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Only a few minutes passed before a set of glass doors off to the side opened and the man I had been staring at on the Internet came out. He stalked more than walked, with more confidence than any one person should have. I stiffened as he approached me at a fast pace, his lean frame towering over me.
“Cadence, welcome.” Laurens’ arms were held out wide, his mouth grinning as his dark eyes roamed my body. He came in for a hug, but I stuck my hand out, effectively bringing him to a halt before he could get too close.
There was no freakin’ way I was letting a stranger touch me, not like that.
He blinked a couple of times before lowering his arms and sticking his hand out. Instead of giving me a simple handshake like a professional, he lifted my hand to his lips and kissed it.
I gaped at him, wide-eyed, and he winked at me. When he let go, I had to work really hard to not wipe my hands or to grab the hand sanitizer in my bag.
“I’m so glad you could come at such short notice. If you’ll follow me, we can go into one of the meeting rooms. I hope your day is going well?”
Still speechless, I could only nod as he motioned me toward the glass doors. I began to walk, and he stepped up next to me, placing his hand too low on my back. Hating the feel of him so close to me, I side-stepped, forcing him to drop his hand.
Damn, how touchy was he going to be?
The glass doors opened automatically into a long hallway. He led the way to a small room a few doors down with plush chairs and a long glass table big enough to fit twenty-five people, easily.
“Is this room good enough?” he asked, watching me.
“Yes, it’s fine,” I replied, trying to ignore the pounding in my chest. I didn’t want to go into that room with him. There was only one door, one way out. No windows.
I was beginning to feel trapped.
Laurens’ smile slipped into a concerned frown. “Miss Wiles? Are you okay?”
I needed to do this. Had to.
After giving him a weak smile that pulled hard at the muscles in my face, I stepped inside. I settled down into a chair near the door and he took the one right next to me. I would have preferred if he took the one on the other end of the table, about ten chairs away. Though that wouldn’t be far enough away either.
Clearing my throat, I emptied my thoughts and focused on the work we had to get through.
“So, I have the gist of what you want, Mr. Laurens—”
“Please, call me Arden.”
I nodded. “Arden.” I ran my hand over the edge of the table, trying to remain focused. “I only want to verify some things with you, and we can go over my sample pieces to get a better idea of the type of music you’re looking for. Can you clarify what the music will be for?”
“I’m working on a new movie and need some songs to go along with it.”
“What type of movie?” I asked.
“I specialize in romance. This next movie will be about an abused singer. I’m pairing up with Hope’s Embrace to produce the movie to help spread awareness of women’s abuse. I’d like you to create our soundtrack. When I gave Hope’s Embrace the names of my normal people, they jumped at the opportunity to have you do this for them instead.” He smiled. “They adore you. I’m willing to pay handsomely for your services. We’d be working closely together to make sure the songs align with what we need for the movie.”
The longer Laurens talked, the faster I realized this wasn’t a job I could say no to. He was hitting all the right buttons for me. Hope’s Embrace. The topic of the movie. All of it. Like this project was made with me in mind. But I didn’t want to work closely with Laurens. That seemed like such a bad idea, especially since he didn’t know what boundaries meant.
Bile rose from my stomach, and I forced myself to swallow it.
I wanted to run away.
I wanted to scream “No.”
But I couldn’t do that. This had to do with my income, and I wasn’t in a position to be picky, especially on a big project like this. So instead, I plastered on a fake smile. “Of course, I would love to help Hope’s Embrace.” That was the best I could say. For Hope’s Embrace, I would do a lot. They were the reason an old friend of mine, Janice, was safe after all.
Laurens broke into a huge smile, showing off his perfectly straight and white teeth. His smile couldn’t compare to Toby’s cheerful one, especially since it had a different intention in it. He looked exactly like a predator focusing on his prey.
“Excellent. Then we should jump right into it then. I’m thinking we’ll need to do about eleven songs, but I have no doubt that number will probably grow as we solidify the details of the movie…”
~*~
