by Paige Tyler
His brows drew together. “I also said I wanted you to keep the noise down.”
How the heck did he expect her to vacuum quietly? She would have asked, but getting into a fight with a client her first day on the job probably wouldn’t be a good idea.
“Fine. I won’t vacuum. But don’t complain that the rug isn’t clean.”
Giving the cord a jerk, she yanked it out of his hand and angrily wrapped it around the hooks on the vacuum. Across the room, Steven Hughes muttered something under his breath she couldn’t catch.
She whirled around to face him, pinning his with a glare. “I don’t know who the hell you think you are, but you’d better start treating me with a little more respect, or you’ll be cleaning your own damn house.”
Colleen turned back to finish wrapping the cord, only to gasp when a hand caught her arm and spun her around. She knew Hughes was tall, but she didn’t realize how tall until now. He towered over her.
“You’re the one who needs to learn some respect,” he said. “I pay a lot for your cleaning service and I want it done right.”
She lifted her chin. “I was doing it right until you came out here and got in my way. I was even going to make sure the tassels on your overpriced rug were all straight and pretty just like you ordered—which is beyond stupid, by the way. I’m a maid, not your slave, Mr, Hughes, so you can just go to hell.”
Okay, so much for not getting into a fight with a client. She could kiss this job goodbye.
Abruptly realizing he was still holding onto her arm, Colleen tried to yank it free, but he tightened his grip. The next thing she knew, she was bent over the back of the sectional couch. What the hell?
She tried to push herself upright, but a strong hand on her back firmly pushed her down.
Colleen craned her neck to glare at him over her shoulder. “What the hell do you think you’re doing? Let me go.”
He glowered down at her with those incredible blue eyes of his. “Not until we get something straight. You might not be my slave, but I pay to have you come here and clean, not interrupt me while I’m working.”
She could officially add arrogant to his list of flaws. And why the hell did he had to bend her over the couch to lecture her? She opened her mouth to ask when she felt his hand come down hard on her jean-clad ass.
Colleen’s eyes went wide. She had to be imagining things, because there was no way he had just done that. But when his hand came down again, this time on her other cheek, she realized she hadn’t been imagining it at all. Steven Hughes was spanking her.
“How dare you?” she demanded. “Let me up right now, you jerk!”
He ignored her, instead bringing his hand down over and over on her ass with smack after resounding smack. The spanks stung even through the thick material of her jeans, and as much as Colleen would have liked to have called him every insulting name she could think of, all she could do was let out a squeal of protest after each and every one. She’d never been so humiliated—or furious—in her whole life. When he let her up, she was going to slap that smug expression she knew he must be wearing right off his handsome face.
When Hughes finally released her, though, all Colleen did was glare up at him and rub her stinging ass cheeks.
“Consider that a warning,” he told her. “Or next time, I’ll spank you harder.”
Next time? She would have told him there wasn’t going to be a next time, but he was already heading for his secret room. When he reached the door, he turned around to look at her. “And leave the rest of the vacuuming until tomorrow.”
Colleen stared at the closed door, her mouth open. She didn’t think she’d ever met a more arrogant, domineering jackass in her whole life. Steven Hughes had to be out of his mind if he thought any woman would put up with that kind of treatment. She wouldn’t be coming back tomorrow or any other day to vacuum his damn rug. In fact, the moment she left, she was going straight to the cleaning company and reporting him for what he did. They would blacklist him, or whatever it was that maid services did to asshole clients.
* * * * *
Steve swore under his breath as he flopped down into the expensive leather swivel chair that was more comfortable than the sectional couch in his living room and cost almost as much. What the hell had he been thinking, spanking Colleen Palmer like that? He’d be lucky if she didn’t go straight to the cops and report him for assault.
When Colleen had introduced herself as the new maid, Steve had been surprised, especially since Gina—the previous maid—hadn’t mentioned anything about her. It’d seemed a little suspicious to him, so he’d called the cleaning company to check out Colleen’s story after showing her around the house. They’d confirmed the change, saying she was taking over for Gina.
Other than being relieved to learn Colleen did in fact work for the maid service and hadn’t been a spy hired by one of his competitors looking to get their hands on the new video game he was designing, he hadn’t given her much thought since retreating into his office. Okay, that wasn’t entirely true. With her pouty lips, long blond hair and curvy figure, Colleen was difficult to get out of his head, and he’d ended up spending more time thinking of his new maid than writing game code. Once or twice, he’d almost left his office to get a cup of coffee he didn’t want just to watch her work.
Since he had a ton of work to do on the computer program, he’d resisted the urge and put thoughts of the pretty Colleen out of his head. He was just trying to figure out why the recent code he’d written was so screwed up when she’d started vacuuming.
He’d only gone into the living room to ask her to vacuum later, but then she’d started shooting off her mouth, and the next thing he knew, he’d grabbed her arm and upended her over the couch for a good, sound spanking.
For the record, he didn’t usually make a habit out of spanking women. He’d never put a women over his knee in his life until his ex-girlfriend Amanda had asked him to tan her ass. Amanda had liked being spanked for being a “bad girl,” and would turn into a brat whenever she wanted him to do it. He’d felt a little weird about doing it at first, but when he saw how much it turned her on, he’d definitely gotten into the role as disciplinarian. Which, okay, had turned him on. That still didn’t give him a free pass to spank his new maid, even if she had acted like a brat. Because while administering a few smacks to the seat of Colleen’s tight jeans might have been enjoyable for him, Steve doubted his new maid had found it acceptable. Which meant he’d probably have to break in a whole new cleaning woman tomorrow. If the company even sent another maid. He might end up cleaning his own damn house.
Chapter Two
Colleen had fully intended to go back to the office that afternoon and tell her boss Brenda exactly what Steven Hughes had done, but when she arrived at the cleaning company offices, the woman had already left to go pick up her daughter from soccer practice.
Then again, maybe it was good thing Brenda wasn’t there. Colleen wasn’t sure she could take the embarrassment of actually explaining the whole humiliating episode. What if Brenda didn’t believe her? Or worse, what if she did, and it got out to the rest of the maids? Colleen would never live it down. But she had to say something because there was no way she could go back and clean that man’s house again. Maybe she could tell Brenda there was a personality conflict and that she couldn’t work for Hughes anymore. Brenda would reassign Hughes to one of the other girls, right?
She was sitting in the break room sipping coffee and mulling it over when Kristy and two of the other maids walked in.
Her friend sat down across from her. “So, how was your first day?”
Colleen didn’t answer right away. The thought she’d had when she first got to Hughes’ place about Kristy and the other women setting her up popped into her head again. Maybe she’d been more right than she knew when she’d secretly accused her first solo assignment of being an initiation. That would explain the spanking. Sororities did it, right? Maybe cleaning companies did, too.
She groaned inwa
rdly. What was she saying? Kristy was her best friend. She wouldn’t do something like that to her. Besides, You’ve Got it Maid was a reputable, highly respected company.
She chewed on her lower lip. She wanted to tell Kristy about what had happened, but couldn’t do it in front of the other maids.
“It went fine, I guess,” she said.
Mia, a tall, athletic redhead walked over to the counter and poured herself a cup of coffee. “What did you think of Steven Hughes?”
Colleen shrugged choosing her words carefully. “He’s nice enough, I suppose.”
“You suppose?” Kristy looked at her as if she’d lost her mind. “Colleen, the guy is absolutely gorgeous. Not to mention filthy rich. And the last time I checked, he was extremely single.”
That he was single certainly didn’t come as a surprise. The guy was sort of lacking in social skills. “I don’t wonder why. The guy has some serious control issues.”
Lauren, a dark-haired woman with big, brown eyes, laughed. “What gave it away? Was it the fact that he wanted you to straighten the tassels on the rug after you vacuumed? Or that he wanted the wine glasses he never uses cleaned every day?”
“No, no, no.” Mia sat down in the only other empty chair at the table. “I bet it was his thing about the streaks on his sixty-inch plasma television screen. Am I right?”
Colleen made a face. “All of the above. You left out the most important rule, though. Never, ever to go into his inner sanctum. All the other stuff just makes him seem like a freak, but that rule about the room being off limits is beyond weird. What’s up with that, anyway?”
“Mia thinks he makes porn movies in there,” Lauren said.
Mia snorted. “It’s better than your theory.” She looked at Colleen. “Lauren thinks he’s some kind of spy like James Bond, and that’s where he communicates with his super-secret headquarters. Oh, and that there’s a secret passage in the room that leads to his own private Batcave.”
Kristy grinned. “You’ve gotta admit, he does have the whole Clark-Kent thing going on. I could totally see him as the superhero-type for sure.”
Colleen laughed. She serious doubted Steven Hughes made porno movies or had a secret identity. It would take him fifteen minutes just to make sure the Batarang on his utility belt was straight.
“Superman has a Fortress of Solitude, not a Batcave,” she corrected.
“Same thing. I wonder if he really needs those glasses or if he only wears them because he thinks they make him look smarter,” Kristy mused.
Lauren propped her chin on her hand and sighed. “He does have the dreamiest blue eyes, doesn’t he?”
His eyes were pretty dreamy, Colleen had to admit. What the hell? The guy was still a jerk, no matter how electric his eyes were. Or how damn sexy that scruff on his jaw was.
“Since you seem to have such a crush on him, what do you say we switch?” she said to Lauren. “I’ll take one of your clients and you take Clark Kent.”
Lauren’s big eyes went wide. “Oh, I couldn’t. I cleaned his house once before and…well, let’s just say the whole thing was very embarrassing.”
Colleen looked at the other girl sharply. Had Hughes spanked Lauren, too? It made sense, she thought, remembering how easily he’d upended her over the back of the couch that afternoon. If Hughes had spanked her, he’d probably spanked the other maids, too. She wanted to ask, but if she did, that would mean admitting she’d gotten one, too. There was no way was she going to do that.
Mia lifted a brow. “Well, aren’t you going to tell Colleen what happened?”
Lauren blushed. “It was humiliating, really. I was vacuuming the area rug in the living room when I noticed the bag needed to be changed. Of course, Steven Hughes had to pick that exact moment to walk in, which got me all flustered and I ended up dumping everything in the canister on the rug.”
Colleen held her breath. “What did he do?”
“He was really nice about the whole thing, actually,” the dark-haired woman said. “He told me it wasn’t a big deal and not to worry about it. He even helped me put a new bag in. But I hated looking like such an idiot in front of him. I mean, he’s so perfect, and I came off like a clumsy goof.”
Colleen stared at her in disbelief. “That’s it?”
Maybe Lauren was too embarrassed to admit that he had really spanked her. After all, she was.
“Yeah. I didn’t mean to imply he went ballistic or anything. It was just that I was so embarrassed I could never go back there again.” Lauren smiled. “Oh, and you want to know the cutest part? Gina, the girl who cleaned his place after me, said he went out and bought one of those super expensive bagless vacuums. That was really nice of him.”
Colleen frowned. Nice was definitely not the word she’d use to describe Hughes. Lauren had dumped a whole vacuum bag all over his carpet, and all he’d done was help her clean it up. Colleen had made a little noise while cleaning the living room—just like Hughes had told her to do—and she’d gotten spanked for it. That only confirmed how much of a jerk he was.
The reminder of how he’d treated her was enough to make Colleen change her minds about telling Brenda. When she came into work the next morning, she was going to tell her boss everything, no matter how embarrassing it was, and demand a new assignment.
* * * * *
When she got to work the following day, however, Brenda wasn’t in yet. Colleen tried to delay as long as she could, but after an hour, she couldn’t stall any longer. All the other maids had already left, and Caroline, the woman at the dispatch desk kept looking at her oddly. Even if Brenda came in now, there was no one left to send to Hughes’ place anyway. She either had to go clean his house, or quit.
Crap.
Grabbing the keys to the minivan off the hook, she told Caroline she was leaving and headed over to Hughes’ place.
Once in his driveway, she didn’t get out of the minivan right away, but sat there staring at the house. There were two ways she could approach this. She could either act as if nothing had happened, or she could confront Hughes about the spanking. While having it out with the jerk would definitely be more gratifying, pretending the spanking hadn’t happened at all was probably the smarter choice. Especially since she intended to talk to Brenda about changing assignments anyway. Of course, if Hughes brought it up, then all bets were off.
More confident now that she had a plan, Colleen marched up the front steps and rang the doorbell. When he didn’t answer, she rang again, more impatiently this time. Still no answer. Guess he wasn’t home. She almost laughed in relief. She’d spent half the morning worrying about seeing him, and he wasn’t even there.
Telling herself to be grateful for small favors, Colleen let herself in, then walked over to the alarm on the wall and entered the security code. She’d never used a security system before, so she was a little worried she’d do something wrong and the cops would come bursting thought the door at any moment. Since they didn’t, she must have done it right.
Eager to be done and out of there before Hughes came home, Colleen got right to work. She vacuumed the area rug in the living room, then quickly dusted the television and other electronic equipment before going upstairs to clean the master bedroom.
It was just impressive as the rest of the house, and bigger than any Colleen had ever seen. She couldn’t help but be a little envious as she took in the huge king-sized bed and vaulted ceiling. The adjoining bathroom was just as lavish. God, she’d love to have that spa tub and walk-in shower in her apartment. Then again, the shower was bigger than her whole bathroom, so neither would probably fit.
Though the master suite was beautiful, it lacked the same personal touches as the rest of the rooms in the house. There were no photos of family or friends. No mementos from his past lying around. That was weird. Maybe Lauren was right and Hughes was a secret agent. It was far-fetched, but it would certainly explain why he didn’t have any of the usual mementos.
Colleen almost laughed at how ridiculous
that sounded. The real reason was probably much more boring. Maybe Hughes didn’t like clutter. Or maybe he didn’t have a lot of happy memories he wanted to display. Maybe he had a lot of things he’d rather forget. That was too bad. It almost made her feel sorry for him.
She had every intention of cleaning the kitchen next, but when she went back downstairs, she found herself drawn to the living room and the door to the inner sanctum. Since Hughes was out, it would be the perfect opportunity to sneak a quick peak inside. Providing he didn’t keep it locked.
Knowing she shouldn’t, but unable to help herself, Colleen grasped the knob and slowly turned it. Heart pounding, she cautiously pushed open the door.
Colleen didn’t know what she’d expected to find, but it wasn’t a home office. Then again, maybe computer room would be more appropriate. After all, most people didn’t have half a dozen computers in their home office, especially ones with huge flat-screen monitors. Even more strange, every computer was turned on and running at the same time, some kind of code scrolling across the screen. Huh. Maybe Lauren was right about him being a secret agent.
She glanced over her shoulder, listening to make sure Hughes wasn’t going to make a surprise appearance before stepping inside to take a closer look. It wasn’t coordinates for an enemy hideout or an encrypted message about his next mission, should he choose to accept it. Which meant it probably wouldn’t self-destruct after she read it, thank goodness. It was C++, a computer language she was familiar with.
Colleen shook her head. Kristy, Mia and Lauren would be so disappointed. Steven Hughes wasn’t a super spy—he was a computer programmer.
Well, damn. She hadn’t expected that. Hughes was nothing like the guys in the nerd herd she was used to working with. She tried to imagine him hunched over a keyboard, but couldn’t quite picture it. And what the heck was with the cloak-and-dagger routine?
Colleen studied the lines of computer code. Since pretty much everything in the programming world was written in C++, it took her a moment to figure out the code was for a video game.
