“And to celebrate this momentous occasion, we’ll have an open bar and a buffet table. I look forward to having you all join me later at five-fifteen. Thank you.”
Forty minutes later and I still had no success in reaching Constantijin by phone. “Answer the phone, you ass,” I muttered as I redialed his number. The same robotic tone answered me instead, telling me that Constantijin had switched his phone off.
I tried going to his office to put a stop to his madness, but he had a human barricade by the name of Glenda. “Mr. Kastein,” she said stiffly even as her eyes twinkled, “is not taking any visitors right now.”
“Really, Glenda? Really?”
She didn’t even blink. “Really.” And then she slammed the door shut.
Five-fifteen came before I was ready for it. I stared at my hands, which were shaking so badly.
With Charli out of her office and Arian still not back from wherever she was probably cursing me to perdition, I felt it was safe to tell George my greatest fears. “What am I going to do, George? I’m so nervous. I don’t want people to laugh at him if they think I’m the worst girlfriend he could pick.” I was hyperventilating by the time I finished.
George rushed to my side. “Breathe, Yanna, breathe.”
“I-I c-cant.”
“It’s going to be okay. I’m sure people have no expectations at all. The women will just be sad that someone finally got to claim Mr. Kastein and the men will just be there for the free beer.”
He pulled me out of my cubicle. “Now, let’s go out and just enjoy this. It’s going to be all right.”
The moment we stepped out of our door, we were immediately swept away by the noisy crowd heading to the cafeteria. There was a long pileup near the entrance as we had to swipe our cards one at a time. As we queued up, I began to hear what the other people were saying.
"Who do you think Mr. Kastein's new girlfriend is?"
I choked.
"I bet she's super tall."
Did being tall in hobbit standards count?
"I bet she's gorgeous."
Did being voted Ms. Beautiful in kindergarten qualify?
"For sure, she's rich."
I turned around. “I’m going now---”
George laughingly spun me back to place. “Forget about them, Yanna. This is your day. Don’t let what they think ruin it.”
Easy for him to say, I thought waspishly. He wasn’t the one the women were expecting to be a supermodel, beauty queen, and heiress all rolled into one. There were no available seats left by the time we got in. George and I had to stand at the wide sills of the windows at the end of the cafeteria just so we could get a glimpse of Constantijin, who stood at the very front, on top of the company’s mobile stage. He appeared gorgeous and utterly relaxed – the ass.
“Oh my God, I wish I was able to have sex with him before he found a girlfriend.”
“Who said that?” I hissed at George, who only laughed in answer.
Another one muttered, “This has to be serious – he never introduced the other ones.”
Charli went up the stage, microphone in hand. “Hello, everyone!” The whole crowd instantly cheered at her words. She was stunning to look at, the perfect choice for a host of this occasion.
“You know why we’re all here.”
The men cheered and the women booed.
I just wanted to go. So this was what he meant I’d have it easier if I had just confessed first about us. On hindsight, I should have totally done what he said. I could have just changed my status on Facebook to In a Relationship and that would have been it – everyone else would have spread the word for me.
Now I was stuck with Constantijin’s insane ability to torture me with embarrassment.
“Ladies and gentlemen, without further ado, I give you Constantijin’s girlfriend.”
Charli’s last two words made me jump, my head immediately jerking back towards the stage. But Constantijin was nowhere to be found. Shit – where was he--- “Aaaah!”
If people had also been wondering where he was or where he was going, my scream totally gave his location away. And the presence of his girlfriend.
He glanced up at me, even though I wasn’t really that far from him, with Constantijin’s exceptional height. A sexy, lazy smile touched his lips as he drawled, “Now, my beautiful little girlfriend, why don’t you give me a kiss so that everyone here knows how proud you are to be mine?”
I choked on my laughter as the women around us let out an audible sigh. “You really had to say that?” I whispered.
“Yes, and you really have to kiss me n---”
I covered his lips with mine, hoping to surprise him. And he was, but this was Constantijin and he recovered in a moment, his hand curling around my nape to pull me closer. It was supposed to be a chaste kiss, but then he was licking my lips, applying pressure, and I had to part my lips open so his tongue could enter my mouth.
And that was it.
I totally lost all sense of propriety. All I knew was that Constantijin was kissing me hard enough to have my senses totally reeling. Without breaking our kiss, he suddenly swung me off the window sill, his arms tightening around my waist as he slowly lowered me to the ground.
When he lifted his head, I immediately tried to catch my breath.
One arm around my waist, he had us turning together to face the now-silent crowd. I paled, seeing how all eyes were on us, but Constantijin didn’t appear to mind or maybe he was used to this kind of attention.
He addressed the crowd, but his gaze was on Drake as he said succinctly, “My woman.”
Lesson #7
Your billionaire will only stay in a cage with you
if it is a cage he has designed.
Constantijin Kastein as a boyfriend was more than any woman could ever want. I knew that ‘boyfriend’ would seem like a tame word to describe someone like him. Yet I liked it – and he seemed to like it, too. He told me he had never been any girl’s boyfriend. If I had my way, I’d always be his girlfriend.
Whenever he was with me, he would occasionally show a childish side to him, the side you’d expect from a boyfriend who cared for you and not from a complex and enigmatic lover who used to be the most famous playboy in Netherlands.
I loved it.
I loved him.
Day Two
The first thing I wanted to make sure was that everyone in the office would understand nothing had to change with how they treated me. I might be the boss’ lady, but I was also just Yanna Everleigh – one of the new girls in Kastein Inc.