by Cooper, Jodi
Wanting him.
Needing him.
He had been gone a few hours at a meeting and had a surprise to share with her that he knew would make up for everything.
He was actually looking forward to sharing it with her and making amends for the issues they faced with the restraints.
Today was a rough day for both of them.
He was struggling to find a way to make their new relationship make sense, and in the process he had ignored her and treated her badly.
There was no excuse for that.
That wasn't in his character.
He wasn't one of the Doms who think it is okay to disrespect their submissive.
The power exchange meant nothing if it wasn’t for give and take, and he knew the importance of that and respected it.
Today wasn't about being her dominant.
Today's mishap was about him being a man in love with a woman he had known less than a month who he had completely lost his mind trying to sculpt into something that made sense in his head.
He wasn't going to fight it anymore.
He needed to face the reality of the situation and get a handle on his feelings if he had any hope of salvaging their budding relationship.
He badly wanted to salvage it, but he wasn't sure it was possible anymore, not after what had happened between them.
There was no point trying to fight against what his heart knew was right and what it was guiding him to do.
Today after he left the penthouse for the last time, he went downtown to a business meeting where he was investing in a small company.
He had originally aspired to be a silent partner but decided to buy the company outright and work on it himself as a bit of a break from all of the factories and larger-scale companies he bought and sold on a weekly basis.
This one was for him.
Or rather it was for them.
This investment had been more about making Hannah happy than about acquiring the new business and making sure all the numbers ended up in the black rather than the red at the end of the quarter.
It was a bigger risk than he would have generally been comfortable taking, but he had the comfort of knowing… or at least of hoping… that he wasn't going to be taking it on by himself.
When Nathan got into the penthouse he didn't see Hannah in any of the common rooms and assumed she was in one of the guest rooms getting settled.
She was going to be so excited when she heard about what he had done today that she would completely forget that she was upset with him… or that was what he hoped would happen at least.
He didn’t find her in the guest room.
He checked his own bedroom, and she wasn't there either.
He looked around to make sure she wasn't out on the balcony or in any of the other rooms before his excitement about the new project withered, and he went to his office to make a phone call to his lawyer about the new property and the leasing agreement while he waited for her to return.
When he sat at his desk he noticed there was a hand scrawled note in the middle of his ink blotter.
Dear Nathan,
After everything that has happened between us I think it would be best if I was not employed by you anymore. Working for you after our brief endeavor would be too difficult for both of us, and I fear that emotions would interfere with the upkeep of the homes and the way of life you intend to keep.
I understand that there may have been a miscommunication between us about the agreement and the change that we recently added, and I will take responsibility for that. I must have misunderstood you when we spoke the other night and read more into it than you intended.
I'm sorry that things didn’t work out for the better and hope that you will consider giving me a good recommendation so that I can find employment in another home through Herald's Housekeeping Agency, but if you feel I have overstepped my boundaries by accepting your conditions and advances, I completely understand and will not push the issue further.
Thank you for your time and for the wonderful experiences you have given me. I will never forget them or you, and I wish you the best of luck in life and all of the things you do.
Sincerely,
Hannah Morris
Nathan read through the letter twice before swearing and dropping it back on his desk.
'Did she honestly just break up with him and quit her job at the same time in a note?'
He found her number in his cellphone contacts.
Hannah was sitting in Bright Eyes curled up tight in a little ball in one of the hammocks she loved so much with a white chocolate chip, cranberry scone trying to drown her sorrows in a vanilla iced coffee with extra whip.
The sugar made her stomach hurt more than it was helping her feel better, but she kept drinking the delicious coffee hoping the caffeine would help her get enough energy to do something other than mope over the sad state of her life.
The Star Wars theme song starting playing from her pocket and her phone buzzed hard on her hip.
She sighed and pulled it out.
Reading the name on the caller ID made her heart beat a little faster.
It was Nathan.
"Apparently someone got their letter but didn't get the message she intended it to deliver,” she said as she hit the button on the side of her phone and ignored the call, sending it to voicemail.
She readjusted and curled back into the hammock and took a big bite out of the scone with a sigh.
Nathan pulled the phone away and looked at it when he got her recorded voicemail message and tapped his foot while he waited to be able to leave her a message.
When the beep sounded he jumped right in, "Hannah, this is Nathan Maxwell calling. I received your letter and feel like we have had a grave misunderstanding. I would like for you to come back to the penthouse and discuss the matter with me so that we can resolve any lingering issues and concerns that you may have. Give me a call if you are currently unable to come back, and I'll wait to hear from you or see you. Thank you."
“Man, that sounded so professional and disconnected. What the hell is wrong with me?” Nathan mumbled to himself.
He slammed his hand down on the polished mahogany of the desk and clenched it into a fist while he debated calling again and leaving a more personal message.
Against his better judgment, he hit redial and waited as it rang through again.
Hannah sighed as Star Wars started playing again and turned her phone off.
She didn't want to talk to anyone and she really didn't want to talk to Nathan Maxwell.
It went back to voicemail after only a few rings and he realized that she was ignoring his call intentionally.
"Hannah, this is Nathan again. I realized the last message sounded extremely formal. I want you to know I'm sorry for the way I acted, and I want to talk to you about it. If you let me explain things, it might help us both, and we can talk about what's going on between us. Please call me back."
He hung up and leaned back in the leather office chair, running his hands through his hair.
He turned up his phone volume and put it in his pocket.
“Damn,” he muttered.
Chapter Twenty
It had been a week since Nathan found Hannah's letter of resignation sitting on his desk.
He tried to ignore the fact that without her he couldn’t focus on anything.
Keeping his distance in the past when a relationship ended had never been a problem.
He had always been glad to get away from them and start something new, but that didn’t’ feel like a viable option this time.
Being attracted to someone and being attached to someone were two different animals.
Yet somehow he had managed to become both when it came to Hannah.
Nathan doubted she had found a new housekeeping job so quickly.
Placement from the agency could take weeks depending on availability. He had a feeling he knew just where to find her.
“Not that I'm going after her,” he
whispered to himself numerous times.
But he wasn't even able to convince himself that was true.
Twenty minutes later and he was pulling up outside of Bright Eyes Coffee Shop, parking his Aston Martin on the side of the street looking up at the colorful sign.
Seeing it in person, he could tell why the place charmed her.
It had a comfortable atmosphere and felt homey.
The windows all had window seats complete with thick, plush cushions and pillows.
Reading nooks and hanging hammock chairs mingled among the café tables and the walls were stacked to the ceiling with books.
The barista greeted him, and he ordered a latte before looking around.
He wasn't sure if Hannah would be there, but he had a feeling at some point she would be.
He would wait.
Nathan wandered through the sea of books and hammocks when he spotted her on the other side near one of the windows.
She was curled up in a hammock in her socks and little jean shorts with the frayed tips, sipping on an iced coffee with whipped cream and caramel sauce while she read a paperback.
She looked completely in her element here.
He watched her for a second as she turned the page and her foot tapped the air making the chair swing in a soft circle ever so slowly.
Nathan wanted to pull her out of the chair and kiss her until she forgot about being mad at him and how much of an insensitive jerk he had been to her before she left.
Approaching her made him surprisingly nervous.
Nervous wasn't something Nathan was used to being.
He wasn't the kind of man to hesitate over things, and he wasn't afraid of much of anything.
But this was his one and only shot at getting things right, and he needed to not screw it up for a second time.
"Hannah," he sat on one of the stools next to her, and she looked up with shock in her eyes.
"What are you doing here, Nathan?"
She closed her book and tucked it into the pocket on the hammock wall.
"I need to talk to you," he said in a low voice, trying not to draw the attention of everyone in the small coffee shop.
"I think everything was made quite clear the last time we were together, don't you? I don't think there is much of anything left to discuss," her face held a sadness and an air of pride that she was clinging to.
"Not exactly. You left your letter on my desk. We didn't speak before you left, and therefore I haven't gotten to explain myself or apologize for being an idiot."
"Well, in that case by all means," she sat up to listen to this.
She felt a little ashamed of the way she was acting.
Maybe she was being hard on him, but he made her feel like a fool, and she felt used.
"I tried to call you. Several times," Nathan explained.
Hannah chewed the inside of her cheek.
She had been screening his calls.
It may have been a cowardly move, but she wanted to avoid him for a while and just slink off, lick her wound and move on.
The trouble was moving on wasn't working out so great.
She had been staring at the same page in that book for an hour until she automatically turned the page.
None of the words were sticking in her mind.
The only words her mind held were the ones she had written on his stationary and left in the middle of his desk a week ago.
"I'm sorry about that," she admitted.
Seeing him was stirring up confusing feelings.
She wanted to be angry and hurt but at the same time she wanted him to soothe her.
It touched her that he came down to find her, but in the same instant she remembered why she left in the first place.
Attraction was rushing back, and yet she was trying to block out her feelings.
"I came here to apologize. You were completely right about how I was acting," Nathan ran his hands over his face. "I messed up. Everything was starting to come together, and I have a horrible habit of ruining things just as they start to go right. I should never have treated you the way that I did."
He seemed genuine in his apology as she searched his eyes.
She was a little surprised he would admit to it.
Nathan sighed and she could tell this was hard for him.
"I love having you with me. I know I acted distant. When I realized how much having you with me was starting to mean to me it freaked me out a little. I'm not used to feeling that way. I've never really had a serious relationship before where I was invested in it." He let out a low laugh, "Go figure. I invest in everything else but not myself," Nathan shook his head.
"Why is that?" Hannah asked leaning forward.
"I guess I just never planned on that being a part of my life," he shrugged. He wasn't really sure why he had never envisioned getting married, having the little house with the white picket fence, a dog and two point five children. "It's hard for me to open up about things. I'm just not a very demonstrative person when it comes to emotions and things like that."
"So this must be hell for you, huh?" Hannah raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah, kind of. But it's worth it. You’re worth it. If I have to tell you and show you how I feel, I'll do it. I just can't lose you."
He took her hands in his.
"I understand how hard it is. I can tell it took a lot for you to come down here and talk to me like this."
"I want to offer you a job," Nathan told her.
His tone made it sound like there was something more to it than the housekeeping position she had held previously.
"Back at the penthouse?" Hannah asked, disappointed.
"No, this is something a bit more important than taking care of my penthouse."
"What is it?" she was curious now.
"I want you to take over as manager of one of my investment businesses."
Hannah looked stunned and flattered but entirely baffled.
"Honestly, I'm not qualified for that. I would hate for you to put me in charge of a corporation and have it go under because I don't know what I'm doing. I've never worked in something like that and have no experience," she explained.
"I think you have quite a lot of experience and would be comfortable in the location," a sly smile curved his lips.
"No… um… what's the investment?" Hannah couldn't imagine what it would be that she would have experience in.
'A maid service? Did he buy the agency?' she wondered.
"This," he said gesturing around Bright Eyes with his hands open wide.
Her heart skipped a beat.
"Are you serious?" tears welled in her eyes.
“I am.”
"You bought it? You bought Bright Eyes?"
One of the tears broke away and rolled down the apple of her cheek.
"I did," Nathan nodded "Would you be willing to help me run it?"
"Yes!"
She couldn't believe that after all of her petitioning and saving and trying to help the shop by coming here every day that Nathan had gone ahead and saved it from going under.
"Did you do this for me?" she wiped the tear away smiling.
"I might have," he looked down at his hands, "I want you to be mine. My submissive, my lover, my partner. I intend to be a better man for you. The kind of man I know you deserve and the kind of man I know I can be. Will you give me that chance, Hannah?"
She couldn't believe her ears but she knew what to say.
"Yes,” she smiled. “I will."
"It's like a dream come true," Hannah smiled against him.
Nathan kissed her hair, "It sure is. The best type of dream."
Epilogue
Twelve months later…
Taking over managing Bright Eyes had been one of the best decisions Hannah had ever made, and she owed everything to Nathan.
He had given her the resources to make her dreams come true.
Her dreams had become their dreams, and life had fallen into place.
Han
nah finished setting up delicately frosted cupcakes and baklava dripping in honey in the display case and made sure all of the tags were facing the front before sliding the glass door shut.
"Ten minutes until show time," Nathan called out from the kitchen where he was busy preparing pastries from Hannah's very specific guidelines and making sure everything was in order before they finally opened the door to the public.
She had butterflies the size of eagles in her belly.
"There's already a line of people waiting outside the door," she called back to him with her nerves barely masked behind the facade of control she was trying to portray on the outside.
"That's a good thing, honey,” he reminded her with a laugh.
"I know. I know. I just forget how much work and stress all of this is every time we do it."
Hannah wiped down the front counter for the third time in an hour and straightened a pile of books next to the register and the little bowl of peppermints and hard butterscotch candies.
"Still love it?"
He asked coming out of the kitchen and playfully swatting her butt with a dish towel.
Hannah squealed and swatted him away.
"Yes. And I love you too," she accepted his on the fly kiss as he headed back to the kitchen.
"Both very good things, since I'm still just as in love with you as I was one year ago."
Hannah sighed.
Things had worked out so perfectly for them over the past year. She couldn't be more thankful for that.
They had each other, and now three cafes. Hidden Treasures, their newest café, was having their Grand Opening today and the neighborhood was buzzing with excitement.
She had something to tell Nathan before they opened, and she had been running over it excitedly in her mind all day long and waiting for the perfect moment to tell him.
"Honey, it's about that time. Can you come in here with me?" She tucked her towel in her apron and peered at the clock again which seemed to be moving entirely too fast to be accurate.
Nathan came in beaming and looked up at the clock.