Page 51 of Glass Wings
There was a square gazebo framed by a family of rose bushes and a shirtless man on a ladder towards the top of the structure. His skinwas pulled tight over the powerful back and arm muscles as he painted the exposed wood, a bucket in one hand and a brush in the other.
“Hi,” Hadley said, walking right up to Sheng and looking up at him. “Whatcha doing?”
“Hailey, you’re here!” Sheng responded with a smile larger than his face, his white teeth glinting even from their distance. He set the paint can and brush down on a flat surface of the gazebo roof and climbed down the metal ladder. It clicked and bent against the structure it was propped against as he climbed.
Once his feet touched the ground, Hadley giggled, realizing he was barefoot. He held his index finger up, asking her to wait as he cooly leaned over a rosebush and emerged back in front of her a few moments later, holding a silky yellow rose.
“It’s not as beautiful as you,” he said as she took the rose. “But a gesture all the same.”
“Ouch,” Hadley gasped, not careful enough to avoid the thorns, dropping the rose to the ground. A bright red fat dribble of blood pooled on her finger. Sheng looked at her hand and frowned, turning his head as if confused.
“Sorry, I can be a bit of a klutz,” Hadley explained, blood rushing to her cheeks.
“An interesting first experiment,” he mused. His eyes shined bright as he moved swiftly, turning her around with his hand on her waist and guiding her out of the garden.
“It’s quite hot today, and I can take a break from winterizing the gazebo. Let’s head inside, shall we? I could stand to put on a shirt.” He winked at her, his face inches from hers.
“From the urgency of you needing me here, putting clothes on seems to be counterintuitive,” Hadley said, feeling bold. She wasn’t as tense as she had been before she saw Sheng, but her gut hadn’t stopped telling her to run. She thought about Hector’s car, both of their future careers in the arts, and the path that they would eventually forge. She wasn’t alone, and she could push through it.
Sheng looked at her with his eyebrows raised and lips pulled in as they walked into the kitchen from the double French doors.
“I don’t know what you mean,” he said, seeming genuine.
“I’m an escort, Sheng,” Hadley said, pulling away from his touch and stopping in the middle of the kitchen. “Why else would I be here?” She didn’t like this, didn’t like to degrade herself in the first place, but then having to play a silly game of cat and mouse was not something she could pull herself into.
“Yes, a stubborn one at that.” Sheng smirked, throwing Hadley off guard. “You know, Hailey, I expect you to fall in love with me one day. Making you have sex with me seems like it would start our relationship off with an odd sort of power dynamic, would you not agree?”
Hadley stared at Sheng, mouth open, slapping her right hand to the side of her cheek. She took in his v-lines, making a perfectly crafted triangle under his gray, loose-fitting jeans. She bit the inside of her cheek before she let out a sigh, too overwhelmed by both his words and his body.
“Fine,” she snapped back, determined to seem unbothered, despite having failed already. “What are we doing, then?”
Sheng walked past Hadley, smiling, and stopped before the door frame that led out of the kitchen into the hall. He pressed a button on a small, pearly white intercom, a low beep replacing the awkward tension in the room.
“Amis, let’s get Miss Hailey her payment, please,” Sheng purred into the intercom.
A prompt, “Yes, sir,” came, the intercom filling the room with Amis’ voice before another low electronic tone confirmed the line’s disconnection.
Hadley realized that she had forgotten to ask for payment up front. If it weren’t for Sheng being so honest, she would be breaking all the rules Grant had taught her. The fact that she was alone here again had her sucking on her bottom lip. Everything felt too informal; she didn’t like that. She couldn’t believe that she wanted it, but she wished they could just get the sex over with so she could sprint out of there and be done with it.
“Well, I do have some friends coming over later that I’d love for you to meet. It’s just a casual cookout in the yard, some beers and steak,” Sheng began, “but that isn’t for a few hours, so until then, maybe we could play a game?”
“What game?” Hadley crossed her arms over her chest, realizing she wasn’t going to get this over with anytime soon.
Flutter your eyelashes and make the best of it,she thought to herself.
“Cards, maybe? That's all I think I have here. How do you feel about poker?”
“Strip poker,” Hadley said, feeling more comfortable making this about work.
Don’t let this get too personal. He is not your friend.
Sheng’s eyes smoldered and his lips curled like a beautiful villain that Hadley could easily picture in the dark. He nodded his head at her request.
Amis walked in at that moment, carrying a small white envelope, and handed it over to Hadley promptly. She took it, feeling a noticeable thickness as her hands held it. She thanked Amis before he turned away, leaving them alone once more.
“I wanted you to have that payment right away so that you know you can leave anytime. You now no longer need anything from me. You now hold the power if you choose to stay.”
Hadley, skimming through the bills in the envelope, calculated that this was enough money for more than twenty-four hours of their special agreed-upon rate. The envelope that she held in her hands was life-changing. She was stunned, but did her best not to let her emotions get the better of her, fighting off the tears pooling in her eyes. She couldn’t breathe, she couldn’t think. All she knew was that she had a real lifeline, a safety net.
