by Livia Grant
“But she’s only doing this to get even with me.”
“Maybe. I’m pretty sure she’s also doing it for the money.”
“Great. That makes me feel oh so much better.” His sarcasm was thick in the air. “I’m telling you, she’s an innocent. She’s not ready for this.”
“I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings here, but I asked her point blank if she was a virgin and she assured me she was not. She used enough detail during my questioning to satisfy my curiosity that she has not only performed oral and vaginal sex acts, but anal as well.”
It was a kick to his gut. No, to his nuts. Straight to his balls. He couldn’t breathe.
“Listen, it’s Monday night. You need to go to your room and take the night off.”
“No. I’m not going to hide from this. I need to head out there. She won’t go through with it if she has to walk past me to take a customer upstairs.”
John patted him on his back. “I’ve been in your shoes, man. Trust me when I tell you it’s best to go to your room. It’s gonna be like a kick to your nuts to have to watch her go upstairs.”
Considering he’d just used the same analogy, Charlie knew John might understand after all.
“Do you hide in your room?”
“No, I hide out at the claim. Makes it harder to do something stupid like you’re fixing to do, my friend.”
They were interrupted by a pounding on the door. It was Ruby shouting.
“Gabe! John! Charlie! Come quick. We have a brawl starting!”
The men took off running, out of the office, down the hall and into the main floor of the saloon. It was Charlie’s worst nightmare. Two boisterous men each had one of Emelie’s arms. They were pulling on her as if she were the prize in a game of tug-o-war.
“I saw her first. She’s mine!” the older miner with a grizzly beard shouted.
“No way. I’ve been coming every night to listen to her sing, hoping she’d change her mind and trade the pink for red. I saw her first!” Charlie recognized the younger man as one of their most frequent customers. He was the son of a prominent businessman from the next town over.
Gabe and John each rushed to pull the two men away from the gem while Charlie rushed to Emelie. He pulled her into his arms. He could feel her shaking like a leaf ready to fall off a tree in the autumn. “Shhh, Em. I’ve got you now.”
For a few long seconds, he thought they’d be able to put this whole night behind them, but then she put her palms on his chest and pushed with all her might, forcing him back so hard he lost his balance. The fire in her glare singed him.
God, he’d hurt her so bad.
The young customer shouted while Gabe held him back. “Fifty dollars! I’ll pay fifty dollars!”
The older miner raised the offer, “Sixty dollars!”
“Seventy!” the young businessman countered.
Charlie stopped them all in their tracks. “One thousand dollars!”
Emelie’s eye widened. She’d yet to say a word. The old miner groused. “Hey, he works here. He can’t cut into our bidding. He can fuck her any time he wants.”
Charlie turned, his fist pounding into the man’s jaw before he even stopped to think through the repercussions. Pain shot into his piano-playing hand, making his fingers feel the same ache as his trampled heart.
Gabe released the businessman and stepped between Charlie and the miner. He saw it in his friend’s eyes. This night was not going to end the way he wanted it to. No matter how much he wanted to throw Emelie over his shoulder and walk out the front door with her, it wasn’t to be.
He felt tears pricking at the thought of losing her. Exactly when it had happened, he wasn’t sure, but it was that moment he knew he’d fallen in love.
He may not be able to stop what was threatening to happen, but he’d be damned if she’d go through with it without hearing the truth from his own mouth.
He held up his hands as if to surrender. “Fine. I’ll back down, but only after I say my piece.” He took a step closer to Emelie, wanting to hold her hands, but she took a corresponding step back. The pain he saw tore at him.
“I want to say how sorry I am. I should have told you. I give you two promises, Em. First, you have to know the other gems are all only friends. Looking back, I can see how what we did together would look to you—how it hurts you and I’m so sorry for that, but more importantly, I have to tell you that I’ve fallen in love with you. I’ve never been in love before and I sure am making a mess of it. Please, I’m begging you. Don’t do this.”
She looked away, tears in her eyes. The room was quiet as every person waited for her answer to his humiliating groveling. He held his breath until he got light headed and still she was silent.
He’d started to hope when she stepped forward and hooked her arm into the crook of the businessman’s arm. “My name is Silver. How would you like to join me upstairs?”
The young man looked back and forth between Charlie and Emelie, half expecting Charlie to punch him, too. The thirty seconds that passed were some of the longest of his life.
In the end he had to stand there, grounded to the spot as he watched the woman he loved climb the stairs to her new bedroom where she was about to be paid to have sex with someone who wasn’t him.
He’d watched the other gems make that same trek thousands of times and not once had he given it a second thought. He’d listened to Sapphire’s headboard banging as she was ridden by a man and he’d smiled. He’d laughed as Onyx cried out when she orgasmed.
He couldn’t do this. He couldn’t listen for the sounds wafting down the stairs and wonder if it were the woman he loved making a faceless customer happy.
He was half way to the swinging doors of the saloon when he heard the door slam above him. Something made him stop in his tracks. Part of him wanted to run out the door, never to come back, but some sick narcissism kept him glued to the spot. How sick was it that he couldn’t leave her there? What if she needed him?
John patted him on the back. “If you won’t hide in your room, at least come join me at the bar. We can get toasted together.”
Charlie let himself be led there. Gabe had gone around the bar and was reaching for a bottle of their best whisky they kept on a high shelf because most customers didn’t want to waste their money on the best whiskey when they could spend it on gems.
The three friends sat silent in thought as Gabe poured three shots. All three silently lifted the glass to their lips to down the amber liquid.
Charlie slammed the glass to the bar. “Another.”
It felt like swallowing fire and yet still it didn’t hurt as much as thinking of what was happening upstairs.
Gabe tried to make him feel better. “Like Jewel said, maybe she just has to work it out of her system.”
Charlie shot him a look that could kill a lesser man. “I don’t remember you ever having to watch Jewel make that trip upstairs dressed in red petticoats and accompanied by a horny escort. Until you do, I suggest you keep your advice to yourself.”
Gabe mumbled something in Spanish under his breath that sounded suspiciously like many of the curse words Charlie had learned from his friend.
John reached for the bottle and poured them all three another shot, lifting his in a toast. “To women. Can’t live without them. Can’t control them worth a shit.”
Gabe countered, “Speak for yourself. I have my woman under control just fine.”
Jewel came up behind him as he downed his drink, reaching out and swatting his ass playfully. In his surprise, Gabe started sputtering and choking on the shot and for the briefest of seconds Charlie almost smiled.
Because the crowd was light and he wasn’t playing piano, the sound of the alarm blaring in the kitchen reached their ears. They all were frozen for the briefest of moments, all springing into action simultaneously, rushing for the stairs as Nettie came running out with her batter-covered wooden spoon waving.
“One of our girls is in trouble! Hightail it up
there!”
No one had to guess who it was. Charlie had no idea which room Jewel had put Emelie into. He let Gabe and Jewel lead, following them to the end of the hall to the left, noting they’d made sure to keep her room as far as possible away from his end of the building.
Charlie was only seconds behind Gabe as they burst into the room to find a frightened Emelie standing on top of the bed, the lamp in her hand held high over her head like a weapon.
Gabe ran to the young shirtless businessman, slamming him face first against the far wall of the room, yanking his right arm behind his back to render him immobile. Meanwhile Jewel ran to Emelie, talking softly, trying to calm her down.
“You can put the lamp down now, Silver. No one is going to hurt you.”
The terror on Emelie’s face as she looked around the room, taking stock of any danger, killed him. He never wanted to see her afraid like that again. It hurt to know that he couldn’t even be the one to comfort her.
Jewel helped her step down to the floor, putting the lamp back on the bed stand. The smell of spilled kerosene filled the room.
Behind him, Gabe was interrogating the customer. “What the hell did you do to hurt her?”
“Nothing! I swear it. I barely touched her. I took my shirt off and unbuttoned my pants to show her my Johnson is all. I decided to move the lamp from across the room closer so I could get a better look at her.”
“What next?” Gabe prodded him.
“I don’t know. I guess then I told her to undress because I wanted to feel her under me naked.”
Emelie groaned at his words, burying her face in Jewel’s chest, starting to cry. God, how he wanted to comfort her.
“Did you hit her?” Gabe pressed.
“Hit her? Hell no! I’m paying seventy dollars for her. Why would I want to hit her?”
“Did you rape her?”
“Are you listening? I barely got my dick out of my pants. She never even took a stitch of her clothes off. Look at her. She’s crazy! She just started screaming and then you all barged in. I thought maybe she liked to play hard to get or something, but seeing as she’s a whore that seems a bit silly.”
John stepped up to keep Charlie from rushing the asshole.
Jewel took charge. “John, if you’d be so kind, please escort this gentleman downstairs and refund him his money from the bar till. Then escort him out and remind him to mind his manners. We employ gems here, not whores. When he remembers that, he is welcome to return.”
John moved to do as Jewel asked, letting the businessman at least stop to tuck in his flaccid cock before leaving and closing the door behind them.
The four remaining people in the room stood in silence looking at each other. He was surprised at the anger he saw in Jewel’s face, especially when she directed that anger at Emelie.
“You lied to me. You looked me in the eye and told me a bald faced lie less than two hours ago.” When Emelie opened her mouth as if to explain, Jewel held her hand up, “Stop. Don’t waste your breath. I’ve been at this a long time, young lady. I admit, you had me fooled.”
Guilty tears burned a trek down Emelie’s face. Charlie itched to hold her, but he stood grounded.
It was Gabe who answered the question he had running through his head. “So she’s a virgin after all.”
Emelie broke her silence. “I’m so sorry. I thought I could do it. I never expected to not be able to go through with it. It’s just when he picked up the lamp and he came at me with his… thing… out of his pants, it reminded me of another time when—well—I couldn’t do it.”
Jewel didn’t let it drop. “Maybe that is part of it, but you did lie to me, didn’t you, young lady?”
Emelie looked down at her hands wringing together. “Yes, ma’am. I’m so sorry.”
“You haven’t seen sorry, little girl. No one lies to Jewel. You’re about to find out why.” Gabe pulled his belt from his pants and Charlie saw the fear in Emelie’s eyes explode.
Charlie rushed forward, pushing Gabe back away from her. “You know the belt scares the shit out of her. Back off.”
“She should’ve thought of that before she chose to lie. There is no way she’s leaving this room without a scorched bottom.”
If Emelie thought she’d gather support from Jewel, she was wrong. “I couldn’t agree more. Your behavior tonight was unacceptable. I understand you are angry at Charlie, but in your effort to hurt him, you’ve lied to us and possibly lost us customers who think we’re running a circus instead of a brothel.”
“Yes, ma’am. But please, not the belt.”
“Yes, the belt, but…” Jewel looked back at Charlie in that moment. “It won’t be Gabe’s belt. It will be Charlie’s.” She smiled then. “You need to discipline your woman, Mr. Walker. Do you think you can handle that?”
Emelie tried to protest. “That’s not fair! I never agreed to be his woman.”
Jewel turned back to her. “Fine. One way or another, you’ve earned a blistering tonight. Your only choice in the matter is if it will be Gabe or Charlie delivering it.”
Emelie’s eye grew wide as she looked between the occupants of the room. Charlie’s heart pounded in his chest, suspecting his entire future’s happiness hinged on her answer.
After an awkward minute passed, Jewel prompted Emelie one last time. “I need your decision or I’ll do the deciding for you.”
Emelie’s gaze met his. He saw fear there, but there was more. The same desperate longing he was sure he mirrored to her. He spoke only one word as his final plea. “Em…”
Her shoulders slumped as if defeated. “Charlie.”
Jewel smiled then. “That was your first wise choice of the evening. One final comment before Gabe and I leave you two to it. I’ve known Charlie a long time. He’s worked for me since the very day I opened the Red Petticoat. He is not a perfect man because there isn’t such a thing; but he is a good man and he has never lied to me. What I’m trying to tell you is let him say his piece and then you should believe him. Can you do that?”
Charlie wanted to kiss Jewel, but he held his ground watching Emelie closely.
She looked into his eyes. “Yes, ma’am. I’ll try.”
“Come along, Gabe. These two have a few things to work out. I’m glad our room isn’t right underneath them. I have a feeling it’s gonna get a bit noisy in here.”
Chapter Ten
Emelie watched the door closing behind Jewel and Gabe with dread. The only thing worse than having to face Charlie after her humiliating performance tonight would have been having to face Gabe’s belt.
Not one damn thing had gone right today. From her trip to meet the sheriff only to see the poster of the man she’d killed, to finding out the man presently glaring at her from across the room had had sex with pretty much every woman in the building. Those were bad enough. To now face a humiliating punishment because of her stupid lie was the worst.
Why couldn’t she have bit the bullet and let the customer have his way with her? Perhaps she should have taken a few stiff drinks at the bar before coming upstairs. Yes, that would have helped her relax. Maybe she’d try that the next time.
The next time. Who was she kidding? She wasn’t cut out for work in red petticoats.
She turned away, walking to the window to look out onto the short tin roof overhanging the front porch, wondering if she dared try to escape that way.
“Don’t even think about it,” Charlie deadpanned from right behind her.
She didn’t turn. She couldn’t bear to look at him. “How did you know?”
His hands brushed her bare arms, gently grasping her and pulling her back so that her back brushed his chest.
“I know you, Emelie.”
She snorted. “You may think you know me. You don’t know anything about me. Not really.”
“I know you only did this tonight to get even with me. And you know what, it worked. It damn near killed me to watch you walk up those steps.”
“I’d have thoug
ht you’d be used to it by now.”
“That’s just it. That’s how I know you’re different.”
“Oh, I’m different all right. I’m the only gem in the history of the Red Petticoat to scream when a customer touched her.” She hated herself in that moment. Why was she such a prude?
“Well, thank God for that.”
She couldn’t stand not looking at him. She needed to see his facial expressions. Emelie spun around to face Charlie. “Why are you here? Really?”
“Because there is nowhere else I’d rather be.”
“I was referring to me, but I’m sure you do love it here. It’s not every place a man can have built-in sex partners at his beck and call.”
“That’s enough. Don’t talk about subjects you know nothing about.”
“I know you took baths with every gem exactly like you did with me.”
“That’s not true. None of the baths with the others were like yours.”
“Ah, I see. You had real sex with them, not only… playing around.”
“Damnation, woman, you’re infuriating.” When she tried to talk next, Charlie held his fingers up to her lips, forcing her into a disgruntled silence. “That’s better.”
Charlie reached for her hand and led her to the bed. He sat, pulling her into his lap. She wiggled to be free until he swatted her bottom. “That’s enough. Sit still and listen.
“Now, let’s get a few things straight. Yes, I took baths with the gems. And yes, we’d fool around, but only with fingers and mouths. I have never, not even once, had intercourse with anyone in this house and we’ve never slept in the same bed.”
“Like I said. You’ve done exactly with me what you’ve done with everyone else.”
“No! Well, technically yes—but it didn’t feel the same—at least not to me. Before you came here it was only a physical release. We need it when we work around people having sex all the time. It’s that simple.”
She felt confused. This was why she’d refused to talk with him earlier that day. She’d hid in her room with her pillow over her head to drown out his pleading. He was wearing her down. “And it’s not simple with me?”