Player

by T. N. King

  They walked outside and he led her along a path toward the side yard.

  Megan didn’t want to bring it up because Jensen has been more than hospitable and generous but she was curious. “We never discussed my pay.”

  “Your what?” He turned quickly toward her and looked annoyed at her for asking.

  “Um…you are explaining to me what you expect of me, so I’m asking what I can expect to get paid each week.”

  “Oh, yes of course. I guess I just got caught up in…things.” He stared at her for a few moments.

  She looked around, feeling that awkwardness again. There were several gardens and flower beds that surrounded the premises. The floral aroma put Megan at ease as she walked around taking in the beauty of the landscape.

  “Megan, I’d like you to meet Benjamin. He comes around a couple times a week to tend to the gardens here and at the penthouse.”

  “You have a penthouse?”

  “Yes. I visit there every so often. You’ll normally travel there once a month to keep that up as well.” Megan got a little worried, thinking this was becoming bigger than what she thought she could handle. “Don’t worry,” he said smiling. “It’s nothing.”

  She smiled trying to lose the worry. “It is good to meet you,” she said looking around. “You have done some beautiful work here.”

  “Thank you, miss. I take much pride in my work.”

  “Well, I will leave you to it Benjamin,” Jensen said before directing his attention to Megan. “So, weekly cleaning of the mansion, monthly checks at the penthouse, laundry, some cooking and if anything else is asked of you I will give plenty of time to let you know. Larger tasks will be compensated for upon your approval, of course, and smaller tasks will be expected of you as part of your weekly routine. I will pay you £600 at the end of each week. Your room and meals are included.”

  “Wait. £600?”

  “In time, with some experience I can give you more. You’ll have your weekends to do as you please.”

  “Honestly, I didn’t expect that much.”

  “Were you not making more than that at your last job?”

  “Well, yes but I had bills. Rent, food, utilities.”

  “I will let you get to it. I am going to pick up your car and stop at the shop. If you need me, you know my number.”

  She watched him leave, apprehensive on whether she would be able to do what was expected of her. “Of course you can, Megan,” she said out loud. “It’s just like taking care of a…child.” She watched him as he walked along the path. She wondered if he was anything like a child. He seemed to like control, to be the one in charge. She wondered if she was going to be taking care of him, or if it was going to be the other way around.

  Chapter 4

  Surprisingly enough, it didn’t take Megan long to clean most of the rooms downstairs. She turned on some music on her phone, put in her earbuds and turned on some Aerosmith and developed a system. A few guest bedrooms and associated bathrooms, a small library, the kitchen, dining room, living room, several foyers, a gallery and something he called the great room. She assumed several of the rooms weren’t used often. She felt accomplished and started to believe she could do this. When she got upstairs, the first room she came to was Jensen’s office. She went inside and saw several documents and files piled up on his desk, a few on the floor and on top of the filing cabinets. She didn’t dare touch anything for fear she would mess it up worse. Messy offices often had some sort of method behind the madness. She decided to wait until Jensen returned before attempting it.

  She buzzed through the other bedrooms and bathrooms since they really didn’t need to be cleaned, remembering one of them as the one she slept in the night she passed out on Jensen’s doorstep. Everything was as she left it. She spent a few extra minutes in there before walking down the hallway to Jensen’s bedroom. She hesitated before opening the door. What was he like beyond the suit? This room was his own personal space. She pulled her earbuds out of her ears and dangled them around her neck before turning the door knob and pushing the door open. She stood in the hallway, her eyes scouring the room.

  His bedroom wasn’t what she expected it to be. Other areas of the house were light, airy, elegant and sophisticated. This room was not. Even though it looked rich, the modern décor did not fit. There was a dark and mysterious feel to the room, much like his eyes when he looked at her. A small shiver ran across her as she entered the room. His bed was huge, sitting in the middle of the large room against a black wall. She walked to the wall. It didn’t look like a normal painted wall. She reached up and ran her fingertips across the course texture.

  “It’s leather?” she smiled. “Whoa.”

  She ran her hand along the deep red blanket that covered his bed. It was soft to the touch and beautifully contrasting against the white pillows and skirting below it. The other walls were a campaign porcelain colour with deep red curtains covering an entire wall. She walked to the curtains and looked for a draw string to pull them open, give the room some natural light. There was nothing there.

  “Huh.” She looked around the room. “Must have some sort of manly remote control or something.” She pulled them back to peek behind them. When she discovered that the entire wall was a series of windows overlooking the property she gasped.

  She walked back through the room, picking up some of his clothes from the floor and putting them in a bin hanging on her cleaning cart. The carpet matched the champagne walls. A red leather chair sat in one corner and a round accent chair sat on the floor in the other corner. A simple black desk with rolling chair accompanied them on the wall. It was all so sophisticated, but dark and disturbingly romantic.

  The other wall opposite the red curtains contained a large bookshelf built into the wall. She ran her fingers along the rich bindings of each book tightly pressed up against the next one.

  Beyond the Cage, Jacked: A Billionaire Alpha Male Romance, Her Own Serenity, The Professional

  “They don’t sound like business stories.” She pulled one out entitled Easy Virtue.

  She turned it over and read out loud.

  “Love is selfish. My name is Blaire. I’m the bad girl. The other woman. The one who never gets the guy in the end. I’m the gold digger. The bitch. The one no one roots for. The one you love to hate. I hate myself too.” ¹ She turned it back over. “Geez.” She shook her head and put it back, pulling another one.

  “Beneath the Vine.” She turned it over. “Selene Cavalier spent the majority of her time behind her cello. Her dull life was made up of dark notes, hard work and sheet music. Bennett Monterosso did what he had to do to get his family’s winery up and running. He didn’t have time for his old ways. His quiet dominance had been silenced. His need was just waiting below the surface, until now. Having her—it was all he could think about as he watched the young woman behind the cello. Gage Calibri left his best friend, his home and his tarnished past five years ago. He suppressed his darker tastes, his physical appetites, and his secrets until he no longer had a choice. It only took one night for these three lives to collide and to be altered forever.” ²

  She looked at the cover for a few moments. Something about it stirred her. She opened it just to read a little of what was inside. Before she knew it, she was sitting on the side of Jensen’s bed, absorbing herself within the pages of the story.

  Never trust yourself…in a man’s bed. That moment when everything is falling out from under you, it’s like pure fluid sound. The ache abates, your heart hammers, your voice shakes, and becomes something treacherous. It belies who you were before he made you feel something…. ¹

  She looked up quickly after hearing a scuffle at the door. Jensen was leaning in the doorway, his arms folded, head cocked to the side.

  “What are you doing?”

  She jumped up and dropped the book, tangling her earbuds around her fingers and flinging her phone out of her pocket half way across the room toward him.

  “Um. Hi.” She felt
her face get warm. She bent down and picked up the book, closing it and returning it to the place designated for that book. “I’m sorry. I just…I was curious.” She stammered and became increasingly awkward as she tried explaining why she was snooping around in his bedroom.

  Jensen walked into the room, picked up her phone and held it to his side without saying a word.

  She put her head down and tried to leave. As she walked past him, he took her hand and stopped her.

  “Come here.” He led her back to the bookshelves and watched her fidget. He seemed to get quite a kick out of making her squirm. He scanned the shelves and pulled a book down, handing it to her.

  Megan just looked down at the book and thanked him. “What He Wants?”

  “Read it.” He stood there, watching her. He handed her phone back to her. “You did a good job on the place.”

  “Well, except for this room…but I was getting to it…until I got side tracked.”

  “Take a break, until dinner. Don’t worry about it.”

  “There’s a few questions about your office too. I didn’t dare touch it until….”

  “You don’t have to clean my office. It’s okay. I have too much going on in there.”

  She nodded and smiled, holding up the book. “Thank you.”

  He watched her walk out of his room.

  When she got into the hallway, she booked to the end and walked quickly toward her part of the house. Her heart was beating hard as she sat on her couch, watching the hallway for him to appear.

  She looked at the book in her hand and stared at the cover. A man in a suit with his arms around a naked female body. Why would he give her such a book? She opened the cover and began to read.

  She wanted to ask him why he’d never meet her, but she didn’t. What they had was amazingly sexual and the seduction was something she didn’t want to lose. The mysteries were what made this relationship so vivid and so luxurious to her libido….

  Sarah stands in front of the new artwork and mentally turns her initial jealousy into an arousal that would find her hand between her legs when she got to her car. She looks at the colours and the way it all feeds together on the canvas. His way with the strokes of his brush are unique to his work and she could pick out his pieces anywhere.

  “He painted a picture each time he had an affair, and Sarah was his muse,” she said closing the book. “My God.” She looked at her phone. “It’s almost five. I can read a bit more.” She opened the book again and continued.

  She composes herself…. A meeting with her advertising agent today will keep her mind from her phone…. She often wondered what made her still crave Steven. This relationship of theirs has been going on for months…. As she closes the car door, her phone rings. She freezes and her bag drops to the ground. Her breathing catches and she scrambles for the phone. She looks. It is him. The tingling returns to her belly and runs in between her legs. Shit. She can’t not answer it. She could never say no to him…. ¹

  Megan put the book on her chest as she took a breath. Her cheeks were flushed and she was aroused at the story she read. She knew it was almost time for dinner but she needed to read a little more.

  ‘You saw my new piece.’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘You know what you’ll do for me now, Sarah.’

  ‘Yes.’ Her voice started to tremble.

  ‘Are you alone, my sweet?’

  ‘I am.’

  ‘Are you ready for your story?’

  She takes a ragged breath, ‘Yes.’

  ‘Put your hand under your dress, Sarah. Find that beautiful spot. Touch it there for me.’

  Another ragged breath as she does exactly what he tells her to do. Feeling her way, she feels the wetness between her legs.

  ‘I was in the gallery the other night. The same one you frequent to see my work….’

  Megan read page by page as Sarah’s lover told her the story of his affair, detail by detail. Her eyes consumed every word as her body consumed the heat and arousal it caused. When she got to the last page she craved more. She didn’t want the story to end. She sat there with her hand on her breast, lighting panting as she relived parts of the story in her mind.

  “Is Jensen into romance? He doesn’t seem the type.” She sat up and took a deep breath. She heard her name being called from the other end of the house and she ran out to the hallway.

  “Hello?”

  “Dinner is ready. Come down.”

  “Oh. Oh damn.” She ran back into her living room and grabbed the book. She ran down the stairs to the dining room. The table was set for two. She was nervous, wondering if she was supposed to cook dinner. He didn’t specify.

  “Are you okay?” He entered the room wearing an apron over his button up shirt and trousers. He set a casserole dish in the middle of the table and walked over to Megan. “You look flushed.”

  “I’m…fine.” She handed him the book. “Thank you.”

  He smiled immediately and nodded, taking the book from her and setting it down on the other side of the table.

  They sat down to some sort of risotto concoction Jensen tried to put together involving sausage and onions with bakery fresh bread on the side. Megan nibbled on a few pieces of sausage, drinking more water than anything else. When she pushed her plate away from her Jensen seemed perplexed.

  “Thank you for dinner.” She started to get up.

  “Megan.” His voice was direct. “Sit back down.”

  She complied, looking at him in curiosity.

  “Why don’t you eat? Are you on some sort of diet?”

  “No.” She put her head down.

  “Talk to me.”

  “It’s hard for me to eat a lot.”

  “You aren’t getting up until you explain. Since I have met you, you haven’t eaten enough to fill a tea cup.”

  “I have a problem with food. Being broke all the time made it hard to buy groceries.”

  “You worked at a restaurant.”

  “But we had to pay for anything we ate. My boss cut my hours way back when he was trying to recruit some of the others. I barely had enough to make rent.”

  “Eat some more.” He picked up a slice of the bread and buttered it for her. He set it on the side of her plate and took a bite of his own.

  Megan ate slowly, sipping her water to try to help the food go down better.

  “Tell me about the book.”

  She sucked a breath in at the wrong time and started coughing.

  He waited for her to contain herself and continued. “Did you like it?”

  “Yes. I did.”

  “Tell me what you liked about it.”

  “It wasn’t exactly the kind of book I would have chosen but it was definitely…interesting.”

  “It was the first in a series of a sexual romance set. I’d like for you to read the next one.”

  She wanted to ask him why, but she was afraid of the answer. She nodded and forced another bite of risotto into her mouth.

  Chapter 5

  Megan took a walk out in the garden after sorting the laundry and starting the washer. She needed the sunshine on her face and the fresh air in her lungs. She bent down to admire some flowers that caught her eye.

  “Hello Miss.”

  Megan looked up quickly, not realizing she had company.

  Benjamin stood above her, his head blocking the sun.

  “Hello again. Benjamin…right?”

  “Yes,” he said tipping his hat. “How are ya faring here at Mr. Dean’s home?”

  “It’s…okay.”

  “You’re looking tired. Are you feeling well?”

  “Yes. It’s all a little more than I had expected, but I think over time I’ll get better at it.”

  “I think so. You’ll find your groove. Enjoy the sun when ya can and take care of yourself.”

  “Thank you,” she smiled and walked back to the mansion. She wanted to get her work done before it was time for her to fall into bed this time.

&nbs
p; She went through the schedule she made up after learning what was expected of her and tried to rearrange it to make things easier, but she just couldn’t get it, even with Jensen taking care of dinner each night. There were things she didn’t expect when she found Jensen’s ad online. She figured basic cooking, cleaning, vacuuming, laundry and the occasional errand. But she was quickly realizing that rich people were more demanding with a much higher maintenance that she expected. Ironing, polishing, help with redecorating, shopping for things normal people didn’t shop for and a penthouse to clean at least once a month. Even by skipping a few things on the list, Megan had a difficult time keeping up and literally fell into bed each night.

  She sat at the table precisely at six and waited for Jensen to join her. It was usually just the two of them, which initially made it awkward for Megan until she learned that Jensen always drove the conversation between them. He also expected her at dinner precisely at six with no excuses. She tried taking food to her room, or out on the balcony, but he didn’t like it. His insistence prevailed over what she wanted so she just pacified him.

  He slid his spatula underneath a small piece of baked chicken and placed it on her place, added some fresh tomatoes and grilled potatoes. Her salad was already sitting in a separate bowl next to her plate.

  “That’s too much,” Megan proclaimed, putting her hand up.

  “How are you ever going to feel better and keep your strength up if you eat like a bird?” He poured her glass with fresh cold milk and sat in his chair. He waited to eat until he saw her put some into her mouth, something he often did. “How is it?”

  “It’s very good, thank you,” she said, covering her mouth with her fingers.

  “So, tell me more about those culinary classes you mentioned earlier?”

  “I took some catering classes, pastry and French cuisine. I fell in love with cooking. There is such an art in it.”

  “I can see it in your eyes.”

  Megan blushed and tucked her hands into her lap. “I took classes part time while working at the college. They had a program there that entitled all employees the opportunity to take classes for free.”