by Ashlee Price
“If you don’t do it now, you’ll be punished.”
Her eyes lit up, and I realized that it was going to be hard to punish someone who loved it so much. I was playing right into her hands, and that bothered me. It was not my intention at all. I was the one who was supposed to be in charge, but it was Mariah who was making all of the rules up as she went along.
“But I’ve been good, daddy.”
Her voice had changed, and she was leaning closer to me, whispering the coy words in my ear. The sound of her voice and the feel of her breath on my neck made me shiver. Yes, I liked my new title and the way she used it.
“Fuck, Mariah, do you know what that does to me?”
“What, daddy?”
The need that I’d held in for so long was rising up, and it didn’t matter that we were in the middle of a restaurant. I could have taken her to the bathroom. Maybe that was what I should have done, but I was thinking about other things. I didn’t have the patience or the inclination to wait that much longer.
“I need you, Mariah.”
She leaned closer and kissed me on the cheek. “What do you want, daddy?”
“I want you to take your dirty little mouth and suck on my cock.”
Her eyes widened a little, and the cute smile on her face was gone. It had just gotten serious, and I wasn’t too sure that she was very excited about it. It didn’t matter what she thought, though. I was too turned on to care. Mariah would give me what I wanted because I told her to. She listened quite well that way.
“Is this my punishment?”
“This is your privilege. If you don’t want to, there are many other women who would do it in a heartbeat.”
Something smart was on the edge of her tongue, and I waited to hear what. She was not following instructions, but instead of arguing with her about it, I pushed her head down towards my lap.
Mariah looked around again, making her look even guiltier than getting caught red-handed would have done. “No, Mariah.”
“But daddy…”
I growled at her, and the sound got her moving towards the edge of her seat. The tablecloth reached down to the ground, so she wouldn’t be seen, as long as she got down there without anyone seeing her. As it happened, there was a gentleman across the room who did watch the blonde slide underneath the table. I looked at him and smiled for a moment before I felt small hands opening up my pants and pulling me out. Her hot breath was moments away and I groaned inwardly when she slurped me up into her mouth. Her lips and tongue were heavenly.
Leaning back, I thrust myself into her sweet, hot mouth and heard her muffle on my meat. I’d given her too much, but I couldn’t help it. I wanted to give her more. She needed more as far as I was concerned. I wanted to give her every inch I had, no matter how hard it was for her to manage.
She worked fast, and in just a few short minutes I was the one left gasping. I wanted more than anything to watch my cock slide into her mouth, but it wasn’t to be. I didn’t get to see how fast or slow she was working, how blue her eyes were when she looked up at me. Hell, I didn’t need to. The very feel of her mouth on me was enough to get me going. I lost myself between her lips and didn’t even have to tell her what I wanted her to do with it. She swallowed it all and came back up to sit next to me.
“I’m going to have to get you away from that place more often, Mariah.”
She wiped the corner of her mouth like she was all delicate. No one else would know what she was doing it for, and I was thankful for the secret that was just between the two of us.
“I would like that, daddy.”
She was like a whole other woman when we started that. For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out why. It wasn’t a game I usually played, but if it was going to make her get that voice and the demure look in her eyes, there was no way that I couldn’t play. I was always up for a new game.
After we finished our meal and I dropped Mariah off at the club, there was nothing that was going to stand in my way anymore. She was mine, and no matter what kind of deal I had to do with Elie, I was going to have her full-time. A couple of hours a week just wasn’t going to cut it. Elie reminded me of the devil, but I’d made deals with his kind before. I hadn’t been this worried about the outcome before, though. This was a deal that I had to make and had to win.
Chapter 20 – Mariah
“I know why he’s doing this. He’s doing this to get back at me for leaving with Scott last night.”
Sasha shook her head. “You didn’t hear?”
“No, what?”
“Some guy came in with a gun and locked himself in the office at his house with Elie. I don’t know what about, but Lex and Bruno were off. Elie had to fight him off himself. I heard a gunshot, but I don’t know what happened next. All I know is that Elie was shot. He just got out of the hospital this morning. He doesn’t even know that you left with a client. You know that’s frowned upon, but this was set up before that.”
My mind was pulled in different directions. Last time I’d talked to Elie, it was about Greg and the threat he’d made. Elie had said he was going to take care of it, and I had to wonder what he meant by that. Was it Greg who’d come to him with a gun? It wasn’t out of the realm of possibility. And if it had been Greg, then what had happened? Sasha told me what had happened to Elie, but I wanted to know how the other guy had faired. I wanted to know if it was Greg.
“What did the other guy look like? Is he okay?”
Sasha looked at me a little suspiciously. I was sure that I wasn’t showing the proper amount of concern for Elie, but there was still the reason that I was mad at him to begin with.
“Why are you so worried about the other guy?”
“I don’t know. I just wonder what happened. You kind of left that out of the story, and I was just curious, I guess.”
She didn’t really believe me, but I could tell that there was more that she wanted to share. I didn’t want to stop her from sharing, so I tried to look less interested. By the end of her description of what happened next, it was safe to say that it was Greg. While she didn’t say exactly what had happened to him, it didn’t take much to imagine that Greg wasn’t going to be around anymore. If I heard her right, he’d been shot multiple times and then the body was dragged off. I didn’t want to know all of that, but I didn’t seem to have a choice.
“So he didn’t call the police?”
“In this world, we don’t go to the police. Everything was taken care of. Just forget that you heard about it. I’m sure it was just some guy that was in love with one of the girls and didn’t want to take no for an answer. You know how guys can get. They think since they pay a little money for us that they own us.”
I knew what she was talking about. I could have told her the truth about her boyfriend, but I held it in. I felt guilty in a way. It was all my fault. If I wouldn’t have told Elie what was going on and just left, it would have ended so differently. Greg would still be alive and Elie wouldn’t have been shot.
“So is Elie going to be okay?”
“Yeah, it just went through his shoulder. They say it went right through and that that’s a good thing. I don’t know how long he’s going to be recovering, but he said something about being there for the auction. It’s something new that he came up with and he’s looking forward to it.”
Her words brought me back to why I was upset to begin with. Elie had come up with the idea of auctioning off all of the girls for a night. It was only for a night, and not much different than what we did now, but he was offering up more from me than I was willing to give.
“I’m not going to be in that auction. He never said anything to me about it. I thought he was mad about me leaving with Scott, but I guess not. I don’t know what he was thinking when he made that flyer, but I’m not going to give up my virginity to the highest bidder.”
Sasha looked puzzled. “I thought you knew about it? Elie told me that you said it was okay or he would have never done it.”
�
��Do you really think that I’m okay with this? I’ve waited almost twenty years to give it away to someone that I love. It still means something to me, even though I work here at the club. I think it’s worth more now because I want my first time to be with someone I actually want to be with.”
“I don’t know what to say, Mariah. I thought you knew. I’m sure this is all just a misunderstanding somehow. When he gets better and is back in, go talk to him. Elie is an easy guy to talk to and get along with. You just come to him with your problems and he’ll take care of it. He’s good at that.”
He had just taken care of something for me, in fact, but I wasn’t sure that I liked the way he’d done it. He’d most likely killed Greg, and that was something that he’d promised he wouldn’t do. He told me that he wouldn’t hurt him, but then he killed Greg anyway. I wasn’t going to come to Elie with any more of my problems. I’d learned my lesson the first time around.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea. I’m sure he’s tired from his ordeal. I thought that the club was safe.”
“It is. That was a fluke thing. Nothing like that has ever happened before, and it wasn’t even at the club. It was at his house.”
“So what are you doing for the auction? Are you in it?”
Sasha nodded her head that she was going to be in it. I had to wonder what she was willing to give up, but she didn’t really get into it. Even though I’d known Sasha for years, it was strange how everything was going now. She felt like a stranger, and I knew it was because of Elie. Who would she choose if she had to?
“Let’s not worry about the auction this weekend. You’re not the only one who’s nervous. Why don’t you take half of this with me and we’ll go shopping or something.”
I looked at the blue pill that she’d broken and was handing one half of to me. I didn’t know what it was.
“It’s just something to relax you. After you take this, you won’t care about whatever has your mind all messed up. I like to use them from time to time. It will make you forget about everything for a while.”
It sounded too good to be true, but it was exactly what I needed to do. To forget.
***
“Thanks for seeing me, Elie. I wanted to ask you a couple of things and see how you’re doing.”
“Pretty good, considering.”
I knew what he meant about considering, and I could tell that he was going to use the shooting to his advantage. I was already feeling crummy that it had happened to him, and now I was going to feel even worse. He was going to make sure of that.
“So what do you have on your mind, Mariah?”
“I want to know what happened the other night, Elie. I haven’t seen you since we had that talk. From what I hear, it was Greg who came to your house with a gun. Is that true?”
Elie nodded. “You were right to come to me, Mariah. That man is dangerous.”
“Is or was?”
Elie smiled at me and told me that I was a smart one. I didn’t know if that was a compliment or not, but I was going to take it as one.
“You don’t want to know the details, do you?”
I was torn between wanting them and not wanting them. But in the end, I knew that I was going to have to know what had happened to him. It was on me, and I wanted to know, no matter how bad it was going to be.
“I have to know.”
“Well, I sent Bruno and Lex to go straighten him out. I wasn’t going to touch him, but I wanted him to know that his time here in New Orleans was over. He didn’t take it so well. Greg tortured both of my men until they gave me up and then came here to teach me a lesson. I have to say, I didn’t expect the gun, but that’s why I’m always ready for days like that.”
“So then what happened?” I was at a loss from what he was telling me. The man he described doing all of those things didn’t sound like Greg. It wasn’t the man that I’d loved for all of those years.
“Do you really want to know?”
He kept asking me that, and it should have been the first clue that maybe I didn’t want to know what happened. Maybe I was better off not knowing. But I didn’t take the hint. I nodded my head that I was sure I wanted to know. Bracing myself like I was about to feel an impact, I waited for what I already knew he was going to say.
“He shot me while I was sitting here. The hole is still in the wall. So I shot him back. My aim was a little better.”
“So he’s dead?”
Elie stopped and really looked at me for a time. “Yes, Greg is dead. It wasn’t my intention, but that’s what happened. I’m sorry for it, Mariah, but you have to know that I didn’t want to. I would have talked it through and tried to reason with him, but he wasn’t interested in that. Greg was willing to go to any lengths to have you, Mariah, and I can’t say that I blame him.”
His words didn’t comfort me. Greg was gone because of me, and I didn’t know if I was ever going to forgive myself. It took me a minute to remember that there was more to talk to him about. It wasn’t just about Greg. I wanted to know about the auction I hadn’t agreed to, but I could tell that Elie was going to use my guilt against me. It wasn’t going to be hard, as bad as I was feeling about everything.
Chapter 21 – Mariah
“Was there anything else, Mariah? You look like you’ve got something else on your mind.”
I did, but how was I going to say it out loud? After everything that he’d just told me, and after everything that he’d done for me, it seemed rather petty now. He’d taken a bullet for me and I wasn’t willing to do anything for him?
Whatever Sasha had given me was needed now as my anxiety went through the roof. I was in a place that I didn’t like to be in. What was I supposed to do?
“Yes, I… uh, I want to talk to you about the auction that I saw the flyer for?” You know, the one that has my half-naked body on it, begging for their money?
He smiled. Elie actually smiled, and I was feeling a little less sympathy for his pain. He knew that I wasn’t going to be happy with this and he’d gone through with it anyway.
“You don’t like that picture? I think you’re gorgeous in it.”
Elie was skirting around the problem. He knew exactly what I was upset about. It didn’t have anything to do with which picture he used, although it was true that I didn’t like him using my image for promotions like that. I’m sure it was part of the ten-page contract that he’d made me sign. It was too long to really read all the way through, and after a few minutes I’d just signed it.
“It’s not about the promotional material, Elie, it’s what you say is up for auction. My innocence?”
His smile widened, and I felt a little anger boiling up inside of me. How could he find any of this funny at all? I didn’t find it remotely entertaining.
“You were talking about it with Scott. I thought that was an indication that you were ready for it.”
“When I’m ready for it, I’ll give it to who I want. I’m not going to have some strangers bidding on that. It’s too intimate and too important to be sold away.”
“You’re going to do just that, Mariah.”
“What?” Did I just hear him right?
“You heard me. You’re going to sell it at the auction. I’ve put a lot of money into this promotion, and you’re what they’re coming for. If you want Scott to be the one that takes it, then you better make sure that he comes with his checkbook, because I’ve got a feeling that the bidding is going to get crazy. I’m also going to up the percentage on my end to forty percent since I had to put so much in the front end of this. All you have to do is show up, Mariah.”
I shook my head, not really believing what I was hearing. He was acting like I didn’t have a choice, like I couldn’t just refuse him.
“I’m not going to do it, Elie. I told you from the beginning that I’m not going to go there.”
“Things change, Mariah. That was before you were willing to give it away to a client and that was before I got shot because of you. You owe me. You kn
ow it and I know it. Are you the type of person that’s not going to honor her debts?”
It was the card that I was waiting for, but even though I knew it was coming, I wasn’t prepared for it. I still hadn’t gotten over the fact that it was my fault that Greg was gone. I should have just left. With Elie it was different. He was still alive and looking at me as if he might very well do the same thing to me.
“You ask too much of me, Elie.”
He pulled his shirt back so that I could see the bandage. “Really? Because I don’t actually think I am asking all that much, Mariah. You owe me, and this is how you’re going to repay me. You’re lucky that I’m being so generous and giving you any of the proceeds at all.”
I had a vile taste in my mouth as I left his office. It wasn’t like before where I worried about how everything was going to work out. Now that I knew, I was no better off. I shouldn’t have asked anything about it. Then I wouldn’t know the truth of where I stood. I liked it better when I didn’t know.
My body felt numb. I couldn’t even cry. I didn’t know if it was tears for myself or if it was tears for Greg. Either way, the salty liquid wasn’t going to do anything for me, and it was pointless to let it bother me more than it already had.
When I got home, Sasha could tell something was wrong with me. It was hard to talk to her about it because she was dating Elie. I don’t know what she saw in him, and then I had to wonder if she did see that side of him. Did he have something that he held over her head as well? I didn’t think that Elie was just like that for me. It showed me what he truly was, and I suddenly felt bad for my friend for having to deal with a man like him.
“Did you talk to Elie?”
I didn’t want to talk about it, so I tried to put it off. I had a feeling that she knew exactly who he was. She was nervous about what we’d talked about.
“Yeah, I talked to him, but it didn’t do me a whole lot of good.”
“He wouldn’t let you pull out?”
“What do you think?”
“I think you’ve finally seen the boss the way he really is. He plays nice well, but it doesn’t last long. I’m surprised it lasted as long as it did with you. You’re usually a lot more vocal about things.”