Levels

01 - Julia

"I'm literally in my car, hold onto your horses" I yelled into the phone sandwiched between my head and shoulder. 

"Ok you better be, or else you'll never make it past 2 days at this new job," my friend Amelie warned.

I searched frantically for an outfit that would make me look professional and presentable, only to find my skinny jeans and tank top from a night out, lying dejectedly on the floor. 

"Oh well," I though to myself, "At least I'll be wearing clothes." Little did I know how wrong I was. My four friends and I had somehow landed a job working as house cleaning assistants. We'd been searching for ages to find a job that all of us could do together and when Briana saw the ad in the newspaper, "Five housemaids wanted to clean an apartment in Auckland, high salary and reasonable hours" we knew we'd hit the jackpot. The rest of my friends were already waiting for me at a café close to the apartment block where we'd be starting work in..... 10 minutes!!! Oh shit, I'm gonna be late. I hung up on Amelie and raced out the door.

*20 minutes later*

We all stood at the apartment door, tittering nervously, daring each other to knock first and hoping our boss wouldn't realise we were 10 minutes late, all thanks to me. 

The door flew open and a husky voice called out, "Ah so you've finally arrived," 

Shit, I thought, no luck. His figure was just a silhouette against the drawn curtains, his voice seeming to come from the depths of the musky room. His apartment was huge but the lounge seemed dwarfed in comparison to the man I saw in front of me.

"Come in," the husky voice commanded.

We all cautiously entered the room, glancing nervously around us. Kayla was the first to speak,

"Where should we start cleaning," she asked, when he didn't reply she added a timid, "sir"

He spun around and we all involuntarily took a step back. He reached behind his back and pulled out a remote. I breathed a sigh of relief, this situation was getting more weird by the minute and I wouldn't have been surprised if he revealed a pair of furry handcuffs and a whip. He pressed the largest visible button and something in me tensed. We sprung back as the door began to close, locks sliding in place and making the only visible exits impenetrable. We were standing in a straight line and as this mysterious man circled us I felt weirdly drawn to him. He stopped in front of me and for the first time I could appreciate how well structured he was. His muscles showed through his tight black shirt and his smell was extremely attractive. The freshness of pine trees and a musky after smell alerted my senses. I felt a tingling sensation down there.

"wow," i thought to myself while trying to keep eye contact with his striking blue eyes, "I'm turned on enough just looking at him."

He smiled and looked away.

"Why aren't you dressed appropriately?" He gestured towards us and we glanced down self consciously, brushing invisible dirts for our pants before looking up confused.

"What do you mean, sir? There were no outfit requirements in the job ad." Elise asked tentatively, gesturing to her laid back jeans and tight racer top outfit she'd been rocking for two weeks.

"I thought you might say that," he smiled to himself like he knew something we didn't, but he wasn't ready to let us in on the secret. "I've prepared some outfits for you ladies to wear," his eyes slid over over us, scanning us. I felt strangely naked in his presence, as if he was mentally undressing me. I shiver involuntarily and instantly regretted it. All the attention was drawn to me and the tension in the room was thick like syrup. The mysterious man stared me down, trying to intimidate me, trying to make me feel small.

"Julia, can get changed first," he drawled in his seductive voice, gesturing to the door to the right of him. 

"Strange," I thought to myself, "I never remember telling him my name" iglanced around at the other girls, girls I knew so well, and knew i had to obey this man, for them. I looked back at him and gave him a short, sharp nod. I felt like I was doing business with the devil himself.

The man walked over and grabbed both my hands in one of his, pinning them to my back. With the other hand he pushed in the small of my back, pressuring me forward. I had no idea what was happening but I knew this wasn't going to be an ordinary cleaning job.

- Julia