The next week passed in a blur. Anna kept her head down at work and avoided Molly's phone calls. She could have done with the extra cash right now but her heart simply wasn't in it. Not that it ever really had been. The job had always been a means to an end and she had simply shut herself off from what she was doing. Sometimes she'd met people she actually would have dated on a personal level; most of the time her clients had been men who she wouldn't have looked twice at. But it had paid well, and Anna had been extremely grateful to Molly for giving her the opportunity to earn a large amount of cash over a short space of time.
On the flip side, Molly was now extremely pissed off to lose one of her most requested girls. But she was a pragmatic woman; she realised that if she kept her mouth shut, there was every chance Anna would soon be back on her books. The girls always got used to the extra income and most of them hated to lose it. So she stayed quiet and merely said to Anna, fine, have a holiday and we'll find you work again when you want it.
As far as Anna was concerned, enough was enough. She had been lucky this time; Sean was unlikely to say anything, but she might not get away with it again. The thought of turning up for a stag night do and being confronted with half the guys from the office, was not a cheery one.
When the opportunity arose to travel to Paris to meet some potential clients, Anna took it immediately. God knew she needed to get away from London. A couple of days worth of meetings might be hard work, but at least it would be in more attractive surroundings and she could maybe fit in a visit to the Louvre if she had any spare time.
The flight landed at Charles de Gaulle Airport Wednesday evening and she took a taxi straight to the hotel. The company travel agent had booked her into a decent 4* one, the room was pleasant enough and she had until the following morning to relax before the first scheduled meeting at 10pm.
After a shower and a change of clothes Anna was hungry, so she made her way down to the bar hoping for a snack and a drink. It was too late for the restaurant to still be open and although she could have ordered room service, she felt like the company of other human beings, if only for an hour or so.
She took a seat at the bar and ordered a gin & tonic from the barman. The room was tastefully decorated and relatively quiet. A few tourists sat about chatting and a couple of lone businessmen were reading their newspapers in the corner. One of them glanced at her with some interest, but she ignored him; she had no desire to be sucked into a pointless conversation and be put into the position of having to rebuff an unwelcome advance. She'd been there before and it wasn't much fun; the male ego was a fragile creature and never handled rejection terribly well.
Eventually the baguette she had ordered materialised in front of her and she wolfed it down. There had been a snack on the plane, but it had been virtually inedible and she was starving. Another gin washed the last of the food down and she actually felt human again. She also felt tired and was just about to stand up and head back to her room, when a tap on her arm startled her.
"Excuse me," said a man's voice. She turned to face one of the businessmen who had been watching her. He was a greying middle-aged man, smartly dressed and not unattractive. "I wondered if I might buy you another drink, seeing as we are both alone in such a romantic city." He smiled at her hopefully.
Inwardly Anna cringed. She really didn't need this; she was tired and ready for sleep and now she was going to have to offend this poor man.
"I'm sorry..." she started to say, when she was interrupted by a familiar voice.
"Darling! Sorry I'm late; I hope you didn't have to wait too long?"
Sean took her arm and kissed a shocked Anna on both cheeks in the continental fashion. The businessman looked rather taken aback, but immediately moved away from her.
"Sorry to bother you, I didn't realise you were with anyone," he muttered sheepishly and shuffled off miserably.
"What the fuck do you think you are doing?" Anna demanded icily, inwardly seething. She grabbed Sean's arm and pushed him away. Without thinking of the consequences, she tossed some Euros on the bar in payment for her drinks and snack, snatched her bag and stormed out of the room, incandescent with fury.
What in the hell was he thinking of turning up like that, he may well be the boss but it didn't give him the right to stalk her – there were laws against that kind of thing! The lift opened just as she reached it and she stepped in gratefully. Unfortunately, just as it was closing, Sean stepped in after her.
"Look I'm sorry," he said apologetically, pushing his hand back through his dark hair. "I didn't mean to offend you like that, but I thought that man was bothering you."
"He was but I could have handled it, I didn't need your help thanks very much." Anna glared at him furiously and silently made herself count to ten, before she was tempted to tell him where to shove his job once and for all.
"Ok, so I made a mistake." Sean sighed and leant back against the wall, arms crossed in resignation. He could see how mad she was and he seriously began to regret the whim that had brought him to Paris. He had had more than enough work to do at home without flying off on a mad jaunt to France. The trouble was, he hadn't been able to get her out of his mind for the last week and he knew damn well she had been avoiding him. He'd expected to have a decision from her by now regarding the job, but she'd said nothing all week. It was entirely possible of course that she'd decided she couldn't trust a damn word he said and had no intention of allowing herself to be seduced again, but he really hoped not.
When he'd heard that she had been asked to go to Paris for the 'Saint-Delain' meetings, he had manipulated his manic schedule to accommodate his own trip despite much raised eye brows from his PA, Heather. (She knew something fishy was going on but she didn't quite have the nerve to say anything out loud). He had hoped to be on the same flight as Anna but, unfortunately, it had been fully booked so he'd been forced to catch the next one.
Anna mentally willed the lift to hurry up and reach her floor. Being in a confined space with Sean was deeply disturbing and she was desperate to escape. How on earth he had managed to turn up at the same hotel defied belief - he must have engineered it just to see her, the arrogant bastard.
She had managed to push him defiantly from her head rather successfully in the last week. Of course putting in thirteen hour days wasn't the most ideal way of doing it, but it had worked. When she heard his wife had turned up on that fateful evening in his office, it had only reinforced the point that Sean was a non-starter no matter how good the sex was. 'Never mix business with pleasure', was a time worn motto, but it was a very sensible one. Anna had absolutely no intention of becoming his floozy on the side; it was a recipe for disaster as she of all people knew.
Thankfully the lift door finally opened on her floor and she practically flew out of the door. She didn't dare look to see if Sean had followed her; she just prayed to God he hadn't. When she arrived outside her room door, she checked behind her but the corridor was empty and she breathed a huge sigh of relief. Hopefully he had gotten the message that she wasn't pleased to see him. She really had enough on her plate at the moment without him acting like an idiot. Two fucks hardly equalled the love affair of the century. In fact, make that one – the first didn't count as it was purely a business arrangement. Bloody men, she thought angrily as she stripped her clothes off in the marble bathroom.
There was a faint knock on the door and she heard a voice saying, "Room-service, Madame,"
Crossly she glared at her reflection in the mirror. Oh for fuck's sake, I didn't order any Goddamn room service, she said to herself. She could almost hear her Mum scolding, watch your language girly! This very nearly made her smile as she pulled the hotel's complimentary bathrobe on hurriedly.
"There must be a mistake..." she said as she opened the door impatiently.
Sean stood on the threshold with a rueful grin and a bottle of Champagne, and she quickly realised the only mistake was that she had opened the door.
"Can I come in and talk to you?" he asked softly.
"No you can't." Anna replied firmly, but he ignored her and stepped in anyway. The door swished shut behind him and he walked over to the table and plonked the bottle down, before turning back to her and saying apologetically,
"I really am sorry you know; about before and about what happened in my office."
Anna snorted in disbelief. She knew damn well he wasn't sorry about what happened in his office. They had had sex – end of story. Ok, so it had been great sex, but she wasn't going to let it happen again. He was too complicated and she didn't need complications. Men were always trouble and she was far happier without them.
She pulled her robe tightly around her body and wondered how long it would take him to get the hint and go. Just to make it more obvious, she turned her back on him rudely and walked over to the window, ignoring him completely.
The lights of a million cars sped up and down the busy Paris boulevard as rain pattered and dripped down the window, distorting the myriad of reflections. She felt rather than heard Sean move up behind her, placing his hands on her shoulders and lightly squeezing them.
