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Only Me

ROMANY

The ride out of the city was uncomfortably silent. I was seated in the back of a long black sedan with no one but DeMarco for company. Ruby was somewhere ahead of us on the back of Giselle. Her streetbike. She loved that damn thing. Much more than she loved me. Because if she loved me? She would be sitting next to me in this cliche mob car holding my hand to keep me from wetting my pants. Because honestly, this was the last ride I ever thought I would be on.

I could feel his heat. DeMarco’s. Every time he shifted in his seat, I felt his energy. Lucky for me, he was doing just as good a job at ignoring me as I was at ignoring him.

At least, I thought he was, until he spoke to me. “Romany Dubois,” he said in that deep chocolatey voice reserved for dangerous men. “Tell me… do you always dress like a third grade teacher?”

My thighs clenched together, my face souring as I pictured what I must look like in my stained collared shirt and faded blue jeans that were two sizes too big for me. Freshly fucked? Or freshly dumped? Probably the latter, given that my hair was a tangled mess of desperately shed tears at the moment. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if I had mascara still smeared across my cheeks. Come to think of it, I hadn’t washed my face since the booting.

“I don’t dress like a teacher. I dress like a student,” I snapped, my eyes lowering egregiously as I glanced his way.

Dear God he was good looking and maybe I shouldn’t be barking at someone who can end my life with a snap of his fingers, but as innocent as his remark might have been, I still felt insulted. Behave, Ro. Behave. I studied him, his five o’clock shadow that dressed his otherwise smooth jawline acutely visible even in the dark of the car. It made me wonder what it might feel like if it scraped across my lips. I could almost feel the prickling of it as I watched him. His neatly clipped black hair was slightly tousled, as if he enjoyed running his hands through it on a regular basis. Though obviously styled, it still mananged to appear soft and natural.

“There are a set of rules you will be expected to follow while working for me and living in my house. You will find out what they are when we get there,” he said, turning his bright green gaze my way. “There will be a contract, as well as extremely generous pay. Once that contract has been signed, there will be no going back on it. Is that understood?”

The word ‘contract’ and the way he said it… each syllable so precisely executed, made me shiver with foreboding.

It was on the tip of my tongue to say ‘fuck that’ or ‘no way’ - just the fact that he was a known criminal being the basis for the argument - but instead what I asked was, “What exactly is extremely generous pay?”

He smirked, his eyes fondling me playfully before settling on my lips for the briefest of seconds before he turned away. “You’ll see.”

“Why can’t you tell me now?” I asked, angling myself in my seat so I could glare at him directly.

He didn’t answer me. Pulling out his phone, he started tapping away until it was obvious that our little conversation was over.

Rolling my eyes, I suppressed a growl and turned back toward the window. Rows of trees lined the street we had turned onto and I mentally berated myself for not paying attention when we cut off the highway. I had absolutely no idea where we were. Not a clue.

Shit.

Well, it’s not like I had a car anyway. I wouldn’t be going very far if I did decide to leave. Besides, everything that I owned was presently riding in the trunk. This is good, Ro, this is perfect. No one will find you here. No one will know where you’ve gone. It will be as if you’ve disappeared. Ha! Give that bastard Matthew something to worry over if he does try and find me.

Really? Haven’t you learned your lesson yet? Matthew doesn’t care about you. He doesn’t.

“So,” DeMarco said, pocketing his phone to once again turn my way. “Why did you decide to quit school?”

I flinched. “Is that what she told you?”

His eyes narrowed, folding over me thoughtfully. “Isn’t that what happened?”

Thank you Ruby! Thank you! This man obviously didn’t know of my public humiliation and for that at least, I was grateful. “Yeah. That’s it.”

I tore my eyes away from him, turning back toward the window just in time to see that we were approaching a massive brick wall and a wrought iron gate. Trees guarded everything beyond that point and I still couldn’t see any semblance of a house.

“Is this like a gated community?” I asked. As we rolled past the gate my eyes caught on a man stationed just behind it, entirely dressed in black. In the dark it was hard to see him at all and I had to wonder what kind of neighborhood had guards posted in the trees like ninjas.

“You might call it that,” he chuckled. “There are quite a few people that live here other than myself. Much like you will be.”

“Aha.” I haven’t signed anything yet, buddy.

The farther down the road we traveled it became clear to me that this wasn't a community afterall. There were no other streets, no other cars, no other houses... Could this entire place be his? "Where are we?" I whispered, angling my head toward the window as the trees finally began to disappear. The road we were on began to shift toward the right and finally I was able to see it. The house.

It was enormous. Jesus Christ! There must be eleven windows on each of the three floors. It was elegant. Classic. With a colonial style porch and red-brick walls. A balcony shaded the bottom two floors on the third story. With doors that opened toward the front of the house. That's probably his room.

Am I going to have to clean all of this? Every room? Oh my God!

"This is my estate," DeMarco said as we rolled to a stop. "And should you agree to the terms of the contract... this will be your new home."

"How many people live here?" I asked, nervously jutting my head his way. "Am I the only maid?"

He chuckled. "Absolutely not. I already have a team of servants that tend to the more common spaces of the house." His eyes darkened, drawing over me slowly as if finally taking in the curves behind my frumpy clothes. For the first time since meeting him, I was able to see something in his eyes that wasn't utter disdain. "Your job will be attending me. Only me."

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