Heidi and the Kaiser Read online

  “It’s…” But there weren’t words—Heidi spread her arms out to embrace the city, unable to express the magnitude of her feeling, and laughed.

  “Besides, this view is incredible. There’s nothing like a sunset in Paris.”

  “There’s nothing like this.” Heidi agreed, breathless. “I’ll remember this forever. Forever and ever and ever.”

  “I hope there will be plenty more experiences like this for you.” He smiled. “Someday, a room at Le Meurice will seem like a night in a youth hostel.”

  “I doubt that.” She laughed, turning in his arms. She couldn’t have imagined a more romantic setting, the sun sinking behind the Eiffel Tower behind them, his eyes full of warmth as he looked down at her. “I just want to thank you. A month ago, I was…nothing…I couldn’t have imagined this.”

  “You were never nothing,” he murmured, hugging her close. She felt his heart beating with hers and didn’t ever want him to let her go. “Are you hungry?”

  “Hungry, tired, dirty…” She went through the list with a groan.

  “Let’s work backwards.” He chuckled. “Why don’t you draw a bath?”

  “In your tub?” she asked, incredulous.

  “Our tub.”

  Did he mean it? Was she really staying here, with him? There was a bedroom on this floor with a huge accommodating bed, but two more below, and she was sure to be relegated to one of those. Surely…

  “Will you join me?” she asked, her eyes hopeful.

  He smiled. “I’ll shower and order dinner. You go get clean.”

  The Italian marble bathtub felt deep enough to swim in, and she left the overhead lights off and watched Paris come to life through the nearly person-high windows that surrounded her. Kaiser lit a candle before he stepped into the adjacent shower and she lazily washed her hair and shaved her legs, staring dreamily at the Eiffel Tower, sure she must be dreaming.

  “I’m dreaming,” she murmured to Kaiser as he came in, dressed again for dinner, and helped her out of the tub, rubbing her dry with the thickest towel imaginable. Her hair was still wet when he handed her a silk robe.

  “Don’t you want me to dress?” she asked, sliding her arms into the slippery material.

  “I prefer you undressed.” He smiled. “But I don’t think the staff would appreciate it.”

  “The staff?” She’d been so absorbed in the experience she had missed the delicious smells filling the suite. Now her stomach growled—loudly.

  “Come to dinner.” He led her on his arm just as if she was dressed to the nines instead of barefoot in a silk robe, and sat her at a completely set table. She blinked in surprise as he poured her a glass of champagne.

  “Drinking too much of that on an empty stomach isn’t such a good idea,” she told him, taking a sip anyway, and he smiled.

  “It won’t be empty for long.”

  He couldn’t have been more right. Their waiter brought out the amusé —a green pea gnocchi with onion emulsification. Heidi groaned as it melted in her mouth, a bright, airy pasta in a sweet, buttery foam. After that, she lost track of the courses, but they came, and they came, and oh god, they came again!

  The asparagus was perfect in citron lavender vinaigrette with scallop and vanilla quenelles. A perfectly cooked sea bass came out looking smart in his green jacket of wilted spinach, a dazzling display with an even more stunning flavor. There was chicken breast with pommes de terres, and veal with risotto, gold leaf and morels in a veal reduction.

  And the cheese! Oh the cheese! Kaiser fed her piece after piece, each flavor more delightful than the last, and when dessert came and she thought she couldn’t possibly eat another bite, it was a light and refreshing—roasted pineapple with meringue, followed by petite fours, a perfect assortment of vanilla madeleines, chocolate truffles, Normandy tartlets, lemon macarons and almond tuiles.

  The waiter and chef both came out for a two-person standing ovation and Heidi even kissed the laughing chef on both cheeks and hugged him like a long-lost brother.

  “Now, to bed,” Kaiser said, draining the last of his after-dinner brandy.

  “The dishes,” she said, standing and taking them automatically, always willing to serve. He smiled, grabbing her hand and forcing the plate back to the table.

  “Someone else will clean up.”

  “But—”

  Kaiser rolled his eyes and smacked her bottom, pointing to the bedroom. “Go!”

  That language she understood and, grinning, scurried off to the bedroom, Kaiser not far behind her.

  “Climb up,” he directed.

  The bed was enormous, the mattress much softer than she was used to. It was like sinking into a cloud as she stretched out on her back, nude, watching Kaiser remove his tie.

  “Hands above your head.”

  She obliged as he knelt beside her, using his tie to restrain her, the silk softly tightening over her wrists. The headboard was smooth wood with nowhere to tie her to, so he left her hands above her head, telling her to stay that way and trusting she would. Of course she would.

  “Spread your legs.” They were already halfway there. “Now, pull your knees back.”

  She went to use her hands to hold her legs and realized she wasn’t allowed, so she pulled her legs slowly back, a position she knew wouldn’t be easy to hold for long. Kaiser’s gaze fell between her thighs as he unbuttoned his shirt and peeled it off, moving to settle himself between her legs.

  “Just one goodnight kiss, my Juliet,” he murmured, kissing his way over the sensitive skin her inner thighs, and Heidi sighed as his mouth teased her with sweet, light kisses over the soft curls of her pubic hair. He made easy circles with his tongue, moving ever closer to her aching little clit. She grew wetter as his mouth got closer to her center, finally settling into a little flicker over the sensitive bud.

  “Oh yes,” she whispered when his whole mouth finally covered her, sucking deeply, her flesh disappearing deliciously into his mouth, her clit pressed gently, throbbing against his tongue. Her thighs trembled with the effort to hold them back now, without the help of her hands, and he spread her wide with his palms, rocking her hips back, her knees pressed toward her ears.

  His thumbs pressed her clit between them, pulling the hood back as he fluttered his tongue gently over her little button. She gasped and arched, knowing her orgasm was imminent, unable to stop it, and knowing, too, that he hadn’t told her to come.

  “Kaiser! Oh!” She managed that brief warning before she was overcome, her pussy contracting around the fingers he slid suddenly, swiftly inside her, the sweet throbbing revealing her furious climax even if she’d been able to attempt hiding it. “Oh god, I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” she whispered as he rose up between her thighs, but he just rubbed his wet fingers over her lips, making her suck them, taste herself.

  His cock was free in an instant and pressing against the still-pulsing flesh of her opening. Heidi cried out as his fingers slid deeper into her mouth and he began to thrust. She gasped and wrapped her legs around his waist, wanting more, all of him, sucking the tangy taste of her pussy off his fingers.

  “Ahhhh fuck, Heidi, you’re so good,” he murmured, pinning her already-restrained arms above her head, her wrists encircled in one of his large hands, followed quickly by the other, his full weight on her now, and she wanted him, all of him.

  “More,” she begged, digging her heels in. “Harder, oh, please, I want more, more!”

  He grunted and thrust into her harder, faster, deeper, driving her back on the bed until her hands pressed, palms flat, against the headboard, trying to keep them both from sailing straight through the wall. And still, it wasn’t enough.

  “Give me everything!” she whispered into his ear, feeling his ragged breath against her neck. “All of it, please, I want you, I want you, I want—”

  His mouth came down on hers, crushing her into silence, capturing her breath, her heart, in one swift motion, and the moment it happened, he was hers and she swallowed his g
roan, forgetting herself and slipping her tied hands around his neck as his mouth slanted across her own with reckless abandon.

  Their tongues tangled and she raked her nails through the hair at the nape of his neck, the kiss moving from passion to soft wonder as she felt him trembling above her, his belly clenching, his hips thrusting deep once, again. He gave a shuddering sigh as he collapsed onto her and when he went to move away, she kept him there with the hands he had tied, pressing his head to her breasts. He relented, pulled the comforter over them both, caught in the circle of her arms.

  “I love you.” She whispered the words, not even sure from the deep, even sound of his breathing that he was awake to hear her. She didn’t care.

  Nothing mattered—the show tomorrow, Lenny’s ignored voicemails on her phone, Andrea Paxton’s deception, Cavelli’s double-cross—nothing mattered but the man in her bed, in her life, and she held onto him tightly far into the night. Even when they moved to find a more comfortable position, she stayed bound and tangled in his arms.

  * * * *

  Heidi was in tears. She’d called Andrea’s cell phone at least a hundred times since that morning with no answer. Had she abandoned Kaiser already, then, and decided to pull out? Kaiser had kept close-mouthed about the “Andrea Paxton situation,” as he dubbed it, and wouldn’t tell her anything at all.

  “Heidi, bella, this is Roberto Cavelli, call me! I can’t find Andrea Paxton, has she contacted you?”

  She deleted the message, swallowing the lump in her throat, going to the next.

  “Heidi, Lenny. Listen, I have to--” She deleted that one without listening to it.

  “Coming through!” It was a model wearing one of the last dresses in the line just before Andrea’s debut began, and Heidi went in the other direction, walking past models already dressed and ready to go out, wearing dresses based on designs Andrea had stolen from her. Heidi stopped and adjusted the feathery front on one of the dresses without thinking, something Andrea should have been here to do. Where the hell was she?

  “It should flow when you walk,” Heidi explained to the model. “Like water.”

  The brunette raised her eyebrows in surprise and Heidi flushed.

  “Heidi!” It was Kaiser. Oh god. What was she going to tell him?

  “I’m sorry.” She was apologizing before she even turned around to face him. “I don’t—”

  “Come with me,” he ordered, taking her hand and literally pulling her with him. “I’ve been calling you for fifteen minutes! Don’t you answer your phone?”

  She looked down at the cell in her hand—the reception wasn’t the best—it was blinking with more messages. She hadn’t quite gotten that far. Kaiser led her up a flight of stairs—she nearly fell twice trying to keep up with his long strides—and down another hallway. The sound of the crowd was almost deafening as he pushed her in front of him down the front row, putting her into one of two empty seats.

  “Stay,” he directed, sitting beside her as the crowd applauded again enthusiastically. A model—tall, blonde and quite familiar—came out wearing one of Andrea’s dresses and Heidi gasped. Daniella! She hadn’t seen her since that photo shoot on the beach a million years ago. She was so surprised she almost didn’t hear the announcer’s words.

  “Kaiser’s debut line by new designer, Heidi Bauer!”

  The crowd’s applause turned thunderous. She turned to Kaiser, eyes wide, and he smiled, reaching for and squeezing her hand. Across the catwalk, Cavelli sprang up from his chair, his face a cloud of anger, but it was too loud for anyone to hear what he might be saying. His wife, Eve, pulled him back to sitting and Heidi’s attention shifted again as another of her designs, a stunning midnight blue, floated by.

  “Happy?” Kaiser leaned over to ask.

  “Beyond,” she replied, the rest of the show a stunning blur, but she still didn’t understand. When they announced her at the end and Kaiser led her down the catwalk—now she knew why he had insisted she wear the Rene Lacoste!—raising her hand in triumph, she looked up at him through tears.

  She thought she couldn’t be any more surprised, until Lenny appeared in an Armani suit, handing her a dozen red roses from the end of the catwalk. Leaning down to take them, she immediately understood and hissed, “You told him!”

  He grinned, shrugged, and gave Kaiser a little salute as he stepped back into the applauding crowd. Just when she thought she couldn’t take another flash bulb, Kaiser led her off the catwalk to more thunderous applause.

  “I’m sorry,” he murmured into her ear, hugging her close. “I wanted it to be such a surprise.”

  She laughed. “You succeeded!”

  “Kaiser!” Cavelli stormed toward them, red-faced. “What the hell is this nonsense? Those are Andrea Paxton’s designs!”

  “I’m afraid they aren’t,” Kaiser replied coldly, keeping Heidi beside him even though she was trying to melt into the floor. “I received definitive proof that they were stolen from Miss Bauer. Andrea even admitted as much to me.”

  Both Cavelli and Heidi stared at him, aghast.

  “I assume this means you’re sticking with Kaiser?” Cavelli asked, frowning at Heidi.

  “Like glue,” she agreed, linking her arm through Kaiser’s.

  “She’s a willing little whore, but not worth my time. You can have her.” Cavelli scoffed, turning to leave, and Heidi gasped when Kaiser grabbed the old man’s shoulder. Neither she nor Cavelli had any idea Kaiser had such a hard right hook, not until Cavelli was picking himself up off the floor.

  “You didn’t have to do that!” Heidi hissed as Kaiser pulled her down the hall.

  “I didn’t have to,” he agreed, grinning. “I wanted to.”

  She stopped then, throwing her arms around him, and kissing him wordless. When they broke off, both of them breathless, she whispered the words she’d said last night, this time looking into his eyes and knowing he heard them.

  “I love you, Kaiser.”

  He blinked, frowning, touching her mouth with his fingers and then quickly kissing her again.

  “You didn’t have to say that,” he murmured against her ear, pulling her close.

  “I didn’t have to,” she agreed happily, letting him hold her so tight she could barely breathe. “I wanted to.”

  Epilogue

  “I think Paris must have been a dream.”

  “He hasn’t said a word about it since you got back?” Lenny asked, incredulous.

  “Nothing.” Heidi sighed, pushing the “door close” button on the elevator and crooking her cell phone against her ear. “It’s like nothing ever happened. I’m still just… a secretary.”

  “But your designs, your dresses…”

  “I know!” She pouted, leaning against the back of the elevator as she rode up. “I don’t know what I expected. My own office maybe? Something. I mean, there are things to do, decisions to make…I mean, I think there are…”

  Honestly, she hadn’t really thought much past the design aspect of her dresses. The business end of the business had never really interested her.

  “Well… maybe he’s got something else up his sleeve,” Lenny said, giving Kaiser the benefit of the doubt. He’d been doing that since Paris and it was driving Heidi crazy! “He really isn’t such a bad guy, you know.”

  “So you keep saying,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Has Saint Kaiser knighted you yet for your selfless deeds?”

  “Hey!” He sounded genuinely hurt and she was instantly sorry and said so.

  “I really do appreciate what you did,” she went on. Of course she did. Never in a million years could she have gotten into Andrea Paxton’s apartment, found her old sketchbook, and smuggled it out. But somehow, Lenny had.

  And then, of course, he’d presented it to Kaiser as “proof” of Andrea’s deception.

  “You better,” he mumbled. “You wouldn’t believe what I had to go through. That Andrea is a wildcat in bed. She had me—”

  “Lenny!” Heidi admonished. �
��Please! I really don’t need the details.”

  He laughed. “All right, all right.”

  “Listen, I’m here, I gotta go.” She clicked “end” on her cell phone and pocketed it as the elevator doors opened. She noted the time with a sinking feeling in her belly—nine-oh-five. She was five minutes late.

  She barely had time to stash her purse under her desk before he called her.

  “Heidi, come into my office.”

  Standing beside his desk, she waited as he finished writing something and turned toward her.

  “Get on your knees.”

  Heidi sank down, head bowed, her heart hammering. What sort of punishment would this be? She felt his hand in her hair, stroking gently, and she looked up at him in wonder. He hadn’t touched her since Paris—even to punish her. What was this, then?

  “We have a great deal of work to do.” His eyes were soft as he studied her face. “And I’m afraid the way we do it is going to have to change.”

  She blinked at him, giving him a puzzled look, but not speaking.

  “This is where you belong, Heidi.” His hand bowed her head, easily. “We both know it.”

  A lump grew in her throat, and she did, she did know. She would be on her knees for him, in front of him, worshipping him, forever if he let her. It’s all she’d ever wanted, and she wanted it even now.

  When Kaiser sank to his knees beside her, Heidi gasped, her eyes growing wide. He reached into his pocket and pulled out something delicate and beautiful—a silver choker.

  “I want you to wear this.”

  She bowed her head, letting him put it around her neck and fasten the clasp and her heart swelled when she realized his hands were trembling.

  “To remind you, and me, whenever we have to stand shoulder to shoulder and work side by side. Do you understand?”

  Tears filled her eyes and she nodded, touching the collar at her throat.

  “I think it’s the most important thing,” he murmured, reaching into his pocket again. “Even more important than this.”

  The velvet box contained an antique platinum ring and Heidi’s tears began to fall then, making fat, wet spots on her Marc Jacob skirt.