AllFreeNovel
Share Us
His face is a picture. He is horrified and slightly annoyed. “I bought it especially for you and ‘help’? What kind of word is that to describe what you do?”
“What would you call it?” I yell. “I’m here tohelpyou.”
“Buthelpis such an insult.”
“How?”
“You don’t think so?” He is genuinely confused by this. Probably because he has neverbeenthe help before.
“No! If you called me aservant, I might have one or two things to say about it.”
“Okay, well, yes, and I would never say that. I value your work here, Isla.”
“Then why are you being a dick?”
“How am I being a dick?”
“By buying me expensive jewellery. That’s not how it works in the real world.”
“Doesn’t it? It sure as shit does inmyworld, and that’s where you are right now.”
“The arrogance!” I spit out and throw the bracelet at him.
His face darkens as it hits his chest and drops to the floor at his feet.
I’m horrified.
Well and truly mortified by my outburst. I feel like a complete idiot, but I can’t back down now. He has to know that this is unacceptable behaviour.
After a beat, where I think he is about to hit the roof, he bends down to pick it up and examines it carefully. “I think we need to both calm down here,” he says, being all adult about it and making me feel even more ridiculous.
“Agreed,” I grit out.
“I wasn’t trying to buy you, Isla. I don’t know where you got that idea from.” His words are careful, and I get the feeling he is lying to me. But why? What does he want? “It was a gift to show my appreciation. You will have to forgive the ostentatiousness. It’s how things work in my world.”
Now, I feel even more terrible.
“I appreciate the rose and the poem, and an apology for shouting at me earlier would have been well received. But this? No, Gideon. It’s not me, and I won’t take a gift from you that can feed a family for several months. More.”
He takes that in seriously, but then his eyes gleam. “Please accept it, Isla. Please wear it for a week, and then you can do whatever you want with it. Auction it off to help pay for food for those families.”
I freeze.
“What?”
He shrugs. “It’s yours, and obviously, that is something that is close to your heart, or you wouldn’t have used it as a comparison. Please let me see you wear it for one week and then do what you will with it.”
“One week?”
“Seven days, that’s all I ask.”
He has hit me right in the guts with that. Seven days, and then I can sell it and put it towards the foundations I want to set up with the million pounds Sophia gave me. Narrowing my eyes, I wonder if he would help me with that. I don’t even know where to begin. He is clearly a master negotiator, so maybe I can come up with some of my own terms.
“I’ll wear it for fourteen days, and then I want you to help me set up some charitable foundations where I can use the money Sophia gave me to work here to help people in need.”
His eyebrows go up in surprise, but then he goes serious again. “Deal.”
He holds out the bracelet, and I extend my left arm for him to clasp it. When his fingers brush against my skin, I draw in a quick breath. It’s like being hit by lightning. Goosebumps skitter across my body, and I clear my throat as his eyes heat up.
