I never knew when I dozed off, then I felt a hand on my hips and I was dressed in a vulnerable dress. I grabbed the hand and pinned him down on my bed, holding him tight down. He didn't say a word, he just stared at me lustfully. My eyes flew open. My heart was doing a drum solo against my ribs. In my head, I was a high-level secret agent, a lethal weapon in a satin nightgown. In reality, I was just a girl who had spent way too much time watching action movies to cope with her trauma. I had him pinned, alright. My knees were digging into his mattress-conquering thighs, and I felt like a total boss—until I realized exactly who I had pinned.
It was Mr. Graystone. The billionaire. The guy who owned the house, the bed, and probably the air I was currently breathing.
I felt embarrassed and I released my grip, but I was still sitting on him. "Oh, sweet cheese and crackers," I whispered under my breath. My face was so hot I was pretty sure I could fry an egg on my forehead. I didn't just move; I froze. I was a human popsicle sitting on a billionaire sundae. I wanted to teleport to Mars. I wanted to crawl into a hole and stay there until the year 3000.
I lost it as he turned me down and slowly caressed my waist. He was doing it was my first time. He knew, he knew Elias never touched me. Elias was waiting for our wedding night, but Mr. Graystone he made me think he felt safer with me, he was kissing me tenderly and moving all over me making me shake, craving him and wanting him the more, God damn it! I couldn't even ask him to stop, my boyfriend's dad?? what was I doing actually?. The room felt like it was spinning. This was not in the "How to be a Maid/Slave" manual. His touch wasn't like a villain's; it was soft, like he was handling something expensive and fragile. Which was ironic, because I felt like a cracked plate from a thrift store. My brain was screaming, Julia, get up! Run! Do a backflip! But my legs had turned into actual noodles.
Then I felt it, I felt him in, he was doing it coolly, he was not in a hurry. I thought maybe his wife never let him touch her or maybe he is sex hungry. I felt the heat, I was in a hurting wheel, then I gently, gradually liked it. Okay,
internal monologue time:
Julia, you are officially in the 'Pit of Confusion.' One minute I was grieving Elias, and the next, I was experiencing a weird, slow-motion movie scene with his dad. It was a hurting wheel—a dizzying, painful, confusing mess of emotions—but then, something shifted. The "layman" in me just thought, Well, at least someone is being nice to me today? Even if that "nice" was incredibly inappropriate and complicated.
I wanted him even more, he was bigger for a first-timer girl. More me, but I could handle him perfectly and he liked me for that. I mean, if I was going to be stuck in this billionaire nightmare, I might as well be the best at... whatever this was. I had always been a fast learner. my school exams? A-plus. Advanced math? Easy Elias did wonders in enrolling me in a school. Navigating a scandalous encounter with a grieving father? Apparently, I was a natural.
I knew at once that he was into me and I could take advantage of this opportunity hitting in my face. He gave me all I could ever believe I could have in my life. A little spark of the old Julia—the one who survived the streets of Yellow Duke—flickered to life. If they wanted to "enslave" me, fine. But slaves don't usually have the master pinned to the bed. I could use this. I could get the disc. I could find out why Elias was killed. If I had to act a little silly and play the part to get my revenge, then call me an Oscar winner. he loved the way I screamed and morned, without anyone telling me that, I knew by just looking at his eyes, he never said a word till he was done or should I say we were done?? I dozed off immediately after "all the pleasure" . but when I woke up some hours later, he was gone.
I was sitting, feeling like I never felt before, but he was gone. I searched the whole house, but I couldn't find Mr. Graystone anywhere. I felt sad and scared in a while. He is good in bed, or maybe it's because he was the first man that ever touched me that makes me feel that way. I wandered the halls like a confused ghost, wearing a robe that cost more than my entire childhood. "Hello? Mr. Billionaire? Dad-of-my-ex?" I whispered into the empty hallways. Nothing. The house was a tomb again. I sat on the bottom step of the grand staircase, hugging my knees.
"Great, Julia," I muttered to myself. "You finally find a way to handle the situation and the situation literally leaves the building." Was I sad? Or was I just hungry? Being a femme fatale is exhausting work. I felt a weird pang in my chest—maybe it was the "hurting wheel" again, or maybe I just missed the way he looked at me, like I wasn't just a "girl like me."
I started the chores so I could finish up before they were all back. I finished up early and went back to sleep. I lost my phone the day I lost Elias, but when I searched my trousers, I felt something, something stiff. I was scrubbing the gold-plated faucets in Jane's bathroom, humming a song that was definitely too upbeat for a funeral week, just trying to stay busy. I wanted to be asleep before Jane came back and started her "I'm rich and you're not" routine. But as I reached into the pocket of my old, dirty trousers from the night of the accident, my fingers hit something hard.
"Hey, Julia, what have you got in here?" I said to myself. I pulled it out. My heart stopped. It was a small, black, metallic disc.
Then I remembered something. Elias said, "Julia, please keep this, don't let them get it." Elias said those things to me... yes... I remember now. Could he die for just an ordinary disc? "Elias, what is hidden in here?" I said, trembling.
I sat on the floor of the laundry room, surrounded by the smell of expensive detergent and the ghost of my dead boyfriend. The disc felt heavy, like it held the weight of the whole city. I looked at it, then at the door, then at my own reflection in the washing machine.
"Elias, you idiot," I whispered, a tear finally escaping. "You gave me a disc and a billionaire father-in-law problem. What am I supposed to do with this?"
I tried to stick the disc into a laptop I found in the library, but it was encrypted. I tried to guess the password.
Password: EliasIsCool? Denied.
Password: ILoveJulia? Denied.
Password: GraystoneSucks? Extremely denied.
I giggled through my tears. It was a silly, dark situation. I was a poor, stuck and confused girl who lost her boyfriend for whatever I wasn't aware of, and I was holding the key to a billionaire's downfall while hiding in their laundry room. If I didn't laugh, I'd probably never stop screaming.
"Okay, Julia," I said, tucking the disc into my bra for safekeeping. "Time to play the game. They want a slave? I'll give them a slave. But this slave has the secrets, and she knows how to pin a man to a bed. Game on, Graystones."
I headed back to my room, tripping over my own feet once because I'm still not used to these fancy rugs. Even as a secret agent, I was still a bit of a klutz. But as I lay down to sleep, I knew one thing: Yellow Duke hadn't killed my spirit yet. It had just moved me to a bigger house.