Book 1 in the Hot Dating Series…
Chapter One
Catherina
Ten years ago, things were great. Fucking fantastic. I came up with this concept, I was fresh out of school and desperate to date. Just like so many of the other girls in my class. Setting up a dating agency with some hot Vikings felt like a great concept. Especially when my business partner hooked up with me.
We were Catherina and Amy. The route to find love. Until Amy found love and everyone else found other means such as apps, speed dating and all the other crazy ideas that I should have adapted to make my business more successful.
When Steavn Roots called and said that he had a business proposal. That my business was one of the top dating means of it’s century. I had to lie. Another bill had come in and once again I couldn’t pay it. A business that had allowed me to buy a brand new car, an apartment in the most expensive part of town. Couldn’t even pay my phone bill anymore. When I saw the email from Stevan I thought that it was a hoax until he said the one thing that held my interest.
A business partnership.
An opportunity not to be missed.
I was about to shut up shop, I only had one employee left. No longer fifty when it was at the peak and even then I didn’t know how i was going to pay her this month. I looked in the mirror once again, before my meeting with Stevan. He was coming in twenty minutes. Luckily, I had rented out the rest of the office space to a fashion magazine, no one would know that they were spaces that were used by my agency. No one would care, because if this thing didn’t work out with Stevan then this would be my last week walking through these doors. I took a deep breath as I walked out of the bathroom into my office. I wasn't expecting Stevan to be sitting there. I had asked Carol to be my receptionist for the day. She was hesitant at first until I told her that if she wanted the two month’s wages that I owed her this month, then she better pretend.
I was never like this.
But frustration and bankruptcy and the one opportunity that could turn everything around made me this way and I wasn’t beating around the bush anymore. I was being direct. She was blind if she didn’t see what was happening to the company and plain stupid if she believed that things were going to get better without any intervention. Stevan was the intervention that was needed and I wasn’t going to make it easy for him, but I wasn’t going to try and play hard ball. Not like before.
“Hello!”
He shouted as soon as I walked into my office. I planned to look the part as soon as he walked in, pretend that I was too busy and that he was taking up my time. Make out that I was a successful business, the way that I used to be. Not so long ago.
“Sorry, Catherina, I never meant to startle you. Carol, your secretary said that I could come in.” She was hovering at the door, she winked and then left. I told her that today was important. It meant that I would be out of the red into the black or I would have to sell my laptop, the most expensive item I owned and my phone just to give her something before the debtors took over.
“Yes, it’s not a problem,” I looked above the door where my antique clock used to hang before I sold it and then I realized that it wasn’t there, so I picked up my phone and said, “You’re just early that’s all.”
He sighed as his red eyes froze on me. I didn’t realize that I could get lost in his eyes, they were a fiery orange color. They seemed to make me feel warm inside, which was more than the room was doing right now. I planned to use the portable fan heater to warm it up before he arrived. There was no money to top up the gas meter. The electricity was the only one I used from time-to-time, which wasn’t often.
He was so big, he had to crouch a bit, before he sat down in the chair opposite me. He must have been nearly seven feet and as he sat down in the leather chair the most expensive item in the office. I had never seen a man of such height. As he sat down and I felt as I was hot all of a sudden. The room no longer felt cold. I took of my jacket and studied the man before me. It was as if I was hypnotized.
“Catherina,” he asked as he looked over my basic office. There was nothing in it apart from the certificate at the top of the wall behind me which I had won as entreprenuar of the year with Amy. The mahongy desk which most likely would be gone tomorrow and the matching leather chair that he sat on. If he had entered a few weeks ago, he would have seen plants. Even a few more paintings on the wall. Every week had been a struggle. I had sold nearly everything, but I had a feeling that was about to change.
“Yes,” I nodded as I tried to focus.
“Okay, so can I get you something to drink, maybe a coffee or a tea?” That was all I could offer, because I didn’t have anything else to give him.
He shook his head, “Should we get down to business?”
Once again, i found myself speechless in his presence. It was a if he put a spell on me or something? I was mesmerized by his eyes. His physique was absolutely amazing, I could only assume that underneath his fur coat was pure muscle. The type of man that could lift me up with one arm and not even break into a sweat. I tried to sit comfortably in my chair and focus on the task, but with his long dark hair and fiery eyes. The only thing on my mind was him.
“Yes,” I whispered in a voice which was foreign even to me. It was so faint that the business lady that entered the room had left and a child had replaced her.
“I need you to build something like what you have here for me.”
I wanted to laugh and ask him if he meant a business that was going bust. I could build that anytime. I kept my composure and replied, “I thought that you were looking to expand as you said in your email?”
He shook his head, “That is what I thought was needed, but it isn’t realistic. I need you come to my land. Build what you have here. There needs to be a change.”
His language was so old-fashioned and even the way he addressed me by asking questions that he was answering himself.
“So, you’ll come with me?”
I shook my head, “No. We never agreed terms. In the email. You said that you wanted to expand the business and that you were willing to invest.”
He waved his hand in the air. “That was before I came and saw that you had only one person working for you. She told me that she was quitting today.”
Damn Carol!
“And that the only computer that is part of the business is the one on your desk. No staff. No clients. There’s nothing to expand. And the bills are piling up too.”
I stood up, I held on to my pride, “I do not appreciate you coming here and telling me how to run my business. I will have you known, that..”
“That what Catherina. That you have everything to stay for?”
I hated the idea that he seemed to know so much about me. He stood up too and then he drew closer towards me. I was so intimidated, but yet I couldn’t move.
“Tell me what you want to stay for?”
It was then that we were interrupted and Carol opened the door, “The men are here to collect the furniture,” she was about to leave and then she blurted, “By the way I quit.” Then left again. Steven didn’t say anyting, instead he held out his hand and said, “Catherina will you come with me to my land?”
Again he asked a question that he knew the answer to and then as I held his hand, my body felt as if it was on fire. The last thing I remember was feeling as if the room was spinning around and then he held on to me. I heard him whisper as I closed my eyes, “Do not be afraid Catherina. I will take care of you.”
Book 2 in the Hot Dating Series…
Take two dying alien races and one human female. What’s the result? A dating agency.
This is the second book in the series. Catherina is putting her skills to use and she wonders if she’s taken on more than she can handle…
Author's Note:
WaterWorld is a stand-alone novella and the second book in the Hot Dating Agency series. I hope you enjoy the action-packed adventure with plenty of steam in this alien love triangle romance.