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  I don’t really want to be doing this – palming him off on Dean every time I have a shift to work. I don’t want to palm him off at all, in fact, but the flip side is so much worse. A lifetime of benefit handouts and few prospects. That isn’t the life I want to introduce Joe to. It isn’t the life our parents would have wanted for either of us.

  I drop him back on his beanbag and he stares at the cartoon dogs on screen.

  “So?” Dean prompts. “How was day one?”

  I head on through to the kitchen, and he follows me, grabbing two mugs from the side while I switch on the kettle. “Hard. Long. Tiring.” I pause. “Shit.”

  “Shit? Really?”

  I shake my head. “Nah, it’s not all that bad. I met someone. Sonnie. She seems nice.”

  “A friend already?”

  I nod, and then I smile. “And I saw him.”

  “And did seeing his criminal-aiding ass in the flesh again cure the infatuation?”

  I shake my head. “Not exactly…”

  I want to tell him so much. I want to tell him that Alexander Henley smells just as good as I remember. I want to tell him the birthmark on Alexander Henley’s cheek is a perfect little circle, and his eyes have the faintest little lines in the corners, and that’s new. Newer than four years, new.

  I want to tell him that I broke the rules and took the main elevator, and even though that’s strictly forbidden, he still held the door for me.

  Dean stares, waiting for more, and I realise I’m grinning. Mute.

  “He didn’t recognise me,” I admit. “But he wasn’t ever going to, was he?”

  “Nobody would recognise you in that shitty uniform, Lissa. It’s God fucking awful.”

  “Even so, it was years ago. He bummed me one cigarette, I’m sure he barely even remembers the school, let alone me.”

  “Just don’t get arrested for stalking,” Dean says. “It’s not as if they don’t know how to prosecute.”

  He’s joking, but not really.

  He knows all about my stalker tendencies. He’s been an accomplice to most of them.

  But not this time. This time he’s got to look after Joe while I go scrubbing toilets for money.

  “So, what’s the plan?” he asks. “Don’t tell me you haven’t got one. You always have a plan.”

  “I’m going to get to the eighteenth floor,” I say. “That’s where he is.”

  “And then what? Hope he likes stripy caps and polyester?”

  I shake my head, and it seems funny again. It all seems funny again.

  I throw my crappy cap at Dean’s head. “And then I’m going to sniff his seat.”

  He catches it easily. “I’m not even sure you’re joking,” he says.

  I shrug. Smile. Make our tea, but say nothing.

  Because, truth be told, I’m not even sure I’m joking myself.

  Chapter Two

  Alexander

  Brenda, my assistant, has a voice that makes my ears bleed. I’ve pondered it a great deal during idle minutes, and the closest comparison I’ve so far drawn is that of a poorly tuned trumpet, played through the nose.

  It would be comedy, if she weren’t so thoroughly fucking prissy with it.

  It would kill me to hear her squeal my name in the bedroom, and since my personal assistant is the very last person I want in my bedroom, that is fortunate. And quite possibly one of the main reasons I decided to hire her in the first place.

  That and the fact she’s really fucking good at what she does.

  Mr Austin is here to see you.

  I’m sure her voice sounds even worse through the internal telephone system, as though some of the depth of tone is lost in transmission.

  Believe me, she finds me as unbearable as I find her. But we tolerate each other. A courteous professional disdain that gets us both through the working day. I think it suits us both that way.

  “I’ll be down. Get him a coffee.”

  Yes, Mr Henley, sir.

  Mr Austin is an arrogant, weasel-faced prick, and I’ve already seen more than enough of him this week. Another weekend late-night call, another visit to his local police station to bail him out when I should be busy spending money, not earning it.

  Mr Austin is CEO at Lux Air, the pompous private jet firm, and believes owning an airline gives him special privileges.

  Mr Austin believes he can drive his sports car while under the influence of alcohol at over double the speed limit through residential areas, without giving a shit for any lesser mortals who may share the same road space as him.

  Mr Austin also believes I can get him off the hook every time, just so long as he pays me enough money.

  He’s right.

  Like I said, he’s an arrogant prick, but so am I.

  And so we go again. The firm handshake, the pat of his hand on my arm, the warm, fake, professional smile. The same old routine as he bleats about how thankful he is that I came to his rescue last night, how it wasn’t his fault. They’ve set him up, again. Jealous assholes. Barely even a double shot of whisky.

  I take the same old notes and nod in the same old places. And then I do what I always do.

  “I’ll deal with it,” I say.

  “Good man,” he replies, just like always.

  And just like always, I deal with it.

  This business is as much about connections as it is about the law. It’s about saying the right things to the right people, with the right air of confidence. That and knowing all those tiny little loopholes that infuriate the prosecution every fucking time.

  They hate me more than Brenda does, just as much as they hated my father before me. But that’s okay.

  You know what they say. You’re no one unless somebody hates you. And judging by those rules, I really am someone. Just ask my ex-wife.

  Today is like any other day at the office. An endless carousel of the same old faces making the same old fuckups.

  Mr Austin, and then Mr Rand, the oil tycoon with a penchant for picking up women on street corners. Mr Kingsley, the dot com boomer who does far too many drugs and gets into scrapes with the law far too often for sanity. Some court paperwork, and a crappy board meeting that sees me staring numbly at my officially retired father for an hour across the boardroom table, and I’m done.

  Once upon a time, before life – divorce – turned me into the cynical, jaded asshole I am today, getting people off the hook was all the exhilaration I needed. The rush of a serious court case, the heated negotiations behind the scenes, the high-end networking, and the money, always so much money. I loved it. All of it.

  But these days it’s not enough.

  I’m barely out of the office foyer when I pull my second phone from my inside pocket. It’s identical to my work handset in virtually every way, except this is an unregistered pay-as-you-go, topped up using cash only, and never in the same location twice.

  My fingers feel clammy as I unlock the screen.

  I scroll through my previous messages, the ones that I should have deleted minutes after bidding is closed, as per the rules. I used to follow them. I used to be careful, guarded. Sensible.

  This week’s offer is still in my inbox.

  Britney Jane. 26. Brunette. 5’10. Athletic. D-cup tits.

  The pretty girl stares out from the handset, lips pouted like a cheap porn star, legs spread to show the pretty pink slit of her pussy. She’s had surgery, that cunt is far too perfect to be natural.

  I hate perfect, but that isn’t why I haven’t placed a bid on Britney Jane. The list of ticked boxes beneath her photo show her as far too vanilla to warrant any kind of investment.

  Far too vanilla for me.

  I scroll back through the listings.

  Candice. 21. Natural blonde. 5’2. Curvy. C-cup tits.

  She’d been worth every penny and then some. The girl had very few hard limits listed under her photograph, and she’d been telling the truth. Believe me, I know. I pushed her on all of them.

  I arrive at my car
, and my mouth is dry and my jaw feels tight, waiting for the thrill that zips up my spine whenever a fresh listing appears, like an addict craving a hit. It’s about time I went cold turkey for a few months, logged out of the network and weaned myself back to a state of mind closer to equilibrium.

  But the thought is unwelcome, the prospect one of nausea.

  I need this.

  Need.

  That’s the downward spiral before me. The cycle of dependence and escapism that leads me down the rabbit hole. The same cycle I see every day in my office, rich men taking ever greater risks to get their rocks off, chasing the elusive thrill that comes from the shadier side of wealth.

  Gambling. Drugs. Fast cars.

  I’ve seen billionaires shoplift costume jewellery just for the rush of it. I’ve seen calm, responsible fathers snort a gram of coke from a hooker’s tits and take them out for a joyride through leafy London suburbs. I’ve seen men with beautiful wives at home, hovering outside public urinals for the chance to shove their dick in some seedy guy’s asshole before teatime.

  I’ve seen it all, and I’ve excused it all, and somehow, somewhere along the line I became caught in the same rancid headlights.

  I don’t do drugs. I don’t drive my cars at excessive speed. I don’t visit bars and drink myself into oblivion. I don’t even smoke expensive cigars.

  I do sex.

  Dirty, filthy, brutal sex.

  I should sign up for some anonymous self-help group. Go along to some grotty community centre in the dregs of London for a Styrofoam mug of cheap coffee, and the pleasure of perching myself on one of their grimy plastic chairs as I psyche myself up to say it.

  My name is Alexander, and I am a sex addict.

  I’d get a round of applause, and then I’d have to tear up, eat a biscuit, and tell them all how good it felt to face down my own demons.

  I have no intention of doing any of those things.

  I remember the glorious pained grunts as Candice took my cock dry. I remember the soft flesh of her hips yielding to my grip as I held tight and pushed in all the fucking way.

  I remember the way her pretty tits bounced, her big nipples so fucking ripe for my mouth.

  I remember the way she wriggled and squirmed with my hands around her throat.

  Paying Candice was a delight. Money well spent.

  But I think I’ll go with Elena this evening. I haven’t seen Elena in a while.

  I slip into my Mercedes and fire off a text message before I start up the engine.

  Elena. Tonight. Nine thirty.

  Sent.

  I wait.

  The handset vibrates in my hand as the message icon flashes.

  Room sixteen. Harley’s tavern. Your name is Ted Brown.

  I’m smiling the first genuine smile of the day as I pull out of the car park.

  Melissa

  It takes us three weeks of back-breaking effort to get a compliment, let alone a promotion. Another two weeks on top of that to get a regular smile from our line manager at the start of shift.

  Week seven of scrubbing steel and grouting and toilet bowls until our hands are blotchy, and both Sonnie and I are questioning just how sound our ambitious little scheme is turning out to be.

  She drops her sponge in the canteen sink and shoots me a look of pure apathy. “Whose idea was this?”

  “Yours.” I smile as I wipe down the air conditioning vent. “And mine. Alexander Henley’s seat, remember?”

  She takes a deep breath. “Mmm, I hope it smells half as good as I imagine.”

  “Oh, it will,” I say. “He smells incredible.”

  “And there she goes… never quits with the bragging…” Sonnie’s laugh makes me laugh too. “Tell me about it again, hon. I need the motivation.”

  I clear my throat. “It was a day like any other day… rushing my way through the back alleys to school, knowing I’m late for registration again…”

  “Yeah, yeah,” she prompts. “I got this bit. Late, sneaky cigarette, dregs of tobacco in your crappy tin, yada yada. I want the bit about him.”

  “You have no patience.” I laugh. “He smells musky, deep… rich, like the orient… his eyes are dark… like…”

  “Midnight…”

  “Midnight in winter…”

  She’s already laughing. “Boy, we got it bad.”

  “Yes. Yes, we do.”

  “Imagine it,” she says, and her eyes glint with that goofy sparkle that takes over every time she floats away into fantasy. “Being with a man like him. A man who has everything. Imagine waking up in the morning and being Mrs Alexander Henley. He has it all, right? The real deal, the full package. Mr perfect, living the dream…”

  “Living the dream,” I repeat.

  She picks up her sponge. “I guess we’ll just have to make do with sniffing his seat.”

  I wipe the damp from my forehead. “Yeah, well, you’d better get scrubbing. We’re quite some way from the eighteenth floor.”

  “Amen to that,” she says, and gets to work.

  We’re about to check out for the day when we’re accosted in the cleaning corridor on floor five.

  “A word, girls, please,” our line manager says, and beckons us inside her office. Sonnie looks at me, and I look back, and I’m not sure whether I should be worried or excited.

  Worried definitely wins out.

  We step on through and I close the door behind us, hoping that’s the right etiquette.

  Janet. Our line manager’s name is Janet, but should I call her Miss Yorkley? Janet or Yorkley?

  “Sit,” she says, and I hope I don’t have to choose.

  We sit. My hands are in my lap. My heel tapping.

  I really want this job. Need this job. For Joseph, and for me. For my shot at smelling Alexander Henley’s seat. For my shot at smelling Alexander Henley himself. Please God.

  “What’s your secret?” Janet Yorkley asks.

  Sonnie looks at me, and I guess I have to answer for us both. “Sorry?”

  “Your secret.” She raises an eyebrow. “You must have one. Canteen’s never looked so good, so they tell me, and our staff survey showed the floor-seven toilets as ten out of ten for cleanliness. We never have ten out of ten, for anything. These people just cannot be pleased.” She leans forward. “But you’ve managed it, two newbies in the crappiest floor of this building, and you’re the ones who got us a perfect score. So, what’s your secret?”

  “We, um… we work hard…” I begin.

  “No shit,” she says, and there’s a smile on her face I haven’t seen before.

  I dare to smile back, but I don’t think she sees, because Sonnie is leaning forward in her seat, and rolling back the cuffs on her crappy blouse.

  “This,” she says. “This here, this is what gets those toilets clean.”

  Sonnie’s hands are rough. Her skin blotchy and tired.

  Janet stares at her, and I wonder if she’s made the wrong move. “You should use the standard issue gloves,” she says. “Health and safety. It’s in your induction booklet.”

  “Health and safety don’t get them cubicles shining, Janet. Ain’t nobody got time for that.”

  I nod. Because I think I should. “We do what it takes. Everything must be perfect, just like you said in our induction.”

  “I know what I said.” She sighs. “But this is a cleaning job. I can’t say there’s many of your ilk in this building that give much, if any, consideration to perfect. They just do what needs doing and watch the clock until they can leave.”

  The thought is in my head. Just like that. I guess they just don’t want to smell Mr Henley bad enough.

  Sonnie nudges my foot with hers and I know she’s thinking it too.

  “Thanks,” I say to Janet. “For the recognition. It means a lot.”

  She laughs, just a little. “I didn’t get you in here for the recognition, Miss Martin. I got you in here to give you a promotion.”

  Promotion.

  I can’t stop
the grin. “You mean we’re off floor seven?”

  “You’re too good for floor seven,” she says. “None of the senior executives use the canteen anyway. It’s for the juniors and the admin staff.”

  Sonnie’s eyes are nearly as wide as her smile. “So, where are we…”

  Floor eighteen, floor eighteen, floor eighteen. I daren’t hope.

  “Floor sixteen,” Janet says. “Senior conference suites. Where the top executives really will see your magnificent handiwork, so make sure you get it right.”

  I nod. Sonnie nods. I try my best not to feel disappointed.

  “Thank you,” I say. “We won’t let you down.”

  “You’d best not.” She stands and gestures that we’re free to leave. “Because Mr Henley conducts his meetings there, and if there’s one thing you need to know about Mr Henley, it’s that he demands perfection. And you’d better deliver.”

  There’s a bloom in my chest. A hope. The faintest, most beautiful little flicker of hope.

  If it’s perfection Alexander Henley demands, then I’ll deliver.

  I’ll deliver anything he wants.

  Chapter Three

  Melissa

  Dean jokes that we need champagne, not the chipped mugs of coffee we clink in my tiny cramped kitchen. He tells me he’s happy for me, that it’s a job well done, says that maybe they’ll give me a pay rise big enough to make up for the extra bazillion stairs I’ll be climbing up every day to get to floor sixteen.

  He looks good today, his cropped hair a dark shadow, his brows heavy over bright blue eyes. A tight white tee under a loose checked shirt. Torn jeans and bare feet. Bare feet always look good on a man.

  It’s when Dean says he’s happy for me for the tenth time that I know something’s up.

  It’s in his smile.

  Tense.

  More like a grimace as he raises his mug. Again.

  I put mine down on the draining board. “What is it?”

  He shrugs and the smile doesn’t even flinch. “What’s what?”

  I poke my head through to the living room to check Joe’s still playing with his picture book, and then I fold my arms. “Don’t give me that. You look like you’re trying to hold in the shits or something.”