Trouble with the Fake Boyfriend (Rock Bottom #3) - Holly Renee Page 0,68

trying to hold onto a cloud of smoke. Useless and unrealistic.

I learned the hard way that reality was a cold, hard bitch. She didn’t ease me into it slowly. There was no gentle push that had me blinking open my caramel colored eyes until I saw the truth in front of me.

I cliff dived.

Falling hard, frantically clinging to what I desperately wanted, I hit reality as if I jumped head first into a body of ice-cold water. Gasping for breath, the pain was instant, but unlike the water, it didn’t make me numb. Instead, I felt that pain every day. It had settled into my bones causing a constant, dull ache.

My pain was as much a part of me as anything else. It was real and tangible, and just when I thought the pressure on my chest was easing a bit and I finally took a deep breath, reality reminded me who ruled and crushed me again just as easily as the first time.

I never expected that I would end up here. When I think back, I’m not really sure how it happened. Where everything went wrong.

It was a day just like any other. The smell of smoke and overly sweet perfume clung to my skin as I walked in the door. With the click of the latch, the world outside disappeared and I entered a world of mystery, lust and skin.

My steps were calculated and confident as I made my way over to my station, but my hands shook as I began rimming my eyes in coal black. It was easy to fool everyone else, too easy, but fooling myself was impossible. I searched my reflection for a trace of the innocence that once lay there. But all traces of the girl I used to know were gone.

Delicate black lace encased my breasts, a sharp contrast against my pale skin, and it would have looked beautiful if men weren’t going to be yelling at me to take it off within the next few minutes. In a different situation, in a different life, I probably would have liked the feel of the soft fabric against my skin, but in this life, it was suffocating. It was a gentle reminder of what I had become, and it burned my skin like a brand.

I watched all the girls in the room as they put on their facade. Each one of them had a different story that led them here. It wasn’t a choice many people made without reason. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t know what brought me to this point, but fuck, I hated thinking about it. Not because my story was one of tragedy, but it was one of heartbreak. I let a man destroy me, and as a result, I became a coward.

“Liv, you’re up doll,” Mark called from the silk curtain before smiling at me.

Mark was sleazy, but he was nice to me. I bought his kindness by making him the most money, but I’d take it either way. I had no friends in Atlanta. I had no family. They were all back in Tennessee, but I couldn’t think about Tennessee because it made me think of him. I couldn’t afford to think about him. It fucked with my head. It fucked with everything.

I could feel the stares and hear the harsh whispers from the other girls as I walked by, but I didn’t care about their opinions of me. There was a time when I would have cared what they thought, but that was long gone. All that mattered now was that the men loved me, no one here was close enough to hurt me, and I would leave with a wad full of cash at the end of the night.

“We’ve got a bachelor party in room one,” Mark read from his clipboard in front of him. “They’ve paid a lot of money, and I promised them our best.” He ran his chubby finger down my cheek, and I forced myself not to pull away from his touch. The smell of liquor and cheap aftershave choked me, but I hid my rush of nausea behind a fake smile that I had learned to master over the last few years. “You’ll start, then I’ll have some of the other girls join you.”

Bachelor parties were one of my least favorite parts of this job. Tainted wasn’t some hole in the wall club where just anyone could walk in. It was elite and the men who walked through