Free Babysitting the Billionaire by Nicky Penttila

Edmondsson’s right, so May rolled hers to
Beau’s right, a neat square.
    Beau looked like the chair wasn’t very comfortable. He
won the first-to-speak pissing contest, probably trying to make up for the
handshake.
    “So, the expedition. What is the timetable?”
    Edmondsson launched into what sounded like a canned
lecture on the history of expeditions to the Antarctic and penguin habitats
there. Beau nodded along, and May’s attention wandered. He must be wearing
underwear now. Would they be boxers or briefs? He seemed the boxer type.
    Edmondsson wound down, and Beau nodded. “Yes, I see. So,
what is the timetable of the expedition?”
    Edmondsson frowned, as if he’d already answered the
question and was surprised to be asked again. This time, he launched into a
description of how they intended to study the habitat, to ensure preservation
without undue human influence.
    Beau interrupted. “Right, but what about video? What
about charts and graphs?”
    Edmondsson’s mouth went straight-line. Sadie jumped into
action.
    “Of course, Mr. Kurck. We’ll have the complement of
videographers and cartographers. The best in the business.”
    “Your employees, of course.”
    “No. The best in the business,” Edmondsson said. “As she
said.”
    Beau looked at May. He was going to make her say
something. She tried to make all her limbs leaden, so she could sink through
the floor. No go.
    “Miss Reed here had quite a few ideas for short films.”
    “Films.” Edmondsson’s voice dripped apathy.
    Man up, girl . May took a breath, and spilled the words out. “Right. For both
fund-raising and for tracking progress on the trip. We could do a series of two-
or three-minute videos, on our own channel, and ask people to video themselves
asking the scientists questions. If we had the satellite we might even have a
live videocast from the site, or inside the shelter, more like.”
    No one said anything. Sadie’s face, anxious, watched
Edmondsson. Beau was watching May, that little smile playing along his lower
lip. Edmondsson, who had been looking to the window, turned to look right at
her.
    “Coffee, black. You must know Kurck’s by now.”
    May blinked, momentarily confused. Then she understood.
She managed to drop her gaze to the carpet before the anger flashed through
them. Then the hot shame followed, and she stood. She had to get out of here.
But then she’d need to come back, with hot fucking coffee, lightly sugared.
He’d only said black to impress the other man in the room.
    Who stood. “I’ll help.”
    Sadie jumped out of her seat. “No, no, I’ll go.” But Beau
was already at the door, right at May’s heels.
    She scurried down the stairs, but as she was about to
turn right, to go to the coffee room, he grabbed her hand and pulled her left.
They rushed to her cubicle, where he picked up her purse.
    “You leave this out here, for thieves?” he had time to
say even as they were force-marching to the door. Were they leaving?
    They were going to leave. “No. What are you doing?”
    He didn’t appear to hear, and he didn’t stop. He didn’t
even wait for the elevator, but ran them down the three floors of stairs and
out the building. Back on
K Street
,
he kept moving. Now she was tugging on his arm for him to stop.
    “What are you doing? I need you there. They’re going to
fire me.”
    “Good.” He stopped so fast she barreled into him. They
were at the fountain near the White House already. They’d gone a full two
blocks?
    “You’re never going back there. May, they treat you like
a slave.”
    “I work for them.”
    “That doesn’t mean they own you.”
    It sort of did. “They own my time.”
    “No one should treat you like that.” He crossed his arms
and glowered at her.
    She crossed her own arms. “You did, when you first got
here.”
    “I did not.”
    “Selective memory much? You even made me go get coffee.”
    “No, we went to get coffee together.” But he was cooling
down. May shook