The One Shade of Red launch blog
tour
Welcome
to Stop 3 on the blog tour for the launch of second novel by Scott Bury, One
Shade of Red.
The
book is a spoof of the biggest bestseller in years, Fifty Shades of Grey. One
Shade of Red turns the concept on its head: Damian Serr is a naive,
under-confident university student who gets an education in business and sex
from the slightly older, beautiful, smart and rich — in other words, perfect —
Alexis Rosse.
This
excerpt comes from Chapter 8, where Alexis and Damian sit down at Alexis’ patio
to talk business — making money, finding customers, hiring employees — naked.
One Shade of Red launches April 2 on
Amazon, iTunes/iBookstore, Smashwords and other fine e-tailers. For links,
visit Scottswrittenwords.blogspot.com.
The
previous stop on the tour was Siggy Buckley’s Writers
Get Together.
[link: http://writersgettogether.blogspot.com/]
Chapter
8: Cleaning Pools
“Really? Did you like it?”
“Couldn’t you tell?” She smiled lazily.
“Well, that was fun, Damian, but we have some business to do. Go and bring your
paperwork out here, and your laptop.” She took a long drink from the tall glass
on the patio table. When I stood up, she lay back on the lounge chair, looking
dreamy. “And bring another pitcher of iced tea.”
I stepped over our discarded clothing a
little unsteadily to fetch my briefcase from the kitchen.
We set up on the patio table: laptop
computer, my notes and records, the bank deposit book and chequebook. We were
still naked, sipping iced tea under the hot sun. Alexis explained some points
about banking, but none of them went into my brain.
“If all you can do is stare at my tits,
Damian, I’m not going to bother helping you with business.”
“Sorry.” I raised my eyes to hers.
Mistake. All I could do then was to look
into those brown beauties.
“All right, Damian, that’s enough,” Alexis
said. She pulled on a little beach cover-up, a sort of colorful jacket. But it
was see-through, and she didn’t bother tying the belt, so while I made sure my
eyes were pointed at her face, I could still see her nipples.
Her big, round, brown nipples.
I managed to concentrate on learning how to
use the simple accounting software. Under Alexis’ supervision, I entered the
deposit cheques and recorded my own withdrawals — Alexis called them
“drawings.” I was getting used to the business jargon.
“Now, then,” she said when I was done. She
patted my arm and sat back in her chair. The cover-up parted. I tried very hard
not to look at her breasts, her nipples, her flat stomach, her soft navel, the
thick black hair at the top of her thighs.
“Up here, Damian. We have to discuss our
relationship.”
“Sorry.”
“I’m happy to help you, to give you advice,
but when it comes to business, well, Damian, to be kind, it’s not your strong
suit. Don’t get me wrong, I know you’re working hard. And you’re smart. You can
do it all, but you’re going to need guidance to handle marketing, promotion and
human resources.”
“That was all supposed to be Nick’s
responsibility.”
“He was supposed to be the executive and you
were supposed to do all the work? Did you not think he was taking advantage of
you?” She shook her head. “Damian, you have to learn to take charge. How many
clients do you have now?”
“Ten.”
“And how long does it take you to clean a
pool completely?”
“About an hour.”
“Plus transfer time and so on. In other
words, right now, you’re handling all the work you possibly can. So if you want
to make more money, you’re going to have to hire some help.” She drank some
iced tea. I loved watching her throat move as she swallowed. My eyes followed
the iced tea down ...
“Damian, I want to get an even tan. Look up
here.”
I forced myself to say “You wanted to talk
about our relationship”?”
Alexis laughed. I loved that laugh. “Our business relationship. Now, your friend
Nick is the founder and titular head of the company, right?”
“Right.”
“But for the summer, until he gets back, you
have full rights and retain all the revenues, correct? Good. So, you can pay me
to be your business advisor. I’ve gotten you all of your clients so far, and
I’ll advise you on more promotion and advertising. You’ll have to hire some
employees, and I’ll help you make sure you bring in the right kind of people.
In return, I get five percent of your revenues, plus you keep my pool in
tip-top shape. Deal?”
“I guess so.”
“It’s a great deal for you. I don’t usually
work that cheap. Even when I’m fucking my business partner. In fact, I’ve never
worked this cheaply.”
“Then why are you?”
“Because I like you. And it’s as much as you
can afford.” She looked at her watch, which was lying on the table. “Now, look
at the time. Pull on some work clothes. You’ve got to get to Mr. Feldstein’s
pool in fifteen minutes. Go on, do a good job, and then you can come back and
fuck me some more.”
She stood and walked into the house. Her
cover-up parted and blew back as she walked, and I got one more look at her
naked body before she closed the door.
After I was done on
Mr. Feldstein’s pool, I was surprised to see him, the shortest, fattest little
old man I had ever seen, bring me a glass of water and, believe it or not, a
bunch of candies. “You’re doing a great job. Much better than the last outfit I
had in here,” he said as he pushed thick glasses up his nose and then wiped
sweat that was soaking his bushy eyebrows. “You take care, now. It’s darned hot
this summer!”
Next was the LeBlanc house, just down the
street from Mr. Feldstein’s. He had recommended me to the LeBlanc’s. Their pool
was small for Rosedale, and didn’t take long to clean. They weren’t home, so
there were no treats. On the other hand, I didn’t have to hang around talking
to them, losing time. One more pool to clean, I thought, to the end of the day.
I was hot, tired, and completely sweaty. And
I did not want to get near another pool for a long time.
But I could not stop thinking about Alexis’
promise. It had been a few hours since we had been together ... since we had fucked ... trapped under my shorts, my
penis stretched out, hot along my thigh.
The sun shone into my eyes as I turned onto
Alexis’ street. I parked at the curb in front of her house and ran up the
steps. “It’s me,” I growled into the speaker-box at the front door, and pushed
the door as soon as I heard the lock click.
Alexis was coming down the curving
staircase. She looked surprised: her hair was tied up behind her head, exposing
her long neck. She wore a pink t-shirt and very short pants, like gym pants.
She was barefoot. “Damian! I didn’t expect you so soon! Would you like
something to eat?”
I caught her on the third step. I pulled her
close, feeling her breasts squish against my chest. The skin on her neck was so
soft under my fingers. I kissed her hard, surprised at my own urgency. My
fingers found their own way down her back. She was standing one step higher
than I, so I stroked the backs of her bare thighs. The skin there was so soft,
so smooth.
“Oh, Damian!” she sighed, so I stepped up
to the same level as her and kissed her again. I pressed her against the wall
and pushed my tongue into her mouth. She moaned.
I had to have her.
Bio:
Scott Bury is a
journalist, editor and novelist based in Ottawa, Canada. His articles have
appeared in magazines in Canada, the US, the UK and Australia, including
Macworld, the Financial Post, Applied Arts, the Globe and Mail and Graphic Arts
Monthly.
His first published
novel is The
Bones of the Earth, a fantasy set in the
real time and place of eastern Europe of the sixth century. He has also
published a short story, Sam,
the Strawb Part (proceeds of which are
donated to an autism charity), and a paranormal story, Dark
Clouds. His work in progress
is tentatively titled Walking from the Soviet Union, and tells the true
story of a Canadian drafted into the Red Army during the Second World War, his
escape from a German POW camp and his journey home.
Scott Bury lives in
Ottawa with his lovely, supportive and long-suffering wife, two mighty sons and
the orangest cat in history.
He can be found online
at www.writtenword.ca, on his blog, Written Words [link: http://scottswrittenwords.blogspot.com/], on Twitter @ScottTheWriter, and on Facebook [link:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Scott-Bury-author/347727125260907/]
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