Chapter 3 #2
“Much better,” he practically purred, sitting beside her. Plutus threw his left arm over the back of the couch and scooted close, turning in the seat so he faced her. She did the same, giving up her annoyance in favor of what she thought would come next: answers.
“Now, dear E, you called me to you. Whether you intended to do so or not, you used The Book of Desires, and I appeared. That’s what happened, yes?”
E nodded, giving him no more, waiting to see what he’d say.
“Good. Now, as the god of wealth, I can do much for you.” His massive clawed right hand landed softly on her pajama-clad thigh. It was big enough he could grip it all the way around in one hand if he wished. He squeezed lightly, to emphasize what he was about to say.
“I can give you your every desire. You want wealth, correct?”
She squirmed then, thinking of the desires creeping through her that had nothing to do with money, but she did answer him. “Not wealth. I’m not greedy. I just— I want to be comfortable. I want the ability to live life and not worry about money all the damn time.”
“E,” he said softly, “Wealth is the only thing which can do this, and even this can’t make a person live life worry-free.”
“I know.” She didn’t, not really. E had never known a life where a worry about money wasn’t the same as worry over survival. Intellectually, she understood worries came and went for everyone, money or not. She just needed a break. “I want to live, not survive. Or barely survive.”
“Very well,” he said, loosening his grip on her thigh to pat it again. “I can give it to you. For a price.”
“Price.”
“Of course, E. I’m a businessman of sorts. Have been for many, many centuries.” He leaned close, his breath whispering over her ear when he breathed out. “I don’t do anything for free, little one.”
She shook her head to dislodge his intoxicating smell and leaned farther away from him, eyebrows cocked and eyes narrowed in skepticism. “What’s the cost?” She knew about devil’s bargains. She’d read “The Monkey’s Paw.” Wording mattered, so she needed to be clear.
His brilliant green eyes squinted, drilling into her own, as if he could look upon her soul, evaluate the highest price he could extract. Then, with a wicked smile, he said, “Time.”
“‘Time’ is vague, Plutus. Be more specific.”
“Specifically, I require one month of your time. Full access to you for four weeks.”
“What does full access entail?”
A grin crept over his face, revealing the tips of his fangs. “You spend your days and nights by my side. Anything else,”—he winked at her, and she flushed— “would be outside the purview of any bargain. Given of your own free will and with enthusiastic consent.”
“Okay. You require me to spend four weeks with you, day and night. For this, you’ll give me wealth. But what do you mean by wealth?”
“You want to not worry about survival. I can do that. At the end of our time, you’ll be left with enough funds, in whatever form you choose, to live your life and never again have worry about monetary survival.”
“I have work.” E didn’t like who she worked for, but she liked her work.
Plus, she hadn’t not worked since she was fifteen.
Earlier if you counted babysitting and such.
She’d feel weird not working. She also had research to do to finish her thesis.
Her days were packed as is, so she didn’t know how much time she could give the guy, god or no.
“I can handle that for you” he said, his tone blasé.
“I don’t want you to handle it,” she countered, heat seeping into her voice. “I enjoy my work. I also have school, which is another type of work, and I will not give that up. Both are important to me.”
“I can allow you time to do what you must, E. However, this is a bargain. A verbal contract. If you want the reward you must commit to the terms.”
She bit her lip, thinking hard on the issue.
“I can’t give up my research time, but if it were somehow possible, I could give up some of the time spent at my internship.
A big if, however. It’d need to not count against me in my degree program, I’d still need my paycheck to be the same, and it’d need to not negatively affect my coworkers there. ”
“All doable. Agreed.” He said, sliding closer, a feat she didn’t think was possible a second before.
The thrill of the promise coursed through her. She went over his words in her head, thinking about any tricks he might be able to pull, then came to a decision. “Yes,” she said, clear and strong. “I agree to your terms.”
“Let’s seal it, then,” he said, leaning in swiftly to take her mouth in a hard, quick kiss.
A spark of something, like a live electric current, zapped through E.
In its wake, something burned, twined in her gut.
She couldn’t see it, but a hidden part of her brain told her something bound them together.
“Great,” Plutus said, clapping his hands hard and rising from the couch. “We start tonight. Let’s go.”
“Tonight?” E looked down at her pajamas. She’d much rather cuddle on the couch than go anywhere. “Where are we going?”
“The night is young, little one,” he said, reaching down to run a claw gently down her cheek. “Where do you go to celebrate?”
She wasn’t a celebrater. Had little to celebrate in her time, and little funds to do it with even when she should celebrate. The only thing that came to mind she said. “A nightclub.”
Plutus straightened and cut her a hard look. “What do you do in nightclubs?”
“Do you not know what a nightclub is?”
He laughed. “Of course I know what a nightclub is. I’ve even invested in a few. I want to know what you do in a nightclub.”
She’d only been to a few in NYC, because all the good ones took too much money. And she did prefer to hang with a few people than a crowd. What she did was more theoretical than not.
Picking herself up off the couch, she answered. “Dance. Drink. Watch people show off or show out.”
“Show off?”
“Depends on the club. And before you ask, I only know of a few. One of which is more upscale.”
E’d been to Paradise once, and only because Lisa had dragged her there a week before she left for London as a last hurrah.
Lisa knew the owner, had gone to private school in Connecticut with him or something.
It’s the only way they’d gotten in, or, at least, the only way E would’ve ever gotten in to such a place.
The thought made her pause. “Plutus, fancier night clubs can be hard to get into.”
He snorted as if her words were funny. “No need to worry, E. No need to worry any longer, as I promised. No door to luxury or wealth is ever closed to me.”
He stepped closer, looked down at her pajamas and said, softly, “Would you like to change into something…”
“Yes. Of course.” She scrambled back to her alcove, staring at her meager closet and her lack of club attire.
“You need a dress,” Plutus said. Not a question, but a statement.
She spun toward him and nodded, not being able to voice the need as she wrung her hands together.
He looked down at her, watched her hands for a moment, his jaw tightening.
Without warning, a dress appeared in his hands.
It poured down as he held it up to her: a shimmering sheath of rose gold silk with small cap sleeves and a deep v neckline.
It looked slightly art deco, a little flapper.
It was breathtaking in its beauty. A work of art in dress form.
She didn’t move to take it, hesitant to put something so lux in her hands, so Plutus met her instead. He pushed the silk into her body, holding it up to her as if judging its fit. He looked up into her eyes. “Perfection.”
She caught the thing when he let it go, the idea of it hitting the floor overriding all her hesitations.
“Change. Do whatever else you need to do to get ready. We’ll leave when you’re finished.”
E scurried to the bathroom to change and slap on a little makeup.
Try to calm the racing of her heart, given all that’d happened in the last hour.
A literal god sat in the living room. Promised her a worry-free life.
A golden existence. But she suspected there was tarnish somewhere in all this, and she couldn’t trust herself, or the life he promised. Not completely.