Unwanted Attention

Thank god it's Friday...

‘Lovey Dovey’ was a dessert restaurant in Chelsea that also did special cupcakes for delivery to businesses around London central.

Dove LaRue, daughter of retired French business man and diplomat Andre LaRue, is owner of the chic niche business that has been turning heads and fast becoming the talk of the town since opening its doors last year. Passiterie, Leon Castille, who won best dessert chef at the 2018 graduation at the prestigious school of fine dining Layne’s, heads the team of chefs – long term friends they make an exceptional team.

 Cooper’s expression went cold and dark as he looked at the photo that accompanied the critique online. It showed Dove with Leon in an affectionate hug for the camera outside the front of the café.

“Well, I’ll be…” Cooper breathed as he sat back in his large leather office chair, spinning it round to the floor to ceiling glass windows behind him and looked out at the Thames and London Bridge.

“No wonder you liked the name of my little hobby…your place has a similar feel to the name…including your name cleverly in the title, you’re a smart girl, aren’t you? You’re not going to be easily fooled.”

Cooper brooded. “You’re probably not even bothered by the fact I haven’t messaged you yet.” Cooper thought about all the information he had gathered on her so far. “In fact, it would probably bother you more if I did message you…” He grinned to himself and spun his chair back round to his desk and lifted his phone.

Beautiful day today, babe. Hope you are enjoying it. Don’t be too smug about the fact that you are completely invading my thoughts so much that I can’t focus on work today.

.

Dove heard her phone ping and automatically picked it up to read the message, assuming it was from one of her friends. She very nearly threw the phone across the room when she saw it was from him!

‘Son of a b***h! What sort of message is that to send, he talks like we know each other! I’ll teach him a lesson…’

Who is this? I think you have the wrong number.

.

Cooper was pleasantly surprised when his phone pinged in reply almost straight away. ‘Oh, she must have been waiting for me…’

His jaw clenched and the muscles started ticking as he read her message. He put his phone down and rubbed his forehead with his fingers, leaning back in his chair and chuckled to himself.

‘Oh, you little smart ass…just you wait…I’ll make you regret that decision to play with me.’

A knock sounded on his door as he replied back. “Enter.”

A young man dressed in all black entered, he had a buzz cut and large loop rings in his ears and a ring in his lip.

“Toad! Come in!” Cooper stood and walked over to shake hands with the lad. “I wanted to thank you personally for your efforts last night.”

Toad shrugged. “Nah, it was cool, boss…no problem.”

“I hear she wouldn’t let Thomas take her home and got dropped at the underground. It was quick thinking of you to get out of the car and follow her on foot.” Cooper said, returning to his seat as Toad sat in the chair in front of the desk. “Well done.” I like a kid with initiative.

Toad rubbed his chin. “Ha, like I said, no problem, but she sure is suspicious…pretending to go into the underground until Thomas left then resurface and walked the five hundred meters to her house…but anything for you, Boss, you know that.”

Cooper leaned his elbows on the desk and rested his chin lightly on his spiked fingers. “I’m glad you said that…I have a mission for you.”

.

Don’t play with me.

“Is he threatening me right now?!” Dove stared at the message, then threw her phone down on the desk. ‘I really don’t like this…he either needs to grow up or seek mental help, either way he needs to just go away.’ Dove rubbed her eyes and stood up from her desk and wandered out to the front of the shop.

“Orders ready?”

“Yep, all ready to go.” Leon said with a smile holding out a piece of paper with a map route marked on it.

Dove looked at it. Three offices this morning, business was building slowly, but surely… She grabbed up the keys to the delivery van from the hook behind the counter.

“Take care.” Leon called out.

“Sure thing…I’m going to stop at Boots on the way back, I need to get a couple of things, so if I’m not back before you leave don’t panic.”

Leon rolled his eyes. “If you so say…”

“I do.” Dove smiled warmly and left to make the morning deliveries.

.

.

Dove was happily serving a lady her tiramisu and latte when she saw a young hooded man enter the café. He wasn’t the type to normally enter this establishment and when he lowered his hood and looked around Dove approached him.

“Can I help you?” She asked nervously.

He looked at her with disinterest for a moment then his eyes seemed to come alive and he laughed out loud as he realised now what this strange requested from Mr Henersley was all about. 

Dove frowned. 'Is there something on my face?'

“Yes, you can help me…I’ve been sent to organise one of those cupcake deliveries…”

“Oh, okay...come over here…who’s it for?” Dove asked warily, still not sure if it was a practical joke or not.

“I’m a…ah…messenger for a group of businesses called Hensure Enterprises, they do several fields including insurers, money lending that sort of thing…they have their offices downtown.”

“Yes, I think I’ve heard of them.”

He leaned in on his forearms over the counter. “It’s one of the bosses’ birthdays and he wants his subordinates in his office to receive this gift from him for their morning break as a treat.”

“Oh, okay…yes…that’s exactly what we do…he must be a nice boss…if you have a look at the order chart you can pick the flavours and quantities…”

“Just an assortment of your top ten is what he said, ten of each.”

“Okay…fill in this form with the name and company address and what day and time for approximate delivery please.”

“Do you deliver before the day or on the day?”

“On the day.”

“And who delivers them?” His chocolate brown eyes were piercing as he stared at her with a little smile on his lips, he was an attractive boy. Dove guessed he was an intern, maybe only eighteen or nineteen years old, but the way he was dressed made him look like a hoodlum.

Dove looked at him strangely, he was asking questions like this wasn’t a prank, but she still intended to double check once she had the name and company.

“I currently do any morning office deliveries myself.”

The boy grinned widely at her, she could see he was clearly a rogue. “Cool.” He looked down at the form and started filling it in.

Dove turned away and started doing other tasks. She heard a strange click sound and looked up to see the boy putting his phone quickly in his pocket. She frowned. ‘Did he just take a picture?’ She watched him carefully after that as he completed the form, paid in full with a platinum card and left.

Dove got straight on the phone to the company he had written down. She got through to a secretary who confirmed that Mr Marsdon indeed worked there and was a partner in the firm, and that it was his birthday next week and yes she had organised on Mr Marsdon’s behalf for the boy to go down with Mr Marsdon’s card and order the delivery.

“All above board…excellent that’s a good order then.” Dove said pleased, returning to her work. On top of the large special order for some art exhibition on tomorrow night this was going to be a good month.

.

Cooper’s phone pinged on his desk. He picked it up and opened the message from Toad.

He sat back in his chair stunned, staring at the picture he had sent. There she was, wearing a pale pink shift dress with cap sleeves with a little black apron around her waist, her wealth of golden tresses were tied back off her face in a high ponytail and she wore very simple makeup. She looked absolutely stunning. How the hell had he not found out about this woman before now. She had obviously been in London for a while since she had no French accent. Damn, she looked young, it was hard to believe he was looking at a woman that was thirty one years old.

“I can’t wait to see you again, Dove.” He muttered with a smirk.

.

That evening Dove collapsed onto her couch, kicking her shoes off and heaved a tired but contented sigh. It had been a busy Friday and she was glad the weekend was ahead of her, although she usually worked a Saturday morning she was giving it amiss so she could help Leon with the delivery to the art exhibition, apparently the artist had insisted on their cupcakes even though the rest of the food was being catered by quite a reputable company, so this made her want to take a bit of extra time and make sure everything went as planned.

She glanced at the magazine on her coffee table, he was even on the cover and staring at her with those incredible ice blue eyes, from underneath his long bangs, as they were artistically tousled over his eyes in the photo. ‘God! He should be a model, but I guess he hardly needs the money from that.’ She stared at the picture perfect jawline for a moment and imagined running her fingers through that hair and pushing it out of his eyes.

‘Stop it, Dove.’ She looked away with a silly grin and wiped a hand over her face. ‘Argh! Get a grip!’

She stood up and walked over to the kitchen and opened the fridge, taking out a half bottle of white wine and poured herself a glass. As soon as the fridge opened her ragdoll cat appeared from the bedroom, yawning and stretching. Dove gave him a pet and put some food down for him, then picking up her wine glass she took it back to the couch and curled her legs up underneath herself and grabbed the magazine, opening it to the article and began to read about the elusive Mr Henersley. The cat waltzed over, jumped up purring loudly, stomped all over the magazine and settled in the crook behind her knees. Dove smiled and patted the cat, scratching his favourite place under his chin as he purred, his eyes closed in pleasure. “Can I read the magazine now Cupcake?” Dove pulled the magazine up her knees and gave it her full attention.

34 Years old. Born and raised in the midlands, his father was the owner of a prestigious sheep farm. When he died in a farm accident when Cooper was 18, Cooper sold the entire farm business and moved to London, he had attended Eton. He was smart, articulate, and thanks to boarding school – connected. A millionaire at 18 and parentless, his mother had died of cancer when he was 14. He was apparently recruited by renowned organized crime boss Don Luici, escalated through the ranks quickly, showing more than a little penchant for violence and soon came out on top, dividing from Don Luici and starting his own empire, but keeping his alliances.

Dove put the magazine down for a moment. She felt sorry for him, she had also lost her mother, but not until she was already an adult, but still…losing a parent wasn’t easy and to lose both parents at a young age just wasn’t fair.

Dove knew to take articles like this with a grain of salt, there was no proof Don Luici’s businesses were grounded in organised crime, so everything the article said about Cooper from that point was pure conjecture on the part of the reporter, otherwise they would all be arrested and in jail, surely? Still…penchant for violence…that worried her. She could see it in the way he carried himself, it was always obvious when a man was trained to fight, they had a certain aura about them that said ‘don’t mess with me.’

She blinked and remembered his message. Don’t play with me

“Shit.” Dove breathed. “Am I in trouble? Did I just poke a sleeping bear?”

She pulled her phone out and looked at it. ‘Should I message him, say sorry? No, then he’ll know somethings up…as far as he knows I don’t know who he is, I can get away with brushing him off if I keep acting ignorant to that fact?’

Penchant to violence…

Organised crime…

Men in black suits…

Being chauffeured…

Being called Boss….

Fuck!

Dove shivered and sat up, putting the magazine down on the table as well as her wine glass and stood up. Cupcake stretched at the disturbance and blinked its sky blue eyes at her.

‘A nice hot bath…soak away my trouble…that’s what I need…’

.

Cooper was still in his office, finalising with his PA tomorrow’s schedule. He hated working on weekends but this was a special event, and Don Luici had ‘requested’ he attend.

He picked up the brochure for the event and looked through it.

An art exhibition. How f*****g boring…but everyone who was anyone was going to be there so it was a perfect opportunity to rub shoulders with each other without raising suspicions of the police who were constantly watching.

The artist was Don Luici’s nephew, a whinny brat in Cooper’s eyes, who had grown up being spoilt and now he thought he was an artist. Cooper chuckled, judging by the pictures of the art for sale he was definitely not an artist…but it wasn’t just about talent, it was about money, power and influence. Cooper knew the little snots paintings would all get sold, brown noses would snap them up to make Don Luici happy.

Cooper rubbed his eyes with a thumb and finger.

“Please tell me I’m not buying one of these f*****g things?”

His PA grimaced. “Sorry, but yes you are.”

“f**k’s sake…” Cooper sighed. “Hang it in someone else’s office, I don’t want to see it.”

The PA grinned. “Of course…”

“How much is it going to set me back?”

“Well the business is buying it, as an art investment, so…” Patrick, his PA, pushed his glasses up his nose.

“How much, Patrick…how much is that snotty brat’s paintings selling for?”

“Around $50,000 euro…”

Cooper sighed. “At least he’s not greedy…”

Patrick looked at Cooper not sure if he was being sarcastic or not.

“One more thing…you have a plus one, not including a minder.”

Cooper glanced at Patrick. The image of Dove came to his head briefly, but he dismissed it quickly. No way was Dove ready for the world in which Cooper Henersley rubbed shoulders with Don Luici.

“I’ll go alone, unless you want to be my date?” Cooper grinned at Patrick.

Patrick gave a sardonic smile as he stood up, brushing down his immaculate dark blue pin striped suit. “No thanks…I have a date with a lovely lady.”

“Seeing your mother again?”

“Hmm.” Patrick paused as he turned to leave.

“How’s she doing?”

Patrick shrugged and his eyes fell to the floor. “Oh, you know…good days, bad days…” Patrick’s mother had Alzheimers. The main reason Patrick worked for a gangster like Cooper was because Cooper had a soft side that people very rarely saw, he looked after his loyal employees, nice backhanders and bonuses and he even went out of his way sometimes and did extraordinary good, like paying for Patrick’s mother to get the best specialised care money could buy and footed the bill. There was no way Patrick could afford it even on the amazing salary he received working for Mr Henersley.

Patrick’s head came up and he smiled. “Your car is picking you up from your apartment at 7pm, your tux will be delivered to your door at 4pm, make sure you’re home!”

“Thank you, Patrick.”

“Don’t stay here all night...it’s Friday night, go to one of your clubs…but make it home early.” Cooper smiled at Patrick’s fussy nature.

As Patrick turned away and started walking to the door it opened and Baz walked in. He flicked his head in acknowledgement at Patrick as they past each other.

“Hey Baz, make sure he goes home.”

“Sure…” Baz chuckled.

Cooper watched Patrick close the door then glanced at Baz as Baz walked over to the liquor cabinet and poured two scotches from a crystal decanter. He walked over and slid one over the desk towards Cooper.

“It’s knock off time, Boss.”

Cooper huffed and turned his chair to look out at the view as it turned from day to night, the lights illuminating the sky line. He sipped his drink.

“She’s all tucked up in her apartment for the night.” Baz added as he sat down in an armchair and took a large gulp of his scotch.

Cooper smiled at that. “Good to know.”

“Jack told me she took a copy of that latest article in MH Magazine with her last night.”

Cooper swung his chair back, his eyes blazing. “She what!? So she knows who I am?”

“I’m guessing so…”

Cooper clenched the glass tight, his knuckles going white as his eyes lost focus in his rage. He had been hoping to keep her innocent of that knowledge for as long as possible.

“f**k, Jack! I should fire him.”

Baz assessed Cooper’s fury and said nothing. Cooper took his phone out and glared at her message. Had she known then? When did she read the article? Last night, this morning or not till she got home? Had she even read it yet?

Baz was watching his boss carefully as Cooper stared up at the ceiling then rubbed his face with his hands and stood up. “Let’s go to Candies.”

Baz stood up as Cooper grabbed his jacket and put it on.

“I’ll get the car brought round…” Baz said taking his phone out and messaging down to the ever waiting crew of body guards. They would enjoy tonight, Candies was a special place, full of opportunities for s****l perversions to be sated in a safe consensual environment. Baz hoped it would be enough for Cooper.

.

Cooper was balls deep in a brunette’s ass, that was tied up to a spreader bar, gagged and blind folded, when Dove finally decided to go to bed. She walked past the coffee table and glanced at the magazine, she frowned, picked it up and took it to bed with her. She had to admit that he was sexy as hell and was actually exactly her type in looks, those eyes could turn her into a puddle of mush. It was the mind she worried about. As she flicked off the light, Cupcake jumped down from the couch and trotted after her.

.

Cooper had been tempted to pick a girl who looked a bit like Dove, but as he had withdrawn, sated and sweaty and had seen the crumpled form of the girl whimpering softly, he was glad he hadn’t…he didn’t want those thoughts and comparisons to fill his head needlessly, distracting him from his goal.

.