NERTHUS
“My week has been the absolute best,” I say in a maybe a little too high-pitched voice while Luciana is glaring at me.
“I even went on a date!” I continue, and she sighs, breaking eye contact to lean back in her chair.
The fact that I am sitting in front of her on a Saturday morning is highly distressing. Not that the agency isn’t open also on the weekends. Especially for the agents that take last-minutes bookings for the ladies. But Luciana always declared that the weekends were sacred for her. She always spent them with her grandchildren in the Hamptons, and she never spends them in the office.
Not if there isn’t a reason grave enough for it.
I gulp, linking my fingers into each other as I rock in my chair.
“Maybe it is time for a vacation, Amber.” Luciana sighs, throwing her pen onto the files on the table.
“No, no. I don’t need a vacation, really.”
She bites the inside of her cheek. “Amber, you have no bookings. At all.”
“I know.” I say crestfallen, lowering my head. “But I didn’t do anything. Nothing happened. Maybe I could talk to a few of my regulars and-”
Luciana lifts her hand, interrupting me. “No, you know that I can’t let you do that. On behalf of their request, I have also already appointed other girls.”
I close my eyes and throw my head back, exhaling.
“You know that you are one of my best! But I don’t know what to do.” She scratches her eyebrow, looking as desperate as I feel. “That’s why I tell you to take a little vacation. Take two weeks off and when you return we will take a look at your bookings. What do you think?”
I nod, now feeling like it’s the point to give in and take my two weeks off.
“OK, boss. I’ll take a little vacation.”
She smiles and starts rummaging through her files in the container standing next to her.
“Just that you know. If it wasn’t you, I would already have fired your pretty ass. But I owe you as much as you owe me.”
She winks at me while she hands me a small card and I take it, forcing a smile.
“If you want to get away, you can gladly use it. Everything will be alright, you will see.”
***
As I get back to my apartment, I am ready to drown myself in a huge bucket of ice cream with cookies, but as I switch on the lights, my soul is ready to leave my body.
“What the hell?!”
I put my hand on my chest, trying to calm my racing heartbeat, as my Greek God is sitting on a love seat in my living room.
“What are you doing here? Who let you in?”
What a stupid question. I’m living alone.
He is dressed in a black suit, and shirt and I’m cursing myself internally at how appealing this situation is for me. Maybe I should run, but how would I know? My danger-radar broke many years ago.
“Are you still not talking to me? Not even here?”
He just keeps staring at me as I step into the living room.
“Or have you just a limited vocabulary?”
What was meant to anger him intentionally, just doesn’t seem to work as he grins at me instead. I roll my eyes as I cross my arms across my chest and ask, “Are you alone?”
“Why is Amber there written on your door, Rachel?”
I take another step forward, pursing my lips. “I have to maintain a certain distance with clients. Also, I have to apply precautions when I’m working. I have already dodged one or two critical situations like this. It’s nothing personal.”
Looking at my shoes, I add, “didn’t work out with you, apparently. Sorry if it angered you.”
“What kind of situations?”
My eyes snap back to his and I lift my brow.
“If you are going to keep asking me questions, I’ll get a glass of wine. Do you want one too, man without a name?”
He chuckles before he speaks again. “I’d take one too, thank you.”
“At least you are getting more polite.”
Walking into the kitchen, I open a bottle of wine and grab two glasses.
“Are you going to tell me your name? Before you interrogate me, I mean.”
I sit down on the couch next to him and start pouring the wine.
“Wouldn’t that be fair?”
He grins as he rubs his chin, watching me.
“Would it be fair for you to know my name, if I don’t know yours?”
“You saw it, didn’t you?”
He chuckles again as he takes the glass, I’m offering him.
“I saw a name. Still not yours.”
I sigh deeply as I watch him, take a whiff of his wine. Finally, coming to the conclusion that I can’t win, I give in.
“Nerthus.”
He halts looking at me intrigued. “Come again?”
“Nerthus. My name.” I take a sip of my glass, settling back on the couch, crossing my legs. “Nobody likes it, not even me. So, I didn’t go by it for a long time.”
I love the feeling of his eyes grazing my skin, but his voice captures me completely.
“Now I understand why you smiled seeing my company’s name.”
He saw me?!
“Oh, my. I totally forgot. Yeah. It has been a while since I saw that name.”
“When was the last time?”
I take another sip of my glass, biting my tongue.
“Your name first.”
“Parker.”
Swinging my wine in my glass, I sigh deeply. “Will ever stop playing with me?”
His grin stays prominently on his face as he stays quiet once again. “At least you don’t lose your humor.”
He gets up to change his seat and sits back down next to me while I watch him with a smile.
“So, how did you get home last night?” He asks me, putting his wine glass down on my couch table.
“Alright. I had a personal chauffeur. He was very nice.” Putting his arm on the backrest behind me, he scoops himself closer.
“Fancy telling me to go to hell, again?”
I shake my head as I lose myself in his eyes. “Or call me a wimp?” He asks, wrapping a strand out of my ponytail around his finger.
“So?” He tilts his head and I open my mouth without uttering a sound. Feeling a little tug, I gulp, finally getting the words out to speak.
“I’m sorry.” I whisper, and he smirks complacently, nearing his lips to mine. “And?”
“I’m sorry for calling you a wimp and telling you to go to hell.”
My eyes fall to his lips, and I take a deep breath. “Thank you for saving me out of that idiot’s car.”
“Oh, you are very welcome.” I sense him moving to kiss me and I flinch back, wrinkling my nose.
“Aren’t you forgetting something, Parker?” He laughs, his hand wandering up to squeeze my thigh.
“Forgive me for having called you a slag.”
A smile spread across my face, and I shake my head.
“Is there anything ordinary about us?”
“God, I hope not.” I chuckle at his remark just before he claims my lips in a slow kiss. He lifts his hand to hold the side of my head, and I relax into his hold, letting him invade my mouth with his tongue. Just as I moan against his lips, clutching on his shirt to pull him closer, there is a rapping on the door.
He starts breaking the kiss, but I pull at his shirt, getting him back on me.
“No, please. Ignore it.”
“I can’t. It’s probably my men.” He groans against my lips, pulling my head back at my ponytail.
Breathing in through my teeth, I close my eyes as he presses a kiss on my throat, before getting up.
“We still have to talk about those marks.”
I take my glass, smiling as I sip from it. “Why not overwrite them instead?”
“Don’t test me, woman.”
I chuckle as he goes to take the door like he owns this place and responds to the faceless people calling for him.
He returns to my living room with his hands in his pockets and as my eyes fall down on them, I see his bulge already wanting to break out badly.
Biting my lip, I look back up at him and he shakes his head.
“Don’t look at me like that.” He steps up to me and I get to my knees to kiss him. As he breaks it, he caresses my face, whispering. “You’ll get it soon enough.”
I nod, and as he is walking away, I decide to tell him.
“Erm… When my mother died.”
He lifts his brow at me, stopping in his tracks.
“The last time I saw the name.” I get up and cross my arms, stepping up to him.
“I was 12, and I was looking for something to say at the funeral. So, I ended up looking for where she got my silly name from.”
“Did you find something nice to say?”
I shake my head. “Nah. I made a scene and didn’t get out of the car. Missed the whole thing.”
I shrug, looking down at my shoes.
“My grandparents were so angry. They already had so much hatred for their daughter’s illegitimate child. That was the last drop they were waiting for. They barely talked to me after the fact.”
Instantaneously panicking about the fact that I told him something so private without even knowing him, I laugh nervously. “Sorry, I… I didn’t mean to bore you with my stupid stories.”
He just casts me a pitiful look and turns to open the door.
Great, just great.
As he opens the door, he turns back around and leans in to press a gentle kiss on my cheek.
“Keep your agenda free, I’ll be needing your services soon.”
“First come, first serve.” I smile at him while my voice transforms in a singsong.
He chuckles and moves his lips directly to my ear.
“Wear red, Nerthus.”
Wow. Is that what my name really sounds like?!
The next second, he is out of the door, leaving me behind, and I am trying to cope with the shivers running up and down my spine.
***
I never had someone in mind while pleasuring myself. And surely I never thought of a client while being at it.
But tonight, I explode practically immediately as I picture his gorgeous face while he teases me with his deep voice.
Damn it.