by Claire Adams
---
When Aria returned a half-hour later, her make-up was freshly painted on, with no trace of the crying fiasco on her face.
“Thank you so much and I am so sorry!” she exclaimed.
She should be. It was the worst half hour of my goddamn life.
“Don’t worry about it! But if you really feel that bad, you can make it up to me by telling me what’s bothering you.”
I wasn’t sure I cared for the answer, but that seemed like the right thing to say.
She scrunched her nose like she wasn’t sure it was a good idea but eventually said: “My request for a loan got turned down. My mother recently had heart surgery and without insurance she owes the hospital 60,000 dollars. She can’t apply for a loan herself because my family is still recovering from a bankruptcy.”
Well that was easy enough. I could take care of that right away. I didn’t want to make it so easy though.
“Who was the loan officer you spoke to?”
“Wilson. I don’t know his full name.”
“I will talk to him.” I chose my words very carefully, making sure not to make any promises I couldn’t keep. Or didn’t want to keep, more like.
Her face visibly changed colors and her eyes widened. “You can do that?”
“What did I say about owning the company?”
She jumped and for a second it looked like she was going to hug me but changed her mind.
“Oh my god, thank you so so much! You can get him to approve the loan!”
“That’s not what I said.” I spoke slowly. “I said I would talk to him.”
Her face fell. “Oh, of course – I am sorry I didn’t mean to-”
“It’s okay. Try to cheer up. I’m sure we can work something out.”
I walked back to my desk and called the loan office. “Wilson, please.”
“Mr. Sinclair! To what do I owe the pleasure?” The guy sounded absolutely thrilled to be getting a call from the CEO of the company. This could be so very easy if I wanted it to be. But a very different idea was forming in my head altogether. I would rather this be fun than easy.
“Why did you turn down Aria Roberts’ loan request?”
There was a short pause. “I’m sorry, sir, it’s classified-”
“Do you like your job, Wilson?” I spat. “Do you enjoy having somewhere to go to every day and getting a nice fat paycheck at the end of the month?”
“Yes, of course! I am sorry, sir. The situation was completely out of my hand. As you know, we run all loan requests through a software that processes applications and calculates risks. Aria Roberts’ risk was almost a 100 percent. She has no savings, spends all her money from the job paying for college and even though her credit is pretty good for her age, she simply does not have any assets or any kind of solid foundation. Not 60,000 worth anyway.”
“I see.”
“However,” he said a little too quickly, “ultimately I call the shots, and I can change the shots I called if you want.”
Is that what I wanted? No. I wanted this to be fun. This was going to be too much fun. Aria Roberts had no idea how much fun we were going to have together.
“What I need you to do is to send Aria an email letting her know you heard from me today, and that you explained to me why her loan could not go through. Make it very clear that I tried to get you to change your mind, but the system simply did not allow for it, so you were personally writing to apologize to her for the inconvenience. Copy me in the email.”
“But, sir-“
“You said you liked your job. Is that right?”
“Of course. Would you like me to add anything to the email?”
“That will be all for today. Thank you.”
---
I finished drafting up the document and briefly considered running it by my lawyer, but decided against it, more for Aria’s sake than my own. If she was going to agree to this deal, I might as well have her feel comfortable about it. I looked at the bouquet of red roses that had been returned to my office that morning and grinned. One down, twenty-nine to go. After today it probably wouldn’t take twenty-nine days before I got to screw her. After printing the document, I removed a rose from the bunch and placed it over the pile of papers on my desk.
I picked up the phone to call Aria. It was game time. I watched her answer the phone, looking somber.
“South National Bank, how may I help you?”
“Come into my office. Mrs. Brian seems to be doing quite well by herself over there.”
“Did you get a chance to talk to Wil-”
“Come into my office,” I repeated and hung up.
The nervous look on her face as she tentatively walked towards my office worried me a bit. What if she didn’t take the deal? What else could she do, though? I had made it all but impossible for her to get a loan at this bank, and could repeat the process for every other bank within a thousand mile radius.
She would have to take the deal.
As she stepped into the office my eyes were fixated on her skirt. I could offer to give her 60,000 dollars upfront in exchange for letting me throw her against the glass window, lift that tight skirt of hers, pull down her panties and fuck her. But that would be no fun. When I finally felt the sweet warmth of her pussy, it would be because she asked, because she couldn’t resist me. Nobody was allowed to resist me when I decided I wanted them. That is what made Aria seem so fascinating, and making her decide all on her own that she was wrong to ever resist me was going to be the best part.
“Sit down, Aria,” I ordered.
When she did, the hem of her skirt lifted a few inches upwards, revealing her toned, smooth thighs. I felt myself tightening in my pants.
“So did you talk to Wilson?” she asked again, looking ready to burst into another round of tears.
“I did and it’s not good news. Well, it’s not the particular piece of good news you were hoping to receive.”
The tears began to fall onto her cheeks. I would have to get her to stop doing that.
“So I’m not getting the loan?”
“You are just too young with too many responsibilities,” I said, trying to sound sympathetic. “I’m sorry.”
The crying was in full swing now, her makeup all smeared. Should I wait a little to make my proposition? I decided against it. Knowing she felt helpless right now made it significantly more likely that she would accept.
“Thank you for trying,” she said, starting to get up.
“Wait! Did I say I was done?” I said more harshly than I had intended. “Sit back down.”
“But you said that-”
“The bank cannot give you a loan right now, but that does not mean you there aren’t other ways you can make that money.”
Her eyes widened. “No!”
“You haven’t even heard me out yet.”
She was shaking her head vigorously. “I can’t sleep with you for money. That’s wrong. And illegal.” She looked horrified and softly added: “And I’m a virgin.”
Oh fuck. I hadn’t considered that a possibility at all. A girl so attractive should have caught every guy’s attention, which meant she was a virgin by choice. Did I really want to go through with this? Regular girls could be troublesome to get rid of, but virgins were on a whole other level. But I wasn’t paying her to sleep with me. The document in front of me mentioned nothing about sexual favors – though I had assumed that would naturally be the outcome sooner or later, and that she would initiate it. This changed things. But those damn thighs and that damn skirt and most importantly, that goddamn restraint of hers.
“That’s not what I was going to propose,” I said, making the decision to go forward with the plan. “But glad to know you hold me to such excellent standards.”
That got a laugh out of her. “What? You’re really going to sit there and act surprised that that’s what I assumed after relentlessly hitting on me? Even the note on your bouquet said you were counting down the days until you suppose
dly convinced me to sleep with you.”
“That is not inaccurate.” Why was she so bold? It was endearing and it pissed me off. “But hitting on you and paying you to get naked are two completely different things, I would say.”
I leaned back in my chair with confidence.
“Are they to you?” She looked genuinely surprised.
“You’re really flattering me here with your allegations to my character.”
“I’m sorry, I don’t mean to do that. But you do have quite the reputation.”
“Huh.” I raised my eyebrows. “Tell me about this reputation that I have.”
“Well, the three tellers that were let go last month, all of them had this thing in common, you see,” she winked. The girl actually had the nerve to wink at me. “Well they had two things in common actually. An apparently mind-blowing night with you, and the ability to tell tales about it.”
“This is different, Aria.”
“I’m sure they all thought so too,” she snapped.
“I never made the proposition that I am going to make to you. Never had to, really. Trust me when I say that this really, truly is different.”
“Yeah, cause you’re like in love with me because of the conversations I have with our customers regarding my future as your wife.” She was laughing hysterically now.
She used the word love. That was a trigger.
“Look, Aria, I don’t want to mislead you. I don’t do relationships or romance or any of that bullshit. This is honestly 100 percent about me wanting to take your clothes off and have my fucking way with you.”
Her face erupted into flames and I could swear I saw her shiver as she started to speak. “I-”
“No, let me finish,” I stopped her. “There is no question that I want your body and hope that you will willingly give that to me at some point. But I am not offering to buy your body. Even I am not that much of a scumbag, despite this reputation I seem to have accumulated around here. I don’t need to buy your body when there is plenty of ass that I could get with the snap of my fingers.”
“Then what are you offering?” She looked utterly confused.
“I am offering to buy your time.”
“What?” She looked like I had just said that I was flying out to Mars tomorrow.
I moved the rose to the side and handed her a copy of the document I had drafted.
“This is my offer: I will pay off your mother’s hospital bills in six installments, one for every month you spend dating me.”
Her mouth was open. “What do you mean dating you?”
“What the hell do you think it means? A guy and a girl dress up and go places together. Dinners, movies, parties, whatever they like. At the end of the night there is usually some kissing and usually something more.”
She rolled her eyes. Damn. She was ballsy with her own boss. “Thanks for the pop-culture lesson, but I am aware of how dating works. I may have even experienced it in practice here and there.”
I couldn’t help but laugh at her acting feisty.
“Then does that sound like something you’re interested in?” Things were starting to look positive on that front.
“Are you asking me to be your girlfriend?”
What? Fuck no. Why would there be a legal document in your hand if that was what I was asking? I thought she was smarter than that.
“Not exactly,” I said with caution. My next words would make or break the deal. “I am asking you to go on dates with me whenever I ask and spend time with me on my schedule for the next six months. You know what I wish to accomplish in that time, but that is not a requirement in this deal. If at no point in those six months you feel like you want to sleep with me, then hey, I tried, and we part ways. If you do, then I get what I wanted. In either case you get what you need, which is money to pay for your mother’s surgery. It’s a win-win for you any way you look at it, but quite the risk for me because there is no guarantee that I will get what I want. A risk I am willing to take.”
I also needed a date for upcoming events I had to attend to keep the businessman’s wives occupied while I tried to secure important deals. She didn’t need to know that. She looked at me and the document back and forth a few times, her mouth agape. She finally burst out laughing.
“You’re joking. Is it April first?” She looked behind her as though expecting to find an answer there. “Are there cameras around here? I’m being pranked.”
“No, you’re being fucking ridiculous,” I said, slamming my fist on the desk.
“But- but this is too damn easy to be true! You’re saying you will pay 60,000 dollars for me to get pretty and go out on dates with you, with no obligation for me to provide any sexual favors.” She scanned the documents again. “I mean, there has to be a loophole somewhere. Some clause where it says I have to let you tie me up in a dungeon and-”
“Seriously, Aria, a little respect would be nice. You have already made it clear what you think of me, and you’re not that far off, but there is no need to constantly stab me with your scathing opinions. I’m still your boss.”
“I’ll have to have my lawyer take a look at this,” she said laughing. I was not amused. “See, that’s funny, because I don’t have a lawyer. Us regular people in regular people land don’t have lawyers or butlers or-”
“Do you want me to hire you a counsel before you sign anything?”
She rolled her eyes. “Humor, Mr. Sinclair.”
“Zayden. There is a clause in there about calling me that,” I said, pointing to the contract.
Her laughs got hysterical. “There is a clause? So what, if I don’t call you by your first name you take money off my contract?”
I furrowed my brows. “I wouldn’t do that. But I’d like it if you called me Zayden.”
“Only if you add a clause that says you need to work on your sense of humor.”
“Yeah, we can make that work.” Her eyes were twinkling. “Oh. You are being facetious. Very meta.”
I laughed and then I realized that she was agreeing to the contract.
“So you are accepting!” A kind of excitement I hadn’t experienced in a long time started to bubble up.
“I have two conditions.” My lips started twitching again but she added: “Real ones.”
“Oh. Go on.”
“First, the money will be a loan, not a gift. I don’t feel comfortable taking your money just for spending time with you.” She noticed my smirk and added, “I guarantee you this won’t end in me sleeping with you, so you are not going to get what you want. It’s not fair on you, in any case.”
“We will see about that,” I said, the smirk still on my face.
“We won’t. I already know the outcome of this Zayden.” She was at least calling me by my name already. “Hypothetically, though, if I were to sleep with you, I would be especially uncomfortable taking money from you. That would kind of make me a prostitute.”
“I never intended to make you feel like-”
“It doesn’t matter, since I will not actually be sleeping with you. It’s a loan, which I will pay you back in monthly installments, with a 10% interest after I graduate from college.”
Her words combined with the fiercely confident look on her face made her all the more attractive. “I refuse to take interest, but sure, if it makes you feel better about the whole thing, after you have spent a few years working a real job you can start paying me back. I won’t hold you to it though. I have plenty of money.”
“You will have to, it will be in the contract. And 5%, starting a month after I graduate.”
“Zero percent interest, but you can start the payments six months after graduation. And I’ll put it in the contract. Final offer.”
She sighed. “Okay, fine.”
“What’s your other clause?”
She opened her mouth and closed it a few times, as though unsure if she should speak her next words. “You cannot be physically involved with any other woman during these six months.”
> Wait, what?
“That’s fucking ridiculous. I don’t think I can do that. Especially since you keep stressing on just how much I am not going to be sleeping with you either.”
She shrugged. “If we are going to be dating, in public, I cannot be okay with the idea of you going home at the end of a date to entertain some other woman while thinking of me the whole time.”
“It’s cute you assume I’d be thinking of you.”
“You have obviously never been on a date with me.”
“It’s not going to happen, Aria. Anything else?”
“I know that seems somewhat unfair but-” She was screwing the corner of her mouth, looking like she really did feel bad about what she was asking. “But I have been cheated on before and it was one of the worst feelings in the world. I know it wouldn’t be cheating in this case, since we aren’t going to be in a relationship, per say. But if I know you have been sleeping around, it will be difficult for me to spend time with you without some kind of resentment. I do appreciate you offering to help me out and I don’t want to feel resentful towards you. You obviously don’t deserve that. So if this is too much to ask, we don’t have to make the deal at all and I will still be grateful for your offer.”
I hated the fact that, even with 60,000 dollars in my hands, the ball was in her court and I was the one playing by her rules, yet it made her all the more fascinating, the challenge more exciting. Backing out now would be accepting defeat and Zayden Sinclair did not do defeat. I would make Aria Roberts beg to join me in my bed, if that was the last thing I ever did. Agreeing to her terms would definitely not mean six months of celibacy, since I was going to have her in no time.
“I will add your terms to the paperwork and have you sign it tomorrow,” I finally said.
She grinned.
The game was on.
CHAPTER 5
ARIA
“You did what?” Stacey was staring at me with a mixture of complete horror and amusement.
“I signed a contract to date Zayden Sinclair for six months.”
“But Aria, is this what you want? To lose your virginity over some contract with some-”
I hadn’t even told my best friend that I had already lost my virginity. I was embarrassed that it was some guy from a bar. No one was ever going to know if I had anything to do with it.
