Marco Arthur Davinci stared at his sexy, blonde server. Her uninterested eyes and nonchalance made her even more appealing to him and he felt his smile getting wider. Her quick and sarcastic remark yesterday had been enough to tell him, that he’d found a different woman in a long time.

Sir, with due respect, please keep your carnal desires to yourself. I am your server not your mistress. 

Marco almost smiled. 

She looked even sexier today. She had beautiful blue eyes, he noticed. Her hair was pulled up and her delicate tendrils were skimming down her neck making her look so much more appealing and mouthwatering to him. Hell, she was tall. And in those killer heels, that made her curvy legs look a mile longer, Marco could not help but imagine how they would feel wrapped around him. 

Just the thought, was making him go hard.

“Ms. Laurenz, care to serve me my food?” He added with a smirk playing at his lips. Yes, he had made it a point to inquire about her from his Human Resources Department’s head. And he’d gotten to know that this feisty woman, Vanessa Laurenz was a divorced twenty-three year old, from Houston, Texas. He hadn’t bothered asking about her entire personal record’s file. After all the thought of a company’s multi-millionaire CEO seeming a bit too interested in his cafeteria’s sexy little server did not fit well with his pride. 

“Yes, Sir.” She briskly added and with short jerky movements quickly served his food before him. If Marco had to guess, he wouldn’t have hesitated a second to state that Vanessa Laurenz did not want to be in this room.

The thought both, unsettled and confused him. Was this woman playing hard to get? Yes that was it. Why else would a woman with her social status deny a millionaire? He was definitely going to teach her a lesson.

“Anything else, Sir?” She muttered looking anywhere and everywhere but at him.

Yes you on the table, right now. “No, that would be all.” He added a bit sensually for his taste. He almost had to bite backthe thoughts that wanted to roll out of his mouth.

“Okay.” She added with a nod and turned to leave, when Marco shifted and caught her wrist into his hand, feeling the smoothness and the softness of her skin beneath his. The contact was doing crazy things to his head, he knew.

Her eyes swung to his, and he knew he heard her breath hitch for a millisecond before turning to normal, and her burning aqua eyes turned cold and bleak with ferocity. 

“Let go of my hand.” She bit out. He could see the boiling anger in her eyes and hear the crispiness in her voice. And it didn’t faze him a bit. Instead it made him smile.

“Make me.” He raised his eyebrow. What was she going to now? He’d had his fair share of women. Scratch that. He’d had a lot of women barreling in and out of his life. He knew how women behaved and what lengths they went through, to get his attention. Surely, Miss Vanessa Laurenz was one of those women. And Marco Arthur Davinci knew all too to well, how to set them right onto their tracks. 

He gazed up at her, his eyes unmoving from her face that was now turning red with anger. If looks could kill, he had no doubt; he’d be dead and sent to hell and back, just to be killed again. 

He waited for her answer; instead she just tried to tug her wrist away from his grip. His signature smirk made its way onto his lips.

“Make me.” He emphasized, knowing full well she was stuck. He knew she’d let her defenses down any minute now and show him her real money grabbing face behind the hard-to-get façade she was putting up so well.

Her eyebrows rose, as if she couldn’t believe what was going on. She was a remarkable actress. And Marco had to silently applaud her on that. He would have actually fallen for the act, if he hadn’t known such vindictive women in his past.

He grabbed her other hand and pulled her forward, making her stumble onto his lap. He heard her gasp and smiled slightly. About time, that happened. Her soft, generous behind rubbing against his thighs were turning him on so bad, he wanted nothing more than to rip her sexy skirt off and bury himself in her warmth. 

He tightened his hold on her wrist, locking her arm behind her back and pulling her close enough for their noses to touch and their breaths to mingle. He lifted his eyes up to hers, their lips just a few inches apart and stared at her. 

He held up his free hand and settled it on the base of her neck making her eyes widen and her breath hitch, and began drawing circular patterns on her soft skin. 

“Get over with the act sweetheart. Don’t worry, my women get everything they need and I get everything I want.”

As if out of her trance he felt her face backing away from his and in a swift, uncalculated motion, he felt a cold palm, meeting with his cleanly shaven cheek with a lot of force, making his face jerk to his left. His hold on her loosened and she took the opportunity to get out of his grip and stand up, walking away from him. 

Anger. No, rage. Incredulity. Rage. Confusion. Rage. All of these emotions kept on whirling before him like a tornado. All he saw and felt was red. This… this flimsy server, had the audacity to slap him? Him?! Marco Arthur Davinci? He had never been rejected before. Hell, he had never needed to pursue a woman before. It was them who flocked around him. It was them who offered themselves to him. He was America’s third most legible bachelor! 

His face swung to her hers. Her eyes were pouring with hatred. 

“Never. Never touch me again, you bastard!” She whipped those words at him and walked out, never once losing her sway.

Her words triggered something inside him. Something that he had never let re-surface. He gave a laugh filled with animosity and self-loathing. Well, no matter how hard he tried, no matter what he had become now, he could never change what he was now, could he? 

He got up, switching the television off. And no longer could control the anger that was coursing through him. Swiping his arm onto the wooden table, he didn’t care as the tray and the porcelain dished fell onto the tiled floor along with his steaming hot food. He watched as the plates shattered into tiny little fragments, scattered everywhere. The chicken corn soup now spilled onto the shiny tiles. 

He squeezed his eyes shut and opened them again. Switching his BlackBerry on, he dialed a number and waited as someone answered with in two rings.

“Yes Sir, what can I –”

“Barb, I want Vanessa Laurenz fired. Today.” He cut off his HR manager and bit out.

“B-but Sir, it’s against the company’s policy to fire without issuing a warnin–” Barb stammered.

“Fire her on the basis of disrespect to the company’s CEO.”

“B-but Sir –”

“NOW!” He bellowed into the phone. He didn’t know how hard he was gripping his phone. And he also didn’t care that his knuckles had turned white.

After a brief pause and a sound of Barb taking in a deep breath, he answered.

“Okay Sir.”

And with that he ended the call, to make another one.

“Marco, baaaabyyy! I missed you.” He heard Tamara murmur onto the other end of the line, trying to be as seductive as she could.

“In an hour. At my penthouse. Charlie would be there to pick you up.” Marco spoke to the point and ended the call

He was a bastard in the truest sense of the word. It was time he started to act like one too.

…

His mind had been whirling since the past two hours since he had last seen her. She had become even more beautiful than she had been once. Her body and the features on her face had become more defined. Sharp. Attractive.

He sat back on his seat, with the palms of his hands fisted and tucked under his chin as he lost him self in his old memories again.

He was coming home, late again today. The company he had been working in since two years now, was intent on making redundancies due to high inflation that had hit the economy. And in the efforts of proving himself worthy to his boss, he had agreed to work over time.

Even though his pay had been reduced, he had decided it was better than nothing. Especially with there hardly being any jobs available, he knew he had to make most of the situation.

He got out of the cab, and walked into the building where he’d been living since he graduated from college. Guess he was still looking for that lucky break that would finally lead him to earn enough money to move out of the small three-bedroom apartment he, at present occupied.

He got into the lift and waited as it tinged open, bringing him face to face with his apartment’s white wooden door. Fumbling for keys in his coat’s pocket, he withdrew them as they jingled in his hand and unlocked the door open.

He stepped inside, keeping his briefcase on the table near by, and was hit by smell of pancakes as they wafted off the kitchen. He shook his head and looked at his wristwatch. It was almost 7pm now, and she was making pancakes at this time!

His lips twitched into a smile, as he made his way towards the smell of fresh pancakes and… chocolate? Reaching the end of the corridor he stepped into the kitchen to find her back to him. Her blond hair was tied up high onto her head, a few loose strands sticking to her, now sweaty neck.

Even with her back to him, she was beautiful.

“Babe?” He murmured as he moved across the kitchen, holding her by the waist.

Almost as if surprised, she gasped, and turned to him, her cheeks reddening.

“Hey… the… uh… I was… I had a… craving?” She stuttered as he raised his eyebrow at her, making her blush again.

“Really? Chocolate-chip pancakes?” He chuckled, bringing her closer to him and pecking her lips.  “It’s fine, I love them. I love you.” He murmured, hugging her to his chest.

She settled her head in the crook of his neck and let out an unsteady breath. 

His beautiful wife slowly whispered,

“I love you too.”

His eyes zeroed back to reality when his intercom buzzed to life, indicating his boss was calling. Shaking his head, he picked up the phone and answered, saying:

“Yes Sir, what can I –”  and was rudely interrupted by an extremely furious man.

“Barb, I want Vanessa Laurenz fired. Today.” He heard him speak. Just hearing her name was making him want to hurl something across his office in regret. Deep, deep, bone-crushing regret. He wondered why his boss wanted a server fired. And something in the corner of his mind told him to make an excuse, do something to stop him, and so he did. 

“B-but Sir, it’s against the company’s policy to fire without issuing a warnin–” he finally let out, sounding like a weak man to his own ears. He almost scoffed at himself. 

“Fire her on the basis of disrespect to the company’s CEO.” The reply came instantly. And so he tried again, knowing it as an attempt in vain.

“B-but Sir –” When he was cut off again.

“NOW!” He heard him bellow on the other side of the line. He knew he had to do it. No matter how much, all he wanted to do was argue with him and tell him not to do it. But he couldn’t. He was too weak. He scoffed at himself. He had always been too weak.

No wonder she had never looked back even once in these past five years. No wonder he still had no idea about whether he was the father of a beautiful daughter or a son.

He was a weak man. 

Mitch Barbos Callaghan was a weak man.

Maybe that was why the woman he was in love with since high school was now his ex-wife.

Maybe that was why his own child did not know that he or she even had a father.

He took in a death breath, and replied.

“Okay Sir.”

And the line went dead.

He was a weak man indeed.

…

Vanessa’s phone buzzed indicating an incoming call, as she walked towards the Human Resources Department’s floor with unsteady feet. Her palm was still tingling due to the amount of force she had exerted while slapping him.

She knew he deserved what he had got from her. He had absolutely no respect for women. It was high time he realized, not every woman would fall at his feet. At the same time, there was a nagging thought still lingering in the corner of her mind, about not wanting to contemplate too much on how his features had etched in pain as she’d told him never to touch her again. 

Never. Never touch me again you bastard.

She recalled. He deserved each and every word that she had thrown at him. To say she was nervous about slapping his boss and then calling him a bastard was a huge, huge understatement.

And so, here she was. She knew she wouldn’t be able to spend a single moment here under this building’s roof. She had to resign. She knew it. She would never be able to work here knowing she had slapped the company’s CEO.

Her feet took her to the reception, where a gorgeous brunette sat elegantly with her back straight and so stiff, Vanessa could have easily mistaken her backbone with a wooden stick. Her neatly trimmed eyebrows rose considerably, as her eyes did a once over of Vanessa’s tall, server’s uniform-clad frame.

“What can I do for you?” She spoke in an uninterested voice, looking at her blood red painted nails as if they were the most fascinating things in the world.

“I want to quit.” She spoke, and watched as the indifferent brunette’s eyes widened and then she smirked.

“You’d have to talk to the manager for that.”

“Okay. Where is he?” She asked, keeping herself to the point.

“Wait, let me talk to him.” She replied and picked up her phone dialing a number.

“Sir? Yes… No. Uhm, there’s this woman here who says she wants to quit. Oh… yes. Sure. Okay Sir.”

Vanessa’s eyes met hers and she noticed that the air of indifference that the brunette had swarmed around her had somehow disappeared into thin air. 

“Go straight from the corridor on the left and then take the third right. It’s the first door.” She muttered.

It was all Vanessa needed. And soon she was walking, keeping in mind the directions given to her, eventually finding herself in front of a black door, with ‘Human Resources Manager’ labeled on it in gold color. 

She took in a deep breath and curled her fingers around the doorknob as if her life depended on it. She let out a gush of air and finally turned the knob stepping in.

And the person she met, sitting right there in front of her on the vast mahogany table, made her freeze right on the doorway.

For the second time this day, she latched her gaze with her ex-husband’s.

What do you guys think?! :D