7: Of Dangerous Ladies (2)
1554 Words
Cierra looked up from the table long enough to glance at him. "I see that you decided to keep your original looks for this mission."
There was pizza for breakfast. He really shouldn't be all that surprised given the fact that Cierra was a serious junk food addict and couldn't cook anything to save her life. To maintain his healthy lifestyle-and figure-he had learnt how to cook.
Which had led to even more unwanted comments from his dear companion.
"I thought I would be needing everything I got for this particular mission." He replied, poking his piece of pizza and wondering if the carbs were worth it. "And I am glad I don't need to wear contacts anymore."
"Are you having doubts?" Cierra gasped dramatically and Ryan glared at her as she sat across him with her plate of four slices of pizza. Sparing a glance at the plate, he had to wonder how in the world did the girl manage to maintain her petite figure despite eating all kinds of junk food.
"Of course not." He scoffed as he decided to take the risk and bit into his piece. "I was just deploying all the weapons in my arsenal." His words came out a bit garbled as he chewed but Cierra seemed to have understood what he was trying to say.
"That is stupid of you. It will just make you easier to track down later." She had a point but there was no way he was going to admit it.
"I can always change my appearance later. I doubt he will be searching for me in Brazil." Cierra's eyes widened and he knew that he had her. She had been pestering him to take her to Brazil for months now. Something about Brazilian men being hot and easier to con.
He didn't like the idea of Cierra 'working' per se, because it was more dangerous for her than it was for him. But he knew that she could take care of herself well enough and she would be even more determined to go against him if he voiced his concerns.
He wasn't a complete douche bag.
"Using bribery as a means to get me to shut my mouth. Very clever." Cierra commented drily and he shot her a grin. He knew that it would have absolutely no effect on her-she was the one girl who was completely immune to his charms.
But then, it went both the ways; she could seduce any man she met except him. Though he guessed it had less to do with her looks-because he would be blind to say that she wasn't attractive despite her habit of dying her hair-and more to do with the fact that she was a slob.
"I will stop pestering you about it on one condition." His smiled died as he tried not to shrink back at her suddenly predatory gaze. "I am going to take you shopping for new clothes."
Well, that didn't sound too bad.
But this was Cierra.
He trusted her with his life-she had gotten him out of a lot of tight spots in the past two years-but not with his dignity.
"No pink, no frills." He said, running a hand through his black hair.
"You are no fun." She pouted.
He just shot her a look that had her rolling her eyes. "Fine, fine." She conceded. "No pink or frills. Happy?"
He didn't deign that with an answer but merely finished his pizza in silence.
He had a date to get ready for.

"I heard that you got a hot date tonight." Jared didn't have to look up to see his cousin making herself at home in his office.
The large glass windows let in enough of natural sunlight that he kept the lights of his office off during the day time. Instead of keeping his back to the windows, he positioned the huge table in such a way that he sat facing the windows with the entrance to his office to his right.
It was a slightly awkward arrangement but he loved the view.
What he didn't love was unwanted people barging into his office and occupying the chair across the table, blocking his view of the city.
"Do I even want to know from where you heard that?" He asked, keeping most of his attention focused on the document in front of him. He was a very busy man with a full schedule most of the time and he did not like interruptions. It just meant he had to spend a longer time cooped up in his office. And for a person who was an exercise nut and loved the outdoors, that wasn't the best option.
"I won't be revealing my sources." Contrary to what Jared was hoping, instead of leaving, she plopped down on the chair across him and proceeded to place her legs on his desk. He knew that this was mainly to get his attention more than anything else so he decided to go along with her-just this one time-to reduce his stress levels.
"What do you want?" He asked, meeting her gaze.
"I just came to visit my favourite cousin." She replied innocently.
Jared wasn't fooled.
"And to get more information out of me." He raised his eyebrows.
"You know me so well." She grinned.
Given that she was his only cousin it wasn't all that surprising. Her father, his maternal uncle, and she were the only family he had left after the death of his parents when he was still in high school. So he was close to them.
But that didn't mean he thought his cousin wasn't slightly insane.
"Well, who is the lucky girl then? Do I get to meet her?" Jared realized with a jolt that Amelia had no idea about who his date was. That meant the informant was his secretary who he had informed that he would have to postpone the meeting scheduled at 8 since he had a date at night. But he made sure to neglect telling her exactly who his date was.
The wide eyed look she had given him had made his day.
If someone who knew him so well looked surprised then he couldn't wait to see the reactions of others.
"It isn't a her." Amelia took a few seconds to process the information before gasping.
"You are really gay?!" He would ignore the excitement in her voice for the sake of his mental health.
"Of course not."
Grey eyes narrowed in frank disapproval. "You're pretending to be gay. That's messing with the poor boy's heart-"
"He is straight too, Amelia. I forgot to mention that. So technically, he's also trying to mess with mine."
Amelia paused and did a double take. "He's what?" She paused momentarily to process this. "So the both of you are straight."
He nodded. "Right."
"And you are going to go on a date with each other."
"Yep."
Amelia frowned, the confusion apparent on her face. "But why?"
Jared reclined back into the chair and started laughing, folding his hands behind his head. "Oh come on Amelia. What's funnier than two guys pretending to be gay? He thinks I'm gay, I know he's straight. We make a perfect couple. It'll fool the media and I'll get less junk mail. It's a win-win situation."
The effect of losing his parents at an age where he was just learning the difference between right and wrong , between genius and plain stupidity was clearly seen in that one sentence.
With a grin, he turned back to his speech.
'For a brighter future, let's hope this charity event will-'
She hummed. "Did you kiss him?"
He froze and shot Amelia a horrified look. "Why would I do that? And we haven't even gone on our first date yet."
She grinned. "Then you can kiss him tonight when you drop him back home."
The horrified expression remained etched to his face as the pen hovered above the paper. "Why?"
"To make it more realistic of course." Amelia had clasped her hands together, the huge grin still on her face. "And it would also be so romantic. In any relationship, the dominant one always takes the lead and is also a bit of a pervert."
Jared really, really didn't want to know what kind of books Amelia read.
He made a mental note to avoid looking at her bookshelf the next time he visited his uncle.
"There is no relationship." He muttered, internally cringing at the look on his 18 year old cousins face.
"Yet." She wriggled her eyebrows as he glared at her. It seemed to have absolutely no effect on her whatsoever.
"I-" He begin, only to be interrupted by the shrill ringing of a cellphone. She extracted her mobile from her pocket and with one glance at the screen, pushed it back in.
Standing up, she smiled sweetly at him. "I have to be going before Father realises I skipped classes to come and speak with you."
He gaped. "You skipped cla-"
"Bye, dear cousin. Do tell me how your date goes. I want to know all the little details too." He didn't like the emphasis she put on the word 'details'.
With one last roguish wink, she exited the office, leaving him staring at the door.
- Writer
