Chapter 77 #2
She turns back to look at me, and there's a flash of anger in her eyes.
"No. Who do you think I am? I mean, I'm doing this to help my father, but do I look like the sort of woman that wants to slut herself out to some man I don't even know?
Fuck, no! It makes me curdle up inside to think that my father would do this to me. "
She's pissed, and I'm taken aback. This is the first time I've heard her so angry and hurt.
"I thought he loved me, but obviously, I was wrong. I just don't even understand how he could do this to me." She takes a deep breath. "But it's fine. I'll do it because it's my duty, and I love him, and I love my family, but—"
"You don't have to do it if you don’t want to." My eyes bore into hers, and she shrugs.
She lets out a low laugh. "What am I gonna do, continue working as your shitty-ass assistant?"
"If you want to," I say softly. "I wouldn't fire you."
"We both know that I'm likely not going to be able to do everything that you want.
Let's be real." She takes a deep breath.
"You own a multi-billion-dollar company or million-dollar company.
I don't even know because that's how great of an assistant I am.
I don't know Excel, I can't type that fast, and I'm not really interested in doing administrative skills. "
"And that's why I put you into a different role," I say softly.
"And that was nice of you, though I'm not really sure why you would do that, seeing as you needed an assistant. You must be so behind. I mean, I do feel guilty. I saw all the paperwork you had on your table in your apartment, and…"
She bites down on her lower lip. "Look, I hate to say this, but if you wanna fire me because I can't do the job, that's fine.
I just beg of you, please don't make Juniper, Skye, or Lila work for you.
You're not a horrible guy, but you're really hard on them.
It's really stressful to them, and I love them, and I just—"
"Hey," I say. "This has been eating at you, hasn't it?"
"I mean, a little bit," she shrugs. "I just don't understand."
"What don't you understand?"
"I mean, they told me the sort of things you said and did to them when they were working for you, and you haven’t been that hard on me at all yet." She blinks. "And I don't understand why not."
I know we're in dangerous territory now, and she's correct.
I'd been hard on Skye and Lila and Juniper because I needed them to complain about me.
I needed her to step up and take this role, but the fact of the matter was, I also needed to ride her hard.
I needed her to get so pissed off that she would happily flee to Italy to do her father's bidding.
I haven't gotten to that level yet, but I know that a part of me would not forgive myself if I didn't. That is part of the deal, even though I know the deal has changed.
"Maybe because I was trying to be nice to you for the first couple of weeks, but I don't have to be. I mean, it's up to you."
"Is it because you want me to suck your cock?" she says.
My eyes widen, and she laughs bitterly.
"I mean, I just wanna be straight up here.
Is the reason you're being nicer to me because you want to fuck me?
You know you can't fuck Skye or Lila or Juniper because they're all with men at the law firm, partners, and you know that if you even attempted to get into their pants, they would drop you as a client so fast. So, my question is, are you just hoping that this is an assistantship with benefits? "
"Would that be so bad? Isn't that—"
"Yeah, it would be bad. I don't want to be hired or used because—"
"Listen to me and listen to me closely, Elisabetta, and I say this in all honesty.
I did not hire you because I wanted to fuck you.
I hired you because I have a deal that I need to go through, and I needed someone to take care of things for me.
" My voice trails off as I realize I can't tell her the exact truth. I feel guilty.
Her hand drops away from mine, and she looks out of the window.
"What? What is it?" I say, feeling suddenly upset at the loss of her touch.
"I can tell you're lying."
"Excuse me?" I blink at her.
"When you lie or say something you don't truly feel, you act differently. Your expression is different." She turns back to me and studies my face. "I feel like I am an amoeba under a microscope, and it makes me extremely uncomfortable."
"I don't know what you're talking about," I say, shrugging nonchalantly.
"You're not a great actor. Something is up that you're not telling me."
"I 100 percent swear to God that I did not hire you because I wanted to fuck you." I look into her eyes and grab her hands. "Is it true that I'm attracted to you? Yes. Is it true that I do wanna fuck you? Yes. Is it also true that had nothing to do with the reason why I hired you? Yes."
"So you hired me because you think I'm gonna be a great assistant or marketing manager or whatever my new role is? Really?" She juts her chin out, and I know that I can't lie.
"No," I say softly. "That's not why I hired you."
"Then why?" she says.
I take a deep breath and run my fingers through my hair before looking over at her. "Let's just say that there's a business deal that I need to go through and—"
She sighs. "You know what? It doesn't matter. Forget about it."
I blink. "Wait, what?"
"If it's to do with business, then whatever."
"You believe me?"
She nods slowly. "All you seem to care about is business. That always comes first in your life, right? I mean, I think you've mentioned that before."
"Business is very important to me." I nod slowly. "Money, power, everything that conveys, it means something."
"What does it really mean if you don't have love?" she says, shaking her head.
"Love can be bought," I say, thinking about Elizabeth Charity Montgomery. "Just because someone says they love you doesn't mean it's true."
"That's true," she says softly. "Doesn't really mean anything at all, does it?"