Читать книгу Confessions of a Lapdancer - Литагент HarperCollins USD, J. F. C. Harrison, Professor J. D. Scoffbowl - Страница 5

Two months earlier

It was my first day back in the London office after a bumpy transatlantic flight and I didn’t have the stomach for a fight. I crossed my fingers and hoped my guardian angel would get through the next twelve hours unscathed.

What annoyed me most was that I’d had no time to get the inside track on Sloane Brothers’ latest golden boy, Luke Cotterill, apart from the fact that he had quickly established himself as a smart, smooth operator who worked hard and played even harder. Being on secondment in New York for six weeks had left me out of the loop, and out of the loop was not a place I liked to be.

However, there were some small mercies – the weak dollar had provided me with a new wardrobe of beautifully tailored trouser suits that I’d picked up at Saks Fifth Avenue, so it was with an extra swagger in my step and wearing black Armani that I approached the company’s HQ that morning. Another bonus had been the amount of horny NY investment bankers, one of whom I ended up fucking on the walnut desk of his Wall Street office.

I was prepared to meet the new PA who had been recruited in my absence but there was no sign of her as I strode towards my glass box on the third floor. The fact that I’d recently been given my own office had ruffled some feathers on the team, but I’d insisted on it, given my seniority in Mergers and Acquisitions.

Most of the guys had their noses buried in the FT when I arrived but were suspiciously quiet. They didn’t usually pass up the opportunity to make a fatuous remark. Then I noticed that my office door was open and a man with a shock of ruffled blond hair was sitting in my chair with his back to me.

‘Can I help you?’ I asked in my best clipped voice.

The chair swung round. ‘Do I have to get up before you sit down?’ the occupant replied.

I felt myself boiling up inside but betrayed nothing.

‘Ah, Mr Cotterill I presume? Is that your way of greeting a senior colleague? How unusual …’

‘The famous Miss Carson, if I’m not mistaken,’ he replied without flinching. ‘Thought I would form a one-man welcoming party and warm your seat, so to speak.’

‘I usually have trespassers evicted but I’ll let it pass on this occasion,’ I told him, the false teasing note in my voice not fooling either one of us. ‘Now if you don’t mind, I have a lot of catching up to do.’

‘I’ve heard a lot about you,’ he continued, regardless. I look forward to working you … I mean working with you …’

‘Look, Luke, I’m sure we will be having a briefing session soon so please can you leave my office now so I can prepare for it?’ I snapped.

‘Ooh, I already love it when you’re angry,’ he said, grinning at me. ‘I look forward to receiving further lashes of your tongue.’

‘I don’t want to get off on the wrong foot with you,’ I told him. ‘So I’d advise you to focus less on my tongue and more on keeping a civil tongue in your head.’

‘No need to be so buttoned-up, Geri,’ he said. ‘You’ll find out I’m a laid-back kind of guy really. I like to get laid back at my place …’

‘Right, out of my office, now!’ I ordered, still keeping that headmistress tone, like this was all Carry On and nothing to get worked up about, while tipping him forward out of my chair, ‘and it’s Geraldine to you.’

‘You’re no fun,’ he said, reluctantly getting up and walking towards the door. ‘I’m just having a little joke with you.’

‘Well, Luke, I can share a good joke with the best of them,’ I said. ‘Let’s just hope we share the same work ethic.’

‘I’m not afraid to burn the midnight oil, Geri,’ he said, ignoring my request to address me by my full name, ‘as you will no doubt discover. See you later, Miss Sourpuss.’

And with that, Luke Cotterill moved his wise ass out of my space and back into his domain.

I closed the door behind him and felt like fumigating the place. I was rattled by his rudeness but I knew he wanted to provoke a reaction in me.

It didn’t help that he was tall and lean as an Olympic rower, with the good looks to go with the physique.

And boy did he know it. He was clearly accustomed to women falling for his charms on a regular basis. This one was a dangerous beast, and I could not afford to give him the slightest ammunition.

Just as I was pondering how to deal with him, a young woman with long red hair came to sit down at the desk outside my office. So this was my new PA, Tania Peck.

I scrutinised her for a good few minutes. She had a great body, with legs up to her armpits and a ballet dancer’s posture that thrust her boobs out in front of her like heat-seeking missiles.

Everything about her shrieked ‘Look at me, boys!’ and I guessed it had been Daryll Sidebottom’s idea to hire her, probably to ‘cheer up the office’ or some such nonsense, but there was no point in arguing with the head of the investment team.

It pissed me off that she was flaunting herself in such an obvious way. I had the seemingly unpopular idea that hard work, intelligence and talent might actually get you places, so I had always been careful to cover myself up.

I felt like giving Tania a good talking-to but knew I’d be wasting my time. She was only 20, and she wouldn’t listen to a 28-year-old like me.

My face was a studied mask of indifference when she stood up and walked into my office, proffering her hand.

‘Miss Carson, it’s really nice to meet you at last. I hope you had a fun stay in New York,’ she said, speaking in an accent that was pure Sarf London, flashing a set of perfect white teeth.

‘Yes, it was a valuable experience,’ I told her, making eye contact but not accepting the handshake. ‘And please, call me Geri.’

‘OK, thanks Geri,’ she replied sweetly, flicking her long, flowing red hair off her face. ‘Give me a shout when you want to go through your correspondence.’

I nodded and closed my office door, making sure she realised I wanted a boundary between us. She was being too nice – a sure sign of a hidden agenda.

I sat down to check my emails and at the top of my inbox was a message from Ryan Buxton, the best-looking guy on the team and also my occasional fuck buddy.

Now please don’t pre-judge me. The ‘work hard, play hard’ adage didn’t really apply at Sloane Brothers. It was all work. My social life consisted of keeping up with college friends via facebook. I ate, breathed and dreamed the job. Had done for four years now. That was my world. Ryan was good for a no-strings shag when the fancy took me.

In the subject line were the words: Watch out, there’s a mole about! I opened it up and read the contents:

Welcome back, Geri – see you’ve met your hot new PA! Don’t be fooled by that cute exterior, she’s a smart cookie. Guess who she’s shagging? Only Luke Cotterill!

I rolled my eyes in disbelief. Tania probably thought it was a great career move; I thought it was career suicide.

In six short weeks, Luke had managed to put his alpha male stamp in every corner of the company like a dog marking its territory.

Luke had also sent me an email.

Guess you’ve heard the big horizontal merger has just gone through. Are we hot or what? Well, I am anyway!

Of course I knew about the deal; I’d been an integral part of the team that pulled it off for the company. I didn’t dignify his email with a response and spent a few moments quietly observing Tania before calling her in.

‘OK, here are a few ground rules,’ I said. ‘First, everything that passes between us in this office is confidential. Second, I expect you to show some initiative, but not to put anything into action unless I’ve approved it first. Understood?’

‘Oh, of course, Geri. Deffo,’ she replied, without a crack appearing in her smile.

Looking beyond Tania I could see that Luke was gathering some of the team around him.

I walked out into the main office to drop a document on a colleague’s desk. As I did, Luke made sure I heard him inviting the guys – or ‘the Brothers’, as he insisted on calling them – out to celebrate the big merger deal. I wasn’t having that, obviously, and went to have a quiet word with him.

‘Luke, I don’t care if the Sisters are not officially invited, I’m not missing out on this Brothers’ party,’ I said. ‘I had as much to do with this deal as anyone else.’

‘Ahh, it’s Geri Boy,’ he sneered, loudly enough so that half the office could hear him. ‘She who wears the trousers and wants to be one of the lads.’

‘As I said before, it’s Geraldine to you,’ I said, grinning at the other guys on the team. ‘The first Jeroboam is on me, OK?’

‘Ooh, that’s a big bottle for a little lady,’ laughed Luke, surrounded by giggling cronies. ‘Will you need a man to help you with that?’

I bit my lip while trying to think of a decent comeback but thought better of it and marched purposefully back to my office. Tania was blocking the doorway. Was that a sympathetic smile or a smirk on her face? I couldn’t be bothered to work it out.

‘Tania, if you’ve got something to say, then say it.’

‘Oh Geri, don’t let them get to you,’ she said. ‘I’m coming tonight as well, we’ll have some fun, you’ll see.’

‘Right, fine,’ I said, incensed that Luke had invited her and not me. I’d only been out of the office for six weeks but I felt like I’d already lost my place in the team. ‘You’d better be prepared to buy your round, though.’ I immediately regretted that – there was no way a legal PA would be able to keep up with the spending.

I asked her to phone ahead to Corney & Barrow to make sure they were well stocked with Bollinger and Krug before the Sloane Brothers’ wrecking crew arrived, and went back to work.

The rest of the day passed without much incident, with Luke postponing our briefing meeting, apparently in a gesture of kindness to let me properly recover from jet lag, but I guessed he was doing it as some kind of power play.

As the sun went down, I went to the ladies to prepare myself for the night ahead.

I’d always thought of myself as handsome rather than pretty and preferred short hair to long, but even I had to admit my spiky, jet-black cut – inspired by early Siouxsie Sioux, I liked to think – was quite a strong statement.

I didn’t wear much make-up at the office but for the evenings I liked to emphasise my pale skin and blue eyes by wearing deep crimson lipstick, black mascara and liquid eye liner.

I always wore my armour, though – a trusty black trouser suit worn with a polo neck or a shirt. Even wearing a skirt at work made guys like Luke think I was weak.

Tania came in.

‘Geri, sorry to interrupt, but the guys are ready to leave and we don’t want to be left behind, do we?’ she said.

‘OK, Tania, I’ll be ready in a mo,’ I told her.

After a good five minutes, I joined the male members of staff by the front entrance. Luke leered at Tania while I made eye contact with Ryan. He was a little too rugby club for my liking but served a purpose on the nights I felt horny.

At least Daryll was a man who knew his own mind. As our boss, he walked around the office with a proprietorial air that I found patronising, and he never attempted to curb the offensive locker-room banter indulged in by the guys, but I did respect his knowledge and experience.

‘Daryll, how good of us to join you,’ I said, cheekily.

‘Very droll, Geraldine,’ he replied in his deep, Leslie Phillips-esque drawl. ‘I believe the first bottle will be on your account? And I trust I will not be seeing it on your expenses.’

‘Of course not, Daryll,’ I laughed. ‘I wouldn’t dream of fleecing Sloane Brothers out of their hard-earned cash. Even though I’ve earned most of it for them.’

He smiled lasciviously.

‘You have the cheek of the devil, young lady,’ he winked, ‘but I admire you for it.’

I winked back before exiting the office with Tania in tow, leaving the boys to make their own way to the bar.

Luke and his posse were right behind me though as I calmly strolled into Corney & Barrow and before I knew it he was reaching his long arm over me in an attempt to grab the neck of the £200 Jeroboam that Tania was holding, like an eager puppy, ready to please.

‘No, Luke. This baby’s mine,’ I said firmly.

‘So you like them big, do you, Geri Boy?’ he taunted. ‘Well, let’s see whether you can make it shoot!’

Ryan, who had zero loyalty to me despite our ‘relationship’, laughed right on cue, leaving me to work on removing the cork. I wedged the bottle between my toned thighs and gradually worked it loose, hearing that reassuring pop as Tania was poised with a flute to catch any overspill.

‘Oh, good show,’ said Luke. ‘Hardly a drop wasted!’

I ignored him, instructing Tania to fill the glasses as I tested my muscle strength by gradually tipping the bottle until it was empty.

‘Wow, Geri, I’m impressed!’ said Tania. ‘Where did you get thighs like that?’

‘I’m an experienced show jumper,’ I replied, enjoying the look of surprise on her face.

‘Really?’ she said. ‘How did you get into that?’

‘Through Daryll, four years ago,’ I told her. ‘He’s always kept horses and he suggested I take lessons. Once I started, I found I had a natural talent for it. I’d recommend it to any woman – it exercises muscles you didn’t know you had and gives you great posture.’

‘Well, Geri – you are a dark horse, if you’ll pardon the pun,’ she giggled.

I laughed politely but inside I felt uncomfortable. I hoped she’d never find out that I only started working with horses in order to keep in with Daryll and advance my career.

‘Geri, are you OK?’ asked Tania, who could see I was drifting off.

‘Yes, I’m fine,’ I replied. ‘Just thinking about Zeus, my gorgeous bay stallion.’

‘What, you own a horse?’ said Tania, her eyes widening.

‘Yes, he’s 16.2 hands, part thoroughbred, part warm blood,’ I said. ‘I keep him at a stable near my parents’ house in Sussex.’

‘God, that can’t be cheap,’ Tania remarked.

‘No, but he’s a beauty and worth every penny,’ I said. ‘Now, if you’ll excuse me, I must go and talk to my boss.’

Tania gawped at me. Jesus, Geraldine, I thought to myself. Don’t forget, this girl is Luke Cotterill’s piece of totty. Zip it …

Aside from my flings with Ryan, I didn’t like to mix business with pleasure too much.