Buying the Virgin novel Chapter 97

MICHAEL

Breakfast at home: over toast, juice and coffee, Charlotte’s phone beeps.

She barely looks at it, obviously knowing what the tone is.

“S’cuse me,” she mutters, vanishing into the bedroom, leaving her phone on the table.

James’ eyes meet mine, his expression quizzical. I lean over, looking at her phone screen.

“What is it?” he asks.

“Mmm… Calendar Reminder…. ‘Take your pill’.”

He nods, looking thoughtful. We sit in awkward silence for a few seconds.

“You think she wants children?” he asks.

“Not sure. Certainly, she’s not mentioned it, so I’m guessing she’s not interested right now. In a few years, who knows?”

After another pause…. “And, do you?”

“It’s a big house…”

James stares into space, looking pensive.

Time to take the bull by the horns.

“James…”

“Mmm?”

“For the avoidance of doubt…. If Charlotte should fall pregnant, I will adopt, in the womb, any child she bears…”

He glances up for a second, no more, then drops his eyelids in acknowledgement, looking happier.

*****

CHARLOTTE

Down in my small office in the Haswell Building, nothing else being asked of me just now, I am busy with a college assignment. There is a knock.

“Door’s open…”

A familiar face appears. “Hello, Charlotte. They told me you were down here. I was in the area, so I thought I’d call by.”

It is Daniel, originally introduced to me by my Master and Michael for one of our ‘parties’. However, he blotted his copy-book the last time we met, by making an unsubtle attempt to tempt me away from my two Lovers. He has not been invited to my company since.

And I am not comfortable with him turning up, unbidden, in my office; just the two of us.

“Hello, Daniel. What can I do for you?”

“I thought you might like to go out for a drink this evening? Or dinner perhaps?”

“No thanks. I’m busy.”

“Another evening then?”

“No. Daniel, you know that I’m with James and Michael. I don’t fool around.” I hold up my left hand, displaying my ring finger with its twinned bands of yellow, red and white gold.

He tilts his head, looking at me askance. “You don’t fool around? The last time I met you, you were fooling around with three of us. And the first time, as I recall, there were five of us.”

“That’s different. It was with James and Michael. If you want to play, you have to ask them.”

Very uncomfortable now, I gather my text and notes together. “You’ll have to excuse me. I have an appointment in a few minutes.” I’m lying, and doubtless, Daniel knows it. I squeeze by him out of the office, making my way up to the canteen, where I can work in a more public place.

*****

“You’ve missed a bit.”

“Have I?” My Master peers sideways in the mirror, and I stroke his face where a little stubble has escaped his razor.

“Ah, yes. Thank you.”

“You seem nervous?”

He rocks his head one way and the other. “I’m always a bit edgy when there’s a meeting with the Thorntons. Thornton Junior is a bit of a firebrand, and I’m still the new boy, seniority-wise.”

Finishing his shave, he buttons on a shirt and puts on his tie. He’s all fingers and thumbs. After watching him, three times, trying to get the tie straight, I turn him at the shoulders, undo the tie and re-knot it for him.”

“Who are the Thorntons, Master?”

“They’re Haswell’s major shareholders in the City Project. Thornton Senior runs the show from their end. Thornton Junior thinks he does.”

“Richard has the larger shareholding though?”

“Yes. Jaye Thornton, the son, wasn’t happy about it apparently, but his ego was appeased by quite a lot of the Project being named after his father.”

I laugh. “The famously fragile male ego?”

“Mmm. Perhaps.” His smile is wry. “Interesting you should put it like that. Apparently, the idea to do it that way came from Beth.”

“Are you a shareholder?”

“I am now. It was part of the directorship deal. Haswell likes to have all his associates on board one way or another.”

“To keep all the interests aligned?”

“Yup.”