Chapter 4

FOUR

Hugh

I barely slept all night. How could I with my girl sleeping right next door? I couldn’t get what happened between us out of my head. My fingers still smelled like her, and I spent most of the night replaying everything that happened between us over and over again.

The way she spread her legs for me. How wet she was. The little moan she made when my finger first started to sink into her. How perfect she looked spread out before me.

She was so tight, so wet, and hot. I had to fight not to come, and I pulled out once I reached her barrier because I was losing that fight. I didn’t want to embarrass myself, so I had practically run from the room. I paid, trying to get myself under control, but I’m not sure that I did that.

I’m on edge. I finally have my dream girl in my home, but this is not the way that I wanted it to go. In all of my dreams of being with Letty, none of them ever started with my buying her.

I need to get it together. I need to find a way to show her that I want more from her than just being my assistant. I need to show her that I want her for more than one night.

I want to be able to do stuff with her and not feel like she’s doing it because of the money. I want things to be equal between us, or as equal as they can be, with me being her boss.

I want to be able to demand that she tell me why she needed the money. It’s driving me crazy. Why was she there? Why would she sell her virginity? Why wouldn’t she just ask me for the money? I would have given it to her, no strings attached. I would do anything for Letty.

She’s had me wrapped around her finger since the moment that I laid eyes on her. She came in to interview for my assistant position, and I fell for her right then and there. I hired her on the spot and then went to work delegating all of my tasks to other employees so that I could spend all of my time with her. If the workload seemed light, she never seemed to notice, or she hasn’t said anything anyway.

We spend most of our time together, but I’m starting to realize that I might not know as much about Letty as I would like to. I need to fix that as soon as possible.

I climb out of bed and head into the bathroom to get ready for today. I feel like I’m on uneven ground, like I don’t know how to proceed with Letty. We need to talk. I need to find out what’s going on with her, and then maybe I can tell her that I love her, and we can go from there.

I shower and get dressed. I pause outside of the guest room next door, listening for any sounds of Letty being awake, but it’s quiet behind the door. I’m surprised because it’s actually pretty late in the day. Almost eleven.

I guess she needed her sleep. It was a bit of a late night.

I sigh as I head downstairs and start on breakfast. I’m getting the plates out when I hear the sound of Letty’s feet on the stairs.

“Smells good,” she says sleepily, and I nod.

“Hope you’re hungry.”

“Starving. I didn’t eat much yesterday.”

I add more eggs to her plate and then set it in front of her before I grab my own plate and join her at the table.

Letty digs in, and I follow suit. We eat in silence for a few minutes, and then I clear my throat. I can’t wait any longer. The suspense is killing me. I was never really a patient man, and that hasn’t changed as I’ve gotten older.

“We need to talk,” I blurt out, and she blinks, her fork hovering halfway between her mouth and plate.

“About what?” She asks slowly, warily.

“Why were you at the auction?” I ask.

“Why were you at the auction?” She counters.

“I’ve already told you. I was there to win you.”

“Why?”

“Answer my question first. Why were you at the auction, Letty?”

She takes a deep breath, dropping her fork as she leans back in her chair.

“I needed the money,” she says simply, and I bite back a growl.

“For what? What do you need millions of dollars for?”

“I didn’t need millions. Just a few hundred thousand.”

“For what?” I press.

She just shakes her head, and I throw my hands up in the air.

“It’s personal,” she says in her defense.

I sigh and she looks like she’s thinking hard, debating something. Finally, she comes to a conclusion and nods slightly.

“I don’t have much family,” she starts, and I nod.

“Me either,” I tell her, and she looks surprised for a moment.

“Well, the family that I have left sucks.”

I frown. Letty deserves to have the best of everything, and I hate that people who are supposed to love her have let her down so much.

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

“I don’t have many people. I’ve never been super popular, and that was fine with me. I like keeping my circle small.”

“Me too. Nothing wrong with that,” I agree.

She nods, looking deep in thought, and we finish eating in silence. I try to read between the lines, and I wonder what she needed hundreds of thousands of dollars for her family for. Is someone sick? I can tell that it’s hard for her to open up to me, which tracks. She’s worked for me for eight months, and I feel like I barely know anything about her.

Maybe I need to fix that tonight.

“You didn’t grow up here,” I say, and she blinks at me.

“No. Neither did you.”

“No.”

She looks like she’s trying to figure out where I’m going with this, and I clear my throat. I like to keep her on her toes. It might be the best way for me to break down her walls.

“Would you rather be cold or hot?” I ask.

“Cold. I hate sweating,” she says, scrunching up her nose.

“Same. I spent years in the desert, and I think that’s enough for me. Favorite food?”

“Pizza. Cheese.”

“Steak and potatoes. Do you like to cook?”

“Hate it. I’d rather clean or do literally anything else. It’s probably why I eat so many frozen meals and take out,” she says with a small smile.

“I’ll cook for us.”

“What?”

“When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?”

“The assistant to a defense contractor,” she says flippantly and I grin.

“So, you’re living the dream then, huh?”

“Isn’t that obvious? What did you want to be?”

“A fireman.”

“Why didn’t you?”

“The hours and benefits were better in the military. Plus, I wanted away from my hometown and that was a quick way to do that.”

“Why?”

“My mom passed away, and my dad and I were…well, we never got along. I wasn’t the son that he wanted.”

“How is that possible? You’re some bigshot, billionaire, badass hero!”

“That’s a lot of b’s,” I joke.

“It’s true. How could he not be proud of you?”

“I don’t know. I guess a lifetime of practice makes it easy for him.”

“I’m sorry, Hugh. He should be proud of you. You’re a good man,” she says softly.

We share a smile, and I can see her soften. I guess this is the most that she’s learned about me since she started working for me, too.

“I’ll help you clean up,” she says as I gather our dishes.

“Have dinner with me tonight,” I say, and she blinks.

“You know that you don’t have to ask. You bought me, so the way I figure, I’m yours for the next twenty-four hours.”

“I don’t want that,” I tell her, and it’s the truth.

I hate having the money hanging over us, but I hate having a clock there too, even more.

Although, I have always worked best under pressure.

“Have dinner with me because you want to.”

“Like a date?” She asks, and I nod.

“Yeah, it’s a date.”

She pauses, and nerves hit me hard. I swear that I stop breathing until she finally smiles softly and nods.

“Alright. Dinner tonight.”

I nod and try not to show how relieved I feel.

“I need to get some work done,” I tell her.

“And I need to find some real clothes.”

“I’ll have a driver bring you home. I’ll pick you up for dinner in a few hours.”

“Alright.”

She nods, and I pull out my phone to call my driver. I watch as she heads upstairs and try to get my head on straight.

Tonight is my chance, and I’m determined not to mess it up.