ask you to leave.” She followed me out to the reception area. “We’re here to facilitate life-changing opportunities for those who have the courage to take control of their lives.”
“You make it sound like one of those self-help seminars.”
“This is all about self-help. I don’t know of too many girls who enjoyed their first fuck or ended up marrying the guy. At least this way, their lives change for the better. Now, please leave. Unless…” Her eyes ran up and down my body. “You’re very beautiful, even without makeup. If you’re still intact, you could easily raise half a million.”
I crossed my arms as her eyes hovered over my chest. “No, thank you. I’ll do it the old-fashioned way.”
She laughed. “And marry wealth, you mean? Good luck. They’re all in there, buying their thrill before settling down with rich girls. Money attaches itself to money.”
I shrugged. I couldn’t be bothered telling her that my ambition didn’t extend to marrying wealth.
“Remember, if you change your mind…” Her tone softened. “Why don’t you go have a drink and think about it? Think of what you could do with all that cash.”
I sighed. It was tempting, especially with that handsome stud whose eyes had fucked me already. I sensed he might be in the market for me. But it felt wrong. Sleazy. Besides, by his mere presence in that establishment, he’d already become a creep.
Taking sheepish steps, I made my way back to a civilized world where things happened naturally.
I ran into a couple doing a drug deal and a young girl squabbling with her boyfriend and reminded myself that life wasn’t that black and white.
5
* * *
BLAKE
I ONLY STAYED BECAUSE OF HER.
As each girl gyrated her ass and offered to show me what awaited should I wish to pay, my thoughts revolved around the dark-haired beauty whose bewitching eyes had collided with mine. I’d noticed her mouth-watering curves too. Curves had a way of alerting my cock. Even buried in loose unattractive clothes, she was a flower I would have loved to sniff and pluck.
James was lost in his own little erotic paradigm. The girl who had caught his interest paraded before us in a pink bikini, after which he insisted on a private showing, costing him five thousand pounds, where one could touch but not fuck.
My cock remained limp. The girls were too young and skinny. A smart mouth could do more for me than some young girl needing cash in return for her pussy and sanity. And I’m sure it would fuck their heads up. How could it not?
Although that place wasn’t my thing, I waited for the dark-headed flower to make an appearance.
When she didn’t, I felt a tinge of disappointment, despite respecting her for not parading.
Blending with a cocktail of cheap perfumes, the pungency of male desire thickened the air. Most of the clients were middle-aged men who breathed heavily. Some even stuck their hands down their trousers. It was really fucking gross.
I told myself that James had to up his game. The guy was a chick magnet. Why would he need to be here?
Just as I was leaving, I spied someone I’d hoped never to see again. He was gesticulating at a creepy guy with a scar down his cheek, the type of person one expected to meet in such an establishment. Fancy silk wallpaper or scum-stained walls—sleaze always smelled the same.
Having spotted me, Dylan Fox gave a penetrating stare that chilled my bones.
When the woman running the show whispered something in his ear, I sensed he was part of management. His body language suggested he was in charge, and knowing Dylan Fox, he wouldn’t settle for anything but domination. Even as a conniving child, he’d stopped at nothing in his need to rule.
I left, determined to do some digging because I could have sworn that some of those girls were underage. Ammunition to bring down my enemy had just landed on my lap.
* * *
THE FOLLOWING DAY, I roared down the M1 and took the turn for Northampton. Running late for my appointment, I hadn’t slept, which wasn’t unusual—I had chronic insomnia. At least this time, that dark-haired beauty had entered my thoughts, instead of the cast of evil faces that normally plagued me.
I drove into the gardens of a Georgian estate that I planned to buy. Poplars lined the road, and a feast of colorful blooms filled the vast grounds. It was as though I’d stepped into a parallel universe, in that those old estates