The Billionaire and His Driver

CHAPTER ELEVEN

She could hear Ronny talking on the phone when she walked through the open double doors. He was seated on a couch that was turned away from the entrance and was facing the wall-sized window. She could hear his conversation clearly, but all she could see of him was the back of his head. Which was fine by her! Instead of announcing herself, she walked gingerly to the master bathroom that was to the left of the entrance, and began preparing his bath.

As the water ran, she was grateful he was preoccupied. She could only hear one side of the conversation he was having on that phone, but it seemed as though somebody at his corporation had pissed him off and he wanted to exact retribution on them for whatever reason. And Elvira had the nerve to tell her not to believe everything she heard about that man, as if there was another side of the story.

But then again, she thought, Elvira and Tex were right about one thing: If he was going to fire her, she would have been fired already. And since she was preparing his bath before he realized her error in getting up there right away, she was getting hopeful that she would make it through the day and back home to her apartment with her job still intact. And tomorrow morning, all would get back to normal and she’d be a maid again: a dream job compared to driving the boss around.

But a tiny part of her, if she were to be honest, would miss being around him. Why she would miss it, she didn’t know. But there was something about him that made her feel as if she knew him somehow. As if he was an ally of hers, not an enemy, when nothing in his actions could prove that out. Except he did order the club staff to feed her, which to Tex was a shocking thing. He did do that.

When the bath was full and she turned off the water tap, she could hear that he was no longer on the phone. Remembering Elvira’s admonition that she ask if he needed anything else before she escaped his presence, she made her way out of the bathroom and over to the sofa. The first rule she learned when she went into domestic service was that she was to be as invisible as possible when around the boss. Ease into everything. No need to make grand pronouncements of your presence. They expect staff to be present. Just do your job.

She did her job and walked over to ask if he needed anything before she left.

He was seated on the sofa reviewing a text message on his phone when she walked around the sofa. He was in a bathrobe, which wasn’t unusual for a person waiting to take a bath, and he had it tied. But it wasn’t tightly tied and part of his penis was exposed. Which immediately made Brina so hot she wanted to turn away. But she knew it was just an oversight: he was accustomed to a man at his beck and call, not some female like her. And if she didn’t want to rile him up any more than her refusal to take his money did at the club, she’d better act as if she didn’t see a thing and get the hell out of there. “Your bath is ready, sir. Is there anything else you need?”

Although Ronny stopped reading his text, he didn’t look at her. He had forgotten that Jockey was off and that she would be the one to assume his other duties too. But when he looked over at her and saw her glancing down at his midsection, and then her eyes, as if she’d been caught red-handed, flew up to his eyes, he looked down too. When he saw that a portion of his penis was showing, he was astounded and quickly covered it. But knowing that she undoubtedly saw that part of him aroused him in a way he didn’t expect. And when he glanced over at her again, he knew what that look in her eyes meant. He knew it like he knew his name. She was as on fire for him as he was for her.

Brina was ashamed that he had caught her looking down at his manhood. She wanted to hide in a closet. But what did he expect? He was the one who wasn’t careful. She maintained her composure. “I ran your bath, sir,” she said to him again. “Is there anything else you need?”

He started to say no and put her out of her obvious misery. But he wasn’t built like that. She intrigued him and he needed to know why. “Have a seat,” he said to her.

Brina expected him to say many things, but offering her a seat wasn’t one of them. She even wondered how many times did he ask Jockey to have a seat in his bedroom. Probably none, she suspected. But what could she do? A servant was so very much at the whim of her employer. She sat down on the only place to sit: beside him.

As soon as she sat down, Ronny got a whiff of her. “What’s that smell?” he asked her.

Brina’s heart dropped. Did she smell bad too ? She looked at him with consternation in her eyes. “What smell?”

He could see her dismay, which was not his intention at all. “What perfume are you wearing, is what I mean?”

“Oh!” Her look of horror eased. “I don’t wear perfume.”

“You don’t?”

“No sir.”

“Why not?”

Y ou don’t pay us perfume money, she wanted to say. “It’s not something I can afford to spend my money on,” she said instead. “Unless it’s that dollar stuff from the Dollar store, but that’s like a waste of money to me.”

“You smell rather sweet to the nostrils,” Ronny said, “is why I asked it. I guess sweetness is in your pores.”

Brina couldn’t help it. She just couldn’t. “That is so lame,” she said to her boss.

Ronny, surprised by her comeback, at first stared at her. It was only then that she realized what she’d just said to him. But then he laughed. “It is rather, isn’t it?”

“Yes it is!” She found herself smiling too. “It’s in my pores? Really ? That’s your line?”

“I do apologize. Didn’t mean to sound so . . . rehearsed?”

“No apology needed. I’d just brush up on that particular line if I were you.”

Ronny continued to smile. He didn’t realize he was laying a line on her. Or did he? “Let me try a different approach then. What’s your name?”

Brina smiled at that line too. But it made sense. They had not been formally introduced. “My name is Sabrina Hawkins. My friends call me Brina, or just Breen.”

“You like those nicknames?”

“Not particularly no. Especially not Breen. Ugh. But like Tex said what can you do, right?”

Ronny stared at her. Tex was certainly closer to her age than he was. Was she interested in his bodyguard? “You’ve met Tex.”

“Yes sir.” He was in the car with us, remember ? she wanted to add.

“What do you think of him?”

“What do I think of him?”

He wasn’t repeating himself.

“I think he’s . . . okay. Like I said, I just met him.”

“You find him attractive?”

Brina hesitated. What was he getting at now? “Attractive sir?”

“Yes.”

She shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know. I never thought about it.”

Ronny looked her dead in her eyes. “Do you find me attractive?”

Brina found his look laced with so much sex appeal that she wondered if she had given her inner thoughts away. But how could she go there with her own boss? How could she face him after such an admission? “I never thought about it,” she lied and said.

Ronny was disappointed by her response. He took her to be more open and honest than that. But it wasn’t exactly a fair question. He was accustomed to women who threw themselves at him. They wanted him to know they had the hots for him (or at least for his wallet) if it was the last thing they did. The fact that she wasn’t playing that game was still something he was wrapping his head around. It didn’t mean she wasn’t playing a game, but it did mean she wasn’t playing that game.

“What about your family?” he decided to ask her. “Do you live around here?”

“Here in Windale?” Was he insane? “No sir. I live in Eugene.”

“Married?With children?”

Fine time to ask if she was married after asking if she found him and his bodyguard attractive. “No sir. I’m not married.”

“Ever been?”

“No.”

“Didn’t want kids?”

“Yes, very much so. Still do.”

“So what are you waiting for? You’re what? Thirty? Thirty-one?”

“Thirty-two.”

“So why no kids yet?” Not that he was in favor of any such thing. He was not. But he was damn curious.

Brina found his curiosity damn intrusive, and she knew she could just tell him to mind his own business. Or something to that effect without offending him. But oddly enough, she didn’t mind telling him. “I haven’t found my person yet. I’m waiting until I’m married. Until I have the right partner.”

Another first for him: a woman willing to wait. And he liked the way she referred to the right one as her person . “What about your parents? Your siblings?”

“Everybody in my family died in a fire.”

That shocked Ronny. He didn’t expect to hear that. “How did you make it out alive?”

“I wasn’t home. I was supposed to be, but I had snuck out of my bedroom window and went to this party a friend of mine was having. When I got back home, the fire department, and the entire neighborhood, was at my house.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

His voice sounded so genuine that it touched Brina. She nodded her head.

“How old were you then?”

“I was thirteen when it happened.”

“You moved in with relatives I take it?”

“With my auntie, yes sir. My family’s from Detroit.”

Ronny saw a look of bitterness appear in her eyes. “But?”

“It didn’t last long. A few weeks of her foolishness and I was out of there. Nobody was willing to take me in so I lived on the streets for a while, scraping by.”

Ronny was horrified for her. “You were homeless?”

“Homeless and hungry. Homeless and grieving for my family. Wishing I had been home and went down with them.”

Ronny stared at her. “How did you survive?”

“I didn’t really. It was tough. But this cop saved my life. He saw me rummaging through a dumpster and he ran me down when I tried to get away. He took me to this shelter for wayward teens and left me there.”

“That sounds worse than the streets.”

“But it wasn’t. It changed everything for me. They really looked out for us. I graduated high school and got an academic scholarship to the University of Oregon. It changed everything for me. After college, I went back to Detroit to work at this charity there. Then I was offered a better position and moved back to Oregon.”

Ronny was pleased to hear that it worked out for her. But it brought him to their first meeting. And he decided to go there. If she did have some grand scheme to reel in a billionaire and all the power and prestige that went along with it, he wanted it out in the open. “Do you remember me?” he asked her.

Brina stared at him. Why would he ask her that? “Do I remember you?”

He noticed she had an annoying habit of asking him the question he asked her. That was why he didn’t answer her.

“No sir, I don’t remember you. Are you saying we’ve met before?”

“That’s what I’m saying.” He was studying her eyes. He could sniff out a liar a mile away.

“Where sir?” She was searching his eyes as if he had to be mistaken. “I don’t recall ever meeting you.”

A part of Ronny was hurt that she didn’t remember him when he remembered her so vividly. And dreamed about her more than a few times afterwards. And was worried about her even during that brief encounter. “It was about seven months ago.”

“Seven months ago? I had just gotten out of . . .”

“Out of prison, that’s correct.”

Brina stared at him. He had mentioned something about prison in the car, but she had no idea he knew of her incarceration.

“You had job interviews lined up with various charitable organizations when we met.”

She nodded. “I remember having interviews lined up.” But she still didn’t remember him.

“You went to this fast food restaurant to see if you could get a job in the meantime, until your real interviews panned out into employment.”

“None of them worked out,” she said. “It was one of the lowest times of my life. But I still don’t recall meeting you during that time.”

“I was the vagrant-looking man sitting on the sidewalk outside of that fast food joint. It was raining and you sought shelter under the overhang where I was sitting.”

It still didn’t ring a bell with Brina.

“You gave me half of the biscuit you absconded with.”

As soon as he said the word biscuit, she remembered him. “ That was you ?” She was shocked.

Ronny smiled. “Finally some recognition,” he said happily. “Yes, that was me.”

But it still made no sense to her. “You were a vagrant seven months ago?”

Ronny laughed. “No, no. But I think to everybody else who walked by me with those disapproving looks, I appeared to be one. So you assumed I was one too.”

“But you weren’t?”

“No. Not at all. I had been jogging for about an hour, was muddy and disheveled, but I was hardly a candidate for vagrancy.”

Brina smiled. “And there I was giving you half of the only food I was going to get that whole day.”

Ronny considered her. “You didn’t get another meal?”

She shook her head. “Nope. Like I told you then, you never know. That’s why you never turn down food.”

“And your interviews didn’t work out?”

She shook her head again, a sad look appearing in eyes that were almost too big for her face. “They couldn’t look pass my criminal record. Especially when they saw that embezzlement charge. Especially when I had supposedly embezzled funds from another charity.”

For some reason Ronny already knew the answer to the question he was about to ask her. “Were you guilty as charged?”

Brina shook her head. “No sir. I never stole money from anybody my whole life. Or anything else. I was the one who went to my executive director and told him that somebody was stealing from the organization.”

“And let me guess: he pointed the finger at you.”

“That very afternoon the FBI showed up at Starbucks where I was having coffee with my boyfriend and arrested me on the spot. It was like he called in the Feds as soon as I left his office.”

“Which meant he was probably the one stealing those funds,” Ronny said. “Did you ever look into that possibility?”

Brina shook her head. “They didn’t grant me bail, so I couldn’t look into anything.”

“But surely your attorney investigated the possibility?”

“He said he looked into it but couldn’t find anything. He even tried to suggest at trial that my director or the field supervisor could have stolen that money, but the judge said there was no evidence to blame it on either one of them, so he wouldn’t let him even mention it to the jury. I didn’t stand a chance.”

“How long did you serve?”

“Two years of a three-year sentence, including time served when they wouldn’t give me bail. Talk about my life turning upside down. I went from being the darling of the non-profit world, to persona non grata within days of my arrest. My conviction sealed my fate in that world. Or any other corporate world actually. If Mrs. Dash wouldn’t have taken a chance on me and hired me here at Bradshaw Manor, I don’t know what I would have done. I was at the end of my rope when she hired me.” Tears appeared in her eyes, which touched Ronny deeply.

“I even cried in the interview,” Brina continued. “I was so hungry and scared and tired. I was just plain tired. To go through so much and for something I didn’t even do. It was just so unfair to me. I’m sorry,” she said as she turned her teary face away from him.

But Ronny quickly reached over, gently took her by the chin, and turned her face right back to his face: tears and all. “There’s nothing to be sorry about,” he said. “Because you’re absolutely right. It was unfair. It is unfair.”

It was the first time anybody had ever validated her truth. She stared into his eyes. “You believe me?”

He nodded his head. “Yes, Sabrina, I believe you.”

The tears that she was trying to stop from coming came like an avalanche. She’d been holding them in ever since it happened. And when Ronny grabbed hold of her and pulled her into his arms, she broke. And began sobbing. She couldn’t stop.

Ronny held her as tightly as he could. This poor baby, he thought. What injustice had been done to her! He wanted to tell her right then and there that he was going to make it right for her if it was the last thing he ever did. But as soon as that thought entered his mind, Brina pulled away from him and stood on her feet.

“This is so unprofessional of me,” she said, wiping her with the back of her hands. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to tell you my sob story when I’m sure you have many of your own.”

“I told you there’s nothing to be sorry about.” But as he looked into her eyes, he could feel her trepidation. This was too much for her. Or was it too much for him? He couldn’t discern the difference, which was always a bad thing. He withheld his I’m going to make it right speech. For now.

He stood up, tightening his robe.

“I’m sure your bath is cold by now, sir. I’ll freshen it up,” she added and was about to head in that direction.

Ronny almost stopped her. But he didn’t. He let her do her job. And when she finished, he made it a point to have his back to her, standing at the wall-sized window in his bedroom, as she came out of the bathroom.

“Is there anything else you need, sir?” she asked him without bothering to go near him.

“No,” he said without turning around. “Thank you.”

Brina felt a little letdown, but she knew it was for the best. She’d told him way too much. He said he believed her, but was that really true? He wasn’t behaving as if he believed her. The vibe was just off. But that was for the best too. She left his bedroom.

When she left, Ronny rubbed his face with both hands. He could fall for her. He realized it in that instant. He could fall hard for her.

Something he swore he’d never do.

Something he still was never going to do.

He went to the bathroom, removed his robe, and washed even the thought of her off of his skin.