An Unexpected Pleasure Chapter 4

Abigail was lying on her bed in the D. Grand in Zurich, in the guest room in the Maestro Suite. She had been slightly surprised at first when she and Nikolaus had first arrived and found that the hotel had mixed-up the last minute booking leaving her without a room the first night. She had been ready to put in a quick search for a neighboring hotel when Mr. Boulgetti had offered her his second bedroom. She could rest and prepare for the meeting first thing in the morning, instead of dealing with jet-lag and looking for a hotel. The other executives were all staying at the hotel and most of the assistants as well; it would have been a great inconvenience if Abigail was located too far from the hotel. She didn’t want to impose on her boss, but Nikolaus seemed to think nothing of it and had stated that past assistants had done it as well. After this simple explanation, Abigail had thought nothing of it and graciously accepted his offer.

There had been no reason to fear impropriety for the Maestro Suite was two floors with a living room and dining room, library, and gorgeous balcony. It was a bit interesting when they arrived at the room and Nikolaus let the butler show her to her room first. Words couldn’t describe the sheer amount of excitement that bubbled in Abigail as her eyes fell upon the king bed with lily-white duvets trimmed with golden thread and the bouquet of twenty-four white roses that adorned her writing desk. As Abigail unpacked and washed up in the mini pool that was her tub, Nikolaus found himself nervous and fidgeting in his own master suite wondering why he was so nervous to be alone in a hotel with a woman for the first time in his life.

There was nothing wrong with his offer to let her stay with him in his suite. The place was the size of a decent apartment and had two floors and her room was just down the hall from his master bedroom. This would allow them to work on any last minute adjustments before the meetings tomorrow until whenever they were forced to give up because of need for sleep. Not that Nicholas was planning on working that night. He was suffering from a bit of jet lag and self-induced stress from the plane ride across the Atlantic.

Everything had been going great when they had first boarded the plane and took off. After about an hour or two, both he and Abby had called it quits on the presentation because there really wasn’t anything left to fix. The only thing now was to convince Mr. Douglas, of Infinity Tech Solutions, that the product was sound and the IPO could continue as scheduled for the following month.

After they had put aside work, Abigail had opted to put in some headphones and proceed to zone out with a book on her e-reader. Nik was determined to get a few hours of sleep in, but soon found himself looking over to observe Abby. She was staring dreamily at her screen and every few minutes her finger would swipe the page and every couple of pages she would change songs on the device as well. He could tell when she was changing songs as her foot would tap out the new pattern.

Nikolaus was surprised that he wanted to get her attention and maybe ask her a few questions. Normally, he would ignore his assistants and let them sit a few rows in front of him on the plane. But he found himself asking Abigail to put her stuff in the seat across from him when they had first boarded and she questioned which seat was hers to take. He could tell that she didn’t know what was standard protocol because she just nodded at his suggestion, put her stuff in the overhead bin, and grabbed her laptop. If she would have asked around the office, she would have immediately assumed that she was supposed to sit up front and not asked him. Nik smirked. It had been a long time since he felt comfortable knowing that his assistant was a hard-working assistant.

Now that they were on the plane for over three hours that smirk that he thought was justified when he first got on the plane was now replaced with a slight frown. He wanted to talk to her, but she was busy in her book. He debated disturbing her for a minute and just as he was ready to clear his throat, Abigail lifted her eyes and caught Nik staring at her. She immediately took her headphones off.

“Do you need something Mr. Boulgetti?”

Nik didn’t know why, but it irked him that she called him by his formal name. He wanted to slightly blur the lines between them.

“You don’t have to call me Mr. Boulgetti when we are alone. Nikolaus, or Nik, will do just fine,” Nik murmured as he staring into her wide, expressive eyes. She did that every time she was caught by surprise Nik noted, as he watched her eyes widen a brief moment then settle back into their normal easy state. Abby pressed her lips into a grin and blushed slightly.

“Okay Nikolaus,” Abigail said in a breathy, hesitant voice, as if she were unsure of how to pronounce his name, like it was some foreign word.

Nik caught his breath hearing her say his given name for the first time. His heart rate sped up and his hands felt warm and sweaty. The reaction to her saying his name wasn’t expected and for a moment Nik felt that he had made a mistake. Maybe it wasn’t a good idea to have her call him by his first name. When she said it, it sounded more intimate than it should. He blinked and realized that she had used Nikolaus instead of Nik like all his friends and sister, even his mother. Then he smiled and took a calm breath realizing that was just like Abigail to use his proper name and not a nickname; she was just too straight-laced.

“You can of course call me Abigail, or Abby, Mr. oh err… Nikolaus,” Abby blushed and smiled at her small blunder.

Nik was pleased that she gave him the option of calling her Abby. He had been secretly calling her that in his head ever since his mother had visited his office the other day. She had planted a seed in his mind and it had only grown like a weed ever since. His mother never approved of any woman that Nik dated, even from his private school days. She had always been polite to the girls, then women, that came into his life for brief periods of time; but she had never approved of anyone. Abby was a first.

Nikolaus stared at her bright, round face that was framed by small, honey-colored tendrils and tried to see why his mother had found favor with her so quickly. To be sure, Abby was bright and very professional; something that his mother felt was necessary for any potential spouse of her children. Abby was also sweet and pretty. She wasn’t the classical beauty that he had traditional dated, or bedded. But even though she was a bit over weight, nobody could deny the soft, plump lips made for kisses and nibbles; the doe-shaped eyes that Nik tried to widen with surprise ever so often; and the soft, ample, hour-glass figure that she paraded around his building everyday. Yes, he admitted with an internal groan; she was to be desired in more ways than one. But Nik hadn’t wanted to look at his new assistant as anything but an assistant. He had falsely believed that by picking someone totally opposite of all of the women that he usually gave his attention to would provide that nature barrier between them.

He had been naive and quite ignorant to not ask himself why he never wanted anything more out of the women that he usually dated. That perhaps the reason he couldn’t find the woman of his dreams was because he was looking in all the wrong places with all the wrong requirements. Nikolaus rubbed his now sweaty palms on his knees and realized that he was attracted to Abigail, not for a quick liaison, but really attracted to her and wanted her approval. A cold fear stole upon him as he realized he had never wished for the approval of a woman before, and even if he did, the old him just like the current version had no idea how to please a woman. And the cherry on top was the fact that she was his subordinate; it could be a sticky legal situation if he did the wrong thing. He thought about maybe starting some chit-chat about the company, when Abby interrupted his thoughts.

“Well, I think that I will catch a nap so that the jet lag won’t be so rough on the other side,” Abby stated as she grabbed a sweater and threw it over her arms and went to adjust her seat.

The button to adjust the seat was stuck, and Abby repeatedly smashed it trying to push the seat back with her upper body. Nik stood and walked over to help and bent down just as Abigail’s seat flew back and the leg rest shot forward and knocked him in the shins. He was thrown off balance and flew on top of Abigail with him arms spread out to catch himself on the sides of her chair. One leg was bent between her legs as the other had quickly moved to the side of the chair in reaction to the sudden kick. Nik froze as he stared down at Abigail’s mortified face and he could barely understand what she was saying as she profusely apologized for hitting him. She was worried that he had hurt himself and was questioning about his legs, but Nikolaus couldn’t concentrate. He quickly removed his knee from between her thighs and stood upright.

“It’s nothing Abby,” he quickly brushed off her inquiries, “just get some rest; I’m going to lie down for a bit too.”

Abigail still looked worried so Nik quickly grabbed two blankets out of the overhead compartment and placed one over Abigail before quickly throwing one over himself. This seemed to calm Abby down and she soon quieted and began to doze off. Nik lay there under his blanket until his racing heart calmed down and put him into a light slumber.

Not much transpired after that as Nik woke up just as they touched down in Zurich. The car ride to the hotel was uneventful as both Abby and Nik were tired and sore. It wasn’t until they arrived at the hotel and found that Abby didn’t have a room ready that the blood returned to Nikolaus’ head and he immediately seized the opportunity to invite Abby into his hotel suite.

She had seemed surprised at his offer and hesitant and Nik panicked thinking she would have to find a hotel somewhere else on such short notice, so he told a small lie that he had shared with an assistant previously. She’s a little too trusting he thought as that seemed to seal the deal and she followed the butler to their room. He liked that she had complete faith in him, but he didn’t like the fact that at that moment he didn’t have faith in himself.

Once they made it to the room, Abigail seemed thrilled with the furnishings in her bedroom and locked herself away to freshen up. Nikolaus locked himself in his room too wondering how to proceed. He decided a hot shower and dinner would clear his thoughts and rushed to get ready for his first dinner in such an intimate setting with Abigail.

He striped and headed to the showers thinking that the jitters and nerves that he was experiencing were temporary and he just needed to get his mind straight. The emotional pep-talk worked until he was half way through his shower and his mind wandered back to when he fell on the plane. Abigail was so worried that he had hurt himself that she had not observed the awkward position he faced.

His mind had raced to the gutter when he had caught himself and was leaning over her stretched out body. He had a strong urge to slide his knee up higher and spread her thighs. It hadn’t helped any when she rose up and he could see inside her blouse at the tan mounds of flesh covered in white cotton and pink lace. His groin had tightened, and he could feel the beginning twitches of an erection. Like lightening Nikolaus had straightened up and moved away from Abigail, slightly ashamed and mortified that he had responded so quickly to her close proximity.

Nik had never had such an instant physical reaction to a woman before, and that same woman was probably down the hall this very moment, in his suite, naked in the shower. The very thought of Abby naked sent Nik’s heart racing and made his breathing shallow. He reached for the shower nob and inched the temperature down a notch. He had to get his mind straight. They had three days of meeting before he could even think about spending time with her.

Slowly Nikolaus came back to reality and took a deep breath. He finished his shower up and was determined to focus only on the job at hand before he messed up this very, important multi-million dollar IPO, for which he owed his father twenty-million dollars. Nik groaned as he turned off the water and stepped out of the shower and reached for a towel.

His father was shrewd and was looking for a way to replace the money that he had lost in his multiple divorces. After his first wife, he had learned the art of pre-nuptials and this had saved him some money, but he was always bitter when he had to payout to a woman that was no longer in his favor.

Nik’s eyes flashed a menacing, dark shade of amber as he thought about how easy it was for his father to move from one woman to the next after promising the world to each. Even if the women weren’t the most ethical, Nik thought, he knew that they believed that they were happy with his father and wanted to be the one to change his ways. Change his ways, Nik sneered, ha!

After drying off, Nikolaus slipped on a white cotton tee and a pair of sand, linen slacks and an olive-green, linen dress-shirt. He rolled up the sleeves and left the first two buttons open. He glanced at himself in the mirror and vaguely wondered what Abigail would be wearing for dinner. He was curious if she wore a different style at home then her formal attire for work. It seemed she might be very casual in a more intimate setting, and he was excited that he would be allowed to see her in this state. He quickly put on his watch and opened his bedroom door.