Chapter Three

Tempest

This morning when I read the note on the counter, the one wishing me the best of luck at my first day of work, I had thought it would bring me the luck it wished for me. I was wrong. Today was hard, so hard. The diner in question is busy, extremely busy, and I just can’t wrap my head around this payment system. Two dollars an hour and the rest in tips? I hardly made fifty quid for ten hours’ work. People in such a rich area of the state are tight with their tips.

I mean, yeah, okay, I get that I’m new and I made a few mistakes but still.

Plus, the other women who work there are cliquey and bitchy and kept taking my tables.

Still, I grinned and got on with it. My new boss, Bill himself, who gave me the job over email after taking pity of my circumstances, told me he was impressed with how hard I worked and gave me a welcome bonus. That brought me up to seventy dollars for ten hours of nonstop work. I got lunch too, so it wasn’t so bad.

Bill seems like a nice guy, a bit overweight and breathless, and a bit sweaty smelling but I could tell he had his heart in the right place.

Besides, I worked for less in Cambodia and Thailand, I guess I was just hoping to have a bit more to put away. Never mind. I’m moaning because I’m tired.

I knock on the door and push it open then immediately go to my room before anybody can see the state of me. My hair is a frizzy mess, falling out of the bun that was neatly made this morning. My eye makeup is smudged, my face pale from exhaustion, and nausea from eating an extremely greasy burger. I haven’t had something so greasy and heavy in so long, it’s not sitting right. There was little else on the menu though but tomorrow I’ll try harder to find something. Perhaps a baked potato.

When I enter my bedroom, I smile when I see a top and matching bottom on the bed, made from soft black material, with another note like the one this morning.

It reads:

Congratulations on finishing your first day. M.

I didn’t have anything to swim in and I expressed my need to go shopping as soon as I got my first round of cash. Cash which I can now tuck away in my underwear drawer because Maddox has treated me. It makes me feel bad for not getting him anything on his first day of work which, from what I’ve heard, he excelled at. I knew he would. He’s been groomed his entire life to help his dad. I wish I had a dad who cared enough about my future to help me learn anything.

There’s a knock on the door.

Sargent

Maddox stands when he hears the front door open and close, signifying the end of the girl’s first day of work, leaving me to my thoughts and paperwork. Clearly, he’s had enough of invoices and wage slips. Even though I have a team of financial gurus, I still want him to know how to do things. Should anything happen to me I need to know he’s capable of handling all aspects of our company.

I stack the paperwork in order and then stretch and close my eyes, if only to listen to the blissful silence I haven’t had yet today. It’s like meditation but without the humming and the crossing of legs.

I roll my eyes when I hear the girl’s sharp scream. It pierces my peace and I want to cane her myself for it.

It has been four days and that visual is still in my head.

“Must you?” I snarl aggressively when Maddox comes running through the room moments later in swimming trunks.

The female in question is on his back, her bare legs wrapped around his waist, her slender arms around his neck.

He runs past me at the dining table and straight through the open sliding doors.

She screams again when he launches them into the pool sideways and they hit the water with a loud splash that leaves them both spluttering and laughing.

I slam the door closed and stalk to my room. Noise, so much noise.

When I return an hour later for food, Maddox is standing in the kitchen with a towel around his waist, carefully placing food onto three plates from a glass dish.

“What have you made?” I ask, remembering how happy I am to see him home. Though I wonder, with the salary he’ll soon be making, how long will he stay before he gets his own place with little Miss Charity Case?

“Baked salmon and sweet potato fries with vegetables, nothing fancy.”

“Sounds great.”

He smiles at me over his shoulder, looking like his mother. It has me turning away. He’s the only good thing that woman ever did but it still disturbs me when he looks like her.

“Can you get Pest for me?” He takes a pan off the stove top and dips a large spoon into it. “She’s outside still.”

Of course he’d ask me.

As I turn away he adds, “Be nice, Dad, she’s had a long day at work.”

“If she can’t handle one day of work without complaining…”

“Dad!”

I raise a hand and pad barefoot to the doors, slipping on my flip-flops that sit by them.

When I exit, stepping over the puddles on the white tiles that lead from the pool, I find her standing at the stone wall, looking vacantly over the view. Peaking land, covered in green and brown can be seen to the left, straight ahead is the small town at the base of our hill, the few stores that Eastern Malibu has.

You can hear the ocean from here, smell it on the air.

The sun is setting, casting a warm glow of oranges, reds, grays, and blues in the sky. It’s as though the atmosphere is on fire. It makes her bare flesh look like shimmering gold.

“Dinner is served,” I say, following the soft curve of her back to her round, toned rear that would spill out of my large hands if grabbed.

She’s either ignoring me or she doesn’t hear me.

I refuse to call her Pest. That’s my son’s odd nickname for her, though I find myself at a loss for her actual name. I haven’t been told it yet, likely because I haven’t asked. I really should read those emails.

I click my fingers by her ear and she jolts, her faraway eyes suddenly zone back in.

“Your dinner is ready,” I state.

“Oh.” She smiles warmly and tucks her escaping hair behind her ear. “Thank you, Sarge.”

“It’s Sargent.”

“Sorry. I keep doing that.”

“I’m aware. I really hate it.”

She grins tiredly. “I know.” Little Minx. “I’m actually glad you’re here. What do you want from me in return for my stay?”

“Sorry?” I stiffen, and not just my cock, at her words.

“Money, dollars, coins, etcetera.” She smirks, making her red lips crinkle at the corners in a way I can’t ignore. “I don’t expect to stay here for free.”

Tempest

“I don’t need your money,” he replies and turns away from me without going further into detail. “Dinner is ready.”

“So what can I do instead? You have a cleaner so I can hardly help there, you have a pool boy.” I follow him, careful not to slip on the tiles. “Does somebody iron for you? I could iron?”

“We’ll think of something,” he replies flippantly and me, being the dirty-minded woman that I am, reads into that in so many ways I shouldn’t. “For now, just settle in and keep your things together, in your room and your own bathroom.”

That is something I can definitely do.

He isn’t done. “I hate clutter, especially that of a woman’s. Just keep it all in your room.”

“You got it.” I inhale deeply and step inside after Sarge. “Smells great.”

Maddox grins at me. I set the table, resting the placemats on the black glass surface as Sargent makes the drinks.

Sargent, such a funny name but surprisingly sexy. I feel like I’m in the army. So many unrealized fantasies are coming to mind.

“Hey, Dad,” Maddox says as he brings two of the plates over.

I take my seat without thinking about it, not realizing how close my seat is to the end of the table where a certain man will be sitting. I feel my face heat with anxiety and just general shyness. I’m not typically shy but when sitting beside an attractive man who clearly hates me, it can be awkward.

I sip the white wine that has been poured for me and wonder if the bottle it came from cost more than I earned in ten hours today.

“What time do you start work tomorrow?” Maddox asks.

I cringe as I reply, “Five thirty. They want to show me how to open.”

“I’ll drive you,” Maddox offers but I shake my head, not wanting to further burden him.

“It’s not even a forty-minute walk.”

“Then I’ll walk you.” He smiles, winking at me. “If I give you a ride, you’ll get an extra hour in bed.”

“When you put it that way.”

“You’re not insured,” Sargent cuts in and Maddox winces, likely because he knows that’s the truth.

“It’s fine, I’ll be fine…”

“I’ll take you,” he interrupts.

“Really.” I look at the man to my left, catching his blue eyes that could freeze the earth. “I’ll be fine.”

“Be ready at five,” he responds, and Maddox looks so happy I can’t even try to say no now.

“Thank you, Mr. Wolf,” I mumble, casting my eyes down on my plate.

“Are you working Monday?” Maddox asks, tapping my knee with his foot under the table.

I shrug. “I have no idea. I’m just going to say yes to whatever they offer so it’s a possibility.”

“Work hard and they’ll never stop offering,” Sargent puts in, sipping his drink softly. The way his throat bobs… why is that so appealing?

Maddox nods his agreement. “She’ll have no problems there, never known somebody to not have any quit in them. Pest can go for hours.”

I close my eyes and bring my fingers to the bridge of my nose. I can’t believe he just said that.

“I meant while working. Not… I mean…”

“Son,” Sargent warns. “Perhaps saying nothing would be prudent at this juncture.”

“Right,” Maddox whispers and starts laughing, quietly at first while I gulp my wine, then louder and it has me choking on the sweet fluid in my throat.

Soon we’re both laughing so hard I have tears streaming down my face.

“You’re such an idiot.” I kick him under the table and he kicks me back, making me yelp.

We finally sober but not before I kick him again, unfortunately, as I’m pulling back my foot, it grazes across Sargent’s shin and we both startle.

“Sorry,” I say quietly but he doesn’t reply, just finishes his dinner while Maddox and I have our banter and regale him with tales of our travels.