Aston’s Maid

Four

“What business would that be?” I asked, doing my best not to tremble in his presence. Why did he have to be so absolutely overbearing?

Aston smirked, his eyes sparkling with darkness. “The business you signed up for.”

I tried to swallow the ball of fear that had lodged itself in my throat all the while trying to appear brave in front of my nemesis.

“I signed up to be your maid,” I said, hoping he wouldn’t mention anything related to s*x.

“And my room is a mess.” He stepped closer, his proximity causing heat to spread through my body. “Clean it.”

Without a word, I turned my back to him and bend down to pick up the first item that came within my reach. It was a blue shirt with half the buttons undone. Without really paying attention to the garment, I looked around for his closet but didn’t find it.

“Um, Wh—where’s your closet?” I turned to ask Aston.

He moved a few pieces of clothing from his bed and flopped down on it with his back against the headboard. He moved an arm behind his head and flashed me an irritating grin which made him appear more angel than demon. But I knew better. I knew he was no angel.

“You’re the maid. You should know where the closet is,” he responded, nonchalantly.

I sighed and tried not to charge at him and strangle at him. “How would I know? I just got here and no one gave me a tour of your room.”

Aston shrugged. “So find it. Why are you wasting your time talking to me? You can’t leave until my room is clean and you don’t want your family to know you’re here, right?”

The mention of my family had me springing into action. Seeing a door behind the alcove I rushed towards it only to find out it was the en-suite. Doing my best not to ask Aston for help, I searched for something that might resemble a closet only to come up short. He had to have a closet here.

“Tick Tock, Tick Tock,” Aston sang and I couldn’t help but shoot him a glare.

“I can’t find your closet,” I admitted, hating myself for asking him for help. “I’ve looked everywhere.”

Aston chuckled and closed his eyes. “Take your time, Harmony. You’re not going anywhere until you clean my room.”

It was already late and I was already missing the family dinner and upsetting my sister. I was most likely missing out on her proposal and the longer I stayed here the more suspicion I was garnering from my family. And they could never know I’d been summoned. They could never know I was taking Harlow’s place.

“How can I clean your room when I don’t even know where your closet is?!” I wanted to scream the words at him but forced myself to be civil.

“So find it. I’m not your trainer,” he responded without opening his eyes.

“Then perhaps you should get me one,” I retorted, not sure if I was stepping out of line or not. I just knew Aston to be a ruthless and powerful man, but I didn’t know a thing about his personality. I didn’t know what made him smile or what made him tick. And I was better off not knowing.

“Why would I do that? You’re my maid not my girlfriend,” he replied.

I rolled my eyes, ignoring the blush which was probably saturating my cheeks right now. “Believe me, I have no interest in being your girlfriend. But if I’m to be a good maid then I need to know where your… closet is,” I said. I was about to add godforsaken but bit my tongue at the right time.

“My closet is here. You can find it. I’m not stopping you and you have all the time in the world,” he replied. Why was he so frustrating? He was doing this on purpose. I I knew he was. He knew I needed to leave before the day ended but he was deliberately making things difficult for me. He could show me his closet. He could tell me where it was. But no. He wanted me to waste my time and energy into looking for something that didn’t even exist just so he could get a good laugh at my expense. I bet he was going to tell this to his cousins later and they would all laugh at me. I didn’t care about that. I just wanted to do my job and go home.

“You expect me to spend all my time searching for your closet?” He couldn’t be serious. He just couldn’t be.

I was wrong.

Aston nodded, completely at ease in his bed. “Yes, and if you would shut up and actually get to work you might just find it.”

Biting back a string of expletives I ran my eyes over the walls trying to find some secret doorway or painting that might open into a wardrobe, but failed. The walls were smooth and the only frames hanging from them were too small to have anything hidden behind them.

I left him on the bed and went behind the alcove to check for any hidden doors or passageways. But other than the door to the en-suite, there was nothing else. Nothing that could lead me to his closet.

I hate him so much!

I huffed and stomped back out to see his lips twitching in amusement. He still hadn’t opened his eyes to look at me but I knew he could hear me.

“I can’t find it. And if I can’t find your closet then I don’t think I can clean your room. So if you have any other chores or errands for me then tell me or else I’m leaving,” I stated.

That did the trick.

He opened his eyes, those shimmering pools of gold locking with mine and I realized I was in way over my head here. This man was dangerous. Actually dangerous. I could see it in his eyes. If he wanted, he wouldn’t think twice about killing me. The intent to murder glittered as Aston got up from the bed and advanced towards me. I wanted to turn and run but there was nowhere for me to go and my inner voice was whispering at me that fleeing wasn’t helpful; he’d catch up to me in no time.

“Leave?” He said, his voice soft, betraying his deadly intents. “You really think you can leave unless I explicitly tell you?” I knew I couldn’t. We both knew it. But I only said that so he would tell me where his closet was. But he surprised me when he said, “You can. You can leave if you want to, but then I will have no choice but to summon Harlow here and have her clean my room. Maybe I’ll summon your parents as well along with Harlow’s boyfriend. What do you think? It would surely get the work done quickly, right?”

All the argument died in my throat and I wished for the hundredth time that I could disappear. I couldn’t let my family serve Aston. I couldn’t let him summon them here. No, I had to do whatever he wanted, no matter how long it took. Right now I couldn’t worry about attending family dinners. I had to protect my family.

Taking a hold of my wrist, Aston began dragging me towards the alcove. I wanted to tell him to let me go but I knew I had no right to say anything to him. I wanted to ask where he was taking me but after what he said, I decided to keep my mouth shut and just let him take me wherever he wanted.

Aston entered the bathroom and forced me inside before moving forward towards a door which I admit I hadn’t seen before. He opened the door and I found myself being pulled inside a small space. But when Aston turned on the lights, I realized the space wasn’t small. It wasn’t small at all.

I was standing inside a dressing room. That’s what it looked like with the soft carpet and the sofa and vanity standing before me against the wall. An elaborate chandelier hung from the ceiling and the giant closet constructed before me made me realize where I was.

“Oh,” was all I could manage to say.

Aston smirked, laughter in his eyes. “Oh. This is my closet. And I hope you can see the stairs over there—” he pointed at the marble staircase spiraling upwards. “—because that’s where you’ll be going to put away the majority of the stuff that is in my room. And if you put something in the wrong place, I’ll just pull everything out and make you start all over again, capisce?”

I sputtered in disbelief. “Are you serious?”

“Absolutely. I seldom joke and when I do it’s never with my maid. So get to work if you want to go home, and you better put everything where it belongs. One wrong move and it’s back to square one,” he stated before turning and striding out, leaving me staring at his closet which was every man’s and woman’s dream.

There was space for every single item. Where I was standing I could easily count a hundred polo shirts in every color imaginable. One full wall was dedicated to his t-shirts hanging neatly on the racks off of expensive hangers. Even his hangers looked royal. Damn him.

I thought his formal clothes would be here but I couldn’t find them. The next wall had a lot of trousers and shorts and sports stuff. Perhaps the suits would be upstairs.

“Well, you got no time no waste. Better get started,” I said to myself before going back to Aston’s room and picking up a few items which were lying on the floor. I went to the closet and looked around to see where they went. I had a couple of track pants hanging off my arm so I decided to put them next to the array of track pants. Aston may be messy but he was extremely organized when it came to his clothes.

He probably hired somebody to do that for him.

That could be true, or maybe his previous maid did it all for him. Yes, that was probably it. This man was too spoiled to focus on something as trivial as organizing his closet.

After hanging his track pants, I moved on to the cabinet which housed his socks. After gawking at his vast collection of socks I quickly placed the socks in neat piles to match the rest of them. I knew they were clean and Aston probably threw them out just so I could put them back.

I came back to his room to see him sitting up in bed with pillows propped up and reading a book. But when I tried to read the title, I couldn’t because he’d angled it away from me. So I went to cleaning his room, picking up a few dress shirts and a suit jacket. I thought he would say something, perhaps comment on the way I was doing things but he remained eerily silent. It should’ve helped me relax but it did the opposite. Something told me a silent Aston was a deadly Aston.

Every aspect of him and his personality is dangerous and deadly.

That was true and I had no choice but to deal with it. I just hoped it would be worth it at the end. As long as my family was happy and free I could endure anything Aston threw at me.

This time I used the staircase and finally came across the place where all his suits hung. I ground my teeth to stop my jaw from reaching the floor. How could one man own so many suits? How much money did he have? From Gucci to Armani there were suits from every designer across the globe.

Trying not to waste too much time staring at the collection I tried my best to hang the suit jacket inside the cover and then focused on the shirts and waistcoats. His ties were the last things which I needed to take care of and maybe there were a few watches and a cuff links scattered somewhere on his nightstands. I would have to look around for a place for his accessories.

After painfully fixing the formals I took a deep breath. Cleaning Aston’s room was no less than a workout. And I hated exercise. And I still had his ties to put away. I only saw a few but I knew there were more.

When I came back, Aston was staring at me. I had half a mind to ask him what was going on but the dreadful swirl of pleasure in his eyes told me it was better not to ask. But I had no idea why he was staring at me like that.

I picked up the ties littering the room, happy to know these were the last items. And because I was an i***t and couldn’t keep my mouth shut I turned around to face him and showed the ties to him.

“This is the last thing. Your room already looks so much better. I’ll just go put these back and then come and fix the rest of the room,” I said and to myself I added, “And finally get the hell out of here.”

Aston didn’t say a word, just continued to stare at me with those strange eyes. I tried to ignore him and went back to his dressing room, eager to find the designated place for his ties. It took me ten minutes to locate the cabinet where all his ties sat in neat rolls. I couldn’t contain my glee as I put the ties away and got ready to go home. Once I was done I gave the entire dressing room one final look before heading for the door.

But when I tried to turn the knob the door refused to budge. Frowning, I pushed harder, wondering if the door got jammed or something got stuck in between but there was nothing. And that’s when I realized the door was locked.

It was well and truly locked.

“What in the world?” I said and tried to push the door with all my might but failed to open it. “Ma—Master? Can you please open the door?” I raised my voice but did my best not to yell at him.

Silence. That was all I got in return. Where was he? He was in the room, I knew he was. Could he not hear me? I tried again and this time actually yelled at the top of my lungs but once again was rewarded with silence.

What happened? How could this have happened? I didn’t lock the door. Then how?

Aston locked you in.

No, he wouldn’t have.

Could he?

Could Aston have locked me inside his closet?