Ruthless King

Satisfaction filled his face. “Tell me.”

“Might be best if I show you.”

10

This was not what he’d been expecting when he’d told her he wanted to help her with her problems.

He’d expected her to tell him about her bully of a boss. Then he’d offer to take care of it.

Instead, he was in her bathroom, staring at a . . . spider.

Sure, it was a huge spider. But a harmless one. It had built itself quite the web in the corner of the room, right above the toilet.

Regent took a moment to look around, taking in the worn-looking bathroom. The floor tile was old and the grout was missing in some places. The bath was discolored and the basin was chipped.

Why hadn’t he thought about updating the house for her? He essentially owned this place. And he knew she made next to nothing working as a librarian.

The only problem was finding a contractor he could trust to do the work and not nosy around, discovering things they shouldn’t know.

“Can you get rid of Clive?”

“Clive?” he asked, turning to look at Jilly who was standing in the doorway. She was peering into the room anxiously while holding up a folded umbrella.

“What is with the umbrella?” he asked.

“In case you need me to come into the bathroom I need some protection.”

“The umbrella is protection?”

“Yeah, I’ll flick it open to stop Clive from jumping on me and getting in my hair. It’s a big fear of mine.”

“Clive is the spider . . .”

“Well, yeah. Of course he is. Who did you think Clive was? The toilet?” Her eyes sparkled with humor and he got lost in them for a moment.

It was a fanciful thought. He wasn’t the type of man to get lost in a pair of gorgeous eyes.

But Jilly’s eyes were special.

She was special.

“The toilet has a name?” he asked.

“No!” She started giggling, and he found himself smiling . . . just slightly. But it was hard not to smile when faced with such joy. “Of course the toilet doesn’t have a name. Who would name their toilet?”

“I don’t know . . . the same sort of person who might name a spider Clive?”

“Regent! It is completely different. Clive is a living, breathing creature. A toilet is just a toilet.”

“Right. My apologies. And your problem is that you can’t get rid of Clive?”

“Well, no. Because I’m scared that if I try, he will land in my hair.” She shuddered. “I can’t even open this door anymore. I had to buy a new set of toiletries and now I use the other upstairs bathroom.”

“All right, so we need to get rid of Clive. Why don’t you wait in the bedroom?”

How long had it been since he’d gotten rid of a spider? He had to shake his head at himself.

“Wait!” she cried as he moved forward.