Happy New Year!

NATALIE MADDEN

The night of the dinner came and Nat was just about ready to get the show on the road.

She arrived home at 3:30 pm to begin preparations for the dinner that her mother had informed her she should be present for at 6:30pm sharp, a dinner that would actually begin at 7pm. In other words, everyone is expected to be in attendance thirty minutes before the actual dinner to socialise. To Nat it meant half an hour for her mother to properly grill her "boyfriend" with questions.

Speaking of boyfriend, Nat's mind immediately goes to the escort, Terrence Ross, for the 100th time that day. She wondered what he would think of the crazy situation she is dragging the innocent man into. She almost felt bad for the man. But at least he was getting paid for it.

Earlier, during lunch with her best friend, Kaylene Scott, Nat had blurted out that she had hired an escort to pretend to be her boyfriend to her mother for the dinner tonight. She immediately wished she could take it back when Kaylene had burst into laughter in the middle of their meal attracting attention which had made Nat turn a beet red and act as if they didn't know each other.

Yes, she knew what she did was quite stupid. But she had no choice. The only other option was to come clean to her mother who would take it graciously and by tomorrow she would have a date with another stuck up rich snob. She couldn't deal with that. Not again.

So if this was the only alternative she would grab it with her two hands. Who knows? It just might not turn out to be as bad as she expects.

.....

After taking a quick shower with her lavender scented liquid soap and wrapping herself in a robe, Nat began doing her make up. She didn't want to go over the top so she opted for a simple, natural look with little concealer, eye shadow, some mascara, eyeliner, blush and lip gloss.

Okay, maybe not so simple.

Afterwards, she went to her closet and produced the box which her mother had had delivered to her earlier that day for the dinner.

Nat didn't understand the big deal. It was, after all, just a family dinner so why all the extra lengths. But she knew better than to question Alyssa Madden. Especially when it came to fashion which was her field of expertise.

After getting dressed in the champagne colored dress with spaghetti straps which had a long slit along her right leg -her mom really did know her stuff- and a pair of Christian Loubiton heels she looked at herself in the mirror.

Really looked at herself.

And Natalie Madden truly liked what she saw. She had been so busy lately, but now at she stared into the eyes of the blue eyed beauty in the mirror she thanked her mother's genes. They were like a photocopy of each other.

Looking at the time she saw that it was 6 o'clock on the dot so she quickly spritzed her neck with some perfume and picked up her clutch ready to leave.

She was expecting Terrence anytime from now.

She didn't know what had possessed her to give her house address as their meeting place but she had never really done this sort of thing before so it was all new. She just hoped that he wasn't some kind of psychopath who will become obsessed and start stalking her.

Okay so maybe the stalking part was a little extreme but it wasn't exactly her fault. Whoever he may truly be will not be written on his head.

But it was too late to change her mind so Nat just sucked it up like a big girl.

She had a rack of baseball bats that were ready to be used in case of any misbehaviour.

As if reading her mind the doorbell rang. Well at least he was punctual.

Calmly, trying to hide all her nerves, Nat walked down the stairs and to the door.

Upon opening it she forced her throat to swallow past the lump as she stared at the man in front of her thoroughly from his head down to the heel of his expensive looking shoes.

"Hi?"

Oh shit. That came out wrong.

.....

TERRENCE

All day Terrence had tried not to think of the blonde blue eyed stranger that he was supposed to spend his night with but that alone was nearly impossible as he repeatedly went back to the email Elena had sent him and looked at her photo.

Great. Now he was becoming one of those guys.

At 5 PM sharp he had left the office to the surprise and joy of his newest personal assistant, Clarissa, who was more than happy to go home early.

Upon arriving home, he had taken his time to dress up, wearing his favourite tuxedo and making sure he sprayed the right amount of perfume.

First impressions are important.

He wore a black tuxedo with a white dress shirt inside, no tie. Terrence never did like the restriction. He wore a gold rolex watch on his wrist and a gold chain with a small cross on it and black Italian loafers.

He was good to go and ready to impress.

Getting into his red Ferrari la Ferrari he imputed the address Elena had sent to him into his GPS and drove off to the location all the while thinking of the image of Natalie.

At a point, he was able to convince himself that she might actually not even be that beautiful in person. That it might have been all filter and edit. Those can do a lot of wonders for people. He had seen that first hand through social media.

But nothing prepared him for the real living, breathing Natalie Madden.

And he was convinced nothing could have.

He had knocked of the door and a moment later she had opened it and stunned him with her looks.

She was even more beautiful in person than in his imagination or her picture which did her no justice. This was a fact that Terrence couldn't deny.

Suddenly, he was...nervous. And obviously she was too as the first thing she had said to him after eyeing him thoroughly from head to toe was, "Hi." Or rather she had asked him.

Her being nervous made him feel a bit better. At least he wasn't the only one.

Terrence gave Natalie a charming smile as she made way for him to walk in but not quite enough as he had to practically squeeze in because of his big frame. But Terrence couldn't complain as it gave him the opportunity to brush up against her small body and smell her very intoxicating perfume.

Natalie led him to her living room all the while swaying her hips unconsiously but the action wasn't missed by Terrence who suddenly felt his pants get tighter.

Fuck. He mentally groaned as he tried his best to adjust himself.

When they were sitted Terrence decided to take control of the situation otherwise they would probably have been sitting in silence all night as Natalie looked too nervous to speak.

.....

NATALIE

He was so...hot. Way hotter than the picture and even hotter than her imagination. She felt like anytime soon his heat would set her ablaze, not that she would mind.

She abruptly stood up just as he opened his mouth and walked to the kitchen to get herself a glass of wine.

Coming out with the bottle and although she held two wine glasses in her hand she asked, "Would you like some?"

With a small smile that almost felt like he was mocking her he shook his head and she poured herself a generous amount.

After drinking the whole cup in one go she finally said, "I'm Natalie, as I'm sure you know."

He gave her that mocking smile again and she was quickly getting irritated. She knew she as terrible at this, he didn't have to make her feel worse.
"I'm Terrence. "

"Nice to meet you, Terrence."

"The pleasure is all mine." He replied in a voice that made shivers run down her spine as she suddenly looked anywhere but at him to distract herself from the carnal thoughts slowly taking over her mind.

Looking at the clock she nodded her head. It was time to hit the road.

"So, I'll fill you in on the job during the ride. My car is in the drive already so we can get going. I thought it would look better if we arrived together and all."

He just stared at her. Or rather her lips and Natalie suddenly felt flustered. Finally, after much effort, he snapped himself out of it. "That's fine but I brought my own car, if you don't mind." And he stood up. He was ready to get outta there although he wasn't quite sure if it would be any better in the tight confines of a car.

Natalie was hesitant. How much money could an escort possibly make? She would need to make it believable to her parents that her boyfriend was well to do and arriving on a common car wouldn't exactly do that but as she observed him again she noticed the rolex on his wrist and the gold chain on his neck and she was a little confused. She decided to go with it anyway. "No. It's fine." Picking up her clutch she asked, "Shall we?"

.....

The car ride was filled with Natalie giving Terrence a brief preview of her family as she had quickly gotten over her initial surprise and then confusion at seeing that he drove a ferrari. She dismissed the thought.

"Okay so my mother's name is Alyssa and my father's Gerald. I think it's necessary to know this as they would definitely expect you to."

"Gerald and Alyssa." Terrence repeated. "Got it."

"This dinner is to celebrate my cousin's upcoming wedding, her name is Camilla Sheridan. You've probably heard of Sheridan Enterprises?" To this Terrence nodded his head. He had met the owner a few times at business functions and suddenly he hoped that this would not blow up his cover. He was liking being in Natalie's presence so far.

"She's getting married to a prince, Khalid Bin Hassan. And my other cousin Jasmine and my aunt Lisa will be there. Trust me, you will want to avoid them. Especially Jasmine. She's a real piece of work." Nat said with an obvious distaste in her voice.

She and Jasmine never really got along for several reasons.

"My best friend Kaylene Scott will be there also. She knows about this whole arrangement so it's cool. But who I really wanted to prep you on is my mother." Suddenly, Natalie felt her cheeks heat up in embarrassment at what she was about to reveal.

"So she thinks we have been dating for 2 months now and you are a business man who is constantly away. By the way, you're supposed to have just returned from a trip today. She'll ask you several questions about our relationship so the story is we met in Houston where your business is and where you are most times. Okay? Because she knows almost every person there is to know in this town so she will immediately pick up on the fact that you aren't from here."

All the while Terrence was absorbing everything she said but one question stuck with him throughout.

"Your services won't be needed after today no worries so you won't have to bother about meeting my crazy family again. I'll say we broke up because of the long distance was causing a strain on our relationship."

"Ouch." Terrence said letting out a light chuckle.

Nat's face turned a light red. She wondered if he might have taken offense to her abruptness. "I didn't mean it that way."

"It's fine, beautiful. I was just teasing. Can I ask you a question though?" Terrence finally spoke up.

Nat had a feeling she knew what he was about to ask but she nodded her head anyway.

"Why would a beautiful woman such as yourself not have a boyfriend?"

She sighed.

"Honestly, I don't know. I don't have the time for it I guess." Suddenly, she wasn't sure about anything. "I'm not lucky at love I guess." She added.

Thinking of her nonexistent love life made her sad for herself. Would she ever find love like her cousin or her friends? Would she ever find the one?

The rest of the 20 minutes car ride is spent in silence, both minds too engaged in thinking things so different yet so similar.

Soon they arrive at the massive Madden mansion and there is a valet awaiting their arrival there ready to take the keys.

Handing the keys to him, Terrence takes ahold of Natalie's hand making her heart race a little faster.

It's show time.

A/N:
I am soo sorry sorry for the long wait. I have been really busy with lots of things but I will try to update more often.

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Xoxo💕