chapter 3

Bianca's POV

"Sorry girls, but it's my turn now."

I pushed through the crowd of women waiting outside Anna's office like I was fighting my way through a jungle. Their shocked faces blurred past me as I squeezed between their perfect bodies, not caring who I bumped into or stepped on. I had forty-eight hours to save my mother's life, and this crazy woman was my only hope.

"Hey, what's going on?" one of them called out behind me, but I was already through the door.

I slammed it shut and turned around to find Anna sitting in her big leather chair with her back to me, looking through files on her desk like nothing had happened between us. The office chair slowly spun around as she turned to face me, and those dangerous dark eyes locked onto mine immediately.

"You are late," Anna said, her voice calm and cold like she was talking about the weather.

I felt my jaw drop open in surprise. Late? Late for what? I had just run out of here twenty minutes ago after she asked me to do something impossible.

"I... I'm sorry," I stammered, my voice shaking like a scared child. "I really need this job. Please help me. I'm sorry for what happened before. Please, can you just help me?"

Anna stood up from her chair slowly, her movements smooth and dangerous like a snake rising from the grass. She walked toward me with those predator eyes studying every part of my trembling body.

"What makes you think you deserve this job?" she asked, stopping right in front of me. "You have done nothing to deserve it."

Before I could answer, Anna reached out and touched my face with her soft hand. She lifted my chin up with one finger, forcing me to look directly into her eyes. Then she moved closer, so close I could feel her breath on my skin.

"I am still waiting for my kiss," she whispered, her voice like honey mixed with poison.

My heart hammered against my chest so hard I thought it might break my ribs. She was serious. She really wanted me to kiss her. But how could I do such a thing? I had never kissed a woman in my entire life.

Anna leaned in and breathed deeply near my neck, her expensive perfume filling my nose with something sweet and powerful. The smell was so strong and beautiful that it made me want to melt into her arms and never leave. I had never smelled anything so intoxicating in my life.

I closed my eyes and tried to think about my mother lying in that hospital bed. Forty-eight hours. That was all the time I had left. If I wanted to save her life, I had to do whatever this woman asked of me.

My hands shook as I leaned forward and pressed my lips against Anna's soft, warm mouth.

The kiss was like lightning striking my entire body. Her lips were so soft and sweet, nothing like kissing Sebastian or any man I had ever been with. This was completely different, like discovering a new color that had never existed before.

Anna's strong arms wrapped around my neck, pulling me closer as the kiss deepened into something I had never experienced. Her mouth moved against mine with expert skill, teaching me things I did not know my body could feel. Every nerve in my body came alive and screamed with pleasure I had never imagined possible.

When she finally pulled away, I was shaking so hard I could barely stand up. My legs felt like they might give out completely. I had never felt anything so intense and overwhelming in my twenty-two years of life.

Anna stared into my eyes with a knowing smile, clearly enjoying the effect she had on me. She could see how much the kiss had affected me, how my whole body was trembling like I was standing in a snowstorm.

"You have never kissed a woman before," Anna said. It was not a question. She already knew the answer just by looking at me.

My mind raced with confusion and panic. Wait, so kissing women was a normal thing now? Was I dreaming? Was this really happening to me? I felt like I had walked into some strange alternate universe where everything I thought I knew about the world was completely wrong.

How was this normal in this company? How could Anna act like asking for kisses during job interviews was just another Tuesday? I did not understand anything that was happening to me anymore.

"This... this is my first time," I whispered, my voice so quiet I could barely hear myself.

The words hung in the air between us like a confession of some terrible secret. Anna's smile grew even more dangerous, like a wolf that had just realized how helpless its prey really was.

I thought about my mother's face when I visited her yesterday. Her skin was yellow and her eyes were sunken deep into her skull. She looked like a ghost of the strong woman who had raised me all by herself. The doctors said her kidneys were shutting down one piece at a time, and without surgery, she would be dead by the end of the week.

I took the folder with hands that would not stop shaking. My whole body felt like it was on fire and freezing cold all at once. I could still taste her lips on mine, sweet and dangerous like forbidden fruit.

Anna walked back to her desk and sat down in her big leather chair. She opened my resume folder and picked up a pen, writing something on the papers inside. I watched her every movement, trying to understand what was happening to me.

After a few seconds, Anna looked up at me with that same dangerous smile playing on her lips. She closed the folder and held it out to me across the desk.

I walked forward on shaking legs and took my resume back from her hands. She had written something on it, but I was too nervous to look down and see what it said.

Anna leaned back in her chair and smiled at me like she had just won a prize she had been wanting for a very long time. The silence stretched between us like a tight rope, and I did not know what I was supposed to do or say next.

I expected her to ask me questions about my experience or my skills. I thought there would be a real interview with normal questions about typing and computers and office work. But instead, she just sat there smiling at me like she already knew everything she needed to know.

"What next, ma'am?" I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.

Anna's smile grew wider and more mysterious, and I felt like I had just asked the most dangerous question of my entire life.