The Arrangement (9 page)

‘Do
you love me?’ she asked.

‘Of
course I do.’ There was no doubt in his mind at all. ‘I
am madly in love with you. Every day we spend together I love you
more and more.’ He confessed. ‘This is just very
important to me.’

‘Is
it?’ Scarlett turned her ocean blue coloured eyes up towards
him.

‘What
do you mean?’

‘Is
it important to you, or is this more important to someone else?’

Lucas
broke eye contact with her.

Scarlett
let out a long weary sigh.

That
pretty much confirmed what Anne had said. Her dad had intervened. He
had said something to Lucas to make him not make love to her. The way
he couldn’t look her in the eye was all the proof she needed.

‘It
is fine,’ she spoke before he did. ‘If you want to wait
until the wedding, then we can wait until the wedding.’ Her
fingers stroked gently down his forearm. ‘This is more than
enough for me tonight.’

And
with that she cuddled into him and closed her eyes.

Chapter Three: The Next Level

His
warm breath immediately crystallised into a white mist, as it came in
contact with the cold morning air. Lucas slammed the car door shut
and headed up the steps towards the house. He pressed his finger
against the doorbell and promptly returned to rubbing his hands
together in an attempt to generate some heat. It was a chilly morning
with a heavy breeze. His thin shirt didn’t do much to keep him
warm. He was quickly regretting not wearing his coat.

The
front door opened.

‘Good
morning.’ Emma greeted him with a smile.

Lucas
could feel his mouth becoming very dry.

She
was wearing nothing but a short white skimpy towel. Unconsciously, he
found himself looking her up and down and then down and up again. Her
body was still covered in a light layer of water where she had just
jumped out of the shower. His eyes were transfixed upon a single drop
of water running down the inside of her smooth silky thighs. The base
of the towel only just reached over her hips and if it were an inch
or two higher he would have seen a very private place indeed. Emma
gripped the towel to her body, but her large firm breasts made it
almost impossible to reach completely around her torso. There was
more than enough cleavage on the display to give him troublesome
dreams for the rest of the year.

‘Hi.’
He returned the smile.

Emma
shivered.

‘It’s
cold out there. Get inside. I know I am slightly late, but give me
two minutes and I will be ready.’ She grabbed his arm and
pulled him into the interior of her home. The front door was pushed
to a close behind him. There were no stairs leading to a second
floor, as that was another apartment for someone else. A corridor,
stacked to the ceiling with boxes upon boxes, led off into four
doorways.

‘How
are you this morning?’ she headed down the corridor.

His
eyes fell onto the back of her thighs.

‘I
am good thanks. How are you feeling today?’

He
quickly brought them up in time, as she turned to face him.

Emma
paused at the end of the corridor.

‘Take
a seat.’ She gestured with an outstretched hand towards the
door on the right. Lucas walked down the corridor and entered a make
shift living room. Just like the hallway it was like some kind of a
cardboard box landscape photo. How much stuff did Emma actually own?

‘I
am feeling a lot more positive than I did yesterday,’ she
giggled from the next room. ‘I was absolutely terrified about
starting my new job.’

‘What
has changed?’ Lucas nosily lifted the lid of an open box. It
was stuff full with all sorts of different clothing. A pair of very
revealing panties caught his eye.

‘It
was you.’

‘Me?’
Lucas seemed slightly taken back by her answer.

Emma
poked her head around the door and smiled. Lucas could feel the blush
travelling up through his body at the speed of light. Had she caught
him stealing a look at her panties?

Emma
giggled.

‘You
have changed my feeling about going to work. Not only do I have a
great boss, but I have made a really good friend.’

‘I
feel the same way.’

Emma
disappeared back into her bedroom.

‘Please,
forgive the mess,’ she said from the next room. ‘I just
really haven’t had the time to unpack since I moved out here.
Everything has sort of been on the go at about a hundred miles an
hour.’

‘It
is a pretty big job for one person,’ replied Lucas. ‘Maybe
I can help you out when we have a free day.’

‘Are
you serious?’

‘Yes.
Why are you so surprised?’

‘I
am just not used to people being so kind to me. I would love your
help in unpacking all of this stuff. Thank you, Lucas.’

‘Don’t
worry about it.’

‘Right,
I’m ready.’ She appeared in the doorway like some kind of
angel. All she was wearing was a normal white work blouse and a long
black skirt, but somehow she made even this ordinary clothes look
stunning upon her body. ‘Let me just dry my hair, though.’

***

‘Great,’
scoffed Lucas.

The
traffic was at a dead stand still. Even if he arched his neck, to
look beyond the car in front, he couldn’t actually see where
the traffic jam stopped. It seemed to continue on and on for ages.
There was no way for him to pull off the road because they were
trapped in the middle lane with cars blocking them in from all sides.

‘You
should look on the positives.’ Emma flashed him a beautiful
smile. ‘At least we get to talk and learn more about each
other.’

Lucas
smiled nervously.

This
was what he was dreading. He liked her enough as it is.

‘What
would you like to talk about?’ he asked.

Emma
thought about this for a second. ‘Let’s talk about your
fiancée.’

Lucas
could feel a hollow sensation within his stomach. ‘You want to
talk about my fiancée?’

Emma
nodded happily. ‘How long have you two been together?’

‘We
have been together a couple of years now.’ He shrugged his
shoulders. ‘I met her when I started working at the company.’

‘Does
she work there, too?’ Emma seemed truly interested.

‘No.
Her father runs the company. Scarlett is one of our signed writers.’

‘Oh
right. Did you know she was the “one”?’

He
was finding it hard to concentrate with her penetrating gaze upon
him.

‘Um,
well, she was very beautiful and the more we worked together the
better we got to know each other. In time we started hanging out,
going on some dates and one thing really led to another.’

‘So,
it wasn’t love at first sight then?’ asked Emma.

‘Well,
no. I guess not,’ Lucas admitted.

‘Do
you believe in love at first sight?’

Lucas
found himself looking Emma up and down again. His eyes unconsciously
stopped upon her mountainous breasts. The way the seatbelt was
strategically placed between them seemed to make her breasts stick
out even more. For the first time in his life he was starting to
believe in the idea of love at first sight, or was that lust at first
sight?

‘I
really don’t know, do you believe in love at first sight?’
he asked.

This
time it was Emma that deliberately looked him up and down. She knew
he was watching her, but she didn’t seem to care. ‘Yes, I
do.’

Lucas
swallowed down the lump in his throat.

‘Are
you both happy?’ she asked.

There
was a slight hesitation in reply. ‘Yes.’

‘You
don’t seem to sure,’ she pointed out.

‘Well,
things are a bit complicated at the moment.’ He wasn’t
even sure why he was telling her this, but it all seemed to come out
before he could stop it.

‘Do
you want to talk about it?’

‘Um,
no.’ Lucas shook his head, but his lips curled into a smile. It
wasn’t like he could talk sex with his secretary.

‘So,
it is the sex then?’ before he could reply she added. ‘Most
relationships start having problems when the sex life falls apart. I
know my relationship with my ex-boyfriend died a slow death because
of our sex life. Is it you or her?’

Lucas
blushed nervously.

‘It’s
you?’ Emma wore a mask of shock. ‘I thought you would
have said her.’

‘Why
do you think that?’

‘Well,
firstly, because you are incredibly hot.’ Lucas could feel his
cheeks warming to a brighter shade of red. ‘Secondly, you are
very open about things and, thirdly, you are a flirt.’

‘I’m
a flirt?’ Lucas tried to shake off the accusation.

‘Ha,’
Emma laughed. ‘How many times have you looked down my top or
checked out my ass in the last two days?’ Lucas had turned so
red that if you turned out the lights he would glow in the dark.

‘You
see me doing that?’ he felt ashamed.

Emma
nodded her head.

‘I
am so sorry,’ he started to apologise, but she cut him off.

‘Don’t
be sorry. I like the way you look at me.’

‘You
do?’

‘Yes.’
She looked him dead in the eye. He could see a whirlpool of lust
swirling behind the windows of her soul. ‘It makes me feel
beautiful when a gorgeous guy like you is checking me out. It is just
a shame you are in a relationship, or I would have asked you out
already.’

Lucas
couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

Emma
really did like him.

This
was going to be problematic.

It
was time to talk about something else and quick.

‘So,
are you currently dating anyone, or are you even interested in going
out with anyone?’ he asked. The traffic began to move slowly in
the right direction, but even though he was concentrating on the road
he could still feel her eyes upon him.

‘When
I broke up with my ex-boyfriend I told myself I wasn’t going to
get into a relationship for a while. I mean I was with him for nearly
five years and I don’t want to jump from one relationship to
the next. I was just going to focus on moving out here and doing a
good job and if I met someone that I liked then that would be great.’
She flashed him a heart warming smile, as he looked in her direction.
‘I never believed for one moment that I would meet a really
nice guy on the first day at starting my new job. It is just a shame
that he is seeing someone.’

‘You
like me?’ he asked nervously.

‘I
do. Do you like me?’

‘Yes.
We are friends.’

Emma
giggled. ‘I am a friend that you find attractive?’

‘W-well
I don’t know,’ Lucas stuttered.

‘It
wasn’t a question,’ replied Emma. ‘I am your friend
and you “do” find me attractive.’ Lucas was
starting to feel very small at this point. ‘This is a great
start to our relationship.’ She smiled. ‘We just have to
build on this.’

They
had to build on this?

What
did she mean by that?

***

It
was a stand-off Scarlett verses the computer. She stared at the
screen with the same intensity as a cowboy ready to draw his gun and
shoot his opponent down in the middle of a dusty street. In the back
of her mind she could feel the idea. It was the same sort of feeling
that she had if she knew she forgot to do something, as she was
leaving the house. The nagging awareness that you knew something, but
couldn’t quite work out what it was.

She
let out a defeated sigh.

Writing
usually came so easy to her. Even now she knew the story she wanted
to write, but something about it wasn’t coming together. It was
like the soul of her writing was missing. She felt distracted and
disconnected from the characters and the plot. Her brain storming
session had gone well and she had come up with all sorts of new and
wonderful characters, plots, arcs and talking points. In theory she
had everything she needed to write a good believable novel.

‘The
story is about a beautiful young woman that is the side-kick to a
gifted psychic medium,’ Scarlett told the empty house. ‘She
is madly in love with the most gorgeous man in the world, but
something isn’t right. He isn’t having dinner with her.
He doesn’t want to spend time with her. He seems distant and
evasive.’

She
tapped her finger against her jaw.

This
was sounding oddly familiar.

‘The
man has a deadly secret that the woman cannot know about, but what
could this be? Is he being manipulated by some evil power? Has he
simply fallen out of love with her? Or is he seeing someone else
behind her back? No.’ Scarlett gave herself a quick shake of
the head. ‘I am changing the story to much. The original idea
is good and what I have written already works, but the connection
between the two characters isn’t good enough.’

She
hit the keyboard with her hand.

‘It’s
all Lucas’s fault,’ she told the world. ‘This is a
good story, but all I can think about is him.’

Thankfully,
the phone in the hallway began to ring.

It
was a welcome relief to get her away from the computer.

Scarlett
rushed out into the hallway and picked the phone up off the stand.

‘Hello?’

‘Morning,
Scarlett,’ said Anne. ‘How did last night go?’

She
had phoned for the juicy details.

‘It
didn’t.’ Scarlett rolled her eyes. This was going to be
embarrassing to talk about. ‘Lucas didn’t come home until
I was in bed.’

‘Oh…
that is not good.’ Even Anne seemed lost for words.

Scarlett
decided not to mention the perfume she could smell on him last night.

‘I
don’t know what to do any more I don’t know if I want to
do anything any more Lucas made it pretty clear that he is going to
wait until the night of the wedding before making love to me.’