Page 5 of The Wages of Sin

Immediately, I turned my face to the floor and stumbled back a few steps.

“I’m sorry, sir,” I mumbled, tripping over myself to get the words out as fast as possible. “So sorry. I didn’t realize you were in here. I never would have opened the door if I’d known. Please forgive me.”

I managed to make it all the way to the bedroom door. My hand was wrapped around the knob when his deep voice stopped me.

“Wait.”

It was a command, plain and simple.

Even though every instinct in my body told me to run like hell, I didn’t dare disobey. I was already in enough trouble as it was after breaking two of the cardinal rules.

No talking.

No eye contact.

I froze.

“Turn around.”

Shit. I should have known it was too much to hope the man would simply accept my apology and laugh it off. Judging by the frosty nature of that stare, he wasn’t the type to laugh at anything.

All I could do now was pray that if I followed his commands, he wouldn’t report my behavior to Jane. She might have been kind enough to offer me a job when I was at my lowest, but the nature of her business didn’t allow her to tolerate anyone who broke the rules.

If she found out that I didn’t just make eye contact with a client but stood there gawking at his naked body for several seconds, I’d be out on the streets before sunset. And if that happened, I’d really be screwed.

Out in the open, without a place to hide or a way to make money, it would only take the feds a few days to find me.

And then…well, I didn’t want to think about what would happen after that.

“Look at me.”

I grimaced at the client’s words, even though the rich timbre of his voice ignited a brand new rush of heat inside me. No matter how I responded, I’d be breaking one of Jane’s rules, so I decided to go with the more flexible of the two.

Keeping my head down, I shook it gently. “I…I don’t think that’s a good idea, sir.”

“You didn’t seem to have a problem with it a moment ago.”

There was no point trying to deny it, so I tried to explain myself instead.

“I shouldn’t have done that. Like I said, I didn’t think you were in there. I was caught by surprise and?—“

“Surprise made you lick your lips?” I heard him step out of the bathroom, coming close enough that, without lifting my head, his bare feet entered my field of vision. “You were shocked into staring at my body?”

“I…I…”

Shit. I had no answer to that. Not one that would save my ass anyway.

A heavy silence hung between us for a moment, long enough for him to let out a long breath before saying, “All right, then tell me why you don’t want to look up at me now.”

Now, there was something I had no trouble answering. “Because it’s against the rules.”

“The rules?”

“Jane’s rules,” I explained. “No talking. No eye contact. Keep your head down and your hands to yourself.”

“But you’ve already broken all those.”

Not all of them.

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