I want to lecture him for acting like my goddamn father… but I am here to negotiate. I can deal with a bossy know-it-all if he covers our expenses.
Deep breath. Slow exhale. Utmost confidence. "You still haven't told me what you want."
He reaches for his glass. "I want you. For one month." He takes a long sip. "For thirty days, you'll be mine. To use however I see fit. At the end, we say goodbye, we part, we never see each other again."
Okay… "What if I want to see you again?"
"Are you getting into tech?"
"Maybe."
"Then you will. I'm not going to banish you to another state."
"Thank God. I can't move to Jersey." The joke fails to lighten the mood.
He smiles anyway. "I won't ask you to leave the city. It's more that… once our arrangement ends, it ends. No friendship or booty calls or future help."
"Booty calls?"
"Do you have a new term for it? What were people saying? Netflix and chill?"
My laugh dissolves the tension in my chest. Ian Hunt saying Netflix and chill. It's absurd. And incredibly hot.
My body screams yes, yes, yes. More, more, more.
It overwhelms every thought in my brain. It's too hard to think around him. How am I supposed to negotiate intelligently?
"We still say booty calls," I say.
"I want to make that clear." His voice firms. "Once it's over, it's over."
"What if I don't want it to be over?"
"It's still over." His posture goes with his voice. Intense stare. Squared shoulders. All that presence.
I swallow hard. "What if you don't want it to be over?"
"That won't happen."
Okay… "What if it does?"
His brow furrows. His jaw cricks. For a second. Then he's back to the soft poker face. "It's never happened before."
"How many women have you… done this with?"
"Enough."
That's not really an answer. But I guess it doesn't matter. What's the difference if he's done this with one woman or a hundred? It's not like I'm going to say no, I won't take six figures because you're too big a slut. As long as he's safe… that's all that matters. "Other virgins?"
"Yes."
"But you've never paid before?"
"Sometimes, I leave parting gifts," he says. "No, always. But sometimes they're small. A set of lingerie or a toy. Other times—" He sets his glass on the table. "A semester of tuition. A trip to Paris. It was mine. But I didn't feel right taking it when she was… inconsolable."
"You're that irresistible?" I bite my lip. That doesn't matter. And it's not a risk. My heart? Still ice. Ian Hunt isn't melting it. Even if he already sets me on fire.
"It happens."
"But you never have feelings?"
"Never enough to reconsider."
Okay. A firm time frame is good. An end point. Less chance of getting hurt. Emotionally. But why in the world am I worried about that? This isn't about feelings. It's about cold, hard cash. "How do I know I can trust you?"
"You haven't asked for an amount yet."
"You haven't made an offer."
He chuckles fair point. "After you accept my offer, I'll transfer ten percent into the account of your choice."
"Oh."
"Another ten percent after we sign the contract. The rest when the thirty days are up."
"So it starts… now?"
"After we sign," he says.
Seems reasonable. "And how is it staying legal?"
"I'm not paying you to fuck me." His tone shifts to something dirty and demanding.
My thighs press together reflexively. Fuck, that tone is hot. I want him to use it again. Only with an entirely different implication.
"I want to fuck you, Eve. Very much. But I'm not paying for anything except your time."
"Isn't that what everyone says?" I'm not a lawyer, but I'm pretty sure that doesn't hold up in court.
"It's true. I'm paying for your time. Thirty days at my beck and call. You go where I ask you to go. Stay where I ask you to stay. Leave when I ask you to leave."
"So you ask me to go to your apartment at midnight and leave at two a.m.?"
He lets out a low chuckle. "That's not nearly enough time."
Ahem.
"Say I ask you to show up at my flat at midnight. And you do. I may ask for more."
"A blow job?"
His eyes pass over me slowly. With humor. Something I've said is funny. "I won't say it in a way that sounds like asking. It will sound more like…" His gaze meets mine. His voice drops to that dirty tone. "Get on your knees, vixen. I'm going to fuck that pretty red mouth."
Holy shit. I…
He…
Holy shit.
My cheeks flame. Then my chest. That's so incredibly dirty. And he's so casual about it.
And I…
I'm in so, so, so far over my head.
"Hopefully, you'll want to do whatever I've demanded," he says.
My body screams yes. Everything. All the things. Let me fill every one of your dirty desires.
He continues, "If you don't, you use a certain word."
"A safe word?"
He nods. "You can think about yours. Something easy to remember and hard to confuse. I won't push you to start. But I will eventually."
"You'll say something like that?"
"Yes."
"Oh." Words are impossible.
"I need to know you're ready to drop your safe word."
"So… it's on me to say no?"
"Partially. I'll read you the best I can. Try to stay within the bounds of what you can handle. But sometimes… people don't always know what they can take until they try it. I might push further than you can go. If that's not what you want…"
It is. But it's terrifying. Why do I want this stranger to order me onto my knees? "What if it isn't?"
"I can go slower."
"What if I keep using the safe word?" I ask.
"Then you keep using the safe word."
"You'll still pay me? If I never sleep with you? Or touch you? Or let you touch me?"
He nods.
"So you'll pay for my virginity… even if you don't actually get it?"
"On one condition," he says. "You agree not to sell it to anyone else."
More than fair. It's not like I want to go through this again. "You still haven't said a number."
His lips curl upward. A smile that should dissolve the sexual tension. Only it doesn't. At all. "For thirty days at my beck and call, playing by my terms?"
I nod.
He stands. Moves to his desk. Picks up a tiny blue notebook and an expensive pen.
In one quick motion, he writes a number. Then he returns to the couch and hands the notebook to me.
Almost half a million dollars.
Rent for the next decade.
Plus enough for mine and Addie's college and a trip to the Bahamas. A trip to the Bahamas every year. At a private resort. A luxury resort.