The Temp (9 page)

18

“Eve, honey, I’m sorry to call you at work.”

“It’s fine,” Eve sniffed over the phone, the tears had shed on their own.

“Are you alright?” Trisha always sensed when things went south. 

“It’s allergy season,” Eve lied, she didn’t have a clue when allergy season was. She picked at the tissue box and wiped away the few stray tears that had escaped.

As soon as she’d said it to Roman she’d run to the bathroom and collapsed in utter waterworks. Eve was an expert as crying silently like the grave. The tears had poured like a waterfall. When she’d returned Roman was gone, he had several meetings booked back to back and a work lunch to attend. Eve would probably not see him for the rest of the day. Maybe it was better this way.

Her chest stung with the rejection. Who was she kidding? She’d done the rejecting and it was piercing her flesh with the cold dagger of truth.
You can’t have him.

“Sweetie, oh you should take your anti-histamines,” Trisha worried.

“I left them at home. Did you want me to take Jack tonight?”

“I’m really sorry to have to call you at last minute. They wanted me to do a shift tonight, it was extra pay. I couldn’t turn it down, not with the move and everything. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have bothered you. I’ll call them up and tell them no”-

“No, it’s fine.”

“Are you sure?”

“You know I wouldn’t say no.”

“One day you should. Are you sure you’re alright?” another tear escaped down her cheek. Eve wiped it away. “Is it your boss?” Trisha’s voice lowered.

“You can bring Jack over later,” Eve didn’t want to answer the other question.

*

“Eve, what’s wrong?” Trigger said. “Eve,” he whispered her name furiously as he pushed her back into the alleyway. A tingle shied up her spine at the contact, his warm hands against her shoulders.

Her bottom lip danced. Her back was pressed against the wall of the building and his heat met hers. Her heart always raced at this point, always betraying her, her nerves thrumming and feeling him there…

“Eve, it’s been two and a half weeks. I need some feedback,” Trigger said and he was closer to her than he’d ever been, as if their distance had grown on him.

“I asked to be made permanent.”

Trigger’s face lit up even amidst the shadows. “And what did he say?”

“What do you think?” she shot back. “He didn’t say anything.”

“What do you mean?”

“I walked out.” Trigger watched her for a while and pulled back. “It was the only way,” Eve said, as if it would explain it.

“You like him,” he said.

Eve didn’t answer and her cheeks betrayed her turning darker in the shadow of the alleyway.

“Do you think he likes you?” Her attention trailed to the sidewalk. “Why didn’t you tell me?” again her cheeks heated. It was stupid Eve should feel anything for a man who was so blatantly out of her league knowing she’d never stand a chance and at best she might be a one night stand. That’s all she deserved.

Then there was the fact that Trigger was pressed up so close against her. The warning bells were going hay wire. He was her handler. What was wrong with her? Couldn’t she keep her feelings in check for one second?

“What’s the problem?” he said.

“You’re sick,” Eve pushed him back. “The problem is I don’t do that. I don’t sleep with the enemy so you can get your pay day.”

“I don’t like it either,” Trigger blinked. “As a woman, it’s your greatest asset.”

Her hand rose in the dark and struck out for a slap.

He caught it before it hit, lightning fast, his fingers hot against her wrist. There was strength there catching her breath.

“A woman!?”

“I’m not trying to insult you. Those who are doing this will only use you as far as you’re useful and when you stop being useful they cut their losses, including what they have on you,” his eyes pierced liquid azure into hers. How could someone so entrapped in danger be so mesmerising? “Remember, I’m not the enemy. I’m saying this to help you. It may be the only way. You’ve never used your looks to get ahead?”

Eve took back her arm rubbing her wrist. “No, it’s not so easy. I’m not Angelica.”

“You shouldn’t want to be Angelica. You’re stunning, how can you not be?” his eyes were intent on hers.

Her mouth opened, worked. She shied away. “Thanks for the cheap flattery, I’m not one to do those kinds of things,” her gaze strayed downward. “Maybe you should go with Snake eyes instead.” His brow rose. “I mean, Angelica.”

“Eve, you’re beautiful, you know that don’t you?” Eve didn’t say anything. No one had ever called her beautiful before, not in a long time. “You have done those kinds of things, haven’t you?”

She didn’t say anything.

Trigger’s hand caught her hair tucking a strand back, her breath catching. She knew she was giving herself away even as it happened.

“You have been with another man, haven’t you?” Again her silence bit into the alleyway. “Eve, are you serious? Why didn’t you tell me?” he took her face in his hands and she pushed him off.

“Tell you? What? You think I was advertising it? Where do you get off telling me to use my sexuality? You’re such a pig” she forced back the tears.

Eve didn’t give him time to respond as she shoved off the wall. She walked out of the alleyway intent on putting one foot in front of the other without breaking down. It took every effort. One of her closest kept secrets. It was nothing to be ashamed of. She was waiting for the right guy, had been for a while.

Now Trigger knew her dirty little secret, cheapening it and knowing what he was thinking as she walked away.

Virgin. Virgin. Virgin.

19

Virgin.
Virgin. Virgin.

“What a pleasant surprise.” He spooled back through the voices until he hit the exact spot where she confessed, or better yet Trigger Raines put two and two together, smart man.

“You have been with another man, haven’t you?”
came the familiar voice.
He had only their voices to go on, yet
her
silence spoke volumes.
Oh and the plot thickens
…he sat back…clasping his hands together, resting his jaw on them.

Eve Allure’s little secret might benefit him if he played it right. Who would he use? He clicked open the files of the employees on his computer screen. It was the one place he kept some of his precious secrets hidden by encoded text and infinite passwords, but every criminal needed a little black book. He had a handful of people at his disposal.

He clicked open one image, the woman’s profile expanding on the screen. This one was a feisty one, it hadn’t taken much dirt or persuasion to turn her, mould her to his will all those years ago.
Yes…she would do.
She was the type not to keep something as juicy as this to herself.
Good.

He glanced at his silver wristwatch; the creature of habit might be at the club or waiting for him in some slutty little outfit…wrapped around his finger.

…And Eve Allure would be set on a dangerous path, a ticking time bomb if things went as planned.

20

Day 4-Thursday-The Office

“Eve, a bunch of us girls are going out tonight. Did you want to come?” Celeste said. Her butt rested on the edge of Eve’s desk inside her cubicle walls, too close for comfort. She threw up a look at the boss behind the glass. Celeste’s blood red lips formed a pout moments later. Her black liquorice nails were sharpened to points and drumming the edge of Eve’s desk. She normally was more refined, now she looked the spitting image of Snake eyes. She wore a patent leather skirt with a matt black figure hugging blazer and white silk blouse. “Such eye candy,” she winked. “Shame he’s the boss. So, tonight, drinks? Some much needed male attention?”

“I can’t. I have too much work on,” Eve said. Eve didn’t go out or socialise, she didn’t know how. Frankly having Celeste sit on her desk and converse like she was her best friend was surely an odd day for her.

“Sugar, I simply wanted to help you prove those rumours wrong,” she teetered.
Rumour?
Eve’s pulse quickened instinctively.

“What rumours?” Eve stilled over the keyboard giving Celeste her full attention.

“I heard from Janie, who heard it from Barb, who heard it from Angelica, who heard it from”-

“Heard what?”

“If it’s only rumour tell me and everyone else so and we can clear this up or better yet show them.”

“Show them what?”

Celeste leaned in and lowered her voice. “Well, you’ve never been with a man before. What are you like twenty five give or take? You’ve had your cherry popped haven’t you? It’s a right of passage.”

Her mouth dropped.

Oh my god.
She drowned out whatever else Celeste said next. Her throat seized, her blood thickening in her veins. She skimmed above her cubicle walls. Time numbed her senses and she sensed every pair of eyes flit her way and back.
Have you heard the news? Little temping Eve’s never done it before. What is she hiding under there?
Strangers talking about her, whispering her name, even if it wasn’t the case, even if they spoke of something else, it was all she could think of.
Virgin. Virgin. Virgin. Virgin. Virgin. Virgin.

Eve pressed her hands over her ears in an effort to block out the voices in her head. She stood up throwing the chair back. Her hands gripped the edges of her desk.

“I think the rumour started naturally because you’re so uptight. You’re always working and so what’s the word?” Celeste inclined her head. “Straight laced. Dear, it’s ok if you’ve never been with a man before,” she laughed a shrill laugh meaning it was anything but ok. She rose off the desk and sauntered off, her hips swaying in her wake. The poison of her words leached hard and fast into Eve’s veins.

Angelica sauntered passed. “I didn’t know whether to believe it.”

“And yet you told people anyway,” Eve said.

“Oh, no, I would never,” Angelica gasped in mock shock.

“If anything, I had the opposite in mind.” Eve’s brow shot up. Angelica’s gaze flittered to the glass office. “First Trigger, now Roman Pierce, my, my, we do get around.” Snake eyes sneered and swayed down the corridor before Eve could even muster a retort.

She had nothing. No one, no work colleague had ever spoken to Eve like that and given her precarious situation she doubted she could even make a complaint. Her knuckles turned white against the desk
. Virgin. Virgin. Virgin.
The words came back to haunt her. Her face blanched, she was frozen, her fists balling and un-balling, her heart slamming like the breaks of a car.

“You know where I am, if you change your mind,” Celeste walked on by, a coffee cup in hand, adding fuel to the already stoking fire. Eve watched the woman disappear around a cubicle.
Angela. Celeste.
They know. They all know and they’re laughing at her.
Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god.

She started hyperventilating. Not like the confined steel box, nothing like that, this was worse. 
Everybody knows.
How could they?

The phone rang and she jumped.

It was Roman, her boss in the glass office behind her. She didn’t pick up, she simply turned to the office and his gaze met her head on.
He knows too. No.
He had to know. How could he not?

The phone rang again. Bring. BRRING!

She couldn’t move. 

He got up from behind the desk and walked over to the glass door. “Eve is everything”-she didn’t give him a chance to finish. She bolted. She couldn’t be here, she couldn’t have them knowing and laughing about her. She rushed to the lobby pressing the elevator button again and again and again.

“Come on,” tears streamed down her cheeks.

Finally the elevator dinged open. She was in and pushing the button to close the doors when Roman walked in.

“Eve, what’s wrong?”

“Please, I need to leave”-the doors closed.

They were locked in together.

She could take the elevator every once in a while if she breathed evenly enough. It wasn’t enough now. Her pulse raced. Her ears numbed from the pressure. Her breathing was constricted. 

“I need air,” her chest rose and fell; there was too much pressure on her ears.

“Eve, calm down you’re hyperventilating.” Eve didn’t look at him as the tears flowed freely, she turned away from him.

“Why did you follow me?” her fingers pressed against the walls, she was locked in the corner of the elevator. 

“I had to get some fresh air.”

“That was my line.”

“I’m taking it.” 

He stood next to her shoulder to shoulder, his warmth pressing against her arm. Her senses swam; this was the longest elevator ride ever. When the box finally stilled Eve jumped out and jogged into the lobby.

She had to get away.

His hand grabbed hers in a heartbeat, his touch filling her senses.

“What, let go Rome, I’m not your problem.”

“You are. You’re mine,” his voice was hoarse.

He steered her down the street and to the park.

Eve swallowed back her fear and her tears. Did Roman say she was his?

“I’m not,” she wanted to fight back, at least feel like she could stand on her own two feet. Her hand was hot in his. He steered her to a bench in the park.

“Is there someone else?” he sat down pulling her along with him, his hand still in hers.

“What?”

“The man in the coffee house.”

“Nick? No, we’re friends,” Eve stammered remembering what Trisha had said. If Nick really liked her it still came as a shock.

“Then what is it? Why did you leave?”

“You already know, the whole office does. I’m not going to say it.”

“I don’t know,” his attention was on her. “I don’t. Tell me.”

“No.” Eve slumped against the bench and clasped her hands over her knees, taking her hand from him leaving her cold.

“You’re upset. You can’t go back there”-Eve glanced up at him. “At least not until you’re ok again. You’re make-up is smudged. Whatever you’re afraid of facing, they’d know they got to you. You’re better than them.” Eve had a flash of Snake eyes and her cold smile and cold words.
Them.
She had a flash of the blackmailers. Was she better than them? In this game of deception, she couldn’t be sure anymore.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Eve wiped her cheeks.

“I do. Come on, let’s go to lunch,” he tugged her hand.

“Rome-”

“Don’t say my name like that unless you can follow through,” his voice cut through. 

She bit her tongue as they rose and walked out of the park hand in hand. Once they left the park she let him lead her to a nearby restaurant. They were seated immediately at the far back in a private corner.

The waiter brought over the menus.

“What are you eating? It’s on me,” his eyes softened.

“I’m not hungry.”

“You should eat. At least have dessert.” Eve shook her head. Roman handed the waiter the menus. “We’ll have one of each of the specials.”

“Right away.”

Roman braced both hands over the table. “What’s bothering you, Eve?”

“I’d rather we didn’t talk about it.”

“Alright, then.”

“I’d rather not talk about anything.”

“Got it.”

Eve picked up a spoon, her misshapen face blinking back, her mascara was smudged in a very unladylike manor.
What would they think?
“I’m going to the bathroom to clean myself up,” she rose feeling heavy and groggy.

The bathroom was eloquently decked in a marble vanity and classic taps. Eve wiped away the evidence of her emotions with the softest of tissues. She braced herself over the sink. What was she doing here? A moment ago she was in the office with Celeste laughing at her. And Snake eyes. There was a woman who hated her on sight for whatever reason she couldn’t fathom.

Now she was here, with Roman Pierce in a restaurant. Eve sat back down a few minutes later. Before her sat a chocolate brownie with ice cream and a strawberry cheesecake.

“Can I talk now?” his voice was all innocence.

Eve’s mouth stretched. “I’ve never known you to ask permission.”

“I didn’t know which one you wanted.” Eve dipped her spoon into the brownie and pushed the other plate towards him. They ate their desserts in silence. Occasionally Eve would look up. Roman would look up. She didn’t know what to say, knowing anything would most likely ruin this moment. It wasn’t long after they were walking back down the street towards Roman Industries Ltd.

“You haven’t said anything for a while,” Roman pressed the button for the elevator. The lobby was startlingly different, less threatening in this light. Eve didn’t respond as they got in. It was the two of them alone in the elevator.  “What will it take for you to submit to me?” What would it take? Eve considered a moment.

It was Roman she was standing with, Roman, a man who didn’t do permanence and romance.

He didn’t do forever.

Eve smiled with wet eyes. “Nothing you can give me.”

She stepped out of the elevator.

“Thank you for the cake Mr Pierce.”