Can't Buy Love (4 page)

I strip the used condoms from their softening flesh and clean them with a microfiber towel I keep a stash of in the back corner of my booth, not surprised by the urge to tend to them. When they’ve calmed, Jordaan breaks their kiss with a tender smile that melts both me and its recipient.

“How long have you hoped for that?”

“Forever, Alfons.”

“Why didn’t you ask?”

“I was afraid you’d say no.”

Alfons frowns as he confesses in a whisper that floats through the dim interior of my booth, “If only I could rewind life. I should have reached for what I wanted no matter how impossible it seemed. I won the lottery today. I suppose sometimes people do take home the jackpot.”

“Sometimes more than one person gets lucky.” Jordaan can’t seem to help himself. He steals another taste of his lover.

A rare emotion snakes through my system, attempting to sabotage my empathetic bliss. Jealousy scorches my intestines until I smother the poisonous attack.

Could lightning strike twice in one night? How many people played only to lose? It doesn’t matter to me anymore. I’m willing to risk the odds. For the first time in two weeks, the path I need to take is clear.

I’m not the kind of woman to relinquish my goals without a fight.

Some might call me stubborn. Maybe even stupid, clueless or idealistic.

I prefer persistent, determined or optimistic.

I tuck the men’s cocks carefully inside their jeans and refasten the myriad clasps it had taken to restrain their lust for each other. This time temporarily. As though they’re a living mirror image, they each enfold one of my elbows in a supporting grasp and lever me to my feet, hanging on until I’m steady.

“Sometimes my clients are students. Tonight you’ve been the teachers.” I smooth damp strands of neon green and orange hair from their brows with a lingering touch they don’t seem to mind.

“Can I ask how we helped?” Jordaan leans into my caress. “I think it’d make me feel as though our interaction was a bit more…balanced.”

“You reminded me of two fundamental tenants of my personal philosophy.”

“A metaphysical ass-peddler?” Alfons grins. “Is this is a window or a rabbit hole?”

“Alfons!” Jordaan smacks his lover’s abdomen. “I’m glad we could return even a fraction of the gift you’ve given us.”

We both glare at Alfons when he digs in his pocket for his wallet. He grimaces and replaces the vinyl pouch when he realizes I’m likely to shove a tip up his ass and make him like it.

“I’m not a fan of pleading, but I will if I have to.” Jordaan stares at the floor until Alfons lifts his chin.

“No one will force you to beg for anything.”

They don’t need me to tell them what they’ve already figured out. I speak to reinforce the learning for myself.

“Stay true to your dreams, no matter the odds.” I smile as I watch them link hands before sharing my other cardinal belief. “Love is unconditional.”

“You’re pure genius, you know?”

“Not lately.” I frown as I recall how I’ve hunkered in this booth instead of charging toward Rick and his open arms.

Like a person momentarily blinded by the brilliance of the sun after an epic winter, I stumbled and almost wiped out. Until a brief cloud shaded the rays, allowing my vision to adjust to brighter prospects.

I’m ready to bathe naked in the light of Rick’s affection, despite the risks. I pray I don’t end up with a massive yet temporary burn from a quick burst of heat or a more deadly cancer caused by extended exposure to toxic radiance that appears glorious on the surface.

For the first time in my career, I glance at the clock on the stand despite the overwhelming success of my case. As though Jordaan and Alfons can sense my eagerness to usher them—no longer requiring my assistance—through my window, the pair turn to depart.

“Thanks.” Alfons nods as Jordaan wraps me in a brief hug. “We’ll never forget you…”

He blushes when he realizes I haven’t shared my name.

I grin. “Star.”

Love is a Battlefield

For the second time since I’ve worked this booth, I prepare to close up shop before dawn paints the sky with iridescent pastels. Rick won’t expect me to seek him out.

I never have before.

Not him or any other man.

I grab my long faux-fur coat and keys from the antique crystal dish in a drawer in the table, prepared to lock up behind me and my guests as we leave wonderland behind. Alfons and Jordaan have to split up, like a stream running over a boulder, to avoid slamming into the unmovable figure before them.

“Oh! What are you doing here, Rick?” I ignore the appraising stares my prior clients launch in my direction.

“Hoping I’d stay away?”

“Are you blitzed? I’m pretty sure she was about to hunt you down.” Alfons gawks at Rick.

Rick turns his bouncer face on Alfons. Jordaan decides it’s safer to worry about their own relationship and tugs his new lover toward the tram line. With a small wave and a brief pause to ensure I don’t object, they leave me alone with my…well, whatever it is Rick’s become.

A friend at least. I hope.

“Is that true?” Tiny lines crease the corners of his eyes when he squints.

“Yes.” I extend my hand to him. “Will you come inside?”

“I’m on break.” He shakes his head. “Not a lot of time.”

“Tommy won’t fire you for stepping out this once.”

“This was a bad idea.” He retreats a pace.

“Just to talk. I’m freezing out here.” With three people in my booth, I hadn’t been able to slip into my coat inside. Not all of the chill raising goose bumps on my arms has to do with the weather. I refuse to retract my fingers empty. “Please?”

“Impossible. If I cross through that window, I’m not about to stop until I’m inside
you
.” He mutters as he stuffs his fists in the pockets of his leather jacket. “Although you probably won’t even notice after those guys. Did you take them both at once? Did you get off on them stretching you? Did it cost them extra for a double or do you offer a price break?”

“If you intend to shame me, you’ll have to try a lot harder than that.” I storm into my small booth, dump my coat on the stool, wishing there were more floor to pace. Had I really been about to sacrifice my world for a chance with that asshole?

Damn it. Yes.

He knocks on the auto-locking window, which closed behind me none gently.

“I didn’t mean that, Sarah.” He winces. “Open the window. Please.”

I shake my head and gnash my teeth. Anything is better than allowing myself to cry in front of him, the one person I thought understood me. “Go away.”

His forehead bangs on the glass. “I’m an idiot.”

“A hypocritical moron. Don’t come back here.”

“I— Shit.” Rick looks over his shoulder then lowers his voice a few decibels. “I’m sorry. I’m all fucked up. It turned me on to think of them both with you. What kind of loser does that make me? To want a woman so much it hurts, even more when I think of her with other guys? I was mad at myself, not you. I promise. I didn’t mean it.”

I release the latch so I can snarl in his face. “If you ever insult my profession again, we’re done.”

“It won’t happen. I promise you, I have nothing but respect for you. It’s me I can’t figure out.” He staggers through my window and stands toe-to-toe with me. “You’re screwing with my head.”

“Not on purpose.”

“I know. I just… I’ve wondered.” He scrubs his hand over his jaw. The light scruff there makes me suspect he’s been as distracted as I have. Could he have forgotten to shave?

“Genuine curiosity won’t offend me. Judgment will.”

He nods then tugs me toward him, chaffing my bare arms. “What’s it like with other customers. Could I ever be enough? Or the right thing? What could I give you that you don’t get from them?”

How can I stay angry when we’re both navigating through the dark?

I wrap my arms around his middle beneath the open sides of his coat, inhaling the scent of the laundry detergent on his thermal shirt and the leather protecting his broad chest.

“It’s two different things. Entirely.” I can’t figure out how else to make him understand. How can I show him the vast disparity in the experiences? “Would you want to watch me with other men? See for yourself?”

I search for any sign of tension in his long back muscles and find none. Or hardly any.

“I must be even more fucked up than I thought.” He buries his face in my hair. “I like the idea.”

“I can tell.” I grind against his pelvis until a whistle from outside reminds me I haven’t drawn the curtain.

I spin to grab the fabric and catch Mari cheering from her window. When I turn around, hoping for more of Rick’s embrace, he’s about to shatter my dreams again.

Not one to be beaten twice in one night, I lunge for the table and block his goal.

“If you don’t remove your hand from that lockbox right now, I’m leaving.”

“Rick, I’d rather you walk away than pay me for sex so you can feel righteous about a carefree aftermath.”

“
What
? That’s not what this is about. Look, I’m not trying to score freebies because of what happened on Christmas. When I take your time here, you’ll be compensated for it or I’ll do without. No big deal.”

His cock must not have been copied on that memo. It’s hard as ever, forming a sizable lump in his black cargo pants.

He sighs when I don’t budge.

Our standoff comes to a peaceful conclusion when he lays the bills on the table. “Let’s see how it feels after…”

“Fair enough.” I’ll never accept his cash again.

I entwine our fingers and lead him upstairs. Somehow the trek up the steep incline seems longer than all the times before. Nerves steal my certainty, distorting my unique but steadfast moral compass like an abnormal magnetic field. Is this the right direction to go?

I unravel the laces of my boots faster than I’d have thought possible before kicking them off. They bang into the dresser an instant before I drop six inches to my unenhanced height. My stare lands somewhere around Rick’s diaphragm.

“Sometimes I forget how little you are.” He strokes my hair. “How delicate.”

“Don’t kid yourself.” I grab his package in one hand before he can flinch. “I can take care of myself when necessary.”

“Jesus.” He peels one finger at a time from his crotch. “If you want to molest me, let me ditch these first.”

Rick shucks his pants and boxer briefs with one swipe of his deft fingers. He shrugs out of his coat then crosses his arms over his head to whip his form-fitting shirt from his buff chest.

I desperately try not to study his ass as he bends to remove his boots and socks. No luck. I swallow hard. He’s gorgeous. An everyday, average guy…except not. To me, he’s the most attractive man ever to grace this loft. Or the entire European Union.

“Less staring, more stripping.” He groans as I shed my clothing. “Two weeks of pure hell, I swear. I haven’t gone that long without a fuck since I was eighteen.”

“You could have visited another prostitute. They all adore you.”

“Could have.”

“But you didn’t?”

“No.” He surrounds me in a bear hug and nibbles a path from behind my ear to my collarbone. “Wouldn’t it have ruined my chances with you?”

“I’m not sure how I could hold it against you when I’ve probably screwed a hundred guys and a handful of girls since I saw you last.”

His bites escalate to something a little fiercer. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s left a light mark for my future customers to wonder about.

“Did any of them make you feel like this?” He pauses to appraise the sincerity in my eyes.

“No. Not even close.” I shove his chest, knocking him backward.

His knee hits the corner of the mattress and he allows himself to fall. His feet rest on the floor, his knees bent, the majority of his body crashed sideways on the bed. Strong hands encircle my waist, drawing me over his supine form.

I straddle his hips, more eager than he to join our bodies. “I hoped you’d come. Every day. I needed this.”

“I’m sorry.” His head dips and he groans as my pussy glides over the length of his shaft. “Right now it’s hard to conjure any reason for staying away. I’m a moron.”

I tip forward, blanketing his trembling body with mine. His fingers splay across the skin of my ass, guiding my short, quick passes over him. My breath catches when the tip of his cock prods my clit.

“Condom.” He growls as I lick and nip his rugged throat, the underside of his prominent jaw. I’m not the only one who will bear evidence of our encounter.

I rise up on straight-locked arms, my head canted. What is he saying?

“Star, grab a condom. Quick. Or I’ll fuck you bare.”

How could I have forgotten? I never have before.

I lash out with one hand, irritated at myself and the world that necessitates the barrier between us, however thin. My fingers strike the stash of latex beneath a pillow. I bite my lip as Rick toys with my breasts while I dress him for the main event.