Golden Hour (GirlxGirl)

2

The inside of the West-Alexander estate was almost exactly how I envisioned it. Everything was perfectly placed; the picture frames hung on the wall not a single degree too far right or left, the floors were so spotless I could see my reflection in them, and I'd bet even a thousandth of all the belongings in the house would be enough to pay off my debt. I had a hard time believing Jamie didn't have the money to write me a check suitable enough for my troubles.

"Would you like a glass of wine?" she asked when we reached the kitchen. Her voice had fallen back into its composed state. "It's Cabernet sauvignon."

"That really is just gibberish to me, I don't drink wine." I slid onto the stool by the island in the middle of the kitchen and watched Jamie pour herself more. "I like vodka better, I guess you could say I'm more of an all or nothing kinda girl."

"Apparently," she muttered, swirling the liquid around the glass. "You should try appreciating the finer things in life."

My eyebrows raised instinctively and I laughed. "Are you really in the right place to say that to me? With your mansion, your movie-star girlfriend, your Ferrari-"

"I'm rich," she said, cutting me off, "but I'm not stuck up. I know what I have and I get by some definitions I'm considered lucky."

"Some definitions," I said, "but not your own?"

I looked over at her and watched something like darkness pass through her eyes. She turned her head away from me towards the floor. She was reconstructing the facade she had apparently deemed necessary, I realized, because what I'd said had somehow gotten under skin. I wondered then what her deepest, darkest secrets were. I was poor and I hated people like Jamie West, but I wasn't naive. I knew everyone had their issues and I was dying to know hers. Mostly just so that I could confirm my belief that she was privileged and that her picture perfect life could stand to be interrupted a little by the release of her affair, but even so.

She raised her chin high after a while. That unwavering, confident sparkle in her eyes I'd seen at the beginning of the night returned as she stalked towards me. Making the assumption that this act of hers was just that- an act- didn't make it any easier to bear her gaze. I shifted anxiously in my seat and waited until she was standing just before me.

"What's your name?"

"Luciana," I said, keeping my voice steady. "But I usually go by Luce."

"Why's that?" she asked. Her head tilted slightly to the right like she was genuinely curious, but I forced myself to remember that whatever came next was all part of her charming charade. She wanted something from me and I'd guess she was willing to use any means necessary to get it, including her beauty. "I can never understand why people shorten such beautiful names."

"You go by Jamie."

"That's my full name, that's who I am. I wouldn't change that."

"Well I guess you're just lucky then- to have so much pride I mean. Not everyone has that luxury."

"If you're going to turn everything I say into a lecture about how fortunate I am, tell me now and save me the trouble." She stepped forward so that her thighs rested gently against my calves. "Personally I'd rather occupy our time together in a much different way."

I closed my eyes and took a moment to remind myself that caving to my growing desires would mean going against everything I believed in. I knew she was only coming on to me in hopes of keeping her affair a secret, but that didn't make her any less sexy and I had to prepare myself to stop whatever she had planned.

She placed two delicate fingers underneath my chin after a second or two and lifted my face. I opened my eyes to see that electric blue staring back at me once again. "I've been told I'm irresistible."