by Anna Collins
Chapter 3
I had no idea what Devlin wanted, but first I had to find out who exactly I was dealing with. For some reason, the notion of an Indecent Proposal came to me. Could I give up a night of my life for a chance at a million dollar payoff?
There were pitfalls to something like that. The one that came to mind right away was that I wasn’t even sure that I could live with myself after. I would be like some common streetwalker and that was not the way that I wanted to live my life. Perhaps he was just an eccentric that was willing to make my life more comfortable. I wasn’t opposed to a sugar daddy.
“You can’t really be that naïve. Devlin Peters is a recluse and a billionaire. His interest is more than you can handle. It’s not uncommon for men with money to think that they can have anything that they want. I do know that he’s a widow,” Erica said this as fair warning that men were after one thing.
“Erica, I may look like I fell off the turnip truck, but trust me I know how men think. Devlin Peters is no different and I’m not one to do anything for money. I would rather live in a cardboard box on the street. I doubt that there’s anything that he can say to change my mind.” I said with my mind now thinking about the possibilities.
I heard the door and looked up to see that Devlin had made an appearance. He walked right by me with a silver briefcase without saying anything. He was not the same man that I remembered these last few months.
“I would say that he cleans up well.” Erica said as she leered at the man and for some reason this made me want to pull out her hair.
He had shaved and had actually looked like he had bathed for the first time in a long time. His hair was perfect. This was somebody that I had thought of having an artistic temperament.
“I may as well get this over with. He obviously thinks that by dressing like that that somehow that’s going to keep me from thinking about him like he’s a callous pig. My mother used to say that putting a dress on a pig still means that it’s a pig. He can’t hide the way that he looks at me and no fancy packaging is going to make me turn a blind eye.” I said with anger seeping into every word.
I was determined to make him listen to me, even if it meant raising my voice and having Vincent come out to fire me on the spot.
“I know what I said about him, but maybe I was a little hasty in my opinion. He actually sent you flowers and now he shows up ready to woo you. That man does have a different way of looking at things. Listen to what he has to say and then you can decide on whether or not you want to slap the taste out of his mouth.” She said this while giving this dreamy look.
I wasn’t exactly sure what I was going to do, except that he had stepped over a line by interjecting himself into family business.
I casually made my way over to him and stood there waiting for him to notice me. He was reading a newspaper and there was no sign of his pastels or even the book that had caught me quite by surprise. Seeing myself through his eyes made me feel like I was a princess.
“Please sit down and we have a lot to discuss. I’ve taken the liberty of drawing up some forms, but we will get to that later. You’re obviously under the mistaken impression that I’m like these uncouth commoners. Most people go about their day with no idea how they’re going to live from one moment to the next. I’m sure that you have that same fear. It makes you hesitant to step up to authority,” He said this and made me feel that he was schooling me.
He was seeing through me like a cheap suit. One thing that I did notice was that that suit was expensive and probably was custom made just for him.
“If you had given me a chance to say something last night, I would’ve been more than happy to tell you to take your offer and…” I tried to say the words in my head, but he didn’t want to hear them
He once again put his hand up for silence and for some reason I found myself shutting my mouth.
“Before you say something that you regret, you may as well listen to my proposal,” He said while cleaning a spot on the table.
He motioned for me to take a seat and I found myself relenting with curiosity.
“I’m sorry that you feel that I may have done something wrong. It was never my intention to overhear your conversation with your brother. I will say that I have my own family and it’s not like we can choose who our family is. The one thing that is thicker than water is blood. I become painfully aware of that every time that I go home to find that my brothers are looking for me to bail them out. I think in that regard we have something in common. Maybe we can build on that.” He said all of this without letting me get in a word.
“I think that you can see for yourself that we have nothing in common. You probably roll around in your money on top of your bed, while I am pinching pennies. At the very least, you can afford to help your family and not feel that they are a burden on you or society.” I said as I twirled my hair in a nervous habit.
He was finding out the hard way that I was smarter than I projected to the others. Going to Harvard had afforded me the kind of education that should have put me on the road to easy street. Unfortunately, I got bored quickly and even though I could probably stick it out, I found myself jumping ship three years into an 8-year sentence.
“I was wondering when I was going to see that street savvy personality shine through. The proposal that I have in mind is nothing salacious. I’m not suggesting that you sleep with me for money. If I wanted that, I could easily buy my way into some unsuspecting girls’ panties. I don’t make light out of that, but people are predictable and money has always been king,” He said with his hand touching the top of the table.
“Why me?” I said with my body feeling like this electricity was in the air.
“I want to use you, as the subject of that masterpiece that I talked about before,” He said this while I was waiting on pins and needles to see where this was going.
Just sitting there, I could smell his cologne and it was like an aphrodisiac to my senses. My clothes felt a little bit tighter and my chest flushed at the very idea that this man was even interested in somebody like me.
“I think that you should spit it out. Vincent is not going to be very happy that I’m sitting here and not doing my job.” That black shirt and purple tie gave him that slick feel of someone that had the world in the palm of his hand.
I wanted to reach over and feel the material, but I didn’t think that would be appropriate under the circumstances.
“Don’t worry about Vincent. Let us get back to the business at hand. What I’m proposing is that you come to my villa on my private island for one week. I may not be suggesting that you sleep with me, but I’m not going to turn you down. I will wear you down and eventually you will come to me and not the other way around. Don’t mistake me for being arrogant, but I do know what I want and most often than not…I get it. With that being said, a three million dollar bonus is in your future for that one week.”
I think he saw the shock on my face. “Three…million dollars.”
“I know it seems like a lot, but I have always been able to figure out that price. Everyone has that price. That’s the reason that I have been, so successful with my investments. You can certainly counter offer, but like any negotiation, you risk losing it all,” He said it like he was in the middle of a business deal.
“What exactly do I have to do for that kind of money?” I didn’t think it was unreasonable to ask the question. I didn’t want him to have any delusions that sex was part of the bargain.
“You will spend most of your time enjoying the amenities, but for 3 hours a day, you will stand perfectly still in whatever position I want you to be in,” He said while looking at his messages on his phone.
I didn’t know if my mouth was open and if it was, I was probably catching flies. I was elated by the aspect that I could have my life back and help my brother at the same time. I would leave him with a lump sum and then I would live on the rest for the next five years, until my inheritance came into my hands. I didn’t like Devlin
, but he was literally throwing me a lifeline.
“Um, I’m not sure what to say. To be honest, I’m not looking forward to spending any length of time with you. The kind of money that you are suggesting certainly makes it easier to swallow.” I knew that the word coming out of my mouth was one that I would regret saying.
The little smirk on his face probably came from the very idea of having me on my knees and servicing him orally.
“I do have to tell you that this offer has a timetable on it. You have 24 hours to make up your mind and then I will never mention it again. I will pretend that I didn’t even say anything and that will be the end of it.” He was laying down an ultimatum. I wasn’t sure how to react. He was showing remarkable restraint. He could have easily told me that this was all about sex, but he didn’t.
“I think that by this time tomorrow, I might just have an answer for you. I don’t really know which way I’m leaning. You’ve given me a lot to think about.” I said with apprehension.
To sweeten the deal, he lifted the silver case that looked like it held something of great importance. He turned the lock several times and then he opened the case and turned it in my direction.
“This is just to make sure that you know that I’m serious. I can make all your worries disappear and this $25,000 is a bonus for just thinking about it. You can do whatever you want with it. There are no strings attached,” He said with his hand moving over the money like a presenter on a game show.
My hand began to inch closer towards those stacks of bills.
“I mean it and even if you don’t decide to come with me to my island, there will be no hard feelings. I just think that you need a moment of pure solitude to figure out who you are. You’ve allowed society to keep you down and I feel kind of sad that you never reached your full potential. Let this be one step to a new life that not even you could dream of.” He followed that thought by ordering his customary tea and left the proposal hanging there in the air for me to digest.
We didn’t even get to the forms that he had mentioned.
Three million dollars was a lot of money and what I could do with it was making my head spin with all the possibilities. I would give a million to my brother and I would tell him that was the end of it. If he wasted that on some insane idea or addiction, then he wasn’t going to come crawling back to me. I loved him with all of my heart, but he was starting to grate on my last nerve.
“You look like you’ve seen a ghost. Tell me what he said and maybe I can help you.” Erica was right there to listen and I was glad to have somebody to lean on.
I told her every sordid detail and waited for the other shoe to drop. Her pessimistic attitude wasn’t going to help anything. I was hoping that she would be supportive and try to see things from both sides. I was the type of person that would weigh the pros and cons and right now the pros were outweighing the cons by leaps and bounds.
“He has given me a lot to think about. I’m going to talk to Vincent about taking the day off. It’s not exactly like I need the money,” I said with my eyes dancing with dollar bills in them.
That $25,000 in the case that I was carrying would make me very aware of the walk home. A man looking like something from the secret service came in to stand right beside me.
“Mr. Peters has hired me to make sure that you get safely to the bank. If anybody is to approach you, I will be right there to intervene on your behalf. My name is Rick and you can trust that I will lay down my life to protect you and that case,” That was all that he said, before going outside and standing by the door.
I went to Vincent and he wasn’t all that opposed to me taking the day off. I think that Devlin had a hand in that.
It was, after all, Tuesday and the clientele were slim pickings. That was the reason for the 25¢ wings after 6:00 PM. They were a mainstay of the establishment and something that our chef was proud to put his name on.
I went to the bank with security in tow. Once the transaction was placed into my account, he virtually disappeared without a trace. It was possible that the 25,000 dollars that I had gotten would make a huge difference in my life. Three million was a lot more, but could I stand to be near him for a whole week without doing something about the obvious chemistry between us. He wasn’t asking for anything other than to be a subject for his latest creation.
I’d found various pieces of his art on the internet that had been sold at auction for millions of dollars. He was a creative genius and knew how to immerse the right colors to bring a subject to life. The emotions that welled up inside me from one painting to the next had certainly made me see him in a different light.
Chapter 4
24 hours wasn’t a very long time to consider my options. Devlin would be waiting for me in the morning for an answer. What was I supposed to say? The idea of going to some tropical getaway was appealing. I’d never had a vacation. Those days that I did have off were spent either at home doing chores or taking a nice leisurely walk in the park.
Chicago was known for its many snowstorms and getting away from that would definitely keep me from feeling the blues. I had that seasonal deficit disorder that made me feel like I was going through the motions from early October, until practically the end of April. I hadn’t bothered to tell anybody about my condition and decided to fake my way through being happy. It didn’t help that putting the heat on in my apartment was like flushing money down the toilet.
I don’t know why, but I thought that around every corner I would find my brother. The hundred dollars that I had given him probably wasn’t in his hands for very long. I suppose, I should’ve questioned him about what he was going to do with it, but deep down I really didn’t want that kind of drama. It was bad enough that I was fighting collection agencies and this deep-seated need to tell Vincent to take his job and put it where the sun didn’t shine. I’d come close several times, but in the end, I chickened out.
I did have one luxury and that was the phone that cost me a small fortune. I was the first in line for the new Samsung offering. It was nice to have that on me and without it, I would probably be lost. There was a message and I decided to brave the storm of what my mother had to say. She hardly ever calls, but when she does it’s always something more important than her daughters well being.
Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes with the headphones from my blue tooth keeping me in contact with the rest of the world. The park was chilly this time of day, but that didn’t stop people from braving the elements. There were even those that were screaming at Mother Nature that they weren’t going to be told what to wear. It certainly wasn’t warm enough for shorts, but there were those that had decided to throw caution to the wind.
I walked around the lake, feeling a little small in comparison to the real world. I tried to avoid newspapers and those stories on television that made me cringe. I had forgotten that there were people worse off than I was. There were homeless begging on the streets, people dying from horrible diseases that should’ve been reserved for those dictators that took pleasure in suffering in third world countries.
I sat down on a bench with an elderly man nearby feeding the ducks. I wondered what his story was. His eyes told of someone that had seen it all, but there was also a sense of melancholy that came from losing a loved one. I had no real experience to compare that to. My parents were still alive, my brother was here, but not here and those that I called friend had been there for me.
Pressing the button for the message, I listened to my mother “Lucy, I wanted to call to see how everything is going with…” I was waiting for her to say my name, but I was foolish to think that was going to happen. “…your brother. He called a couple of nights ago completely drunk and raving like a maniac. I really couldn’t make much out of what he was saying, other than he was desperate, but what else is new. I hope that you are looking after each other. Your father and I really look forward to the day that you finally realize that leaving Harvard was the worst mistake of your life.”
It
went on like that for another 5 minutes and all I got was this sense of disappointment weighing on my shoulders. It was obvious that they didn’t condone my decision for leaving college, but I had to do what I had to do for myself. I felt that cold air on my neck and I reached up to pull my collar up to ward off the effects of what possibly could be flu season.
“I have to tell you that you are a sight to behold. If I were only 30 years younger, I might even consider taking you out for a nice steak dinner.” I raised my head and the old man had decided to give me the benefit of his years of wisdom. “I’m a good listener and it’s always a good thing to get things off your chest.” I never did have a grandfather figure. I didn’t want to give him the mistaken impression that I was looking for anything other than idle banter.
“I’m just dealing with…dealing with… I guess I’m dealing with life. I have debts, family and some admirer that doesn’t seem to take no for an answer. I know that it could be worse, but right now it feels like there’s this shift in the air.” I said with my hands deep in my pockets to ward off the cold.
