Even though the sales team at the A Moment of Bliss office was instructed to push the week long package, offering it at a supposedly discounted rate which of course was not actually discounted at all, it was rare that someone went for it. The price deterred a lot of clients, and in truth most of them had requirements that took a lot less time to fulfil.
Today, however, Alexa was about to start a week long booking. She had flown down to Texas, where her client lived. After hiring a BMW the same model as her own, she had driven to the address she had been provided with. Upon arrival, she discovered that her destination was a huge ranch house, set well back from the main road. The associated land spanned as far as the eye could see, and she wouldn't have been surprised if the land on the other side of the road belonged to it also.
No sooner had Alexa parked her car on the driveway than an attractive dark haired woman in what looked like some kind of maid or housekeeper's uniform came scurrying out of the front door, heading in Alexa's direction.
"Alexa Bliss?" the woman called.
"Yes?" Alexa said through her open window.
"Mr Cole would like you to park in the garage, please," the woman said, more than a hint of Hispanic in her accent. Since there had been no introduction, Alexa decided to think of her as the maid.
The driveway ran across the front of the house to a triple garage on the far side. Alexa noticed one of the doors opening, presumably as a result of some electronic instruction from inside the house.
"No problem," Alexa said to the maid. Firing the BMW up again, she cruised slowly over to the garage and drove into the open space. Once she had parked, she killed the engine and got out. Parked beside her car was a bright red Ferrari. Unfamiliar with them, she didn't know the model, but she did recognise the prancing horse badge. In the third space was a safari buggy that was presumably used for driving around the ranch itself.
"Please follow me," the maid said, having walked over to the garage. She looked keen for Alexa to hurry up.
Alexa had just gotten a first impression of her client, Adam Cole, before she even met him. This maid was used to being ordered around and harried whenever something wasn't done satisfactorily or quickly enough. Typical of a man who considered his staff to be beneath him, she thought.
After retrieving two travel cases from the BMW's trunk, Alexa made sure to be polite to the maid. "Would you mind taking one of these for me?"
"Sure," the maid said, moving swiftly to do so. "Follow me. Mr Cole is waiting."
Yes, I know, Alexa thought, thinking that it might be a long week if she was to be treated in the same manner as Cole's staff. Still, if that did prove to be the case, it wouldn't be the first time by any means that she had worked for a client she hadn't personally liked. Such was the nature of any business, including hers.
Entering the house, the maid led Alexa down the right side of a wide, long entrance hall. On the way, she looked through the couple of open doors they passed by. She saw a dining room, and a room with a pool table and what she thought had looked like a couple of pinball machines in the brief glimpse she had gotten. A man with a kid's playroom, she thought, smiling for a second.
The maid walked into the last room on the right side of the hallway, announcing Alexa as she did so. "Alexa Bliss, Mr Cole."
Following her in, Alexa saw a man with long dark hair on the opposite side of the room. He had been standing at the window, looking out at a beautiful view of his ranch. Wearing smart grey pants and a black shirt, he sure looked like he had money. It radiated from him, including the look on his face as he turned around to greet her. "Ms Bliss. Good of you to come. I hope you've been looking forward to this week as much as I have?"
There was a charismatic smugness about him, Alexa immediately noticed. She wasn't best pleased about the fact that she kind of liked it.
"Hello, Mr Cole. Nice to meet you," Alexa said professionally.
"Call me Adam," he said before directing his attention to the maid. "Have the car brought around, we'll be leaving right away."
The maid left to carry out the instruction she had been given.
"Leaving right away?" Alexa asked, a little surprised.
"No point hanging around, my jet is ready and waiting," Cole said, slowly approaching her. "I bet this is a first for you, someone paying you to go on a week long vacation to the Cayman Islands?"
"I've never been there before," Alexa said, going as far as she was willing towards satisfying his ego, which was clearly large. The background check that she had read herself before taking the booking had indicated as much. Luck had been good to Cole a couple of years earlier when his fledgling oil company had located a previously untapped oil field. The discovery had made him a very wealthy man indeed.
"You're even more beautiful in person," Cole said, now standing in front of her.
"Thank you," she said in the sweet voice she was used to putting on for clients. "Forgive me, but your booking request was a little vague about what we're going to be doing when we get there?"
"I'll be having what you might call a working vacation. Conducting business on the golf course, sunning myself on the beach, gambling in the casinos, and so on. You'll be there with me, looking gorgeous, acting dumb, and making everyone feel jealous of Adam Cole."
That was his ideal woman, Alexa thought with an inward sigh. One who looked stunning but didn't have two brain cells to rub together. She wasn't that person by any means, but she could play the part.
"And I'll be banging your brains out every night, of course," he added, smiling in anticipation.
"Yes, your booking details covered that," Alexa said diplomatically. "Well, I'm ready to go when you are."
"Then let's go. The quicker we get there, the quicker the fun can begin."
With that, Cole breezed out of the room, not bothering to take one of Alexa's two travel cases with him. No wonder you're single, she thought. This seven day booking was going to make her a lot of money, but she felt like she was going to have to work hard to earn it. Tolerating Adam Cole for a week was not going to be a simple task.
"And here we are," Cole announced pompously as he and Alexa were driven past the large welcoming sign out front of the hotel and casino resort that they were going to be staying at. It was a five star establishment, as Alexa had expected. There was some truth to Cole's comment back at his ranch. It did seem odd to be paid a large amount of money to come and vacation here for a week.
During the three hour flight, Cole had barely spoken to Alexa. He had made a great show of conducting business via phone calls made using the plane's wifi. The calls had been made mainly on speaker, Alexa suspected for her benefit. He had wanted her to know how important he was, or at least how important he considered himself to be.
For her part, Alexa had used a tablet that she had brought in one of her cases to do some business of her own. Running A Moment of Bliss required a lot more than turning up and pleasuring clients.
Their driver pulled up out front of the hotel and got out to retrieve their luggage for them.
Getting out of the car, Alexa savoured the hot weather. The late afternoon sun was beating down out of a cloudless sky. She couldn't wait to hit the beach, but of course it wasn't her decision to make.
"And we're officially on vacation," Cole said, having emerged from the other side of the car. He stretched both of his arms upwards, working out the kinks from the flight and the car ride.
"Gorgeous weather," Alexa commented as she walked around the car to join him. Thanks to his focus on work during the flight, she hadn't been able to make much progress with getting to know him yet. She couldn't help thinking that might not be a bad thing, based on her first impression.
"Sun's out, legs out," Cole said, eyeing up a couple of sexy young ladies who had just walked out of the hotel, both wearing very short shorts. By contrast, Alexa had pants on, a point that Cole made by then looking at her legs.
"Trust me, I have outfits with me that show off my body," she said.
"Good, because there are always business people and celebrities here, some of whom I know. I also have some business to attend to. Your role is to look like a whole meal and make them think, 'Wow, he's a lucky son of a bitch.' And that means flaunting what you've got."
"Got it," Alexa promised. It would be demeaning, but she would keep her mind on the amount he had been charged for the booking.
Cole's expression changed, as if an unpleasant thought had just occurred to him.
"What's wrong?" Alexa asked. Whether she personally liked a client or not, her job was to make them happy in every way. That kind of expression wasn't what she wanted to see.
Before Cole could answer her, the driver finished unloading their cases. Cole dismissed him. Without needing to be instructed, a man from the hotel's staff appeared with a trolley and started loading the cases onto it.
"What if someone looks up Alexa Bliss and finds out who you really are?" Cole asked Alexa quietly, making sure no one overheard him.
"Simple," Alexa smiled. "Don't use the name Alexa Bliss. I have an alias for such situations, so you can introduce me as Lexi Kaufman. I have Twitter, Facebook and Instagram profiles under that name, all set as private, but they look perfectly legit in case someone decides to do a bit of snooping."
"That's excellent. Very professional," Cole said, being genuinely pleasant for the first time.
"We aim to please at A Moment of Bliss," she smiled.
"And I know you will," Cole said. He started walking towards the revolving door at the hotel's entrance. "Okay, Lexi, let our vacation begin."
Here we go, Alexa thought, preparing herself for a week of playing a dumb, pretty blonde who had managed to land herself a rich boyfriend.
A/N: Thank you to everyone who left a review on the previous chapter.
What do you make of Alexa's latest booking? What would you like to see her and Adam doing during their week together?