Explicitly Yours Series

by Jessica Hawkins

  Beau was exact with his attention as always. At that moment, he addressed Johnny. “Are you sure you want to be here for this?”

  Although reclined in his seat, tension emanated from Johnny. Lola had refused to sit down without him, but first she’d made Johnny promise not to let things get to the level they had last time they’d all been in the same room. “Just get started,” Johnny said.

  Beau tapped the end of his pen once on the slim folder in front of him. “All right. Half the money will be deposited into your account by five o’clock the night of the arrangement. The other half will come once Lola has held up her end of the bargain.”

  Beau’s formality made Lola’s stomach uneasy, but she was grateful for it. She didn’t think she could handle anything less tactful. “Exactly what does my end entail?”

  “From sunset that night to sunrise the following morning, I own you.”

  Lola schooled her expression. Inside, her heart was going a mile a minute. If anyone could own a woman, it would be the man sitting in front of her. “You own me,” she repeated. “Meaning what?”

  Beau put his elbows on the table and played with his pen, twisting the cap. “You’re mine to do with what I please, excluding physical harm,” he said. “I want to be very clear—I have no intentions of making you physically uncomfortable or of hurting you in any way. This is meant to be a pleasant experience for us both.”

  Lola was tempted to give Johnny a reassuring look when he shifted in his seat, but she kept her eyes on Beau as if he were a snake that might strike at any time. “Everything else is fair game?” she asked with an unnaturally straight back.

  “Aside from anything that puts you at risk, the arrangement ensures that you give me whatever I ask for.”

  “Not whatever,” Johnny said. “There have to be some limits.” He looked over at Lola. “There are some things she won’t do.”

  “Johnny,” she said under her breath. She refused to go into specifics in a cold, stark conference room with her boyfriend and the man she was about to sleep with sitting across from each other. Johnny was right—she had limits. But she could handle Beau once they were alone.

  “We’ve already covered the limits,” Beau said. “To everything else, there’s only one answer.”

  “Yes,” Lola said.

  Beau nodded once, looking pleased. “Exactly. Just like that.”

  “How can we trust you won’t hurt her?” Johnny asked. His voice was already raised, bordering on aggressive. “Your word doesn’t mean dick.”

  Beau switched back to Johnny and remained calm. “You’ve probably figured out by now that I’m well known in the business world. I have family members, investors, employees. If anyone’s taking a risk, it’s me.” He pulled a sheet from the folder under his hands and slid it across to Lola. “For that reason, I’ll need you both to sign a non-disclosure agreement. There’s a clause that if either of us strays from the agreement—including what I just said about physical harm—the NDA is null and void. That’s why you can trust me. I’ve worked long and hard to get where I am. I can’t afford to have my name attached to a scandal. My reputation is on the line.”

  “Then why do this at all?” Lola asked. “Aren’t there more discreet ways of buying sex?”

  Beau became even more focused on her. He set down his pen. “I’m not buying sex, Lola. I’m buying you. I’d like us to be one hundred percent clear on that. Are we?”

  Lola found herself unable to meet his eyes for the first time. Being referred to as an object didn’t have the effect she thought it would. Instead of anger, she became acutely aware of the heat between her legs. He could have anyone. He wanted her.

  “Are we?” Beau persisted. “If we’re not on the same page about that, I need to know now.”

  She kept her eyes lowered as she looked to the side. Johnny’s head was turned away from her out the window.

  “I understand,” Lola said.

  “Eyes up,” Beau said.

  Lola swallowed at his curt command. Her gaze traveled over the table’s surface, up Beau’s crisp, white shirt and its open collar, past his smooth-shaven jaw to his eyes. They were greener than ever with the window’s gray backdrop. “You’re buying me,” she said to him.

  “Thank you.” His expression relaxed. “But of course there will be sex. For that reason, I’ll need you to get tested and bring the results with you the evening of our arrangement.”

  Johnny snapped back to attention. “Come on, man.”

  “That’s non-negotiable. I’ll do the same for you. Without that, there’s no deal.”

  “It’s fine,” Lola said. “I’ll get the tests.”

  “You have an appointment with my doctor after this,” he said. “Are you on birth control?”

  Lola took her purse from the floor and set it on the table. She dug inside for her packet.

  “I don’t need to see it.” He held up another piece of paper. “Because while I’d prefer we not have to deal with it at all, this signature absolves me of any responsibility should you get pregnant.”

  Lola’s mouth instantly tingled. It was worse than being treated like an object. Things had happened so fast, she hadn’t considered the possibility of pregnancy. Her mind flitted over the past few weeks. She’d been diligent about taking the pill. She leaned over the table and slid the paper toward her.

  Johnny sat perfectly still. “I wouldn’t worry about the responsibility,” he said. “She gets pregnant and I’ll kill you. Problem solved.”

  Lola stared at the paper in front of her, which was only one page, concise and to the point.

  “Then we’ll make sure that doesn’t happen,” Beau said. “But I still need Lola to sign it. My lawyers would have heart attacks if they knew I was doing this without them. I prefer not to involve anyone other than us. We can if you’d like, though.”

  “That won’t be necessary.” Lola couldn’t think too hard about what she was signing or she might lose her nerve.

  “If you don’t deliver your end of the deal,” Beau continued, “I’ll be forced to come up with ways of righting the situation. I don’t want to resort to that, but I haven’t gotten this far in business without doing things I don’t like.”

  “I wouldn’t be here if I hadn’t thought this through,” Lola said.

  Beau smiled reassuringly. He looked like he wanted to say something else, but he just squinted at her. “Are you all right?”

  Her body had undergone about a hundred different reactions in the last twenty minutes, from shame to arousal to indignation. Was she all right? She couldn’t be sure, but she wasn’t Beau’s responsibility. No matter how much he paid, she would never be his to hold and comfort and reassure. She raised her chin a little. “I’m fine.”

  “Do you have any questions?”

  Johnny moved. “We have demands,” he said, rejoining the conversation.

  “I thought you might,” Beau invited.

  “If you don’t meet them, we walk right now.”

  Beau folded his hands on the table. “You have my attention. Proceed.”

  “We want our half now. Today. And Lola will only do it for eight hundred thousand.”

  Beau’s eyebrows shot up. “Eight hundred? You realize that’s sixty percent more than my initial offer?”

  “You asked for a counteroffer.”

  “I did, but this isn’t a free-for-all. As with any negotiation, I have my limits.”

  Johnny shook his head fast. “No. This is the only way we’ll do it. Lola’s worth more than what you’re asking.”

  Lola resisted jerking her head toward Johnny only because they’d agreed to come in as a unified front. But bringing Lola’s worth into the discussion was a low blow.

  “Not that she has a price,” Johnny backtracked. “What I meant was—”

  “I know what you meant,” Beau said. “Tread carefully, though. If you push me, I might pull the offer completely.”

  Johnny shrugged with his whole upper body. Under
the table, his leg bounced up and down. “Like I said, she won’t do it for a dime less anyway.”

  “Johnny, relax,” Lola said. “You’re starting to sound like my pimp.”

  Johnny’s glare at her was brief. Before the meeting, he’d said, “When we get to the money part, let me do the talking.” Sweat beaded on his temple despite the blowing air conditioning. Lola, on the other hand, had goose bumps from the cold. Even she wasn’t sure if he was bluffing.

  When she looked back at Beau, he was watching her, not Johnny. “That’s the price you decided on for yourself, Lola?”

  “It’s not my price,” she said. Her mouth soured. The word was as dirty as worth. “It’s how much we need to buy the bar. The money is useless to us otherwise.”

  “I really prefer you didn’t call my very generous offer useless,” Beau said. “Do you have any concept of how much five hundred thousand dollars is?”

  “Yes. It’s less than eight hundred,” Lola said sharply. “You two aren’t the only ones who get to blather about worth. If I’m going to degrade myself, it has to be worth it to me, and that means Johnny and I end up with Hey Joe.”

  “Degrade yourself?” Beau repeated. His laugh was hollow. “I’d say you’ve already degraded yourself just by taking this meeting.”

  The nerve. Up until that moment, she’d actually thought he was being fairly decent considering the circumstances. Lola pinched her lips together. “That’s not fair. I know you know what it’s like to put a dream before everything else.”

  Beau’s smile faded as his face smoothed. “Excuse me?”

  “It’s not about money or worth. At the end of the day, Johnny and I are doing this for our future. You killed yourself to make something from nothing—you know what it’s like on this side.”

  “Exactly,” Beau said. “You can never understand how hard I’ve worked to get here, and now I’m offering it to you in exchange for one night. Not even an entire day. You should be on your knees thanking me.”

  To her embarrassment, she shuddered. The sheer level of her confusion scared her. The more he talked, the angrier she got and the more she wanted to grab his shirt and pull him to her. He seemed to know exactly how to push her buttons, back her into a corner, make her sweat.

  “What would you have done in my position?” she asked him.

  “Me? Oh, I’ve sold my soul many times over,” he answered. “Now it’s my turn to buy.”

  She stood and steadied herself against the table. “You clawed your way to the top, yet you’re still taking advantage of others’ desperation. You’re depraved. I guess it’s true that you can take the person out of the trash, but you can’t take the trash out of the person.”

  He tilted his head. “Is that what they say about you?”

  “Go to hell.” She didn’t have much dignity left, but she wasn’t willing to give him every last piece of it. “I can’t do this.”

  The table was silent. She didn’t wait to see if Johnny would follow. With one last look at Beau, and a moment of wondering what could’ve been had she met him at a different time, or maybe even had he not made his offer, but had come back to the bar a second time—with that last look, she walked away.

  As soon as she reached the door and her hand was closed around the handle, though, Beau spoke again.

  “A million dollars.”

  It wasn’t possible she’d heard him correctly. In her worked-up, jittery state, her mind was playing tricks on her. Beau had no reason to double the amount when he’d been so opposed to eight hundred thousand. She glanced back over her shoulder. Johnny was frozen, his eyes doubled in size.

  Beau’s fingers were steepled in front of him and the corner of his mouth curled into a slight smile. “One night. One million dollars. And that’s my final offer.”

  7

  Johnny cupped Lola’s upturned face. He kissed her forehead. “You look terrible.”

  “That’s the plan, isn’t it?” With a shaky inhalation, she put a smile on her face. Johnny had been surprisingly strong since they’d left Beau’s office the day before—for her. She could do the same for him.

  “What about the black circles under your eyes?” he asked. “Are they part of the plan?” This time he kissed the top of her head. “You look great to me, anyway. Maybe he won’t think so.”

  Johnny hugged her face to his chest. He’d just gotten out of the shower and smelled like soap. His ratty sneakers sat by the front door next to an empty space where she always left her Converse. Usually their shoes came and went together. She tried to look away, but Johnny held her tightly. She couldn’t afford to get sentimental about sneakers. It wasn’t like this was the first night they’d ever spent apart.

  “I love you,” she said. Now that the decision had been made, there was a sense of relief between them, and with that they’d made peace. “We’ll get through this.”

  “I’d never let you go if I thought differently,” Johnny said. “It means nothing. I’ll go to work like any other night. You’ll come home to me in the morning. End of story.”

  “You forgot the part about how we’re a million dollars richer afterward.”

  “We’re already halfway there,” he said.

  Lola had that fight or flight feeling she always got before a big change in her life. The night she’d started at Hey Joe, she’d begged Johnny to let her go back to her old job and her old friends. At the time, that life had seemed easier than starting over. But even though it was because of Johnny’s ultimatum, she’d made the decision to leave all that behind. Still, that hadn’t meant it was easy.

  She looked up at Johnny without pulling away an inch. “We could be in Vegas by midnight. We already have five hundred grand. Start over.”

  He smiled. “We could take that fake road trip we planned last year. With nowhere to be, it wouldn’t matter how long it took. Break out the camping gear—”

  A knock on the door interrupted him. Lola squeezed Johnny closer. “I don’t want to leave you alone.”

  “I’ll be fine.”

  “You will?”

  He shook his head. “No, but it’s only a night, right? Work will be kind of busy since it’s Friday. It’ll keep me distracted.”

  The knock came again.

  “Will you check in with Mitch? He can’t make any decisions until he hears our offer.”

  “He’ll wait.” He pushed a loose strand of her hair behind her ear and kissed her, lingering against her lips. “Lola,” he whispered. “Don’t kiss him like this. Promise me.”

  She let him clutch her another moment. She was about to step into a world where she had no jurisdiction over her own body. No matter how badly she wanted to, she couldn’t make Johnny that promise. “I’ll try.”

  He tensed when there was more rapping on the door. “Love you too,” he said.

  Lola was just going to slip out, but Johnny opened the door all the way. On their welcome mat stood a suited man who wasn’t Beau, but who didn’t look much older than him. He gestured behind him. “Good evening, Miss Winters. I’m Mr. Olivier’s driver. He’s waiting in the car.”

  Lola shielded her eyes and followed the man without looking back. At the curb, a limousine idled. As they approached it, the sun disappeared behind the apartment building across the street.

  The back window rolled down. Beau’s hair was styled in a wave tonight—smoother and darker from product and away from his face. It made his green eyes clearer. He was perfectly put together except for a noticeable layer of stubble. The contrast only made him more attractive.

  “Last chance, Lola,” he said, looking up at her. He was being playful. “You can still turn around.”

  She stared, unblinking, unflinching and showed him the papers clutched in her hand. “The tests you requested.”

  He took them through the window, read them over and smiled. “He’s thorough, isn’t he?”

  “Very.” After her tense afternoon with Beau and Johnny in the conference room, Beau’s doctor had been kind a
nd gentle with her. He’d even insisted on giving her a check-up.

  “Warner, please get the door for Miss Winters.”

  “Certainly, sir.” He stepped past Lola to let her in.

  The limo had champagne and other spirits, but champagne was the only thing she could stomach. She sipped it to calm her nerves after reviewing Beau’s test results.

  “I admire your effort,” Beau said, “but it isn’t working.”

  She moved the glass from her mouth. “I’m sorry?”

  “Are those Johnny’s jeans?”

  She looked down at the faded, oversized pants. “Johnny’s jeans wouldn’t fit me,” she said, offended. “They’re from Goodwill. It’s this place where—”

  “I’m familiar with Goodwill, thank you.”

  She rolled her lips together, pleased she’d hit a nerve. She covered her smile by taking another sip of her drink.

  “I’m not buying the act,” Beau said. “I know you’re intentionally trying to make yourself unattractive.”

  “Do you always call your dates ugly right off the bat?”

  “I’m saying the opposite, actually. Old jeans and no makeup can’t detract from your beauty.” He studied her. “But my guess is you already knew that.”

  Whether she’d known it or not, she couldn’t help feeling flattered—even as she reminded herself that in the short time she’d known him, he’d never lacked the ability to charm.

  “The only thing I won’t let fly is your hair like that,” he said.

  It was a mild request. She didn’t argue. She undid her ponytail, and her hair fell all at once around her shoulders.

  “Better,” he said.

  She looked out the window since the divider had been rolled up, blocking her view of the road. “Are we going to your place?”

  “No.”

  She turned to him. “A hotel?”

  “We have a room for the night, yes.”

  A hotel was good—it meant there’d be people around. “Where is it?”

  “Beverly Hills.” He paused. “Is that all right with you?”

  She’d never stayed in a hotel in Los Angeles since she had no reason to. She’d certainly never stayed anywhere as upscale as Beverly Hills. “Is your house under renovation or something?”