Chapter 1 - Harry Payne

Harry Payne

Age: 34

Job: CEO of Payne Enterprise

Status: painfully single

Physical description: Short black hair, 6’4 ft tall, athletic body, chiselled face, with prominent dark green eyes, with a stubble beard, full lips and Roman shaped nose.

Personality Description: Arrogant, organised, determined, reliable, seductive

Family: Grace Payne (mother) Joseph Payne (father) Harold Payne (older brother) Helena Payne (younger sister)

Friends: Devin Hardy, Karen Davies

Harry POV

My name is Harry Payne, I am the CEO of Payne enterprise. I am thirty-four years old and I don’t have time to date. Hell, I barely have time to breathe, let alone date.

My work is a priority. My family expect great things from me and I comply with that. I am extremely hard-Woking and focused.

I ended a serious relationship three years ago when I found that she was cheating on me with my best friend. That’s when I focused hard on growing my company.

My family is extremely wealthy and I grew up attending the best schools with the best teachers and programs. I learned languages and literature, maths and science but I never really learned to socialise. That happened when I attended University.

Those were the best years of my life. I had the freedom to find myself and be whomever I wanted to be. I didn’t have the pressure to be the next in line to take over the company.

I have an older brother Harold and a younger sister Helena. Typical. Three kids, all with the same letter start on their name. We couldn’t be more different from each other. Harold turned forty this year. He is a corporate lawyer, a man of the family. He is married with three beautiful children. Does he actually love his wife? No. He married her because of status and to please our mother. Something I promised I would never do.

Helena is the rebel, she is twenty-four and she decided she didn’t want to go to university, she wanted to be an artist and as she is the youngest and the only girl my parents allowed her to do whatever she wants. Helena has several boyfriends but none of them sticks around. Why would that be?

I never really felt loved. My parents don’t understand that concept as they got married because of an arrangement made by their parents.

I do believe they like each other otherwise the marriage wouldn’t have lasted long.

As a middle child, I lacked the attention both my siblings had. I always tried to keep myself out of trouble but trouble always seemed to find me.

Now here I am. Hiring a girlfriend from an escort agency to take Italy to attend my cousin’s wedding.

As I explained before I don’t have time to date, and I need someone to attend this disastrous wedding with me. So I decided to hire someone for the job.

“Elite escorting agency?” - I hear a girl on the other side of the phone

“Good morning, I would like to speak to Miss Karen?” - I say

“Who should I announce?” - she asks

“Harry Payne” - I say

“Mr Payne, I’ll pass you through, One moment please” - the girl says

“Hello, this is Karen speaking” - I hear

“Karen, this is Harry, Harry Payne” - I say

“Hello darling, how have you been?” - she asks

Karen was a university friend. She became an escort to pay for her bills, then she found an older guy that decided he would pay for everything she needed. She became his sugar baby. A concept I didn’t know existed until she explained it to me. Once she got tired of the guy and made enough money she decided to open her own agency. With time she became the most elite and exclusive agency to hire escorts.

Most of her girls don’t have sex with their Joes. That’s what Karen decided to call the man that calls hiring their services. We are all Joes until we chose the girl for the service. Karen always gives us two files and we chose the one we like and then the girl gets the file. They only know in advance what kind of job it is and for how long. Not who is hiring them.

It’s just a simple way of keeping us safe.

“I’ve been doing great. Just busy and I need your help” - I say

“I never thought I would see the day” - she teases me.

I used to be completely against her job. I told her a hundred times that I would help her out. Money was never a problem for my family. We have more money than we care to admit.

“I know” - I say

“What is the event?” - she asks

“My cousin is getting married and I need to take a girlfriend with me. You know how these things work” - I say

“No time for dating hun?” - she asks

“I barely have time to eat, let alone date, I need a girl that will mingle perfectly with my family but that isn’t too flashy, a girl that will be able to handle a high society event. It will last two weeks in Italy” - I say

“I have the perfect girl for you, do you trust me?” - she asks

“Do I have another choice?” - I reply

“Of course not, I know how your family works, and I definitely know that this girl will be able to handle them, she is classy, beautiful, charming, extremely intelligent” - Karen says

“I don’t want a gold digger” - I say

“She’s not, she’s been with our top Joes and she never even flinched” - Karen says

“Anyone I might know?” - I ask as I don’t need them figuring out she is an escort

“No darling, she’s been mostly with Americans. You know they are the ones hiring us because they want a girl with a British accent” - Karen says

“Good, send me her files please” - I say

“Harry?”

“Yes?”

“Do you even want to know how much it will be?”

“I know you are expensive Karen, and I am okay with it, just send me the file and the contract please, I will pick the girl up tomorrow for the flight” - I say

“Just one more thing” - Karen says

“Yes?”

“I need you to get tested for STD’s please”

“Karen I have no intentions of having sex with that girl, you know I’m not a player” - I let out

“I know darling, but it’s policy” - she says

“Fine, send your nurse to collect blood to my office” - I say

“I will” - she says and I take a deep breath.

The rest of the day was uneventful. Except for the nurse that came to collect my blood. She was a little older than me. If she was one of the escorts I wouldn’t mind her being my girl, and that’s when my email got a notification.

It was the contract and the folder.

Once I open the folder my eyes are immediately on the photo. I can’t deny that the girl is beautiful.

There’s a background story of how we met and how long we have been together.

I read carefully and it will be easy to keep that lie. My family has no idea of what I do with my life. They are all self-centred that they never even notice what is happening in my life. I always keep myself away from scandals and from the media. I don’t like them but they do respect my privacy. Especially with the amount of money, I inject into them every month.

When I finish reading everything I start reading the contract. Two hundred and fifty thousand pounds for two weeks. That’s a lot of money and that is only the deposit. The other two hundred and fifty I have to pay at the end.

We are not allowed to have sex with our escort and if we want to it was to be discussed in advance with the girl and an extra payment will be required at the end.

I don’t have any intentions in sleeping with her anyway.

I sign the contract electronically and send it back to Karen.

Once I finish in the office it’s almost ten in the evening and I haven’t even had dinner. I call my driver and I get home soon after. I find some leftover lasagne that the cook left for me and I put it in the microwave.

One of the Good things about being a millionaire is that I don’t have to do anything myself. Food is cooked by my private chef, the housekeeper takes care of the cleaning and tidying up. I have one person that takes care of my clothes. The only thing I do myself is pack when I have to travel. Blame it on the years that I couldn’t chose what to wear because of my controlling parents.

Once I finish the meal I just go straight to bed. I lay down with my hands under my head while in look up at the ceiling. Tomorrow I will be picking the girl up. I hope she behaves and I honestly hope she doesn’t become one of those girls that fights for my attention. I don’t have the time or the patience for that.