Jared

 

 

 

This girl has absolutely no business being stuck in my head for this long. Her presence is so strong that it's hard for me to focus on anything else. There are things that need doing, people who I need to talk to, positions to be filled, some to free me of some of my responsibilities, others to help me get on to the next step. I can't afford to be this preoccupied with something as silly as a girl.

And the worst thing is, I don't even understand why it’s happening.

She was pretty, I won’t deny it. But I can have pretty any time, and I've had pretty plenty of times. Yet her long, ash blond hair and those gray-blue eyes did something to me, especially in combination with the way she carried herself. She's not very tall, but she makes up for it with a strong stance, very straight posture, and a tension about her whole demeanor that I haven't seen on any other girl before.

Challenging. Demanding.

And the way she looked at me. Goddammit. It's as if she didn't know who I was, as if she had no idea what the appropriate reaction should be when faced with a man like me.

Doesn't she know? Doesn't she see me? The muscles, the money, the unspoken power. It's what brings them all down to their knees within minutes, but she didn't even blink when she looked at me.

She was insulted when I mistook her for one of the agency’s girls, which is understandable. But it doesn't make things any easier for me. On the contrary, it only makes me want her even more.

I'm sitting at the desk in my home office, twirling a single malt on the rocks, when my attention is drawn back to the computer when a new e-mail pops up in my private inbox.

The sender surprises me. It's from the agency, Violent Delights. Sent by Belinda Barry.

I take another sip of my drink before I open the e-mail, curious to see what they could have for me. I was there just yesterday, and usually I don't hear from them for at least a week in between visits.

I lean in closer to the screen, curious to read the e-mail. There's a file attached, which means they have a new girl for me to look at. The message itself is pretty short, though.

I thought you might want to have a look at this one.

That's all it says. Belinda has never been a woman of many words, but this is exceptionally brief, even for her. I hesitate before clicking to open the attached file, but curiosity gets the better of me.

My heart stops when I see the picture on the screen.

It's her.

It's the girl I met at the agency, the girl who claimed to be a journalist. I can still see her face before me, the grimace she cast me, the indignant look, as if I was completely out of my mind for thinking she worked for the agency.

Yet here she is. Smiling at me, the expression very different from the one she gave me when I met her in person. At first view, her file looks like any other file. There is a modest portrait on the front page and a list of her measurements and other basic stats right next to it.

But that's where the similarities end. For starters, there are only two pictures in her file, the portrait picture and a full body picture, and she's wearing the same outfit in both. Usually the girls are presented in a variety of poses wearing several different outfits, and some of them are even nude, leaving little to the imagination. Her pictures don't even look as if she's done anything special to make herself more attractive before having them taken. In fact, they both appear to have been taken the day I met her, now that I think about it. She's wearing the same blouse and black pants, but her hair is not tied back in a ponytail as it was when I saw her. Thick strands of straight, ash blond hair are cascading over her shoulders, almost reaching down to her hips, enwrapping her like a cape. Her smile is careful and coy, displaying uncertainty and vulnerability.

What the hell is this? Is Belinda playing a trick on me or something? Why would she send this to me?

And who is this girl, Ann? She didn't even bother to come up with an alias. The file is titled ANN, the same name she used when she introduced herself to me.

Did she lie to me? Did she in fact show up at the agency to try to get hired? If so, this was definitely a weird way for Belinda to go about it, as the selection process takes weeks and never are the girls marketed with a couple of half-assed photos and a quick interview.

Ann's file is pretty empty, but there's one part that catches my attention. When first being introduced to clients, new girls are asked a bunch of personal questions, including their sexual likes and dislikes, amount of sexual experience, their fantasies and things they're willing to try out. The answers to these questions appear in the main section of their profiles. There's one particular question that I like to check out first, though, before deciding whether or not a girl might be a good match for me. The girls are always asked why they want to work for the agency, and their answer often tells me more about them than anything else appearing in their files. Most girls come up with some kind of whitewashed version of the truth, usually something along the lines of wanting to "free" their "inner slut" or learning more about themselves by "exploring" their "fantasies and desires". My eyes have a tendency to roll back into my head every time I read this silly nonsense.

Ann’s reply, however, is short, simple, honest, and blunt.

I no longer want to have to work for money by the time I'm 30.

I laugh outright when I read her answer. But then I start to wonder when she actually decided to apply to work at the agency? Was she telling me the truth when we met, that she was there to interview Belinda for a news article? Did Belinda somehow convince her to spontaneously apply? Or did she lie to me and she always had intended to get hired at Violent Delights?

Or did she possibly do it because of me?

Is that the reason why I get to see her file this soon, and not to mention in a state that can hardly be considered complete?

I need to know, and as of right now, there's only one person who can give me the answers I’m looking for.

Belinda Barry.