by B. B. Hamel
She laughs at that. “I can’t blame you. I mean, David’s unconventional, but this… well, anyway. I came down to ask you why he’s been so distracted and why he’s paying so much attention to you, but I guess I know now.”
I groan a little. “I gave it up pretty easily.”
“Don’t feel bad, Emma. You had no choice.” She grins at me, some of her icy exterior melting away. “I’m good at what I do.”
“I haven’t even seen him for a while,” I say. “I mean, like over a week.”
She nods. “I’m not surprised. I’ve been keeping him in check, but I know he’s still thinking about you.”
“Really?” I ask, feeling like a little girl.
Olivia’s eyes narrow. “Does it matter? This contract is just for money for you, right?”
I take a breath and calm myself. “Of course,” I say, and I know it’s a lie as soon as I say it.
She watches me carefully and finally shakes her head. “I guess I should come clean. David sent me down here to check up on you.”
“Why doesn’t he check himself?”
“Because I won’t let him.” She sighs and stands. “We need to launch the Mark 2, Emma, and it’s behind schedule. Your new project is setting us back even more. I need him focused.”
“I can understand that.”
“But this is a new development,” she says, talking to herself now as she paces across the room. “This contract is strange, but maybe…” She trails off, pursing her lips.
When she turns to me, her icy exterior is back. She morphs back into the serious business bitch in seconds as she nods to herself.
“You’ll see David tonight,” she says. “He has a new toy I bet he’s dying to show off, and maybe if he blows off some steam…” She trails off, and shrugs.
“Are you, uh… whoring me out?”
She grins. “No, honey, you did that to yourself.”
I sit there, eyes wide, as Olivia laughs. I’m pissed but I also can’t really disagree with her. She’s right, I whored myself out for money… but god, I did it to David Carlson, and it’s been totally worth it.
“Tonight,” she repeats. “Do you know where he lives?”
I shake my head. “No.”
“I’ll email you the address. Show up at his place around eight. You can do the rest.”
“By the rest, you mean… fuck him.”
“Yes. Well, no, I just want you to make him happy. He’s been so distracted lately…” She trails off again and laughs.
“This is really weird, you know that? I mean, I don’t have to listen to you.” I cross my arms, feeling annoyed by the way she’s treating me.
“You don’t,” she agrees. “But you will. Because you know I have the company’s best interests at heart, and by extension, your own.”
I bite back a retort and just shake my head. “Can I trust you?”
“Probably.” She shrugs. “Who knows? You work with what you got.” She walks over to the door. “Tonight at eight. I’ll email you the address. Don’t forget.”
She leaves, letting the door shut behind her. I sit there, totally blown away.
How the hell did that just happen? She completely tricked me, and now I feel like she somehow owns me, like I have to do what she says. Except David’s the only one I really need to listen to.
I groan and put my head in my arms on the conference room table. I want to scream but instead I just hold it in. I’m screwed in so many different ways, and now Olivia is going to make it even worse. I can’t tell David that she knows or else he might get angry. I can’t risk pissing him off, not right now, not with how everything is.
“I’m such an idiot,” I mumble to myself.
“Uh, excuse me?”
My head snaps up. A group of five people are standing in the doorway, holding laptops.
“Sorry,” I mutter.
“No worries,” the guy that spoke says. “We just have this room.”
“Yeah, right, sure. Have a great meeting!”
I run the hell out of there, feeling like a moron. Back at my desk, an email from Olivia is already waiting for me, and I know what it says.
And I know I’m going to do what she wants.
14
David
I’m drinking a whisky and staring at some recent reports from my engineers when my doorbell rings. I cock my head, surprised. I wasn’t expecting anyone.
I get up and walk over to the little video monitor. I hit a button to turn it on and blink.
Emma’s standing there in a cute, low-cut dress.
I forget all about my work instantly. I’ve been craving Emma pretty fucking badly these last ten days, but Olivia’s been cracking the whip and I’ve been trying to keep myself focused. But god damn, this is too tempting. She just shows up on my doorstep, wrapped up in a sexy dress for me? It’s like she knew I was thinking about her.
I hit the intercom button. “Do you have a delivery for me?” I say.
Emma starts then grins. “I think you’re the one with the big package,” she says.
I laugh. “How’d you find me?”
“I have my ways.” She pauses. “Gonna let me up?”
“Absolutely.” I hit the buzzer that unlocks the door, and she heads inside. I go to meet her on the stairwell.
My house is a modern living space hidden behind an old world façade. I wanted to keep the original brick outside to help fit in with the surrounding neighborhood, but I need a modern interior. Everything’s smooth glass and electronics where possible. Internet connected and lightning fast, it’s a cutting edge house, and I’m seriously proud of it. I built a lot of the tech that went into it.
Emma comes up the steps, looking around with wide eyes. “Whoa,” she says. “You live here?”
“Of course,” I say, laughing.
“It looks like a museum.”
“Didi, dim lights,” I say, and the lights suddenly dim. “Better?”
Emma stares. “Didi?”
“That’s my home assistant AI. I coded her from scratch.”
“You did a wonderful job, David,” Didi’s voice says from one of the many hidden speakers.
Emma jumps. “What the heck?”
“Don’t fear me,” Didi says. “I am a benevolent machine.”
I grin at Emma. “It’s just joking,” I say to her, although she looks seriously unnerved.
“How did it know?” she asks.
“Facial recognition. That was a bear to code, actually.” I turn and head into the kitchen part of my home, and Emma follows.
“So you, like, coded your own robot?”
“Pretty much,” I say. “Didi isn’t as smart as she seems, most of it is just a trick.”
“Ignore the human, I’m a genius,” Didi says.
“That phrase is triggered by what I just said,” I explain.
Emma shakes her head, grinning. “I get it, you’re a nerd.”
“Pretty much.” I gesture at my refrigerator. “Drink?”
“Sure.”
I grab a bottle of wine, open it up, and pour two glasses. I sip it while watching her, and she seems a little nervous.
“Why are you here?” I ask her suddenly.
She starts. “Huh?”
“I can’t figure out why you showed up like this,” I say to her. “I’m guessing it’s about our contract, but I’m not sure.”
She shrugs a little bit. “Can we not talk about that yet? I don’t want to lie to you, David.”
I narrow my gaze and sip my drink. She looks worried and a little afraid, and I have no clue what’s going on. But she doesn’t seem upset, just a little… nervous. I sigh and shrug.
“Okay, fine,” I say. “You don’t have to tell me, at least not right now. But sometime tonight you will. Deal?”
“Deal,” she agrees, sipping her drink again.
She looks so fucking sexy, sitting in my kitchen like this. I know she’s dressed up for a special occasion, which means she probabl
y put this all on for me. There’s a reason she’s here and I probably won’t like what it is, which is why she doesn’t want to tell me.
I like that she doesn’t want to lie to me. I find myself trusting her, even though I probably shouldn’t. There’s something else going on here that I need to know about, but I can’t seem to care about it all that much.
Fact is, I’m just happy she’s sitting here with me. I’ve missed her, I realize with a start. I haven’t gotten to spend a lot of time with her these past few days and I’ve really missed flirting with her, laughing with her, kissing her. I’ve missed her skin and taste and it’s taking all my willpower not to fuck her right here and now.
I need to do something to get my mind off sex. “I want to show you something,” I blurt out suddenly.
Emma perks up. “What is it?”
“It’s out back, down by the harbor.”
“Harbor?” She laughs a little. “I didn’t know you had a dock-side property.”
“I do,” I say casually. “Come on. I think you’ll like it.”
I head back toward the stairs, drink still in my hand. She follows as I head down and through the back, passing some storage space. We head out through my garage, down a side pathway, and end up walking along a path that leads directly to the harbor.
I bought this house specifically because of this feature. I’ve been working on a project for a while now, and I think it’s going to help change the world. Emma catches up with me and sips her drink as we head toward a small dock with several boats anchored around it.
“I didn’t know you were a sailor,” she jokes.
“I’m not,” I admit. “I hate the water, actually.”
“Why do you own three boats?”
“You’ll see.” I grin at her as we head toward the largest of the three, a big white thing called The Santa Mario And Luigi. I really am such a fucking nerd sometimes.
I help her onto the boat. She watches as I untie the ropes holding it onto the dock before I follow her up, ignoring the minimal rocking under me. The Mario is a pretty big boat, so I don’t have to worry about getting seasick or anything.
“Okay, so we’re on a boat,” she says. “What’s so special?”
“Right this way.” We head up around the back and into the main command room. I thumb the keypad next to the wheel and the boat roars to life. I hit a few buttons and sit back on the chair as the boat slowly starts to maneuver itself out of the mooring.
“Holy crap,” Emma says when she finally figures it out. “Self-driving boat. Are you kidding me?”
I laugh and nod. “Yep. It’s really good, too. Can you imagine a world where shipping is perfectly optimized and boats don’t need crews? We’d save so much money and use less fuel.”
“Wow,” Emma says. The boat slowly chugs along as it heads out toward open water. I keyed in a simple route that takes us a couple miles out and back, maybe a two-hour trip all told.
“Nobody knows about this,” I say to her. “I don’t want it to get out, not yet at least.”
“Don’t worry. Your secret’s safe with me.” She laughs a little bit, shaking her head. “How’s it work?”
I launch into a technical and nerdy explanation, which she seems totally enraptured by. I shouldn’t be surprised, since she’s such a big autonomous car fangirl. Autonomous boats and trucks and planes and everything else are basically just one step away after we get the car stuff buttoned up, so she shouldn’t be surprised about this. But still, it’s a huge step in the right direction. It’s the sort of thing that can change the world all over again.
She follows me down below to take a look at some of the machinery. The below deck is relatively small and bare bones, but it’s enough living space for a couple of people at least. The machinery is in the back of the boat, and she fawns over it for a little while, laughing when I tell her that I built it all myself from spare parts I stole from the Mark 2 upgrade.
“Well, I’m impressed,” she says finally, sitting down on one of the benches. “This is amazing. How long have you been working on it?”
“Since we started the Mark 2,” I say. “The first version wasn’t so great. I actually sank a boat.”
She blinks. “You… sank one?”
“Wasn’t my fault,” I say. “Radar malfunctioned and it hit a reef. Cost me a bunch, though.”
She looks a little nervous and I can’t help but laugh. I sit down next to her, hand on her thigh. “Don’t worry about it,” I say. “Really, we’re totally safe.”
She nods and lets out a breath. “I trust you. Just got a Titanic flashback for a second.”
I wave my hand at that. “We’d both fit on that door,” I say. “Idiots didn’t even try.”
“I know, right? Rose could’ve just, like, moved over.”
“Not like Jack was a huge guy. I’m probably bigger.”
She laughs a little bit. “I definitely think you’re bigger.”
I watch her for a second, and I can tell she wants me to kiss her. Instead, I stand up and walk across the small space. I toss back my wine and grab a bottle of whisky from under the sink. It’s already opened, so I just pour a little measure into my wine glass.
“I’ve been meaning to talk to you about something,” I say, leaning up against the counter.
“Okay,” she says. “What’s up?”
I hesitate. “Let’s go on deck.”
She cocks her head. “Is it serious?”
“Not really,” I say. “But I’m afraid of how you’ll take it.”
“Maybe I’ll jump into the water,” she jokes. “Probably best if we stay down here.”
I take a breath and let it out. I’ve been thinking about Julie a lot these past few days, and why I’m doing this whole thing to begin with. I need to know if that’s my daughter, and I’m starting to wonder if I’ll ever really be able to figure it out.
I know I can’t just ask her. If she hasn’t told me yet, there’s a reason she’s keeping it to herself. She doesn’t want me to know and doesn’t want me involved for whatever reason. I have to work around that, figure out a way to spook it out of her.
I came up with something a few days ago, and suddenly I’m feeling like this is the time. Maybe it’s stupid since we’re trapped on this boat together, but I have to give it a try.
“There’s a clause, in the contract,” I say to her slowly. “I’m not sure if you read it very closely.”
She goes very still. “Okay, what is it?”
I take a deep breath and slowly let it out. “Basically, the language is such that if you have any living children that are already mine, then I retain custody over them when the contract is fulfilled.”
For a second, anger clouds her face, but it quickly passes. That split-second tells me everything I need to know, and my heart starts beating faster. She watches me without saying a word before slowly standing. “I don’t remember that clause,” she says finally. “And I don’t know why it would matter anyway. Julie’s my only daughter, and she’s not yours.”
I flinch. I didn’t expect her to lie to blatantly about it, but I guess I shouldn’t be shocked. “I just thought you should know,” I say. “I’m sure it doesn’t matter, it’s just an odd little detail I didn’t notice until I was going through it recently.”
“Right. I see. Thanks for bringing it up.” She hesitates a second. “I’m going above deck.”
I watch as she walks away and heads up the stairs. I curse to myself and drink back my whisky. I shouldn’t have been so obvious about it, that was so damn clumsy. She knows that I know now, and I have no clue what kind of game we’re going to play from here on out.
I head back up to the top deck and I find Emma sitting in one of the chairs, looking out over the sea. “Take me back,” she says.
I walk over to the computer and change the course. The boat slowly turns back around and heads toward home again as I sit down across from her.
We ride in silence for a bit, the wind whipping
through my hair. This isn’t what I wanted to happen but I should’ve known it would upset her. Shit, I did it to piss her off, just to see how she’d react.
But now I regret it. I hate making her upset. I’m such an asshole. I want to just ask her the truth and tell her that all I want is to be a part of her life. I’m not going to take Julie away from her.
The words sit heavy on my tongue. I want to say it so badly. I won’t try and take her, but I might try to take care of both of them.
“Olivia sent me here tonight,” Emma says suddenly. She looks over at me. “She knows about the contract. Sorry.”
I meet her gaze and sigh. “Guess that was just a matter of time.”
“You’re not mad?”
I shrug. “I’m not mad.”
“Good.” She looks back out over the ocean, and we ride the rest of the way back to shore in silence.
15
Emma
He fucking knows.
I should be concentrating on work, considering I’m involved in the most important project of my career, but I can’t seem to focus on anything. I keep thinking about that night and what he said to me.
He fucking knows Julie is his daughter. I don’t know how, but he knows, and maybe this whole contract was his way of taking her from me.
And it might work. For a while, I was letting myself have some fun with him, letting myself get lost with him, but not anymore. He’s my fucking enemy now, because he knows the truth, and I think he’s going to use it against me.
I’m not going to run away or back out of the contract. No, I still need that money, but now I’m going to be careful. I won’t let him seduce me, now that I know what he is.
He’s a thief, and he wants to steal my daughter.
I’m so angry I can barely explain it. I don’t know what he was thinking, saying that to me down in the middle of that boat. Maybe he was looking for some kind of reaction, I don’t know, but as soon as we were back on dry land, I put a smile on my face again.
And I’ll keep smiling for the next five months or however long we have left. I’ll keep smiling and fucking him until this is all over and he gives me my money.