Page 2 of Carnal Desire

“I think it is.”

“Wait? You’re not kidding are you?” Theo’s voice turned serious. “There’s someone in your house?”

“Sure is. Do I have a stalker you haven’t told me about?” I asked.

“Not to my knowledge. Do you want me to call the cops?” he asked.

“No, but stay on the line while I figure out what’s going on.”

Quietly I walked over to the closet, looking for a weapon in case this was some kind of crazy person who’d broken into my condo. On the way, I spied a mop leaning up against the doorway of the en-suite bathroom. That was weird, it wasn’t like the cleaning woman to leave things laying around.

I shoved my phone between my shoulder and my chin, gripped the mop handle like a baseball bat, and walked closer to my bed.

“Hey!” I called loudly. “What are you doing here?”

The figure didn’t move.

“Are they dead?” Theo whispered, his voice a cross between fascinated and horrified.

“I don’t know.”

I called out again, and still there was no movement. Cautiously I extended the mop handle towards the small figure buried under my blankets and poked what I thought was probably a leg.

“Hey!” A sleepy voice came from the blankets, although the person still didn’t move. “This bunk’s taken. Leave me the fuck alone.”

“Who are you?” I asked, using my most authoritative voice. “What are you doing in my bed?”

I poked her with the mop handle again. Suddenly the person in my bed sat up and scooted away, the covers dropping to her waist. She was wearing a familiar looking tee shirt with a cleaning service logo.

I blinked in shock. Hold on, I recognized this woman. I’d spent innumerable hours watching her on my security camera whilecreating elaborate romantic fantasies about her. It was Sadie, my cleaning person. She looked around frantically, her eyes wide with fear and her hair sticking up at all angles.

“Sadie? Is that you?”

I knew it was, but I couldn’t believe my eyes. After all the times I’d dreamed about having Sadie in my bed, this couldn’t possibly be real.

“Sadie?” Theo parroted through the phone. “Your cleaning lady Sadie that you have a crush on? She’s sleeping in your bed?”

“Yes,” I said. “I’ll need to call you back Theo, okay?”

“Be sure you do,” he ordered, as if he was the boss instead of me.

I closed the phone and stuck it in my pocket, watching Sadie carefully the entire time.

There was something about this woman. I was fascinated with her. Her petite figure with soft curves. Her mess of golden blonde curls that always escaped the ponytails she wore to work. The bright blue eyes that looked a little haunted. That cute little cupid’s bow mouth that always was set in a serious line other than the polite facsimile of a smile she’d give me when the occasion called for it.

I’d first met her two years ago when the cleaning service sent her over as a possible replacement for Marta, my previousperson. I’d fallen for her immediately, even though I knew it was ridiculous. I didn’t know the first thing about her, yet I’d spent the last two years making up excuses to justify watching her on the security camera set up in the foyer facing the main living area.

I’d told myself that I was a pervert, lusting after my cleaning lady like something out of a bad novel. Yet something about her fascinated me, enough that I did my best to avoid her. I never wanted to make her uncomfortable or misuse my positional power, even if I did sometimes have the feeling that Sadie was as attracted to me as I was to her on the rare occasions we ran into each other.

“Sadie.” She jumped as I repeated her name in a stern tone. “Why are you sleeping in my bed?”

Then to my horror, she began to cry.

Sadie

Iopened my mouth to answer Ariel Fernandez and to my absolute mortification, I began to cry. I couldn’t believe she was home early from her trip. It figured that the one time I’d ever broken the rules I’d get caught. Damn it.

“Oh my God, Ms. Fernandez, I’m so sorry!” My words ended in an embarrassingly loud sob. “I… I…”

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