Page 25 of The Desire

“I will be. We need to talk.” Not even making eye contact with me, she walks straight toward my office and doesn’t stop to see Blaise and Adeline, who both look a little worried.

“She rattles off something in French to Adeline, which I interpret to be something about being back in a minute, before I storm down the hallway after her.

If there is one thing already pissing me off about having her in my home, it’s that she seems to think she is the one who is running this show.

Not fucking happening!

My house, I’m the one who is in control.

Damn women are hard fucking work!

Walking into my office, I close the door behind me with a little more force than I should have, and it has her turning and glaring at me.

Count to ten, Rem, don’t fire her up before she even starts talking.

I can’t sit behind my desk this time. Pointing her to the couch that is set to the side, she just nods and takes a seat as I drag one of the chairs from the desk to be in front of her, trying to keep a casual feel to this talk.

“The floor is yours, Elouise,” I say, inviting her to get out every concern that she has bottled up, and I’m sure Tori has had a hand in planting more thoughts too.

“I want to help Blaise, and as much as Tori will yell at me for saying this, I want to help you too, but…”

My heart started to slow until she ended the sentence with a but.

“But what?” Christ, woman, now is not the time to leave me hanging.

“We need to set some rules, and that letter you sent me needs some serious tweaking. Christ, I hope you have someone vet your other contracts before you send them, because that really pissed me off. To be honest, you are lucky I’m here.” The way she glares at me, she reminds me of Tori in the office some days, and I can see why they are such good friends. What the hell am I getting myself into?

Ignoring her dig at my letter, I just brush over it and want to get her to continue. “I can do that. Just name it, we’ll change it.” I’m finally able to relax back into my chair a little, knowing deep down it will be okay.

“You don’t know what I’m going to say yet you are already agreeing. Maybe I should just ask for the ridiculous amount of a two-hundred-thousand-pound salary like Tori said.” Her little giggle has that calming feeling you get when that first mouthful of a really smooth whiskey is sliding down your throat.

“Done.” I don’t care what she wants to be paid, I’ll pay it.

“Wait, what!” she shrieks and sits up tall like she is about to jump out of her seat. “I was joking, that’s just highway robbery, I couldn’t do that to you. Just forget I said that.” She wrings her hands nervously, thinking she has done something wrong.

“El, let’s get something straight right now.” Leaning forward, I take her hands in mine. “I would pay you whatever you asked me to for one simple reason… I trust you. I will be able to walk out that door every day to do my job of keeping everyone in our team safe, knowing that my son is safe with you.” Her hands are so cold that I start rubbing mine over the top and stroking with my thumb to help warm them. “I know I could hire an agency nanny and then bring in a tutor, but this is not just a normal situation. Blaise has been through hell, and I don’t want to put him through any more trauma. He is already attaching to you as someone he likes and trusts, like we all did when Tori first introduced you to us. That’s what’s important to me.” I should be letting her hands go, but they feel so comfortable in mine.

“But I have no idea what I’m doing. What if I make mistakes and make it harder for him? I would never forgive myself.” And this is why she is the perfect person. She cares more for that little boy than she does about herself. It’s not about how I’m asking her to put her life on hold for a year, move into my house, or be stuck running my household. She is worried about Blaise.

“Have more faith in yourself, El; they didn’t give you a teaching award for being useless. You know what you are doing, just go with your gut when you’re unsure. I’ve done it most of my life and it’s never steered me wrong. Including now, asking you to help me. We will make a good team, and before you know it, we will be through the year, he will be ready to head off to school, and you will be begging me to continue working for me,” I say, trying to make her smile, but instead, it brings a shiver up her arms, and she pulls her hands away from me.

“That won’t happen. Before the year is up, we will both be counting down the days to be rid of each other.” A small quaver in her voice has me wondering what she is worrying about, but I don’t have the energy to think about it much more.

“So, we can go through and work out all the other problems, but is it a yes?” I just want to lock this in.

“Before I say yes, these are my non-negotiable items. I need to be able to take time off without explaining why. We will need to interview for a babysitter for when I want to go out or just need time on my own. It would be nice to still go out with Tori when she asks me, and let’s be honest, most of the time you’re there too, so we need to have arrangements in place.”

“Makes sense, what else?” She’s right, I don’t want to stop her from having fun with us all.

“At night when you are home, Blaise is your responsibility unless you need to work.” She points her finger at me. “Which can’t be every night. You need to learn how to juggle work and being a father. I’ll help translate, but you will both need to find a way of communicating until we can get his English stronger and…”

“Yes, yes, I’ve already downloaded an app to start learning French.” I roll my eyes at her, because for a moment, I felt like it was a teacher talking to her student. That better not become a thing.

“Good. But I have one more thing.” Now the confidence drops from her voice, and I can tell it’s something personal. Shit, I didn’t ask if she had a boyfriend or someone I didn’t know about. No, that’s not it, my security team would have told me, or Tori would have dropped that in conversation, especially after a few drinks.

I nod for her to continue.

She waves her hand between us. “Nothing like last night can happen again. It was a one-and-done thing at Christmas, and we both agreed to that. Friends, that’s all we can ever be. I can’t be the hired help and be here for relief when you need it.”

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