Tilly Bagshawe 3-book Bundle: Scandalous, Fame, Friends and Rivals. Tilly Bagshawe

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ place than the drab one-bedroom walk-up with its magnolia walls and dated, old-ladyish, avocado bathroom. But she preferred to invest her money in stocks, following a model she’d designed herself at Harvard. Everything was about making money, as much money as possible as fast as possible. Which was why Sasha was so disappointed with herself about today.

      OK, so the guy was an arsehole who totally deserved it. But why couldn’t I have held my tongue?

      As much as she longed for the day when she would set up on her own, Sasha knew that right now she was too young and too inexperienced to attract the sort of serious investors she would need to get her own business off the ground. It wasn’t about talent. It was about a proven track record. This Goldman deal would have been a major feather in her cap, a big step towards the type of experience she needed. It wasn’t just that she had angered Jackson and put her job at risk. She’d also thrown away money, and kudos. Jackson had offered her a big step up the ladder and she’d pulled out a hacksaw and cut off the crucial rung.

      Depressed, she flipped on the TV. One of the many things Sasha missed about England was the television. Where was a good old BBC period drama when you needed one? Where were Judi Dench and Julia Sawalha? The only British face you saw on American screens was Simon Cowell’s, which was enough to put anyone off their Cherry Garcia ice cream. That and, of course, Theo Dexter’s.

      Unable to stop herself, like a child scratching a chicken pox sore, Sasha turned on her TiVo and clicked on the latest episode of Dexter’s Universe. The show, originally based on her theory, had since morphed into a general look at space and the planets and was a huge ratings puller. Visually it was a work of art, an intergalactic version of David Attenborough’s acclaimed Planet Earth. Although of course, in place of Attenborough’s comfortable, fireside manner, there was Theo, young, impossibly handsome, energetic, funny, full of enthusiasm and joie de vivre. No wonder American women were all in love with him.

      ‘Astronomy is like a drug.’ Theo was talking directly to camera. ‘More than that. It’s like a love affair. For physicists like me, the universe is not just infinite. It’s infinitely beautiful. There are many times when I’ve thought I’d rather give up breathing than give up science. Because it is breathing. It is life.’

      Yes, Sasha thought bitterly. And you stole my life from me.

      She looked at the cheap IKEA clock on the wall. Seven o’clock. Switching off the TV she jumped off the couch. If she dressed quickly, she might just make it.

      Morgan Graham was preparing to leave the office for the day. He was meeting Anna, his new Russian mistress, for dinner at Elaine’s, a prospect that would normally have put a smile on his face, however bad his work day. But today’s meeting with Jackson Dupree and the girl from Wrexall had soured his mood beyond repair.

      Tall, distinguished and (he flattered himself) quite attractive in a powerful, older-man sort of way, Morgan Graham was used to having young women fall at his feet. Admittedly, he wasn’t a young stud like Jackson Dupree. But with two hundred million in the bank, a division of a hundred and fifty people reporting to him and a reputation as one of the sharpest dealmakers on Wall Street, Morgan Graham expected adulation and demanded respect. But this girl, Sasha, this child, had torn a strip off him in front of his team, as if he were some idiot she’d met at a bar! In his own office, too!

      What rankled most was that the girl was extremely sexy. Morgan had always loved that dark-haired, green-eyed, Catherine Zeta-Jones look. He’d also heard rumours that she was immune to Jackson Dupree’s charms and that Jackson was secretly livid at this rejection. For months now, Morgan had nursed a fantasy of bedding Sasha Miller, purely so that he could boast he had succeeded where the legendary young Dupree had failed. He’d been going to invite Sasha out to dinner tonight, in front of Jackson, to seal the finalizing of their long-awaited joint venture. Instead, he’d been made to look a fool and a laughing stock. The jokes were already doing the rounds on the trading floor.

      ‘I’m sorry to disturb you, Mr Graham.’

      ‘Then why are you disturbing me?’ Morgan Graham bit his assistant’s head off. ‘I’m going home, Kate. Whatever it is it’ll have to wait until the morning.’

      ‘There’s a young lady here, sir. She says it’s urgent.’

      Morgan Graham frowned. If he’d told Anna once, he’d told her a thousand times. He did not like being surprised at the office. He did not want to walk home with her and talk about his day, as if they were man and wife. Morgan Graham had just got rid of a wife, his third. All he wanted from Anna was for her to keep her weight under a hundred and twenty pounds and to open her legs whenever, and wherever, he told her to.

      ‘May I come in?’

      The secretary stepped aside. Sasha Miller stood in the doorway. In a backless black Ralph Lauren dress and spiked Jonathan Kelsey heels, her dark hair pulled starkly back in a ponytail and her exquisite, mint-green eyes ringed with smudged black liner, she looked more like a supermodel than a real estate executive. For a second, Morgan Graham forgot to be angry, standing and staring like a schoolboy. But he quickly regained his composure.

      ‘What do you want?’ he barked. ‘Don’t you think you’ve caused enough trouble for one day?’

      ‘I want to do the deal,’ said Sasha coolly. ‘I think you do, too.’

      Morgan Graham laughed in her face. ‘Forget it. I wouldn’t work with Wrexall now if you were the last firm on earth. You think I need you? I don’t need you. We’re Goldman Sachs. We can get another partner like that.’ He clicked his fingers imperiously.

      ‘You could,’ agreed Sasha, walking slowly towards him. ‘I know you don’t need us. But that’s not the point, is it, Mr Graham?’ She was only two feet away from him now, close enough for Morgan to see her flawless skin against the clinging black jersey of her dress and to smell her Rive Gauche perfume. He stopped packing away his papers and looked at her, his eyes sweeping hungrily over her glorious body. ‘The point is,’ Sasha paused for effect, ‘do you want us? And I think you do.’

      Morgan Graham thought about Anna. He thought about the way Sasha had humiliated him today. He thought about the joint venture with Wrexall, and how excited he’d been about it until this afternoon. Finally he thought about Sasha’s body, and how much he wanted to see her out of that expensive dress.

      ‘If I sign,’ he ran his hand languorously down her bare back, ‘will you sleep with me?’

      Wow, thought Sasha. This guy doesn’t beat around the bush. She flashed him her best, come-hither smile.

      ‘Put it this way, Mr Graham. If you don’t sign, I won’t sleep with you.’

      Morgan Graham grinned. He liked a woman he could spar with, a woman who liked the chase. Anna’s attempt at playing hard to get was wearing panties under her dress. And he did want to do this deal with Wrexall …

      ‘Do you have the paperwork with you?’

      ‘Of course.’

      ‘Good. Let’s see if you can convince me over dinner, shall we?’ Morgan Graham’s mistress was in for a long, lonely evening at Elaine’s.

      ‘You’re sure this is what you want, Jackson?’

      ‘Quite sure.’

      Bob СКАЧАТЬ