Down Under

The door slams. I gaze down at my lap and notice my hands are still shaking. I ball my fingers into fists. “What just happened?”

“I fired your father.” Brian drops to one knee on the rug in front of me, taking my hands in his. “I’m sorry if that was traumatic for you. I thought about doing it before you arrived, but I wanted to give you the chance to tell your dad how he hurt you. You did well, Ruby. I’m so proud of you.”

Hearing Brian say he’s proud of me makes my stomach flutter.

“Is he really going to sue you?” I ask.

“I’m sure he’ll try.” He kisses the backs of my palms. “But you don’t have to worry about that, sweetheart. You never have to think about him again.”

I feel as though I’ve just been bought out by a larger, more powerful company. I expect to be struck by a greater sense of loss at how easily my dad handed me over, but it doesn’t come. It’s as if my heart knew this moment would be inevitable, and now the rest of me is just playing catch up.

“Thank you,” I tell him. “I wouldn’t have had the guts to confront him on my own.”

“I believe you would have eventually.” He strokes my knuckles. “But this way you get to move on sooner.”

I like the idea of moving on, but the big question is, move on to where? As if reading my mind, Brian flashes me a devious smile.

"Would you like to see where you'll be working?" he asks.

Wait, is he serious? “I thought all that stuff about the internship was just for show.”

“Sweetheart, I’ve never been more serious about anything.” He pulls me up from the sofa and leads me to a door behind his desk that I hadn’t noticed before. “Now close your eyes.”

I do as he asks, my pulse sprinting. I hear the doorknob click and feel a gentle swish of air as the door opens. With a hand at my lower back, Brian guides me through the doorway and into the unknown.

“Welcome to your new office,” he says.

I open my eyes and immediately gasp.

The word office doesn’t even come close to describing the room we’re standing in.

While the office we just came from and this one share a few similarities, like floor-to-ceiling windows looking out onto the city, the interior walls are painted a soft, creamy white. There’s a massive four-poster bed with pastel-pink bedding and a fuzzy carpet to match, and a towering pile of stuffed animals arranged on nearby chaises.

At the center of the room sits an elegant white desk sporting a laptop computer and vases containing at least three dozen pink and white roses. There are sex toys and fluffy throw pillows scattered throughout the space, and fairy lights strung along the walls and coiled around the bedposts.

To put it simply, it's the bedroom of my inner child's dreams, and my adult woman’s dirtiest fantasies.

I walk a slow circle around the desk, taking in all the little details. “You did all this for me?”

Brian nods. “It’s why I didn’t want you here before three o’clock. Less than twenty-four hours ago, this room was completely empty.”

I run my fingers over the soft white comforter, remembering what he said earlier about my new living arrangements. “Is this where I’ll be staying?”

“Fuck no. You’ll be staying in my apartment with me. But this is where you’ll work during the day.” He points to another door across the room. “That leads to your assistant’s office, and out to the main reception area.”

“I have an assistant?”

He sits down on the bed. “Liz will have to be reassigned, since she’s no longer working for your father. But I can hire somebody else if you’d prefer.”

“No, I like Liz.” I join Brian on the bed and can’t help but sigh at how comfortable the mattress is. He scoots back until he’s resting against the headboard, then motions for me to sit in his lap. I crawl into his waiting arms.

This is all so much to take in, both in terms of the incredible space around me, and what it means for my future. “You keep talking about me working in here, but what exactly will I be doing?”

His gaze drips over me like warm caramel. “Whatever Daddy tells you to do.”

My inner muscles tighten at the bossiness in his tone. I can already picture myself prancing around in tight dresses and knee socks, distracting Daddy from his important work by asking him to play a naughty game of doctor. Yet, at the same time, part of me can’t help feeling...disappointed. My dad is a douchebag and a workaholic, but there’s one thing about him that I can respect: he took his job seriously. I don’t want to be anything like him as a parent, but I can appreciate the pride he took in his work.

It’s a shame that I wasted so much time in school worrying about my grades, because I never stopped to think about what I actually liked or wanted. I know I want to be Brian’s little girl forever and ever. I just don’t know if I can settle for only being his little girl.