There was no way in hell he or his inner beast were ready for what they both found standing in front of him.

It was her. His fated mate.

The girl with raven dark hair and sparkling green eyes. The girl with full red lips and curves so juicy he could drink them in for the rest of eternity. She was the epitome of every dirty fantasy he’d ever harbored. She was also the thing he feared he could never have.

She smiled up at him with a mop in one hand and a bucket full of cleaning supplies in the other. James stumbled back, nearly tripping over the hall rug. He grasped his head, hearing his grizzly roar so loud it just about deafened him. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the girl’s face change to a look of horror.

“What’s wrong? Should I call a doctor?”

He tried desperately to get himself under control. She was his cleaning lady. He could glean that much from the mop, bucket and black maid’s uniform. She was here to clean the house, and he was scaring her half to death. He took a deep breath and righted himself, blinking repeatedly to clear away the sound of his bear roaring inside his head.

The beast filled his mind with images of rutting the girl right there on the snow covering the porch, her white skin sliding over the cold white ground. He shook his head, pushing away the image of her red panties down around her ankles.

“I’m fine,” he said, finally presenting himself like a normal human being.

He could never allow this innocent, beautiful creature into his dark, depraved world, but he still needed a cleaning lady. She had come here to do a job. He wouldn’t send her away.

“I’m Matilda, from Fate Mountain Cleaning,” she said, reluctantly stepping into the house.

He closed the door behind her and cleared his throat.

“Yes. Of course. I was expecting you. Forgive me, I was working on a project when you arrived and just had an insight.”

“Oh…” she said.

He knew she didn’t believe him. He was already coming across as a maniac. He couldn’t have that. But why did he care?

He had to get rid of her as soon as possible. As soon as she was done with the cleaning today. He’d booked two hours with the company per day. He’d just have to call them and tell them that he needed someone else. That was it. There had to be someone else.

He gritted his teeth and showed her to the kitchen to start her cleaning job. The dishes had stacked up rather badly in the sink and around the counters. That was one benefit of being a billionaire. He could always afford new dishes when the old ones got dirty. Unfortunately, that led to a great deal of dirty dishes over time.

Matilda stood in the doorway of his massive kitchen and took in the sight. Her mouth slowly dropped until it was all the way open. Her eyes stared blankly at the scene.

“I haven’t had a cleaning lady for weeks. As you can see,” he said.

She cleared her throat and finally came to. “Clearly,” she said flatly. “I guess I should start in here then?”

“That would be great. I love cooking, but not so much cleaning. I’m glad you’ve come. I was going to have to order more pots and pans again.”

“Right…” she said, her tone growing strained.

“I’ll leave you to it then,” he said, knowing he had to get away from her as fast as possible.

Chapter 5

Matilda set the bucket on the floor and leaned the mop handle against the wall. She had never seen a kitchen this messy in her entire life. Not even in the movies. Not even in her imagination. Every surface of the chrome and black granite kitchen was covered in dirty dishes. Stacks of plates rose up to the thirteen foot ceilings. Pots and pans littered the deep sinks. Matilda rubbed her temples, taking in the scene. It was almost too extraordinary to believe it was real. How can one person possibly make this much of a mess by himself?

No matter how unbelievable it was, James Hill had indeed trashed his mansion and dirtied every dish he owned. Matilda could make out at least three different plate pattern designs and was beginning to understand the dangers of having too much time and too much money on one’s hands.

James Hill definitely had both.

Matilda slowly slid out of her jacket and hung it up on the back of a chair that was tucked into the kitchen table. The breakfast nook was the only surface in the entire room that wasn’t completely covered in dirty dishes and trash. It looked like the one place that James bothered to clean off.

As Matilda took in the shocking scene around her, she glanced out the window over the breakfast nook at the snowy grounds beyond. It was a lovely view, and she could understand why James chose that area to keep clean.

Matilda turned back to the kitchen with a sigh and rolled up the sleeves of her maid uniform. This was going to take every ounce of determination she had in her body. She should be getting time and a half for this kind of work, but she doubted she would. Her mother’s help only went so far and Matilda had only just agreed to work for Fate Mountain Cleaning.

First things first: Matilda began to organize the dirty dishes and rinse them off. James’s kitchen did have a large dishwasher, but it would take about thirty loads to get all of this mess clean. Not to mention the counters, the floors, and what she was sure would be lurking in the refrigerator. As she scraped the plates into the garbage, she wrinkled her nose and scrunched up her eyebrows. This was almost more disgusting than working in the meatpacking plant for Tim’s family.

Tags: Alyse Zaftig Paranormal
Source: readsnovelonline.net