Richer Than God - Amelia Wilde Page 0,9

days, but then a flashlight would sweep into my hiding place, a voice calling my name.

It’s just…

The fact of him.

The size of him.

The muscle of him.

Strong shoulders, a nipped-in waist, every inch of him solid beneath his suit. The fabric wraps around him so intimately that it’s almost obscene in its perfection. His clothes were made for him. This place was made for him.

Everything about him is overpowering, and he’s not even doing anything; he’s just standing there, watching me, lighting me on fire with strangely golden eyes. Even his hair is perfect, a bronze that’s been kissed by the sun. Like this man spends all his waking hours on a beach. He could light up a room. This is how I die, probably. He melts me from the inside out until I’m nothing, and this stolen bra and panty set will be worthless.

Get your shit together.

I force my breathing into some semblance of a normal pattern and lift my chin. I saw a video on power poses once. This is not a power pose, but it’s not a cowering one either. It’s the best I can do.

Say something.

“I didn’t come here for your amusement.”

He arches an eyebrow, and I die all over again. “Of course you did.”

“No. I heard the girls here—the women—I heard you were allowed to refuse a man. That’s what people say. That they’re allowed to say no.”

“Is that what people say?” he says, but it’s not really a question.

Despair makes me honest. “I thought it was like dating.”

“Dating?” A deadly smile spreads across his face, and it’s as breathtaking as moonlight on the ocean. I can feel the waves under my palm, the depth of the water, the insistent pull, down, down, down. “You thought you would hold court here while men tried to impress you?”

“Yes,” I whisper, because that is what I thought.

I imagined it would be awful, humiliating, demeaning, but a sugar daddy experience nonetheless, where the men who visit places like this would have to vie for my body.

I thought I would maintain a modicum of control.

More control than I would have with my uncle, chained to him for life. More even than the mountain, signing a contract with his brother. People say there’s work to be done in his diamond mines. They say pretty young things go into those mines and never come out. It was supposed to be safer here. I was stupid to believe that.

How could I have thought I’d be safe?

My body relaxes around the realization, parts of me going numb and then lighting up again. On, off. On, off. The air in the room curls over my skin, moving as if another door in another place has opened and shut. One year, I went to camp, and we learned about what to do if we encountered a grizzly bear in the woods. The most important thing was to stay calm. If you lost your mind, the bear would chase you, and it would eat you. Zeus could kill a grizzly bear. Five of them. He’s that tall, that imposing. I don’t even think he would unbutton his jacket. For all the light in his eyes, there’s darkness there too. Shadows. Secrets.

I don’t want to know what made him this way. I don’t know how I’d do this if I knew.

“But,” I start again, because going silent and still isn’t the end of this. I can’t stand here in this room forever, and the truth of the situation is too horrifying to keep inside my mouth. “I guess that’s only for women who pass inspection. Not me.” His eyes burn mine. They’re superheated sand, and mine are grass, and his win every time. “That’s not fair.”

He laughs, and the sound rolls through me, thunder and lightning and velvet. Rich and dark and cutting. What he’s going to do to me—I can’t fathom it.

And no matter how much I fantasize about it, I can’t run away.

“That’s your first lesson, sweetheart. Olympus isn’t fair. Reya, come here.”

Olympus. I’ve never heard anyone call it that, not out loud, and if I had, I would have laughed. I’m not laughing now. The name of this brothel might be a joke to Zeus, but nothing that goes on here is a joke. I press my thighs together, my knees aching. I send a quick prayer to no one in particular that he won’t notice.

She must have been waiting just outside the door, because she’s there instantly, and this is my third death in