I was the only person willing to help her.
But I was never going back. I lived with the mentality of an animal willing to gnaw off its own leg to escape a bad situation. Blackwater was a graveyard of broken dreams and disillusioned folks with more faith in scratch-off tickets than labor laws.
I’d been a kid when I realized getting out meant depending on myself and clawing my way to the top even when exhaustion and hunger held me down. I’d do whatever it took to break away from that past, even if it meant leaving others behind.
My life didn’t have time for moral reflection or guilt. I was too busy surviving. Everything in this world came with a price, and the one thing people were always claiming they couldn’t buy was youth.
I was young enough, pretty enough, and I had enough brains to know sometimes you had to rob Peter to pay Paul. Being a sugar baby meant borrowing against my youth to afford a better future.
Less than one year of college left, and I’d be a certified teacher, qualified to earn a respectable income and live a normal life anywhere I pleased. Once I landed a real job, I’d never have to return to Blackwater again, and I’d never have to fake attraction again.
“What do you think?” The stylist turned my chair away from the make-up artist, and I faced a reflection too pretty to be me.
“Wow.” It never ceased to amaze me how easily they could transform a backwoods trailer park nobody with once mousey brown hair and freckles into a classy, sexy siren. “I don’t even recognize myself.”
My hair, no longer light brown since having numerous blonde highlights threaded throughout, spun like expensive silk into a wavy bun with impressive height atop my head. And my makeup was drop-dead perfect. Smoked out eyes with gold shimmer accents around the corners, heavy lash extensions, deeply contoured cheekbones, and the perfect nude shade of gloss to give my mouth the sort of pout men went crazy for. Micah would be very pleased.
Of all the men I kept arrangements with, there would always be something special about Micah. Dark skinned, quiet, sophisticated, with eyes full of secrets. He’d been my first Daddy and would probably be my last. Of all the Daddies I kept, he remained the only one with whom I shared a special bond. He’d be the hardest to leave.
He never smiled, but he also never failed to express praise. As my leading client, he taught me how to be one of the best sugar babies in the city. I let him get away with more than my other clients ever would.
The doorman called up at precisely five fifty-nine. “Miss Johansson, you have a guest in the lobby.”
“Thank you. Please send him up.” Micah would always be welcomed past the front desk. It was his name on the lease, after all.
Collecting my wrap and slipping on my heels, I met him at my door. “Always on time.”
“Avery.” He took my fingers in his hand and pulled me into a slow twirl. “You never fail to impress me. Gorgeous.”
“Thank you.” I allowed him to adjust my wrap and press a kiss to my cheek.
I couldn’t help permitting the kiss. Micah could easily make me beam with pride. Mature and debonair, he defined a class act.
“Shall we?”
Not once did he try for more than my company. He wasn’t in a relationship. And, aside from being married to his job, he led a fairly uncomplicated life. I believed our simplistic arrangement survived three years because of its uncomplicated nature.
I trusted him, something I didn’t do easily. He encouraged and guided me in the gentlest manner possible. And, in a way, I believed he depended on me, too. Men like Micah didn’t rely on many people, something we had in common.
He took my keys as we exited the apartment, and I waited as he fastened the locks. My gaze snagged on the moving dial above the elevator, and my heart stuttered.
Someone was coming.
There were only two of us on this floor, so chances of it being Noah were pretty high. His imminent approach filled me with an uncomfortable emotion, one I struggled to identify and had a hard time hiding from my date.
Micah passed me my keys, and I tucked them into my clutch just as the doors to the elevator parted. My breath escaped in a relieved sigh as a man I didn’t recognize entered the hall. The scent of