Bona Fide Baby

Chapter 1 - Pounding The Pavement

With a perfectly manicured finger, Xiomara rang the doorbell belonging to the villa perched high on a slope overlooking the beach. There was nothing shaky or nervous about the structure. It glared down at her with a haughty air, giant bay windows casting sunlight into her eyes.

Filthy rich bastards. Even the glass stating the number of the house looked expensive, but she could care less. She wasn't here to appraise the damn place.

Feeling rather itchy, she lifted her finger once more just as the heavy wooden side door was pulled open with a grunt, forcing her to take a step back onto the sidewalk. However, when dark brown eyes narrowed at her, she took yet another step back, this time onto the street itself.

Holy shit. The guy was huge. He towered over her like a mountain. A rather angry mountain with short cropped hair and a well-kept beard. A suit like the ones James Bond wore covered his massive frame, the expensive fabric straining around his bulky arms.

"Hello," she said.

"Do you have an appointment?" The voice was cultured with a deep timbre that sent vibrations rolling throughout her body. It was a weird, yet sexy sensation accompanied by a chill down her spine – one she had yet to feel.

"Uh, not exactly. I'm looking for a job."

His eyes darkened with disapproval. "What kind of job?"

"Anything. I will do anything," she muttered. The words spilled out of her mouth before he could have a chance to slam the door shut in her face. Honestly, he looked like the type who would do just that.

A slight shiver went creeping down her back when those brown eyes narrowed even more before traveling over her body in a fast sweep.

She fidgeted under the modest dress she'd chosen to wear and lifted a hand to wipe the sweat from off her brows. The cheap booties on her feet were also drenched in sweat, the bottom of the shoes becoming gooey insoles. It felt as if she had walked straight into the lagoon with all its slime and gummy seaweed.

This was not her. A facade really. She was a sexy beast – Jennifer Lopez level kind of sexy beast – but circumstances had forced her to put on a potato sack in thirty-five degrees heat to please the likes of him.

She could tell by the smug look on his face that he was not impressed by her. He looked rather bored, his eyes grim, his full lips curved in a taut line.

"We're not hiring," he said.

How in the world had she known that he was going to say just that? She had apparently failed his appearance test, and now the verdict was in. Not hiring.

The mountain went to shut the heavy wooden door, but she quickly blocked the doorway with her boot. "I can cook. I can clean. Iron, wash your clothes. Whatever."

At this point, she had managed to squeeze her tiny body wholly into the doorway. She gave him the best puppy look she could muster and he sighed. Actually sighed.

"Do you have credentials?"

"What?"

Annoyance flickered across his handsome features. "Did you go to maid school or something?"

She shook her head and glanced away. Did people go to school for this shit? Unbelievable. It wasn't that hard to make a bed or wash the dishes. She'd been doing it since she was five years old.