HOLA! Happy Mother's Day! You guys are so lucky that I was able to post this. My mom's been at it all day. You see, I promised her that I'd be her slave girl for the day without complaining. It's only noon, and already I've cooked lunch, given her a mani-pedi and facial, gone Christmas ornament (?) shopping, gone to church, driven her to my aunt's house, and cleaned the house from top to bottom.
I'm in my room now, pretending to take a nap so she'll leave me alone. It may be mother's day, but I need a break.
Just a glimpse at the craziness in my household:
"Get me my water."
"But madre, it's on the table. In front of you. Three inches from your hand and the remote."
"Did I ask for your opinion? It's Mother's Day and that means you have to do what I say. When it's Daughters Day, then you have the right to complain."
"But madre...!"
"No buts. I'M THE QUEEN TODAY! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Now get me my water and the remote while you're at it."
"Argh!"
Okay, I may have embellished the evil laughter. And I'm an only child, so that makes it even worse. But alas, I do it because I love her crazy ass. Show your appreciation for your mothers today and give them a big hug from the heart!
Now, onto the story.
Chapter Two: Don't You Want Me?
JPOV
"What did you just say?" Leah Clearwater whispered, glaring at me.
Yes... What did I just say?
I shoved that crazy thought away as I thought of an answer. Thrown for a loop, I managed to regain my voice and when I spoke, I betrayed nothing.
"I said I want you." She winced, as if hearing the words again was like a slap in the face.
"But why?" She countered, her expressive voice momentarily dead from what I assumed to be shock.
"I need a... companion... of sorts." I said. Thinking about Sorcha, the Russian model I had dismissed from my life a week ago, I sighed. "This constant parade of women in my life is kind of tiring."
"It's not my fault you are an immoral asshole who doesn't know when to stop whoring around." I felt my anger surge at her words. Who did she think she was insulting me like this?
"Listen, Clearwater. You and your father need an out from this debt and I need a female companion. It's a win-win situation for the both of us." I growled, tensing when she stood up to pace the room and glare at me desperately.
"Can't you just... I don't know... Call up one of your model type friends?" She pleaded desperately. "I mean, I know for a fact that I'm probably not going to fit the bill. I'm not tall or a model, or an actress, or a socialite. I'm just a real estate agent. A damn good one, but still."
"Nope. I'm kind of tired of dating and... 'whoring around' the same pool of women." I replied, liking my impromptu idea more and more. If.. No, when Leah said yes, it was going to be an interesting ride. "Besides, I don't think you have much of a choice."
"What's that supposed to mean?" She asked.
"I could have your father arrested. I have a great deal of resources at my hand to make that possible." I gave a mental wince when I said this. I had no such intention, to be truthful. Her father was scared and sick enough as it was. I wasn't going to send him to become someone's bitch in jail.
But she didn't have to know that.
"You wouldn't!" She gasped, casting a quick look at her father, who was staring at me in fright. It was funny to me. Before she even looked over at him, I'd forgotten that there were people in the room.
"Oh. I would... Unless you agreed to this." I fiddled with my cufflink, watching out of the corner of my eye as her resolve wavered. I could see the exact moment she began to weaken. I could tell that we were both strong willed people, but this was one battle of wills I couldn't -wouldn't- lose.
There was a tense silence for a few minutes before she spoke.
"How long?" She asked, hands on her hips. To anyone else, she looked cool, businesslike, not at all rattled. But as I gazed deeper into her brown eyes, I could see the slight nervousness there.
"Leah! No!" Harry protested, springing up on the chair where he'd previously slumped in defeat. "Don't you dare sacrifice anything for me. I'm tough. I'll be able to handle going to jail."
"Daddy, no." She said, her face and voice softening. "Your health is just too delicate to deal with all of that. And I'll be damned if I'm losing you too." All at once, I was filled with admiration at her and her courage. It took a great person to do what she was doing for her father. She whirled to look at me, her face hard again. "How long?"
"As long as I need." I stood up as she approached me.
"Hell no."
"You don't really have a choice."
"I'm not going to do that. I have a job and a life."
"I'm not asking you to give up either. But I will require most of your time."
She stayed silent, then spoke. "I'll call up my lawyer and draw up a contract stipulating my terms."
"Correction: I will call up my lawyers and draw up a contract stipulating my terms. You aren't going to control this situation." I stood up to face her, towering over her. She bit her lip and shuffled her feet. "Maybe we have this conversation in a more private place?" I asked, glancing around the room.
Leah narrowed her eyes at me before realizing that this wasn't really something she'd want to discuss in front of her father. And I really didn't need Paul and Jared on my case about it.
"I have a home office." She snapped, pushing past me to walk down a hallway. As I followed her, I took in the tasteful, yet cheery blue walls. The kitchen was very home-y, also. Light wood cabinets and stainless steel appliances against a backdrop of sunshine and normalcy. Even though the house was spacious, it had character.
Just like the woman in front of me.
"This way." She said impatiently. Leah shoved open a door and shut it behind me as I walked in. Her home office was more... clinical than I would have imagined it. She had stark white walls, light furniture, and a huge selection of books and movies taking up a shelf which encompassed the entire front wall. There was a window with heavy blinds behind her desk. There was a Apple desktop computer and many files taking up the space on the surface. There were two chairs in front of the desk.
In my head, I compared it to her bedroom, which was almost seductive in comparison. Instead of white, her bedroom walls were a deep red. Instead of light furniture, the bedroom furniture was made with cherry-wood. And her bedclothes were the icing on the cake. A silver comforter gave way to clean black sheets, which I noticed from the state of the bed when I had seen it.
"Is this okay?" She asked. I turned around and nodded, noting the slight blush on her cheeks. It made me wonder what she was doing while I was off in a world filled with red walls, black sheets, and wild sex.
"It's fine." Leah nodded and gestured to a seat in front of the desk next to her. I sat and waited. There was a tense silence before she finally spoke.
"If I agree to this, you have to wipe out my father's debts." She said, with no introduction. I raised a brow and stared. "I'm serious. If I'm going to be... persuaded... into doing this, I want to know that he will be safe from any retribution when this is over."
"Who said I was going to end it?" I asked, kind of stung that she was still talking about this as if it were a job. The strange detachment in her voice all at once infuriated me and made me want to kiss her.
"Well... Aren't you?" She asked, a confused expression clouding her features. "I mean, once the debt is paid in full. We won't have any sort of connection after that and we can go our separate ways."
"I'll end it once I'm tired of you." I said, wincing at how much of an asshole I was acting.
My head snapped to the side as she slapped me as hard as she could. Her palm cracked across my cheek, leaving a stiff silence and a slight burning on my face in it's wake. I knew for a fact that it would leave a mark. Schooling my features so they wouldn't show the slight pain I felt, I glared at her as hard and menacingly as I could. I admired her courage, but that was going way too far. Even as the words effortlessly fell from my lips, I couldn't believe what was coming out of my mouth. What was it about her that made my blood boil (in more ways that one), made me say the first insulting thing that came to mind.
"Tired of me?" She fumed. I could see a wave of red overtake her neck and cheeks. "What kind of an asshole are you? If anything, I'll tire of you first."
I jumped up at that point, watching her spring up from her seat in response.
"Listen Clearwater, it's just the way I operate." I defended myself, resisting another urge to rub my cheek. I've dated all kinds of models, actresses, businesswomen, hell, even a couple of princesses. I wined and dined them, bedded them, left them with an expensive bauble and the memory of the best sex of their lives when we parted ways amicably. But for some reason, I couldn't even conjure any of their beautiful faces in my mind.
I doubted I'd ever tire of her. Leah Clearwater was, for lack of a more fitting term, perfect. For me, at least.
She had a perfect body. Not fat, but not completely skinny either. She had soft curves all over her body, the epitome of a woman who ate healthy but indulged every now and again. Well, based on the contents of her refrigerator, which I had rifled through earlier I'd say she indulged a lot. She had naturally lush breasts. I knew that if I were to cup them, they'd be little over a handful. Her tiny waist gave her a nicely proportional hourglass shape, and gave way to curvy hips and thighs, before stopping at her perfectly small feet. Looking at her made me wonder what I ever saw in those geometrically sharp and angular bodies I was usually attracted to.
I had to refocus again.
"And that was unnecessary." I growled. She paled and flinched back slightly.
"I'm... sorry." She forced out. "I don't know what came over me." All I saw was the very top of her head as she bit her lip and averted her eyes. Just being near her made my skin ignite in a blaze of warmth.
"Now listen." I continued. "I'm offering you an easy way out of this situation your father got you into. The least you can do is treat with me with respect." She shivered. I decided to twist the knife. "I hold the fate of your family in my hands. One wrong move and I ruin you faster than you can think. Got that?"
Her hands clenched into fists at her sides and she nodded jerkily. "Let's just get this over with." She whispered quietly, sitting down again, arms folded demurely in her lap.
LPOV
(one week later)
That motherfucking asshole. I fumed from my seat. An assistant brought me a coffee and nodded deferentially as if I were royalty. But by the looks of Mr. Black's lawyer's office, it looked as if she were used to dealing with royalty. I adjusted my emerald green dress, scowling heavily. He had called me in the middle of a showing with an important client.
Of course my job meant nothing to him. But I finished showing the house and handed in my letter of extended leave this morning. Obviously, everything would be okay without me, but I still didn't like taking time off from work.
"Go." My boss had said, smiling brightly and practically shoving me out of the door. "You work too hard, Clearwater. Can't have my best employee getting burned out."
I had made the necessary protesting noises, almost begging him to be angry so I could stay and have an excuse to not endure this monster's humiliation. But in the end, I smiled as happily as I could as I walked out of the door and right into his clutches.
Well, his lawyer's office. But it was practically the same thing.
I glared at the legal document in front of me as I sipped my coffee. Sighing, I opened it and began to work through the wordy length highlighting his preferences. I was close to giving up until I read the section stipulating the terms of my father's debt, relieved when I saw that it would all be eradicated. I could endure anything if it meant my father was safe.
I was in the middle of reading my 'requirements' when the door flew open. I forced myself to keep my eyes on the paper, knowing by pure instinct that he was in the room.
"Good afternoon." He said politely. I looked up and was startled at the lurch my heart gave at the sight of him. I inclined my head in greeting and kept reading, gripping my pen even harder. His lawyer sat at the head of the table and stayed silent.
"Hello." I replied shortly, closing the document when I was finished reading it.
"Ms. Clearwater. I assume you have read and understood the terms of agreement." The lawyer said in a bored tone, as if he handled cases like this everyday.
"Yes. Although I do ask that you respect my wishes to keep my job." I opened the document and pointed it out. "If you don't mind Mr. Black, I'd prefer to keep this affair purely for show. I really don't want anything more from you to add to the debt. I can assure you that I am not after your money."
I finally looked directly at him and struggled to stay cool under the force of his mesmerizing deep eyes. Almost imperceptibly, his eyes darkened even more so, and I looked away to keep from losing myself.
"Is that all, Leah?" He asked. At this, I blushed, steeling myself for what I was about to say.
"Er... no. There's also the matter of the intimacy, or lack of it, in our arrangement." I added uncomfortably. "Of course I accept that you're a healthy man who is only in his thirties." I rushed on, before I lost all my courage under Mr. Black's steely gaze. "Also, that you will want... er...have needs… But as long as your relationships are kept discreet, I see no reason why they should interfere with our arrangement in the slightest. We will, of course, have separate bedrooms during the duration of my role as a traveling companion and pseudo-girlfriend." I concluded awkwardly.
"Jacob?" His lawyer -Mr. Halliway, I suddenly remembered- asked, turning red from neck to ear from the topic of my discussion.
"Give us a moment." He ordered, never taking his eyes from my own. Mr. Halliway got up, as if on command and scurried away. The moment the door was shut, Mr. Black chose that moment to strike.
"What the hell was that all about?" He raged, leaning across the table towards me.
"What do you mean?" I asked, genuinely not knowing. "I thought I was being gracious." Most other ladies would have asked for exclusivity." I added briskly, balking under his harsh scrutiny. What the hell was his problem?
He raised a mocking eyebrow. "And what about your own needs? Do you intend to satisfy them discreetly too?" His voice hardened. He didn't seem at all happy with the thought. I felt a surge of anger at his attitude. It wasn't like he owned me. He had no right to become this emotional.
"Certainly not!" I exclaimed, hating the rush of blood that flooded my cheeks.
Mr. Black frowned a bit, but at least he eased a little and loosened his iron tight fist. He gazed at me curiously, as if he couldn't fully believe what I was telling him. "Then what do you intend doing about them?"
"I don't intend on doing anything about them!" I assured him tartly. "That is not something that interests me in the slightest."
He gave me an incredulous look. Of course. The expert at bed-hopping couldn't comprehend that there were some women in the world who wouldn't respond to sexual advances and could do perfectly well without them.
After all my talk of an arrangement of convenience between us, my insistence that I wouldn't object to him having other relationships as long as he was discreet, I was stunned to find the very idea of Jacob being intimately involved with another woman completely abhorrent. Which was pretty ridiculous when I had absolutely refused to even contemplate the two of us having an intimate relationship. I chalked it up to a refusal of being made a fool of. No one wanted to feel as if they were the victim of an unfaithful relationship, no matter how much of a farce said relationship was.
"I don't understand where this sudden displeasure is coming from..." I said. "I'm not being unreasonable. In fact, I thought you would jump for joy when I told you that I didn't mind. I may not have an interest in... well, you know. But I know you do and would hate for you to do without because of this arrangement. If you feel any sort of need to be monogamous for my sake, it's not necessary." He was silent, still glaring at me. I gave a sharp, humorless laugh. "I hope you didn't expect that we were going to carry on this charade behind closed doors." I laughed again, watching as he rose and went to look out of the window, tension radiating through his every muscle.
He turned towards me and just glared speculatively for a long while.
"Actually, that was precisely what I was expecting."
My jaw dropped at that bombshell and I gasped. He glared at my response unwaveringly, giving nothing away.
"You... You can't be serious!" I exclaimed, pushing my chair back and walking up to him. "Please tell me you're not serious."
"Why should I?" He asked. "I'm not going through all of this just so I can continue what I've been doing for so long."
"But... But I thought that you were... hiring me -don't look at me like that, this is essentially what this is- so I can provide some sort of barrier to the flood of women in your life. If you have a 'girlfriend' at home, then the parade of women throwing themselves at you would eventually disappear."
"Ha!" He laughed, dark amusement in his eyes. "If anything, it makes them even more determined to lure me away. However, if I were to give off the appearance of the doting, satisfied lover..." His eyes roved over my body. "Then maybe it would ebb even more swiftly."
I couldn't speak. I couldn't move.
He wanted to sleep with me. Even though I seriously doubted that any nighttime activity with him would involve any type of sleep. In hindsight, I could see where he was making sense, and I cursed myself for being so naive. A man didn't do something like this to become practically celibate.
What I truly couldn't understand was why he was doing this. I knew that my long black hair, clear skin, good teeth, and expressive eyes was considered at least fairly attractive to some men. But of course, I knew I didn't compare to the standard of beauty he was used to. According to the Google search I had done on him, the women he dated were thin, beautiful, successful, and famous. I wasn't any of those things, with a body that could do with a few more workouts at the gym and not rich at all. The only reason I could think of for his behavior was that I presented a sort of challenge in his eyes. Briefly, I wondered if this outcome would have been different if I'd thrown myself at him from the very beginning.
However, it made no sense to dwell at the moment. Not when Jacob Black was standing across from me, calm as a cucumber and unconcerned with my hesitation to sleep with him. I was just hoping that I could convince him otherwise. I was afraid that once I started involving more of myself into this deal, I wouldn't be able to come out of it fully okay. He seemed like the type to take and never give. I didn't want to involve myself with a man like that.
"But... But... I don't like sex?" I blurted, wanting to smash my fist into something because of how gauche that sounded. I pushed my bangs away from my forehead. "I meant, I just don't think that would... I mean, I tried it a couple times before and... I mean... It wasn't that I..." I trailed off, backing away to put some distance between the two of us. "How do you even know that I'd... satisfy you?" I finished lamely, watching as his eyes darkened considerably as they ran over my body. A wave of heat ran over me and in its wake, left me feeling exposed and naked.
"I have no doubt about that, sweetheart. Trust me." He bit out huskily. I looked at him and shivered at the hungry look in his eyes, ignoring the term of endearment that had passed so simply from his lips.
"You do realize that you are essentially paying me for sex?" I said, trying a different tactic of appealing to his sense of male pride. I watched with hope as he recoiled as if the thought hadn't occurred. I decided to lay it on thick. "I'm not a whore, Mr. Black. And I never will be."
"I told you to call me Jacob." He growled out deeply in annoyance. I jumped and nodded, my nerves on edge.
"Well Mr... Jacob, I won't do it." I said, regaining some of my confidence back. "Besides, you may think we'd be... sexually compatible, but I simply don't think that would be possible."
"Why is that?"
"... I've discovered over the years that I'm not really sexually compatible with anyone. Why should that change now?" I said after a short pause. "I believe it's better not to complicate this arrangement anymore than it already is. Besides, I'll have to live the embarrassment if you're not happy when this agreement has run its course."
He stayed silent, still glaring down at me. I sighed and rubbed my arm. "I really think I would be a disappointment to you."
I'd been told by most of my previous sexual partners that I was a disappointment in that area. 'Frigid' was one of the words that they had used, along with 'unresponsive' and 'cold'. It never hurt me because it was something I knew, but it's not exactly the one thing a woman wants to hear about her sexual skills. No matter how attractive I found Jacob Black, for some reason, I did not wish to repeat the experience with him, to see the same impatience and pity in his face when he found out what a disappointment I was in bed. I didn't want him to discover just how inept I was at the physical act.
"You really believe that..." He muttered in awe, looking down at me in amusement. With no warning, he slung an arm around my waist, hurling me closer to him gracefully. He used my shell shock to his advantage as he slid another arm around my waist and pulled me impossibly closer. I tried to wriggle away, realizing the futility of my actions when he wouldn't slacken his formidable grip. I felt impossibly warm in his arms and safe and that scared me. I refused to look him in his eyes, where I'd no doubt see the victory shining there. I shifted my foot and froze when I felt a large bulge poking insistently into my lower stomach. With a startled gasp, I felt him spread his fingers around my lower back and pull me even deeper into his harder-than-steel erection. A wave of warmth shot down to my most private parts, screaming to be touched.
It was such a foreign feeling, I was stunned into silence.
"Not compatible are we?" He asked me mockingly, as he lifted my chin. I put a hand out onto his arm to steady myself. "If you really feel that way, you won't object to a test."
And he lowered his head and kissed me.
Did I mention that she also wants me to sit through every single Denzel Washington movie she owns?
Every. Single. One.
Pray for me. I'm gonna need it.
