Beginning and Impressions

Meghan

Meg tugged on the skirt she had been forced by her friend to wear as she walked through the formidable gates into the Victorian house her cab had just pulled up at.

She was going to meet her new employer, Jack Grayson and for some reason Juliet had thought that a fitted pencil skirt would look appropriate and maybe appeal to the figure she was lacking as a female. Not that she was on the skinny side, but compared to Juliet who had a flat tummy, amble bosom and a killer backside, she was seriously lacking.

And she seriously needed her new job. She was way behind on her rent and other bills that were piling up by the week. This was the only solution if she did not want to accept Juliet’s offer to move into her house. Juliet had come from old money and had no reason to work yet she was a tax lawyer.

So, as Meg tugged down on the skirt she reminded herself that Juliet had forced it on her because she really wanted her to get the job and if her social skills were zero maybe her feminine looks could help.

She rang the bell twice and waited. Looking at the house, she felt a tug in her heart. It looked to be at least a hundred years , made with oak wood and  sported a carefully tended lush garden. She also spied a gate that probably led to another garden behind the house or a secret entrance.  Old houses handed down had always been an interest of hers. She believed they held secrets that dated back to ancestral love stories and relative rivals or some dreadful secret that had been covered up for years or centuries.

Another reason why she took the job. 

Meg had graduated with a degree in journalism and had worked in news houses for years and then discovered that she had a deep love for writing books. She had gotten fired from her previous job because her boss felt that she told too much stories in each news piece she wrote. This was her first try at writing a book which was another reason why Juliet had seemed it important to impress upon her appearance.

The door opened and she was immediately tongue tied. The guy who opened the door looked to be in his early thirties and looked like the definition of a guy who would graciously be on the cover of a playboy magazine. His eyes were gold with gray flecks and his hair was brown with red tints. His nose look as though they had been carefully sculpted and his smile, was like butter. Her gaze slid lower to where the white crisp button down shirt did justice to his chest as it hugged his toned, lean figure.

He was damn handsome. Was this this guy she was supposed to work for? She had searched for him online but there weren’t any adult pictures of him. If this was him, then she was damn lucky.

“Are you Megan Summers?” he asked.

Meg shook herself and stretched out her hand.

“Yeah, that would be me. Megan, at your service?”

“I’m Jake Randall. Come in” he said, taking her hand.

Wait, this wasn’t her boss? Then who was this guy, a butler perhaps? If this guy was the butler, then her boss must look like Zeus.

She walked into the house and Jake closed the door behind her.

“When do I get to meet Mr. Grayson?” she asked Jake.

‘Oh, he’s just in his study. I’ll take you to meet him now” Jake said and started off. He had walked only a few steps when he turned back to look at Meg.

“I just have one thing to tell you. When you enter the study, do not stare at him”

Meg was perplexed. Not to stare at the person who she was going to be working for? Was he that handsome that women fell for him at one glance? Or was he vain about his appearance and felt she wasn’t important enough to look at him? Well, she was here to work and not drool at him. So, she would keep her head down and do only what she was told to do, which would be strictly business.

She had filled out an ad he placed for a writer to write some sort of biography in form of a novel. The bio stated that it involved old letters and a family history and Meg had been intrigued. She had no job and writing a novel about lost love and romance letters had certainly hooked her in. She hadn’t thought he would pick her application but when she got the email of acceptance, she had been ecstatic. It had come at the right time because she had been threatened with eviction and the pay was half up front before the job began.

So, if her boss didn’t want her staring at him for some reason she couldn’t fathom, then she wouldn’t. She would do only what she was supposed to do, which was to write.

Jake stopped in front of a door that had a brass plaque sign on it which read, ‘Do not enter’. He pushed the door opened and gestured for her to enter. When she did, he closed the door behind her.

“You can have your seat, Miss Summers” a voice said.

Sarah stopped in her tracks and looked across the room to where the voice had come from. She had literarily gotten goose bumps and was instinctively curious. She looked towards a large mahogany desk half hidden by a bookshelf and then dropped her eyes. She had been told not to stare at him and she wasn’t about to get herself fired before she even began.

She took the chair that was closer to the door and sat down, tugging on her skirt a little. From the sound of his voice, he wasn’t someone who would be impressed by the stunt Juliet had told her to pull. 

“I’m glad you could make it.”  The figure behind the desk spoke out again and Meg felt a little chill spread through her body. The person behind the voice had a voice that seemed to command and compel at the same time. Or was she merely creating an image of him and was imagining it?

“Me too” she replied, for need of something to say.

“I will no waste your time and simply explain why you are here. I’m sure you know a little bit about it. I stumbled upon a couple of letters I found in a box in this room some time ago. They seem to hold a significant importance to my family history and I am interested in keeping that history alive. The letters go back about two hundred years, so they aren’t all that legible. I trust that you will be able to fill in the blanks wherever necessary.” He paused for a while and Meg could feel the silence around them like a heavy coat on her shoulders. “It was said in your application that you studied journalism and have an avid interest in writing”

Meg nodded, her eyes darting in different directions to find a suitable place to stare at.

“Then you will be efficiently suitable” 

Meg nodded again.

“A slight change though. You will have to reside in the manor for the duration of your writing.” he said.

Meg’s head shot up quickly but her eyes remained averted.

“Stay here? I have a place where I can stay. I would prefer to commune from home each day”

“I would have permitted that but this is a piece of history that is important to me and I do not want to see it get lost or copied or otherwise. I believe if you remain here then nothing will happen to it.”

“I am not going to treat it as some piece of garbage. I assure you that I am very aware that they are important and cannot be replaced. But I do not want to stay here” Meg protested.

“You will have to, if you want the job. If you don’t, then I bid you good day” her boss said with such calm that oozed confidence.

Meg knew from his tone that even before he said it, he knew she would stay. How she knew it, she did not know.  But she knew he knew, and there was no use fighting it.

“I will stay”

“Good. You will also have to give your phone and laptop each day to Mr. Randall. He will make sure that you haven’t taken a picture of any of the letters and sent to anyone”

The punch of rage that course through Meg had her standing up quickly. How dare he implied such thing? That she wasn’t honest?! 

Her gaze flew to him as she opened her mouth to speak, but what she saw made her words die on her tongue.

Jack

Jack watched as her mouth opened in shock. Well, she had seen it. He had planned to show her little by little, a day or two after she began working in hopes that he wouldn’t scare her away on the first day. But, now she was staring at him in absolute shock. A really fine way to shut her mouth or rather keep it open without her speaking.

He walked towards her and snapped his fingers in front of her face.

“Miss Summers, you can stop staring now.”

When she blinked at him and seemed to look embarrassed, he shook his head. The fault wasn’t hers, humans couldn’t control their responses to things sometimes. And not certainly when you have created an image of a person in your head and get shocked by the exact opposite.

Which was what happened each time. 

She would be the fifth person to come and work for him in the past month. He was hoping she had a little backbone and would not go scurrying home and never come back now that she realized her prince was a beast.

He really wanted this one to stay, she had some spirit in her.

“I’m really sorry, sir. It was rude of me to stare. I was just …”

“Just horrified? Slightly disgusted? Amazed that I look nothing like your imagination?” he asked, with the same frightening calm.

“I was going to say surprised. Do not put ugly words in my mouth, sir” she said to him with a huff.

Jack was taken aback but did not let it show. Well well, she had more than a little spirit. The others had been permanently tongue tied and had given excuses to leave. This one seemed to have lots of spunk. 

Things would be certainly interesting in the manor. It had been a while since he had some sort of fun. Not since his accident five years ago.

He moved back to his table and sat behind it.

“As I earlier said, you will give your electronics to Mr. Randall who will check each day to make sure nothing leaks out.” Jack repeated. Perhaps she had missed that little bit of information when she fell into that temporary shock.

“And I was about to say that you trying to imply that I might or may be dishonest in any way is downright insulting. I will submit them only because I know that I will not be caught doing anything dishonest. Please do not indirectly insult me again, sir” she replied.

What had he said about spunk? It was more than spunk. She had fire and guts in her. He knew she wouldn’t try to share the letters for her own side profit because he had done an intensive search on her and discovered that the reason why she was fired was because she wrote and gave more than was necessary. Simply put, saying the truth had been her downfall.

“If that is all then I will expect you to resume Monday morning. When you arrive, Mr. Randall will show you to your quarters” he said.

“And where will you be?” she asked.

“Unavailable” he replied and turned his chair around, dismissing her.

Meghan

“So, how did it go?” Meg had gone to Juliet’s place as soon as she left the manor.

“Well, I got the job.” she replied.

“And? What happened? What does he look like? Did he notice your skirt?  Is he sinfully gorgeous as some say?” Juliet asked her, eager to hear the juicy details.

Meg looked at her friend and shook her head. “Don’t you have cases to pore over? Or some client to go see?”

“My client cancelled so I have free time. Now, spill before I force the information down your throat. First, is he sinfully gorgeous or quite the opposite?”

Meg looked at her friend and wondered where she was to begin. Should she tell herself about the way his voice seemed to fill the whole study without being loud? Or how she had goose bumps? Or how she felt compelled to do his every bidding with just a single sentence? Or maybe she shouldn’t start from there. Maybe she could talk about the shock. Now that would be a very fine topic. 

When she had stood up and her eyes met with his face, no one could have prepared her for what she saw. Well, in her defense she had created a fantasy image of him in her head. Still, she had not expected what greeted her. His face, had been the shocker. White lines ran from his temple to his jaw at opposite ends, with a lightning shaped scar on his forehead. His lips looked pale as though he had no blood flowing through them. 

She had been shell shocked.

“Hey, are you listening to me?” Juliet’s voice brought her out of her reverie. 

“Yeah, yeah. I’m here. He wasn’t like I expected. He was…” her voice went to below a whisper

“Was what? Was he so handsome that trying to describe him has got you tongue tied?” Juliet asked, half laughing.

Juliet wanted to hear how handsome her boss was. Why couldn’t she describe the butler instead? At least she could fulfil her friend’s fantasy and keep the secret to only herself. The knowledge of how he looked like felt like a secret she could tell no one.

“He looks like an Adonis with the most amazing set of eyes I’ve ever seen. I’m certain he is from someplace exotic. He also has a smile that can make your knees turn to jelly” she said and smiled. Well, the butler had been nice to her, so why couldn’t he replace her fantasy?

‘”Well, it certainly took you a while. Taken a fancy to him haven’t you?’

Meg looked at her friend and rolled her eyes. “Juliet, I’m supposed to concentrate on work not to be fawning over my boss. It’ll certainly do me no good.”

“But it wouldn’t hurt your eyes now, would it? Nobody’s saying you have to touch. You could just ogle, admire and maybe stare from afar while keeping your work ethics in check” her friend replied with a smirk “although, if I were you I’d go further. Maybe get a hot number or two to work in” Juliet ended with a wink.

“Jules! I’m twenty five and definitely not a school girl. I will not behave in an unseemly manner that will jeopardize my work. Besides, I don’t think my boss is interested in me, if it were you then I’d probably say okay, but me? Nah, I’m sure his sexual or otherwise attraction lies somewhere else” Meg said

Her friend pretended to give her the once over and then nodded her head.

“Yeah, true. But that’s because we haven’t primped you up yet. Maybe we’ll hit the spa before you resume and shop a little”

Meg shook her head.

“I’m not going to let you buy clothes for me, Jules. Besides, I’ll be living in the house for the period I’ll be writing so fancy clothes are off the list and so is any sort of primping”

“Living there? But why?” her friend said and suddenly had a naughty look on her face. “Maybe, he is attracted to you. Maybe he wants to keep you there so he can get you in his bed before your contract is over! And you say he isn’t interested?”

“Slow down Jules. He is keeping me there because he doesn’t want me to reveal any of the information that will be in the book to anyone. Not that I will and I told him so”

“Are you sure that is all? I think he is attracted to you, Meg. I think he wants to hide you away from the world while he has his wicked ways with you”

Meg could only roll her eyes. When Jules got an idea like that, it was hard to put a limit to her imagination. She could create fantasies and scenarios that only happened and could only happen in the mind. It was a wonder that her friend became a lawyer instead of a writer. But lawyers created theories , didn’t they? Oh, well…

Not that the idea of her boss being attracted to her was a bad thing, because if she was to be honest with herself, she was a little bit attracted. Granted, his looks weren’t it but he wasn’t horrible to look at. In truth, his scars made him more formidable, more intriguing. It created an aura around him that matched the power that his voice eluded.

“Jules, you can come back to earth now” Meg said to her friend who was still creating possible reasons and future possible scenarios that Meg did not want to think about.

“Well, we’ll see Meg. Well see why he wants you there eventually. I bet I’m right though”

“If you’re right, then he will be disappointed. I am not going to have a fling for any sake especially not with my boss. That would be totally cliché”

Juliet looked at her with mock seriousness. “Isn’t everything?”