Wiping her hands on a dishcloth, she cleaned herself up and then turned her attention to me. "All right. What's up?"
Nothing in her sweet way said she knew what was about to come out of my mouth, so maybe she hadn't been out there flirting with Mr. Rico Suave, but I still needed to say what I came to say. Folding my arms across my chest, I said, "You're here to be my dessert chef. You're not here to socialize with other people on my staff. Do you understand me?"
She scrunched up her face in a look of confusion and shook her head. No, she definitely didn't understand.
"What do you mean? I've been talking to Magda since the day I got here, Eric. Chloe too. Are you saying I can't be friendly with them?"
"Magda and Chloe are different. They’re part of the household staff, so it's only right that you'd speak to them since it's necessary for your job."
Maddie took a step toward me and tilted her head to the side. "Then just who can't I socialize with? Other than you, I've only really spoken to Magda, Chloe, and Darnell while he was pruning the rose bushes outside. Did he complain about me talking to him while he was working? I didn't mean to distract him from his job. I hope you know that."
"I'm not talking about the damn gardener, Maddie. I just saw you outside talking to the guy who's filling in for Clyde."
She leveled her gaze on me and smiled. "So it's him I can't socialize with. Okay. What am I to do if I need to go to the store? I'd normally ask Clyde to drive me there. Are you saying I can't even ask Antonio for a ride to the grocery store if I need ingredients to make you something like an apple pie?"
Her questions told me she knew why I didn't like her talking to him. She was enjoying seeing me jealous.
I stepped toward her and looked down into her dark eyes. "I don't like apple pie, so you won't have to go anywhere today. I'm sure everything you need you can find right here in the cupboards."
"But what if I can't? Am I supposed to walk all the way to the store? That seems like a huge waste of time. I mean, it's bad enough you're paying me to be a dessert chef since you don't need a personal cook because you rarely eat at home. Now you're going to be paying me to walk for miles, basically employing me to keep in shape?"
"I don't want you to walk, Maddie. Just stay here today. Make me something from the ingredients you have on hand."
She shrugged. "Fine. I'll make you a dough ball. Maybe I'll throw some sprinkles on it. Or thyme since whoever stocked this kitchen seems to have thought five containers of thyme was necessary."
"That sounds disgusting, but I trust you to make me something I'll like."
Her lower lip jutted out into a pout. "I don't know why you say you trust me. You don't even trust me to talk to the driver and go to the store, Eric. Trust isn't exactly what's going on here."
She frowned, and for a moment, I hated myself for being so fucking jealous. I'd never been this jealous in my life, and I'd only known her for a few days.
"What's going on here then, Maddie?"
"I could ask you the same question, Eric. I thought we were having a good time, but you gave me the cold shoulder last night and since then you've been downright chilly toward me. Now you see me talk to that Antonio guy for a few minutes and you're all ugly green monsterish and telling me I can't even leave the house today. So you tell me what's going on here."
"Ugly green monsterish? What the hell does that mean?"
Tilting her chin up, she put her hands on her hips. "It means you're jealous of me talking to that guy, even though you couldn't even be bothered to speak to me after I said that thing last night and you got all ice cold. That's what it means."
"I have no idea what you're talking about. I am not jealous, and I don't know what you said that supposedly made me cold, which I'm not."
"Yes, you do. I said we were pretty good together, and from that moment on, you've been distant. You basically couldn't wait until I left your bed last night. And now you want to be all jealous about me talking to some other guy. Well, at least he probably wouldn't just kick me out of bed because I said the wrong thing."
The image of Maddie anywhere near that guy's bed made my head feel like the top of it was going to explode. Even hearing her refer to him that way enraged me.
Trying to keep my temper under control, I said through gritted teeth, "Maddie, I don't know what you're talking about. Just don't talk to the driver. Understand?"
"What I understand is that you think I am some kind of property of yours that you can be nice to one minute and dictate what I can do the next. Well, forget it. I quit!"
She pushed past me out of the kitchen, and as watched, she tossed the apron behind her and stormed down the hallway toward the wing that contained the staff's bedrooms. All the jealousy and anger I'd felt from watching her talk to that guy disappeared, replaced by a feeling of emptiness at the idea that she had just quit and would be leaving this house.
Leaving me.
I followed her and found her packing her bag to leave. My chest felt like someone had placed a lead weight on it as I watched her getting ready to walk out of my life forever. I barely knew her, and I knew how crazy it was to say I'd miss her more than I'd ever missed anyone, but that's exactly what I felt as I stood in the doorway of her bedroom.
For years, I'd had whatever woman I wanted and for as long as I wanted, but now that I'd met Maddie, I couldn't imagine my life without her in it. After just a few days, she'd somehow imprinted on my heart so much that I couldn't let her go.
"Stop doing that, Maddie. You're not going anywhere," I said quietly.