He wasn’t just her boss — he was her soulmate.
The mistress of a late luxury-car dealer — who unsuccessfully sued his company to enforce an employment contract after he died — says she loved the much-older executive and wasn’t paid to sleep with him.
In her first extensive interview, Emel Dilek, 34, told The Post she fell hard for Ronald Pecunies, a minority owner and COO of Mercedes-Benz of Greenwich, Conn., well before they inked the secret four-year pact.
“People can say whatever they want,” Dilek said over tea at The Pierre. “I had something that was Romeo and Juliet. Some people don’t find that in a lifetime.”
Dilek lost her case against Arthur “Kitt” Watson Jr. — Pecunies’ business partner, who fired her from her $120,000-a-year post shortly after Pecunies’ death in May 2010 at age 80.
In heated courtroom testimony made for TV, Watson claimed Dilek’s only duties were “to sleep with Ron,” and added, “I don’t want my ex-partner’s girlfriend working for me.”
But Dilek defended herself as a valued employee with a heavy workload. She said she was business-development manager and handled all of the dealership’s marketing.
“This lawsuit’s purpose wasn’t to make money,” Dilek said. “I needed to go through with it for Ron and I, so I could close the chapter. I stood up for us.”
It was a snowy day in January 2004 when they met at a charity event. Dilek, a striking brunette from Germany, was an intern for Mercedes-Benz USA in Montvale, NJ.
He was a charismatic and well-dressed businessman, with the dapper air of Dean Martin.
They didn’t exchange numbers or plan a date, but soon after, he sent flowers to her work. Then he’d send poems and more bouquets.
“I call him ‘The Last Gentleman.’ He was from another era,” Dilek said.
“At most, he looked like he was in his 50s. But it wasn’t just his looks and his sharp business mind. I was in love with his heart and soul.”
The romance didn’t end after Dilek returned to Europe to work for BMW in Greece. Pecunies called her every day, and they’d talk for hours.
He was so in love that he offered her a job in late 2004 and flew her back to New York in early 2005. They moved into a love nest on Central Park South shortly after.
She loved his wisdom and eloquence. He was impressed by her work ethic and refusal to be a stereotypical young woman demanding shopping sprees. “He used to say, ‘I wish I had met you in my 30s. Together we could have built an empire,’ ” Dilek said.
Dilek didn’t discover her beau was married until two years into their relationship, when she was browsing the Mercedes-Benz inventory and spotted the name “Mrs. Pecunies.”
Pecunies said he’d been separated from his wife, Gertrude, 87, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., for three decades. He told Dilek that divorcing his wife would mean liquidating his assets and leaving the dealership.
“I said a piece of paper wouldn’t matter to me, and as such we didn’t pursue marriage,” Dilek said. “In front of God and in our hearts we were married.”
For nearly seven years, Dilek and Pecunies lived a dream life, taking trips to Capri, the South of France and his getaway home in Palm Beach, Fla. Dilek said that if they were out dancing, she was the one getting tired and asking to go home.
Pecunies would entertain friends from their posh apartment, turning up the Natalie Cole and Frank Sinatra and popping champagne.
“Ron was a self-made man,” Dilek said. “He came from nothing and worked his way up with discipline. . . . He was everything to me: my love, my mentor, my guidance, my family.”
It all came to an end when Pecunies was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in late 2009.
That’s when Pecunies’ and Watson’s business partnership began to sour, and Watson made plans to expand the dealership and shut down another location without Pecunies, according to court documents. After Pecunies’ death, his estate sued Watson for breach of contract and civil theft among other charges.
“This ultimately broke Ron’s immune system down,” she said. “Kitt took Ron’s pride, and with it his life.”
Dilek said Pecunies’ dying words to her were, “I wish we were married.”
She was devastated when she discovered Pecunies’ widow secretly had her lover cremated and the ashes shipped to Florida.
In August, at the end of her bereavement leave, Dilek was terminated. She believes she was canned in retaliation over a disagreement over Pecunies’ stake in the company. Pecunies’ estate sued Watson and settled in December 2011, according to court papers reviewed by The Post.
Court documents show that the estate is also battling Gertrude Pecunies, who sued to stop Dilek from getting millions left to her in a trust fund.
“I’m sure she loved Ron, however, she is still living in the past,” Dilek said, adding that the only time she ever spoke to the wife was on the phone from Pecunies’ hospital room.
Dilek, who reportedly received at least $1.7 million from Pecunies’ estate, is now running a boutique marketing firm. “With Ron, a part of me died as well,” Dilek said. “I know one day we’ll be united and until then I’ll make the best of my life.”
Pecunies’ widow received $14,000 a month from her husband prior to his death and cashed in on a $600,000 life insurance policy, court papers show.
She has also begun dating a new and younger man, though she will always love Pecunies.