Title: Karma’s Bitch
Author:  Quania
Rating: Mature
Genre:  Comedy/Romance/Drama
Category: Original Fiction
Special Notes or Summary: No one could say that Rick Lawrence was a humble man. Even as a child he knew of his superior looks and had no problem telling his classmates of that fact. Now as a 28 year old man he makes a bet with his friend that he can bed famous model K. Jones. Too bad K. Jones is Karma Jones, an old classmate that he tormented. Now he finds himself as Karma’s Bitch.

Inside of a small motel room, two teenagers lay on top of a bed, kissing tenderly. The boy was blonde with bright blue eyes and a handsome face. The girl’s hair was black with soft curls that rested a few inches below her shoulders. The boy was completely nude while the girl still hand one piece of clothing on, her underwear. The stark contrast of their skin complexions was hidden by the darkness of the room. 

“I’m not so sure about this.” The girl said nervously. The boy looked down at her and smiled reassuringly.

“Don’t worry Karma. It’ll only hurt a little bit.” He promised. He began pulling off Karma’s bright pink underwear.  She sucked in a breath when her last stitch of clothing was removed. She was now completely bare to him, physically and emotionally. Karma licked her lips nervously before looking away from him, feeling guilty about what she was about to do.

The blonde boy grabbed her chin and gently turned it so they were face to face, staring at each other directly. He could see the fear and guilt written in her innocent doe eyes. “Don’t be nervous. You look absolutely beautiful.” He whispered before placing a soft kiss on full bow shaped lips.

“Really, Rick? You really think I’m beautiful?”

“Of course.” Rick smiled before easing her slender legs apart and putting himself in between them.

Karma’s heart began beating faster as it finally dawned to her what was about to happen. She felt a foreign hardness before a sharp pain as Rick entered her. She gasped before gripping him tightly, waiting for the pain to pass. She closed her eyes in an attempt to hide the tears that were threatening to fall.

Rick wiped some of the sweat that was starting to form on her forehead before kissing it and then the few tears that escaped. “Let me know when you are ready.” He whispered gently.  She nodded but kept her body clinched around him. Karma felt so embarrassed, while it was her first time engaging in anything like this, Rick Lawrence was well versed in the art of sex, at least that’s what the rumor was in school. She didn’t believe it though; they had been neighbors and friends for years before this night and she had never seen him with another girl. They had been dating for the past three months and Karma felt the need to give herself to him even though so many people she knew would oppose it.

“I’m ready.” She finally said after sometime. Rick nodded before kissing her neck and moving slowly within her.

=

“The profit for this month’s issue is thirty percent which would be good for most people but very bad for us Rick. Sales have been stagnant for the fourth month in a row. We have got to do something about this.” Neil said to his best friend and business partner, Rick Lawrence.

They were inside the conference room of Intrigue magazine trying to figure out a way to keep the company afloat. Neither Rick nor Neil wanted to see the company broken up by selling shares off to the highest bidder. Intrigue was their baby, they built it from scratch almost 8 years ago and it had already become one of the most read magazines in the world, originally Rick wrote the articles and Neil took the pictures. Today they had other people to do those things now but once in a while Rick and Neil would delve into their old hobbies. They now casted most of their concentration onto the financial aspect of the magazine, at least Neil did anyway.

Rick skimmed through the data sheets that Neil had printed out for him blankly before putting it down.

“What do you propose we do? I’m the face of the company, not the brains.” While it was true that wasn’t the brains of the company he did own 55% of it, which meant that everything had to go through him to be approved. Neil owned the other 45%.

“We’ll have to expand our demographic. White females between the ages of 18-39 aren’t cutting it. Vogue is killing us in sales.” Neil sat down in the chair across from Rick.

“I don’t know what to do. If we try to include the teenagers we loose the women in the 30’s and vice verse.”

“That’s why we should expand to woman of different ethnicities. We need to add stars prevalent outside of Hollywood.”

“What? Hollywood magazines are the most successful, not ethnically based magazines.”

“True.” Neil agreed. “But I’m not proposing that we abandon our Hollywood style. I want us to add more ethnic models and feature a bit more stars from different ethnic backgrounds, not a big change.” He explained.

Rick leaned back in his seat, staring at his best friend thoughtfully. He didn’t oppose the change completely, he just had some concerns. “What type of models and actress do you plan to have? I don’t want anyone that looks like they just came off the street. I want this magazine to maintain its elegance.”

“Of course, we will hold them to the same standards as the other models.”

“All right then. When do we make the change and how will we get the press out about it?”

Neil slid a folder towards Rick. Inside the folder contained dozens of photographs of potential models. All were of different ethnic backgrounds except for two. “I thought you said just a few? What is this?”

“These are the models that will appear in our January issue. I want to make January our ethnic edition as a way to introduce our change.  February will have the usual with a few ethnic models scattered around.” Rick nodded his head in understanding before leaning back into the chair thoughtfully. He looked over the models again before pointing out three that caught his eye.

They were in one shot together, all stunning beauties. The first one was of Indian decent; her eyes were a bright blue, a nice contrast to her dark skin. The second woman was African-American with honey colored skin and beautiful light brown eyes. Her hair was short with various shades of blonde. The last woman was the one that he considered to be the most beautiful and for some reason, extremely familiar. She was African-American with smoldering brown eyes and beautiful, curly, black hair. Her lips were bow shaped and full, very kissable. The naughty expression on her face was extremely inviting.

“Who is she?”

“That’s K. Jones, the most prominent member of the Trinity.”

“Trinity?”

“They succeeded the original Trinity after winning a contest. They are now the most booked ethnic models to date. All of them have booked editorials with us once before, except for K. Jones. For some reason she refuses to model for our magazine.”

Rick raised an eyebrow in interest. He was surprised that K. Jones was the only one not to work for them before, especially since he felt like he knew her somehow, possibly intimately. Her absence caught his attention as well. Why was she so adamant in her decision not to appear in Intrigue?  “Did she give a reason why?”

“No. She never returned our phone calls. I never expected to actually book her but it would be a boost for us. Rumors have been surfacing about her retiring from modeling. If we could get an—”

“Interview with her would definitely increase sales. She hasn’t spoken to anyone else about her impending retirement has she?” Rick asked Neil.

“She doesn’t do interview. Her private life is private.”

“Well this can’t possibly be considered private. She’s a public figure.” Rick stood quickly. He looked down at his watch and saw that it was almost time for his twelve o’clock appointment with Angelina Jolie. She was pregnant with Brad’s eighth kid and was giving Intrigue the exclusive interview.  “I want her on the cover so get her anyway you know how, okay?”

“There’s a party tonight that’s being held by Kimora Lee Simmons to celebrate her daughters’ entrance into fashion. The Trinity should be making and appearance there.” Neil stood as well. He could already see the stars in Rick’s eyes. Rick lived to party as did he, especially parties with the most beautiful women in the world all within reach. The only thing you had to do is play your cards right and having sex with one of them was almost a guarantee.

“Great.” Rick said. “Try to get the Simmons kids in the issue as well. They’ll bring in more teens.”

“Okay.” Neil said before gathering the photos before following his friend out of the conference room.

=

The sun woke Karma out of her sleep. She looked to her right were Rick had fallen asleep and discovered that he wasn’t there. Confused, she got out of bed and threw on her clothes.

“Rick!” She called out but didn’t get answer. She began to get nervous at the thought that he had left her already, that last night didn’t mean anything to him.  Her fears were quelled by the sound of laughter coming from just outside the motel room. It was Rick’s voice. She knew his laugh from anywhere. It was a deep laugh that always gave her goose bumps. It was shortly followed by a loud ‘what the hell.’ She opened the door, expecting to see Rick on his cell phone but instead saw him and a few friends huddled around something.

“Neil? What are you doing here? Rick, who are these guys and what are they doing here?”

Rick jumped in shock. His back had been facing the door so he hadn’t seen Karma come out. She had the same expression on her face as last night, confusion and anxiousness. He cleared his throat before passing the object that was in his hand over to Michael Carter, a senior at the school, as well as one of his close friends. “I called them to give us a ride back into town. My car’s busted, remember?”

“No.”

“Oh yea, it broke down when I came back from picking up some breakfast for you.”

“Oh.” Karma vaguely remembered seeing a bag on the table. “What’s that you had in your hand?”

“Nothing,” He said quickly. “Michael was just showing me some pictures that he took for the school news paper. It’s really… crappy.” Rick glared at Michael who only shrugged in return with a smirk on his face.

“I do my best. Do you want to see Karma?”

“No.” Rick said before she could open his mouth. He moved away from his friends to stand beside her. “We don’t have time for that. Your mom must be worried. We should get going.”

“Right.” Karma had completely forgotten about her mom but she doubted she would run into trouble. Her mother was a known drunk and was most likely passed out. She probably wouldn’t even know that Karma didn’t come home last night.

Rick kissed her on the forehead, which only got him laughs and gagging sounds from his friends. He ignored them before ushering her inside the motel room so they could finish getting their things together in private. He would have to talk to his friends about last night later.

=

Rick and Neil arrived at Kimora’s house, intent of securing the contents of January’s issue as well as getting laid by one of the models at the party. A lot of them already looked ready for some action, especially by the way they were staring at the duo. Rick didn’t know if it was from his dashing good looks or his charm but he knew that these women all wanted him and he was ready to give himself to them completely.

They walked over to the nearest table before giving the area a quick scan. Kimora and her daughters were doing their jobs as hostesses, mingling with the guest. Several people were on the dance floor but most were at the bar, getting drunk or sitting at a table getting drunk.

“Man, I haven’t had a model in a while.” Rick said as he watched a group of four models walk by. They were all gorgeous in their own right, coming in different shades. They looked familiar but it was too dark to tell who they were. One of them noticed him staring and gave him a sultry smile. He tipped his glass to her with a wink and she giggled happily before breaking off from her friends to join Rick and Neil at their table.

“Oh, I don’t think you’ll have a problem getting laid tonight. You seem to be attracting a lot of attention.” Neil said.

“Don’t I always?” Rick smiled and watched the tall woman clad in a short black cocktail dress make her way towards them. Her cinnamon brown hair blew in the imaginary wind and her smile was bright and engaging. The brilliant blue eyes and fair skin seemed to glow from within. She was gorgeous, definitely Rick’s type.

“Hi.” The model said as she slid into the booth next to Rick. “I’m Leslie.”

“Richard.” Rick grabbed her hand and placed a light kiss on it, eliciting another smile from Leslie.

Neil sat back, watching the eye sex that was passing between the two. He knew that it wouldn’t be long before they both went off together. Neil decided it was time to leave when Rick placed his arm around Leslie to pull her into a kiss. He excused himself, although it went unnoticed and headed in the direction that the model’s friends were headed. They were all seated at the bar, talking amongst themselves.

Out of all the beautiful women present, one of them had captured his attention. She went unnoticed by Rick but not by him. Not with her sweet chocolate complexion and big brown eyes. Her lips were painted with a light gloss that made them extremely kissable. Her thick, curly, hair fell about her shoulders lazily. The short black dress that she wore showed off her beautiful long legs. She would be his target tonight.

He walked up to the bar confidently before resting his elbows on the counter and called out to the bartender.

“I want a Chicago.” He looked down at his target’s drink and noticed that it was nearly empty as well as her girlfriends’.” and a refill for the ladies.”

“That’s ok.” His target said. She gave Neil a once over before looking away bored. “We’re not interested.” Neil eyes popped out a little. He wasn’t used to rejection, being the co-owner of one of the most viewed fashion magazines in the world and he definitely wasn’t used to being rejected by a model for the same reason. Neil let out a nervous laugh.

“Do you know who I am?”

“No.” One of her friends spoke up for her, an African-American woman with a lighter complexion, compared to her two friends, and short blonde hair. “Do you know who we are?”

“Actually, I did think you all looked familiar. Let me introduce myself. I’m Neil Harris, Co-Owner of Intrigue magazine.” Neil smirked as he heard the gasps from the girls, well all except the one he wanted to impress. His target became stoic, completely devoid of all emotions. She turned her body around on the bar stool engaging Neil with an intense stare.

“I thought you’d recognize me but I guess I was wrong.” She said.

Neil brought his eyebrows together in confusion. A small smile came on her face.

“My name is K. Jones. I thought I was pretty famous in the modeling industry by now but apparently I’m wrong.”

“Oh, Ms. Jones. I’m sorry I didn’t recognize you.” Neil apologized. He took a seat next her once the barstool became available. Here he was trying to impress her with his name but she blew him away with hers. “You look different today; I notice that you aren’t wearing as much make-up as you usually do.”

“Well, I hope that was a compliment, otherwise we’ll have to end this conversation now.”

“Yes, of course it was a compliment.” Neil mentally kicked himself. He was in the presence of a potential client who just happened to be one of the most beautiful woman in the world, with or without make-up and he managed to insult her within the first 2 minutes. He wasn’t a smooth talker like Rick. Woman’s attraction to Neil usually came from his wallet and that didn’t seem to be working with Ms. Jones. He cleared his throat and smiled when he noticed her friends looking at him expectantly. “Hello.”

“I’m Aamina Blythe.  It’s very nice to meet you.” The one that had spoken earlier leaned over friend to shake his hand vigorously. “That’s Indira Chavan,” Aamina pointed to the Indian woman next to her. “She doesn’t talk much.”

“I talk enough, Aamina.” Indira said.

“Yes. I know who you are, The Trinity. I was just talking to my business partner about how you succeeded the original three almost—”

“I’d rather you not. You know they say that age is not a model’s best friend.” K. Jones interrupted. Neil nodded his head in understanding. They had won the contest almost 10 years ago, which made them dinosaurs in the modeling world.

“I apologize again for not recognizing you sooner.”

“It’s not your fault; we don’t run in the same circles. Your magazine has never had any women of color on the magazine cover. In fact, I’m surprised you even know my name.”

“Besides, the lighting in here is really dark.” Aamina added while glaring at K. Jones who ignored her friend.

“We are actually planning to have an edition of Intrigue dedicated to ethnic models. I was hoping to have The Trinity grace the cover the cover of our January issue, as well as 10 page spread.”

“A 10 page spread!” Aamina shouted excitedly, smiling brightly. Neil laughed. He was really started to like her. She definitely gave him a morale boost. K. Jones was killing it with her nonchalant attitude. He felt like he was about to crash and burn.

“I’m not interested. You guys can do it, though.” K. added after seeing her friend’s shocked faces. “Intrigue magazine doesn’t suit me.”

“Ms. Jones. I implore you, please reconsider. The offer that we are making doesn’t come by everyday. We will pay each of you well over 100,000 dollars. If you agree to an interview, the price will be doubled.” K. Jones didn’t say anything, only turned away from him. Neil pulled out a business card from his left jacket pocket before handing it to her, she accepted it. K. Jones flipped the card around for a bit before. A small, slightly wicked smile came onto her face before she turned to him.

“I’ll agree to do this but I want something else in return, something other than money.”

=

Karma walked through the halls of Wilmington high school like it was any other day. Two days went by since she and Rick took their relationship to the next level and she never felt more secure in it. He had been the perfect boyfriend, caring and sweet. Their three month anniversary was a few days away and she couldn’t wait to see what he had gotten her.

She walked up to her locker but paused when she heard a few girls snickering. At first she thought they were laughing at her when she realized the school newspaper had came out.  They were most likely reading the joke of the week but Karma didn’t remember it ever being that funny. The girls laughed again before one of the looked at her with a knowing expression.

“Had fun this weekend Karma?”

“What?” The girl threw the paper at her before her and her friends left. “What a slut.”

Karma looked around and saw several other people staring at her, some with disappointment, and others with humor.  She flipped through the pages of the newspaper quickly before coming across what the girls had been commenting about. There was a picture, taking up half the page that showed her clinging to Rick on the bed, well clinging to some guy. Rick’s face was turned away from the camera but Karma’s could be seen clearly.

She balled up the news paper before running down the hall towards the nearest bathroom in the flurry of tears. Just when she was about to make it inside she saw Rick standing next to Neil and Michael, talking hurriedly.

“Rick!” She called. “What the hell is this? How could you do this to me?” Rick turned around. His face looked slightly red.

“I didn’t ha—”

“I thought we had something special.”

“Karma.” Rick looked away from her. He couldn’t look at her when she looked so heart broken. Karma turned her attention away from Rick and focused on Neil.

“How could you let him do this to me Neil? You were my friend first.”

“Karma it’s not—”

“I don’t know why you are acting surprised.” Michael interrupted.”You already knew about Rick’s reputation. The boy gets around and you were the only untapped girl that he hadn’t gotten to. Of course this was going to happen.”

“Michael, shut up.” Rick warned but he was ignored.

“Why else would he have not told anyone that you were dating?”

“He did it to protect me. He didn’t want my reputation to get ruined.” Karma said quietly, unconsciously backing away from the trio.

“Some fine job he did, you’re sixteen and have already been crowned the school slut. You were nothing to him, just a bitch that he got some from.”

“Michael!” Rick called again. “Shut up right now.”

Karma wanted to run away, she couldn’t face this right now. She couldn’t face the fact that Rick used her. She turned to run but stopped when she saw their principle, Ms. McLaren, standing before her.

“Ms. Jones, a word in my office.”

=

“So, did they agree to do the spread?” Rick asked when he and Neil entered the conference room with their lawyer. “We’re just discussing particulars, right?”

“Yea. She said that the money didn’t really concern her. She wants something else from us but I don’t know what.”

“Well, whatever it is, it shouldn’t be a problem. What could she possibly ask for that’s more demanding than money?” Rick sat back in the leather chair, content that nothing could go wrong, as long as she didn’t ask for something ridiculous like bringing someone back from the dead everything would be fine.

“I don’t know, Rick. She had a evil smirk on her face when she said it.” Neil sat down beside Rick and their lawyer sat beside him.

“What about the other two members of The Trinity?”  Rick ignored Neil’s worries.

“They jumped at the chance.”

“Everything will be just fine then, just fine.”

A soft knock at the door alerted the men to the presence of Sally, their short redhead assistant. She looked slightly flushed like she had seen something amazing. “Ms. Jones has arrived.” She said quickly before moving inside the room to let the K. Jones in and Rick immediately knew why Sally was excited. K. Jones was gorgeous. The low cut business suit that she wore hugged her body closely and showed off her best assets, her long lean legs and ample chest.  She walked with an air about her that screamed power. Rick knew that he would have fun with her.

-----------------------------------------------------------Ten Minutes Later-------------------------------------------------------

“I am not going to be someone’s maid just for an interview.” Rick stood from his chair angrily; appalled by what the woman was reducing him to. She beautiful, that was a given but she was crazy as hell if she thought that he would agree to do something like that.

“I don’t want you to be my maid, Mr. Lawrence. That would be too degrading for a man of you caliber. What I want from you is to cook, clean, do my laundry, run my errands and do whatever I say for a whole month in exchange you’ll be able to get the interview and more. You’ll have a front view seat into my personal life, a place where no member of the media has gone before. To put it simply Mr. Lawrence, for next month…” K. Jones smirked. “You will be my bitch.”