Disclaimer:Stephanie Meyer created the twilight universe. The following story is in use of her property not intending to set flames.
31.10.2013
Mr Masen's strong eyes didn't waver, the sharpness and intensity of his eyes told me that there were more to the deal.
"There's a few ground rules that we must follow." He declared after a few moments of silence.
I nodded in agreement though I had no idea what those conditions could possibly be.
"Everything remain professional, you can-not let this arrangement between you and I to hinder your daily work." Mr Masen leaned back into his chair and continued to stare at my face.
His face hard as he was in the middle of dealing with a serious situation.
"Absolutely." I replied- I didn't expect any special treatment coming out of this. Perhaps some extra money from those extra figures which I didn't need to send home, it will be used to help me get back on my own two feet again, and may be a bit more after all the debts and payments were all paid for.
"We will not disclose this agreement to others, but I don't expect you to sign a non-disclosure contract. Some things are never smooth in life." He added after some contemplation. "But if we are both to keep our mouths shut about this, we're both be saved from embarrassment and potential negative consequences. Do you understand?"
"Yes, Sir."
After reading about this kind of arrangement again and again in ladies literature, I thought it would be something compulsory for me to sign when coming into this agreement with Mr Masen, but it wasn't. Should it have surprised me that Mr Masen didn't do these conventional ideas?
No, Mr Masen was an innovation driven man, so it shouldn't have surprised me that he had decided not to go down the route. He didn't prefer the conventional course of actions, although he did not reject them- he just didn't favour them as much as the majority do.
"We are to stay committed into this without other partners at the side, sound fair?" His eyes went harder and I felt the piercing effect of his business persona.
"Yes, Sir. I can't imagine wanting to share myself like that. It's wrong."
Yeah, like this arrangement was not wrong itself.
"For now, this will be the last piece of detail and this final one is mainly on you. If, for any reason I believe that our arrangement has negatively impacted on your work, I have got the right to terminate our agreement straight away. And regretfully, I also obtain the right to dismiss you from your current position, do you understand? This is a measure to protect my company against potential incompetence, as you know, and I also appreciate, most of my success is your merit for helping me organize my schedule and many other details, if I feel that our work has suffered, it would only make sense to terminate what we have." He explained almost pleadingly, like he was trying to make me see the sense of it. And I understood perfectly.
But it was insulting for him to presume my work ethics could be devalued by becoming his whore.
"I understand, but I want to know that should this happen, which I'm sure it won't. Will I be granted the right to defend myself and to reason before you reach a verdict? Or else I'm left utterly unprotected and at your mercy in this situation Mr Masen." I can't help but spit out his name like it was rubbish after the indirect insult he just threw my way.
I wish I had more effective chips on my hands so that I wasn't getting into this deal completely at his mercy. All I had was my body; what Mr Masen had was money and power- both could easily ruin me should he decide I was not worth it anymore. I did not have the protection that Mr Masen had.
Even though I had a last resort of telling people of this arrangement which would result in Mr Masen's reputation being ruined, however, I could never do that.
Fundamentally, I would be announcing to the world that I was being Mr Masen's whore and people would easily come to the conclusion that I was a money digging whore. And in this situation, I am a money digging whore, minus being nasty- because I was only going to have sex with him to gain money.
Mr Masen's eyes were calculating as he assessed my proposition to his third condition.
"Fair enough, should that situation arise, I will discuss it with you before I take any final actions."
He leaned forward and rested his elbows on the top of his desk in a position I could only call casual.
"We will have dinner tonight and discuss the rest of the conditions. Are you free?"
His eyes sought out mine and I was instantly pulled into the green pools of melted emerald.
"Yes sir." I nodded.
"Good girl, now return to your position." He settled into an even more relaxed pose and waited for me to leave the room.
Feeling incapable of holding his eye contact, I dipped my head down and stared at the carpet as I moved towards the door and left his room.
Never could I have imagined that Mr Masen would ever want to have sex with me, probably in a female wet dream, but I never thought it would happen in real life and to do it again with him was even more unexpected.
Still, I didn't allow myself to be giddy as I was conflicted between the feelings of being ashamed and to be bedded by this beautiful man again sometime soon.
So instead, I tuck myself into my seat and doubled my effort on the files in the computer system- I was not going to let him to gain an excuse to accuse me of slacking off my work whilst being his whore.
But the thing was, the more I tried to concentrate and the more I tried to read clearly of the information being displayed in front of me; the more I wanted to skip all of it so that the night comes and I could be alone with him again.
Work was much too boring comparing to his body full of promises.
And there's also the doubt in my mind questioning his intentions.
Mr Masen was an asshole who was also very anal and clinical in all of his approach. He didn't strike me as the type to put pleasure before work, and to fuck a co-worker again after the first time was clearly against any professional ethics. At the end of this thought I wanted to question his intentions towards this new arrangement between us.
Perhaps he was playing me.
Playing you and to actually fuck you are both unprofessional. Just go with the idea that he genuinely wants to fuck you again. I argued with myself.
Humiliation was easily ensured. I thought dryly.
By the time office hours was over my head was blown to epic proportions trying to figure out Edward Masen.
He was not a perverted boss, apart from the part where he and I shared a bed- I would say that he was consumed by lust for one occasion, may be more if we did manage to carry through our latest arrangement.
He was a grown responsible man who ran a successful empire with a promising legacy behind him. Even his business ethics was good and pure for most of the time. It was hard to find a flaw in this man, and perhaps I was biased, but I couldn't find anything to thoroughly negate him on.
Edward Masen was flawed but I just haven't discovered how he was flawed yet.
I was just shutting down the computer when he came out with his business case, slightly worn looking designer suit and a mop of dishevelled hair.
In this moment he looked human. The toll of the day lying on his slight sagged posture and the tiredness in his eyes showed that the day was over and home was where he needed to be.
But with the blink of an eye, his posture was immediately corrected and he stared ahead towards me with new rebound.
It was impressive how he'd always mustered unknown energy from within to elevate himself during all kinds of situation which made himself so erect and ready. It was both intriguing and unnerving actually.
His corrected posture turned towards my desk and I suddenly felt like a deer caught in the fucking head lights. Bloody overly used idiom.
What do I do?
Smile and put my bloody thumbs up?
Grimace and pretend to type on my keyboard pretending to work?
If only I could be more consistent towards him. Every time he looked my way today so far had thrown me so far off the Earth's axis that I felt the sun's blazing heat and I would blush like my seventeen year old self!
You've always blushed like a school girl. Don't deny it Bella.
"Yes?" I asked stiffly and held onto one of the arms to my chair.
"Dinner tonight, seven pm at the same hotel. I have placed a reservation. Due to the nature of this arrangement I can't come to pick you up personally. Shall I organize a chauffeur?" He asked, cautiously analysing my stiffened pose.
"I'm fine by that Mr Masen. I'll make my own way there, that's fine." I relaxed and sank a little into my seat.
Unexpectedly, he pulled himself towards my direction in a single stride and his eyes levelled with mine whilst he was on one knee on the door.
One of his hands was on my cheek as his eyes gazed into mine.
Then, he softly kissed me.
I savoured the moment and closed my eyes enjoying the pull and suction on my lips. At the same time I ignored the soar of the blood flow in my veins and grasped onto the arms of the chair tighter yet, my body sagged and welcomed the heat from Edward's body.
When the kiss was coming an end, I released a breath into Edward's mouth and was relieved when I was still coherent after he was done with me. Done with me only for or now, I hoped.
If he was going to back out of this after he had a more thorough think between the time I entered his office and now, I would be very disappointed in spite of my distaste to become his whore.
"We'll talk about this over dinner tonight." He promised and stood up to leave.
I felt obliged to also stand and I did just that and performed a semi bow when he made his way out of my reception area, into the waiting area for the elevator.
It goes without saying that I've been even more of a wreck as our dinner reservation lurked closer in time.
Mr Masen had left the premises at five on the dot and I ended up leaving at a time closer to six- mainly due to checking and checking over my work time and time over.
When I was completely aware of my surroundings again, I knew I needed to switch my computer back on to concentrate on something more sensible.
Now that he already doubted my working ethics, I had more the reason to work my ass off to show him that I was capable and better than anything he had.
After I made sure that everything was polished like shiny diamond with a dash of exploding dynamite, I packed my bag and left the office just a few minutes before six.
When I arrived back in my apartment I contemplated whether I had enough time to shower and change into something more impressing than my blouse and slack ensemble. In theory I had enough time to shower and, if I fancied, to do something to my hair and I would still arrive on time, down to the second.
Instead, I tried to plan everything down to the tee and put so much time and effort into planning that I never got to the actually physical part of it. My nerves were a wreck on the side so whatever I came up with was never a good solution which led to my extended internal conflict between whether to wash my hair first or my body first, and which order would cut some extra time for me to use.
For fucks sake Bella, you've already had sex with that man.
The moment froze for me and I stiffened. The weight of everything I've ever done wrong in my life so far seemingly had fallen on my shoulders.
I felt like a ripped off version of Mr Masen's earlier composition of the fatigue posture at home time.
Ten minutes after seven I arrived in the lobby of the hotel.
The big abstract painting behind the lobby counter was still as big and as vibrant in colour, the people here tonight were different from the previous night, yet at the same time, they all lived in the higher standard of life than the rest of us outside of those doors opened manually by the doormen.
One world changed into another through those doors. A portal between two distinct societies in the modern world.
Fucking hell, my nerves are turning me into a poet.
The experience was surreal how I'd walked through this lobby for two consecutive days; both of them were to do something as shameful as selling my body- never mind the forbidden experience of having intercourse with my boss.
I can't regret some parts of it; it was good sex, but times like this when I was alone, I had all of the time in the world to think over the world's values and views of my shameful act. These times when I suddenly feel so small and so undignified despite the world around me doesn't know and may never have guessed unless I announced it onto public television, I can not shake of this feeling guilt yet at the same time I felt pride pouring some of its essence into my veins.
Edward Masen was a man of charm and lure. To have had him, even for once, was everything a woman like me could ever dream of.
I would be delusional to ever have the notion to have attempted to believe that I belonged with him- at any point in time.
He was an aloof man with much importance. He carried around this isolated air that made it hard for people to connect with him. Yet, when he wanted to be charming, his eyes would smoulder people alive and wrapped around his finger just the way he wanted them to.
It was with that thought that I sniffed a whiff of his cologne and felt one of his arms behind me, caressing around my waist and one of my arms; urging his body to mine.
"Are you okay?" He asked, almost concerned.
I was startled for a moment before I caught the tender tone of his voice and processed what was taking place as we stood there.
I thought due to the nature of the arrangement we were to make everything appear strictly professional?
"Yes." I replied. My body retreated to itself and I folded myself into myself, and turned around to face him, my body still wrapped in his arm.
I looked timidly upwards into his eyes and took some of my loose hair into the back of my ear.
I offered him a little forced smile.
"You didn't appear on time, so I went out to the front to see if I could spot you as you arrive."He offered as an explanation.
I nearly forgot what a time keeper he was. Everything had to be on time, and there'd best a good excuse if something or someone was delayed.
"Sorry, there was rush hour traffic on the way." I said as he guided me back in the direction of the restaurant and placed his closest hand on the small of my back.
"It's all good as long as you're here." Edward's words were particularly close to my ear and I wondered how close his mouth was to my ear and how it would look like to the casual observer of our public behaviour.
Somehow, I knew that Edward saw through my lie and he was aware that something else had caused my lateness, but he ignored it and accepted what I offered.
Edward effortlessly guided us towards a private table when we stepped feet into the restaurant and I noted that a bottle of champagne was resting in an ice bucket at the side of the table with two champagne flutes waiting to be served.
As we neared the table, Edward gently pressed me forward towards one of the two chairs and pulled it out for me to sit. Once I was settled, Edward went to sit in his own chair opposing mine.
Seconds after, the waiter came to serve us water and asked Edward if the champagne was to opened then, but Edward politely told him not to.
After that, the waiter brought us the menus and left us to decide on our dinner choices.
Throughout the whole time, we hadn't divulged into any of our intended conversation and it appeared the same as any normal professional dinner date would. Although I would admit to feeling a buzz cutting throughout my limbs; making me more aware of the surrounding people's actions and conversations.
For a few moments after we'd ordered, we enjoyed the presence of each other's company and observed the space we were surround in. Everything was strict yet casual- and that was only because of the small glimmer of smile coming from Edward's lips that has managed to make the casual situation work.
Sometimes I couldn't help it and tossed in a small timid smile of my own when I caught his eyes on my particular lips.
"It's quite noble how you are willing to get into this arrangement in order to help out your parents." Edward mentioned and I knew that the proper conversation has begun.
He was aware of my situation before our first time, which was last night. The cocky bastard hired a private investigator when he first knew of my working at The Volturi's, hence why he propositioned the first arrangement.
"I wish the circumstances are different." I looked intently on the glass of water, trying to find a finger print here or there.
"Unfortunately, I'm the ruthless businessman exploiting your weakness for some personal gain." He stared into my glass of water as well, perhaps trying to find a finger print on the surface like me.
"Well you didn't cause it, and you are indirectly helping to relief the situation by propositioning the arrangement and allowing me to have the money I need." I reasoned his logic with my own.
Suddenly, the glass of water was not as interesting and I focused on Edward's unruly bronze locks instead.