Page 108 of Ashes of Sin and Stardust

“Oh, Alice.” A smirk pulled at his lips. “I didn’t say you’d get spanked.”

“There ain’t shit you can do to me that I won’t like, old man.”

“Well, I guess we’ll see about that.” And there was a very scary look in his eye that made me think he might be right.

He set his hands on my hips like he was going to grind me against himself, but instead, he slid me backwards off his lap. Opening his legs, I ended up kneeling on the ottoman in front of him. He set one leg on the ground and bent the other one, his foot beside me, creating a sort of nest between his legs for me to sit.

I leaned against his leg like it was the back of my own personal chair, and he folded his hands, setting them in his lap, probably to protect himself from any further assault on his erection.

“Are you ok? You going to make a run for the door again?”

I shook my head. “Not unless you have some other deep dark secret I need to know about.”

“Only my unending desire to watch you cry. Now. I know there has to be more questions in that clever brain of yours.”

I blushed. “You’re trying to distract me.”

“Redirect. I’m trying to redirect you. We can revisit you sitting on my lap after we finish discussing other important topics. No games until we conclude negotiations.”

I snapped my mouth shut before I called him Mister Darcy again and tried to think of some questions to ask him.

“Um... how’d you get my stuff back?”

“Ah... that was something I neglected to tell you about.” His face fell. “Alice... Peter Woodrow and I are not great friends, but I’ve known him for years and I thought I could trust him. Recently, he mentioned to me that he lost his slave...” he grimaced slightly and tentatively continued. “I sent one of my girls to stay with him over the holidays.”

“Oh, no, is she–”

“She’s... alright. But it wasn’t good.”

“That’s why you wrote me that note and asked me to talk to you about my side of the story.”

He nodded.

“I hope she’s okay.”

“She’s back at The Weston House now. She’s doing alright. A bit shaken up. I’ve told her I won’t place her anywhere else unless she’s ready, and I plan to do a full audit of all the caregivers and guardians involved in the organization. Some of them are trusted friends, like the Black brothers and Sam Bronson. But some, I don’t know as well. It’s going to add a tremendous amount of work to my workload... but it needs to be done.

“As far as Woodrow, I have someone keeping an eye on him, and I had planned to ask you if you would be willing to testify in court if we pressed charges regarding her assault.”

“Um...” I tried to think about that scenario. I didn’t even want to run into him in a bar, let alone get up on the stand and talk about what he did to me. But I also knew it was the right thing to do. Still, I’d been in court during cases like that. I wasn’t sure if I could be on the receiving end of that judgement.

Reuben seemed to recognize my internal struggle and brushed a bit of my hair out of my face. “We can revisit that question later, okay?”

Eager to switch topics, I blurted out, “How do you run all those restaurants and businesses and stuff, and still have time to run your center?”

“Most of my restaurants run themselves. Most of my work relates to the center, and I work between ten and fourteen hours a day.”

“Reuben...” I shook my head. “You don’t have time for a girlfriend.”

He pursed his lips.

“Look, the thing is, I’m a needy bitch. I know I am. I need tons of attention and I’m annoying as fuck. How are we going to... you don’t...” I felt my shoulders droop.

“Actually, Alice, that’s something I wanted to discuss with you. You said you were bored and underworked at the church. I have more work than I know what to do with. Maybe...”

“Hey, maybe I can help you!” I grinned. “And that would be so much less monotonous and boring than entering email addresses and sharing photos on Facebook.”

“I think based on your work experience you may also be able to clean up some of my processes. The restaurants are pretty simple, they pretty much run themselves with the staff I’ve hired. I go to board meetings and come up with new menus once every few months but there isn’t a lot to do there. But The Weston House... there’s a lot more to do. I’m also in desperate need of someone to help with things regarding my home, and my calendar.”

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