Chapter 5. The Same Girl?

Sherry clutched her purse tight and pulled down her dress. She was dressed in an off shoulder red dress, that reached just below her bottom.

The agency car dropped her off in front of a huge gate. She was supposed to be by herself from there. She hesitated before hitting the doorbell.

“The payment will hit your account even before you get out of his gate,” the words of her friend Rosey rang in her head. Her hands immediately reached for the bell this time.

She straightened up. There was no more room for hesitation.

The gates flung open.

“Hello, I...” she opened her mouth to state the purpose of her visit. Then she realized there was no one there. She stepped in. What greeted her was a garden. As soon as she took a few steps inside, the gate closed behind her with a thud.

Startled, she dropped her purse.

“Damn!” she cursed under her breath before picking it up.

She walked further inside. The further she went the darker it got.

“Why is there no light?” she wondered as she almost fell again, stumbling over the stairs that lead to the rooms inside.

“Damn!” Sherry cursed again. She almost felt like turning back and running any moment. But then again, the money. She needed it bad.

Sherry felt her way inside.

“STAND RIGHT THERE!” A voice from nowhere send her a sudden command.

“Okay!” she lifted her hands up immediately as if she was surrendering.

“You can take your hands down.”

Sherry followed command once again without any question. “Okay!” She obeyed, very docile.

“Come and stand in the middle of the room!” This was the third command.

Sherry tried to look around. “Umm, sorry but where is the middle? I cannot really see anything.” She wasn’t sure if she was supposed to ask the question.

A light lit up, like a spot light a few steps from where she was standing.

“Thank you,” she bowed as she took her steps and stood under the white light.

“STRIP!” This was the command for the fourth time.

“Okay!” her voice barely left her voice this time. She just realized, the job she had come for had actually began.

She reached the side of her shoulder with trembling hands when suddenly the fifth command came her way.

“STOP!”

She stopped immediately. A little relieved at that.

She watched as a pair of crimson eyes approached in her direction from the dark.

Sherry gulped. Was she seeing things.

“Sherizad?” The voice asked her with a tone of surprise mixed with shock.

She herself was taken aback. Only her father addressed her that way and only when he was having an attack. She could not saying anything this time. But looked at the eyes as it slowly came forward with a face.

A face she had never seen, yet it immediately felt like home.

“SHERIZAD!” It called again before a pair of hand rushed towards her face and cupped it into an affectionate embrace.

“It’s you. It’s really you.” Those eyes glistened as they hovered over her like one who was thirsty and was looking at a river. The man reeked of alcohol. Was he even in his senses?

But his eyes didn’t have a glint of intoxication in them. It looked like it was in too much pain.

His hands were shaking. His lips trembled. Sherry watched him caress her tresses that lay loose on her forehead.

She had never thought a man’s touch could have ever been so appealing.

He moved his hold on her. This time holding Sherry’s neck with one hand as the other hand slipped behind her hip.

He pulled her to himself.

His scent.

The moment she breathed it in, Sherry felt like she was close to orgasm. Which was absurd. She didn’t even know what that feeling was like. She had not done anything with anyone before this. Not even kissing.

She was that weird girl. Her only soulmate was Sarah and the bugs and the bees.

But what was this sensation that she was having. It felt like it was making her heart limp.

Then he tore her away from her pleasure trip, away from himself. They were again standing face to face with each other.

Sherry could see there was a story in those deep blue eyes, which she had probably mistaken for crimson.

At that moment all the lights in the room came back. It wasn’t a room. It was a suite. Huge.

The man suddenly pushed Sherry against the wall. Her head hit against it a little with his force.

She was just trying to hold her tears when he started what seemed like wiping the makeup away from her face. His fingers vigorously rubbed against her eyes, eyebrows, lips and cheek.

She had not put a lot of it but whatever she had, now it was all spoilt. Sherry didn’t mind though. Her makeup was part of her service towards him. He was entitled to it for tonight. It was part of what she was selling.

He looked around frantically for something. Before Sherry could react he pulled a jug and emptied it’s content on her.

It was cold. Sherry shivered.

The man fetched a towel immediately and started rubbing Sherry’s face. Until he was sure every bit of her makeup was successfully removed.

“He could have just mentioned that with the agency. What a waste of product and effort.” Sherry thought and after he was done.

“Sherizad!” He was again cupping his hands around her face. “It’s really you?”

“What was he trying to confirm?” Sherry still kept wondering, “an ex-girlfriend perhaps or was it a dead wife?”

The man pulled her on his chest once more.

As soon as he did, Sherry’s shivers went away. She was still wet. But it was somewhere else. The feel of his skin was actually giving her jitters. She could not help but slowly lift her hands and wrap it around his muscular shoulders.