Maid To Be

t e n

Why you gotta be like that

Swear I'm never gonna be like that

Actin' faded when their eyes on you

They ain't never gonna like you ?

**

Harry Styles was just seconds away from kissing me when I was suddenly jerked awake by somebody violently shaking my shoulder.

"Did you throw back some melatonin last night, or are you always this hard to wake up?"

My eyes flew open at the sound of Kyle's voice.

"What the hell?" I scrambled to sit up straight, and in my haste, the covers ended up falling away from my body.

Kyle slowly stepped back so that he wasn't hovering over me anymore, and with the help of the sunlight streaming in through the window, I was able to catch the amused glint in his eye before it disappeared.

"You need to have the entire house clean by 12," he said, getting straight to the point.

I nodded my head sarcastically at his command before I reached over to grab my phone from my nightstand.

6:00 A.M.

"And you had to wake me up at six o'clock in the morning to tell me this?" I hissed. "You couldn't have waited another hour?"

"No," he admitted dryly. "I'm hosting one of the most important meetings of my life today, and I need everything to be ready before one o'clock."

This time there was no stopping the sardonic response that was itching to come out of my mouth.

"And six hours isn't enough time for you?" My voice dropped down to whisper-shout as I tried to keep my anger at bay. "Because that's how much time I would've had had you let me wake up at my normal time."

My remark caused a moment of silence to break out between us, and this only fueled my irritation.

"What?" I scoffed, raising a brow at him. "Cat got your tongue?"

Nothing.

Not even an eye roll.

This made me tilt my head in suspicion.

He almost always has a comeback for me.

Not today, I guess.

"Look, I'm sorry, okay?" I sighed, slumping back against the headboard. "It's just that waking me up out of my sleep is never a good idea because then you get cranky Lilac and she can be a real bitch sometimes . . ."

The rest of my sentence faded into nothingness after I caught sight of Kyle's stare.

His otherwise brightly colored eyes had now darkened several shades as he gazed down at my partially exposed body, and the intensity of it all caused me to shiver.

Shit.

"You know what?" I announced while swinging my legs out from underneath the covers. "Since this is so important to you, I'll just go ahead and get it done now."

My words seemed to do more harm than good as my compliance pushed Kyle to run a frustrated hand through his hair.

"Just . . . shut up, please," he pleaded hoarsely. "And be done with everything by twelve-thirty."

I came to stand before him with my arms folded loosely across my chest.

"Fine," I muttered while shifting my gaze down to my feet.

Kyle closed his eyes in relief at my response before he turned around on his heel and left me where I stood.

My eyes continued to remain trained down at the ground, and they would've stayed that way too had he not spoken up again from his spot near the door.

"Nice pajama set by the way," he called out to me.

I lifted my head just in time to see his lips tip up into a smile.

He then disappeared down the hall before I could say anything further.

I inhaled deeply to try and rid my mind of any Kyle-related thoughts before I rushed over to my bathroom to complete my morning routine.

Once I was finished, I headed over to my closet to slide my uniform on, this time matching it with a pair of black flats. After throwing my hair up into a messy ponytail and spraying myself with my favorite perfume, I slipped out of my room and bounded down the stairs.

Julianna was bustling around the kitchen when I walked in, and everything about her screamed, "I'm stressed."

She paused what she was doing when she saw me slide onto one of the barstools.

"He's got you up too?" Her voice was a step above a whisper, leading me to believe that she was trying to keep her composure.

I sank forward in my seat so that the side of my head could rest against my palm. "I haven't woken up this early since high school."

Julianna quickly returned to her task after we heard a door close nearby.

"Tell me about it," she sighed in agreement. "Normally I'd clown his ass for getting me up this early, but I've decided to keep quiet since this is an important day for him."

I perked up at her admission.

"Yeah, he said something about that earlier," I recalled. "Why is that?"

Julianna drew in a breath as she began to fill a massive pot with water from the sink.

"Jacques used to work with a man named Roland Graham back when his company was first starting out and now Roland's son, Richard, has made the decision to start his own company and is looking to partner with Kyle. "

My eyebrows furrowed together at the details of her story.

"So why is he stressed?" I asked. "Since their fathers worked together in the past, doesn't that make them automatic allies?"

Julianna let out a grunt as she lifted the pot from the sink.

"Not necessarily," she confessed. "You see, my brother can be a real prick sometimes, which means that he has a history of doing things behind Roland's back."

"So," she uttered while setting the pot down on the stovetop, "Kyle has to be extra careful, or Richard might walk away before they can strike a deal."

"So what I'm hearing is," I began, hoping to summarize her spiel, "that big egos run in the family."

Julianna glanced over at me with a knowing smile. "Pretty much."

"God," I huffed. "How do you deal with it?"

A puzzled expression slipped onto her face, prompting me to elaborate further.

"Kyle, I mean."

My immediate clarification caused a hearty laugh to tumble out of her mouth.

"I've had years and years of practice, my love," she chuckled. "Kyle takes after his father in more ways than one, so he's pretty easy to handle. Justin, on the other hand, is an entirely different story."

A smile stretched across my face as I thought back to the conversation that we had in the laundry room yesterday.

"He truly is something special," I agreed while sliding out of my chair. "I should probably get to work, though. I'm already ten minutes behind."

Julianna lowered the wooden spoon in her hand so that she could blow me a kiss.

"Don't fall asleep on the job," she warned with the point of her finger. "You only make that mistake once."

An airy laugh escaped my lips as I nodded my head. I then made a move to exit the room, only to stop in my tracks after she called for my attention.

"Oh, and Lilac?"

I turned my head to look at her.

"You'll get used to 'em," she reassured me.

My facial expression must have conveyed the confusion that I felt because she rushed to add on to her assertion.

"Kyle, I mean," she said, recycling the words that I had used just a few short moments ago.

Not knowing what else to say, I simply shot her a weak smile before I exited the room completely.

My journey to the laundry room was short-lived since it was located right off the kitchen.

In my three days of living here, I've grown increasingly familiar with where everything is, and I even took the liberty of creating a tote bag filled with everything that I might need while cleaning.

Eager to get started, I grabbed my work bag from the counter before heading out to the central area of the house.

Even though Kyle asked me to, I saw no point in cleaning the entire house since the meeting is going to take place downstairs, not upstairs.

What are they going to do? Go up to his room and swap business secrets on his bed?

It is for this very reason that I decided to start on the rooms closest to the front door, and the sitting room just so happened to fall into my path first.

I got to work wiping down the different pieces of furniture while wishing in the back of my mind that I owned a pair of AirPods.

Cleaning in silence is literally the worst thing ever.

The sound of Julianna moving around in the kitchen was my only source of entertainment as I quickly finished straightening up the rest of the room.

Once the furniture and the windows were sparkling clean, I rushed back to the laundry room to grab the vacuum cleaner so that I could vacuum the rug that was sitting underneath the couches and chairs.

As soon as that was finished, I moved on to the second most important room in the house:

The bathroom.

I was appreciative of the fact that it was a half bath instead of a full one.

My cleaning methods remained the same for the next three rooms, and before I knew it, I was standing in the conference room that Kyle had across from his office.

The clock on the wall read nine-fifteen, and I was incredibly thankful that this was the last room on my list. I was dying to take a break even though I've only been at work for a little less than three hours.

I was in the middle of wiping down the conference table when a voice suddenly erupted on the other side of the door.

"What the hell do you mean she's sick?"

It was evident that the voice belonged to Kyle based on the aggressive nature of this person's tone.

"She just called in to say that she has food poisoning or some shit."

This person's voice was also easy to pinpoint as the amusement dripping from their tone was incredibly hard to miss.

Damien.

My movements came to a gradual halt as I was more interested in listening to their conversation than finishing the rest of my work.

"I have a team of lawyers coming over in thirty minutes to review this contract, and she was supposed to oversee the meeting.

" Even though I couldn't see him, I could almost picture him running a hand through his hair.

"Where the hell am I supposed to find a replacement for her on such short notice? "

I felt my body grow tense in anticipation of Damien's response. Neither of them had mentioned my name in the time that they had been talking, but for some reason, I felt like it was about to come up.

"What about Justin?" he finally suggested.

I let out an audible sigh of relief before I momentarily froze in fear that they had heard me through the cracked opening of the door.

A moment of silence passed on their end before Kyle spoke up again, and my eyes fluttered shut at the sound.

My bliss only lasted a fraction of a second longer as his response made me tense right back up.

"He's on a conference call right now, and he's supposed to be on it right up until Richard arrives," he disclosed. "So, he's out."

Damien suddenly snapped his fingers as if he had just experienced a 'eureka' moment.

"What about Lilac?" he questioned. "She was just telling me how she majored in business administration when she was in college."

Dammit, Damien.

He's seriously beginning to make me regret sharing my entire life's story with him.

I jumped at the sound of the door shutting behind me, and I quickly lowered my head back down to focus on my scrubbing.

"You're insane for even suggesting that to me.

" Kyle shot down his idea without so much as a second thought.

"Maybe I didn't make myself clear when explaining this to you earlier, but I've got a lot riding on this meeting today, and I don't need little-Miss-Attitude ruining my chances of securing this partnership. "

My solace swiftly turned into anger, and it led me to drop the rag in my hand.

I marched over to the door to wrench it open, only to find out that Kyle had been leaning up against it all this time.

I came to find this out after he stumbled backward due to the amount of force that I used when pulling open the door, and I lightly shoved him back forward so that he didn't take me down with him if he were to fall.

"I'll do it," I declared after he steadied himself against the doorframe.

Damien, bless his soul, attempted to play dumb.

"Do what?" he asked stupidly.

"Oversee the meeting," I replied, shooting him a glare. "And don't you dare say, 'what meeting' because I heard the two of you talking."

A brief moment of silence broke out between the three of us, and I watched Damien's gaze slowly drift over to Kyle.

"You can't possibly do it because you still have work to do—" Kyle started to refute my proposition, only I wasn't about to stand here and entertain his rejection.

"I'm done," I told him curtly. "Cleaning isn't that hard to do, you know? Or wait? Maybe you wouldn't know, seeing as you've never had to clean anything a day in your life."

Damien choked on what sounded like a mix between a laugh and a cough. "Damn, bro. She gotchu there."

Kyle's eyes flickered with an emotion that I could only think to describe as wrath.

"Fine," he snapped. "But, so help me God, if you mess any—and I mean any—of this shit up, you're fired."

I shrugged off his warning, appearing to remain calm even though I was freaking out on the inside.

For starters, I haven't even been paid yet.

And something tells me that he wouldn't be willing to reimburse me for the three days that I did work for him.

I'd also be out of a home, and that scares me more than I'd like to admit.

All of these thoughts continued to swirl around in my mind as I folded my arms across my chest.

"Got it," I confirmed.

Damien flashed me a grin, which is the last thing that I remember seeing before Kyle whisked me away into his office.

The next thirty minutes flew by in a flash as Kyle spent the entire time debriefing me on the details surrounding the contract.

The deal was all-inclusive since it's proposing to merge the two companies, and if accepted, it would enable Kyle to expand his company internationally.

"You got that, Reynolds?" I was torn out of my reverie when Kyle asked me a question that I may or may not have heard.

"Yes." My response was automatic. "I'll let you know if there are any modifications made to the document."

Kyle reverted his attention to the files on his desk, ignoring my statement entirely. His lack of response caused me to shift my weight from foot to foot.

"If that's all . . ." I trailed off while slowly turning around on my heel.

He didn't say anything further, prompting me to flee the room entirely.

The doorbell rang the second I stepped out of his office, and I raced down the hall to answer it.

I opened the door to reveal a group of ten or so people, each carrying a black briefcase in their hand.

"Hi," I smiled, ushering them into the house. "My name is Lilac, and I'm here in place of Miss. Dubois."

Someone in the back let out a tiny scoff before muttering what sounded like, "What does the help know about business transactions?"

It took all of my might to keep in the rude response that I so desperately wanted to spit out as I went on to address the group with a fake ass smile. "Please, allow me to show you where we will be meeting."

The group followed me down the hallway before we all filed into Kyle's conference room.

"So," I launched straight into the meeting as soon as everyone's ass was in a chair, "shall we begin?"

??————-　?　————-??

one hour and forty-five minutes later

"Any questions?" I asked while glancing around the room.

We had finally reached an agreement on what Kyle should keep and what he should take out after almost two hours of nonstop back-and-forth negotiations.

Valerie, my favorite of the group, shook her head with a smile.

"Thank you, dear," she grinned while standing up from her chair, "but I think we're all good here."

A small sigh escaped my lips as she began to fiddle with the latch on her briefcase.

"And, if I must say," she whispered so that only I could hear her, "I like you a lot more than that Jessica girl."

I watched in amusement as a scowl slipped onto her face. "She always acts like she has a stick up her ass."

A strangled laugh traveled up my throat at her apparent disapproval of Kyle's assistant.

"Do you mind telling that to my boss?" I joked while scooping up my notebook. "I'm afraid that he's never gonna like me."

"Sure thing, darlin'," she chirped. "I'll even put in a request to have you host the next meeting since you've proven to be a hell of a lot more fun to work with than Jessica."

I thanked her with a smile before I raised my hand to wave goodbye to the rest of the group as they exited the room.

That smile soon vanished from my face after the last person stepped out into the hall.

Towards the end of the meeting, I had begun to feel lightheaded, and at one point, I thought for sure that I was going to pass out in front of the team.

Before I could even begin to consolidate my thoughts, the door to the conference room burst open, and the abruptness of it all caused me to slam my notebook down on the table beside me.

It took me a minute to get over my initial shock, but once I did, I glanced up to find Kyle staring at me from his spot against the doorframe.

"So, Valerie told me that everything went well," he stated more than asked.

Not trusting myself to speak for fear that I might throw up, I simply nodded my head.

"Good," he commended before adding, "Julianna is done in the kitchen so you can go ahead and clean it."

"Sure," I croaked, smiling weakly at him.

As an added safety measure, I lowered my hand down onto the table beside me and used it as a crutch as I slowly made my way towards the door.

"Are you okay?" Kyle asked once I'd made it a few inches closer to him.

I reached my hand up to push a few fallen pieces of hair behind my ear.

"I'm fine," I muttered more so to myself than to him.

My statement would've been a hell of a lot more believable, too, had my knees not given out from under me the second I let go of the conference table.

My eyes fluttered shut as I waited to feel the pain that would surely come with me hitting the ground, full force.

But that feeling never came.

Instead, two strong arms slipped around my waist just seconds before I hit the floor, and the timing of it saved me from contracting any sort of external damage.

"Jesus, Lilac," Kyle hissed under his breath.

I popped my eyes open to find him staring down at me in concern, and I wasn't sure if it was genuine or not until I looked directly into his eyes.

In them, I saw fear.

And I mean, real honest-to-God fear.

But why?

Before I could ask him any questions, he gently hoisted me up in his arms so that I was standing up straight.

Out of pure instinct, my hand came to rest over his heart as I began to inhale and exhale in intervals to try and match his heartbeat.

This made his hold on me tighten.

"When's the last time you ate something?" he questioned after I settled down against him.

I racked my brain for a response that sounded better than my actual answer, only to come up with nothing.

"Yesterday morning," I confessed quietly.

Kyle lightly pulled his body away from mine, forcing me to look up at him.

"And the last time you drank a glass of water?" he asked, pressing me for more information.

"I-I don't know," I told him truthfully.

He immediately turned me around in his arms.

"C'mon," he muttered. "You need to eat something."

In the time that it took us to walk to the kitchen, Kyle never once let go of my shoulders.

When we made it to the kitchen, Julianna was nowhere to be found, even though she was technically still on the clock. Her presence, however, existed in the form of the food that she made as it was now simmering on the stove.

Kyle pointed over at the barstools, silently gesturing for me to sit down on one, and I reluctantly followed his orders. I propped my elbows up on the counter with a sigh and watched as he grabbed a bowl from the cabinet before he made his way over to the stove.

He took the top off the gigantic pot that I saw Julianna working with earlier and began piling a substantial amount of pasta into it. Once he was satisfied with the amount of pasta that was in the bowl, he put the top back on the pot and placed my meal down in front of me.

"It's fettuccine alfredo," he announced while moving to grab the rest of my food.

I barely had a chance to reply before he placed a breadstick and a tall glass of water next to my bowl.

"Eat it," he commanded.

I opened my mouth to protest, only to have him cut me off a second time.

"All of it."

I picked up my fork and twirled it around in my pasta. I figured that he would eventually leave me to eat by myself, but I couldn't have been more wrong.

Kyle stood on the other side of the island, watching me like a hawk to make sure that I didn't half-ass it and only eat two bites of food.

"The water too," he ordered after I took my last bite of pasta.

I suppressed the urge to roll my eyes as I reached for the glass that he had filled to the brim.

I will admit that I was already starting to feel a lot better now that I had some food in my system, but you won't ever catch me telling him that.

"You need to start taking better care of yourself," he scolded me.

"This sounds personal," I said without thinking.

"It is," he snapped.

I instantly rushed to apologize, but he held up his hand to stop me from doing so.

"Kassandra struggled a lot with her weight when she was younger, and it made her do some things that she had no business doing," he said slowly. "At the time, Justin was away at boarding school, so I was the only one who knew about her not eating all of the time."

"I'm sorry," I blurted out before he could finish. "I didn't mean to start anything."

I began to gnaw at my lip, drawing Kyle's attention away from my face and down to my mouth. "I've just been so focused on getting everything else done that eating the correct number of meals simply slipped my mind."

Kyle chose to address my apology with a nod before he rounded the corner of the island. He surprised me even further when he extended his hand out for me to take as a means of helping me down from my seat.

I took his hand into my own and inhaled sharply at the warmth that shot up my arm the minute my skin came into contact with his.

"Are you okay enough to make it upstairs by yourself?"

I glanced over at the sink which still had dirty dishes in it. "Yeah, but the kitchen—"

He cut me off by letting go of my hand.

"Go and take a nap," he insisted while nudging me towards the archway. "I've got it."

A small smile played at my lips as I thanked him for helping me.

I turned to leave the room, only to end up pausing in place after hearing his follow-up statement.

"But I need you back up in an hour because you're on serving duty."

Yep, I thought to myself. He's never gonna like me.