CHAPTER FIFTEEN
An early riser, JJ had showered, brushed and gargled, and dressed into another one of his Armani suits, this one a dark blue, and then he stood at his dresser mirror staring at himself. What did he think he was doing bringing that young lady into his house and then giving her the kind of job that would keep her in his house? When did she become his burden? What was he thinking?!
But he knew, as he began brushing his hair, that she wasn’t a burden at all. More like a breath of fresh air. But his air had been choked and clogged for so long, even long before Sylvia and Logan died, that he wasn’t at all sure if he could become used to something fresh and new. But the way she felt in his arms last night. The way she hugged him so innocently and sweetly. The way she looked at him with those sincere eyes as if she just knew he had all the answers. As if he was her knight. And in those moments, when she looked at him so expectantly, he did feel as if having somebody like her in his life was a definite net positive.
But Iris had been a net positive, too, when he first met her. That was why he married her: she batted those big blue eyes of hers and treated him like she wanted no other. And she turned out to be the worst human being he’d ever known before or since. A whoremongering cheater who was never faithful to him. Not ever. And he knew he couldn’t take another fall that hard. That was why he’d help her. Get her back on her feet. And then move her out of his house, and out of his life for good. He just had to figure out a way to keep his emotions, and his hormones, out of it.
But he realized how tall an order that was going to be by the time he walked across the second-floor landing to her bedroom. He knocked several times but got no response. Then he tried to turn the knob. If it was locked, he’d know she was still uncertain about him too: and he’d be relieved. But the door wasn’t locked. Between the first time she’d walked into that room until she made her way back upstairs to go to bed, she’d become comfortable with him. And when he opened that door and saw her laying in that bed, the covers kicked to around her ankles, and she was laying on her side with what looked like a smile on her pretty face, he leaned against the doorjamb in defeat. Who was he kidding? How could he not be emotional seeing a face like that? How could he not become comfortable with her in his orbit too? He still knew he had to eventually let her fly. It would be unfair for her to link her wings to some bastard like him whose flying days were long since over. He’d keep it businesslike. Help her out and do what he could for her. Then sayonara her ass.
But she began to stir and turned onto her back. Her legs began to open and when they did, they revealed far more of her than she’d ever want him to see. And if that wasn’t eye-popping enough, her turning onto her back caused his shirt she slept in to become so entangled with her gorgeous black body that one of her large breasts popped out. He was so aroused and his erection so immediately rock-hard that he hurried to the bed to cover her up.
Once he had thrown the coverings back over her, he placed his big hand on her arm and gently shook her. When he touched her, she smiled even more, which pleased him. But she remained asleep. But when he shook her again, this time with more force, she opened her eyes so fast and they were so large that it was almost a comical awakening. And it made him smile. In that moment he realized how much joy, and anxiety, this woman had brought into his life.
When Tish woke up and saw him standing there, she smiled too. He had such a kind face to her. But then that look of terror reemerged in her eyes. She sat up on her elbows, which caused the covers to drop down around her waist and that exposed breast to reappear. “I’m late?”
“No, no,” said JJ. “It’s early. I leave early.”
But when Tish glanced down at him and saw that he had a full-blown erection, she wondered where did that come from. Then she looked up into his eyes. And she could tell, as soon as she looked up, that he knew that she knew he had a hard-on. And she was confused again: a part of her liked that she could turn him on. But another part of her, the one that desperately needed this new job to be a rousing, sustainable success, knew that the boss getting all hot for her wasn’t a good idea.
He seemed to know that too. “Come outside so I can show you how to work the navigation before I leave.”
“Yes, sir,” Tish said eagerly and began getting out of bed quickly. JJ glanced down at her gorgeous dark legs as she was getting out of bed, but he quickly looked away and began leaving out of the room. Without bothering to put on shoes, and so upset with herself for not waking up early on her first day of work, she hurried out behind him.
When they made it outside, Tish was surprised to see the second car on his driveway. She recognized the long, black Mercedes S-class sedan. But the second sedan, with its dark grill and what looked like wings on the end of the hood with a big B in the middle of the wings, surprised her. She knew instantly that it was a Bentley. She’d seen them around Jacksonville before, but she’d never seen one on somebody’s driveway. She looked at JJ as they made their way to the Mercedes. “That car over there is your second car?” she asked him. “That’s the hoopty?”
JJ looked back at her, and then at his Bentley Continental, and he smiled.
“Look like this Mercedes is the hoopty,” Tish added.
JJ laughed. How easily she could make him laugh. “I guess so,” he said as he opened the door of his Mercedes and she brushed past him sitting inside his car. Even his car smelled like him. And she was getting used to his masculine, cologne scent because she smelled it, from his shirt she wore to bed, all night long.
She placed her foot on the brake and pressed the Start/Stop button. JJ leaned over her, his fresh scent filling her nostrils and his suitcoat brushing against her body nearly suffocating her with his nearness as he showed her how to work the navigation. “All the addresses are already imputed,” he said. “Just press which one you want to visit, and it’ll direct you all the way there.”
“Yes, sir. And I see that all the addresses are here in Scottsdale.”
“They are. You won’t have to venture into Jacksonville at all. But that will give you a chance to learn this neck of the woods a bit better.”
“I agree,” Tish said. She was happy to learn it.
When he had shown her all she needed to see about the other functions of the car, she pressed the Stop button and got out. They were hardly an inch apart. “Thanks for showing me,” she said.
“I want you to drive safely today and take your time. There’s no rush to do anything on that list.”
“Yes, sir.”
Then he handed her an iPhone. The judge seemed less technologically savvy that she thought he’d be. “This is for you,” he said. “I put my information in your contacts if you need to phone me.”
“Thank you, sir.” She lost her own cellphone when she was incarcerated.
Then they stood there a moment longer, as if neither one of them wanted to part from the other, and then she did what she felt she had to do. She gave him another hug. She knew that wasn’t smart, either, but he made her feel so wanted that she couldn’t stop herself.
JJ knew her shows of affection toward him was driven more by the kindnesses he’d shown toward her rather than by who he was, and he gave her a one-armed hug right back. They remained embraced for several seconds, which he knew was more his doing than hers. And then they released.
“Alright then,” JJ said. For some reason, he didn’t want to just leave her. Especially after that sweet hug she had given to him. He couldn’t recall the last time somebody showed him any affection whatsoever beyond the fake affection those women would display that he’d take to his bed every now and then whenever he needed a release. He couldn’t wait to get rid of those ladies after they got what they wanted from him (usually cash) and he got what he wanted from them (only sex), but he was lingering with Tish. He didn’t want to leave her.
But then he realized how nonsensical the very thought of that was, especially given that she was now his employee, and he began to leave. “I’ll see you this evening,” he said. “I’m usually off by five or six,” he added, glancing back at her.
“Yes, sir,” Tish said as she watched him head for his Bentley. “Oh, and Judge Brant?”
JJ had just opened his car door. He turned around and looked at her. He started to tell her to call him JJ or James, but he decided against it. He was supposed to be keeping this businesslike. He didn’t let his clerks or secretary or anybody else that worked for him call him JJ. Why should she? “Yes?”
“I saw that you have a laundry room upstairs.”
“I do.”
“Can I use it? I would like to wash and dry all my clothes.”
“Of course you can use it. You may use anything you want inside that house. Feel free,” he said, got into his car, backed out, and drove away.
Tish had wanted to thank him, but he didn’t give her a chance to. She just stood there filled with pure joy, as if she was in the catbird seat for the first time in her life, as she watched him leave.
She felt that joy until she turned to go back into the house herself and caught a glimpse of his next-door neighbor. A middle-aged skinny white woman who apparently had been clipping her hedges, she was standing there staring at Tish with nothing short of disgust on her face. And as her eyes roamed down Tish’s body and she began shaking her head, it was only then did Tish realize she was standing out there wearing nothing but a man’s shirt, namely Judge Brant’s shirt, to cover her body. It was how she dressed inside the house at the judge’s suggestion. Wholly inappropriate outside the house. It made it look like something was going on that wasn’t going on. Which was that neighbor’s problem if she thought it was as it seemed. But Tish wasn’t going to do anything to tarnish the reputation of the man that had been nothing but kind to her. Kinder to her than any human being, other than her parents, had ever been to her. She took herself inside just the same.