Novel Full Chapter 279: The Meal
Chapter 279: The Meal
”Dinner is ready. Please, Mr. Hale, sit.”
Alex moved to the chair Helena had indicated and settled into it with the kind of easy confidence that suggested he owned the furniture, the room, and perhaps the entire villa.
Helena took the seat to his right. She arranged her emerald gown with practiced elegance, smoothing the silk over her lap, and offered Alex a brilliant, charming smile.
Alex’s gaze lingered on her for a beat longer than polite.
“You’re even more striking than I imagined,” he said calmly, as if stating a simple fact.
The compliment landed harder than Helena expected.
For just a heartbeat, the practiced smile faltered. A faint warmth crept up her neck, coloring her cheeks despite her best efforts to remain composed.
She lowered her gaze briefly, smoothing the silk over her lap as if to ground herself, then looked back up… eyes bright, a touch softer than before.
“That’s very kind of you, Mr. Hale,” she said, her voice steady again, though the hint of shyness lingered beneath it.
“I’m glad I didn’t disappoint.”
Vivienne remained standing near the sideboard.
She waited.
She waited for the invitation. For the nod. For the casual, “Pull up a chair, Helena.”
But Helena picked up her linen napkin and placed it in her lap. She reached for her water glass. She turned her entire body slightly toward Alex, effectively closing the circle.
She did not look at Vivienne.
The silence stretched, thick and suffocating.
Vivienne stood frozen, her hands clasped in front of her in the perfect posture of a waiting assistant. But her eyes were locked on her cousin.
She isn’t going to ask me to sit.
The realization hit her with the force of a physical blow. Helena wasn’t just playing the role; she was weaponizing it. In Helena’s mind, assistants didn’t dine with billionaire CEOs and their guests. Assistants stood in the background. Assistants waited.
Assistants disappeared until they were useful.
A flicker of genuine shock cracked Vivienne’s composure. To be excluded in her own home, at her own table, by her own subordinate… it was a humiliation she hadn’t calculated.
But before she could speak, before she could break character and demand a seat, a physical sensation seized her attention.
The draft.
The dining room was cavernous, designed for acoustics and grandeur, and the central air conditioning was running on a low, steady hum. A current of cool, conditioned air swirled along the marble floor, wrapping around the table legs and brushing against hers.
It slipped under the hem of her tight pencil skirt.
And it hit bare skin.
Vivienne’s breath hitched. Without the barrier of her panties, the cold air struck her wet, sensitive flesh directly. It was a constant, maddening reminder of exactly what Alex had stolen from her.
She clamped her thighs tighter together, a sudden, terrifying spike of adrenaline shooting through her.
Gravity.
She was soaked. He had left her dripping in the hallway, and the arousal hadn’t faded… it had only pooled. Now, standing rigid and still, she felt the heavy, viscid slide of moisture threatening to obey gravity.
’Don’t drip,’ she prayed, her muscles trembling with the effort to stay sealed shut. ’Don’t you dare drip on the floor.’
The image flashed in her mind: a single, glistening drop running down her inner thigh, trailing over the black lace of her stocking, and pooling on the pristine white marble for everyone to see.
Alex’s threat echoed in her ears, dark and taunting.
Imagine the look on her face when she realizes exactly what kind of dirty little secretary she actually hired.
Vivienne pressed her back against the sideboard, trying to make herself invisible, trying to hold herself together, while the man who had ruined her picked up his fork.
The first course was served by the silence of the room… seared scallops with a delicate citrus reduction.
Alex took a bite, his expression shifting to something genuinely appreciative.
“This is exceptional,” he said, glancing at Helena. “My compliments to your chef.”
Helena beamed, accepting the praise as if she had cooked it herself. “I’ll be sure to pass that along. We pride ourselves on excellence here.”
They ate in comfortable conversation, the silver clinking softly against porcelain.
From the shadows, Vivienne watched.
She watched Helena laugh at his jokes… a sound that was a little too loud, a little too eager. She watched Helena lean in, her hand brushing her neck, flirting with a confidence that made Vivienne’s teeth ache.
And she watched Alex.
He was charming. Magnetic. He gave Helena his full attention, asking about “her” company, “her” vision for the future. He treated the fake boss with a reverence he had never shown the real one.
He didn’t look at the sideboard once.
It was working. The isolation. The jealousy. It was clawing at Vivienne’s throat, hotter than the shame, sharper than the fear.
That’s my life, she thought, her nails digging into her palms. That’s my company. That’s my seat.
And that’s my man.
Helena took a long, slow sip of her Chardonnay, her eyes lingering on Alex’s lips over the rim of the glass. She set it down with a satisfied sigh, feeling the power of the moment. She was winning. She was actually doing it.
Then, she glanced toward the shadows.
“Helena,” she said.
The voice was crisp. Commanding. It carried the exact dismissive edge Vivienne herself used when addressing the help.
Vivienne’s head snapped up.
“Pour some wine for Mr. Hale, would you?”
It wasn’t a request.
For a moment, Vivienne’s eyes locked with Helena’s across the table. And she saw it clearly… the gleam of satisfaction in her cousin’s gaze, the subtle curl of triumph at the corners of her mouth.
Helena was savoring this. Using her borrowed authority to order the real CEO around like a servant. Getting her petty revenge for twelve years of standing one step behind.
But as Vivienne held her cousin’s gaze, something shifted in her chest.
Not anger.
Not humiliation.
Opportunity.
A slow, dangerous smile threatened to surface, but Vivienne buried it beneath a mask of professional compliance.
You stupid, stupid woman.
You just gave me exactly what I wanted.
Because Helena had just handed her the perfect excuse to get close to Alex. To touch him. To remind him… with her body, her scent, her proximity… exactly who had been in that hallway with him twenty minutes ago.
’You’ll regret this.’
Vivienne lowered her eyes in perfect, demure obedience.
“Of course, ma’am,” she said softly, the honorific sliding off her tongue like silk.
She moved toward the sideboard where the wine bottle sat chilling, her hips swaying with deliberate, controlled grace.
Let’s see how smug you are when his attention is locked on me instead of you.
Let’s see how much you enjoy playing CEO when you realize you just lost the game..
Vivienne approached the table, the bottle heavy in her hand, her pulse thumping a frantic rhythm against her ribs.
She didn’t just step into his space; she invaded it.
She moved deep into his periphery, bringing the scent of her own heated skin and arousal right to his nose… a silent, illicit signal masking as service.
She leaned forward to pour.
It was a calculated, pornographic movement. She arched her back, tilting her hips just enough to force the hem of her tight pencil skirt to surrender.
The fabric slid up.
It exposed the intricate black lace of her stockings, the pale, vulnerable skin of her upper thigh, and finally, the bare curve of her ass.
No panties. No barrier. Just an obscene, open invitation served alongside the wine.
Alex didn’t hesitate.
His hand moved from his lap… not a grope, but a conquest. His warm palm settled directly on her bare skin, the shock of it making Vivienne’s breath hitch. He didn’t rush. He dragged his fingers over the curve of her glute, savoring the texture of her trembling flesh, before sliding decisively between her thighs.
Squelch.
The sound was shocking in the silent room… a wet, slick noise of friction that seemed to desecrate the mahogany and gold surroundings.
Vivienne gasped, a broken, strangled sound. Her knees buckled, her body instinctively clamping down on his invading finger, flooding his hand with the proof of her need.
A single drop of crimson wine splashed from the bottle.
It hit the pristine white tablecloth.
Dark. Jagged. Damning.
Alex didn’t pull away. He kept his finger buried deep inside her, twisting it against her most sensitive spot while his other hand held his wine glass with terrifying, casual grace.
He leaned back, looking up at her flushed, ruined face.
”Careful not to spill, Helena,” he whispered, his voice intimate and merciless.