Page 18 of Taking The Virgin

Chapter7

What did he justsay?

My mind whirls. Did he just offer me two hundred and fifty-thousand more dollars to go back to New York with him. For a month?

The sum is astronomical to me. Miraculous. Surely I’m back on his jet dreaming and I need to wakeup.

Shock makes me say something utterly stupid. “Why not just get another escort, or better than that, a real girlfriend?”

He gives me a look that I can read well by now: He has no interest in sharing his reasons withme.

“These are the terms,” he says. “You can take the offer or leave it, but I need to know your answer now before I fly back to Manhattan.”

“But…” I shake my head. “This seems so impulsive. On your part. And it’d be the same on my part if I were to sayyes…”

“You’re testing my patience, Red.”

It’s the nickname that brings me to my senses. It’s as if he’s tugged at a string that’s linked directly to my chest and has activated an emotion I can’t deny. Talk about impulsive—there’s no way I should be feeling anything for him, much less what I’m feeling right now. But there’s just something about him that makes me think that if I said no, I’d regret it for the rest of my life. And he’s offering two hundred and fifty-thousand dollars besides what I’ve already gotten.

How can I say no? The amount will be enough to pay off my family house and the repairs it needs, and most important, it’ll hopefully help me to get my brothers and sisters out of foster care and back under oneroof.

He must think I’m being difficult because he’s clenching his jaw. But he manages to say, “Most people would jump at that kind of money.”

“I would too,” I reply.

His brow creases. “Then why aren’tyou?”

Flustered, I correct myself before he changes his mind. “I mean, I will. So yes. Of course, yes.”

It feels as if I’ve just been plunged down the steep hill of a roller coaster, and a wild laugh comes out of me. He raises an eyebrow, and I don’t know whether he’s entertained or completely miffed at my behavior. At any rate, he signals to both drivers who are still waiting for us by the fancy cars, and all at once, they move to open the doors.

“I have business to attend to since I’m in town,” Owen says as if nothing monumental has just occurred. “It’s an in-person follow up to a recent consultation by my company. You’ll want to take care of any of your own business before the jet takes off in two hours.”

It seems he already has everything timed down to the minute.

Without any other acknowledgement that we’ve just agreed on a quarter-of-a-million-dollar deal, he saunters toward his town car. I watch him, swallowing, gaping once again.

My god. Little does he know that he’s just taken care of mybusiness.

After he gets into the back of his luxury car and it drives away, the thought of all that money finally wears off of me, leaving me with the other part of his offer.

He’s hired me for a whole month, and I don’t even have my virginity to give up anymore. So what exactly does he want from menow?

I’m so very willing to find out as heat flushes through me, banging and blasting, voraciously anticipating whatever he has inmind.

* * *

After graduatingfrom college shortly after my parents’ deaths and the destruction of my home, I moved into my friend Donna’s house. Luckily, I already had the grades and academic credits to complete college, but she was there to see that I picked up my diploma, even though she’s hardly around because she travels so much for her marketingjob.

Donna was also there when my brothers and sisters were put into foster homes.

Needless to say, she’s been there for everything that’s mattered lately.

But she isn’t home when I drop by, so I write her a note explaining that I’ll be spending even more time at a “college friend’s place” in Manhattan. That’s what I’d told her I was doing during this Highest Bidder trip. Not even she knows what I’ve been upto.

I also exchange the clothes in my duffel bag for a few fresh ones I have stored in her closet, then I’m off once again, wishing I could see my siblings before I go. My heart aches, knowing that I can’t.

But I will soon, thanks toOwen.

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