Bartered (The Encounter #1)(7)

Family was important. It was one thing my father had instilled in me. I respected that. “Without question, family comes first.” I nodded in agreement. “Anything else?”

“That was all I needed, Hugo.”

“Very well. I will have these alterations drawn up tomorrow. It should be ready at nine thirty in the morning and should be in time for breakfast. I’ll see you then, Isobel.”

Blushing, she gave me a small, encouraging smile. “Thank you for giving me a chance,” she murmured before leaving me to watch after her exit of my bedroom.

If I was confused before, I was more confused after that odd sentiment. She said thank you—she was giving me her body, yet she said thank you!

Merde.





Chapter 5


Isobel


“Can you make a fresh espresso, s'il vous plait,” Hugo directed without flicking his eyes towards me as they roamed the computer screens before him, studying the red and green graphs.

I paused, eyes stuck staring at his striking side profile before making a curt nod to myself. “Of course, Mister Xavier.”

“Hugo, Isobel.” Dark pools of chocolate brown eyes zeroed in on me, making me breathy and out of sorts.

“Hugo,” I breathed his name, feeling flushed. “All right, Hugo. I’ll go make you your espresso.” Closing my eyes briefly to push my embarrassment aside, I slowly made my way out of his plush office and into the kitchen right outside the area for his secretary and two of his personal assistants, who were working in a hushed, serene manner.

It’s been a week since that night I signed my contract, and for the past seven days, this was something I hadn’t expected to be doing—fetching everything he wanted and needed.

I unassumingly became his assistant—his third one. The man had a great team that offered more help than any man should need, and still, he bossed me around like a pet or an irrelevant person.

It wasn’t anger I felt but more of a feeling between unappreciated and devalued. It was as though I wasn’t good enough to be with him like how Sherry or Chantel were. A blessing was how I saw it because it truly was. I had thought the second I signed he’d become this brute of a man who wouldn’t care about what the terms and conditions I stipulated were. Then, true to his word, he had surprisingly stuck to them, and I had been almost sure he would break it. However, seven days later, the man had yet to do anything sexual with me.

After that night, nothing had happened. I wasn’t complaining—not really—but I was more apprehensive because there had to be a meaning behind all of this, shouldn’t there? A man couldn’t want one woman then change his mind the second she said she wouldn’t be willing to have vaginal sex with him. Some would even argue that men would see this as a challenge. Still, Hugo Xavier had not shown any interest in me at all except for giving me orders to get him this and that. For three hundred thousand euros, this job I was doing was puny, but who was I to complain? This was what I had hoped for when I signed, although I couldn’t help feeling the bite of his rejection.

My imagination had run amuck, and I had pictured all sorts of ugly scenarios in my head the moment I signed those six months of my life away, yet he had become the polar opposite of that hungered, over-eager man. What had happened? Every night I would try to remember, but nothing caught my attention to satisfy my question.

He’d been civilized and courteous, asking me every day if everything was okay for me, and I couldn’t be more baffled at his personality. Apart from his appallingly beautiful good looks that always left me dumbfounded, I had learned he was well-received and well-loved by the people he employed, in the villa and his casinos.

Being Greek, I knew a lot about male pride and ego, which Hugo Xavier had in spades; however, it was a first for me to see a man that prided himself and yet never forgot to greet his employees when it was their birthday, or when it was their wedding anniversary. He even went as far as to give them free hotel stays and other perks they loved getting by being employed by him. Granted, my father’s business wasn’t as grand or lavish as this one, however he never treated his people this way. Cracking a smile towards your workers would be a sin in my father’s eyes.

It was a refreshing change, and after learning bits and pieces of him for the past week, I felt almost secure he wouldn’t harm me—not at all the way I had pictured it in my head.

Taking a fresh cup from the cupboard, I absentmindedly took a call when my phone rang in my hand. “Hello?”

“Isobel…”

I stilled, shutting my eyes as I cherished the sound of my name. “Damen.”

He groaned in vain. “Please tell me you’ve changed your mind. You can’t seriously break-up with me through a voicemail, Izz.”

Izz. That was his nickname for me. Damen was my first boyfriend, my first love. My first everything. Breaking up with him a week before had not been easy, but I had to do what I must to save my family.

In my heart, if what Hugo had said was true, then six months of waiting for me wouldn’t be a problem. Could it? Hopefully, by then, I could have all of this behind me. Damen was the reason I had requested the clause in the contract. Because I knew, deep down, what I was doing was wrong, yet values wouldn’t save my family. Subsequently, I had needed a couple alterations to avoid betraying the man I loved in all aspects. It was a small compromise, I knew, but it was all I could do at the moment.