Page 18 of Chasing Kings

“I said I’d pay you. I’ll pay you.”

“I don’t know if I like your tone, Ethan.”

Ethan dug his short nails into the soft skin on his palms, letting the bite of pain override any fear he might feel from being alone in a room with Julian. He’d asked for a thirty-day loan on the money, promising a full return in that time.

The problem was nothing had gone as planned since he’d gotten the cash. Kelly had assured him she knew someone who was making a movie without studio backing, but she was sure it was going to be a hit. They needed some upfront capital, and she thought Ethan might want in.

He’d been expecting a big payday on a project of his own but didn’t have the funds immediately available, and Kelly had made it sound like a can’t-miss opportunity.

So he’d borrowed.

Now Kelly was somewhere in the wind, probably high off her ass on however much cocaine ten grand could buy, and Ethan was hoping like hell he could cover the scratch before his thirty days were up.

The clock was ticking, though, and Julian had expectations that went along with his loans. Things he expected people to do to earn their keep, in lieu of charging interest. It was sort of a flesh tax he liked to apply whenever he loaned money, and Kelly had claimed it was why she hadn’t gone for the loan herself.

Ethan had heard a thing or two about Julian’s bargains, but they hadn’t seemed so bad to him at the time. Julian threw sex parties at Antoine Parks’s L.A. mansion or a rental suite in a five-star hotel somewhere in Vegas, depending on the clientele. People looking for a nasty thrill or some down-and-dirty sex with a famous adult-film star would pay top dollar to get into one of these parties, and Julian was obviously pocketing a huge chunk of the revenue.

Twenty-five days into the loan and Ethan had been called in for two of these parties already. The first had been okay, a little weird but strange was par for the course in Ethan’s life. He’d done a few things he might not have otherwise, but if it was a one-time thing, he could handle it. Then the second call came in, and Ethan went, though this time he’d had his reservations.

After the second party he knew he never wanted to do it again, so when the third call came in, he left L.A., using the video awards as an excuse and hoping it would fly.

He should have known better.

Julian thought he was the master, and when Ethan didn’t come to his call, things were bound to get messy. Ethan had hoped he could get away long enough to recoup the losses, but it looked like Lady Luck wasn’t on his side tonight.

“I’ll get it,” Ethan said again, hoping the third time might be the charm.

“I’m sure you will. But let’s say you have until the end of the week, shall we? I feel like I might want to do some shopping while I’m in town, and that money would help me buy a lot of shiny things.”

“Three days?” It wasn’t necessarily impossible, but improbable wasn’t a stretch. How the hell was he supposed to come up with ten grand in seventy-two hours?

“And don’t think you’re going to win your way into a jackpot, either. I have friends. Friends who owe me favors you couldn’t imagine. Every pit boss in this city has you on their most-wanted list, so consider your free pass to the casinos officially terminated.”

“What the hell? How do you think I’m going to get that kind of money, then?” He knew better than to talk back, but in the moment all Ethan felt was a furious rage, making it impossible to keep his mouth shut.

Julian rose to his feet and stubbed out his cigarillo on the arm of the sofa, burning a hole clean through the leather.

“Gosh, I don’t know. Maybe you can sell your body.”

Chapter Eight

It went without saying that the moment Ethan navigated his rental car away from the Strip, Sam started hearing the lyrics to Sheryl Crow’s “Leaving Las Vegas” in her head.

When he’d come to her room earlier that afternoon, her immediate fear was that he regretted kissing her. He had seemed distracted and unhappy, but when she’d pressed him for details, he’d gone quiet, not giving her any indication of what was upsetting him. Since the only thing that had happened before they’d returned to the hotel the previous evening was their kiss, she assumed that had to have a hand in his foul mood.

She couldn’t figure out why though. When he’d walked her to her door, he’d been cheerful and almost obnoxiously charming. And the way he’d kissed her before parting ways for the night? Well…she’d nearly taken back her no sex rule right then and there.

Was that what was bugging him? That she hadn’t invited him in for a roll in the sheets after his evening tour of the Vegas Strip? If so, he wasn’t the kind of man she thought she’d been getting glimpses of. The Ethan she was coming to know wasn’t at all the type of person she’d imagined a male porn star to be. He was clever, and kind and romantic in unexpected ways. He made her want to spend more time with him.

Sam sincerely hoped that wasn’t just a big show to get in her pants. She knew some guys would go to impressive lengths to bed a girl, but Ethan got to have sex literally whenever he wanted. It was his job. She liked to think he wasn’t playing games with her, because the previous night had honestly been one of the most romantic evenings Sam could recall ever spending with a guy.

It was also the first time she’d seen a guy’s cock before the first date. Come to think of it, it was the first time she’d been on a date with a guy whom she’d seen naked but hadn’t actually slept with.

Weird.

She shifted uncomfortably in the passenger seat, waiting for him to break the silence. They’d been driving for about fifteen minutes, and he still hadn’t told her where they were going.

The farther out of the city they got, the more her worries from the previous night about being alone with a stranger began to nag at her. After all, in the CSI episodes she’d watched, things never went well for the wide-eyed out-of-towner.

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