Chapter One
Clover
This is going to serve them right.
I clench my jaw and fix my attention on the shelf before me. With deliberate casualness, I use my index finger and thumb to pluck each item, dropping them into the black trash bag I nabbed from their immaculate kitchen in their obscenely expensive penthouse.
Okay fine. Where else are billionaires going to live except in the most opulent apartments at the top of the most architecturally stunning buildings in the world, with a priceless view of the entire city in one breath?
Well, money can buy a lot of things. Clearly, it can’t buy taste. And by that I mean me. I’m the flavor they decided to skip on—tasteless monsters that they are. And this is their just deserts, actually justdessertsfor my metaphor to work.
My meticulous approach to emptying the shelf, one by one, in a walk-in closet that looks like a man’s department store lasts all of ten seconds.
“Nope,” I mutter. I yank the bag open wider and, using my arm, sweep the contents in with one swoop.
But seriously, how many pairs of boxer briefs does one man even need? I still have two more closets to pillage, but the extra-large trash bag is already full.
“This is excessive,” I tell the empty room. “There should be a rule about the number of undergarments a man has at one point in time.”
I hold up a pair, as if presenting evidence.
“Seven. That’s it. One for each day of the week. You do laundry, you move on with your life.” Or maybe they haven’t heard of a machine that could actually wash their clothes.
I fetch two more trash bags from the kitchen and tackle the other two bedrooms. Then I tug the bags close with a sharp pull, feeling quite satisfied.
Like Krampus in reverse, I lug the bags down their private elevator to their private garage, load my car, remove my disguise, and then I’m off.
I may not have had a plan when I arrived at the billionaires’ abode, but boy, did I come up with a brilliant one. Steal their underwear. A minor inconvenience that doesn’t equal what they did to me.
I wish I could see the looks on their faces when they realize, oops, all their boxer briefs have magically vanished. Oh, I should have left a calling card—a crate of rotten tomatoes would have sufficed.
There. Now I need to be over them. For good. Right?
I bite my lower lip when it starts to quiver. Damn them. No, I need to burn their underwear. Make a big bonfire out of it and turn to ashes my broken heart then give myself a brand new, unbroken one. Yes. Perfect.
Rescuing myself from another crying tantrum, I park my car and haul the bags into my house. Can’t have the evidence in the back seat of my car for all to see, not until I can make the three-hour drive to a beach for my bye-bye bonfire. My trunk doesn’t open, so I can’t hide the stuff in there.
“What’s in the bags, Clover?”
Oh crap.
I stop dead in my tracks in the middle of hurling the three trash bags of men’s underwear across the tiled floor of the entrance hall of my home.
“Nothing,” I say, spinning around, trying to hide the evidence of my misdemeanors behind me. By the look on Alessia’s face, our maid ‘par excellence,’ she’s not buying it. Well, I’ll have to come up with a story she will buy.
“It’s just clothes I thought I would donate, but I think I mistakenly put my favorite top in one of the bags, and now I have to go through each one. So you know, don’t you have a floor to mop or something?” I ask, tangling my fingers into the pull ties and continuing my journey to my bedroom.
Also, no, she doesn’t have a floor to mop. Alessia Hagen is not your typical maid and probably never mopped a floor in her life, but she has a kind of particular business system that is flawless, I have to say.
“Oh, which top is that?” she asks, already knowing I’m lying.
“The... the one that’s green...”
“With the pink flowers?”
“That’s the one.” I snap my fingers. Whether she believes me depends on how much luck I have today.
Alessia folds her arms across her chest and raises her eyebrows at me. If I could choose to look like anyone else in the entire world, I would choose to look like Alessia. She is stunning. Long, dark, silky hair, big brown eyes, and the body every girl dreams of. And her sense of fashion? Unsurpassed.
