Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 71165 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 356(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71165 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 356(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
“Oh good,” she said, a slight slur to her voice, “because I have a proposition for you.”
My eyebrows rose. Well, well… She didn’t look like that type, but these days, you never knew.
“Oh no! No, nothing like that. This does not involve sex. Not at all,” she gasped quickly.
Pity.
“Come with me and I’ll explain,” she said, and started to walk away.
For an instant, I thought about walking in the opposite direction. She was clearly tipsy, and I wasn’t exactly in the mood for a tanked-up woman, but that thought was gone in an instant, when the sway of her hips mesmerized me. I was staring at her firm round bottom and her long, long legs when she looked over her shoulder, and asked in an almost melancholic voice, “Aren’t you coming?”
That must have been what the song of the siren was like for those unfortunate sailors.
Almost against my better judgement I followed her. She led me into a deserted canteen and gestured for me to take a seat at the closest table. I leaned a hip at the edge of it and regarded her. The bright, white LED lighting made her appear almost unreal.
“Would you like a bottle of water or something?” she offered, jerking her head in the direction of some fridges at the other end of the room.
I shook my head.
“I supposed I could snag us a glass of champagne from the party, but I think I might have had too much already,” she mused aloud.
“I’m alright for a drink,” I said quietly.
She smiled sunnily and it lit up her whole face. Yes, there definitely was too much intelligence and warmth in those eyes.
“I haven’t seen you around before. Which department do you work in?”
“I’m… er… visiting from a different branch of the organization,” I replied evasively.
“Oh! You’re not based here. Which branch?”
“You had a proposition for me…” I reminded pointedly.
She licked her lips, a suddenly nervous gesture, and to my astonishment, my cock jerked to life.
“How do you feel about a weekend trip to Wisconsin, all expenses paid?” she blurted out with what was obviously false bravado.
I kept my face straight. “All expenses paid, huh?”
“All expenses paid,” she agreed, nodding eagerly. “In fact, I will even pay you for your time.”
Curiouser and curiouser. I rubbed my chin thoughtfully. “Pay me for my time? Just how much are we talking about?”
She had obviously not thought about it until now, because she frowned, then pulled a figure out of the air and let it hang between us, almost breathlessly waiting to see my reaction to her announcement. “A thousand dollars,” she blurted out.
“A thousand dollars?” I repeated softly.
A thousand dollars? What a laugh, but how cute of her. I nodded slowly and pretended to be impressed by her announcement.
The relief in her posture was unmistakable. “And if it all goes well, I’m even prepared to double the figure.”
Somewhere between the time she said ‘all expenses paid’ to ‘I’m even prepared to double the figure’, I had started to enjoy myself. Nothing like this ever happened in my life. All I ever did was crunch numbers so that I could then use the information to wrestle chunks of bloody meat out of the mouths of emotionless sharks. Could I really take a whole weekend off?
Of course, I could.
I just never did.
Until now.
“And what would I have to do in return?” I asked casually.
One thing for sure. She was a terrible actress. She slapped her forehead in a dramatic, over the top gesture. “What’s wrong with me? I didn’t tell you, did I? Well, you’ll be very pleased to hear you won’t have to do anything much in return. In fact, hardly anything.”
I raised my eyebrows.
She stopped to swallow audibly, then flashed another big, bright smile at me. “You’ll just have to pretend to be… my new boyfriend.”
Now that, I did not expect. I stared at her curiously. “You want to pay me to pretend to be your boyfriend?”
“Well, I know it sounds a bit weird, but it’s not. Really, it’s not. You see, my stepsister stole my boyfriend and now she’s marrying him… and I just need someone to go with me to the wedding, you know, to show them all that I’m not broken-hearted or anything like that, and then I saw you, and I thought you’d be absolutely perfect, so I stupidly thought you wou”
Midway, her voice broke, and tears began to roll down her cheeks.
“I mean, you look like a straight-up, hardworking guy so you can just consider it a weekend away. A free, no strings attached treat that you probably deserve. You really should take the deal. It’s a good one. I would if I were you. You’ll be staying at a really lovely hotel. It overlooks a lake, and even though it’ll be frozen this time of the year, you could go for long walks around it. It’s so beautiful around the Lake Club, it’ll be almost like walking into a postcard.”