Dreaming of St-Tropez Read online

  Dreaming of St-Tropez

  Table of Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Acknowledgments

  Also by T.A. Williams

  Copyright

  Dreaming of St-Tropez

  T.A. Williams

  To Mariangela and Christina, with love as always.

  Chapter 1

  ‘Mr Drugoi says you are very beautiful, Miss Milton.’

  Jess snorted silently, but kept the smile plastered on her face.

  ‘Please thank Mr Drugoi, but could you ask him if he has a preference as to where we situate the windows in the master bedroom suite? Would he like to look out towards the river or towards the houses of parliament?’

  Dmitri relayed her question to his boss and a short conversation in Russian ensued. Finally, Dmitri reported the result of their deliberations.

  ‘Mr Drugoi would like to be able to lie in bed and look out over the river.’

  Mr Drugoi made a further comment in Russian that elicited a snigger from Dmitri.

  ‘He says you’re welcome to come and try it for yourself when it’s finished. He says he can imagine you lying on his bed.’

  The smile on Jess’s face was wearing thin by now, but she managed to maintain it as she ignored the comment and moved to the next item on her clip board.

  ‘View towards river. Fine. Now, does he still want the two ensuite bathrooms leading off this room?’

  The interpreter didn’t need to refer this to his boss.

  ‘Yes. He always likes one bathroom for himself and a separate one for his companions.’

  Jess couldn’t stop her eyes from flicking across the face of the expressionless blonde girl standing at Mr Drugoi’s elbow. She looked as if she was less than half the Russian’s age and she was stunningly beautiful. She had not been introduced so, presumably, she fell into the category of anonymous ‘companion’.

  Jess gave an involuntary shudder before returning to business.

  ‘Two bathrooms.’ She added a brief note to her list and moved on to the details. ‘And he still wants to go with the idea of a glass bath with blue LED lighting?’ She did her best to keep the distaste out of her voice. Dmitri nodded, so she continued. ‘And gold bathroom furniture?’

  ‘Bathroom furniture?’

  ‘Taps and so on.’

  ‘Definitely. Mr Drugoi always chooses gold. He likes gold.’ Dmitri grinned at her. ‘He has a lot of gold.’

  ‘Gold, it is.’ She ticked it off. ‘Now, shall we take a look outside on the terrace?’

  The survey continued for the best part of an hour and the innuendo from Mr Drugoi didn’t decrease. By the time they reached the basement, Jess could feel his eyes all over her as he muttered comments sotto voce to Dmitri in Russian. Somehow she felt certain these were not remarks about the conversion of this magnificent Georgian townhouse from traditional Old English to twenty-first-century kitsch. She glanced at her watch and saw it was getting on for lunchtime. By the look of Mr Drugoi’s waistband, he was unlikely to want to miss out on a meal, and she wouldn’t be sorry to see him go. She tried to accelerate things, adopting her no-nonsense architect-in-charge voice.

  ‘You’ll see from the plans that we intend to transform this whole basement area into a swimming pool, sauna and gymnasium complex.’ Not, she felt sure, that Mr Drugoi would be making much use of the gym. ‘If we knock down these walls, we’ll have a few fairly complicated structural problems to overcome, but it’s feasible – although I’m afraid it won’t be cheap.’

  Dmitri relayed the message and she saw Mr Drugoi shrug his shoulders dismissively. He said nothing, but Dmitri translated all the same.

  ‘Mr Drugoi has no money problems.’

  Jess had already worked that out earlier that morning – the moment she had spotted the white Rolls Royce as it purred up to the front of the house to deliver Mr Drugoi and his retinue. No, clearly, money was not a problem for Mr Drugoi. Whether his money was a problem for other people was a different matter.

  The oligarch said something to Dmitri and both men laughed. It was the sort of laugh you hear at the end of a dirty joke, and Jess had a feeling she might be the subject of the joke.

  ‘Mr Drugoi says he wants lights under the water so he can watch the people swimming.’ Dmitri was still smiling. ‘He says he can imagine you swimming. He says you would look very good swimming.’

  Mr Drugoi added another adjective and this time even Dmitri looked a bit embarrassed.

  ‘He says you would look very good swimming… naked.’

  Jess bit her lip so hard she almost drew blood. Finally, after a few deep breaths, she replied.

  ‘Please tell Mr Drugoi that I’m an architect and I’m here to discuss the restructuring of this property – nothing else.’ As she spoke, she subjected Drugoi to a withering stare, but his dead fish eyes just remained fixed on her body, not her face – totally unapologetic. She heard the interpreter speak to his boss, but very briefly, and she had little doubt that Dmitri had opted not to translate her remarks word for word.

  The tour of the property continued, as did Jess’s discomfort in the presence of the billionaire. Finally, at just after twelve o’clock, she reached the end of her queries and brought the meeting to a close. By this time she was feeling soiled and slightly sickened, and her only desire was to get away from Drugoi as soon as possible. She shook hands with the expressionless girl, then Dmitri and, finally, Drugoi, and was just turning away when she heard a brief exchange between the oligarch and his interpreter.

  ‘Please, Miss Milton.’ She looked back over her shoulder and noted that this time Dmitri actually had the decency to blush as he passed on the invitation from his boss. ‘Mr Drugoi asks if you would like to come back to Claridge’s with him for a party.’

  ‘A party?’

  ‘Yes, just you, him and Natasha.’

  Jess was dumbfounded. Never in her professional or personal life had she had to face anything like this before. She was just beginning to formulate a suitably frosty, if restrained, response – Drugoi was one of the firm’s most important clients, after all – when he added a few more words in Russian that Dmitri hastily translated.

  ‘And Mr Drugoi says to tell you he is a very generous man.’

  Jess’s breath whistled out of her lungs as her hard-won self-control finally deserted her. She walked back until she was standing right in front of the billionaire. Although not as tall as the blonde girl, she was still a couple of inches taller than him. She looked him square in the eye.

  ‘Mr Drugoi, you may think you’re able to buy anything or anybody you like, but it doesn’t work like that with me. I wouldn’t go to your hotel with you if I had a gun to my head.’ She took a deep breath. ‘You are a disgusting human being.’ For a moment she had the distinct impression that he had understood – interpreter or no interpreter – but, to be sure, she glanced across at Dmitri. ‘Translate that to him – word for word.’

  Dmitri looked appalled, but then evidently followed her instructions. She listened to a
rush of Russian from him to his employer and this time she saw Drugoi’s expression darken. But instead of shame or contrition, the puffy face registered surprise and then, quite clearly, anger. He hissed something to Dmitri and turned on his heel even before the translation had been rendered.

  ‘Mr Drugoi is very angry with you. He says he will speak to your boss.’ As Drugoi and the blonde girl headed out through the door to the stairs, Dmitri added under his breath. ‘I’m afraid you’re going to be in a lot of trouble.’

  * * *

  Jess hit the gym hard that evening. She was still furious at the way Drugoi had behaved – clearly, he was convinced that his money allowed him to say or do whatever he chose. In fact, she was so engrossed in her thoughts that it took a while before she realised that Hope was sitting on the next exercise bike to hers, but not pushing the pedals anything like as furiously. Jess sat up, released her grip on the handlebars, and ran a hand across her forehead, feeling it come away soaking wet.

  ‘Hi, Hope, how long’ve you been there?’

  ‘I wondered how long it would take you to notice. I’ve been here eleven minutes.’ She grinned and pointed at the screen in front of her. ‘If you don’t believe me, look!’

  Jess gave her a weak smile in return.

  ‘Sorry about that. It’s been a rough day.’

  ‘Want to talk about it?’

  Jess realised that she did. Over the next ten minutes they pedalled sedately side by side while she told Hope all about the Russian. She didn’t leave anything out – she didn’t need to. She and Hope went way back and they had few secrets from one another. When she finally finished, Hope was, predictably, supportive.

  ‘Little rat.’ She looked across and caught Jess’s eye. ‘I can think of a few less savoury things to call him, but I don’t want to get us thrown out of here. So do you think he’s going to cause trouble for you?’

  ‘I wouldn’t be surprised. That sort always want to get their own way.’

  ‘What if he goes to your boss?’

  ‘Graham? I’d like to think he’d have the guts to stand up to him, even though Drugoi’s contract’s likely to reach well into seven figures.’

  ‘Wow. That’s serious money. And if he doesn’t stand up for you?’

  ‘Then I suppose I might find myself looking for another job.’

  Jess did her best to keep her voice level. Her mortgage payments were high and she knew she wouldn’t be able to afford to keep them going for long if Graham really did cave in to pressure from the Russian.

  ‘That would make two of us…’

  Hope had lost her previous job a couple of months earlier and was doing temporary work while still trying to make up her mind what to do next.

  After a pause, she looked across at Jess and winced. ‘Do you mind if I get off this damn thing now? My bum’s gone to sleep.’

  Together, they climbed off the bikes and finished their routine. After a shower, Jess was feeling a bit more relaxed and she offered to buy Hope a drink at the bar. They normally tried to avoid this as it was all too easy to put back on the calories they had just spent ages losing. However, under the circumstances, she felt she deserved something. She bought two glasses of Prosecco and they settled down in the comfortable armchairs, looking down through the glass panels at the other gym users still slaving away below them.

  ‘You know your trouble, Jess? You need a big hunky boyfriend to defend your honour – you know, like they did back in medieval times. He could go along to see your Russian, slap his face with a glove, and then beat the crap out of him in a duel.’

  Jess had to smile at the image.

  ‘I’m all done with big, hunky boyfriends, thanks. Been there, done that, don’t want another one.’

  ‘Not never?’

  ‘Not for a good long while. Not till I get Rafael out of my head.’

  Her long-standing relationship with handsome, wealthy property developer Rafael had finally hit the rocks six months earlier – around the same time Hope and her long-term partner had also split up. In Hope’s case, it had been mutual. In Jess’s case, she had been the one to dump him, but it had been tough all the same. And it hadn’t really been him so much as the increasingly glitzy, phoney lifestyle he insisted upon living, along with his equally ostentatious friends. After two years, she had finally had enough and told him so. His reply had been predictable – he was what he was, take him or leave him.

  She had left him.

  ‘They’re not all like Rafael, you know.’

  ‘I know they aren’t. But, for now at least, as far as men are concerned – and rich men in particular – I don’t want to know. They’re more trouble than they’re worth.’

  ‘They have their uses.’ Hope gave her a wink, but Jess shook her head.

  ‘If it’s just sex I’m looking for, there are two or three men here at the gym who’ve made it quite clear that they’d be only too willing. All I’d have to do would be to snap my fingers.’

  ‘You? Casual sex? Don’t give me that, Jess. We both know that’s never going to happen.’

  Jess smiled. Hope really did know her so very well.

  ‘What you need is the love of a good man – not just a quick one-night stand.’

  Jess made no comment. They had had this conversation over and over again recently. After a while, Hope returned to Jess’s unpleasant experience that morning.

  ‘So what’s his name, this Russian? Anybody famous?’

  ‘Drugoi.’

  Jess was unprepared for Hope’s reaction.

  ‘Drugoi, did you say?’ Hope looked up sharply.

  ‘Yes, do you know him?’

  ‘Not at all, but I wouldn’t mind betting it’s a fake name.’

  ‘What makes you say that?’

  ‘I did two years of Russian at school and I’m sure I remember that drugoi means another. I reckon he’s using a pseudonym so as to keep his real identity secret.’

  Jess nodded slowly. ‘Wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest.’ She managed a smile. ‘You never know – maybe he’s got a whole load of angry women after him.’

  ‘Or their big, hunky boyfriends…’

  * * *

  Jess had appointments all the next day and she didn’t get back to the office until mid-afternoon. She exchanged pleasantries with Deanne on the front desk and then took the lift up to the third floor, wondering if Drugoi had carried out his threat to talk to her boss. Either way, she knew she needed to speak to Graham herself about the previous morning’s events. She had had it with this particular oligarch.

  To her surprise, as she came out of the lift, she found Caroline from HR waiting for her. Warning bells started sounding in her head.

  ‘Jess, hello. Listen, we need to talk.’

  ‘Of course, Caroline. What about?’

  ‘Could we talk in your office?’

  Jess led her along the corridor to her office and offered her a seat. Caroline closed the door carefully behind her before sitting down. She waited until Jess was also seated before delivering the body blow.

  ‘I’ve been talking to Graham, and I’m afraid we’re going to have to let you go, Jess.’

  Although Jess had half been expecting it, this demonstration of her boss’s total lack of backbone came as a shock.

  ‘You’re what? This is about that slimy toad Drugoi, isn’t it?’

  ‘No, of course this isn’t because of Mr Drugoi, or any other client. It’s just restructuring.’ Jess noticed that Caroline didn’t meet her gaze, keeping her eyes down as she opened the folder she was holding. ‘You’ve been with us now for almost five years?’

  ‘Yes.’ Jess felt the anger rising in her veins. She leant forward, resting her elbows on the desk. ‘And you’re firing me? Why? I think you’d better tell me what I’m supposed to have done.’

  Caroline looked up, but only briefly, and Jess noted that she surreptitiously pushed her chair back a few inches. ‘Not firing you, Jess. Please don’t think that. Like I said, we have
to restructure the business. I’m afraid it’s just that you’re surplus to our requirements. Business is down in the wake of the Brexit vote and we have to be prudent.’

  This didn’t accord with Jess’s assessment of the situation. She had been busier over the past six months than at any time since joining the company. She struggled to get her head round what she was being told.

  ‘You don’t need me? Who’s going to do all the work I’ve been doing? I’ve got six projects ongoing as it stands, and if we get the Drugoi contract, there’s well over a million pounds’ worth of work in that one job alone.’ Caroline finally raised her eyes and Jess held them. ‘Have we got the Drugoi contract?’

  She caught a flicker of something on Caroline’s face, but it disappeared immediately as she replied in a bland tone. ‘I have no idea. Contractual matters are not part of my remit.’

  Jess stared at her for a few seconds until the other woman’s eyes dropped once more. Suppressing a desire to reach across the desk and strangle her, Jess did her best to keep her tone level.

  ‘So, when do I have to leave? And what about pay and all that?’

  Caroline looked up again, clearly relieved to be able to talk about practical matters. ‘We’ve put together a generous severance pay package for you. You’ve been a valued member of staff and we want to reward you for your efforts on behalf of the firm. Graham told me to make that clear to you. Here… see for yourself.’

  She removed a sheet of paper from the folder and slid it across the desk. Jess took it and cast her eye down the figures. It soon became clear that Caroline hadn’t been joking. The settlement was, indeed, generous.

  Suspiciously generous.

  Dropping the page onto the desktop, Jess raised her eyes towards Caroline.

  ‘And when am I expected to leave?’

  ‘With immediate effect.’

  ‘Now? What, this afternoon?’

  ‘Yes. I’ll get somebody to bring you a box for your things. You are to clear your desk and leave.’ She caught Jess’s eye. ‘Graham told me to tell you that he will provide you with a glowing reference, without any stain on your character.’