"But you didn't even lay your hands on me when I was in such a defenseless state last night. How can I be sure you'll be able to put on a convincing act when we're out together?"
"What are you talking about?"
"If they believe you don't have any sort of backing, whoever is out for your life won't back off of course. What better backing is there than the CEO of a company? Or for others who are vaguely aware of my former identity, should I say a rather well known hired killer? Would they still have the guts to lay a hand on someone who belongs to me?"
I somehow found her smile mixed with derision and confidence rather attractive despite the fact that I'd clearly just been labeled as one of her belongings.
"Val, just for the record I'm your employee, not one of your belongings."
"Oh? You didn't read the fine print in your contract that I meticulously wrote in?"
"What fine print?"
"The one that declared 'by signing this contract your life belongs to the company, whether you live or die is dictated by the sole discretion of yours truly, the CEO, Valkyria Rosenberg.'"
"I absolutely never read that anywhere in the contract. You're definitely making shit up."
"I'm not lying though, it really was in the fine print."
I scrutinized her facial expression and body language closely to determine if there were any telltale signs of her lying. Of course, this was purely to uncover any signs of lying and not because of the pleasant scenery.
"Whatever, enough of that Dio. Help me wash my hair already, we're wasting time."
"I'll get out now, you can wash your hair by yourself."
Before I could get out, she turned around, sat down, leaned back against me, and trapped me against the wall.
"You can leave after you help wash my hair."
"You're kidding right?"
"Does it look like I'm joking?"
"Haaaah. This is blatant sexual harassment." I reluctantly picked up the bottle of shampoo and applied it to her long hair starting from her scalp, working my way down.
"It feels just as good as I remember. You always were good with your hands."
I methodically moved further down toward the end of her long hair that draped over her shoulder and hung down in front of her.
"Ah~"
"Can you cut it with the erotic noises? I'm just trying to get this over with quickly. Please refrain from making this more complicated than it needs to be."
"You say that, but you sure are thorough."
"Hya!"
"Seriously! Enough with the suggestive moans! It's just washing your hair."
She leaned her head back and brushed up against my cheek. She tilted it slightly at an angle where she could peak at my face. Her actions opened up a perfect line of sight directly to the protrusions on her chest partially covered up by her silky long black hair.
"If it's just washing hair, what's the thing directly behind me doing?"
"It's just your imagination. I'm just washing your hair."
"Is that so?"
"Yes, so could you stop looking back at me from this angle?"
"I won't, you'll just have to put up with it until you finish with my hair."
With the direction events had proceeded toward, I'd definitely be murdered in the near future. Stay calm. Just finish washing her hair without any mishaps and you're home free. I'd definitely never be the one to take a shower first in the future if we ever share a room again.
My hand brushed against her chest when I lifted her hair up from beneath to apply the shampoo. In the instant when I came into contact with her skin, her eyelids lowered halfway as she let out a heated breath directly beside my cheek.
"You really need to knock it off."
"Don't mind me, I'm just enjoying the thorough services my employee is providing me with."
How in the hell did things escalate in this direction so quickly anyway? This made no sense. None! None at all!
To prevent my mind from wandering towards lewd stray thoughts, I recited all the digits of pi I knew in my head. She's a woman who formerly killed people for money, she surely knew all the tricks in the book to seduce a man and make them lower their guard. I'm not the same person from all those years ago though, I won't let myself easily be swayed by her charm again when she's clearly just finding enjoyment through teasing me.
Several minutes passed by and she occasionally leaked out a few moans. It was a grueling process, but I somehow made it through to the end with my sanity intact and successfully finished shampooing her hair.
"There, we're done with your hair, now let me leave in peace."
"Finished? Dio, what are you talking about? You still need to use conditioner."
All the blood to drain from my face when I heard her words. How could I forget about such an obvious trap?
She grabbed the showerhead and placed it in my hand. I slumped back in defeat, I washed the shampoo out of her hair with water without any more futile complaints before I applied the conditioner. Of course, I suffered through more of her incessant teasing throughout the process.
When I finally washed all the conditioner out of her hair I thought I was truly free from this infernal hell, unfortunately, I noticed a somewhat sinister smile had crept onto her face at some point. A shiver ran down my back as I sensed the impending calamity inducing words about to escape those deceptively seductive lips of hers.
"It's time for the soap. Dio, you can't forget about the most important part."
"No way. You can do that yourself. I absolutely refuse."
"What will I do? If you don't do it, we'll be stuck like this all day and miss our flight. Do you understand the repercussions of missing our flight, Mr. Genovese? It would mean potentially losing a big business partner. It could even affect our stock prices if news leaks. It could result in the company downsizing and many people losing their jobs. Who will be to blame for that, Mr. Genovese? Can you consciously live with that constantly weighing on your mind, knowing your refusal to do the very simple task of assisting your boss with a few personal affairs resulted in countless financial losses?"
"There's no way that would happen. Do you think I'm stupid?"
"Of course, I don't think you're stupid; however, it's not out of the realm of possibility for something like that to happen. Anything is possible in this crazy world after all. Look at your luck with women for example. You were met with five back to back catastrophic relationships, right? Your luck doesn't seem to be on the good side, right? What if your bad luck rubbed off on the company and it really happened?"
"Alight! I get it! I get it! I just have to do it, right? It's not like this is the first time."
"That's right, we used to do this sort of thing quite a bit back then, didn't we? Those have always been very fond memories for me." A peaceful smile filled with nostalgia hung on her face as she reminisced to herself over our time together in the past.