CHAPTER FIVE: A New Face

My dad’s call woke me up the next morning.

I groaned as I reached for my phone and answered without checking the caller.

“Hello?”

“My little girl!”

Dad’s voice immediately woke me up.

I smiled.

“Good morning, Dad.”

“How are you?”

“I’m fine.”

“How’s summer going?”

“It’s going well.”

“Hope Damien is treating you well?”

He asked all at once.

I sat up in bed.

“I couldn’t tell him that his little girl had already been punished by Damien for breaking one of his rules.”

“I’m good, Dad. Everything is fine.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

He continued asking questions, and we talked for a while. I told him about the house and how beautiful my room was, but I carefully left out everything that had happened the previous evening.

There were some things I definitely wasn’t going to tell my father.

Especially not about Damien.

We ended the call after talking for a while.

I placed my phone beside me and checked the time.

It was exactly eight.

I looked at the clock again.

Eight.

I remembered Damien’s rules.

Breakfast was at eight.

I didn’t want to break another rule so quickly.

I quickly got out of bed and freshened up.

As I dressed, I remembered something Damien had told me the previous day.

His maid would be resuming this morning.

He had said she didn’t sleep over. She had taken a day off yesterday and would be back today.

I was curious to meet her.

I hurried downstairs.

When I got to the kitchen, I found a woman arranging things on the counter.

She was a little skinny, with a friendly-looking face.

She turned when she heard me.

“Good morning.”

“Good morning,” I replied.

“Are you Jane?”

I smiled.

“Yes.”

She smiled back.

“I’m Skylar.”

“Nice to meet you.”

“You too.”

We started talking almost immediately.

Skylar was easy to talk to.

She asked me how I liked the house and whether I had settled into my room.

I told her I loved it.

We were already starting to flow when footsteps sounded behind us.

I turned.

Damien walked into the kitchen.

“I see you two have met.”

His morning voice was deep and slightly husky.

I didn’t want him to stop talking.

He looked at Skylar.

“Skylar, this is Jane. My best friend’s daughter—the one I told you would be coming over for the summer.”

Then he looked at me.

“And Jane, this is Skylar, my housekeeper. She helps around the house.”

I smiled.

“Nice to meet you.”

Skylar nodded.

“Nice to meet you too.”

I wondered what Damien had told her about me.

I looked at him for a moment longer than I should have.

Then my eyes accidentally dropped.

I noticed the obvious bulge beneath his trousers.

My cheeks immediately became warm.

I looked away quickly.

Did he really come downstairs like that?

I wondered if he even noticed.

I felt a strange flutter in my stomach and quickly turned my attention back to Skylar.

But Damien had already noticed me looking.

Our eyes met.

For a second, neither of us spoke.

Then he cleared his throat.

“Skylar, prepare the table.”

“Yes, sir.”

Damien turned and headed back toward his room.

I watched him disappear.

I immediately looked away.

Why did I keep doing that?

Why couldn’t I control myself around him?

I sighed.

This summer was already becoming a problem.

After breakfast, Skylar and I sat in the living room and watched a movie.

She seemed like a nice person.

We laughed at some parts of the movie, and she occasionally made comments about the characters.

But even while watching the movie, I couldn’t completely concentrate.

My mind kept going back to Damien.

Especially the way he had looked at me in the kitchen.

I shook my head.

Stop thinking about him.

But the more I tried to stop, the more my mind wandered.

I remembered the morning.

I remembered the way he had walked into the kitchen.

I remembered his deep voice.

And then my thoughts wandered somewhere they shouldn’t.

That’s the man you call Daddy, Jane.

I frowned at myself.

Why was I thinking about him like this?

He was my dad’s best friend.

He was Damien.

The same man I had grown up calling Daddy.

Yet somehow, I couldn’t stop seeing him differently.

“Jane?”

I blinked.

I turned toward Skylar.

“What?”

She held out her hand.

“Pass me the remote.”

“Oh.”

I quickly picked up the remote and handed it to her.

She looked at me suspiciously.

“You’ve been quiet for a while.”

“I was just thinking.”

“About what?”

I smiled awkwardly.

“Nothing.”

Skylar raised an eyebrow.

“Are you sure?”

“I’m sure.”

She shrugged and turned her attention back to the television.

I leaned back against the couch.

Maybe I needed to get my thoughts under control.

I had only been in Damien’s house for two days.

And already, he was taking up far too much space in my head.

I wondered how I was going to survive the rest of the summer.