Fighting Seduction (5 page)

“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.

“I’m not losing anything, that’s what I’ve been
trying to explain to you. He just wants me to go on dates with him.”

She eyed me suspiciously. “Are you sure? Did you
read the contract? There wasn’t some footnote involving a dungeon of some
sort?”

“I said the same thing,” I laughed. She joined me,
to my relief. If I was going to do this, Stacey’s support was essential. If she
didn’t support this I would hear about it every day. “But no, I read it cover
to cover. No loopholes, no dungeons, no sex. Just spending time with him. And
I’ve been thinking about that, it can actually be beneficial to me!”

“Well yeah, that’s a lot of money and you can help
your mom out,” she said, jumping on to the edge of my bed and grabbing my
stuffed turtle. I threw her a pillow from my desk.

“Yes, that, but also, he has an insane knowledge of
the banking industry,” I said, mindlessly scrolling through my computer screen.
“He can teach me things when we hang out.”

“He is a CEO, a title he inherited. I doubt he knows
much about becoming a loan officer.”

“He owns a chain of banks.” I looked at her with
raised eyebrows.

“I guess he’d better know a lot about loan officers,
huh?” She was hugging my pillow.

I shrugged. “Won’t hurt to ask. Plus I am taking
advanced Macroeconomics classes; he has a Masters in Economics along with an
MBA, so at least he can help me ace my classes.”

“Somehow, Aria, I don’t think he means he wants to
help you with homework when he says he wants to date you. He very likely has
other things in mind.”

“He does,” I frowned. “But since he is not going to
get what he has in mind, we will have to find something to talk about during
these ‘dates’ or whatever, and I might as well steer the conversation in a
direction that helps me do better in school. It’s not a colossal waste of a
time that way.”

“Or you could just jump his bones.” She was now
flipping through the copy of ZEN magazine with his interview on it.

“You jumped ship pretty quickly. Weren’t you just
lecturing me about the sanctity of my virginity?”

“Nope, I was just asking you if that’s what you
wanted to do. If it is, then by all means make hot… passionate… love to this
divine creation. I wonder how big his-”

“Nick!” I screamed loudly, cutting her off. “You
need to come in here and get your girlfriend, she’s getting out of control.”

“
Shhhhhh
,” she hissed. “He
won’t find this funny. We haven’t done it in two weeks.”

“What? Why?”

“We are saving it for our anniversary. Have to keep
things spiced up.”

“By actively not, you know, spicing them?” I shook
my head. “You sex-having people and your weird ways.”

“You’ll get there soon enough. Very soon according
to your boss.”

“Please tell me you believe I can resist him.” I
could. I really, truly could. Why was I trying so hard to convince myself when
it was obviously the truth? My first time having sex was a mistake and no way
was my second time going to be too.

“You are stubborn enough to,” she said, flipping
through the magazine. “But if I were you, I would have some fun with this whole
thing. I mean how often do sexy
gazillionaires
pay
you to date them? I’d do him for free, if he asked.”

“Don’t make me shout for Nick again.”

She threw the pillow back at me and I caught it
right before it hit my head.

“Fine. You sit here and be boring on your computer,
I’ll go find my boyfriend.” She got up and left mumbling: “who is probably
sitting on his computer and being equally boring. What does one have to do for
some fun roommates around here?”

---

As the work-day came to an end and people started
evaporating away, I felt a strange knot in my chest. Zayden had sent me an
email earlier:

Aria,

Hang
around after 5. Our deal begins today.

Best,

Zayden

Zayden
Sinclair

Chairman
and CEO

South
National Bank

I wondered what he had in mind for today. He hadn’t
mentioned anything about going out, and seemed perfectly comfortable lying on
his office couch typing intently on his MacBook. Yep, we definitely weren’t
going anywhere. Just as well, I could ask him questions for my Econ paper on
progressive taxation. There was nothing else I could think of for us to do
within the premises of this bank except that, because that was just not
happening.

When everybody else cleared out, I wasn’t sure
whether to walk over to him or wait for him to summon me; he seemed occupied by
whatever was on his computer. Maybe he wouldn’t even notice if I quietly snuck
out. I did have tons of homework to get to. I tentatively started packing up
but the phone rang.

“Who said you could leave?” He was staring at me.
“You signed a contract.”

“You seemed busy and I wasn’t sure if you wanted to
be left alone.”

“If I wanted you to leave me alone, you would know
Aria.” With just that much he hung up the phone and went back to typing
vigorously on his laptop. What the hell was I supposed to do just sitting here?
I pulled out my phone and started texting Stacey.

“it’s weird as fuck. he’s just sitting there doing
work but I’m not allowed to leave.”

Stacey wrote back immediately.

“ask him if he needs anything. offer to make him
some coffee.”

“and set feminism back a few decades?”

“it’s just a nice gesture, nothing to do with you
being a woman. he’s helping you out, be nice.”

“fine. whatever.”

I called him back. “Would you like some coffee?”

“Not if it is to be delivered with your clothes on.”
A grin formed on his face. I rolled my eyes. “Come on, I’m just teasing. Easy on
the eye-roll.”

“You can see that?” I rolled them again
involuntarily.

“And that. I’m good with the coffee, but thank you.
Dinner should be arriving soon. I’ll get off my computer when it does, I
promise.”

“What? Dinner?”

“Yep, it’s a particular kind of meal, usually served
in the evenings, usually the last meal of the day.”

“You think you are so funny, don’t you? I didn’t
know we would be having dinner.”

“Well you do now. Tonight and every other night
until I say otherwise, you’ll be having dinner with me at the office.”

“Will I ever get to choose what I want to eat or
will you always be doing it on my behalf?” I regretted saying that immediately.
I was kind of being a bitch, but the best part about takeout is deciding what
to eat.

He looked a little wounded by that. “Well, I will
just email you Sean’s number and you can tell him what you would like from
tomorrow onwards.”

“What are you even talking about?”

“Sean’s my chef. He does international gourmet
meals.”

“Oh,” I said feeling stupid. “Of course.”

Why would we be getting take-out when he had an
international gourmet chef at his fingertips? For some reason, the notion made
me feel extremely uncomfortable, and a little irrationally angry. I hung up,
looked away from Zayden and took a deep breath. I wasn’t sure why I was so on
edge. Perhaps because I had been hanging out around the office after a long day
of work to entertain him, while he pretty much ignored me for most of the night
thus far. What was he even trying to accomplish?

Okay, maybe I was a little upset because I had
wanted to talk to him, get to know him, and get help with my Econ paper. Not
sit here staring at my phone panic-texting Stacey. The truth was I wanted us to
become friends. In order to achieve my dreams of becoming a successful loan
officer, having a powerful network of contacts was essential, and it was
particularly helpful if my contacts were of the power and stature of one of the
most successful young banking entrepreneurs in the country. Part of my
reasoning behind wishing to discuss homework with him was that he could see my
potential outside of my job as a teller and hopefully serve as a valuable
reference someday. In fact, the more I thought about the contract that I had
signed, the more it seemed to be beneficial to me rather than him.

But this, whatever was going on right now, was
beneficial to nobody.

It was another half hour before a couple of men in
black-and-white uniform materialized as though out of thin air and began
setting up silver dishes on the mahogany table in Zayden’s office. Wouldn’t
that stain? Zayden Sinclair probably didn’t give a crap about stains though. He
probably owned an entire IKEA all to himself, all furniture readily replaceable
whenever he liked. Much like the women he got involved with. Disposable, just
like me. I shook my head. Instead of letting my thoughts stray to needlessly
upsetting places, what I needed to do was enjoy a nice dinner with an
influential man and try to build on my nonexistent network.

One of the men in the uniforms was now walking
towards me.

“Dinner is ready, Ma’am,’ he said with a smile on
his face.

Ma’am. I wanted to burst out laughing. “Call me
Aria, and thank you.”

“I’m afraid I can’t do that, Ma’am,” he looked at me
nervously.

Oh god. I did not have the energy or will to argue,
as it hit me just how hungry I was. Whatever rich people ate for dinner, it had
to be tasty, right? I took off my jacket and walked towards Zayden’s office. I
was wearing a blue dress with a slightly low-cut neck, and black tights.
Professional and hopefully alluring in a not misleading or sexual kind of a
way. Most of the men in uniforms were now waiting just outside the bank’s
premises, except for the guy who had come to summon me: he was holding a bottle
of champagne.

Zayden was already seated when I got there, with a
red napkin wrapped around his neck and his sleeves rolled up.

“Do you like champagne?” he asked.

“Who doesn’t like champagne,” I giggled in a
don’t-be-silly kind of a way and sat down. “I love champagne, it’s super tasty
and-”

I made the mistake of catching his eye. It was
twinkling.

“Okay, I’ve never actually had champagne before,” I
admitted. “I don’t really drink other than a few beers here and there with
pizza and T.V. I am not a particularly exciting person.”

He was beaming at me as though I had just said I
saved sick puppies for a living.

“I haven’t had the luxury of enjoying greasy pizza
and cheap beer with some good old television in quite some time.”

“Luxury? Are you mocking me?” Our waiter – server?
butler? – was pouring out two glasses of champagne, as I tied a red napkin
around my neck to match Zayden’s.

“No, not at all! Luxury is relative,” he said
looking quite disdainful. “Sometimes I wish I could enjoy the simple pleasures
of life but all this was dropped on me,” he said, extending his arms out to his
sides.