An Unfortunate Affair

Melanie had gone straight from work to her colleague Luke's place in the early evening the day after Brendan's documentary had first aired. She was blissfully unaware of what a hot commodity she had already become, or that her name was now on a list being circulated around the globe of women available to be claimed. Holly had been commanded not to talk to anyone about the documentary unless Brendan was there to ensure she didn't say the wrong thing. If Melanie had known about it, she probably would have told her long term partner Mike and accepted him as her master right away, as far from ideal as that would have been for her. Instead, she found herself in the home of a handsome but married acquaintance, sipping coffee like everything was still fine.

She hadn't told her long term boyfriend where she was going, only that she was working late. That was the classic cover story for an affair of course, but Melanie actually was there quite innocently. She really did have a project she needed to work on with Luke and this was undeniably a nicer setting than their workplace. She also had no intention of starting anything with a married man, or of cheating on Mike at all, dissatisfied as she currently was with her relationship. She just knew how jealous he got and couldn't be bothered with the inevitable row the truth would have caused.

And honestly, she was kind of **** to spend as much time away from her partner as possible lately. So when Luke had unexpectedly invited her over to his place after work that morning, she had happily accepted. They had worked together for around a year now and always got on well with each other. Maybe they were not quite friends, they hadn't spent much time in each other's company outside of work until now, but they were certainly friendly. He was a charming and easy going guy who had several similar interests to Melanie and who she had always found funny and easy to talk to. If Luke had been female or unattractive Mark would have had no issue with this, so Melanie figured there was really no reason for her not to be here.

"Good call on taking things from the office to your place" Melanie commended Luke as he walked into the room holding his laptop "My back has had enough of those cheap fucking chairs they make us sit in all day and your coffee is actually drinkable. So, shall we make a start?"

"Sure, but before we get down to business, I just wanted to check something with you" Luke turned his laptop around so the screen was facing Melanie "Isn't that your cousin?"

"What the fuck!" Melanie exclaimed "What is Holly doing naked on the internet? Where did you find this?"

"She's starring in a documentary online. Something about a family curse?"

Melanie's eyes widened in panic as she very quickly did the math and realised why she had been invited over.

"Curse? What a load of bullshit!" she spoke quickly but not convincingly as she put down her coffee and got up to leave "Look, I'd better go and speak to Hols, let her know this is out there. I can't see how she would have agreed to it.."

"You know, I'm sure you're right and it is all bullshit" Luke smirked "So if I were to say something like Melanie Janus, I know about your curse and I claim you. That wouldn't work right?"

"No, it wouldn't" Melanie lied, her heart thumping against her chest.

"Right, so if I then said, Melanie have blue hair.....HOLY FUCK!"

"This is why you suddenly decided to bring me to your home isn't it?" Melanie asked in a tone that was a mixture of fear and anger "What do you want with me?"

"First of all Melanie, I want your hair to go back to normal. I like that look for you and I don't want anyone to know about us" Luke began calmly, almost smugly "And then Melanie, you are going to have an affair with me"