by W. Ferraro
As the two continued to speak, he asking her questions and Natalie answering them, she started to become more comfortable. She learned that he was an accountant. He stated he was new to the bar scene and admitted before they locked eyes he was considering leaving.
Feeling warmed that she could make him notice her. Natalie thought he was a fairly good-looking man, tall with wide blue eyes and brown hair in a business appropriate style. She began to envision him in the role that she was considering proposing. The more she spoke with him, the more she considered that maybe she would not have to go through with her plan; perhaps she could actually date Paul.
As she was having this mental conversation with herself, she tried to envision Paul as the sexy hero. Would being with him be all she had hoped and more? Maybe someday they could even get married and have kids.
“Natalie? Did you hear me?” Paul’s words juggled her from her thoughts and she blushed from being caught not paying attention.
“I’m sorry Paul, what did you say?” she asked, as his kind face smiled and he repeated himself.
“I asked if you would like to go out for dinner, next week. We can take things slow and see where they go between us.”
Slow. The one thing Natalie could not afford.
“What is wrong with tomorrow?” Natalie asked, not understanding why they needed to wait.
“Tomorrow doesn’t work; I have plans with my wife,” Paul said nonchalantly.
WIFE!?! Obviously, Natalie misheard him.
“You have other plans?” Natalie asked, with a sudden lump in her throat.
“Yes, my wife and I are going to the theater in Burlington. But it’s ok, we have an open marriage.”
Natalie didn’t know what was more disturbing, the fact that he seemed to have no need to lie or that he was so calmly talking of adultery. She looked down at his left hand and found plain as day, a gold band there on his left ring finger. What a snake!
Natalie was so disgusted with Paul’s blatant disregard for his vows; she grabbed her small bag and headed toward the door without uttering another word. She was so disgusted that such a person existed that she didn’t see the wide muscular chest draped in a black ribbed shirt, until she walked right into it. Her glasses fell off her face and Natalie leaned down to retrieve them. As she felt around the floor for them, her fingertips brushed upon a large forearm with soft hair and corded muscles. The hand attached to the arm held her glasses. As she stood, she pushed her glasses back onto her nose and looked into the deepest brown eyes she had ever seen. In a way, describing the warm color as brown did no justice. They were the color of molten chocolate and outlined with thick long lashes that could only come natural to a man, but which, women spend a lot of money on cosmetics to create.
“Are you all right?” came from the dark tall stranger, whose eyes seemed to be searching Natalie’s face for any sign of injury. His dark hair hung over his forehead in a soft cascade. His five o’clock shadow gave him a ruggedness that made her instantly think of one of her novels. A small scar on his left jaw was outlined by his incoming beard.
He was now ducking down from his full height to look directly in her eyes. No matter how much she tried, her voice just would not come out. He must have taken her lack of speech as a bad sign because he held her arm and guided her over to a nearby vacant table. As he guided her down into one of the chairs, he called to one of the waitresses to get him a glass of water.
Feeling utterly embarrassed over crashing into him and now for acting as if it was her first time seeing a man, all the stress and strain from the last couple of weeks just caused the dam to break. The more Natalie tried to stop the flowing river of tears, the more they just kept coming until she felt she was going to hyperventilate.
“Hey there, its ok, you didn’t hurt me,” Dylan said, as he watched tears just fall from the woman’s eyes. When he was walking from the billiard area toward the bar to get another beer, he was watching highlights of the earlier loss of the Sox on one of the many flat screens, rather than watching where he was going. The impact didn’t budge him, but the warmth of her body hitting his sent a sizzle right through him. He looked down and only could see golden hair as she bent to retrieve her fallen glasses. He got a glimpse of large brown eyes before he handed her glasses back to her and she quickly put them on.
Mary, the waitress, handed Dylan a cold glass of water. He quickly sat in the seat next to the huddled hysterical woman. He tried to duck down to pry her hands away from her face but, God help him, for such a slight little thing she sure was strong. He tried to soothe her with comforting words but nothing seemed to help. Finally, while he lightly rubbed her back, she started to get her breathing under control and quieted down.
“Here, Miss, why don’t you take a sip of water?” Dylan said, as he slid the glass closer to her.
With trembling hands she picked up the cool glass and brought it to her lips then took a long drag almost emptying the glass. The ice-cold water help to quench a thirst she didn’t know she had. Finally raising her eyes to the man sitting next to her, Natalie felt his gaze all the way to her toes.
“There, that’s better. Honestly, I hate when women cry and I feel worse because I haven’t got the foggiest idea what to do when one does. So thank you for stopping, my heart and conscience appreciate it,” Dylan said, hoping she would stop with the deer in the headlights look.
Even though she looked like a raccoon with her eye makeup all smudged and runny and the frames of her glasses were too large for her face, there was something different about her. Dylan was sure that he had never seen her before, he could not explain it but deep down it felt like he knew her.
She licked her dry lips and in a raspy voice from the recent crying fit, she spoke softly saying, “Thank you, for your kindness, Sir. I’m very sorry for first walking into you, then falling apart and making you feel as if you could not leave me.”
“Hey, who you calling Sir, I work for a living. Everyone calls me Dylan.”
Dylan. Tall, dark and handsome, as the cliché goes, “Your last name isn’t Cross is it?” Natalie asked with embarrassing curiosity.
“It is. Should I take it as a bad thing that you know of me?” Dylan’s own inquisitiveness was peaked. Dylan, pretty much, knew everyone in Hamden, VT. Yet this woman, he was sure, he had never laid eyes on before their collision meeting. There was something familiar about her all the same.
Of all the luck! She would literally walk into Hamden’s own notorious playboy and connoisseur of seduction of the female population.
In that moment, Natalie decided, if she was going to jump off the ledge and engage in not only this final gift to her mother, but also to receive the ultimate tutelage of desire and sex, who better than the man who had made it his reputation to love them and leave them.
Dylan watched as the gears turned within her head. She stared at him with those deep eyes of hers and it was almost as if she was asking him permission with them.
“I know you don’t know me from a hole in the wall, but could you excuse me for a moment, Mr. Cross? However, I would like a minute or two of your time to discuss a business proposition.”
If anyone other than this woman were to say such a thing to Dylan, he would think they were a definite head case. But again, he could not explain it, her asking just had his curiosity peaked. He found himself nodding his head and he watched as she made her way over to the ladies room and stepped inside.
“Everything ok, Dylan? Thought you were grabbing a beer.” Dylan heard coming from a smooth voice that hinted of a Texas drawl.
Wes Thompson walked over and gave his friend’s shoulder a light shove, finally waking Dylan from his trance toward the ladies room.
“D, you alright?” Wes asked again.
“Yeah. I’ve just had the strangest encounter and it isn’t over yet.” Dylan then recanted to
one of his best friends, the story of his chance meeting.
Wes tilted his head back and laughed. Of course, Dylan’s disappearance had to be connected with a lady. What else is new?
As if on cue, Natalie came out of the ladies room where she had cleaned up her face as much as she could. She was now walking back toward her recently vacated seat to propose to the town playboy to allow her to pay him to teach her and portray with her, a vivid sensual relationship. As she approached, her pace slowed and she watched Dylan speaking with another man. A very attractive white-collar type of man. He was slightly taller and lean like Dylan but where Dylan was dark and looked as if ready to pounce at a moment’s notice, the other was light and relaxed. Natalie had never seen two more prime specimens of the male population than these two standing not ten feet in front of her. And here she was, Natalie “Bookworm” Parker going to speak with them.
Missing nothing, Dylan watched as the mystery woman approached, and again, he got that unfamiliar buzz throughout his body.
Feeling dwarfed standing near these two statuesque men, Natalie’s internal butterflies swarmed in a frenzy.
It was now or never, she needed to make this proposal before she lost her nerve; not that she had much nerve in the first place.
“Dylan, I apologize again for my earlier behavior. My name is Natalie.” She extended her small hand out, in what she hoped, was a non-shaking manner.
Natalie. The name seemed to suit her. Dylan guessed her to be in her mid-twenties. Her golden blonde hair brushed her shoulders in what looked to be long layers that needed a trim. Her small face had well-proportioned features, but again, her glasses were wrong for her facial structure. He allowed his eyes to roam in a way that gave him a full view of her but wasn’t leering. He noticed her petite body was covered from head to toe in the sort of clothing that screamed innocence and purity. Yet he had to hand it to her, her spine was ridge rod straight and she seemed confident in her intentions. He estimated her height to be about 5'1" or 5'2" bringing her to be no taller than his collarbone and weighing no more than one of the concrete powder bags from one of his work sites.
Without even looking, Dylan knew, Wes was assessing Natalie as well. Wes Thompson missed nothing. His calm and cool demeanor often gave the impression that he was impassive, however, Dylan knew Wes was as far opposite as that description could be. His ability to dissect and analyze any situation into an outcome in his favor was just one of Wes’ many talents.
Taking her much smaller hand into his large one, the warmness that radiated from such a small part made Dylan not want to let go and caused his mind to go to a dirty place.
Quickly recovering, he responded, “Nice to meet you Natalie. Are you sure you are all right from our run in?”
“Oh yes, yes, I’m fine. As I was saying before, I’d like to propose a business arrangement to you. If you could allow me some of your time to make my pitch and then I will leave you be to make the decision as to whether you would be willing to agree,” Natalie said in her best teacher voice. When she graduated with her teaching degree, she never thought she would use any of her Public Speaking tips to proposition such a sexy man to teach her the art of doing wicked things.
Dylan had to admit he was quite intrigued as to what such “arrangement” this woman could be willing to offer to him. And he wasn’t the only one. Wes stood silently off to the side while watching this interaction between his longtime friend/sometime business associate and this mysterious woman. She wasn’t the usual type that Dylan was known to attract, but then again, Dylan wasn’t bias in attraction criteria. Wes could tell that this new female was quite nervous; if the pulse beat in her throat were any indication.
“D, I’ll catch up with you later,” Wes said, as he shook Dylan’s hand and gave a gentlemanly nod of his head toward the petite seemingly virtuous one named Natalie.
“Yeah Wes, we’ll catch up later.” Dylan watched Wes walk away, affording him and Natalie as much privacy as a somewhat full bar could allow.
Watching as she blinked rapidly but keeping a pleasant smile on her small face, Dylan smiled back and said softly, “Shall we?” He indicated the table on his left.
“Is there any place more private we could speak?” Natalie said, nervously looking around the place as people went about what she only could assume was normalcy at a local pub.
Unable to contain his smirk, Dylan folded his arms over his powerful chest and looked down at the obvious nerves and timidity that Natalie was trying so hard to hide. Trying to gauge her reaction, Dylan said purposely while stepping closer to her, “Well, we could go speak in the privacy of my truck or better yet, my home or yours.”
Dylan was rewarded with his hunched reaction when Natalie swallowed hard and her eyes grew larger behind her lenses.
“Uh, well you know, right here is fine now that I think of it,” Natalie answered, as she was about to take a seat.
“Good. Oh wait; now that I think of it, there are a few tables in the billiard area. There aren’t too many people in there, so that would allow more privacy than right here,” Dylan answered, as if this bit of information just came to him.
“Oh, all right, please lead the way,” Natalie answered, again politely but also relieved.
As Dylan guided her with his right hand at the small of her back, out of the corner of his eye he could see she was fully blushed on her cheeks. However, Dylan would be lying if he said he didn’t feel that bizarre buzz again as he touched her. His large hand spanned the entire width of her waist causing Dylan to want to see what else his hand could measure.
Come on Cross! Just because you haven’t been with a woman in a few weeks, you need to get your mind out of the gutter and act like a somewhat normal functioning gentleman.
They reached the tables within the billiard room and Dylan indicated for her to pick the table and seat of her choosing. He watched as she sat and crossed her pink covered legs in an elegant pose. When she was settled, Dylan took a seat two chairs over from her, appearing in more of a business appropriate seating arrangement than one of a personal nature.
“So, you wanted to discuss a business proposition?” Dylan asked, as the curiosity was killing him.
She took a deep breath and said a silent prayer, hoping to get the rest out while remaining calm. Natalie looked at Dylan Cross, notorious sex god and heartthrob, directly in his gorgeous dark eyes and said, “Yes, I’d like to pay you to have sex with me.”
~FOUR~
Of all the things that could have been spoken from her small lips, her wanting him to have sex with her, while she paid him, was the absolute last thing he expected. Dylan had to take mental inventory that his head was still attached and that his heart was still ticking. Trying to appear unaffected by her words, Dylan leaned forward on the table and folded his hands loosely as if in prayer. The position and flex of muscles in his hands caused his well-developed forearms to move in response, while the corded veins remained pronounced and distended. He remained silent as he looked at her face trying to assimilate why she would need to go to such extremes.
Anxiously awaiting some sort of response, Natalie watched as he watched her. She was not sure, but she thought that perhaps his pupils dilated when she told him her basic plan. But other than that momentary reaction, Dylan had not given any indication to his thoughts.
After what felt to her like an eternity, Natalie finally cleared her throat and asked, “Did you hear me?”
“Oh, I heard you all right,” Dylan responded, still trying to gauge why she would need to propose such a thing.
What was I thinking? Natalie began to feel her palms sweat and the hairs stand up on the back of her neck. Of all the fool brain things to say to a man of Dylan Cross’ reputation; to want to willingly be involved in any sort of relationship with her, especially one sexual in nature.
Knowing she needed to give the whol
e story if she had anyway of pulling this off, she looked at him straight on and said, “Let me give you a little bit of information as to why I have solicited you for such a thing.”
So, there was more to the story? For all he could tell, she was not a bad looking woman, in fact, far from it. Dylan honestly could not remember the last time he met anyone that was actually wholesome, and Natalie certainly was. She had a great figure and the fact that she was covered from head to toe did not hide she was womanly in any way. In fact, it got Dylan to thinking what she could be hiding underneath the buttoned up image. Granted she had a whole librarian persona going for her, but that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing; it had him wondering about her sexual tastes and how far she would be willing to go and “play”.
“Please,” Dylan said, as if the information was not as important as it really was.
“The first reason for such a staggering request is, my Mother is terminally ill and she has this fear that I’ll be alone. So, I thought if I could give the impression that I was involved in a fulfilling relationship, it would perhaps give her the comfort she needs.” Natalie could not help but lower her head and look at her folded hands on her lap. She closed her eyes in shame. She quickly picked her head up and finished what he needed to know. “You must think I’m the worst person in the world, but if I can give her that before she’s gone, it will help me to live peacefully afterwards. So Mr. Cross, if you would be willing to agree to do this with me, I would make it financially worth your time.”
“Before I give you my answer, I have one question I would like answered, ok?” Dylan got up from his seat. He decided to break the distance he had given her before he knew what this was about and took the seat directly next to her. He turned the chair around and straddled it as he rested those strong forearms on the back.