by Aspen Drake
“I’m smart.” Sebastian winks then reaches for his sandwich. “I like to keep things casual so there aren’t any expectations. No expectations means no one gets hurt.”
I force a smile as his words sink in. It’s not like I had grand expectations of this becoming anything serious, but maybe I did. And now that he’s telling me he isn’t looking for a girlfriend, it hurts.
This is probably for the best, though. With all of Eli’s shit and Mercy needing my help with Owen, it’s better that I don’t look for anything serious right now.
“Yeah, I guess a guy in your position has too much to lose by settling down.”
“Totally,” Sebastian says over a mouthful of food. “I doubt I’ll ever get married. Too much risk for too little reward.”
“But you’re such a romantic…” I deadpan, hoping he buys my act.
I just need to get through lunch and then I can go lick my wounds by myself. Sebastian James is at the prime of his life. I’d probably think he was a weirdo if he was willing to sacrifice everything for a girl like me.
And if I’m looking for a bright side, I guess the fact that he’s opposed to relationships with all women and not just me is comforting.
Kinda.
But not really.
Chapter 18
Sebastian
The call from Tim confirms there’s a price on Eli’s head. It sounds like he stole some cash from a pimp, and now he’s on the run. Emma’s right about one thing. He’s an idiot.
From what I’ve been told, this pimp, Julio Renzo, doesn’t leave Vegas. At all. When he needs work done outside the city limits, he hires it out. That’s bad news for Eli because instead of being afraid of one person, he’s got to watch his back for anyone looking to make a quick buck. There could be a whole army looking for him by now.
It’s also bad news for me because not only do I care about his sister, but he’s also involved in one of my businesses. It’s not one I’m closely tied to, but I still have an interest in keeping it off anyone’s radar. Tim is tracking down this guy so we can take care of him sooner rather than later. Ray, the warehouse general manager, has the resources to get this taken care of quietly, but he doesn’t need any wannabe bounty hunters sniffing around his business. And with Eli out on the water for weeks at a time, he’s more of a liability than an asset.
The risk for the business is too great.
At least, that’s what I tell myself as I push through my work out. As much as I try to convince myself I just like Emma for fucking, that’s not completely true. There’s something refreshing about being with a person who doesn’t care about my money. Although she’ll let me spend it on her occasionally, she doesn’t expect me to. And she seemed just as happy with a BLT as she was when we were at Dionisio’s.
So why mess with a good thing? I’ll continue to take her out when we’re both available, and hopefully, she’ll continue to want hot as hell sex.
~**~
“Want to get a drink tonight?” Normally, I would text Emma, but right now, I want to hear her voice. I’ve had a shitty day at work, and Ray lost contact with Eli’s boat during a storm last night. As I’d feared, now there’s one more person I need to worry about.
And I have been.
I’ve been thinking about the unfortunate possibilities all damn day.
In my head, I’m sure he’s fine. But in my gut, I’m worried one of Renzo’s scouts found Eli and plucked him out from the middle of the ocean.
It’s not unusual for comms to go down out on the water where Eli should be, but I’ll feel better once we know both him and our shipment are safe.
Emma is huffing into the phone, and there’s a ton of street noise in the background. “Sorry, I can’t. Got plans.”
“We can make it quick. If you’re tired, I can bring a bottle to your place.” Am I begging? I feel like I’m begging.
Emma laughs. “Yeah, right. Because you at my place gives me so much time to relax.”
Okay, she has me there. “Just an hour. You don’t even have to go home first. Just head to my office after your last delivery, and we’ll go from here.”
“Has it even crossed your mind that I might actually have other plans tonight?”
Oh, she sounds feisty. I like when Emma gets all heated and fights back. “Do you have other plans tonight?”
“Yes, I do. I said that in the beginning. I might be free tomorrow or the next night. But I’ve got a thing with my friend tonight.”
“A girlfriend?”
Emma’s heavy breathing stops, and I imagine her frozen on the sidewalk, pausing her frantic pace toward her next delivery. “Why? Are you jealous?”
Am I? Fuck, I think I am. “No, just wondering.”
Emma’s labored breathing picks up again, and the wind noise dies down. She must’ve entered a building. “Not that it matters, but yes, I’m going out with a girlfriend tonight.”
Good. Although, I don’t know when I became so needy. “Are you free for lunch tomorrow?”
“Hold on a sec.” I can hear her tapping the screen of her phone, and then she’s back on the line. “I think so. Doesn’t look like there are any new bonuses I’ll be working toward. I should be able to take time off at lunch.”
If she hadn’t been so stubborn and refused the double tip I tried to give her last week, she wouldn’t be so worried about trying to hit a bonus. I need to find a way to be sneakier. “Gee, thanks. I appreciate you penciling me in.”
She giggles. “Sorry, but I’m not just the face of Meals2Me. I’m also the arms and legs of it, so I can’t really take time off. But I have to go now. It’s time for the face to stop chatting and make this delivery.”
“All right.” I sigh, annoyed that she can’t talk longer. “Be safe tonight.”
She harrumphs into the phone. “Don’t worry. I definitely will. Bye.”
Emma hangs up before I have a chance to ask what the hell she meant by that. Now I’m really curious about her plans for the evening.
I barely open up my email application before Abbott sends me a text. Interviews start at seven. Be there.
What are you talking about?
The meeting for new consultants. I’m interviewing tonight and I need you there.
Is he joking? Why? You do this all the time on your own. You’ll be fine.
This is different. I don’t wanna come across as some rich perv.
He makes it too easy. But you are a rich perv. Own it.
Fuck off. You said you’d help. Be there.
Well, it’s not like I’ve got anything better to do. At the motel?
Yeah, we’ll have cocktails and appetizers.
I guess that’s good enough. OK. I’ll eat your food while you do your thing.
Don’t act like it’s such a burden. Your favorite girls will be there. Maybe you can test out their consulting skills.
Maybe.
It’s easy to play along with Abbott’s taunts, but I’m not interested. Since hooking up with Emma, I haven’t even thought about any of my regular girls. If I were smart, I would keep up my visits to Pearls just to make sure Emma doesn’t get too far under my skin.
But I think I’m too late for that.
I shouldn’t care if she’s going out with a guy tonight, but I do. I don’t want to commit to a relationship, but I don’t want her hooking up while we’re sleeping together. We may have to come to some kind of an agreement sooner rather than later.
The next few hours drag on, and when it’s finally time to leave, I regret agreeing to meet up with Abbott. The last thing I wanna do is deal with a bunch of conceited women who are looking to make a buck off wealthy men. Obviously, I don’t have a problem with their career choice, but I hate having to put on a polite front for a bunch of gold diggers.
When I pull into the motel’s driveway, I almost don’t recognize the place. Abbott and the Maysons have really cleaned it up since the last time I was here. The parking lot is full, so I pull into the drop-off circle in fro
nt of the lobby. With my bike in plain view of the lobby, I know nobody will mess with it.
The woman at the reception desk greets me with a smile. She looks like she’s just out of high school, so I don’t bother checking her out. Knowing Abbott’s tastes, she probably does fall in the barely legal category. He won’t hire anyone under the age of twenty-one at Pearls because of the alcohol liability, but since alcohol isn’t served here, he might have relaxed his standards to fit in some fresh blood.
“Good evening, sir. Are you here for the informational meeting?”
Is that what we’re calling it? “I think so.”
She gestures toward the hall. “If you’ll just follow that hallway to the banquet room, everyone is waiting in there.”
“Thanks.” I follow her instructions into a fairly typical looking conference room. The only thing different from some of the conference rooms I’ve seen in places like this is that there are thin rails built into the walls. Abbott mentioned something about the office rooms being modular, so I assume the walls snap into the rails when he needs smaller spaces.
I’m surprised by the number of people in the room. At least thirty women and ten men are mingling around food and drink stations set up throughout the space. Rows of chairs are lined up in the center, but most people are still standing.
I grab a beer from a bucket of ice then search out Jason and Abbott. Jason’s easy to find. Despite his quiet demeanor, his wide frame gives him a dominating presence in any room. A small group of people are talking around him, but I can’t tell if he’s actively engaged in the conversation or just listening to them. I take a drink from my bottle then scan the room again for Abbott. His back is facing me, and a group of women is huddled around him.
It’s easy to recognize Angel with her wavy blonde hair and toothpaste-commercial smile. She laughs at something Abbott says and then leans toward another woman. I have to blink a few times to comprehend what I’m seeing.
Emma is here.
Talking to Abbott.
What the fuck?
Angel’s hand is wrapped around Emma’s arm as they giggle together. Just as I reach Abbott’s back, he turns and smiles, lifting his hand to my shoulder. “Sebastian, just in time.”
Ignoring Abbott, I reach for Emma’s hand. Instinctively, she takes it. “I just need a word with Emma.”
“You know Emma?” Angel asks, but I ignore her too.
Emma glances at her friend and then back at me. “What are you—”
I keep walking, dragging her behind me until we’re down the hall in a private area. “What are you doing here?” I demand, trying not to let the anger I feel seep into my voice.
She shakes her head as if she doesn’t know how to respond. “I’m here for a meeting. Why are you here? Don’t tell me you’re looking for a new job too?”
Any doubts I might have had about why she’s here are now alleviated. Dammit. “I’m a co-owner. I didn’t realize you were looking for a new job.”
She shrugs and crosses her arms over her chest. “Maybe I am.”
My jaw ticks as I step back, leaning against the wall behind me. “Why, Emma? You don’t need to do this.”
“Are you serious?” Okay, pissed-off Emma is back. “It’s okay for you to own a place like this, but it’s not okay for me to work at one? You said you don’t want to be my boyfriend, so you have no right to say anything about what I do for a living or how I spend my time.”
Fuck. Of course, she has to throw my words back in my face.
“Is that why you’re doing this? To spite me.”
Emma laughs and does a little half turn in place before facing me again. “I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but the world does not revolve around you. If I were to take this job, it would be because I want to do it or I need the money. Not because you aren’t interested in me.”
“I never said I’m not interested in you,” I murmur. Where could she possibly get an idea like that? I practically beg to see her every damn day.
“Yeah, as your fuck buddy. Well,” she waves down the hallway toward the room we just left, “now you’ll have a room full of fuck buddies anytime you want.”
I don’t know how to respond so I don’t say anything.
She cranes her head and looks over my shoulder for a second as if remembering something. “And how do you know Mercy? I don’t remember her ever mentioning going out with you.”
At least I know Angel is discreet. “I met her at her job.” I promised Emma I wouldn’t lie to her, and I don’t intend to, but it’s not really my place to tell her what her friend does for a living.
“At the restaurant?”
I just stare, not confirming or denying anything.
Emma starts to laugh then nods her head in understanding. “Oh, of course. At the strip club. Why doesn’t that surprise me?”
I roll my eyes, annoyed at the picture she’s painting of me. It’s not completely inaccurate, but it’s definitely a simplistic view of my world. “I’m part owner of that place as well. Me and Abbott, the guy you were flirting with two minutes ago, own it together.”
Emma’s entire demeanor shifts, and she narrows her eyes at me. “You think I was flirting with him? You’ve got some balls, Sebastian.”
Now it’s my turn to put up walls. “I know what I saw. I don’t know if that was part of your act to get a job, but you weren’t exactly subtle.”
And pissed-off Emma is back. “You know what, Sebastian? You can fuck off. Go pick some other poor girl to rescue with big tips and no-strings sex. I’m not gonna be her anymore.”
Before I can stop her, Emma stomps down the hallway and back into the conference room.
Once she’s gone, I reconsider why she’s here. How can she be so desperate that she’s actually considering this?
I call Tim and ask him to check on Emma’s finances. There must be more going on with her if she’s looking for a job as a prostitute. In all the time I’ve spent with her, I’ve never gotten the impression that she would do anything for money. During some of our more intimate talks, she’s even admitted that she’s only had a handful of sexual partners in her life. None of this is making sense, but I’m not going to sit around and let her ruin her short list just for a few bucks.
When I get back to the room, Abbott is at the front and all the consultant candidates are seated in the chairs. He’s explaining that the job will be to take hourly clients for relationship consultations, but those sessions will likely only last ten or fifteen minutes. The consultant will get paid $500 per hour at the beginning, and after a short probationary period, they will be increased to $1000 per hour.
Knowing that Emma only makes a couple hundred dollars a day as a delivery driver, I can see how that kind of money might be tempting. I also feel like an asshole for making such a big deal about her working in the sex trade when I’m a customer and an investor in it.
Talk about hypocrisy.
When Abbott opens up the floor for questions, Emma raises her arm high, inquiring about benefits and schedule flexibility. It seems like she has really given this some thought. Looking around the room, there is a mix of people. Most of the women look like they’re in their mid-twenties to mid-thirties. All are attractive, but some look like they’ve already been around the business for a while.
I recognize a few faces from Pearls, like Angel and Vicky. But there are several new faces in the room. And, as promised, there are several men. Some look gay and others don’t. My guess is they’re all open to men or women, but I don’t know for sure. All I really care about is that Emma is here and the thought of her fucking some guy has my stomach in knots.
This can’t happen.
When I said I wasn’t interested in being her boyfriend, I meant it. I still feel that way, but if she’s looking for an exclusive relationship and needs me to commit to one, I’m open to that. I didn’t think it was necessary because she works so often and doesn’t have a lot of time to date. But if keeping her away from this place
means I have to give her a label, that’s fine. Nothing has to change other than the fact that if she’s currently sleeping with anyone else, she will stop. Immediately.
Emma might not realize it, but I haven’t been with anyone else since I started fucking her. It’s only been a few weeks, but the thought of going into Pearls for a quickie or picking up some chick in a bar rather than spending time with Emma has zero appeal to me.
I might not actually want a girlfriend, but as much as I try to deny it, I definitely want Emma all to myself.
Chapter 19
Emma
Everyone is already seated when I walk back into the room. Abbott gets started on his speech, so I’m not able to ask Mercy about Sebastian. Besides, I’m not here to talk about him. I’m here because Mercy needs an advocate. I know she’s too overwhelmed by the numbers being thrown around to think straight. But I take my best friend duties seriously and ask the questions I know we’ll both have later. For thirty minutes, I throw questions at Abbott about benefits, work schedules, and days off. The usual interview questions. There are a handful of other talkative people in the room but most are just as sticker-shocked as Mercy. I hope they all have advocates of their own to keep their heads on straight.
Everyone has their own reason for considering this kind of work. For Mercy, the point of taking this job is that she’ll be able to spend more time with Owen, so we need to make sure that is actually going to happen. Abbott asks for any last questions, and one springs to mind so I raise my hand again.
Abbott smiles down at me from his place at the front of the room. “Yes, Emma?”
“Do you already have clients lined up? What if there are only a few clients at the beginning, and you have all these consultants? Can you guarantee a minimum number of hours?”
“Great question. I’ll have to work out the exact details once I know how many consultants we’ll have, but I think if you commit to being available to take clients on a walk-in basis for a certain number of hours per week, I can guarantee you a minimum salary. Maybe $1000 per week, even if you have no clients. But I don’t expect that to be an issue. I’ve floated the idea around several of my customers at Pearls, and everyone seems very excited for me to get this place opened up. If anything, I think we’ll be turning clients away. Getting hours shouldn’t be difficult.”