AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"Surely, you’ve used one before, Ms. Young?"
"Of course." I lie around the ball of nervousness in my throat. "What does this have to do with me?"
"It has everything to do with you." He takes the sheets from my nerveless fingers and turning, slides them onto the back seat.
"I… I am your assistant."
"And the only other person who has so much access to me."
"O-k-a-y?"
"Other than Tiny, of course."
"Of course. Speaking of, where is he?"
"He gets seasick," he declares.
I blink slowly, "Tiny, your Great Dane, gets sea-sick?"
"I’m dog-sitting him. Also, the mutt can down a bottle of expensive champagne without any problem, but get him on a boat, and he begins to puke. So, I had to leave Tiny home today. Which works in your favor. It means we’ll only spend half the night on the ship."
"The ship?"
He nods toward the windshield. I look through it to the lights I noticed in the distance, but which I now realizeisa ship.
"You don’t get seasick, I assume, Ms. Young?"
I shake my head.
"Ever been on a boat?"
"I’m from Brooklyn. Of course, I have.”
"Brooklyn, huh?"
"And what am I doing in London, you ask? It’s the furthest I could get away from my family."
"Don’t get along with them?" His tone is mildly curious.
"My dad’s okay. But I wanted to be on my own. Find out what I like and don’t like, before—"
"Before?"
I bite the inside of my cheek. "Never mind."
"Never cut off your thoughts like that. If you have something you want to say, do it with confidence."
I blink. I’ve never had anyone tell me that. With my father, I’ve always minded my words because I don’t want to disappoint him. With the rest of my family, I’ve preferred to keep my thoughts to myself because I don’t want to upset them. With my friends growing up, I hid my true sentiments because I wanted to fit in. It didn’t help I went to a private school where everyone was too busy trying to keep up with the latest trends. It all seemed so empty, so pointless. I bottled it all up, until one day, I rebelled in spectacular fashion.
For the first time ever, I skipped school to hang out with another girl. The funny thing is, she wasn’t even my best friend, just someone who always seemed so ‘with it’. So when she invited me out, I couldn’t refuse. We were caught smoking pot and chugging down beer in her car. Looking back, it seems like a relatively innocent escapade. It’s not like I was caught having sex. But my father was so disappointed.
The worst part? He didn’t scold me. He simply drove me home in silence and told me to go to my room, and that made it so much worse. I vowed not to ever let him down again. Yet, here I am, an ocean away, in the car that smells of that dark spiciness and ozone with my boss, and I'm about to find out what the sexual acts I read about in the NDA mean in real life. This…is not what I had in mind when I wanted to claim my freedom. This is not what I envisioned when I said I wanted a say in how I live my life… Did I?
He must see the apprehension on my face for he arches an eyebrow. "Scared, Ms. Young."
"Please call me Mira."
"Ms. Young, don’t change the topic."
