Page 18 of Once Upon a Prince

“She must have gotten the notion somewhere, or she could just not like me. Either way, I wasn’t going to give her the satisfaction of knowing she bothered me.”

She was implying that I had made things worse for her by even saying anything to the women. I didn’t care, if I had my way, the women would be unemployed very soon. I had a feeling that Ella wasn’t the only employee they had bullied.

“That’s one way of dealing with it, and if you want to, I will take your not-so-subtle hint and keep out of it. However, I do think there’s an even better way of dealing with women like Tanya and her crony.”

“Crony?”

“Probably not the most flattering or politically correct way of saying it, but the word seemed to fit Diana.”

Ella tilted her head to side; she wasn’t agreeing with me exactly but she wasn’t defending the woman either. I had thought she was being a bit of a coward by not confronting the women; I could see I had it all wrong. She was handling it better than I was and didn’t need my help. It didn’t mean it would stop me from trying to give it to her.

“What do you have in mind?” she asked.

“You beat them at their own game,” I said.

“I’m not sure I’m following you. Do you want me to do to them what they are doing to me?”

“While that would be fun to see as I’m sure you could throw some insults at them in ways that would put them in their place, but that wasn’t what I had in mind.”

“Then what are you thinking?” she asked.

“Simple. I want to take you shopping.”

Chapter 11

Ella

I stared at Dax as if I hadn’t heard him right. There was no way that I had. The man hadn’t just offered to take me shopping. The idea was absurd. It wasn’t appropriate. It certainly wasn’t something he should be doing nor was it something I was going to entertain.

“Thank you, but no,” I said and put the Scotch on his desk. Once I got over the initial burn of the drink, I found I liked the taste. I was worried I was going to like it too much and drink more than I should. I was finding I needed all my wits about me when I was around Dax for many reasons and the Scotch wasn’t going to help.

“It wasn’t a question. I am going to take you shopping,” Dax stated.

“You don’t need to do that. As I said, I can take care of myself and I have clothes.”

“No one is questioning your resilience. You said you had borrowed the clothes. You should have your own. Consider it your uniform for your job.”

“Is this a new company policy? Are you going to do this for all your employees?” I asked.

He tilted his head and took a sip of his Scotch, giving me his answer. He looked so sexy when he looked at me. His blue eyes held my gaze with concern and mischief. I could see he wanted to cause some trouble and he wanted me to help him.

It bothered me how much he could see of me, how much he saw of the situation. I wanted to forget it, I wanted to pretend it didn't matter. I certainly didn’t want to give Tanya and Diana any power over me. I liked it even less that Dax was trying to make the situation better and that I wanted him to. I wasn’t used to anyone being my champion and I wasn’t sure how much I should have Dax do it.

He finished his Scotch and stood up. There was a restlessness in him that I hadn’t ever seen before. He paced in front of his desk as if he was a caged animal or he had unwanted energy that he needed to get rid of. It took me a moment to see that it was anger. It took me even longer to understand that the anger was directed at Diana and Tanya and what they had said about me.

“As my assistant, you are expected to have a certain decorum and presence about you. That includes your wardrobe. How you look, how you are, is a reflection on me. As such, you will need to have the proper clothing and accessories that are becoming of the person who works closely with me.”

“Becoming?” I asked.

“Appropriate, worthy of the station in my company?”

I worried at times that I pushed him and questioned him too much but he never seemed to mind when I did. In fact, he seemed to like it, if the slight smile I saw and the gleam in his eye he got every time I did was any indication. I had found myself looking for it the last couple of weeks, even though I knew I shouldn’t. I was seeing it now and I had to hide my smile.

“It isn’t appropriate for you to be buying me clothes. What would Tanya think if she found out? It’s a Human Resources nightmare.”

He didn’t say anything and I knew he hadn’t thought of that and was trying to find a way around it. It was sweet what he wanted to do but I wasn’t going to let him. Though he seemed just as determined to win the argument as I was.

“I could give you a clothing allowance but I would prefer to see the outfits and make sure that you are using the money in the way that it was intended.”