Emmanuelle
"I'm going to be so sore tomorrow." I breathed out.
"Here," Dimitri picked me up in bridal-style, gently placing me in bed.
"What time is it?" I had yet to come down from my high.
"Almost five." He sat on my side, placing soft kisses on my left shoulder.
"I have to get ready to pick up Dom."
"I'll take you," Dimitri spoke with his lips still against my skin.
"No," I shook my head. "I'll ask Emillio."
"He's busy, I'll take you."
When I sat up, the kisses stopped. "I don't think Marissa will like that."
He sighed, "I need to talk to her. She isn't returning any of my calls and not replying to my texts."
I went quiet, we had yet to converse about this issue. And no, as amazing as the sex was, I had not forgotten what happened. "Why did you hit her?"
A crease appeared on his forehead, "I—" he looked away, "I made a mistake. It'll never happen again."
"You didn't answer my question."
He leaned forward, his arms rested on his knees. "I had a lot going on that day. Marissa's reaction, it brought out the worse in me."
I scoffed, "And if next time you have a lot going on, do I need to be afraid?"
"What?" He looked both, offended and hurt. "Why would you think that? I'd never hurt you." His hand reached for mine.
"Why do you want her to move back here? As gigantic as this house is, have you stopped to think that maybe all Marissa wants is space. Cause, let's face it; as long as she lives under the same roof as you," I caressed his face, "She'll never really be free." The truth hurts, but Dimitri needed the truth. For far too long, everyone around him had been dancing to the sounds of his music, doing what he wanted and expected them to do. If he really changed in the five years we spent apart, then he would agree with me on this, I thought to myself.
"I—" He groaned when he was interrupted by his phone. The name Celeste appeared on the screen. He declined the call and turned to me, however, the ringing started again.
"Pick up. It seems urgent." I pushed myself out of the bed, waddle walking to the bathroom to freshen up. I felt sticky and sweaty. When I came back into the room, Dimitri was still on the phone.
"I'll collect it before 5.30." Were the last words he said before he hung up. "Are you good?"
I could feel him gloat over the waddle walk I did and the sweat I had to break to change into my clothes, so I ignored him and gathered my stuff. He followed me out. Lorna was in the living room picking up after Dom, who had had turned the place into a playroom.
"Lorna, I'm so sorry for leaving everything. I fell asleep." A guilty feeling washed over me. I started picking up a few things and throwing them into his toy basket.
She shook her head, dismissively waving her hand at me. "No problem."
"Thank you. I'll tell Dom to clean after himself."
"Yes," she looked at me differently; smiling like she knew something I did not. "Next time," she leaned towards me until our shoulders touched, "Not so loud." She giggled.
OH MY GOD....
My hands covered my face out of embarrassment.
"Sorry you had to hear that, Lorna." Dimitri who joined us, was just in time to overhear our conversation. He pulled me towards him, grinning. "We'll be less loud next time, right darling." He placed a kiss against my temple. "Going to pick up Dom. Emillio will be taking you home." Dimitri walked us to the front door.
Lorna chuckled with her hand over her mouth. "You two," She shook her head, still smiling.
"Oh, My God." I finally breathed out when we were outside. "I'm so embarrassed," I admitted.
Dimitri's teeth could not be more on the display, "She'll survive." He held me at my shoulder, his thumb caressing against my right shoulder blade. "Go on," He opened the door to the passenger's seat. A smug smirk was stuck on his face.
"You can stop that now."
"Remind me to have our room soundproofed." He squeezed my thigh.
"I hate you," I turned to look out of the window, now, also seeing the funny in this situation.
"I have to quickly stop by the office to get something." He mentioned as we drove in the direction of the company. I wanted to wait for him in the car, until he asked me if I was coming up with him. To my luck, most employees had already left since it was after five o'clock. Rosie, who I dreaded to meet, was also already gone. We headed straight to his office; the elevator ride seemed almost longer than I remembered.
"I'm waiting for Celeste to bring me what I need. Have a seat," he let go off my hand when we neared the chair in front of his desk. I sat down with my legs tucked under me to keep myself warm; how he did not turn into a popsicle in that cold beat me.
Not long after we were settled the doors opened, "Dimitri," a voice filled with sensuality accompanied the clicking against the floor tiles. Hearing someone else call him by this name caught me off guard and was strange to my ears, he hated the name. And for someone to say it the way she did. I became stiff and more anxious and curious about his reaction. As far as I knew, I was the only one who got to call him Dimitri, other than father of course. His jaw clenched and his eyes became dark with anger.
"Mr. Mulaney," He snapped, correcting her. His right hand, which was resting on the table, balled into a fist that was quickly released. The clicking against the floor came to an immediate stop. I still sat there, out of the woman's sight, wondering how this was going to play out. His eyes soften when they met mine, "The proposal." He spoke to her whilst still looking at me. I felt another set of eyes on me, knowing that she must have noticed me by now. When I looked up at her I was stuck between smiling and a poker face.
Celeste's hair was black and of the same texture as mine. It was slightly longer but, in style, we wore it the same way. I was curvier than her, because I had gained weight after having Dom. However, a few years prior to this moment, our built would have been relatively similar as well. She did not look exactly like me. Yet, our features were so similar that we could have easily passed as.... cousins maybe even sisters, if we wanted to. The only difference was our choice of clothing. My style was simpler than hers. She was more daring; wearing knee high boots that added inches to her height, a leather-like skirt that stopped far above her knees and a black blouse that fought to keep her tits from busting out. She ignored me at first and looked at him with her eyebrows dropping in a V.
"Celeste, this is Ms. Arti—"
"Hi, I'm... Emmanuelle." I interrupted Dimitri and introduced myself.
"Emmanuelle?" She repeated my name. "You're the one I had to make arrangements for?" She shook my hand. The tone of her voice indicated that the bemusing feeling was mutual. "The other shareholder?" Her eyes found Dimitri again.
"Yes, Emmanuelle is also my partner."
"Right. Shareholder and business partner. Makes sense." Her mumble was low in volume, yet still loud enough for us to hear.
"I meant my life partner. My better half."
She turned cold, almost hostile. She let go off my hand and held out a white envelope to Dimitri. "The proposal, sir."
He nodded, "I'll check this and get back to you."
"Will you be locking up?"
"No," he replied, still looking down at one of the pages of the document. "I have to pick up my son. You can lock up. Thank you." He smiled at her when he got up. Celeste looked shocked, I on the other hand was still processing everything that was said. "Ready to leave?" He stopped next to me and waited until our fingers interlocked.
"It was nice to meet you, Celeste." I never heard her say anything back, as Dimitri was quick to get us out of there. The elevator ride down was silent and weird. Though, we held hands, we did not speak— at least not for the five stories that we went down.
"You fucked her, didn't you?" I let go of his hand and finally asked the question.
"I can have her replaced." He answered in a cool and calm tone. The elevator doors dinged open, following his voice. I walked out, leaving him to follow me. He grabbed my hand, which I pulled from his grip.
"A simple YES. or NO. DID YOU. SLEEP WITH HER?" I asked it again, this time in a furious tone.
He let out a sigh of defeat, "Yes."
I scoffed, "No wonder you thought the worse of me and Kline. You were assuming he'd want to sleep with his assistant as well." I threw my arms up. It did not matter to me that he slept with someone else. Five years is a long time. I did not expect him to remain celibate. But sleeping with someone that looks like me? And then hiring her as his assistant? That bothered me on a different note.
"It only happened once," He explained, "Because she reminded me of you."
"Did you hire her due to her qualities or because we look alike?"
"Both,"
"You're unbelievable." I held my forehead. "You let her call you Dimitri? That's—" I let out a deep breath, "Did you call her by my name too?" My lips curved into a sarcastic smile.
He refrained from replying, but the look on his face made me believe that he might have. "Dammit," he murmured, taking out his phone and placing it against his ear after typing something on it. "Christoph, I need you to delete today's footage. We're in the South-wing of the parking lot at M.A.D. Starting at," he glanced at his watch. "Around 5.32 PM."
Confused, I looked up to see camera's all around us.
"Three facing us right now."
I could not wrap my head around what was happening. He drew in a short breath and put his phone away, "Get in and I'll explain everything." He ordered.
I crossed my arms and leaned against the car, hitting him with a dead stare. "Explain then I'll get in."
Another almost silent sigh left his lips, "Please, get in the car." This time he asked instead of ordering.
I did not move, did not even twitch. "Start explaining."
The space between us became less with each step he took towards me. "Nuelle, please get into the car." The asking turned into begging.
"Why?" My head moved slightly to the side, "No one's around and Christoph is deleting any footage that is being documented right now. So why? Why can't we have this conversation out here?"
"Because we aren't alone." With his head he motioned to a black SUV parked in the distance. I panicked, which he noticed. "It's okay. They're with us. They have access to the camera's and will be analyzing the footage later on. That's why I asked Christoph to delete the ones of us. I'd rather not have them listen to my private conversation with you. But, if that's what you want," he paused for a millisecond, "To first hear my explanation before you can get into a car with me again then I'll do so, Nuelle."
My eyes travelled between Dimitri and the black car. Did I believe him? Not entirely. I got into the car without saying anything and waited for him to get in as well. As soon as he did, he started it and we drove out of the parking. He had a firm grip on the wheel and when he looked into the rearview mirror, I looked into the side-mirror to see the black SUV discretely following us.
"They're for our protection." he explained when he caught me checking the mirror.
"Protection from what?"
Silence...
"Dimitri, protection from what?" I asked again.
"That's a story for another day."
"You have right now! I deserve the truth and only. The truth."