Richer Than God - Amelia Wilde Page 0,57

shadow, but it’s gone in a heartbeat. God, I’ve been such a fool. So stupid. I thought—I hoped—there was something between us. Something different, and special. I thought I felt it. I was wrong. He’s stepped in to save me more than once, and I thought… I thought….

Thinking about it any more is going to crush me, but I can’t stop. I worry at the wound like it’s an actual stab to my belly. Is that blood dripping down to the floor or just the shattered remnants of my heart? I cast around for something to think about and come up with Zeus. His hands on my hips. His mouth on my mouth. His eyes searching mine. No. God—why? That’s not comforting. It was all fake. It was all a performance.

“Did I leave anything for the rest of you?” Zeus turns from side to side, looking them all in the eye. “Are you asking if I’ve tasted her?”

“Maybe,” calls the same man.

“I have.” Zeus is so flippant about this, as if it wasn’t a world-changing thing that he did to me on his desk that day. “Sweet as fuck,” he says. “Sweet as honey, I should say.”

Six hundred thousand.

This place was supposed to be good for the women. Or if not good, then at least safer than the other alternatives. This doesn’t seem good. This seems very, very bad. And it’s not just me. The other girls gathered around the room look... unsettled. They’re not supposed to look horrified when they’re with clients, so the amount of eyebrows drawn together is not a good sign. Alicia’s jaw is set tight, her hands braced on a table.

“I lied before,” Zeus pretends to admit. “I know what you’re really asking.”

My face burns. There’s going to be nothing left for whoever bids the highest, because I will be nothing. I’ll fall through the floor to the center of the earth and burn up in a pit of lava.

“Her asshole,” he says, and there—I’m dead. “It’s heaven to fuck. The way it grips, the way she cries….” He stares up at the ceiling, seeming overwhelmed at the memory. But then his eyes snap back down to the clients. It’s not the men who catch my attention though. It’s Savannah.

She’s sitting closest to the dance floor. She should be the one with a straight face. But she looks sick at what’s happening to me. Mortified on my behalf.

“The highest bidder tonight,” continues Zeus, “will be the second man to fuck her ass, and I can promise you, that’s a privilege worth paying for.”

There’s too much noise after that to keep track of what’s happening. The bid keeps climbing and climbing, and with every heartbeat, I’m sure it’s over. It’s got to be over. I can’t do this, but I have to do this. This is what my life has come to.

“One million,” says a man. I haven’t heard his voice before, but it sends shivers down my spine. He’s been waiting for the perfect moment.

And then…

“Any challengers?” Zeus gives them plenty of time. His jaw ticks. It’s subtle, but my heart beats faster at the sight of it.

The silence is absolute, except for my own heart in my ears.

He’s reading a name. “Lounge or upstairs?” Zeus calls over the chatter. “Ah, upstairs. The lounge will have to wait.” He gives a signal, and then there’s a hand on my elbow. It’s Reya, her expression impassive.

“You have a few minutes,” she tells me. “Take advantage of it.”

How? How am I supposed to take advantage of it? All I can do is follow her up to the main floor, to the beautiful rooms that I stupidly envied before. Reya ushers me into one and throws open the wardrobe. “There’s plenty to wear,” she says. “I’d stay in that until you know what his preferences are. The bid is for the rest of the night; he has until dawn with you. Zeus will be making other arrangements downstairs, so when you’re finished, you can come to his office.”

“I—”

Reya squeezes my hand. “You’ll be fine.”

And then she’s gone.

I run for the door with a vague plan of sprinting until I reach the ocean or the other side of the country, but it flies open in my hand.

“I can’t believe he did that to you,” Savannah says, her voice tight with anger. “That was sick. Are you okay?”

“Are you okay? Did something happen to you?” Of all the unbelievable things, Savannah coming to check on me is the least plausible.