Contract

"You don't need to be so tense about it. We'd be signing a contract anyways that would make all the expectations, rules, and boundaries clear." Richard explained as he waved the waiter over to ask for a refill of his wine glass and to say he was ready for the bill.

"A work contract?" Juliet clarified, still feeling suspicious.

"Yes, that's one way to call it. That's why I'd need you to come with me to the club so we could go over everything. You of course would full say and access to it as I would." He assured, his focus was on paying the bill and figuring out the tip rather than looking at her as he spoke.

"Is it a binding contract?"

"It would be for six months, but it can be immediately be broken without repercussions based upon the additional clauses listed as reasons for breaking the contract besides those that will automatically be in place for breaking rules or limits."

"It sounds a bit sketchy to be honest. Why would I have to go to the club with you to sign a work contract?"

"Because naive girl, you'd be working with me at that club. It only sounds sketchy to you because you don't understand what you're stepping into and that's exactly why I won't do anything sexual with you because I don't play with those who don't understand certain things." Richard's eyes shone with a look she was unfamiliar with as he spoke. "Of course, I don't intend to keep you in the dark and that's another reason why we need to go to the club. For the contract, so I can see Daniel and you can get some understanding of what you're stepping into. You can always deny of course, but it would probably make your job harder without having reasons to explore other parts of the club that non-vips aren't granted access to."

"So you're basically saying I don't really have a choice in this matter because it would be the most Beneficial for me to work with you." Juliet sighed feeling annoyed. This man was definitely not going to be someone easy to work with.

"Of course you have a choice, I won't force you into anything. I just think it'd be most beneficial to you to at least considering my proposed contract first. Plus you at least owe some extra time considering I paid for the meal."

"That's not fair, the bill was supposed to be spilt!" She exclaimed exasperated.

"It's not my fault that you weren't paying attention to what was going on around you." Richard replied with a slight shrug as he began to stand up. This just annoyed Juliet more.

"My lack of attention has nothing to do with your choice to pay the whole bill. It's respectful to ask first." She retorted standing up as well. Still being in the restaurant, she was trying to keep her voice at a reasonable level despite her rising frustration.

"Respectful to me is paying any time I dine out with a woman."

"That may be fine with other women, but I prefer to be asked first and given the right to refuse." Rummaging through her purse, she pulled out her wallet. "I would rather pay you back now than owe you for this later." Richard stared at Juliet as she stood in front of him holding her wallet with a very determined look on her face. This was the first time he had dined with a woman who had objected to him paying the tab. Most were usually happy to save the money and have someone spoil them. Even Charlotte rarely objected to this.

"Let me pay you back for half of it." Juliet insisted as Richard stayed in the same position not saying anything. After a few seconds longer he let out a sound that was a mix between a huff and sigh.

"I refuse to let a woman repay me for taking her dinner." He finally replied, stepping around the woman to start heading towards the entrance. "Whether you chose to follow me to the club or not is your choice, but I will not be having you repay me for dinner.". Juliet waited a few seconds to calm down before heading out after the other to get in her own car. She didn't like his response, but it wasn't like she could've grabbed ahold of him in the restaurant and demand that he take her money. It would've caused too much of a scene.

She was also feeling more and more like she wouldn't be able to handle working with the man and his attitude, it would end up driving her crazy. But at the same time, if he were being as genuine as he seemed about the matter, she couldn't let such a good opportunity pass by. Especially when it would be so beneficial for her work. Knowing that it was going to be more than a few minutes before she reached the club, she decided that she had time to call Maria. This way she could get yelling at her friend out of the way before they found themselves face to face next and she'd also probably be in calmer state by the time they reached the club.

Juliet did feel slightly better by the time she got to the club, although Maria wasn't all that apologetic as she felt her work had helped her friend score big time. Even after she had made it clear to the other that Richard was not a man she could ever see herself being in a relationship so long as his attitude didn't change, Maria seemed unphased by it and just claimed that love can get people to change their minds about all sorts of things. Juliet snorted at this, there was no way she was going to end up falling with the arrogant man she may decide to work with. She could only see him becoming a hinderance to her job in the future if he continued to insert himself into what she was doing.

Juliet was surprised to see that the other was standing outside of the club, although he was looking down and paying attention to his watch, it seemed as though he decided to wait and see if Juliet was planning and coming or not. Parking the car not far from where he was standing, Juliet stepped out with a sigh.

"I haven't agreed to anything yet, but before I decide to reject it or not, I want to see what you're talking about."

"That's fine. There will probably be some language you do not understand on the contract so I fully expect you may want to take it with you for tonight and look up anything you don't understand." The other replied as he held open the door for her. "I have something else to do here anyways, so whether you agree or reject doesn't affect me either way."

"Are you taking me back to the same room as before?" She asked, noticing that he was leading her in that direction.

"No. We will be going back the VIP area, but I will be taking you someplace else. It's the office where most contracts are discussed and signed." He replied, giving a nod of his head to Walter who handed him his key without speaking.

"More than just work contracts?" Juliet asked, the uncomfortable feeling returning as she followed him through the door that led to the VIP section.

"You will see when we are there. As there are a lot of things that you do not understand. I think you will do better seeing everything for yourself rather than me answering all your questions." Richard replied as he guided her further down the hall than they had gone on Saturday night. The way the VIP area was set up, the further they went, the more she felt like she was trapped.

The VIP area was much larger than what she had expected. The way the hall had been setup, it appeared to cut off towards the top of the rooms when it in fact curved to go lead down another with more rooms and what appeared to be a lounge area.

"Through this door." Richard coaxed, trying to keep the other from looking around too much before she saw what she was in for. He knew that he was not the only there that night based upon how many doors were closed. Although most of the rooms were soundproof, that did not stop people from coming and going as they pleased at various stages of being dressed, marked, or otherwise.

Inside the office was sparsely furnished aside from a large desk with shelves which an assortment of different folder holders filled with files or lose peppers, two chairs, a dark red sofa, and a table set up with a water dispenser and some brown paper cups. Before closing the door, Richard flipped the sign on the outside to let others know the room was occupied and the occupants didn't want to be disturbed.

Interested in the folders, Juliet wanted to start nosing through them to see what they were for, but before she could Richard shoed her away and told her to sit.

"You can look through this another time, but right now we can here for something specific." He told her, not caring that she offended over the fact that she knew he was hiding something from her. Not wanting to argue though, she went and sat down on the sofa and waited.

"This is what you need to look at." Richard finally said after a few minutes of rummaging through the desk, finding the paper he wanted, and changing a few things on it. "This is an example. Before you sign the work contract, we will remodel it to fit the terms we agree upon." He explained taking the chair closest to the sofa as he waited for her to read over the contract.

He hadn't been wrong, there were quite a few words that she didn't understand on the form or hadn't heard of before.

"Dominant and submissive." She murmured those words out loud as they were the only ones that seemed vaguely familiar to her. She was certain that they were something some of her wilder friends had used before in relation to being at clubs and picking up partners, but she had never really paid much attention it. "What does this mean?" She asked looking up at him suspiciously.

"It's the work contract. I don't expect you to understand a lot of it. I can't take the time to explain everything so as I said before, take it home tonight and go over it and we can talk about it tomorrow. But if you don't show up tomorrow, I will assume you're not interested." Juliet wanted to pressure him about it but didn't when she saw he was already standing up again. "Either you can leave now, or you can choose to come with me while I go speak to Daniel. He won't mind the additional company." A chance to meet the owner of the club? That wasn't something Juliet was going to pass up.