Dark Sand

14 - May regret that...

BEFORE HIM

I told Julie, Tianna and Clarissa what I had agreed to. Julie was worried about what I had got myself into but she knew I wasn't going to be dissuaded once I had an idea in my head. Tianna also thought it was stupid and dangerous but she was pragmatic and after the initial blow out, agreed to help me plan. 

Clarissa was the only one who thought it was a great idea, being more reckless than even me most of the time. She was used to strange requests and demands and compared to what she usually had to deal with, this one was easy money.

We googled the name I had been given by Nigel. Dominic Sand was my target and after seeing pictures of him on google, I suddenly wasn't so confident in myself.

"Of course, he wouldn't be old and ugly, because that would be fucking easy!" I said in exasperation as we all gathered round my laptop in our kitchen, which was looking more and more like a witch's hut with its exposed beams now covered in hanging herbs from Tianna's tea ingredients. She and Julie had combined forces and spent a lot of time in the garden growing herbs and vegetables. I didn't complain too much, especially when they both made their vegetable soup. It was just a little annoying when a drying tarragon leaf lands in your coffee.

Clarissa pulled the laptop towards her to get a better look.

"Pft, sure, he's hot and has a million pounds but sex is all about psychological warfare," she said, looking up his company, Black Sand.

"Yeah, use your super powers, Faye. If you can't use your degree to seduce filthy rich tycoons then what is it for?" Julie joked with a grin.

"Men like this don't want what they have," Tianna said knowingly as she ground up some herbs in a pestle and mortar.

"Thank you, grandmother willow," I mocked. It was a nickname we used when she sounded wise. Her English was excellent but sometimes she skipped words and her accent made her sound like she was a Sensei giving a proverb or a wise tree talking about the colour of the wind whose bark was just as bad as her bite when she was annoyed.

"I agree with Tianna. It's the classic case of not being the low-hanging fruit," Clarissa said, spinning the laptop around towards us. "And I have the perfect outfit."

She had split the screen so one half was a picture of the Black Sand logo. A downward facing crescent moon in a chalky grey, a gold diamond over the top of that, a dark black sandy smudge like a diagonal slash and another sideways crescent moon in the grey. Black Sand was written in embossed plain black font beneath it.

The other half of the screen was a dress which matched the logo. It had a gold corset bodice with the panels between the bones thin netting. The skirt was black and soft with a slit up one leg and embroidered geometric shapes from the waistline to the cut.

"Psychological warfare," Clarissa stated with a grin.

"That might actually work, or at least be a good place to start," I said, then looked more closely. "Jesus! That's a designer dress! Is it made of real gold?"

"You can afford it, especially after the payout for this job."

She was right, I just objected to paying almost a grand for a dress I was only going to wear the once. I guess I could always sell it afterwards and I needed the confidence a dress like that would give me.

"Okay, fairy godmothers, what else do you have for me?" I said and we spent most of the next few days coming up with scenarios and backup plans from the fairy tales story about a princess taming a beast to the ballsie ideas about dominating him and grabbing his arse while he wasn't looking - we called that plan J.