“I’m glad to hear that.”
“So I guess this is when I should get a cab.” I bit my lower lip.
“Unless you just come home with me.”
“I’m not a prostitute.” I shook my head.
“I already told you—”
“I know, I know. You don’t expect sex.” I nodded. “It just feels off.”
“What feels off?”
“What are you expecting for fifty grand.” I shrugged. “I mean, it could be everything, but sex. It could even mean anal.” I shuddered.
“I think that anal is considered sex.” He laughed. “Unless you disagree with that.”
“I’ve never had it.” I made a face.
“You don’t know what you’re missing.” He grinned.
“A whole bunch of pain is all I’m missing.”
“Come back to my place tonight, finish the dance and tomorrow morning, I’ll tell you what I want for the fifty grand.”
“I don’t know.” I shook my head, though a little voice in my head was screaming at me. What do you have to lose, Evie? What’s a dance? Isn’t this the excitement you’ve always been craving?
“Just for one night.” He smiled. “You can leave in the morning. I can call Tyler and he’ll pick us up. You can trust me. And you can trust Tyler. We won’t let anything happen to you.”
“I don’t know.” I shook my head. “I don’t know you or Tyler from Adam.”
“Tyler is my driver and he’s an ex cop.”
“So?” I shook my head. “That means nothing to me. Tyler could be the ex-head of the CIA for all I know.”
“He was never in the CIA.” He shook his head.
“Why do you care so much if I come?”
“I just want to get to spend the night with you. I don’t care what we do. We can do as much as you want or as little as you want.”
“What will you be wearing when I dance?” I bit my lower lip. “I’m not doing a na**d lap dance.”
“We can wear what we’re wearing now, if that makes you more comfortable.”
“I just don’t understand why you want me to come.”
“I don’t understand many things. Doesn’t mean I don’t do them.”
“Okay.” I took a deep breath. “You can call Tyler. I’ll come over. One dance. And we can watch a movie or something. And then I leave.”
“That sounds like a plan.” He pulled out his phone. “You won’t regret it.”
***
“Why did I do this?” I muttered to myself as I stood in the bathroom in Grant’s bedroom. “Why did I agree to come with him?” I sighed as I pulled out my phone again. There was absolutely no signal in his house. I didn’t even really know where we were. Tyler had appeared ten seconds after Grant had pulled out his phone and I’d been ushered into the back of the limo before I even knew what was happening.
“You okay?” I heard a knocking on the door and I froze still.
“Yeah, coming.” I called back and flushed the empty toilet. What had I been thinking?
“Hey.” Grant nodded at me from the edge of the bed where he sat.
“Hey.” I nodded at him and fiddled with my glasses.
“You can take your glasses off.” He nodded at me as I walked towards him.
“I won’t be able to see if I take them off.” I shook my head.
“That seemed to help loosen you up in the club.”
“I don’t need to loosen up.”
“Okay.” He shrugged and lay back on the bed. “I’m ready whenever you are.”
“Ready for what?” I stood still as I looked around the room. It was less masculine than I thought it would be with the white bed sheet and cream walls. All the decorations seemed softer than I’d imagined someone like Grant Slate being into. His house was also huge. When we’d driven up the driveway I’d been shocked at how big it was. When Tyler had opened the door for us and then disappeared, I’d been scared. Now, I was unsure and just a little excited. Fear was an aphrodisiac I’d never known existed.
“My dance.” I watched as he loosened his tie.
“On the bed?”
“Do you have a problem with that?”
“It’s hard to dance on the bed.”
“I’m sure you’ll figure something out.”
“You have a nice house.”
“You didn’t come to talk about the house.”
“What do you want me to do for fifty grand?” I spat out and shivered as I walked towards the bed. Grant was lying there with the top two buttons of his shirt undone and a glossy look in his eyes.
“You can do whatever you want.”
“Whatever I want?” I stopped. “What if I don’t want to do anything?”
“Then you don’t have to.” He sat up slightly and waved me forward. “Is that what you want?”
“I don’t know.” I sighed, embarrassed that I was slightly turned on by him. I didn’t even know him. He was a stranger, yet, my body was craving his touch.
“Too many people worry about what a society that they don’t know will think of them before they do anything. Why are you arguing with your body? Why are you distrusting your base instincts?”
“You don’t know what my body is thinking.”
“I knew the moment you sat on my lap. I knew the second you agreed to come to my home.” He stepped off of the bed and walked towards me, his fingers deftly undoing the rest of the buttons on his shirt. “I knew the moment you popped out of the cake.”
“What did you know?”
“I knew that I wanted you.” He pulled his shirt off and dropped it on the ground. I stared at his chest in amazement. It was as perfectly sculpted as I’d expected it to be, but the scar running down the side of his chest surprised me.
“Where did you get that?” I pointed at the scar and he ignored me. Instead of answering me he turned away and walked to his closet. I watched as he pulled out a thick silver chain.
“What are you doing?” I gasped as he wrapped the chain around his chest and arm.
“I like the feeling of the metal against my skin. It reminds me of my strength.” He turned towards me as he pulled the metal along his body.
His muscles bulged with the strength of a hundred men as he gazed at me with soulless eyes. I swallowed as I stared at the thick steel chains slithering across his skin like a snake. There was something so sensual in the movement and I couldn't move my eyes away from his chest.