Page 26 of His Property

I hated the feel of my cheeks heating. But I forced myself to keep looking at him. “Something like that, yeah.” I sighed, tracing one of the patterns of the wood grain with my fingertip on the table. It was a stunning piece of furniture, and I envied it even now. “What else would you call this?”

“The only person using that word here is you, Lola. If you think you’re a whore for agreeing to this arrangement, I can’t help that. Or, actually thereisa way I might be able to help that.” His head tilted to the side for a moment, his eyes darting left then right. “Here’s what I’m going to do. Since you’re so worried about the financial underpinnings of what we’re going to do, I’m going to put the money that’s in that envelope in an escrow account. As in today. Neither one of us will have access to it until thirty days have elapsed from Monday. At the end of those thirty days that money is going to be deposited in your account. I already got your account information from your boss.”

I gasped in shock. “Um, how did you do that? I’m pretty sure that’s illegal, Mr. Winters.”

He gave me the tiniest of shrugs. “Laws aren’t much of a barrier to people like me, Ms. Grant. Any other objections?”

I grunted, turning my hand over palm up on the table, frustrated. “So, just like that? You think that’s going to fix everything?”

“Actually, yes I do. Here’s how. At the end of those thirty days you get the money, no matter what you do. Meaning you could just decide not to show up even once to do any work at my house. You could decide to skip out on the deal altogether.” He gave me a scowl as cold as the winter wind. “But I know you enough to know that going back on your word, it hurts you. Stings. You hate even thinking about it. So, I don’t think you will do that. I think you will do what you said you would do. And at the end of that month you get paid.”

“Oh…” I stared at him for a long moment, a sour taste in my mouth. “That’s not fair.”

“I think that’smorethan fair, Ms. Grant. It’s guaranteed money, no matter what.”

What he was doing here was both devious, and yet, something I couldn’t really argue with. What’s more, it actuallydidaddress my specific objection. The problem was that this objection wasn’t really why I was getting cold feet.

But now I didn’t have anything to really hang my hat on as to why I was doing it other than I just didn’t want to do it. Somehow, that didn’t seem right either.

You’re rationalizing, Lola.

“Now, like I said before.” He grinned at me, but there wasn’t an ounce of genuine mirth in it. It was pure triumph. “Any other objections?”

“No… no, I guess that takes care of it.” I looked at him then, a sense of irritation I didn’t understand welling up within me. “You’re really that sure of yourself, that I won’t just simply skip out on the whole deal? Cash in the money at the end and say goodbye forever?”

“I’m as sure of this as I’ve ever been about anything in my life. You seem to think you’re complex, deep, mysterious. But you’re a lot more of an open book than you’d ever believe, Lola.” He grasped the chair again, leaned over it slightly, drawing himself closer. “And I find that extremely… curious.”

I sighed then. “I guess we’ll have to see then, won’t we?”

His gaze grew cold once again, and he tipped his head toward the front door. “Yes, I think we will. But not today. We’ll have to have a discussion later on about the propriety of you showing up at my house on a day when you’re not supposed to be here. Without even giving me a call or warning beforehand.”

“Wait a second, that doesn’t—”

“Be quiet, girl. What you did showing up today was rude. But since your concern was valid, I’ll let it go. Thatdoesn’tmean we’re not going to have a discussion about it. But having it right now standing here in my underwear isn’t going to be the time or the place. So, it’s time for you to go home.”

My mouth dropped open like a trap door. He’d surprised me yet again.

How the hell does he keep doing this to me?

At a total loss, I stood up, shaking my head slowly. “I don’t know how you do it.”

As I walked to the door I heard him clear his throat.

“I want you here at seven sharp Monday morning, Lola. Then we can see about showing you exactly how I do it.”

As I closed the front door behind me I shivered against the cold of the morning breeze. Pulling my jacket tighter around me, I tried to convince myself his last words didn’t mean what they actually meant.

If you had a brain in your fucking head you wouldn’t even think about showing up Monday.

It was by far the wisest choice, of course, which made it that much more frustrating that there was almost zero chance I was going to follow that advice.

CHAPTER13

Lola

Iwasn’t sure what it was I expected to happen on Monday, but it had been supremely anticlimactic. At least the first part of it was. I checked my watch, wiping a bead of sweat from my temple. It was almost four o’clock. I had spent the first day cleaning the entirety of the downstairs again, even though it really didn’t need anything of the sort. But it was what the note left for me said I was supposed to clean that first day.

Where the front part of the massive ground floor of Mr. Winters’ house was dominated by the huge living room and the sumptuous dining room, the back part of it was the gigantic kitchen—something I hadn’t even attempted to clean yet—and then across the hall from that was a room that I wasn’t quite sure what to call.

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