might need it. I appreciate it can’t have been easy coming in here today.”

She turned to look at him as he sat down in his chair pulling it up closer to hers. He didn’t look angry with her. His face just looked so tired and sad. A huge lump formed in her throat and she choked back the tears.

“You could say that…. Not easy for you either I should think.”

“No… nothing about you has been easy for me lately.”

“Well at least you are still speaking to me. I didn’t expect you to.”

“I didn’t know you wanted him so much Rose… It was all a big shock.” He couldn’t bear to mention the loving him part…

“For you and me both…”

“So what are you going to do now?”

“Leave…”

“Because of me or because of him?” He had no clue what her feelings for him were any more…

“No Harry, because of me. I have let you down and myself too… I should have told you everything from the beginning. I shouldn’t have kept things from you. I had a deep attraction for Marcus from the first time I met him. I took him up on his little ‘
on demand
’ challenge which is why I ended up there in his place. I lost the bet Harry and that was the price. I wanted him no matter what, despite my feelings for you. And I got what I deserved in the end, which is nothing…  I don’t deserve you or any affection from you. You have been nothing but loving and wonderful to me all that time I was lusting after him. I am not worth a moment more of your time, you are well rid of me Harry – I’m just so very sorry I hurt you so much…”

Tears were now streaming down her face.

“There is one last thing I do want to say before I start crying too much to speak and it’s this… no matter what you think of me I worship the ground you walk on and I will always love you far, far more than I ever cared for him and just about forever actually… you have spoilt me for anyone else Harry… I can’t bear this situation and that’s why I’m leaving today… I’m going to my parents for a while, maybe for good …”

“Rose no…! I can’t and won’t let you go. I don’t care a fuck about him anymore or all that stuff you did… I knew it would happen, didn’t I tell you exactly that on our last night together… and what woman can resist a billionaire who looks like that anyway… Look, I’m sure you did love him a little, I don’t blame you for that… but Rose, mostly it was just fucking rampant sex.”

Harry’s voice was rising and everyone must have heard those last words really clearly…

“I love you much too much for it to end over him Rose…”

He pulled her up from her chair and wrapped his arms around her and in full view of everyone in the room gave her a long extremely loving steamy kiss. Everyone seemed to be enjoying their little show based on the noise going on around them. They broke away from their breathless encounter smiling at each other, oblivious to everyone and everything and the extremely crude comments coming from Dirty’s desk.