His Touch Turns Me On.

Esther's POV.

It took Madam Patricia's intervention to stop James from firing me on my very first day.

And ever since then I'd tried to tread more carefully because the young billionaire didn't play about his privacy.

He gave me a strict warning: moving forward, I was to stay away from my room and everything that concerned him.

Even though I planned to follow his warning to the letter, I still couldn't help myself from meddling a little bit.

I'd been working here for the past three days and in those three days, I'd tried to study him. So far, I knew he liked his coffee with no sugar, worked twenty out of twenty four hours and was an entirely different person with Lily.

But even that didn't soften his hatred for the holidays. He still stayed away from activities related to it, avoided decorated rooms and made sure to have his headphones on whenever Lily played Christmas songs.

I'd figured that the only way to get James Silver to indulge in Christmas activities was through his niece, Lily. He almost found it so hard to refuse her.

If I deliberately created situations where he had to step in for his niece, then that would make him indulge in activities and before the family Christmas dinner, he'd love the holidays.

And I'd get the rest of my pay.

Yes, that sounded just about right.

“Esther, I'm ready!” Lily's excited tone snapped me out of my thoughts.

I lowered my gaze to find her clad in a pink dress and a pink bow laying on top of her light brown hair. She was also holding a hamper. We were going to get some ingredients to bake some ginger bread. Lily insisted I taught her the recipe.

“That was fast. I just need to get this–” I glanced at the coffee machine brewing with low hums, “to your uncle. Wait for me in the sitting room okay? I'll be done in a minute.”

“Okay” she nodded, turning around and racing to the living room.

As if on cue, the coffee machine stopped with a soft pop. I pulled out the jar from under, pouring the brown liquid into a mug after which I added some milk. As the liquids mixed, spirals of steam exuded from the mug.

I still couldn't understand why he didn't want any sugar in his coffee.

It seemed to me like he was deliberately denying himself of the sweetness in life.

Such a strange man.

I shook my head in amusement as I placed the mug on a tray. Holding either side of the tray, I headed out of the kitchen.

After a series of stairs-climbing and turns, I arrived at his workspace. I knocked two times on the office–the instructed amount he'd mentioned–and I heard a ‘come in’ right after.

I twisted the door knob open and for some reason, my heart jumped in my throat when I saw him. His dark hair was ruffled, like he'd been running his hands through it for a while. His body was hunched over his desk, a hand holding his forehead as he stared at his laptop screen with scrunched brows.

I didn't need to be told he was struggling with whatever was on his screen and even now, there was just this softness to his features. Compared to the man I'd met earlier, he looked like someone I could actually talk to right now.

He sighed, darting his eyes towards me, “your coffee.”

He blinked back and then his eyes narrowed at me, “you're not the chef.”

“Yeah, I'm assisting him in the kitchen now,” I lied easily, hoping he bought it.

Seeing that he didn't question me further, I paced towards his table, placing the tray on the space reserved for his mug. He was that particular.

After dropping it, he glanced at me, and then his eyes shifted to the door. But I didn't want to leave. That was not why I was here. I was here to talk him into coming with Lily and I to get groceries.

Even though I knew he'd never leave his workspace to follow us, I still felt the urge to try.

When I parted my lips, his brows furrowed.

“What is it?”

“Well…” I drawled, my eyes lingering over his gaze, “I just wanted to say you shouldn't frown so much. I've seen how you smile when you're with Lily. You should keep that up.”

He scoffed, and then he adjusted himself on his seat and that made me take two steps back because his expression was now icy.

Damn.

I didn't mean to piss him off or anything.

“You're crossing the lines Esther.”

I bit my tongue, “I was just saying though.”

He parted his lips again but this time he stopped himself, lifting his mug instead. I squeezed my lips, not liking the turnout of things.

There goes my conversation starter.

Well, maybe that wasn't a great start.

Resigning, my shoulders sank as I turned on my heels, heading towards the door. As I walked, I couldn't help but wonder why he was so uptight, so cold and so aloof.

I mean, I wasn't the best person to be around but I knew how to warm up to people when needed. I'd tried my best to be nice to him but all he does is act like I'm some cricket making annoying noises.

Disappointment squeezed my lungs, making it a little hard to breath. With every day that passed, the more I felt like getting him to love Christmas was going to be impossible.

And if that didn't happen, I would still be stranded.

God help me, I promise I–

That thought scrambled out of my mind as I twisted my ankle. Pain shot through my joint as my world tilted.

“Ah!” I cried, my eyes snapping shut as I crashed to the floor.

Except the floor felt oddly softer and warmer.

Wait.

The floor didn't have a heartbeat right? So why was I hearing one? I opened my eyes and I found James’s hand on my waist, pulling me so close to him. The warmth from his chest spread towards my cheeks making them sizzle as I stared at him.

James had caught me before I fell.

And I had no idea why that sent sparks straight to my core.