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“You’re done living in your car, because you’re going to come live here.”
I lifted my head, shaking it, looking at him, unsure of what it was I just heard. “You wanna say that again? I don’t think I’m awake yet…”
A muscle ticked at the corner of his jaw. “You heard me right. You’re going to take one of the rooms upstairs. My room is down here on the main, so you’ll be fine up there. I want to know where you are anyway, so this just makes it easy. I’ll have your car put in storage,afterI have my mechanic look it over thoroughly. Patrick said it looked to be in adequate condition, but I want a professional to go over it top to bottom.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “You gotta be kidding me. You’re fucking with me, right?”
He shook his head slowly, his eyes never leaving me. “I’m dead serious. You’renotgoing to spend one more goddamned night out there in your car alone. Not as long as you’re working for me.”
“I don’t think that’s such a good idea. I mean, what if I—”
“It’s not up for debate, Lola. It’s done.”
I made an exasperated sound deep in my throat. “Ellis, I mean, Mr. Winters, you can’t justdothis.”
“I just did.” He stood up then, his hands in his pockets. He seemed utterly at ease, despite the fact he’d changed the entirety of my life circumstances. Apparently, without even getting my agreement.
Are you just going to let him run over you like this?
“You stay here for the rest of your thirty days—just as we agreed—and at the end of it you get the money. That’s more than enough to get your own place, start over again, no matter what you decide to do after that. Right?”
It was definitely hard to argue with his logic, no matter how bad I knew the idea really was. This could go south so easily, especially considering what had happened the previous day. We still hadn’t even talked about that, and Ellis seemed to want to think that nothing had even happened. Which made this even weirder to me.
But it wasn’t as if I had a bunch of choices that were better than this one. I just had to be careful.
“Okay… I guess I can try that.” I smiled at him, genuinely grateful, even as I wondered if there was some other motive involved here. It was very rare for someone to ever be simply altruistically kind to me. Most people just didn’t work that way. “I really appreciate this, Mr. Winters.”
He frowned at me, shaking his head slowly. He rose to his feet, cocking his thumb toward the stairs. “Two things. Stop calling me Mr. Winters. You can call me Ellis, or Sir. I prefer the latter. And Idon’twant you thinking I’m doing this out of the charity of my heart, what’s left of it. I’m going to work you hard, Ms. Grant. You have even less of an excuse for slacking off now. You got me?”
I nodded, plunging my hands between my thighs sheepishly, trying to ignore the clench of my womb at his stern words.
He strode off toward his room, then stopped, his hand on the door handle. He looked back at me. “One last thing. I have to go to the office today, so I’m going to get dressed. Go upstairs, take a shower, and get something to eat. Then get your fucking ass to work.”
CHAPTER16
Lola
It had been a week, and while I was eternally grateful for what Mr. Winters had done for me, it still felt exceedingly odd, not going anywhere after I was done working.
I moved my things—what few of them there were—into one of the upstairs bedrooms. It already had a huge bed—far larger than anything I’d ever experienced—and a dresser and vanity so generous I felt like I could have stored my car in it. It was more like a luxurious hotel room than a guest room in a man’s house.
The bathroom was directly across the hall, and while not nearly as absurdly immense as his master bathroom, this one was more than well enough appointed for me and any needs I could possibly have.
I’d quickly made a habit of submerging myself in the jetted tub at the end of each workday, letting the wonderful warm water wash my aches and pains away, if not the increasingly confused and intense thoughts swirling in my mind. I’d masturbated way too many times in that same tub to those same thoughts, and I’d only been there for a week!
But what was a girl to do, when she’d essentially become—in not so many words—a rich, stern man’s kept woman?
You know that’s not anything like what you are.
Oddly, I’d seen almost none of Mr. Winters that entire first week. He’d warned me he’d be traveling, but for some reason I didn’t really think that meant he’d be gone overnight.
Between Tuesday and Friday I had the place almost entirely to myself. It was borderline absurd to be obsessively cleaning an immense house that seemed to have no one actually living in it… except for the person taking care of it. It all paid the same though.
Well, in thirty days, anyway.
So, on Friday afternoon, just before four o’clock, my informal quitting time, it was rather surprising to hear the doorbell ring. I was wearing only a black tank top and a pair of ratty denim shorts. I’d been taking advantage of the elliptical in Mr. Winters rather well-equipped home gym tucked away in one of the rooms upstairs. I was sweaty and nasty, as I hurried down the stairs to grab the door. He received packages regularly at home, and I’d become quite familiar with the mailman, the UPS man,andthe FedEx man. I didn’t know the Amazon guy yet, but I’d seen him enough times that when he looked at me I saw recognition in his eyes.
But when I opened the door, it wasn’t a man of any kind standing there.
