The Substitute.

chapter three.

 The awkward silence was suffocating. I cleared my throat having no idea what I was going to say. "I'm sorry. That was out of line." Suddenly the floors intricate design seemed very interesting.

I counted the seconds passing waiting for Damien to say something. Was he mad? The last thing I needed was his anger as he could easily make my life a living hell for the next few days.

He sort of reminded me of my cousin Elliot though it was pretty easy to pacify him, some pancakes or brownies would do the trick. I chuckled inwardly because ironically, Damien struck me as the type who didn't eat sugar.

My gaze rose to meet his and I was met by a blank look. His emerald orbs shone with an emotion I couldn't decipher and his wide mouth set in a thin line.

"I make really good brownies," I offered lamely wincing at how desperate I sounded. I hadn't  even said anything remotely I insulting just a little nosy but here I was kissing some major ass for it.

Damien's head cocked to the side and the corners of his mouth quirked slightly. "Come on in then." He said.

The tight smile on my face thinned if that was even possible anymore. This was not going at all like I'd planned. I blinked. "No- " a muscle ticked in Damien's jaw when the word fell from my lips, " I mean, I don't think that would be necessary. " I rephrased my statement.

"Would you prefer to work from out here?" Was that a trick question? Then his words registered.

My jaw dropped. "Work?" I choked out. "Well I thought that-" I trailed off. "Never mind." I mentally crossed out my pans for the day.

As if I hadn't spoken, Damien continued to regard me with a raised eyebrow and a questioning expression. I shook my head in answer to his previous question.

He nodded. "Good, follow me." He walked into the house. I took a deep breath and started after him thinking of all the ways Macy could make it up to me for this. A trip to the Bahamas sounded about right.

I faintly heard Damien tell the little girl  something about a pool before she ran off ahead of us. I realized that  during the awkward conversation on the doorstep, Damien hadn't actually introduced me to her.

He turned away from me before lifting his phone his ear. I tuned out the conversation and instead took in my surroundings frowning slightly when I realized we were in a state of the art kitchen.

Any other day and situation it would have been a dream come true to have such high tech equipment at my disposal but now I couldn't muster the energy to show anything other than confusion. Damien turned to face me and the confusion on my face was probably obvious.

He tapped away at his phone for a few seconds before looking at me. "The Brownies. " he said simply and right then his phone rang. He walked out of the room then without sparing me a glance and I remained glued to my spot with my jaw somewhere on the tiled floor. He couldn't  be serious!?

My heart pounded  as Damien lifted a brownie to his lips. It didn't matter to me that I had slaved away in his kitchen for the past hour and a half making them. All that I cared about was what he would say and that honestly scared me. I guess I wanted  to prove that even if I wasn't from old money, I was a pretty decent person. Foolish I know, but my stupid pride was at stake here.

As soon as the brownies were done, the first thing that  had come to mind was to have Damien eat one. Fortunately, after five minutes of wandering about with a plate and admitting I was lost after about two minutes, I ran into a Butler. I think. And he had directed me to Damien's office.

I was so nervous, it was almost comical except there was nothing funny about this. Damien looked at me and his face gave nothing away.

"These are not bad." He said eventually and I almost jumped for joy. Other people's opinion about my pastries never mattered a lot to me because i knew that they were phenomenal but somehow Damien's was important. And his words most likely translated into 'absolutely droolworthy'. So I felt pretty good.