by Rhea Wilde
“I… I don’t know,” I said.
“Are you not up to it tonight?” Anthony said.
“No,” I said, unsure of what I was saying exactly. “I can’t do this.”
“This is an offer for one night only,” Anthony said. “We won’t offer you this chance again.”
I looked at the money on the table but even that ungodly sight couldn’t change the feeling I had in my stomach. I didn’t want to kiss Anthony or Alina. If I couldn’t do that, there was no way I would be able to go any further.
“It’s a million dollars, Angel. You’d be hard-pressed to see that much money again.”
He was right. It was stupid. Even the voices inside of my head were asking me what I was doing. But my body was having trouble doing something so simple.
“Kiss me, Angel.”
Anthony repeated his command to me and with it, the offer of all of the money on the table. But I couldn’t deny what I was feeling inside and against my better judgment, I shook my head and sighed.
“No. I can’t.”
I looked at Anthony as he took a few steps away from me.
“It’s no secret you had a physical relationship with Thomas,” he said. “But now you seem unwilling to continue with me.”
“It’s… him. I’d just like to see him again. I need to speak to him and… I just need to talk to him. Is there any way I could get in contact with him.”
There was a strange look on Anthony’s face. His lips were curved into half of a smile as he stared at me. Alina made her way back to the bar where she poured another drink.
“He’s in his suite at the moment,” Anthony said. “I’m sure you know how to find it.”
“Thank you.”
I turned around and quickly made my way toward the exit.
“Angel,” Anthony stopped me. “Are you really going to just walk away from the money?”
I looked at it one last time. It was a million dollars. Even just saying it in my head sounded ridiculous.
“I don’t know what I’m doing, Anthony. I just can’t be here. I know how stupid it sounds but—”
“Just go, Angel,” Alina interrupted me.
For some reason, she wasn’t upset. And neither was Anthony. In fact, both of them had smiles on their faces as she told me to leave. They were practically kicking me out of their suite. Maybe they understood what I was thinking. Whatever the reasons, it didn’t matter. I just knew that I had to see Thomas again. When I stepped into the elevator, I suddenly became more nervous than I had ever been on a trip to the top floor.
Chapter 21
I didn’t know what I was going to say to him. I just knew that I had to speak to him. There wasn’t any eloquent way to put it. But I couldn’t worry about that right now. The first thing I had to do was make sure that Thomas would even want to speak to me.
I wasn’t used to having to knock after having a key to the suite. As if someone had been waiting for me, the door opened as soon as I rang the bell.
Thomas was standing at the entrance in a platinum suit that made him look as perfect as he always did. There was an air about him that I didn’t notice after all of this time. Now he wasn’t my boss. He was just a man that I had fallen for.
“Angel. It’s… good to see you. Is there something I can help you with?”
“May I come in? I’d like to speak to you.”
“Of course.”
I followed Thomas into the suite, more nervous than I had ever been from just being near him.
“I wasn’t interrupting anything was I?” I asked him.
“I would hope not. The only thing that occupies my time is my work and I’m not about to bring it back to the place I spend my leisure time.”
He smiled at me as he made his way over to the large window wall of his suite. He turned his back to me, looking out into the city.
“What is it you wanted to speak to me about?” he asked. “Did I short you on your last payment?”
“No… I got every dollar you promised. That’s not what this is about.”
Thomas remained silent as he continued to stare out of the window.
“I just… I wanted to tell you something.”
I laughed nervously, trying to find the words to say even though I knew there was no best way to put it. I never imagined I would be dealing with feelings like this before. They were something I didn’t have any need for. They complicated things and blinded me from the entire point of all this. And they just made me walk away from a million dollars.
“Thomas.”
He turned around slowly after I said his name.
“I… I-I have feelings for you,” I said. “I’m falling for you.”
I scoffed as I said the words. They sounded so ridiculous as they came out of my mouth. But I felt a bit of relief as I finally told him the truth.
He walked toward me but was still a good distance from me. It was dark in his suite and I could barely make out his face. I tried to read his expression, desperate for any type of response.
“I also have something to tell you,” he said. “I haven’t been completely honest with you.”
He piqued my curiosity. I raised an eyebrow, hopeful that he would tell me what I wanted to hear but nervous that he would reject me.
“Anthony knows who you are,” he said. “Or, he knows what you are, I should say.”
“What?”
“He knows that I found you walking on the street. He knows that you’re a…”
“W-what does that matter?” I said, I said as I shook my head in confusion.
“I put him up to it. I told him to offer you the money.”
I didn’t understand what I was hearing. It didn’t make any sense.
“Why would you do that?”
Thomas sighed as he turned his attention back to the window, looking out into the city.
“Do you remember the night I first met you? It was after a dinner party. One of the lovely dinner parties you attended with me. I spent most of the evening by myself, occasionally discussing business with the men you had the misfortune of dancing with. That night, I realized something. I was heartbroken after…”
“Gabrielle.”
“Yes. After she left me. I was alone. I was even a little bit desperate. That’s when I saw you. I took out my frustrations on you. I figured you would be open to it since it was your job.”
“That doesn’t explain why you told Anthony what I was.”
“Right,” he said as he turned back around to me. “I was just getting to that…”
He took a few steps closer to me as I stood there and waited for some type of explanation.
“Something happened,” he said. “I was attracted to you initially. It’s happened with other women before. But you were different. So many women just want my money. So did you. But you were honest about it. A thought came across my mind as I spent more time with you. I wanted to see if there was something more to it than that. So I stopped taking advantage of you in the way that you were used to. I wanted to see if there was any chance for something more. So I told Anthony to offer you the money.”
“You wanted to see if I would pick you over the money.”
“Just as I picked you over your body.”
I didn’t know what to think. It sounded like some elaborate hoax. Thomas was manipulating me to fall for him and when I realized it, I felt a sickness building up in my stomach.
“So that’s what this was?” I said. “It was all some lie to get me to fall for you? That’s what those dance lessons were for. That’s why you stopped sleeping with me. That’s why you let me have whatever I wanted and didn’t get in my way. You tricked me.”
“This isn’t the first time this has happened.”
“What?”
“Do you remember when I told you that it was hard to experience any pleasure when you have as much money as I do? It’s because any woman I’m with is just trying to get their hands on it. And when they realize how much effort it ta
kes me to really fall for them, they give up. They run away and find someone who’s more willing to throw their money around. How do you think Anthony met Alina? She moved on from me.”
“Gabrielle.”
“Gabrielle is on some Caribbean island with some millionaire at the moment. I don’t know the specifics. Believe me, Angel, I could spend the entire night telling you about all of the women who tried to dig their way into my pockets.”
“You made me sign a contract. You made me keep this a secret.”
“Only because I didn’t want anybody to tell you about all of the other women who realized that I wasn’t going to let them put their hands on my money. I didn’t want them to influence you.”
“Yes. Only you were allowed to do that.”
Thomas looked taken aback after I said what I did. I felt violated. I felt used. I was part of some game. Even though men used me, it had never been like this. Now I didn’t know what to think.
“I don’t know what to say, Thomas.”
“You already said it. You said you have feelings for me.”
“But I didn’t know I was being manipulated.”
“Angel…”
He rushed closer to me and took my hands in his.
“I wasn’t manipulating you,” he said. “I just had to know if there was something more between us. I was desperate.”
“Why couldn’t you just tell me?”
“There was no other way.”
The feelings I had for him were some jumbled mess swirling around in my stomach. I shook my head, unsure of how to react. When I looked up at him, I no longer knew who I was looking at.
“Angel, your feelings. They’re real. Please—”
“No… I can’t do this.”
“Angel, please don’t…”
I pulled my hands away from him and turned my back to him. I started to make my way out of the suite, still unable to believe everything he had just told me.
“Angel,” he called out to me. “Please don’t go. I… I love you.”
I stopped in my tracks and turned around. Thomas was standing there. After all of the time I had spent with him, I had never seen him like this before. He looked almost helpless as he stood there, waiting for me.
“No,” I said to him, my emotions finally boiling over. “You used me! You manipulated me. You’re just like every other man I’ve ever met. All of it. All of this… It was just some scheme to get me to fall in love with you.”
“Angel—”
“No. I don’t want you. I don’t want any more of your money. I just want to go back to the way things were.”
He moved closer to me and I put my hands up to stop him.
“I don’t belong here.”
I turned my back, half-hoping that Thomas would stop me, but he didn’t. As I exited his suite, I could feel his eyes upon me. The silence indicated that he hadn’t moved from the spot he was standing. Conflicted, I ran into the elevator so that I could be alone with my thoughts. When I did, finally the emotion came pouring from my eyes.
Chapter 22
“It was my pleasure.”
I kissed Jonathan upon the cheek as he disappeared into the bathroom. I made my way out of his room as quickly as I could and head back out onto the streets in search of another client.
It had been several weeks since I’d left Thomas alone in his suite that night. Even though I had enough money to live comfortably, I knew that it was just a matter of time before I would eventually have to get back to work. And there was no time better than the present.
It didn’t take long to get accustomed to the slums I had spent so many years in. My outfit was something new I had picked up at the thrift shop. My hair was pinned-down and a short blonde wig covered my head. With my arms and legs bare and the skirt of my dress barely covering up the prize I had just sold to a man named Jonathan, I made my way up and down the streets.
My audience tonight was nothing out of the ordinary. They were the same junkies, dealers and hookers that made this part of the city what it was. Police sirens sang a chorus to remind people exactly what they were dealing with. Even the cold night air seemed uninviting, forcing me to wrap my arms around myself for some temporary relief.
I saw something familiar in the distance up the street but paid no attention to it. It was headed in my direction but I continued to try and ignore it. But it was impossible to ignore a stretch limo when it pulled into this part of the city. As I made my way up the sidewalk, I felt as if the limo was slowly coming to a crawl near me. Suddenly, it stopped right next to me and the window came down.
“Angel.”
I noticed Anthony sitting inside of the limo, a smile on his face even though I didn’t feel the same way.
“What do you want?” I asked him.
“I’d just like to speak to you, that’s all.”
“Sorry, I only sell sex,” I said, not caring if any police officers heard me offering.
“Please, Angel. This is about Thomas.”
“Thomas is fine.”
“No, he isn’t.”
Despite every attempt to deny him, I knew I still had feelings for Thomas. But he deceived me to the point that I wasn’t sure if my feelings for him were even real.
“Please, Angel. I need your help.”
Anthony looked desperate. He opened the door of the limo and reluctantly, I got inside to listen to what he had to say.
“He hasn’t been the same without you.”
“Yeah, I’ll bet. How much did he pay you to say that?”
“Everything.”
“What?”
Anthony stared at me with a seriousness that couldn’t be faked.
“Angel, Thomas doesn’t actually have very many liquid assets,” he explained. “His money comes from the company itself fronting him the net worth of the company’s value. His company is worth billions.”
“So he’s selling you his company and walking away with the money.”
“Well, you see, that’s just it. He’s not selling it to me. He’s giving it to me.”
“What?”
“Angel, he’s going over the paperwork right now. He’s pretty serious about signing the company over to me.”
“He’s going to throw away his company? Just like that?”
“There’s nothing I can say to him. That’s why I need your help.”
I sighed reluctantly, knowing what Anthony was asking of me. I was more than suspicious about what he was telling me but as the limo headed back to Thomas’s penthouse suite, I would find out for myself.
Anthony pulled me through the hotel urgently. It was hard to keep up with him in my heels and by the time we made it up to Thomas’s suite, I was reminded of the last time my feet hurt this much after my first lesson with Marcus.
Anthony shoved the door to Thomas’s suite open. There I saw him standing over a table next to the window. A flood of emotions washed over me. It had been such a long time and just seeing him reminded me of the feelings that I still had for him, despite my objections.
He looked up from the table as we entered the room.
“What is she doing here?” he said.
“I just wanted you to make sure you knew what you were doing,” Anthony said. “I don’t want you to have any second thoughts about this.”
“So what is she doing here?” he repeated.
“She’s just here to make sure that you don’t make the wrong decision.”
Anthony looked at me, as if ushering me to talk to him but I didn’t know what to say. I turned to Thomas, who was looking at me and waiting for me to say something.
“Um, I’ll give you two a moment,” Anthony said.
Before I could stop him from leaving the room, he quickly made his way out of the suite and once again, I was left alone with Thomas. It was an experience that was now foreign to me.
“Anthony says that you’re signing your company over to him.”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“Is this
another one of your elaborate schemes to get me to talk to you and make me fall for you? Well, it’s not going to work.”
“I don’t care what you think, Angel. I’m not doing this for you.”
“Then why are you doing it?”
Thomas stared at me. I watched his throat shift as he swallowed, the emeralds of his eyes boring a hole into me.
“With Anthony’s help, I built this company up from the ground. It became more successful than I could ever imagine. But they say success comes with a price. And you know what? They’re right. I sacrificed too much to get here. I lost friends. Real friends. Instead, they were replaced by phonies. Well-wishers who just wanted to be seen. Gold diggers.”
“Thomas, I’m not any different from them.”
“Tell me you don’t love me, Angel.”
Thomas knew I couldn’t say it because it wasn’t true. Still, he persisted to try and get me to say the answer that neither one of us wanted to hear.
“Tell me… you don’t love me. Tell me all you cared about was the money.”
“Don’t do this, Thomas. Don’t just throw it all away.”
“What does it matter if I can’t have the one thing I value more than anything?”
“Thomas, please. You’ve worked too hard to get where you are. Don’t throw it away. Not for me.”
I took a few steps closer to him. He raised the pen from the table and when I looked down, I saw a stack of papers awaiting his signature. When I turned my head back up, I could see the tears beginning to well in his eyes.
“All I want is you,” he whispered. “I don’t care about anything else. And this is the only way I can prove it to you.”
He pressed the pen against the paper and started to scribble his signature. But before he could go any further, I shouted to try and stop him.
“Sabrina!”
Thomas stopped. He raised the pen up from the paper and slowly turned his head to me. I could feel the tears forming at the corners of my eyes as he stared at me.
“Sabrina. My name is Sabrina Kerr. I grew up in a small town in Montana.”
I let out a short laugh as I told Thomas the truth.
“I… I’m a college dropout. I don’t know where my parents are. I don’t know where any of my family is, honestly. I can only hope that they’re back home. I don’t know how I ended up out here. I’m just trying to make ends meet. I don’t have anything to offer. I have no skills. I have no talent. I don’t know how to do anything. All I have is my body. I have nothing else to offer. So that’s what I sell. I don’t know any better.”