Page 23 of His Dark Pact
“Thank you.” Her gaze darted to the rear-view mirror to find Stevens’ pointed stare drilling into her.
She withered under his glare, unsure why he was sending her daggers from the driver’s seat. Perhaps he thought she was a prostitute Kyle had picked up for a good time. Her eyes narrowed as she stared the driver down. How dare he judge her! She was there to take care of Kyle’s house. The fact she found him easy on the eye was only a happy coincidence.
“Remember what else we discussed?” Kyle’s curter tone drew her attention back to him. “About how I expect my staff to refer to me.”
Hot humiliation sliced through her like a blade. Surely, he couldn’t mean for her to address him as ‘sir’ in front of Stevens? She didn’t comprehend his reasoning for such formalities, but he’d never mentioned anything about ceding to the self-imposed titles in the presence of others.
She took a moment, pulling in air as she compelled her gaze back to the window and recalled how the driver had also referred to his employer that way. Perhaps she was making a big deal out of nothing. She could suck up the indignation of calling him sir from time to time. So long as he honored the deal.
“Yes...” She consciously blocked out what she assumed would now be Stevens’ smirk. “Sir. I’m sorry. I’m not used to using formal titles.”
Her prior part-time job had been temporary nighttime cleaning contracts in commercial buildings. She’d worked long hours for minimum wage where, often, the only people she’d seen were security guys, not the men she worked for, and she certainly didn’t have to defer to them with jumped-up titles. In the daytime, the solicitors she’d worked for had been happy for her to use their first names.
“Please get used to it.” Kyle’s voice was softer, but the gleam in his eyes was hard. “It’s part of the deal.”
“I understand, sir.”
She didn’t understand at all, but she fixed her focus on the prize at the end of the week. All she had to do was survive seven days of awkwardness and formality, then, if she wanted to, she could choose to eject with fifty thousand in her back pocket.
She could do that, couldn’t she? Seven days wasn’t so long.
No longer able to maintain the intensity of his stare, she glanced down at the dark leather as the answer pinballed in her head.
Seven days was nothing at all. Of course, she could do that.
She’d have agreed to much stricter terms to secure the funds required to pull her out of the huge pit she found herself in.
“Ah, here we are.” Kyle nodded as the car slowed, and Amy looked up in time to see the massive black iron-wrought gates of a vast property opening. “Drop us at the front, please, Stevens. I want to get Amy settled.”
“Very good, sir.” Stevens eased the Mercedes through the open gates and crawled along the vast, pebbled driveaway.
She glanced around at the large, overarching trees as they drove past, just able to make out their contorted branches in the layers of darkness.
“Take the car to the garage,” Kyle instructed Stevens when the vehicle halted.
Kyle pushed open his door and leapt into the cold air. A rush of breeze tore through the interior, startling her as he rounded the back of the car. A moment later, her door, too, was thrust open.
“Come on.” His hand approached, beckoning her toward him, and without looking back at Stevens, she accepted his palm and slid from the warm seat.
“Welcome to Brock Hall, Amy.” Squeezing her fingers gently, he led her toward the mansion he called home.
***
“WILL I HAVE A KEY TOthe property?”
She huddled in her thin jacket as Kyle unlocked the gigantic doors. The front of the house reminded her more of a fortress than a home, with huge stone columns on either side, but she repressed the nagging apprehension swirling within. Kyle was offering her an amazing chance, and she wasn’t going to allow her nerves to ruin it for her.
Turning the key in the lock, he paused and glanced back at her. “We’ll discuss those terms after the trial has ended.”
“Right.”
His reluctance to agree was perturbing. She supposed she could understand his reticence to dish out keys to her right then and there. He knew her as little as she knew him, but a reassurance that one would be provided eventually might have been good.
“Come in.” Pushing the wooden doors open, he moved aside and allowed her space to pass him, although his gaze never left her as she complied.
“Wow.” There was nothing else to say in response to the scene that met her eyes.
The space that passed for his hallway was larger than her entire apartment, the entryway lit by two enormous chandeliers with what looked like twinkling diamonds trailing from them. Strange that the lights were already on, but then she supposed he might keep the entrance lit at night, and she assumed he could afford to.