Drawing in a shaky breath, I turned back to him. “Yes,” I croaked. Jesus-fucking- Christ, what was I doing? I knew I was considering making a deal with the Devil, but could I lower my standards this much? I had no issues with sexuality. I had no issues with other women who wanted to express that sexuality, but the idea of bing a dancer was throwing up roadblocks in my head. I couldn’t do this-not even for Hawk.


    I threw thest of my whisky down my throat and stood. “I’m sorry, Mr. Rivera, but I can’t do this.”


    “Do what, exactly? We’re having a drink.”


    I ran a hand through my hair, checking my ponytail was still in ce. Of course, it was. It hadn’t moved all day. Why the fuck was I stalling on this?


    “I can’t be one of your Dolls,” I blurted out. “Hard limit.”


    His eyes became hooded. “I never mentioned anything about you bing one of my Dolls.” His words were controlled like rage was suddenly seeking to w out of him. What had I said to make him react like that? “What I want from you, you probably won’t want to give me because if you’re offended by some women dancing in lingerie, you won’t like what I was about to offer you.”


    Keeping Hawk’s life firmly in my mind, I let out a breath. “What are you offering?” I asked in a whisper.


    He gestured to the chair. “Sit down, and I’ll tell you.”


    I stood there a moment longer, waging war with myself. I could do this. I could sit and hear the guy out. Moving back to the chair, I sat, bringing my legs up beneath me. “If you expect me to whore myself out, you’ve got another thinging. Nothing is worth giving up my pride for that.” I red at him, but what I’d said had amused him.


    “I don’t want you to whore yourself out as one of my Dolls.”


    “What do you want me for then?”


    “I want you to be my personal Doll.”


    A shot of lust ricocheted through my body at the same time as outrage did. Conflicted by the two strong emotions, I shut my eyes for a moment and breathed. “Your whore, you mean?” When I opened them again, his dark eyes were roving my body.


    He shrugged unashamedly. “I don’t care what youbel it… I want you for myself.”


    “What if I told you I had a boyfriend? Would that offer still stand?”


    His dark eyes clouded over a little as he leaned forward in his chair. “You don’t have a boyfriend, Little Bird, so don’t even fucking think about ying that card.”


    Although outrage still hummed through my body, I swallowed down the insults I wanted to hurl at him, remembering my brother’s life could hinge on this. “How long?”


    “Two weeks.”


    “And after two weeks, I’m free to leave, never to see you again?”


    “If you can walk away from me at the end of those two weeks,” he replied smugly.


    I huffed augh and unfolded my legs, cing them on the hardwood floor. “What would be involved with me being your Doll?”


    “You will be avable to me at all times.”


    Narrowing my eyes at him, I rolled that statement around in my head. Avable to him at all times was a pretty broad request. “Avable for what?”


    He smiled, and my heart nearly jumped right out of my chest. It was unfair that he was this good-looking. In fact, why would he even want to be seen with me? I smelled of wet dogs and was covered in fur six days a week.


    “This and that,” he replied, taking another sip from his ss.


    “This isn’t how contracts work. You can’t be vague or ambiguous. I will never agree to broad statements like ‘avable to you at all times’ and ‘this and that.’ Sorry.” I folded my arms defensively across my chest and stared at him.


    “All right, Little Bird, do you want to know what I want from you for two weeks? I want yourplete submission of all things. Sex, yes, but I will make that very pleasurable for you, but in other ways, too. You will be there to apany me to dinners and meetings when needed.”


    “Jesus,” I muttered. This sounded a hell of a lot like Pretty Woman. Hey, at least we were in the right city, right? I stared at him, taking in every angle of his face, his jaw.


    Two weeks.


    Could I give up two weeks of my life to get Hawk off the hook?


    “What about my brother?”Content ? N?velDrama.Org 2024.


    He spread his legs out a little wider, my eyes tracking the movement. “I’m not into men.” “No, I mean, what happens to his debt? Will it be wiped?”


    “Of course.”


    “I want that written into the contract.”


    “Contract?”


    “You think that all this won’t be put into writing? I’m going to make damn sure it is, so we both know where we stand.”


    “No contracts,” he said in a hard voice. “My word is my bond.”


    “Then, we don’t have a deal,” I told him, daring him to counter my threat with one of his own. When he didn’t, I stood. He mirrored me, his expression vaciting between humor and frustration.


    He finally fixed it on indifference and held out his hand for me to shake.


    “I’ll let you think about this a little longer before you give me your answer.”


    What an asshole. Opening my mouth to argue, I shut it a minuteter. I didn’t need to waste time on this. It was not beneficial, and it would only serve to put me in a worse mood. He brought my hand to his mouth, brushing his lips against the back of it.


    “I will be seeing youter, Wren. You can count on that.”


    As I stalked away, the only thought I had was that I would never sell myself to a man like that. Not even for my brother.