“Merry Christmas to me.
I’m annoying like a little bee.
They can all kiss my round b.
Merry Christmas to me.”
Skipping through the mostly empty house, I loved the way my voice echoed.
“Merry Christmas to me.
I’m funny like a bee.
They can kiss my rich b.
Merry Christmas to me.”
“Ha. Rich and funny.” Coming to a stop at the front door, I peeked out the side window. “Where are you?”
Why couldn’t my present be early?
“People who are on time suck.” I was excited so that meant he should be there early. “What if he always makes me wait and be polite? That would suck too.”
I was just starting to get used to getting whatever I wanted, so it would be like going backward in evolution. “Nope. Not doing that.”
He was just going to have to be the type of Dom to give me whatever I wanted.
“Oh.” A car. “You’re here.”
It was some kind of big black sedan thing, but I wasn’t car rich I was investments rich, so I didn’t have to know what they were.
And before that I’d been too poor to know what they were because I could only afford a broken one.
“Please be nice. Please be nice. Please be nice.” Whispering softly, I tried to stop bouncing but that was hard. I liked wiggling and I liked the way my socks made me slide on the shiny stone floor. “Please be nice. Please be nice. Please be nice.”
Paid people were supposed to be nice, but after interviewing a dozen housekeepers and people like that who were supposed to keep my life neat and organized now that I wasn’t poor, I’d learned that logic didn’t always work in real life.
“Well, you’re not glaring and stomping.” That was a good start because the second housekeeper had stomped up the stairs and then fussed at me for opening the door myself once she’d figured out who I was. “If you tell me I can’t open the door, I’m going to spank you.”
Yep.
I could make any rules I wanted to.
“Merry Christmas to me…” Humming softly as I watched him get closer to the house, I took a deep breath and tried to remember that I wanted to make a good first impression. “He’s got to want to stay. No being annoying.”
I could do that.
Closer.
Closer.
Yay.
I really tried to make a good first impression, but somehow I opened the door too fast. The wind got the door. The door got me. I went flying.
“Oops.” My new Dom was fast and caught me before I face-planted on the fancy porch.
It was concrete or something like that and hurt.
A lot.
I wasn’t going to admit how I knew that.
“There we go.” Putting me upright made me realize he was a lot bigger than I’d expected. “Are you okay?”
Probably not, but dying of embarrassment didn’t seem to be a thing.
“You’re a lot nicer than I expected.” He was fast too. “Most people who’ve been hired for me have been assholes.”
Oops.
Was that rude?
“I’m going to do my best not to annoy you.” First impressions were always harder than I expected. “Good communication is important, though.”
My new Dom smiled, which seemed to be a good sign because it made his eyes crinkle and he looked like he smiled a lot. He made a good first impression, and at some point when I’d annoyed him a lot, I was going to tell him that. “We’re definitely not worried about the same things because I don’t find you to be annoying at all.”
Good?
Oh, maybe he wasn’t that smart?
That would suck.
As I was trying to decide how to respond in a way that didn’t make me look even more ridiculous, life distracted me again as another car pulled up in the driveway. It was a sporty one I didn’t recognize at all, but my Dom made a thinking sound.
Did he know what it was?
Could I ask him to teach me about cars while he gave me attention?
Money people seemed to like those.
I didn’t, but I was new money, not regular money…and definitely not old money.
“I really hope you won’t yell at me either. I’m still trying to find house helpers that are nice and I don’t want to add to my to-do list.” It was long enough already.
Having money fixed a lot of problems but it also created a lot of stuff that had to go on to-do lists.
“They’re yelling at you?” My new Dom’s eyes went wide. “What?”
Maybe that wasn’t as common as I’d thought it was?
“Um, yeah. The last housekeeper my lawyers sent over seemed to be interviewing me and she said I wasn’t being rich right.” She wouldn’t elaborate on what that meant but she was very serious about it. “Oh, don’t tell anyone but I might’ve…technically but not really officially…hired the lady I used to live next to. She’s got a minivan and not a hatchback. You can live in those a lot more comfortably. We just decided not to tell my lawyers.”
It was working out well for both of us because I had help cleaning the house and she now had enough money to move out of the minivan and into a month-to-month apartment.
It’d tried to pay her more but we’d both decided it wasn’t worth it because the lawyers seemed to be monitoring my finances too.
It was like still being an adult but having cranky babysitters following me around everywhere.
“You.” My new Dom stopped and blinked a few times, but before he could tell me how resourceful I was, the fancy car opened and another guy came out. “Oh.”
My Dom’s puckered-up expression said he didn’t seem to like the stranger either…it was another person who was glaring at me, so I already knew how this would go.
Badly.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing talking to another man?” Angry Car Guy stomped up the sidewalk, even cutting the corner and walking on the grass. I knew that was rude but he didn’t seem to. “You were told to be kneeling for me when I got here.”
Why?
He was hot but not randomly kneeling to offer to go down on him kind of hot.
“I was?” Who’d been supposed to give me the instructions? “Who are you?”
“Your fucking Dom.” Me and the man I thought was my Dom both cocked our heads. It seemed to make Angry Car Guy nuts because he stopped at the bottom of the porch and his glare got worse. “We need to find your fucking manners, boy.”
What?
“This isn’t going to work at all.” For a variety of reasons. “One second, please.”
I turned to first Dom guy. “Who are you?”
Clearly he wasn’t my Dom but that didn’t fill in the blanks about who he actually was.
Had I assumed a delivery guy was my Dom?
No, he didn’t have anything with him.
It took him a second to remember who he was because processing the question took lots of blinks and a deep breath. “One of your lawyers.”
Really?
“When did I get a hot one?” Mine were all ancient and cranky.
And stupid judging by Angry Car Guy.
Oh.
Who seemed to be New Dom Guy.
Turning back to him, I shook my head. “This is not what I ordered. You haven’t even asked me about limits and my safewords. This is a terrible introduction. Please leave.”
I wasn’t the brightest bulb but I wasn’t an idiot, no matter what the people around me seemed to think. I could also stand up for myself and I was not going to kneel for the angry man who didn’t seem to know what a Dom was.
Had he even googled what they did?
He stared at me for entirely too long, waiting like he was expecting me to do something interesting.
I wasn’t a performing monkey, so I dug out my phone and waved it at him. It was still my old one because I was pretty sure the lawyers were tracking the new one. It worked, though, so I wasn’t just bluffing. “I added the police on speed dial after the second housekeeper incident. She wouldn’t leave. The police were very nice and helped me fix the situation, but I can guarantee they won’t like you.”
Richard had a terrible name because everyone seemed to call him Dick, but he was a lovely man and didn’t mind that I was annoying. He’d also given me his direct number, so if I ran into weird issues again, I wouldn’t have to explain it to the dispatch woman who didn’t seem to be very bright.
“What?” Angry Car Guy or maybe Thinks He’s My Dom Guy didn’t seem to be able to process what was going on. “Just fucking kneel. I’m getting paid good for this, slut.”
Good grief.
Turning to the guy who might be one of my lawyers if I could trust him, I frowned and decided to see how smart he was. “How much sex should someone have had in order to be classified as a slut? There have to be rules around that label.”
He blinked and shook his head. “It’s a mindset, not a body count. You don’t qualify.”
“Hey, that’s good.” I finally had a smart employee. “I like you.”
But I still had the asshole to deal with.
“No. No kneeling. No rude names. No submitting. You need to get better information because this is all wrong.” Ignoring him as he turned around and stomped back to his car like a cranky toddler, I smiled at my lawyer. “Can you help me explain to Mr. Bartholomew what a Dom is? We seem to have had a miscommunication somewhere.”
And I was at the point where I didn’t know how to explain what had gone wrong.
“A big one.” Shaking his head, my nice lawyer watched the asshole’s car go back down the driveway. “Is the hiring problem why no one was manning the gate and it was just open?”
“Yes.” He connected the dots faster than anyone else I seemed to employee. “The men who showed up to interview for that weren’t rude, but they were very confused about what their job would be, and when I couldn’t explain it, they left.”
It was better than being screamed at, but not by much.
Lawyer Guy sighed and looked like he wanted to close his eyes and shake his head, but he had too much manners for that. “I’m starting to see why I was assigned to you.”
Well, that was one of us.
“Do you know what your job description is?” Because I didn’t. “If you’re not my new Dom, why are you here?”
Lawyer Guy—who sadly didn’t seem to be Dom Guy—took a breath and straightened his shoulders, making him look even bigger. It really was a shame he wasn’t Dom Guy. “I’ve been tasked with helping you manage the estate and reviewing the hiring issues. I’ve got a background in law and physical estate management, so they brought me on to fix the situation.”
“You were just hired to manage me?” Had they accidentally hired someone nice? How? “You’re not going to scream at me that I’m doing rich people stuff wrong, are you?”
He hadn’t even frowned at me…maybe he didn’t know he was supposed to be rude?
“There is never a wrong way to be rich. Period.” New Lawyer Guy gave me a stern look that was kind of sexy even if I probably wasn’t supposed to tell him that. “You’re rich. That means you’re right. Period.”
I really liked him.
“The first thing we’re going to practice is you raising one eyebrow, frowning at whoever was rude to you, and then turning to me and saying, ‘Daniel, please deal with this.’ Then you walk away.”
Logical and could give good directions.
He was officially my favorite employee.
“I can do that.” Standing straighter, I pretended to be one of my lawyers and gave a bored glare to the imaginary person beside us before turning to my lawyer and raising my eyebrow. “Daniel, please deal with this.”
“Perfect.” He shifted back to looking pleased and relaxed…and like a nice Dom again. It confused my dick but the rest of me managed to behave. “You did that wonderfully. Anyone annoying you for stupid reasons isn’t worth your time.”
Best employee ever.
“Yes. I like that plan.” It had to make everything easier. “Um, should I call someone and make sure you’re real?”
I wasn’t sure if that was stupid or smart, but he looked proud of me and nodded. “You know what you’re doing. You just need someone to help manage problems when they pop up. That’s what I’m here for.”
Okay, even if he was a con man who’d decided I was the perfect mark, I was going to keep him.
