Boss's Virgin - A Standalone Romance (An Office Billionaire Boss Romance) by Claire Adams, Joey Bush (29)

THE BOSS #2

 

Chapter 1

Aria

This was my fifth attempt to pay attention in class. The professor was babbling something about regression models, there were numbers on the board, and I think I was in Statistics II. Maybe. Honestly, I wouldn’t have noticed if I had walked into the wrong class right now; my mind was far, far away from this classroom, in a whole other room altogether. All the chatter, people talking in the hallways, the professor being obnoxious – things that usually bothered me to no end – now sounded like a mildly pleasant distraction coming from another dimension in space and time. It had been like this all week. Nothing in the whole world could faze me.

I still couldn’t believe what had happened. And how perfect it was. My mind once again drifted back to that night in Zayden’s office one week ago.

Right after we had made love – no, no not made love, done it, had sex, any other term for what had happened – we both collapsed onto the couch, locked in an embrace. It felt like forever when we were both able to function again, and the first thing he said was, “God dammit, Aria, why did you lie?”

“Wow, you sure know how to flatter a woman after sex,” I rolled my eyes.

He got up and looked at me with his head resting on his elbow. There was real concern in his face. “I’m serious. Why did you lie about your virginity?”

“What?” I snapped. “I wasn’t a virgin, and it’s not like that stopped you from trying to get into my pants when you thought I was! I’ve only had sex once and it lasted a whole minute. Why the sudden concern? Did I really suck that bad?”

“It’s not like that,” he said, running his index finger over the contours of my face. “I just… it would have gone differently if I had known the truth. If I knew you were a virgin or even that you had only been fucked once, I would have been more… gentle. I should have known better, but I was overwhelmed with you. If I had just kept my head straight, I would have gone much slower, done much better, made this better. Hell, we weren’t even in a real bed! You will always have to remember your first and second time being shitty.”

He looked angry with himself before he finally added: “You’re a smart and young girl; so sorry it had to be this way.”

I gently caressed the stubble on his cheek and said, “Believe me when I say this, it was perfect, Zayden. I had a great time.” I looked down coyly for a few minutes. “The pleasure…” I finished in a barely audible voice.

He laughed. “I love how bashful you get. It’s really cute, considering the way I just fucked you.”

I looked away from him, trying not to focus on the fact that he had used the word “love”. It wasn’t like he was saying he loved me; this was the equivalent of saying he loves the taste of ice-cream, yet I couldn’t help but feel a tingle of excitement.

“I am not bashful.” I looked at him again. “I can talk dirty and everything.”

He started chuckling. “Oh, really? Let’s hear it then.”

I could feel my face turning a shade of deep red. “Huh?” I looked at him as though I had no idea what he was saying. I was trapped.

“Let me hear you talk dirty,” he said with a twinkle in his eyes. “‘And everything.’”

Covering my face with both my hands, I sighed. Okay, okay I can do this.

“I’m… dirty. I’m a dirty, dirty girl, who likes to have a lot of sex and stuff. And in weird positions. Like this one time when Stacey and I found this video from Nick’s stash where the girl like bends against the guy from underneath him like a gymnast – like that, and I can-“ I made the mistake of looking at his eyes and we both burst into a bout of uncontrollable laughter.

“Okay.” I shrugged. “So I can’t actually talk dirty. And everything.”

“Yet.” He winked and leaned in to kiss my neck.

“Mmm,” I moaned.

“Ready for round two?” he mumbled against my neck. “I’ll be gentle this time, I promise.”

“No,” I whispered and he broke off to look at me in confusion. I clarified, “No, don’t be gentle.”

Then I boldly proceeded to unzip his pants and take him in my mouth. He began to fuck my face uncontrollably. The power I felt from being able to make him lose control like that was glorious. I licked his shaft while occasionally sucking the tip. It clearly worked because he climaxed in no time, making me feel incredibly proud of myself.

After a few more rounds, we fell asleep on the couch and I woke up in the middle of the night.

“I have to go.” I rubbed his nose. “Class tomorrow. And people will start coming in here in like 4 hours. They can’t see this.”

He groaned. “That’s why we should’ve taken this to my place. Next time, my place!”

Next time. So there would be a next time.  I tried not to seem as excited as I actually was. “I’ll see you tomorrow,” I said, leaning in for a kiss.

“You won’t,” he said, sighing. “I’m going to New York for business for two days. We are trying to set up a branch in the East Coast and see how we may advance.”

“Lucky! I’ve never been to New York. Is it as amazing as it is on TV?”

He shrugged. “It’s just a city. But I’ll take you there sometime.”

“No thank you,” I said, a little too quickly. Of course I wanted to be taken to New York someday. Every person in the world wanted to be taken to New York someday. But I couldn’t let Zayden do me any more favors. Plus, I was afraid I would take his promises too seriously and assume this whole deal meant a whole lot more than it actually did. I wasn’t quite sure where we stood right now. There was, of course, the contract. We had a full five months of that left, so he wasn’t going to discard me until then for sure. But what about after that? It would probably be goodbye and he would be done with me forever.

I tried not to dwell on that and instead focused on the wonderful night I had. I didn’t remember the last time I had truly had fun, not worrying about anything. I didn’t remember the last time I was simply happy. This might have been temporary, but in that moment I decided that for the next five months, I would focus on one thing: being happy. What happened after didn’t matter.

“Ms. Roberts, what is the formula for standard deviation?” I heard a voice come from a distance. It sounded a little like my name…

Oh shit. I was transported back into a classroom full of college students and a frustrated-looking teacher staring down at me. “Ms. Roberts, are you still with us?”

“Yes, sorry!” I snapped out. “The formula for standard deviation...”

I knew this. I did. Why couldn’t I remember it right that second though? I needed to stop thinking about Zayden and that night in class. I was never unable to answer a question.

“Ms. Roberts,” the teacher said. “I would really appreciate it if you paid some attention in class. Nobody wants to be here, even I don’t want to be here to try and explain statistics to disengaged students. But it’s my job, and you could make my job a lot easier by feigning some interest. The unintentional side effect would be some good grades. Do you know what those look like?”

I nodded, feeling humiliated. If only he knew that I was a straight-A student. A teacher had never berated me in my life before this. I really needed to get my shit together. “I’m sorry. I am just having a rough day. It won’t happen again.”

“Good, because your mid-term exam for this class is tomorrow,” he said, now addressing the whole class.

Phew. Mid-term. I’d ace that and everything would be okay again. No more thinking about sex in class though. What was even happening to me? I was going to kill Zayden Sinclair when he returned from New York. He was beginning to interfere with my everyday life.

 

Chapter 2

Zayden

Did she have to be in class? I hated not having the view of her ass from my office. All I had to look at was old Mrs. Brian, who seemed to think frowning at every customer that walked in was company policy.

I picked up my phone to call Aria, wondering if I could demand that she become present at work instantly, but she probably wouldn’t answer her phone in class. Grunting, I thought about how much fun we were going to have when I took her home tonight. I had made some plans, all right.

We hadn’t quite had the chance to do it after that night in the office. First I had to rush off to New York, and when I got back, there was a whole pile of work waiting for me to return to, and countless annoying meetings. At least I had found a way to make work interesting the day I had returned from New York. I thought back to that morning, when Aria had seen me walk into the office from her teller’s booth and was visibly struggling not to run to me. She didn’t want to tarnish her reputation and worsen mine. Thank god she was clever. So I had to devise a plan to get her to come into my office. And keep her there.

I called her phone.

“Good morning, Mrs. Roberts,” I grinned at her from the distance. “How are you doing, today?”

“Better now,” she grinned back. “For no particular reason, though.”

“There seems to be a steady number of reinforcements for your tasks at the teller’s booth over there. There’s Mrs. Brian, and the new kid should be arriving. Do you think you could make yourself available for some executive-level assistance?”

“What did you have in mind?” She winked at me. It was so damn sexy.

“What I really have in mind is bending you over my desk and making you come over and over again.” I watched her flush. It was so satisfying. “Since it’s the middle of the day, however, and we have a lot of company, I will settle for you coming into my office and sorting through my filing cabinet.”

She looked taken aback, but said, “Oh yeah, sure, anything you want. You’re the boss.”

“I’m not finished,” I added with a wink. She wasn’t the only one who could do that. “I want you to sort through my filing cabinet, but first I want you to go to the bathroom and take your panties off, so that I get a nice view of your ass and pussy when you’re filing.”

She gasped. “Are you serious?”

“I don’t joke about pussy, Aria. Go take your panties off. Now.” And then I hung up. Watching her from a distance, I could tell she was equally as frustrated as she was aroused, and my cock was already throbbing hard from that conversation.

She walked into my office a few moments later and I said: “Where are they?”

“What?” She looked confused.

“Your panties.”

She raised her eyebrows. “In my purse. Why does it matter?”

I pulled my top desk drawer out and said, “Place them there. So you can’t cheat in case I step out of my desk.”

“You’re being ridiculous,” she whispered, sounding more frustrated than aroused now.

“Panties. Now.” I stared at her with a stern face until she gave up and stormed to place them where I had asked. “Anything else? Do you want me to strip naked so everyone in the office can have a nice show, too?”

She was angrier than I had realized. “Just calm down,” I said, gently. “I thought you’d find it sexy.”

“I do and it’s annoying. I don’t want to find it sexy. I was looking forward to your return from New York, and wanted to ask you about your trip, and tell you about my progress on the Econ paper, and so much more. But as soon as you walked in, all I could think about was the other night.”

She paused for a second as though very nervous about what was to come next, then added, “All I could think about was the other night, and how much I wanted to repeat it. Right now.”

“Aria,” I gasped, getting super hard. “We can book a hotel room around the corner and—”

“No,” she said quickly. “This is exactly what I am talking about. I would love to accompany you to a hotel room and have you do me as you please. It pisses me off though that you do this while I’m at work. I need these hours. I need to be able to work while at work.”

“I’ll pay you double to take the day off.”

“Stop saying that, it’s disrespectful. I want to earn the money I make.”

“I didn’t mean to offend you… I just figured, you want it, I want it, there seems to be no logical reason that either of us should be clothed right now.”

“But there is,” she sighed. “It’s called my job. And yours!”

“Meh,” I said shrugging. “I own the company, that’s hardly a job.”

“After work,” she snapped. “After everyone leaves, we can hang around in your office and do whatever it is that you want to do.”

“You make it sound like such a chore. How flattering,” I snapped back. “And despite that charming proposition, I’ll have to decline in favor of a sausage fest. Board meeting tonight.”

“We don’t have to be at each other’s throats like this you know,” she said, sighing deeply.

“Well, the fucking sexual tension in the room is making us act this way.”

“Yeah, it’s something like that,” she said, staring at her feet.

“Not to change the subject but I got you something,” I said, producing a tiny box from inside my suit pocket.

“What is it?” She looked nervous.

“Not a ring, obviously,” I said, handing her a box.

“Oh really? I was so convinced that it was a ring, and that one steamy night with me had made you decide you wanted me for the rest of your life. Cause that’s how things work,” she laughed, opening the box and gasped when the contents were revealed.

“These are beautiful,” she exclaimed, examining the diamond Liberty locket I had gotten her. “Is this a real diamond?”

“Two carat. Not much, but since you had never been to New York before, I thought I’d bring a piece of it back to you.”

I was playing this smooth.

She laughed. “Yeah, just two carat, no big deal. It’s not like that’s more than any valuable item I have ever owned. Seriously, though, it’s beautiful. But I can’t accept it. You need to stop buying me expensive presents.”

“It was nothing,” I said. It was just a couple of thousand dollars and that wasn’t much to me. “Just take it, Aria. Otherwise it’s just going to be thrown away.”

“I can’t. I don’t feel comfortable taking gifts from my boss.” She sighed.

“I’m not just your boss.”

“I know.” Her eyes widened. “That’s not what I meant to imply. You’re…” She started fidgeting with the pendant in her hand and flushed to match the color of her red shirt. “You’re... I think of you as… as…” It was like someone asked her to name every state in the U.S. alphabetically in descending order. “A friend,” she finished after a lot of struggle.

“Ah, so you let all your friends do what I did to you the other night?” I tried to look severe, although I was laughing inside at her struggle to speak.

“No! Of course not! You know that I had never – that I was a –“ She caught my eyes and realized I was just teasing her. “I’m going to kill you.”

“Great, then you can keep the pendant as memorabilia for when you miss me after my death.”

She grunted. “I feel bad, though!”

“If you really think of me as a friend, then please, take this small present from your friend.”

“Fine,” she finally said. “But one condition: no more presents, no more spending a single penny outside of our contract on me. Promise?”

“I promise,” I smiled. “Now start shelving and let me enjoy the view.”

“That’s okay. I’ve got to get back to work. Enjoy my underwear,” she said, laughing as she waltzed out of my office.

She was just as good as I was at this game.

 

Chapter 3

Aria

I was walking out of class, disgruntled again from the second encounter in a row with my Statistics professor. It was beginning to be an every class thing. Then I heard someone call my name.

Dick.

“Excuse me?” a blond guy of medium build said.

I may have said Dick out loud. “That’s your name, isn’t it?”

“It’s Rick. But thanks,” my ex-boyfriend grinned. “I’ve been meaning to run into you, Aria.”

“Oh, that’s neat. You don’t even have any classes in the Econ and Finance building. I suppose this is a ‘run-in’ and not a stalking attempt. Go away, dick,” I said, walking on.

He ran after me. “Listen, I tried calling you a bunch of times.”

I turned around and snapped, “Right. And me completely not answering any of those gazillion phone calls over the last few months did not give you the slightest hint that I want nothing to do with you?”

“It did, but I am still here, doesn’t that say something?”

“Yes, it says it’s really late and I have to get out of here. You’re just a dirty scumbag who cheated on me on our anniversary and is now stalking me outside of evening class.”

“You never even gave me a chance to explain!” He was shouting now.

“Explain! What the hell is there to explain, Dick? I saw everything that needed to be seen. Do I care about your made-up sob story where you were doing a dying girl a favor or any kind of other bullshit that you can come up with? No.”

“But you still care about me! Or you wouldn’t be this angry,” he had the nerve to say.

I could almost slap him that moment and tried to ease my trembling fingers. “I cared about you once. You know that. But you hurt me, Ricky. It took me a very long time to recover from that. Of course I’m still angry for what you did to me! But that in no way indicates any remaining feelings for you. I have really truly moved on, and I suggest you do the same. Though let’s be honest, you kind of already had before we even broke up.”

He sighed. “I am really, really sorry, Aria. I am not going to stand here and give you a long and twisted version of a lie you aren’t going to believe. I fucked up, plain and simple. I don’t have some grandiose reasoning behind it; I was just a stupid kid thinking with everything other than my head. And Sally – the girl you found me with – had been going after me for months and I just lost control.”

“I’m sorry for you and your inability to keep it in your pants, but I am not sure how this is supposed to make anything better.”

“It’s not. None of it is supposed to make it any better. All I wanted to say was that I am truly sorry. I don’t think I’ve ever been more sorry about anything in my life. And I would have to be really stupid to think you’d ever give me another chance. I know I don’t deserve one, and you deserve better.”

“Yeah? Then why are you still here?”

“Because I love you.” He shrugged. “I have never loved anyone before or after you. You were the most inspiring person in my life, never letting me down, always supporting me through the hardest of times. And I let all that go, for what?” He shook his head.

“But I don’t love you anymore,” I said softly.

A frown fell across his face. “I know,” he said after a few moments. “I know that. Maybe we can still… I don’t know… be friends?”

“Why? What does that accomplish?”

“I get to be around the most amazing girl I have ever met, and have her in my life in some capacity, even though I will know for sure that it’s never ever going to be more than that.”

I sighed. “Never ever.”

“Ever?” He was breaking out a tiny smile.

“Never!” I said more loudly.

“Friends?” He gave me his hand and I took it reluctantly.

“Friends. But I have to go now. Lots to do tonight, need to drop by home and then go to the bank—”

Shouldn’t have said that last part cause he raised his eyebrows questioningly. “Why are you going to the bank this late?”

“I forgot my…” I saw my phone prodding out of my bag. “Phone…charger! I forgot my phone charger there!”

Phew. That was a close one. I needed to be more careful about disclosing my whereabouts, especially when it concerned my super-secret rendezvous with the owner and CEO of a giant bank chain.

“But I’ll see you later?” Rick was still talking as I started storming off before I could say too much more.

“Sure,” I said without even looking back and dashed out of there as fast as I could.

I heard him say, 'I’ll hold you to that.”

Great, now I had unintentionally agreed to hang out with him. Oh well, it couldn’t be that bad. I was far too invested in Zayden to be won over by Dick-Rick’s attempts to get me back. And it really sounded like he needed a friend, so whatever, I could handle an afternoon coffee or something. I’d deal with him when I dealt with him. Right now, I had to rush home, change into sexier clothes, and go see Zayden. I couldn’t wait.

 

---

 

Stacey was waiting for me in the living room when I got home. We hadn’t really talked since our last fight, regarding her helping Zayden. We said hello here and there when we ran into each other in the kitchen, but mostly communicated via Nick, who was getting increasingly frustrated with what he called our girlish ways.

“Hi,” she said awkwardly as soon as I walked in through the front door.

“Hi,” I said back, not looking at her. Stacey and I hadn’t fought in a long time, so I wasn’t quite sure how to approach the situation now. There was also the tiny inconvenience of timing: I was supposed to meet Zayden almost ten minutes ago. Which I couldn’t tell her because I had yet to tell her about my sexcapades, for the fear of the inevitable I-told-you-so.

“I’m sorry,” we both said in unison. And then I just wanted to hug her and have my best friend back and tell her about the amazing things that had happened to me. I didn’t even care about the I-told-you-so anymore, I had missed her too much. I jumped on the couch next to her and hugged her against her will. Stacey wasn’t a touchy-feely person, but over the years started secretly enjoying being forced into a hug by me. She’d never admit it, though.

“You were right,” were the first words that came out of my mouth. “You were absolutely, one-hundred percent right. Zayden makes me happy. Thank you for seeing it before I did Stace.”

“No no no,” she said, shaking her head. “I mean, I am glad you think so and are happy now, but I shouldn’t have went behind your back like that, solely based on what I thought was best for you.”

“Come on, Stace, let’s be honest, when have you been wrong about what’s best for me?”

“Never,” she said and grinned. “But that’s not the point.”

“It is though. You were right about Ricky-Dick and you were right about Zayden.”

After a few moments of gathering courage, I said, “There is something I have to tell you about Zayden.”

She immediately jumped upright upon hearing that her eyes widened to the size of walnuts. “Aria Roberts, you didn’t!”

“I haven’t even told you what it is that I am talking about!” I exclaimed, even though by now we both knew that nothing needed to be said.

“What? When? How? Where? Tell me everything,” she shrieked.

“Can I give you a quick summary? I kind of have plans to go see him.” I checked my watch. “Like fifteen minutes ago.”

She gasped. “So you’ve been doing it this whole time?”

“No, no no, only once. In his office. Last week. Maybe tonight.” I started thinking back to that night and hugged my own knees. “It was amazing! He was…incredible. If that is what real sex feels like, I am surprised people ever get out of their houses.” I surveyed her from top to bottom. “Like, I am surprised you’re out here with me and not jumping Nick’s bones right now.”

She laughed. “Oh you poor, child. I hate to be the one to ruin Christmas, but it’s not always perfect and amazing and wonderful. Especially not the first time, not for most girls, anyway. You got lucky. Zayden must’ve known what he was doing.”

I was still hiding the fact that I lost virginity to a random guy after Rick broke up with me. She’d never let me live it down if she knew.

“Are you saying Nick doesn’t?” I teased.

“Of course he does. I mean, we are great and everything and I love him. It’s not perfect every single time though. And after dating for as long as we have, it kind of gets old a little bit.”

My face fell. “Are you guys having trouble?”

“No, no, no. Not at all! Like I said, it’s still pretty good, just not the same as what you described. Nick and I keep it interesting by doing new things—“

“I didn’t need to know that,” I laughed.

“Not like that. I mean we are saving ourselves for our anniversary now. It’s been almost a month, and that kind of stuff makes it exciting. What I am trying to tell you is that you shouldn’t let yourself think that sex is always going to be like perfect every time. It gets both better and worse with time, and since Zayden sounds like he is pretty damn good, you might be disappointed in other men,” she said and hastily added, “if there ever are any. I mean if this doesn’t work out… I mean, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to go there.”

I felt a strange bubble of sadness start to build in my chest. “It’s okay, I know this is not going to work out. I mean it’s still just a contract and after six months all of this will be over. I have pretty much accepted that.”

She hugged me this time, which was such a rare occurrence that I let out a slight chuckle. “Please don’t get hurt,” she said.

“I don’t want to and I’ll try not to.” I shrugged. “But—“

“But you’re falling for this guy?” She asked.

I was not ready to accept this and the question made me feel heavy in my chest. I was not supposed to be. I knew what the deal was, I knew what I was getting myself into and this was never a part of the plan. There was no reason in the world that I should be letting my emotions get out of control, given the possible consequences, but here I was, completely and utterly gripped by the charms of a man who I knew from the get-go was never going to be mine to keep.

“I’m falling hard, Stacey. Ugh. I just want to be able to have fun for now and deal with what happens when it happens. If only I could make these feelings stop.”

“Then have fun! You haven’t freely enjoyed your life like this in a long time. You don’t know what he’s thinking! Maybe he’s feeling the exact same way. You trust my intuitions, right? I have a great feeling about this guy, I think he’s going to be around for a long time.”

“But what if he’s not? What if you’re wrong?”

“Then I will buy you ten gallons of ice-cream and we’ll eat it all and watch Friends marathons until your heart heals. Even if that means we are confined to this living room forever.” She smiled.

I giggled. “You’re the best friend ever. Thank you, Stace. I’m sorry again. I really missed you!”

“I did too,” she said pulling me off the couch. “Now go put on a sexy dress and have what you call amazing sex. There will be a long interrogation about it later.”

Interrogation? That wasn’t going to happen.

 

---

 

When I finally made it to the bank, I was ridden with excitement. This would be the first time we were alone together since we had sex. Outside the bank I removed my travel mirror from my purse and checked my appearance. I looked decent enough, and had a lingering suspicion that he would think so even if I showed up in a rag. I walked into the bank and rushed towards Zayden’s office but halted right outside. He was on the phone, yelling at somebody.

“I just can’t fucking deal with this right now, don’t you get it?” He was shouting. I had never seen him so angry before. He was holding a stress ball and looked about ready to squish it into tiny little pieces.

“I understand that,” he snapped on the phone. “How many times do I have to explain myself though? I know, I get it, but I can’t deal with this right now, what don’t you get?”

Feeling suddenly nervous, I wondered if this was a good time at all. Maybe I should have stayed home and cancelled; maybe he should have cancelled. I wasn’t sure I wanted to meddle with…whatever it was that was going on.

“We will talk on Tuesday. No, next Tuesday. I am hanging up now,” he barked, almost crushing the stress ball.

I waited a few minutes before striding in, convincing myself that I would make him feel better, regardless of what was bothering him. He had helped me with my mother’s bills, I couldn’t run now when he seemed to be having such a rough time.

With that determination, I entered Zayden’s office, startling him.

 

Chapter 4

Zayden

I jumped when Aria walked in. I should have been more careful and not answered the phone when she was supposed to arrive.

“You’re late,” I said icily. She looked terrified, so I added more softly, “Is everything okay?”

“Sorry I’m late,” she said, walking over to sit next to me and gently putting her arm around mine. “Is everything okay with you?”

“Depends.”

“On what?”

“How long were you standing there?” I grinned. “I’m just kidding. Everything is fine.”

“That’s not what it sounded like.” She looked like she immediately regretted saying that. “Sorry, I don’t mean to pry… I just meant, is everything okay?”

“It is now that you’re here,” I said, leaning in to kiss her, hoping it served as a distraction. She backed away after a few seconds. I hadn’t done a girl twice in a long time, but she was so damn intelligent, I couldn’t help but want more of her.

“That’s sweet, but I am worried about you. I’ve never seen you like that. Is there anything I can do?”

“Yes, just quit it,” I snapped.

Her eyes widened and eyebrows rose.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to snap—“

“But you did,” she said, her voice trembling. “I think it’s best I leave since you’re in such a shitty mood. You won’t tell me what it’s about so I can’t even help you, which makes my being here pointless.”

“Why would you think that? Your being here has made this day slightly better,” I said, thinking up the best lie to tell her. “It’s work, it has been really shitty today. More protests, and someone filed a complaint against one of my loan officers.”

“Wilson?” She asked eagerly.

“No, not Wilson,” I said before she could email him or do something stupid. “Someone from the Nashville branch. You don’t know him.”

“Was that him on the phone just now?” She raised her eyebrows.

“Yes,” I sighed, feeling glad that she literally walked into a solution. “He is threatening to quit and I’ve been trying to explain to him that it will just make him look guilty—which I wouldn’t give a crap about, except that it gives the whole bank a bad reputation. I don’t want scandals, I hate dealing with scandals.”

That merited a laugh. “Really? Sleeping with your employees would be your fault,” she said with mischievous grin.

“Me screwing around with some tellers is hardly a scandal. They’ve all been of age and don’t work here anymore because they can’t handle that it was a one-time thing.”

She raised an eyebrow.

“Not you. You know better than to think you’re just a one-time thing,” I said, trying to save myself.

“What am I, then?” She challenged.

What had gotten into her today? This was not at all like her; she was usually graceful, intelligent, and charming. It was stupid for me to have answered Gina’s call just when Aria was scheduled to come.

Gina was my ex-wife and the bane of my existence. She was the daughter of my mom’s oldest friend, and they had decided Gina and I would be married the second we were born. By the time I realized how wrong they were, we had already been married for five years. I was just lucky we never had any children; if it were up to Gina, though, we would have had quite a few. I suppose she thought I would never leave her if kids were involved. And perhaps I wouldn’t, and I must’ve known that deep down inside because I always turned down the idea of having kids until I was more settled with the bank, my first child. Truthfully, I had been settled with the bank years ago and just kept convincing her and myself that we weren’t ready to have kids. We had filed for divorce last year, and although it hadn’t completely gone through yet, she was still out of my life.

Not according to my mother though. That’s the real reason I had gone to New York: to deal with this bullshit. My mother had attempted what I was convinced was a fake suicide at a hotel room in NYC, drinking half a bottle of whiskey with some painkillers—just the right amount for her to pass out dramatically, but not quite enough to cause any permanent damage. I saw right through it since she used to pull crap like that with dad all the time. Yet when I went to the hotel and saw her, pale and weak and miserable, I couldn’t help but feel sorry for her.

Leave it to Eleanor Sinclair to milk my sympathy for all it was worth; she quickly went on a long rant about how my divorce was taking a toll on her, how Gina was the perfect girl for me, and how my happiness was the only thing keeping her alive. I tried to explain to her that Gina did the precise opposite of making me happy: for one, she had cheated on me more times than I could count, and I was pretty confident that she loved my money more than me. And most importantly, I had never quite loved her. I thought I did at some point, but it was an illusion built on lust and inspired by her beauty, not to mention my parents insisting that she was perfect for me.

Until last year. I found out she was cheating, and was hardly surprised – some part of me knew all along. I had a solid reason to file for divorce.  My mother knew what she had done and somehow found a way to blame me for it. “If only you didn’t work all the time, Zay,” she had said. “A woman has needs, and Gina was getting really lonely. Sure, she could have dealt with it better, but a lonely woman is never thinking straight. She feels a lot of remorse, and you’re a coward if you can’t accept it and forgive her.”

My own mother. Of course she would take her side though; how many times had she cheated on my dad? And now she had pulled this whole fake attempt at killing herself, and decided to use that as bait for getting me to try again with Gina. She wouldn’t stop wailing until I agreed to sign up for couple’s counseling.

That’s what the call was about. All too anxious to jump back into my life, Gina wanted to start the counseling right away, under the guise of “making momma happy, we owe it to her.” I didn’t want to deal with that yet, so I was meeting her to discuss the right time for that. But I had to be careful about Aria finding out. She would never forgive me. She seemed like a righteous girl, and I had a feeling she wouldn’t even give me a chance to explain myself. Even if she did, what could I say exactly? “Oh, I’m thirty-two years old but my mom is making me try and get back with my ex-wife?” It would sound ridiculous.

All this craziness was what had led me to my rule; having sex with a girl once and moving on. I didn’t have time for any more lunatic women.

But Aria wasn’t going to stop asking questions. Why was she so stubborn? I admired this in her; she wouldn’t stop until she got what she wanted, which sometimes was absolutely infuriating.

I was the same way though.

“How long has the situation with the loan officer been bothering you? Is that why you were really in New York?” She asked.

“No,” I said and grinned at her, trying to change the topic. “I went to New York to get you your present.”

She blushed at that and I sighed. “Now let’s not waste another minute.”

I approached her with a fiery kiss, opening her mouth with my tongue, exploring. I could feel her melt under my breath and I was glad that I possessed the skills needed to distract her. My hands found her firm breasts and her nipples were already as hard as my dick. I began to lower my head with the intention of kissing her breasts, but she grabbed my hand with surprising force. Her eyes burning with desire, she said, “Not yet,” and then got on her knees.

Watching her unzip my pants was enough to make my mind completely forget about Gina and all my troubles, my eyes and my head firmly focused on Aria ready to take me in her mouth.

When she did, I lost all control and began moving. I grabbed her head and plunged as hard as I could in her mouth, reaching deep within her throat. She sucked and tried to keep up with my movements as I fucked her face faster and faster. It couldn’t have been more than a few minutes before I was ready to explode.

“I’m fucking coming,” I said with the few words I could muster, and tried to take myself out of her mouth. To my great surprise, she held on tighter to my ass and shook her head.

“Jesus,” I groaned, all but ready to pour myself into her.

“I want to taste you,” she choked out.

Those words were enough to make me shake into a burst of pleasure, as I came hard inside her mouth, holding on tighter to her head. She sucked until I was emptied completely, and she looked at me as I dropped to the couch. Still on her knees, she swallowed part of my cum, while some of it dripped down her pretty little lips.

“Lick your lips,” I said, still reeling from the orgasm, and she complied. I was starting to get hard again almost immediately from watching her.

I was breaking the rule I had set and I didn’t care.

“You tasted amazing,” she said, getting off her knees and approaching me on the couch.

I grinned. She was turning into a sex vixen, something all my other girls never were. She leaned in to kiss me. Her tongue was still warm and I found my hand reach her pussy. “Are you ready for another?” She whispered against my mouth.

I took her hand and placed it where my dick was protruding again. “Can’t you feel how ready I am?”

With that, I grabbed her and threw her on to the couch. “God, I’ve fucking missed you,” I said, working my mouth all over her body, experiencing every inch of her delicious, smooth skin.

“I missed you too,” she moaned, raking her fingers through my hair. Then she kissed my forehead while massaging my temples with her thumbs. I pulled my lips from her neck and she tilted her head down to take my lips into her mouth.

My dick was throbbing again, pushing against her thigh. I snaked my hand in between us and grabbed hold of her mound through her jeans. I made swift circles with the palm of my hand and she moaned into my mouth.

Our tongues danced around each other's as her hands pulled my hair tight. She pulled away from me and leaned back, sitting upright on my throbbing cock. She unbuttoned my shirt while biting her lip. She pulled it off each arm so it was resting behind me and then traced each of my defined muscles with her fingertips before kissing every inch of my chest. I threaded my fingers through her hair and pulled her upright again.

“Take it off,” I groaned, tugging at the bottom of her T-shirt.

I hadn't ever seen her in a T-shirt and jeans but she looked just as good as she did in her tight fitting work clothes. A grin spread across her face and then she tore her shirt up and over her head, revealing a black lace bra. I unbuttoned her pants and ripped the zipper down exposing her matching black lace panties. She stood up on the couch and pushed her jeans down around her ankles before stepping out of them.

She unclasped the front of her bra, allowing her perky breasts with hard nipples to topple out.  Then she playfully snaked out of her panties and kicked them on the floor, revealing her wet aching core. I licked my lips before grabbing her ass and pulling her down so she was sitting directly on my face. I twirled my tongue around her bulging clitoris.

“Oh my god,” she moaned, bracing herself on the couch with her hands.

Her legs pulled tight around my head and I knew she was about to go over the edge. I grabbed her harder, pulling all of her into my mouth to taste her beauty. Before she could cum I raised her up off of me. She reached down between our bodies and grabbed my dick that was aching to be engulfed in her pussy.

I tugged her head down and kissed her hard.

“Ride me,” I groaned into her.

She pulled away and grinned before kissing me once again. She sat up and then turned around, rubbing the tip of my cock against her slippery opening. I grabbed her hips and tugged her down, submerging my dick in her wet pussy.

“Ah,” we groaned in unison as she bounced up and down. Reverse cowgirl happened to be one of my favorite sex positions. Aria was truly giving me everything I wanted.

I tugged her up and down, sliding my dick through her pussy faster than ever. Then she pulled her legs tight against my hips as I continued to thrust in and out of her.

“Oh my god,” she shrieked out in an orgasm and shuddered. She continued to hold on to my legs as I burst about into my own orgasm.

“Holy fucking shit!” I shouted, pulling her off of me so I could shoot my cum all over us. When I was finished she fall flat onto the couch next to me, unable to move a single muscle.

“Next time, my bed,” I said when I could speak again. “It was supposed to be the bed tonight, but you walked in with those tight jeans of yours and I couldn’t help myself.”

“I don’t think a bed would make any difference.”

“You’ll be surprised Aria.” She looked so serene, lying naked in my office sofa. “I’ll show you just what your body is capable of.”

Then I pulled her into my arms and we both slowly fell asleep.

 

Chapter 5

Aria

“He sounds amazing, Aria!” Stacey said the next morning when I went home. “Swoon, baby, swoon. Can’t even imagine how you feel.”

“Amazing.” I hadn’t been able to wipe the huge grin off my face no matter how hard I tried.

“You already said that,” Stacey chuckled. “Like about five hundred times. In the last hour.”

“I know. But you don’t understand. He’s so—“

“Amazing?” she offered.

“Yes. And sexy. Did I tell you he’s getting my paper published?”

“Yep. More than once. And I’ll have to butt in here and remind you that you got your paper published. He simply geared it towards the right direction.”

“But it wouldn’t have happened without him.” I sounded way more defensive than I had intended. “And he even helped me research it. You know how confident I am about my work, Stace. Not at all. I would never submit my work to an influential journal. I kind of owe him a lot.”

“I’m sure he thinks you don’t, since you seem to be already returning favors,” she said and winked.

I hit her with a pillow. “Shut up, Stace. And it’s more of a favor to me anyway.” Trying not to blush, I changed the subject. “So what’s new with you, anyway?”

“Nothing in the scale of enthralling romance with a handsome billionaire.”

I rolled my eyes. “Thanks for completely ignoring my attempt to change the subject.”

“You’re welcome, anytime. And you know I’m just teasing, right? I am happy for you. I’ve never seen you this excited about a guy in all the time I’ve known you. One might even say you’re in looove.”

I gasped. “I wouldn’t go that far.”

“Yeah, I don’t really think you are either. I’ll probably know first since I know you better than you know yourself. I am going to make a wild guess and say that you are beginning to fall for him.”

“Yeah…I am so screwed,” I said, burying my head underneath the pillow on the couch. Was I really beginning to fall for him? I couldn’t be! I didn’t even know him very well. I mean I did, on principal – I knew what he did for a living and I knew where he went to college. I knew all these random facts about him. Me and every other girl in the world with a magazine and internet access. 

Plus everything he’d done for me since the contract.

Zayden Sinclair was an absolute pleasure to hang around. I could be myself with him, I realized to my own surprise. I never pretended or put on a face; I always said the first thing that came to my mind and he found my lame jokes funny, and enjoyed my company, just the way I was. Being with Zayden – around Zayden – was comfortable, easy, and natural. The fact that we seemed to get along so well was incredible given the differences in our social status. Yet this did not seem to matter at all when we were around each other. We were always just two people, enjoying each other’s company, and no external factors about who he was and who I was seemed to ever matter.

Stacey was right. I was falling for him. I was in trouble.

 

---

 

By the time I got to work that day, I was still reeling thinking about Zayden and last night. Every customer and coworker could sense my giddiness from a mile away, I was sure, and it didn’t bother me at all. Every chance I got, I looked over at him through his glass doors, feeling wonderful. There was nothing like watching Zayden hard at work. His passion shone through the distance between us, and I had noticed that any time he was frustrated, he would screw his nose in the most adorable way and crush his stress ball. It made me wish I was his stress ball.

At some point I saw him loosen his tie in what I assumed was frustration and I just wanted to go over and put my arms around him, kissing his forehead. Unfortunately, we had an audience to worry about. Things would be so much easier if we weren’t doing this in secret. At the same time, I wasn’t sure Mrs. Brian’s judgmental looks were entirely welcome, and I didn’t want people to think there was any favoritism going on.

Not that this affected my job in any way. I still had the same shitty hours and the same shitty pay, and I was glad about it. I wanted to earn any career advances I made; however, people loved to talk and they would somehow manage to make me feel like I was getting special treatment—like extra-long bathroom breaks or something.

But more importantly, I wasn’t sure Zayden wanted to make our – I wasn’t sure what to call it, not relationship in any case – dalliance public just yet. Or ever, I realized with a sinking feeling in my heart. One of these evenings I would have to bring this up with him: yes, it was a contract, and yes, I knew where this was supposed to go all along. But things had obviously changed for me, and I wondered – and hoped more dearly than I liked – that they had changed for him too. He had taken me out in public, after all! And brought me a present from New York. Though that was hardly saying something. I had yet to even see the inside of his apartment. He had hinted a few times at taking me over there, but somehow we almost always found ourselves confined to his office. I mean, to be fair, we had both always been too eager to take each other’s clothes off the moment we were alone together. Still. It would be nice if he asked. I would like to feel more like a part of his life and get to know more about him like his family, friends, hobbies, and all that jazz.

And I would like to learn more from him. A lot more. One of the greatest unimagined benefits of our tryst had been just how much I had learned from Zayden. More than I had from most teachers. He was always willing and eager to talk me through the basics of management in the banking industry and whenever we talked about this stuff, his teasing persona would completely vanish. Solemnly, he would get into telling me details about his own experiences during his MBA, and getting into everyday examples from his job as CEO. When we were “studying,” he would even ignore my playful sexual advances, leading me to believe that he actually took me seriously. Coming from a misogynistic philanderer, it surprisingly meant a lot.

I couldn’t wait until everyone went home and I would walk into his office with all these new questions that I had been thinking about. With my shirt off. I would challenge him to keep his serious tone and make it very difficult. It would be amusing. Then, after we walked through all my questions, we would get back on his couch. Or maybe he would even invite me home…if we managed to keep our hands off each other through my long list of questions, after all, we could manage another few minutes to his house. I wondered what it was like. Probably bigger than any place I had ever seen. His bedroom was probably the perfect Martha Stewart representation of the Alpha male. Dark sheets and curtains. A drawer full of kinky things, I could bet. Things I would have no idea the purpose for. And he would probably want to show me.

“Aria,” I heard a male voice say, breaking me out of my embarrassing day dream. I looked up hoping to find Zayden, and was disappointed to find Dick’s face smiling down at me gleefully. Rick. I forced a smile.

“Hey! You look really pretty today,” he said. “Well, every day. But really, really pretty today.”

Annoyed but trying not to show it, I cleared my throat. “Thanks,” I said awkwardly. “What are you doing here?”

“Snappy. How flattering for my ego.”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to sound rude or anything. Just wondering how come you’re at the bank. I’ve never seen you here before. And I thought you banked with Wells Fargo!”

“I am thinking of changing it.” He shrugged. “There are some things only this branch of South National has to offer. Exclusively.”

I sighed. “Rick. We have been through this already. You know where I stand on this whole thing.”

His smile didn’t falter. “I know. I thought we stood at being friends.”

That made me smile back at him and at the exact moment I saw Zayden looking at us sternly. “Yes, that sounds about right. But you really shouldn’t be here.”

“I am not stalking, I promise. I had to go visit a friend next door and I remembered you telling me you worked here. It probably sounds like bullshit – given the age-old ‘I was in the neighborhood’ line – but I really was. I can give you his number if you like.”

I laughed, trying not to look at Zayden. His fierce stares were starting to make me uncomfortable. “I believe you, and thanks for stopping by.”

“Of course, any time. I thought I would also check up on our coffee hangout. I owe you a delicious cup of Frappuccino for everything I made you go through.”

“You don’t owe me anything. Like I said, I am over everything that happened. But yes, we can grab that coffee sometime.”

“Perhaps you could plan that coffee date when I am not paying you by the hour,” I heard a different, angrier voice say. Zayden was standing in front of us, looking about ready to commit murder. I had never seen him this angry before. Not even when he was yelling on the phone the other day. My knees trembled and I looked over at Rick. He looked petrified, his face turning pale white.

“I’m sorry,” he was saying in the voice of a mouse. “I did not mean to distract her from her job.”

“You know who I am?” Zayden said, his eyes almost red.

“Duh. Most people do around here. I’m Richard Kruz. A friend of Aria’s.”

“I don’t care if you’re the mother of Jesus. If you need to flirt with my employees, do it on your own time. Now please leave the premises of my building before I call security.”

Rick looked like he was about to throw up and muttered another “sorry” before strutting out of the building. If I wasn’t so terrified myself, I would be laughing hard at the look on his face. He definitely deserved this.

“You,” Zayden snapped. “In my office. Now.”

He had never spoken to me like that, and now my amusement and fear was starting to turn into anger. God, he was being an ass. I followed him to his office, rage spreading through my body.

“Close the door behind you,” he said in the same angry tone.

I complied, if for no other reason than to avoid a scene. There was never a good time to be chastised by Zayden Sinclair, but the worst time ever would be during the middle of the day at both our workplaces with everyone listening as they pretended to work.

It would be difficult to continue to keep my cool if he kept acting this way though.

 

Chapter 6

Zayden

I couldn’t justify the intense anger I felt in that moment. Just looking at her face was making me want to throw something out the window, and it had taken all the reserve I could muster not to punch that college punk in the face for daring to flirt with her right in front of my eyes.

“Who the fuck was that?” I snapped bitterly.

“I won’t answer until you ask again,” she said defiantly. “More politely.”

The nerve she had to tell me what the fuck to do was pissing me off! I closed my eyes and took a few deep breaths. She wasn’t going to make this easy, and the angrier I got, the more I needed to find out who that kid was, so he could be banned from the bank premises forever.

“Aria, who was that guy that you agreed to go on a coffee date with?”

“First of all, if you had been listening without the intention of hearing whatever you wanted to, you would realize it’s not a date. We specifically had a conversation about just being friends, and I very calmly and nicely rejected all his other advances.”

“Too nicely. You should have told him to fuck off. I’m going to ask again, who was he?”

She sighed. “Calm down, Zayden. It’s nobody important.”

“It obviously is if you are making plans with him.”

“I make plans with Nick all the time. You know, my roommate, who you thought I was also screwing. That doesn’t bother you.”

“He’s dating your friend. I hardly have anything to worry about there.”

“And you hardly have anything to worry about here either. You heard the whole conversation!”

“I saw how he was looking at you. I know that look… it’s the same one I give you all the time.” I tried to keep my voice from sounding betrayed and pathetic, but I suspected I wasn’t doing a superb job of it.

“Rick is the very last guy on Earth I would ever get involved with, I promise you.”

That name sounded familiar. After our first night she had said something about a Dick… I was half passed out from cumming, but I had heard her say something about something about a guy named Dick… Rick. And then it hit me.

Holding on very tightly to my stress ball, I said, “Your ex.”

“Yes, my ex,” she snapped. “Ex. Meaning in the past. I don’t know if you were paying attention, but that guy hurt me quite a lot. He cheated on me on our anniversary and it took me forever to get over it. I spent the majority of the year hating him.”

“Oh really? How often do you go out for coffee with someone you hate,” I challenged, my fingernails digging through the palm of my hands. The pain was oddly soothing.

“Not very often. But you know what? Before you came along, I would never ever have agreed to be friends with him. Because in some part of me, I still cared. Now I don’t. Because I care about you. And I have no reason to hate him. He almost did me a favor. In some ways, I am grateful… if he hadn’t cheated on me, you and I would have never…”

She stopped, perhaps realizing that she had said more than she intended.

“You can’t talk to him anymore.”

“What do you mean?”

“You are not allowed to go anywhere near that guy.”

She flared her nostrils. “You can’t tell me who I can or cannot talk to. You think you own me?”

“Actually I kind of do,” I spat. “In this regard anyway. It’s in the contract. Section 9. You’re not allowed to engage in any sort of relationship – platonic or otherwise – with a man I disapprove of. And I assure you, I disapprove of this guy.”

She opened her mouth in anger and closed it again. Tears were now freely streaming down her face, her mascara running down her cheeks. I didn’t want her to cry. But more importantly, I didn’t want her talking to that guy.

She looked like she wanted to say something a few times but changed her mind. After standing there in silence for a few minutes, she stormed out of the office.

People had definitely witnessed the production, and I worried about being insulted by my own employees. I did not need this kind of attention. Why did I care who she spoke to anyway? She was just some girl I had contracted to win a challenge in my own head, yet this whole ordeal made me feel extremely vulnerable. So much so that I had ended up creating a scene at work; something that had never, ever happened, in my entire career.

Aria Roberts was turning out to be more trouble than I needed in my life. Yet I knew just then that I would not be able to rest peacefully until I knew for sure that no one else shared her attention. She was to be – for whatever duration she had signed up for – completely and utterly mine.

I didn’t care how that made me seem. I wanted what I wanted, and I always got what I wanted. If she didn’t stop talking to him, I’d have him shipped off the state in no time. Money talks.

She would then hate me if she found out. I felt an uncomfortable knot in my chest. I didn’t want her to hate me. I would have to find a better tactic. What happened today could not be repeated. If I wanted to enjoy the remainder of these few months, it was in my best interest to learn to keep my emotions in check.

The trouble was, I had never before had trouble keeping my emotions in check, and I really did not know how.

 

Chapter 7

Aria

“Not now Stace!” I yelled from my room after Stacey’s fourteenth attempt to knock on my door.

“I come bearing cookies. With huge chocolate chunks. Don’t tell me your mouth isn’t watering smelling all the freshly baked goods.”

I sighed. She was right; Stacey knew me too well. The aroma of the cookies baking had definitely attracted my attention, but if I knew one thing about myself, it was to not allow binging on sugar while I was upset. It usually started with one cookie or just a spoonful of ice-cream, and next thing I knew I would be laying amidst a mountain of wrappers and empty tubs of ice-cream. I was such a freaking stereotype sometimes. Since I literally had no time for the gym in my schedule between work and classes, this always ended up being a horrible idea.

“Thank you, but I honestly just need to continue stuffing my head in this pillow and ignoring humanity for a little bit longer.”

“What if I promise not to make you talk about whatever it is that’s bothering you?” Stacey offered patiently. “Though I assume it’s Zayden related. You can talk to me when you’re ready, but don’t take it out on yummy sugary deliciousness.”

“How delicious?” I couldn’t help but ask. Stacey was a master baker, so it was a stupid question, in any case.

“Better than Halloween.”

I gasped and jumped to open the door. Damn it, Stacey.

“It can’t be better than Halloween. You had peaked. That’s physically impossible,” I said reaching for one giant cookie, while Stacey made herself comfortable in my bed.

One large bite and I was ready to collapse, all my troubles temporarily evaporating. The cookie seemed to be ninety percent chocolate and just the right amount of crunchy, with buttery sweetness and the tiniest hint of vanilla. I closed my eyes and ate the rest of the cookie in slow bites, savoring every aspect of the immaculate taste and texture. For a moment I completely forgot why I had myself locked in my room for the last few days.

“Good?” Stacey was grinning at me, all prideful, when I opened my eyes.

“Horrible,” I said returning her grin. “Absolutely disgusting.”

I reached out for another one and devoured it. “Seriously, the worse cookies I’ve ever had.”

Stacey chuckled. “I’m glad you think so too. Now listen, I know you don’t want to talk about whatever is bothering you, and that’s fine. But you’ve been locked in here for days and that’s not healthy. Let’s do something. Outdoors.”

“Nah, I’m not feeling it,” I said automatically. “You go ahead though. Leave me the plate of horrible cookies, of course.”

“Aria. Come on. This isn’t good. You haven’t gone to work and you need the money! And you missed your Stats mid-term, didn’t you?”

No one was supposed to know about that. This was unusual for me: letting personal matters affect my academic performance. But I was in no mood to run into Zayden or Rick or deal with any of that bullshit.

“I told my professor I had diarrhea. He was all too glad to let me make it up.”

She raised her eyebrows suspiciously. “Does not sound like the Stats dude, at all.”

“You want to see the email?”

I wasn’t lying. Apparently the professor had recently suffered from food poisoning himself, and preferred staying away from anybody with stomach related issues. My make-up test was next week.

“Fine. What about your other classes?”

“I have As in everything. They aren’t going to bust me for missing a class or two. I’m the best they have.”

“How do you manage to stay so modest?”

“I don’t have to be. It’s true, you know it’s true. And when have I done this before? Don’t I deserve one tiny break?”

That made Stacey hug me for some reason. “Never. You have never done anything like this before, Aria. Which is what makes me worry so much. You didn’t even miss a single class when Dick cheated on you. That doesn’t mean you don’t deserve a break! Of course you do. You work harder than anyone I know.”

“Thank you. I’m sorry for being such a recluse. I just have a lot of things to sort through my head. I’ll tell you all about it eventually. Right now I’m just confused and frustrated and just need a little time to think things over. And the cookies helped. A lot. You’re the bestest friend ever.”

“You know what else will help? A night out. Just you, me and Nick, goofing around. No boy-talk, no moping, no worrying, just an obscene amount of shots.”

“I lost my fake I.D. remember? Can’t get in.”

“Don’t worry. What do you think Nick’s off doing right now? We’re on it.”

“What do you mean you’re on it?” I laughed. “How did you know I would agree to this? I still haven’t!”

“Please, I knew I’d convince you the second you opened the door. There is a reason I spent all day baking, I know how to get to you.” She winked.

“You manipulative genius,” I said with a mock-shocked expression. “I’m not coming.”

She sniggered. “Then why are you walking towards your closet?”

“Because, closet police, I’d like to change into some nice clothes. It’s good for the morale. And these pajamas are just about ready to disintegrate from overuse.”

“Do you want to borrow my red strappy sandals? They’ll go well with the dress you’re holding.”

“Why would I do that?” I asked defensively. “I don’t need to wear nice shoes to hang around the apartment in a pretty dress.”

 

---

 

Two hours later we were in The Dive, a small bar a few miles outside the university that Nick had discovered his freshmen year. “It’s a good place to get away from college kids,” he’d said, as though he was a very old man constantly aggravated by the youth.

My fake I.D. had worked brilliantly, even though it had expired last month. Nick had somehow managed to convince a redheaded senior from his Biometrics class to make me another one for free. I suspected he’d be doing her homework for the rest of the semester, and felt extremely grateful for friends like Nick and Stacey in my life.

The Dive was, to my great relief, not too packed. A few men in business suits were occupying the bar, but other than that and two tables with giggly couples, it was empty. We sat at the booth to the far right next to the dart board that nobody ever used. A waitress came over to us.

“Would you guys like anything to drink before you order?”

“We are here just for drinks, actually,” Nick said politely.

“Actually, can I just look at the appetizers?” I said to make her feel better, but then realized I actually could eat something. Aside from Stacey’s cookies, I hadn’t really eaten in two days.

“I’ll grab the special appetizers menu for you ma’am, be right back,” the waitress said and scurried off.

“So guys,” Stacey began to say, who had thus far been busy fiddling with her phone. She looked up. “Do you want to play Numbers?”

Nick and I both chuckled.

“There is hardly anyone here; women seem to be particularly missing so you guys have a clear advantage.”

Numbers was a game Stacey and I invented our freshman year. We only ever played it between the three of us and the rules were pretty straightforward: try to get as many numbers as possible. The three of us would usually separate into different corners of a bar or a party and talk to random strangers – appearance, status, and sometimes even gender did not factor into it – and try to get their numbers. In order to avoid cheating, the second part of the game happened the next day. Nick, Stacey and I would exchange the numbers we had managed to get and then call each one on the list. Nick would call the men, us the women. Then we would be like, “Is this Sally?” to make sure that it was the right person and we weren’t just making it up. When the person responded “yes”, we’d just make up a fake last name, apologize for calling the wrong number, then put a check mark next to the person. Whoever had the highest count of verified numbers would then be treated to brunch by the other two, and brunch was usually spent laughing about all the tactics and victims involved in the game.

It was fun, but Nick was right, this wasn’t the ideal venue to play the game. We would need a bigger crowd.

“Well, it shouldn’t be a problem anymore,” Stacey said, pointing towards the door. A large crowd that appeared to be celebrating a birthday party walked in. There were at least forty men and women who seemed to be in their early twenties, wearing goofy hats. The birthday girl was easily identifiable by her glistening tiara and a pink sachet that said “Happy Birthday, Brianna!”

“And I’ll make you a deal, Nick,” Stacey said. “Double points for Brianna’s number.”

I was starting to get excited in spite of myself. This game was always fun and brunch with the roomies the next morning even more so. I could use some harmless flirting with a bunch of guys.

And then it hit me: I wasn’t allowed to be harmlessly flirting. Not even for the game. Zayden Sinclair and his crazy contract.

“Guys, I’m sorry to be a party pooper, but I can’t,” I said, frowning at the menu the waitress had brought me.

“Don’t be silly, Aria, of course you can,” Nick said, eyeing Brianna as though mentally weighing how difficult it would be to get her number.

“No, I can’t,” I shook my head. “Not in a dramatic, crappy mood kind of a way. Not like I don’t want to. I really, truly, legally can’t.”

Stacey squinted her eyes. “What do you mean?” When I didn’t respond for a while, she said more sternly, “Aria? What do you mean legally?”

“Can we please talk about it tomorrow? I just… I am glad to be out here with you guys and want to try and enjoy my evening. I’ll tell you all about it, I promise,” I said, looking at Stacey, then Nick coughed. “You too, Nick. Brunch tomorrow. I’ll tell you everything. For now though, three shots of tequila?”

“I’ve waited all day to hear those words,” Stacy said, dumping her head onto the table dramatically.

I ordered some nachos to go with my tequila, and when it arrived, one of the guys from the birthday crowd yelled “woohoo!” and joined us from a distance. It was quite comical since he could barely stand and was trying to take that final shot that would make him pass out. This was obviously not their first party. It sucked that I couldn’t play Numbers; it was bound to be super easy under the circumstances.

With every passing drink, the reasoning why I couldn’t play the game sounded more and more feeble. So some guy made me sign some dumb contract; it couldn’t be legally binding. That’s not how contracts worked. And even if it was, what’s the worst that could happen?

Jail, I heard a tiny voice in my head say. I could get sent to prison. So? The drunk Aria fought back. I’d seen Orange is the New Black, I could totally withstand prison. I just had to learn how to smuggle cigarettes in and…

“Aria.” Stacey was snapping her fingers in front of my face. “Are you okay? You’ve been spaced out for a while now. Do you wanna go home?”

“Go home?” I laughed loud enough for the people on the other end of the room to hear. “Go home? It’s not even…” I looked at my wrist and was extremely disappointed to see no watch there. “It’s not even time…to go home…you know, like time?”

Nick was laughing uncontrollably now, and I wondered if he was on the same level as I was. If not – if they were both not – this was going to get really embarrassing tomorrow.

“Where are our shots?” I surveyed the whole room, as though they would just materialize from a random corner.

“We haven’t ordered any,” Stacey said, and I could swear she was slurring her words too, making me feel better.

“Well, we gotta fix that,” I said, then shouted, “SHOTS!”

Everything after that point was hazy. I was running around the bar talking to anyone and everyone. There were shots and more shots, and at one point I think I did a keg stand – or maybe Stacey did one and I felt uncomfortable just watching her. I was next to the birthday girl, cheering her on…we started taking shots together…I was fiddling with my phone. It felt like I was in a horribly made movie. After one last birthday shot with Brianna, everything went completely blank.

 

---

 

I woke up feeling the weight of the whole universe in my head. Slowly opening my eyes, afraid of the light, I surveyed the room to make sure it was my own. Phew. And I was alone, fully clothed, thank god. I licked my lips, still flat on my bed, head pounding, feeling extremely dehydrated. Reaching for the glass of water next to my bed was an enormous struggle and when I finally grabbed it, it was gone in seconds. What was going on with me?

Then I remembered…last night…the bar…the shots…the birthday party. My last hazy memory was dancing with the birthday girl, after which my mind went blank. I had no idea how or when we had gotten home. I pulled out my phone to call Stacey – it felt like too much effort to go over to the other room – and then almost had a mini heart attack.

There were thirteen texts from Zayden, and one from Brianna (the birthday girl?) saying “New bestieeeee!!!!”

I shuddered to think of what may have caused her to give me that coveted title. I must have done something crazy…danced on the bar counter? That wasn’t something I was completely innocent of.

No wonder Zayden’s texts sounded so concerned. Pretty much all of them were some variant of asking me if I was okay. What did I say to him? Shit.

I scrolled through my sent box to see an embarrassing number of texts to Zayden. Not much was decipherable, but one of them said, “im non ibject.” Even I could translate that to “I’m not an object.” And another one that said “fyk ue contact.” I could only assume that meant “fuck your contract.” Then there was “ehy camt I play mumbs lke evry1 eler huh.” “Why can’t I play numbers like everyone else.” This made me extremely glad that nobody else outside of Nick, me, and Stacey knew what Numbers was.

To my utter and complete horror, the phone rang, and it was Zayden. I thumbed the green answer button and weakly pressed the phone to my ear.

“Yes?” I spoke softly.

“What’s up drunky?” He said. I could feel him grinning through the phone and it made me want to throw something.

I mumbled “go away” but didn’t hang up the phone.

“Still unable to speak, I see. That was the theme last night.”

“Look, I’m sorry about the texts…wait…what was the theme of last night?”

“You calling and slurring words that more or less didn’t make an ounce of sense.”

“I called you?” That made me sit up straight.

“When didn’t you call me? About seven times last night. I spoke with quite a few inebriated pals of yours. Some girl named Brianna kept saying her name was Brianna and it was her birthday and that men sucked.”

“I remember very, very little about this person.”

“Last night she was your best friend. She had started suggesting you get on top of the bar counter and dance when I decided to send Ned over to take you home.”

“What?”

“You remember Ned?”

“No, I mean, what do you mean you sent him to take me home?”

“You and your roommates. You told me what bar you were at and I thought it was time for you to go home, based on your complete inability to speak a coherent sentence.”

“Who are you to decide when it’s time for me to go home? You’re not my mother!” A familiar pang of anger started building up inside me. The nerve of this guy.

“I sure hope not. That would be awkward for everybody. But seriously, are you okay?”

“That is quite frankly none of your business,” I snapped.

What was his deal? Just because he has money and a fancy car and driver, he thinks he can push people around and make decisions for them? We would’ve been perfectly fine taking a cab back home. We’d done it countless times before. It’s not like I didn’t have a life before Zayden came into the picture!

“I would say it is, given our contract. It says specifically—”

“Why don’t you just become a lawyer and be done with it?” I sounded angry and that, combined with the headache that was making me feel like I would go blind any second, made me think that I was perhaps not in the best state of mind to have this conversation with Zayden right now. “Look, I am in a lot of pain right now. I’m sure you’ve experienced the mother of all hangovers. It’s not pretty and I am not functional currently. I assure you I didn’t do anything last night that would even put a dent in the contract—“

“I know. You kept saying that last night. I’m not worried, you were on the phone with me practically the whole evening.”

I was such an idiot! My one night out to clear my head of all things Zayden related and I managed to make it all about him. Why did I drink so much?

“I am sorry for harassing you.”

“It’s not harassment if I enjoyed it.” He was smirking; I could just feel it through his phone. “Really quite entertaining. You’re really something, drunk or sober.”

“Thanks for the expert analysis,” I spat. “Now if it’s okay with you, I am going to go back to lying down until time stops.”

“Call me if you need anything.”

“I won’t,” I said and hung up.

My head fell right back onto the pillow and I collapsed.

 

---

 

Hours later – or it could have been days for all I knew – I woke up again to Stacey’s face smiling at me.

“Okay little miss drunky, it’s time to spill the beans…what is going on with you and Zayden? After last night, you have to tell me.”

I covered my face under the pillow and mumbled, “Just kill me now, Stace. Why did we drink so much?”

She placed a cup of coffee on my bedside table. “Because you wouldn’t have it any other way. You were clearly pissed about something, and in your drunken stupor decided that the best way to deal with it was by consuming as much as alcohol as your liver could handle.”

“But.” I looked up at her again. “But, weren’t you and Nick drunk too?”

“Yeah, but we got to a point where we stopped drinking because you were sharing your evening with every person in that big birthday crowd. By sharing your evening, I mean, taking a shot with everyone in sight.”

“Did I do something stupid?” I reached out for the cup of coffee and the warmth of the liquid made my body feel infinitesimally better. 

“Nope, you were just having fun mostly. Until the calls to Zayden started. Everyone in the bar spoke to him, thanks to you.”

I buried my face in the palms of my hands. “Shit, Stacey, that’s bad. I never should have called him.”

“What exactly did he do to you anyway? I thought you guys were doing so great.”

I sighed and proceeded to tell her everything that had happened after Rick had showed up at the office.

“Okay, first of all,” Stacey interrupted. “What were you doing talking to that Dick anyway?”

“It’s a long story!” I said a little too fast, feeling terrified of Stacey.

If anybody hated my ex-boyfriend with a fiery-passion enough to burn him to the ground, it was Stacey. It was a mark of her loyalty to me and really touching, for the most part. But right now her glare was crushing my soul.

“I have all day. And more if needed,” she said looking at her watch.

“He wants to be friends.” I shrugged.

“Oh, does he now?” She folded her hands.

“Look, Stace, if I told him to go fuck off, it would seem like I am still affected by what he did to me, like I still cared. And in all honesty, I don’t. Yes, he hurt me a lot and yes, I had the hardest time getting over it. But I am over it now and I feel that the best way to move on is to not make a big fuss about it.”

“Do you have to fraternize with him though?” She frowned.

“No, but it’s easier than fighting him off. I have been intending to avoid that coffee with him for as long as possible. But that does not mean Zayden can tell me who I can or can’t talk to! His attitude is what makes me actually want to hang out with Rick.”

“Aria, it doesn’t help to be bitter,” she told me, stroking my arm. “But you’re right…as much as I have been approving of Zayden all this time, I don’t think it was right of him to talk to you as though you’re an object in his possession.”

“I am though, according to that fucking contract, that’s exactly what I am,” I said, fuming. “He has stripped me down to the level of his office desk. It’s like all of the sudden, I have no agency, no independence, like I signed my life away to him, and he’s ready to remind me of it every step of the way.”

“Oh Aria.” Stacey hugged me. “That sounds bad. You should not feel objectified in any relationship. If it’s a power-play, it’s not a real relationship. Definitely not a healthy one. I can’t believe I am saying this, but I think you need to break it off. I know he is helping your mom out – and he was really nice to you yesterday, I spoke to him on the phone—“

“You and everyone in that bar,” I scoffed.

“If I had known about all this I would have told him stop calling back and turned your phone off. It just seemed sweet at the time, like he was concerned about you.”

I thought about that for a second. “I don’t doubt that he is. Concerned, I mean. But I think he does not understand the concept of boundaries and is controlling beyond belief. It’s starting to feel way too suffocating.”

“Then get out of it,” Stacey repeated. “We will figure something out for your mom. Maybe I can take out the loan in my name? My dad could help co-sign it. We’d just have to get him really drunk one day—”

“I don’t know what I’d do without you, Stacey. I’m sorry for fighting with you the other day. And no, I got myself into this mess, I’ll find a way to get myself out of it. But it was extremely sweet of you to offer. You’re honestly doing more than enough by just being there. I couldn’t love you more for it.”

We both sat for a long time hugging each other. By the end of it, I had decided for sure that I wanted to break things off. I was not used to being objectified and doing a man’s bidding, and whatever he was doing for me was not worth my dignity.

Zayden and I had to be over.

 

Chapter 8

Zayden

To my utter horror, I had gotten the dreaded “surprise” visit from my mother a few days after Aria had stormed out of my office. I already had a lot to worry about: Aria had called out of work all week, making me increasingly anxious. If she hadn’t made those drunk calls on Friday night, I was ready to show up at her apartment unannounced and give her an earful. How could she have done that to me? A whole week? What was I even paying her for, if she could simply choose to disappear whenever she damn well please?

On top of that my mother decided to just show up, no warning, and thought that would make me happy. Likely story— she very well knew how I would react to the visit— yet she was my mother and I had to at the very least try to not be a complete monster. Right now she was going on and on about my chef’s inability to cook the steak to the perfect medium-rare. She was a terrible cook herself, but loved to criticize everything other people did.

“My, my, how hard is it to get a simple steak right?” She frowned at the dinner table, while I wished, cringing, that the chef couldn’t hear.

“I think it’s delicious.” I shrugged and took a huge bite visibly savoring it. “Sean’s the best cook I know.”

That had the desired effect of making her wince. “How can you say that? When your own mother is sitting right across you?”

“Fine, if it’s all bothering you so much you can just take over the kitchen while you’re here and I’ll send Sean on a paid vacation. He deserves it.”

She gasped. “What is wrong with you, Zay? Why do you insist of treating the help as though they are equals?”

“Because they are,” I snapped. “I have my job of running the bank and Sean has his of cooking for us. I don’t see how one is any less than the other.”

“You know your father used to have the same attitude and that was his eventual downfall—”

“Right, he got a stroke because he was too nice.” I rolled my eyes.

“He was careless and trusting of everybody. It made him weak.”

“He wasn’t very trusting of you now was he?” I spat.

Her face went completely red. We had never really discussed what had happened between her and my dad. After I had found out, I’d simply started distancing myself from her, without any kind of confrontation. She must have figured it out, in any case, but it was something neither of us ever brought up. The fact that I had just said that was akin to slapping her across the face. Her eyes were burning with tears and she was completely speechless for a long time.

She eventually said, “You don’t know anything about what was between your father and me.”

“I know enough. I know why you are not in his will and why you guys were having trouble before he passed away. I know what you did.”

She began to cry and it gave me an odd sort of sinister pleasure. “It’s not like that. I made some mistakes, and I am still paying for it.”

“Hardly,” I scoffed. “I have provided you with everything you need. You’re still living on dad’s money, and a pretty damn leisurely life at that, I might add.”

Wiping her eyes with the napkin, she added, “There are other ways to pay for your mistakes than financially. Not a day goes by when I don’t regret my actions and wrongdoings to your father. He was an incredible man and deserved better. I realize this now.”

“Well too bad, it’s about six years too late. Longer, but god knows by how much. I bet you were never faithful to him.”

Another burst of tears followed. “That isn’t true, Zay. I cared about your father very deeply, and loved him a lot more than you’ll ever realize. But I was lonely. His life was completely devoted to working and I’d barely see him most days. I felt like I had married an empty bed. That was no excuse at all, but at the time I couldn’t think clearly. A lonely woman is capable of stuff like this.”

“I’m aware of that,” I snorted.

“Which is why you need to give Gina another chance.”

“Here we go again.” I rolled my eyes.

“I invited her to come back here and live with us,” she said without looking me in the eye.

“What the fuck did you do that for? This is my house and you don’t get to make these calls in my house.”

“Oh alright then, I’ll tell her not to come if that makes you feel better. You haven’t seen my pills by any chance, have you?”

Holy shit. Had she just threatened another suicide attempt? I couldn’t take it anymore, I was trapped. A part of me wanted to let her do whatever she wanted. But the other part of me just could not bare the thought of losing another parent, as manipulative and cunning as she was. She probably would never go through with it anyway, but that was the power this woman held over me. Logically, I knew she wouldn’t, yet her threats were enough to raise concern and bend me to her will.

I considered the idea of Gina moving back here. It couldn’t really be that bad. I had plenty of spare bedrooms in the house, she could pick the one she liked, farthest away from mine, and it would have the added benefit of keeping my mother entertained. They could spend all their time with each other and I could spend all my time at the office, with Aria.

The thought of Aria made me feel uncomfortable. She was already upset with me and it would take a lot for me to get out of this situation alone, I didn’t doubt it. But I didn’t even want to think of her reaction when she found out about Gina. I wondered what would be the best way to explain it to her, and whether she would even give me a chance to explain. From the outside it must look bad: I was technically still married, and trying to fake an attempt of reconciliation with my wife to keep my mother from offing herself, yet I had made her sign a contract to be my girlfriend and then slept with her. And so many women before her that she knew of. She would think I was a complete asshole, if she didn’t already. Aria could never know about any of this, under any circumstances.

“Okay, mother, Gina can move back into the house. But she’ll have to stay out of my bedroom.”

She flashed a smirk of victory. “For now that sounds like a good idea. She’ll have to eventually move into your room, you know. But we will wait until you guys have better results from couple’s therapy. That’s fair enough.”

What part of this was fair? I didn’t love Gina, I never would. She was wasting my time and her time and quite frankly setting the woman up for quite a bit of disappointment and hurt feelings. But until I figured out a better way to stop the suicide threats, I’d just have to go along with it.

 

---

 

The next day, Gina was all moved in. My mom had already told her to pack and get ready for it before even having that conversation with me. She was a conniving fox.

There was a knock on my door. “I’m busy,” I lied. I didn’t want to see either of them.

“I have something for you, it’ll only take a second,” Gina’s voice said from outside the door. Better her than more threats from my mom.

“Fine, come in.”

She did, wearing nothing but a robe. “Hi,” she said in what I imagined to be an attempt at a seductive voice. Then her robe came off. It wasn’t an utter shock. It wasn’t an unpleasant sight entirely: Gina had a tall, slender and toned figure, with the right amount of curves. Her bright blonde hair flowed under her big round breasts. Objectively, it was quite aesthetically pleasing.

“Put your robe back on,” I said, turning away from her and looking back at my computer.

“But, but I thought-“

“You thought wrong,” I said, ignoring the reaction of my penis, which was quite different from my own. “I am not going to fuck you. Not now, not ever. So quit embarrassing yourself.”

First I heard some sniffles and then I heard her cry as she ran out of the room. Holy shit, women. Did she really think that that would work? Just walking in here and stripping? That it would make me forgive her for all she had done and we would go back to being okay again? It was sickening, and also showed exactly what she thought of me: someone who couldn’t keep his dick in place. Little did she know that the only person I wanted to fuck was a twenty-year-old redhead, whose defiance and stubbornness was enough to give me a hard on. I closed my eyes and lay in bed, thinking of Aria’s smooth skin and soft pussy, stroking myself thinking I was inside it, making her cum. I lasted less than a minute. The mere fantasy of Aria was enough to make me lose all control.

I would lose it completely if I didn’t have her back in my bed soon.

 

---

 

That evening, my mother somehow convinced me to take Gina out to dinner. “I’m feeling particularly under the weather, might need an extra dosage of my pills,” she had casually stated, right after suggesting that Gina and I needed to have some romantic time outside of the house if we were ever going to work. If only I could explain to her that I had no interest in making it work whatsoever.

She could fit in with all the crazy rich celebrities. We could be great a fucking reality show.

I knocked on Gina’s door and said, “I’ll be in the car, come whenever you’re ready.”

I walked over to where Ned was parked right outside my house and made myself a drink of whiskey.

“You don’t seem to be having a particularly good day, Zay. Want to talk about it?” Ned asked upon seeing me chug my whiskey.

I sighed. “I don’t know where to start, Ned. Everything is a fucking mess. You know my mother. She’s decided to extend her stay indefinitely and invited Gina too. She keeps threatening to off herself. It’s frustrating. And then there is Aria…”

“So that’s the real issue. You can usually handle your mother without seeming to collapse with the stress. But your lady friend seems to have done a number on you.”

“She’s frustrating, yet I can’t stop thinking about her. I am supposed to be taking my ex-wife out for dinner and pretending to attempt reconciliation, yet I can’t stop thinking about Aria. How was she? When you picked her up the other day?” I asked, suddenly remembering Ned had seen her more recently than I had.

“Very intoxicated,” he said cheerfully. “She seemed to be having a good time, but definitely a lot of trouble speaking. She was shocked to see me and kept muttering words of what sounded like gratitude, but I can’t be sure.”

“Did she—” I cleared my throat. “Did she say anything about me?”

He looked back and gave me a doleful look. “Do you really want to know?”

“Is it that bad?” I actually felt fear at the possibilities of his answer. What if she had said she hated me?

“No, it wasn’t. I couldn’t make out most of what she was saying but she kept repeating that she wasn’t an object and you didn’t own her.”

“But I do,” I said, confused. “For now, anyway.”

“Well, if you want an old man’s advice: don’t let her feel that way. The best way to win her over is probably to let her feel her independence. If she feels like she is losing that, it will be much harder to keep her around.”

“But she doesn’t have a choice. She signed a contract. She has to be around.”

“Would you rather her just be around or would you rather she be around and enjoy being with you?”

Before I could answer, Gina showed up, wearing a long green dress with the neck so low cut, her breasts were almost popping out.

“Hi Ned,” she said pleasantly.

Ned just nodded curtly. He hated her for what she had done to me, perhaps more than I hated her for it. So the drive to the restaurant was particularly quiet. I asked her if she wanted a drink, to which she politely declined. Probably thought her scheme to win me – and money – over would fail if she didn’t have her wits about her. I resumed to quietly sipping my whiskey and only looked at her when she finally spoke again.

“You look very nice,” she said, still trying to sound annoyingly pleasant.

“Thanks,” I said and looked back out the window. Gina had interrupted my conversation with Ned about Aria, and that alone was enough to make me irritated by her.

“I hope you will be a little chattier at the restaurant. It will make for a lot less uncomfortable of a meal.” She smiled serenely at me, as though she wasn’t just complaining.

“I just don’t have anything to say.” I shrugged.

“I’m sure we can find something to talk about,” she said, putting her hand over mine. “There is a lot of history.”

“Oh, you would like to discuss history, huh? How did it feel fucking someone else behind my back?”

She went red, all attempts at pleasantness in her face vanished. “I meant the rest of our history. The good parts. Don’t you remember any of the good parts, Zay?”

“No,” I spat as Ned parked outside the restaurant. “Now let’s get this date that my mother forced upon us over with, so that she can stop threatening to kill herself.”

She raised her eyes wider. “What are you talking about?”

We hopped out of the car and Ned went off to park. “Don’t play innocent. I’m sure you put her up to it.”

“I honestly don’t know what you are talking about. I know your mamma really wants us to get back together, but I didn’t know she had been pressuring you like that…I thought you wanted to give us another shot. I thought—”

“Whatever you thought, you thought wrong. But we are here now and we might as well enjoy the evening, yeah?”

“Zay, I really want us to work,” she said, reaching out for my hand again but I yanked it away this time. “You’re the love of my life.”

That made me snort. “I have no idea what people mean when they use that word, but based on mother’s ‘love’ for my dad and your ‘love’ for me, I am pretty sure I am not interested in that shallow fucking emotion.”

She looked away holding back tears as we stepped into the restaurant. It was a high-end Japanese establishment, with authentic Japanese decorations, and the chef was famous for winning Japan’s version of Top Chef last year. He had since moved to the States to open his own highly exclusive restaurant. It would take a normal person months to find a reservation here, but I just had to make a phone call. I figured if I was going to suffer through dinner with Gina, I might as well at the very least enjoy the meal.

“Sinclair,” I told the Filipino-looking hostess.

“Come with me, Mr. and Mrs. Sinclair,” she said brightly, escorting us to a private table at the end of the room. I started to correct her but Gina held my hand again, obviously pleased to be referred to as Mrs. Sinclair. “Thank you so much for joining us today, your server will be here any moment.”

As soon as she was off, I told Gina, “We are not Mr. and Mrs. Sinclair.”

“We technically are, Zay,” she sighed. “Like it or not, we are still married, as the divorce papers were never fully processed. You were too busy to make it to any of the court dates, remember? I am Mrs. Sinclair, for now at least. And I would like to try my best to keep it that way. You hate me right now and you can’t see past my mistakes, which I totally understand, but I want this to work. I want you to trust me again.”

I snorted loudly. “You’re delusional, aren’t you? You and my mom both. You think your actions bear no consequences, and that you can just sweep in here with a slutty dress or take your clothes off in my room and everything will just go back to normal?”

Her face went a deep shade of pink. “I didn’t say…I didn’t mean to imply…or dress slutty—“

“Hah!” I cut her off. “So you’re just letting your breasts hang out of your dress with no intention of seducing me right? Just like how you came into my room with just a bath robe on and it conveniently slipped off your body?”

“Yes, that was me trying to seduce you. But you made it clear that you weren’t interested. Honestly, I never knew you were capable of turning down a naked woman.”

“Now you do,” I snapped. “So don’t try to pull that shit with me again.”

She put her hand over mine again. That was getting annoying.

“Zayden,” she said with her frustratingly pleasant tone back. “Be honest with me, and it’s okay, whatever the answer is. Is there someone else?”

“What do you mean?” I asked, my mind automatically drifting to Aria. I wondered what she was doing right this second. Arguing with somebody about something, probably. She was feisty as hell.

“Another woman?”

“There are many. You didn’t think I have been celibate this whole time since you left, do you? If so, you’re far more idiotic than I had thought.”

“I don’t mean one of the many young women that you entertain yourself with on a regular basis – yes, word travels – I mean someone you actually care about.”

“I don’t do that whole caring thing anymore,” I said, but a part of me felt like I wasn’t being entirely truthful. After all, I had been worried sick over Aria’s sudden disappearance. I could lie to myself all I wanted – that I was mad that she was disobeying the contract, or that I simply enjoyed looking at her ass in the office – but I had spent every day of her absence wondering if she had been okay. And when she had made those drunken phone calls, I had immediately sent Ned to take her and her roommates home because I was concerned for her safety. Admitting that to myself was surprisingly scary. The last thing I needed right now was to be blinded by my emotions. I needed to grow out of caring again, as soon as possible.

“Then I’ll make you a deal, Zay,” Gina said, her tone suddenly very businesslike and professional. Before she could convey her “deal,” though, our server came over.

“Are we ready to order, sir?” A young Asian girl asked.

We both looked at her, slightly annoyed for being interrupted. “I’ll have a glass of whiskey and two spicy tuna rolls for appetizers.”

While Gina made her order, I thought of how that was one of Aria’s favorite foods and felt a familiar pang of longing. That first night we had a date in our office was so incredible. She had matched every one of my clever comments with her own, and had been delighted by the exquisite menu that was custom-made in her honor. Her reaction to the champagne in particular had been delightful. I would have to bring her here some day; this would be some of the best sushi she had ever had and I could reserve the whole restaurant just for her if she wanted. If she wanted. She had to, because I had bought her for the next few months.

With a sinking feeling, I realized that I didn’t want her to be around because of some contractual obligation, but rather because she craved my company, and my body, just as much as I craved hers. Angry with myself for feeling this way, I forced myself to believe it didn’t matter what she thought or felt. She owed me her time, willingly or otherwise. I couldn’t let the fact that she was unhappy to be around me get in the way of what I wanted. That wasn't how I functioned. At least, I really didn’t want it to be. What had that feisty redhead done to me?

“Zayden!” Gina had been repeating my name, making me snap out of it.

“Oh yeah, sorry, I spaced out,” I said, slightly frustrated to be taken away from thoughts of Aria. “You were talking about some proposition.”

“Yes, and hear me out before declining my offer,” she said, still sounding businesslike. “We cancel the divorce proceedings-“

“No way. That’s not a deal. It’s just not happening.”

“Hear me out!” She was clearly getting frustrated. All attempts at being sickeningly sweet vanished. No more pretenses. Gina was getting to the point. She wasn’t here because she thought she loved me or something ridiculous like that.

“I know you don’t have any feelings for me, and I am okay with that. But you gain something by having me around: you can shut your mother up and she will stop with the threats if she thinks we are back together and happy.”

“Your point being?”

“We can stay married, but we don’t have to actually be married. You are free to do whoever you want, and I will do the same. Just on the down low. I will have my own room in your house – except when your mother is around so we can sell it – and not bother you with your life whatsoever. We have no physical obligations to each other, or emotional, but to your mother we will appear as a functioning happy couple. It’s enough to get her off your back. Tons of rich people do this kind of thing.”

“What do you want in return? You obviously wouldn’t be making this deal if there wasn’t something in it for you.”

“Money and security,” she said and shrugged, as though it were only natural.

Even though I always knew these things, the fact that Gina was sitting in front of me like this and boldly stating her screwed-up intentions made me surprisingly angry. She would definitely fit in The Real Housewives cast.

“You are appalling!”

“Some would say I am clever in looking out for myself. Always have been. You are a very difficult person to love. There isn’t a woman out there in the world capable of it, I guarantee you.”

Her words hit harder than they should have. Was she right? Was I just completely unlovable? Not that it mattered – regardless of whether a woman loved me or not, I was still the most powerful man in a two-hundred mile radius of this town. What did it matter if I could never get some dumb girl to devote her life to me? Love was bullshit, anyway. I always knew this: nobody was capable of loving anybody else…

My mind drifted to Aria again. Until the running out of my office incident the other day, she had always spoken surprisingly highly of me. She had called me a friend and even said that people underrated my character. Surely, Aria would disagree with what this woman was saying?

Starting to get angry with myself again, I scoffed. What the hell did it matter? Why did I care so much what Aria thought? Why was Gina’s comment about me being impossible to love making me think of Aria? I did not want her to fall in love with me.? That’s the last thing I would want: it would just complicate things and make it difficult to get rid of her after the contract was over. The whole idea behind our deal was to not have any messy endings. The problem was, as I was just realizing, that I wasn’t sure if I wanted there to be an ending at all. The idea of “getting rid of her” sounded wrong in my head, as though I was planning to get rid of an organ from my own body.

What the fuck was happening to me?

“Are you going to keep spacing out, or are you capable of having a mature discussion about this?”

“Mature?” I sniggered. “What part of any of this is mature? A marriage of convenience? Mostly of convenience to you, I might add, you shameless gold-digger.”

“Oh, stop it, Zay. It’s not my fault you were so blind the whole time. I was with other men since before our wedding and you were just in denial. You never asked any questions! I figured it was because you knew what I was after and didn’t really care. Because it was and always has been a marriage of convenience. You just wanted a wife to take to charity events and shut your mother up, I just wanted your money. We can still continue to have that. Why even pretend to care?”

She was right. I never really loved her or cared for her. Gina was simply a woman my mother approved of and she kept out of my business as long as I was with her. I enjoyed fucking her from time to time but other than that there never really had been any connection. I should not have been surprised when I found out she had been cheating – I am not sure why I ever was. But she was right, this had always been a marriage of convenience. And could continue to be…but…

I couldn’t stop thinking of Aria, and how she would react to finding out about Gina. She would never be okay with having any kind of relationship with a married man, she was far too self-righteous for that. No matter how hard I explained to her that it was just a marriage in name without any of the values, she would see me as a lying, cheating adulterer. If I were to accept Gina’s offer, I would have to make sure Aria never ever found out about it. It meant I could never take her home with me, never take her to any more public events and she would be diminished to the role of my mistress. She was far too strong-willed and independent to accept any situation where that’s the tag she ended up with. Even the suggestion of it would hurt her pride far too much for her to ever recover from it and forgive me.

“I will have to think about it, Gina,” I said eventually, exasperated.

“Take as long as you need,” she said, her sweet demeanor back. “I hope we can make this work, Zay.”

“Cut it out with that sugary sweet tone,” I snapped. “I haven’t accepted yet.”

 

Chapter 9

Aria

I got a call from my mom right after completing my make-up exam for Statistics. Another ten-thousand dollars had been added to her medical account.

“I don’t know what I would do without you, sweetheart. I promise I will get myself together and help you repay the loan cent by cent,” she said on the phone.

“More money was paid?” I asked, sounding more surprised than I should have. It was the end of month two after all.

“Of course, thank you Aria. I am lucky to have a daughter like you.”

If only she knew what I was doing in order to get her medical bills paid. I doubt she’d think I was the best daughter ever. But what she didn’t know didn’t hurt her.

“How is everything else, mom?” I asked, deliberately changing the subject.

“Good, good. You should come visit this weekend. I really could use some company and I haven’t seen you in so long.”

“I will try, but can’t promise anything okay?” I crossed my fingers behind my back. I wasn’t going to try and visit her just yet; I had way too many things to sort through first. On the other hand, I could probably use some time away from all of this.

“Okay, sweetheart. No pressure. I know you have enough going on between your job and school, and this loan must only add stress.”

If only she knew.

“It’s okay, mom. I will try my best, okay? I love you, I have to go now!”

I had made up my mind about what was to happen and it was time to follow through. This wasn’t going to be easy. If I knew Zayden at all, then he wasn’t going to make it easy. But if I didn’t break the contract now, I would never be able to look at myself again. I hadn’t signed up to be in a controlling relationship where I was somebody’s puppet. I had signed up to spend time with him in return for a favor that I was going to return. He had taken it too far and convinced himself somehow that he hadn’t bought my time, but me. I was not going to let him get away with that. I had gotten this far in life by living it on my own terms, and I wasn’t going to allow some man to dictate how I lived it all of a sudden because of a piece of paper. I would have to find another way to help mom, and I sure as hell was willing to do anything to this end. I didn’t need Zayden or his money. I was going to be okay.

 

---

 

When I reached the bank – after almost two weeks – my heart was fluttering, and not in a good way. It was a little past five so everyone else should have scurried off by now. It made me glad because the thought of having this conversation with Zayden and with people staring through his window was chilling. Actually, the thought of having this conversation with him at all was chilling.

I had to get ahold of myself.

What was he going to do? Take me to court? It was just a silly contract, and maybe not even legally binding. I would pay the twenty thousand dollars he had already given to the hospital back as soon as possible, and then take care of the rest of my mom’s debt.

I walked in with wobbly feet, my chest shuddering with fear, only to find out he wasn’t in. Of course, the one day he decides to leave work early had to be now. If I didn’t do this now, I would never be able to get out of the contract. It had to be taken care of before I could have a second to change my mind. I headed to the teller’s booth and dialed Zayden’s cellphone. No answer. I called once more and then decided it was best to text him.

With trembling fingers I typed: I’m out of the contract. I can’t do this anymore.

My phone started ringing immediately after. It was him.

“Hi,” I said, clutching my shirt tightly.

“What was that text about?” Zayden’s voice was trembling and for a moment I wondered if he was as scared as I was. He was probably just pissed. Then I remembered I was nothing but a commodity to him.

“You read it. I want out.” It took everything I had to keep my voice straight. “I really cannot do this anymore, Zayden. You are too controlling and it’s not something I can handle. I think you are a decent person, and I always will. Thank you for helping me out and everything, really. I have nothing against you whatsoever, but I cannot live my life as somebody’s possession. I am just the wrong person for this deal. You need someone who will do your bidding and let you control her life. You should have probably figured that out by now. I really enjoyed spending time with you before things got out of control. You don’t get nearly enough credit for just how fun you can be. I am going to miss that, whatever we had, but this is not worth my dignity and never will be.”

To my surprise and utter horror, he started laughing hysterically, and after about a full minute of that insanity, he said, “You are joking right? I mean you’ve read our contract. You signed it.”

The truth was, I hadn’t fully read it as I should have. I skimmed through it and got the basic gist of it – I was to spend time with him, go on dates with him and owed him no sexual obligations. In return, he would pay for my mom’s hospital bills, which I was to pay him back as soon as I got a job out of college – and the rest seemed to just be legal jibber jabber. I marveled at how stupid it was of me to not give it a more thorough perusal, and feared that I had got myself in a situation I didn’t want to be in.

“What are you talking about?” I asked very carefully.

“Aria, you’re a really smart girl, don’t play dumb now. Unless you have found a way to give me the twenty-thousand I already paid back in—”

“Yes, I will pay it to you in installments as soon as I can,” I cut him off.

“You can’t do that. Did you read the contract?” He asked again, now sounding genuinely concerned. “You should never sign things without reading them properly. Just advice for the future.”

“I skimmed it,” I snapped. “And have no idea which part you are referring to!”

“The part where, if you break the contract, you owe me the sum I have already paid on your mother’s behalf. Within 10 days. Oh, and you lose your job, but I guess that’s the part you had already figured out on your own.”

I felt the ground escape from my feet. How could I have been stupid and gotten into something I couldn’t get out of, without even reading the contract?

“You can’t do this to me,” I said, tears running down my face.

“I don’t want to,” he said gently. “I want us to enjoy each other and if you don’t it won’t be nearly as fun for me either, believe me when I say that. I never wished to coerce you into anything, but you are leaving me no choice. We were having a great time until you went and fucked it up.”

“I fucked it up?” I yelled in anger. “I did? Really? I don’t recall telling you who you could or could not speak to and trying to control every aspect of your life!”

“I was looking out for you, god damn it! Don’t you see that? That jerk hurt you and yet you were standing there being nice and friendly, willing to go on coffee dates with him, as though he hadn’t wronged you in any way.”

“It wasn’t a date and never was going to be. You’re the one who doesn’t see it! Spending all that time with you was what really helped me move on from Rick. This whole year I had been moping about how hurt I was, never fully able to accept what he had done.” I was crying. “Then you came along – and – and – I saw how much fun I could have and what I was missing out on while nursing a heartache. You helped me get over him, and that coffee was going to be a symbol of my new-found strength. To show I didn’t care. But you just saw me smiling at another man and decided all on your own that I was wronging you in some way. It was not okay for you to tell me to stop talking to him, Zayden. Do you understand that?”

“We’ve already been over this. It doesn’t matter anyway, Aria. You’re stuck in this contract, whether you like it or not. It would be immensely helpful to the both of us if you just accepted it and tried to enjoy yourself.”

I felt like I was trapped in a windowless room with nowhere to go. How could he be okay doing this to me? There was no way I could produce twenty-thousand dollars in such a short time, and he knew it.

“I won’t enjoy any of it. I promise you that. And I’ll try and make it so you don’t either,” I said with all the spite I could muster, then hung up before he could reply.

For the next hour I sat in the teller’s booth with my hands covering my face, bawling my eyes out, not even caring that there were cameras set up here and Zayden would be able to see how miserable I was. There was hardly any shred of my pride left anyway. I had sold all my dignity for sixty-thousand dollars. I was that girl.

 

Chapter 10

Zayden

I angrily slammed the phone onto my bed. I wasn’t controlling. That was a terrible excuse to get out of the contract. It wouldn’t be a contract if she could just bail at any time. It felt for a bit like I was being taken advantage of. I was getting the shabby end of the deal anyway. In a fit of fury, I had failed to notice that Gina was watching me from outside my open door.

“What was that about?” She asked with an annoying smirk.

“Why do you care?”

“Cause you’ve been swearing uncontrollably for the past five minutes. I am just curious,” she said.

I hadn’t even realized I was doing that. Aria was capable of making me feel completely and utterly out of control.

“It’s nothing. It doesn’t matter.”

Gina didn’t take the hint. Instead, she made herself comfortable on my bed and extended her hand, which I refused.

“Zayden,” she said, looking at me sharply. “If we are going to make this work, we have to learn to be friends.”

“I don’t have any interest in being your fucking friend. Now get out,” I snapped.

She didn’t flinch. Instead smiled, which annoyed me to no end. “Lady troubles I presume?”

“Did I not tell you I didn’t have any ‘ladies’ to worry about?” I asked, wishing she would just get out of my room.

“That’s not what it sounded like on the phone. You haven’t seemed so passionate since we first met. Come on, you can talk to me. I know you better than you know yourself.”

“Bullshit. If you knew me you wouldn’t be here in my room when I just want you to leave me the fuck alone.”

“I’m just trying to help. I don’t suppose you have had the chance to consider my offer yet?”

“Clearly I’m dealing with much more important shit right now. If only you saw beyond yourself for just a second.”

She got up and approached me, while I clenched my fists, still burning with anger.

“Do not touch me,” I said, glaring at her.

“I wasn’t going to.” She shrugged and walked towards my liquor cabinet. “I am way past any pretenses. I told you what I wanted and I am not going to make futile and needless attempts to try and sleep with you anymore.”

She walked towards me with a glass. “Scotch on the rocks. You look like you need a drink.”

“You think you know me so well because you know what I like to drink?” I scoffed. “Guess what? So does ever teenage girl in the country who reads ZEN magazine.”

“Just take the drink and relax. I can draw you up a nice bath if you want. I’m here for you. Although you don’t think that’s possible, obviously.”

I begrudgingly accepted the drink and took a large swig, surprised by how much better it made me feel. “Happy?”

“Not yet. Who were you speaking to? What’s bothering you so much?”

“It’s work,” I lied. “A very important deal might be falling through but I won’t know until tomorrow. It’s a takeover of a boutique bank that would have really helped our expansion strategies.”

“Is the boutique bank named Aria?” She said, probably feeling clever. “I heard you use that name.”

“Aria is an employee helping me with the paperwork. Do you want to see her employee profile from the bank? You probably don’t believe she is actually working for me do you?”

“Oh, I believe she’s working for you alright, but in more ways than one.”

“You want to be friends?” I snapped. “Then don’t fucking push it and trust me. I don’t know if I will be accepting your offer yet, but if you want me to then you really need to do better than whatever this is.”

“I made you a drink!” She exclaimed as though she had just built me the Eiffel Tower.

“And now I am asking that you get out.”

“Fine. I tried.” She marched away, leaving me alone with my thoughts again.

I had no idea how I was going to deal with the Aria situation. I had two options. The first was completely unacceptable: I could terminate the contract on her terms. No, that was not happening. I would have to be really weak in order to let a twenty year old girl win like that. Letting her off easy would be admitting defeat, something I had never done in my life, and I wasn’t going to start now. This was why I wanted to continue the contract. Plus, I craved her body. I slept every night dreaming of the times we had sex and thinking of all the ways in which I could please her and she could please me. I wasn’t going to sit there and pretend that the sex part didn’t matter; it did and it was quite a significant part of why I enjoyed our dalliance so much.

But there was more…

There were the sassy conversations we had. There was her intelligence. There was her stubborn defiance that at once made me so fond of her and so frustrated with her. There was the way she laughed: so contagious. And the way she removed her perfectly red hair from her eyes, slightly frowning through the side of her mouth, assuming nobody would notice her annoyance with the strand that dared to interfere with her vision. There was also the way she fucked me: with so much passion and effort. For someone who had only had sex once before me, she was more talented than any woman I had ever slept with. She just knew how to drive me completely and utterly insane, in and out of bed.

Somewhere between the contract and the dates in my office and all the talks about her Economics paper, Aria Roberts had managed to penetrate a part of my being that I believed had long ceased to exist. This wasn’t something I was proud of, but it was, unfortunately, a fact that I could no longer ignore. I cared about Aria, more than I had cared about any girl or woman in a long time. It mattered to me that she was happy and it mattered to me that she was happy with me. The way things had taken a turn, she was not going to be happy with me if I forced her to stay in the contract. But the alternative was to let her go, and that was not something I would allow happen.

The second option was to force her to continue the contract – the option I had already inadvertently chosen, the minute she talked of possibly breaking it – but to find a way to make her happy with me again. No matter what I had said to her about my reaction to her ex-boyfriend, truth was it was pure jealously.

Something I really needed to keep in control, at least around her, even if I felt it inside. She had said I had gotten too controlling. I wasn’t sure how I could fix that. That was the side effect of my entire existence: being on top of the food chain all my life involved the ability to get everyone around me to do as I say at all times. Mesmerized by my wealth and power, not a single person – other than my mother, and she too had to use emotionally manipulative tactics to defy me – had ever felt the need to criticize my approach. People usually just resigned to accepting me as a superior and did as I said.

Aria was obviously different from most people I knew, so I had to find a new approach. I didn’t have to, technically. I could let her continue the contract and be miserable. Some part of me felt like that was exactly what she deserved. But, no. I would not be able to handle an encounter with her where I knew that she would rather be any place in the world other than with me. If she wasn’t enjoying herself, I wouldn’t be able to enjoy her company. She wouldn’t be the Aria I had grown to care for.

So perhaps it was time to try something new. I picked up my phone and called Aria. She didn’t answer so I kept calling until she did.

“I get it, I am confined to your contract until eternity and beyond – or whenever you decide you are done with me. You made it very, very clear already. What more do you want?” She sounded like she had been crying.

“I want to apologize,” I said as softly as possible. “For my behavior. I am sorry.”

There was silence on the other end for what felt like a lifetime. She must have been shocked. This apology was probably the last thing she was expecting.

“Are you really sorry?” She asked, sounding much less miserable.

“I am. But I am not letting you out of the contract. That’s not negotiable.”

“Then why are we having this conversation right now?”

“Because I want to apologize. Because you deserve an apology. This contract is meaningless if you hate me.”

“Well I don’t…hate you. I never said that,” she said, and I felt relief spread through my whole body.

“In that case, I will see you in the office tomorrow?” I was clutching the phone very close to my ears. “You are out of vacation days, you know. The other tellers might think I’m playing favorites.”

She giggled, to my surprise. “Well, you are.”

“They don’t need to know that. Anyway, I would really like to see you tomorrow at the office and we can discuss the contract and how to proceed in a manner that pleases you. How does that sound?”

She simply said “okay,” which was still better than a “no.” I could work with “okay.”

“Have a good night Aria, I will see you tomorrow.”

“You too,” she said and then hung up.

Tomorrow I would have to employ all the skills I had accumulated as a businessman in negotiation, so that when the conversation was over, Aria would think it was her idea to continue with the contract.

For now I was just relieved and fell into my bed, finally relaxed after a very difficult few weeks.

 

THE BOSS #3

 

Chapter 1

Aria

After the bizarre phone conversation I had with Zayden, I was very confused about my own feelings. He had apologized, and certainly sounded remorseful. If he wanted to continue this – whatever this was – he probably would not go back to his controlling ways. Or so I hoped. On the one hand, I really, really wanted to believe him—the truth was that I missed spending time with him, even though I hated to admit it. On the other hand, if I had learned one valuable lesson in my twenty years of existence, it was that people did not change. This wasn’t for lack of trying, but human nature demanded a deeply ingrained sense of self that was intrinsic to each person, and getting rid of that was not very different from getting rid of an actual organ. My dad had taught me this. Growing up, I saw the efforts he made to be more financially responsible; he really wanted to change and it was obvious even to a ten year old. Yet he managed to drag my family into bankruptcy, the price of which we were still paying today. Especially me. If it hadn’t been for my dad’s terrible decisions, I wouldn’t be in this situation right now. My mom wouldn’t be in the situation she was in to begin with. Sometimes, it was very difficult not to hate him.

My thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door, and I was glad, because I was entering dangerous territory: Allowing my thoughts to drift towards my father was like opening a can of worms that was best left shut very tight.

“Come in,” I said yawning.

The door swung open. It was Nick. “So, you’re being kidnapped for breakfast.” He looked pleased with himself, perhaps because he had been trusted with the job of kidnapping me. Stacey usually saved any endeavor that involved persuading me for herself, knowing Nick was too weak against my glare.

“I am starving. I’ll get ready in five.”

“Wait, what?” Nick looked disappointed. “You aren’t going to make me convince you?”

“No, Nick, I’m sorry,” I laughed. “Tell you what, I’ll tell Stace I didn’t want to go, but you worked your big Nicholas charms and I changed my mind.”

“This is why I keep you around,” he said and winked. “She’s meeting us at the diner. She went for a run. I don’t know what’s gotten into her.”

“She wants to be healthy?” I asked quizzically.

“What for?” He looked so clueless I wanted to pet him. “What does that do? She is already perfect, as far as I see it. Is she trying to tell me to work out more?” He tentatively surveyed his skinny arms.

I sighed. “It’s not a trick. She’s been reading too many blogs again. You know she’s a hypochondriac. She thinks she will die of a premature stroke if she doesn’t start running.”

He shook his head in what appeared to be disapproval and frustration. “Five minutes, Aria.”

---

To my relief, the diner wasn’t cramped like it tended to be during breakfast hours. Today was the day I was finally going back to work after all the drama, and I really needed a nice, calm morning to get through what was sure to be an action-packed day.

Stacey was already seated and waiting for us at a booth when Nick and I entered. She was still in her exercise-wear and looked very energized. Maybe I needed to start joining her in these morning runs. I sure could use the pick-me-up.

“Had a nice workout?” I asked Stacey sitting across from her as Nick found his way next to her.

“It was incredible! Did you know there is a hiking trail behind the lake? And clearly not many people have discovered it because I have been going every morning and it is just me and beautiful birds and swans by the lake. It’s mesmerizing.”

“Will it be as mesmerizing if you had company?” I asked tentatively.

Stacey’s whole face lit up, as Nick banged his on to the table, as though unable to understand why not one but two people in his life suddenly wanted to run in the morning.

“Aria, I’ve wanted you to join me this whole time!” She sounded very excited. “But you’ve been, you know, having a rough week, and I didn’t want to make it seem like I was pushing – but I mean – I did think it would help you work through some of the stress from–”

“Calm down, Stace,” I said giggling. “You don’t have to be nervous about asking me to do anything with you. You know that! So how about tomorrow morning?”

“Yep, get ready by five.”

“No way! How long do you run?” I checked the time; it was eight in the morning. One hour until I had to be at the bank.

“Well, I only run for probably an hour total. But I sit by the lake and think and write on my blog and it’s so wonderful. It’s like–”

Stacey’s voice was interrupted by Nick’s hysterical laughter. “You take your laptop on your runs?”

She gave him a really confused and affronted look. “Of course. I take my car to the hiking trail, leave my laptop in it, run for an hour, and then sit down and write while I enjoy nature.”

“Sure, enjoy ‘nature’,” he said making air quotes with his hands.

Stacey raised her voice. “At least I’m outdoors and not spending all my time locked in a room playing video games.”

Nick opened his mouth but before he could say anything, Stacey added, “I will put a dollar in the jar, whatever.”

“The jar?” I asked the both of them, slightly amused.

“We have devised a system,” Nick answered pleasantly. “Every time Stacey gives me a hard time about my video games, or I give her a hard time about her blogs, we have to put a dollar in an individual jar. At the end of each year, we are going to count both jars, and whoever has less gets to pick a present that the collected money will buy.”

“You guys are so perfect,” I said, yet again amazed by their relationship. “How do you do it?” I asked and then laughed.

“Lots and lots of dollars in the jar,” Stacey sighed and we all laughed.

Would I ever have what they had… with Zayden? Was he even capable of this kind of comfortable affection? Everything was grand in his life, everything was upscale and elaborate– fancy cars, expensive restaurants, personal chefs. Did he ever just have a day to pursue the little things in life, in a non-calculated manner? I knew the answers to all these questions, which gave me one more reason to keep my cool when I met him later today. We were never going to be right for each other like Nick and Stacey were. And who was I even kidding? He didn’t want to be right for me now, did he? He just wanted me to obediently finish his contract so he could feed his ego; there was never any deception there, never a grey-area about his motives. He wasn’t exactly asking me – nor had he ever asked me– to be his girlfriend— just his subordinate who did his bidding and entertained him from time to time, who he could control, and tell her who she can or cannot talk to. As a fresh surge of anger started boiling deep inside of me, I tried to distract myself with the menu.

“What are you guys having?” I asked, forcing a smile.

I got bacon and eggs over-easy, Nick got two omelets, and Stacey, to both of our surprise, got a garden salad, making me suspect that there was more to why she was running. She was obviously hiding something from us. Stacey loved food more than anything and always mocked people on diets. Early morning runs to be “healthier” I could buy, but this, this was not the Stacey I knew. Wondering about what she was hiding momentarily took my mind completely off all my other worries. A glance at Nick told me he was thinking the same things, but we made eye contact and silently decided not to pick at her for the moment. Instead, I decided to bring up my own woes.

“So guys, I am finally seeing him today,” I said, looking at Nick because watching Stacey nibble at the carrots was bound to make me laugh.

“Womp womp,” Nick said. He was also not looking at her. “So this is it then? You are going to break it off?”

“I think so…” I thought of what I wanted to communicate to them exactly, but then realized I didn’t know. They had yet to hear about my phone conversation with Zayden. “He called me the other night. And apologized for being so controlling.”

“He did?” Stacey sounded genuinely surprised. “Are you sure?”

“I don’t think he could mean much else by the words ‘I’m sorry’,” I said, snappier than intended.

“No, I mean like, did he say he was apologizing for being controlling? Not just like a general ‘I’m sorry we’ve been having a fight and I want you to come back, so I’m backing down kind of a thing?”

Hmm. What had he apologized for exactly? I couldn’t be entirely sure. But I did remember he said… “He said he would not do it anymore.”

“Very interesting,” Stacey said, clearly weighing the implications of that rapidly in her head. “So you’re still going to break it off?”

“I think so… I mean… that is why I brought it up. What do you guys think?”

Nick got suddenly very preoccupied with his omelet, which was fine. I was used to him making humorous quips, but he was never one to volunteer serious advice, probably for good reason.

Stacey on the other hand was always full of perfect advice, so I was curious to see what she had to say – considering she was the one who had put the idea of breaking it off in my head to begin with.

“There is a good chance he is going to hurt you,” she said matter-of-factly. “He has already done it once. That said, I am not going to tell you what the right thing to do is here. I have an opinion based on very little second-hand information. I don’t know him like you know him. I don’t know what was between the two of you like you do. The only person who can realistically decide what the right thing to do here is you.”

“No, Stace! Come on, don’t choose now to be politically correct. You think I should stick to ending it don’t you?”

“I did before and I told you as much. But if he is willing to change, it’s a completely different matter. That’s what I am trying to say – there is no way for me to rightly assess if he is, in fact, going to change. You’re a much better judge of that, which is why I know whatever you decide will be the right call.”

That gave me a whole lot to think about, so for the rest of breakfast I remained almost completely quiet, thinking about what I was going to do when I got to work later that day. The fact that I was even considering all this so seriously and having second thoughts was ridiculous.

I would just have to deal with it when I saw him – perhaps I would make the right decision when faced with him in person. Right now my judgment was too clouded by the fact that I missed him, which I hated myself for.

Quickly finishing the rest of my eggs, I got up to leave. “I’ll be late for work, got to run. Thanks so much, you guys. For everything.”

“Of course. Good luck today. You’ll do the right thing, Aria,” Stacey told me and smiled. “Just don’t be too hard on yourself.”

“Have a good one, Aria!” Nick waved.

I was made up entirely of nerves by the time I left.

---

When I reached the bank, it was unusually quiet. Everyone was staring in the direction of Zayden’s office, making insincere attempts to conceal what they were doing. Mrs. Brian was gasping visibly. I put my things away in my desk, then looked up to see what the fuss was about. My heart stopped.

A beautiful blonde woman who looked like a supermodel was giggling happily at Zayden, who seemed to be slightly frustrated. It had to be a business partner. Or so I kept trying to convince myself. The woman looked older – closer to Zayden’s age, and it was a perfectly reasonable possibility that she was there for something work related. It couldn’t be anything else, could it? Ignoring the uncomfortable knot that had been forming in my chest ever since I saw the woman, I tried hard to focus on work. A good amount of data entry had piled up in the time I had been away from the office, a fact that Mrs. Brian wasted no time in reminding me.

“I’m on it,” I said, annoyed. Most of the time I could stand Mrs. Brian and her judgment and nosiness, but right now, in the midst of worrying about the woman in Zayden’s office and everything else that was going on, I had no patience for her whatsoever.

“That man has no shame,” she was muttering.

Why? Perhaps she knew who that woman was; otherwise she wouldn’t be making these comments. I was tempted to ask her if it was just a business meeting, but was not interested in the slew of questionable looks and comments that were sure to follow. So instead I tried hard to concentrate on typing as fast as I possibly could, occasionally allowing myself a quick glance, which I couldn’t help.

The woman finally got up to leave and to my utter shock and horror, kissed him romantically on the cheek. I couldn’t quite make out Zayden’s expression at first, but then he noticed I had been looking and his face got pale. That was it, I couldn’t take this anymore; I would so much rather deal with Mrs. Brian than let whatever was happening consume me.

“Who is that woman?” I asked, keeping my eyes firmly on my computer and trying to sound as casual as possible.

Mrs. Brian laughed and when I looked up at her face she looked completely thrilled to be the person to have this piece of information. She never passed on any excuse to gossip.

“Want to venture a guess?” she asked smugly.

“I don’t know. A business partner?” I said, trying not to sound too hopeful.

That made her laugh so hysterically, I felt the Earth begin to shatter underneath me. “Oh dear, dear. You are so innocent. Even if that man were ever to do business with someone who looks like her, do you think it could possibly be just business?” she asked.

I shrugged, trying hard to stop the tears that were forming in my eyes. Why the hell was this making me emotional? I was going to stop the contract. Shit. I was actually falling for him. “Who then? Some woman he’s sleeping with?”

“Not just some woman. The woman.”

“What do you mean?” I was barely able to keep my voice level at this point. The woman. She couldn’t be–

“His wife, of course!”

“What?” I said, unable to keep the tone of horror from my voice. Fuck it. I didn’t even care if Mrs. Brian knew what was going on at this point. I just… I needed to find an empty room… and breathe… before I crumbled completely.

“Well, okay that’s not quite right. You could say ex-wife, I guess. But really, that’s just a technicality. They have been separated for a year now.”

That made me feel infinitesimally better. Ex-wife was much better than wife. But then what was she doing in his office kissing him? And the way Mrs. Brian had called her “the woman.” It didn’t add up at all.

“What is she doing here then?” I looked her straight in the eye, my disappointment turning into anger.

Her face lit up as though Christmas had come early. She had figured it out. Well, it was none of her business. “My, my, Aria. I warned you not to get into this, didn’t I? You young girls just don’t listen. You see a good looking, rich man and he just has to show an ounce of interest for you to run into his arms. You’re all the same. What were you expecting? He’s going to sweep you off your feet and marry you, then cover you in riches?”

“Keep the judgment to yourself, Mrs. Brian. It is none of your business what I do in my free time,” I snapped.

“Get angry with me all you like, dear. It doesn’t make a difference. All the girls before you, it’s the same exact story. They go after him against my best advice, and then fall for him. They all think it will be different with them, no matter his reputation, because they are all special little snowflakes. In the end, Gina always returns; she is always his first choice and always will be. Sure, they have been having some trouble over the years, but what couple doesn’t? And marriage is a very strong bond, as Zayden proves over and over again. They filed for divorce, but as far I as I know, the proceedings were never really finalized. My theory is that they don’t want it to be. Just look at them. They are a lovely couple. I would say they are made for each other,” she said beaming, surely enjoying tormenting me.

Unable to stop the tears any longer, I rushed out of the booth into the ladies room. I had never felt so completely betrayed. Somehow this felt worse than when I had walked into Rick cheating on me; that had crushed me, no doubt, but this made me feel like my whole body had left me, and all that was left was a pool of misery and hurt. After all, Rick hadn’t signed a piece of paper assuring me that he wouldn’t be sleeping with anybody else. No matter what Zayden was – controlling, arrogant, promiscuous – I had never gotten the idea that he was dishonest. Somehow I had managed to let myself trust him, and now I was really paying for it. My face was completely covered in tears, as I tried desperately to dab it with toilet paper. I had to go out there and do my job, but how could I when he was sitting right in front of me?

But if he had broken the contract, didn’t that mean I could… No, but there was no way for me to prove that he had been sleeping with his ex-wife. Whatever way I looked at this, I was trapped. Unable to be composed any longer, I ran into the bathroom stall and began sobbing more, holding my face in the palms of my hands. How had I let myself get into this? I had been so, so stupid.

I was such a strong woman until I met him. Now I felt powerless.

Even more idiotic was that I had trusted him with my body! It wasn’t in the contract, and against my own better judgment, I had decided to sleep with him. Because I trusted him. Despite all the reasons the world gave me not to, I trusted Zayden and believed that he wasn’t going to hurt me. I had caused this to myself and no one else was to blame. He must have had a good laugh. His grand master plan to sleep with me had worked – I had willingly ran into his arms and asked for it.

I pictured him snuggling with his ex-wife and laughing with her about how stupid girls were. They probably even made a whole game out of it. Both of them insanely attractive, both could easily have anybody they desired. That was probably how they even kept their marriage interesting; the divorce must have been some kind of charade that helped them in the games they played with vulnerable people.

I kept telling myself I could, and gathering all the courage I could muster I walked back to my desk.

Mrs. Brian was waiting there for me with a smirk. “Been crying, have we? Sleeping with the boss. Feeling rejected.”

God, she was a bitch.

“I don’t know what you are talking about,” I snapped. “So I would appreciate it if you could just let me get back to work. Thanks!”

“Work!” She laughed. “Do you do any work? Do you even have to? You’ve found other ways to please the boss-man after all.”

“Yes, I have,” I said, losing my temper with her. “And if you don’t stop with the taunting, I will use my influence to get you fired.”

That shut her up, but she looked ready to hit me. I didn’t care. She deserved it.

With even more reserve than before, I started typing out the documents in front of me, not looking at Zayden, not looking at Mrs. Brian, not letting myself think even for a second, just working as fast as I could. When the phone rang, it startled be back to reality and I jumped.

It was Zayden, and he was looking right at me.

 

Chapter 2

Zayden

It was obvious from the puffs underneath her eyes that Aria had been crying. She had definitely seen Gina in my office and jumped to the worst possible conclusion. It was Gina’s fault. I had told her not to show up at the office, and that’s precisely why she had come here snooping, hoping to get me to admit to seeing another woman. The way she had kissed my cheek was not for my benefit, but rather for the audience that was peeping through my glass door. She had guessed that the woman I was seeing was in this office – rightly so – and intentionally done that to create complications. What a fucking sly fox she was.

It had worked wonders. Aria looked like she had just been run down by a train – I had never quite seen her this way. She answered my call with what appeared to be extreme reluctance.

“Yes?” Her voice was wavering.

“I need you to come into my office,” I said softly, worried about causing any further damage.

“Uh, I have a lot of work to catch up on. I am sorry…. Mr. Sinclair,” she said the last words with a lot of emphasis. She was trying to undo the last few months, undo me.

“I don’t recall, Miss Roberts,” I said, returning her formality with the hopes of throwing her off. “Giving you a choice in the matter. And last time I checked, I was still your boss and I call the shots.”

She shut her eyes tightly. After what felt like hours, she finally said, “I’ll be there in a few seconds, boss.”

She seemed to take her sweet time, as I watched her finish up whatever she was typing, then remove and replace an insane amount of objects from her desk drawers. If she was trying to hide the fact that she was intentionally delaying our encounter, she made a poor attempt of it. Frustrated and eager to tell her my side of the story, I called again.

“Now,” I said and hung up, staring at her with the iciest gaze I could muster.

Finally, she began walking towards my office, leaving me wondering what exactly I was going to tell her. I could claim Gina was my coworker; she hadn’t exactly heard anything we had been talking about, and it wasn’t a completely ludicrous notion that I would be discussing business with an attractive female coworker at my office. At the same time, if I was considering Gina’s offer, Aria was bound to find out who she was sooner or later, and if I lied now, I would not only be accountable for being married, but also for lying to her about it.

When she was outside my door, she knocked. “May I come into your office, boss?” She put so much stress into that word, as though she was taking all the bitterness she felt towards me and our situation and expressing it through that single word.

“Just get in here, Aria,” I said, starting to lose my patience.

“Do I need to, like, curtsy or something, since you’re trying to make it clear that you’re the boss?”

“I am though,” I said helplessly. “I wasn’t trying to rub it in like that but–”

“You did. And that’s exactly what you were trying to do, which is okay. You’re right, you’re the boss and I do as you say if I want to keep my job. So what do you need, Mr. Sinclair?”

His face was turning red. My attitude must have been pissing him off.

“Zayden. We’ve been over this Aria. Let’s not go through this whole ordeal again,” I said and shook my head.

“Oh, so it isn’t just who I talk to that you control, but how as well? Duly noted, boss,” she snapped.

“Stop! Just fucking stop. We have a lot to discuss, Aria, and for the sake of both of us, let’s not make it more difficult than it has to be. Just take a seat will you,” I said, trying to sound a little more gentle.

She didn’t say a word and sat down across from me, her expression unreadable.

“You have been crying?” It wasn’t really a question.

“Hah,” she snorted. “Wouldn’t you like that? I suppose it helps your already inflated ego quite a lot, the thought of a girl crying over you.”

“What?” I was perplexed. “Don’t be ridiculous. You think I want you to cry? The last thing I want is for you to be miserable. You should know that by now. I would think it was pretty obvious.”

“Right. Between trying to tell me who I can or cannot talk to and romancing another woman in your office in broad daylight, it is so very obvious that the last thing you wish to do is hurt me. Don’t mind me, I am clearly just blind and stupid.” She was looking at her fingernails instead of making eye-contact. Her voice sounded solid and confident, yet there was an underlying tone of despair.

I reached out to hold her hand but she pulled away. “You are neither blind, nor stupid, Aria,” I said. “What you saw in here? I was just talking to the woman that was here about a business deal that had recently gone wrong.”

“I know she’s your wife – or ex-wife or whatever. You should know that before you begin your elaborate web of lies. It will just be a waste of time.”

“How do you know?” There was no way she could. Gina had never been here since Aria began working, and not many people knew… and then I realized. “I am going to fire Mrs. Brian!”

That piece of shit. She did not have any right to tell Aria. She must have known what was going on between us. A strange and unpleasant feeling came over me at the thought of Mrs. Brian taunting Aria about Gina.

“You can fire every single person who works for you, but it won’t change the fact that you are a liar.” She was fighting back tears hard.