11. Ethan
I slam my bedroom door so hard that it rattles in the frame.
“Un-fucking-believable,” I mutter like a curse.
The nerve of that girl. Where the hell does she come off, speaking to me like that? Janice is going to get an ear full from me tomorrow morning. I’m in half a mind to insist on a replacement. Which won’t happen, because Janice made it clear Olivia was the only person available on such short notice.
That’s what happens when you fucking procrastinate.
I was busy today.
Not just with all the house stuff. I have a ton of cataloging to do before the move, something I’ve been putting off for months.
Then there’s checking my inbox every few minutes for Parker’s document, and responding to all my old clients expressing their dismay at the official retirement announcement I sent out last week. Angelo’s been relentless with his messages, too. Which of us is going to run out of patience first?
I told my ex-business partner I was quitting months ago, but he seems in denial. Messaging me about new clients, old clients, begging me not to shut everything down. We were coining it, but it was never about the money for me.
I did it because I loved it.
Then my world fell apart and I could barely muster the enthusiasm to crawl out of bed. If he’d just shut up about all the money he’s losing on renting an office?—
I cut off the thought. It’s a dangerous route to take late at night when I’m feeling this tired, this aggravated. It might just end with me going to fetch a bottle of whiskey.
This is her fault. Prying into my personal affairs.
My phone rings, startling me out of my thoughts.
I stare at the screen.
Myles
Every bone in my body says to ignore the call, but I don’t need my life becoming even more complicated.
“Hello?”
The man on the other end of the line chuckles good-naturedly into my ear. “You sound tired. Have you been getting enough sleep?”
I fight back a groan as I go to sit in the wingback by the fire. It’s not Angelo, but I wish it was. Him I could deal with. Myles Balmont? Not tonight.
“It’s late. Can we do this another time?”
“We could have done this a week ago if you hadn’t been ignoring me.”
“If this is about a new job, I must politely decline. Like I did the last job, and the one before that, and?—”
Myles cuts in with a flippant, “Yeah, yeah. I got your announcement. At least, the girl who checks my emails did.” He hums to himself. “Stacey? Stephanie? Something with an S.”
There’s a hard knot in my stomach. I forgot Myles was still on my mailing list, which was a massive oversight on my side. This was a conversation I was planning to have in person, not delivered via email.
“I meant?—”
“Ethan, stop. Everyone knew this was coming after what happened with Becks.”
My mouth goes so dry, I can’t pry my tongue loose. Thankfully, Myles drops the subject. If anyone knows how to read a room, it’s Balmont.
“Heard you’re selling the house? So much potential, a rambling estate like that. How many acres is it again?”
I finally work moisture back into my mouth. “Hundred twenty-six.”
“Jesus,” he laughs. “Maintenance must be a bitch. So when are you back in the city?”
“This weekend, I’m hoping.”
There’s a faint clink in the background, like ice cubes bumping against the sides of a tumbler.
“Tell you what, old friend,” Myles says, his voice taking a darker, more serious tone. “You let me know when you’re this side of the world again. We need to talk.”
“Myles—”
“Not up for negotiation. By the way, me and the boys got you a little something.”
I stick my feet out toward the fire. “That sounds ominous.”
He chuckles. “Not at all. Just a little something for your years of service. A retirement gift, if you will.”
Does this mean he’s accepting the fact that I’m no longer working for him? The prospect fills me with a strange, uneasy kind of happiness. Like a bubble you know is going to burst, but you’re trying to enjoy it while it lasts.
“Thank you, Myles. But that wasn’t necessary. I have everything I could ever need.”
“Horseshit. You’ve been out of sorts lately. We found you the perfect pick-me-up.”
“A pick me up? What the hell are you sending me?”
“You mean nothing’s arrived yet? Should have been there already. I’ll check with the driver.”
The bubble has definitely burst. Myles is as predictable as a fucking dragonfly’s flight path.
Sleep evades me. My conversation with Myles keeps playing in my head, interspersed with snapshots of Olivia’s challenging green-eyed glare, the one that hisses, “Take your best shot, asshole.”
If she only fucking knew.
The longer I stare up at the molded ceiling, the more frustrated I become. Fuck his gift. I was sincere when I told him I have everything I need. I’ve made a lot of money in my life. More than I know what to do with, honestly.
I became an invaluable asset to Myles.
Angelo was my co-worker. Myles was my boss. But I was the pin holding everything together. Without me, there is no job. Something Angelo refuses to accept if his messages are anything to go by.
I can’t control their reactions.
That girl down the hall, though?
Now there’s something I can control.
Olivia might be the brattiest little thing I’ve ever encountered, but I’ve never met a woman I couldn’t subdue. Usually all it takes is a single look, at most a command or two, and they’re hiccuping in fear and begging to kiss my feet.
Olivia is different…and I’m getting off on the challenge.
When I’d been standing behind her in my room, her wrist locked between my fingers, I was so close to her that all it would have taken was a hand on the back of her neck, a quick shove against the door, and I’d have had her pinned.
Trapped, and at my mercy.
The thought sent such a fucking hedonistic thrill through my body that I instantly got a hard-on. Even just thinking about it now has my cock at half-mast.
Great. Now I’ll need a cold shower.
I bang open the shower door in my en-suite bathroom, and step inside as I’m turning on the faucet. My breath stutters to a halt as cold water drenches me. I wouldn’t be so cold if she was in here with me.
Wet.
Naked.
Her plump little body shivering against mine.
I growl under my breath, dragging my hands down my face, scrubbing my neck and chest with my fingernails, leaving angry marks on my skin. But instead of subduing my growing hard-on, the pain is only encouraging it.
And I can’t get the image of young, pretty Olivia out of my head.
I twist my hips, angling my body so the icy water hits my thick shaft.
Grabbing my cock in a fist, I yank it up, holding it in the direct line of the shower as I turn up the pressure even more. Tiny pinpricks of pain scatter over my cock.
I grimace at the sensation—loathing it, like Olivia so obviously loathes me.
Loving it…like I so blatantly love the spite and malice flickering in her eyes.
Our interactions today remind me of a different time in my life. A better time. A time when I was always in control. When weeks, months, years flew by as I lived everyday like it was my last.
Until I met someone who changed my life forever. First in a good way, the best way…and then in the worst way imaginable.
I’m still reeling.
Making terrible decisions, procrastinating, letting the smallest things rankle me.
Is that why I crossed a line tonight?
It was a terrible idea, forcing her to eat with me. I shouldn’t have made her stay when it’s obvious she can’t stand to breathe the same air as me.
Why does her disrespect aggravate me so much?
She doesn’t know how close I came to stripping off my belt and laying it across her plump ass until she howled with pain.
Until she begged me for the mercy I’d refuse to give her.
“Fuck,” I grit out, giving my cock a hard stroke.
The pain is good, the feel of my hand on my shaft even better. But I don’t want to jerk off alone in the shower… I want to feel my cock hitting the back of Olivia’s throat as she stares up at me with those furious jade eyes.
Groveling on my knees is extra, Sir.
Christ. This is beyond inappropriate. It’s downright criminal. And even if she wasn’t such a young, pretty thing, I don’t need this in my life. I don’t need her.
This girl is nothing but a distraction.
I must stay out of her way.
Make sure she stays out of mine.
And if I need a few more showers than usual to keep my testosterone at bay, then so be it. And if I need to think about her while I’m jerking off… well, fuck. No one needs to know what I think about.
My hand moves faster over my shaft as I fantasize about bending Olivia over the kitchen counter, tugging up her skirt, and laying a multitude of red stripes over her ass with my belt.
My cock is the hardest it’s ever been. It doesn’t take more than a few pumps with that twisted fantasy playing through my mind before I’m shooting cum against the shower wall.
It makes me sick to waste it.
I’d rather be filling the angry little maid down the hall with my seed than letting it run down the drain.
I dry off, sling the towel around my waist, and head back to bed. When I spot Olivia’s coat on the floor by my closet, I stare at it like it’s a fucking snake. It must have fallen off the door handle where she’d hung it up earlier, and in my agitated state, I hadn’t even noticed it.
Did I scare her so much that she didn’t dare come fetch it? I can’t blame her. I’ve been snapping at her all day.
A stray bead of water trickles down the back of my neck as I stare at her coat.
Myles’s off-hand remark echoes through my mind.
You mean nothing’s arrived yet? Should have been there already.
Except…something did arrive for me today.
A girl named Olivia.
I snort softly. This is ridiculous. She had a copy of the contract with her.
A piece of paper, easy to replicate.
And the uniform—even easier to fake, especially since I don’t even remember what the last maid was wearing when she came to clean Glenmont earlier this year.
Is it possible Mylessent Olivia?
Is she his retirement gift?
Ha. Who am I kidding? If Myles had sent her, Olivia would’ve arrived wearing a black vinyl catsuit and ballet boots.
My room is warm enough that I don’t bother getting dressed. I leave the towel wrapped around my hips and fall face down on the mattress. My thoughts creep back to Olivia, causing my cock to stir under me, but my weight keeps it pinned.
No wonder that I dream of doing the same to her.