A DARE OR TRAP

KAREN ANDERSON

I refused to let myself get excited about her offer. All I smelt from it was danger. 

She scanned around the place looking for what I had no idea about. 

"How about you show me your skills… go ahead, seduce that man over there successfully and I will write off your debt," she said and as though she hadn't said the most ridiculous thing ever, she lifted the glass onto her lips and gulped down the entire content of it. 

I looked at her, hoping she would tell me she was joking. 

Only that she didn't look one bit like she was joking. 

"What are you doing? You won't do it? Oh, I thought you were desperate to write off your debt. I guess I thought wrong…"

"I will do it…" I blurted. 

Yes, I wasn't thinking straight. Anyone in my shoes had no right to be thinking straight.

"I will do it," I repeated as if she hadn't heard me the first time. 

She chuckled and lowered herself onto the sofa. Where her husband had stood from. Capon was still standing and with his eyes pleading, hoping she would leave. 

"Go on, show me what you have got," Capon's wife said. 

I started towards the man. The man I was supposed to seduce. A man I knew nothing of and had never seen before.

I forced myself to take a deep breath. I wasn't one to fret in tasks or anything. In fact, I was always known as a fearless and bold woman. But that moment, I felt a patch of sweat forming underneath my arm, between my thighs. I had done a lot more riskier things in my life in the past but seducing a man I knew nothing about hadn't been among them.

But there was always a first time for everything.

I let out another breath. I remembered father and Lily and imagined how much burden would be lifted off my chest by just seducing the man over there and writing off our debt with Capon. 

Determination surged through me. Putting on my cape of braveness, I started towards the man. He wasn't far from Capon's table. 

I stopped a few feets from him and observed him. My prey. He was alone at his table and was drinking alone calmly. I couldn't see his face as his back was turned against my angle. I wondered what he would look like underneath the suit he was cladded in. Would he be handsome or ugly? 

But I quickly waved the thought off. His looks weren't of any importance to me. 

I dipped my hand into my cleavage and pushed up my breasts a bit and straightened out my dress. Maybe it wasn't an entirely bad idea to have worn a short dress after all. 

I wished there was a mirror to have a good look at myself. 

Another deep breath and I moved. 

I rounded the sofa and stopped before him. 

"Hi, I see you are alone. Erm, well, I am alone too. Mind if I join you?" I asked and before he could even raise his face at me, I took the sofa across from him. 

He lifted his eyes and looked at me through his packed lashes and then focused back on his drink without saying a word to me. 

"Wow. Cold." I couldn't help but mutter within me. I seized him up. He was gorgeous, like a demi-god. His face was chiselled, and his jaw, rigid and perfect. His pointed long nose sat straight in his face giving him the look of a man any woman would wake and see beside her in the morning and knew immediately how great her day would be.

"I hope you don't mind if I pour myself a drink?" 

I started to pour myself a drink from one of the wine bottles on the table. 

He ignored me all these while slowly sipping from his glass. And not a single word had he said since I sat down.

But as I lifted the glass to my lips to drink, he charged forward and grabbed my wrist. 

"What do you think you are doing right in my space?" 

For a moment, I ignored the meaning of his words, the hostility in his tone and let myself drown in the dark yet warm eyes that rested on me. 

He held my gaze coldly. It was then I noticed that it wasn't just his eyes that were beautiful. His full brows along with his packed lush lashes could draw anyone in.

"I do not appreciate having a second person in my space. Especially not anyone like you."

He snatched the glass from me and dropped it down on the table. I felt a little hurt even when I knew I shouldn't be. 

Everything about his tone screamed brusque. 

Everything screamed arrogance. But I am Karen Anderson. I liked arrogant men more. I knew how best to turn them into a humble sheep. 

Except that this situation was different. 

I casted a look behind me to see Capon's wife's eyes fixed on me. 

I wondered if she had been watching me the whole time without taking her eyes off even for a second. 

"Erm," I coughed, adjusting in my seat and wearing back my confidence and seductive smile. 

Come on, look at me, please. I couldn't do anything if he wouldn't look at him. I knew I had to get him to look at me somehow. 

I intentionally dropped my phone. 

"Oops! My phone." I bent and started to search for my phone. It didn't fall too far from me but I pushed it deeper beneath the table. Towards his own side. 

"Oh, I'm sorry, my phone fell over there. Could you help me get it please?" 

He slowly lifted his head from his phone that he was fiddling with and glanced at me before turning back to it again, without saying a word or making an attempt to get my phone. 

"Oh, my bad. I shouldn't make a gentleman run errands for me." I let out a small laugh, hidden behind my nervousness as I stood from where I was seated, rounded the table and walked to his side. 

I bent, low enough to have my body brush slightly against him. 

"Aw…a little more and I will reach it…" I moaned, stretching my hand further under the table. Pushing my arse out. 

Seeing that my seducee had no intention of helping me get my phone nor did he pay any attention to me, I reached for my phone and picked it up. 

"Oh, found it." I half exclaimed, glancing at him. 

Still no reaction from him. Thankfully most of the men were occupied with their drinks and the women before them. His silence embarrassed me. 

I looked at Capon's wife and she had the look that said my time was up, that I had failed and my father's debt wouldn't be written off. 

I had to push further. I must try harder. 

"Oh, you have something on your neck," I said slowly, taking an imaginary thing off his neck. 

He glared at me and caught my hand in his. 

Then he charged up, dragging me up with him. 

"You! How dare you lay your filthy hands on me? What is your deal? Didn't I tell you? I hate anyone being in my personal space and especially, I hate women like you… " he spat.

"All you do is go around seducing men you think can get you out of your miserable lives. You disgust me!"

I felt everything went still and the entire eyes of everyone in the room directed at me. My cape of confidence withered off and the cape of sheer embarrassment enveloped me. 

They had lied to me. The movies, the stories. What happened to the man pinning the woman down and falling for her seduction?

I was a fool for thinking I was in the movies. This was in reality, my reality. And in reality, it was only myself that could save me and not anyone else. Not some handsome stranger I had just met the first time and was trying to seduce. 

I tried to speak but the only thing that came out was bubbles. Invisible bubbles. They stuck in my throat blocking off whatever words my head drew to let out. 

He shot me another angry stare before he shoved me out of his way and trotted out of the place.

My eyes darted across the room. I heard the giggles but I never bothered to check from who and where it had come from. But I knew it was a laugh directed at me. At my foolery. 

From one of the tables across, I saw one of the men in a cluster of three men and a few women took a drag on his cigar. Then I watched as he exhaled the smoke slowly and how the smoke moved randomly and afterwards vanished. And right there and then, I wished I could turn into a smoke and disappear along with it.