of her back. “You’re in charge.”
For now.
Kelsey curled her legs under her in the arm chair, listening to Wyatt make his offer. She was still having trouble wrapping her mind around the fact that Wyatt Austin was here at The Ranch and in her cabin, chatting with her like they had some actual friendship. It was like she’d stumbled through some portal where fantasy and reality collided and morphed. But what Wyatt was suggesting was even more mind-scrambling than finding out that he used to be a dom.
“What do you think?” he asked after laying out his crazy proposal with stoic precision.
She strung together his last few sentences in her head, rewinding and digesting them again to make sure she was hearing him right. Yep. Still crazy. “So, wait a second, you want to pay me all that money to be your date?”
Small frown lines appeared around his mouth, like parentheses framing his dissatisfaction with that explanation. “Sort of. You would be posing as my girlfriend and accompanying me to events at the retreat.”
Unbelievable. She would’ve never thought the man delusional. She reached up to pull the too-tight band from her hair, releasing her ponytail and some of the pressure building in her head. “Wyatt, have you met me? I’m a waitress who grew up in a neighborhood that cops were afraid to go to at night. No one’s going to believe I’m some rich chick from out of state.”
He leaned forward on the couch, bracing his forearms on his thighs, his features half in shadows in the lamplight. “Yes, I have met you. And what I see is a beautiful woman who can think on her feet and who has the ability to charm anyone in a room. I can get you up to speed on the finer details, the etiquette. And maybe you can help me, too, because God knows making small talk and schmoozing clients are on top of the list of things I suck at.”
She arched a brow. “You can’t be that bad.”
“No. Trust me. The universe gave all of that skill set to my brother.” His focus drifted to the hand she was using to finger comb her hair, his gaze tracking her movements with open appreciation. “I like your hair down. I never get to see it that way.”
“Thank you.” She clasped her hands in her lap, the memory of how he’d looked at her in the training room coming back to her. Even before she’d gotten over the surprise of seeing him standing there, her body had gone hot and needy at his blatant perusal of her form. Never had she had that kind of reaction to such a clearly dominant assessment. The rush of it had nearly knocked her on her ass.
But she couldn’t let herself get distracted by the bone-deep attraction he always roused in her. This was dangerous territory. The suggested deal was way too reminiscent of how her mother first started her “career.” Rich men making seemingly harmless offers. A night on the town, a few pretty things to wear, and a wad of cash to help a girl with her tough situation. What was expected in return was easy, right? Especially if the guy was good looking and charming anyway. Her mother had stepped into the trap of that fairy tale facade, and the sharp-toothed demons waiting on the other side had devoured her and spit her out, leaving her irreparably broken.
And though Kelsey didn’t want to believe that this was the type of arrangement Wyatt was suggesting, she needed to ask the question. She cleared her throat. “What exactly would you be expecting for the money?”
“Precisely what I said.”
She lifted her gaze to him. “But we’d be staying in the same room.”
“Of course,” he answered, looking a bit exasperated. “I thought that was clear.”
She shifted on the couch, the answer stinging and anger welling. “So you think because I let men pay me to beat them, that I’d just take a check to fuck someone, too?”
For a second, he looked as if she’d thrown ice water in his face, then he grimaced. “Kelsey, no. Do you honestly think I’d expect sex in return for money?”
She shrugged, her heart still beating too fast. “You wouldn’t be the first guy in my life to make that offer.”
Or the tenth.
When she’d stripped at the club, the offers had come nightly. Luckily, even in her haziest days of drug addiction, she hadn’t taken anyone up on it. But she’d be lying to herself if she didn’t admit that she’d stayed with boyfriends much longer than she would’ve because they’d funded her habit. She bet if Wyatt knew all of that he wouldn’t be sitting here wanting to parade her around his clients. He wouldn’t want to be seen with her anywhere.
He dragged a hand through his hair, appearing to be truly pained that she’d ever been propositioned in that way, and met her gaze. “Look, I’m not good at lying. So I’m not going to sit here and pretend that I don’t want you. That I haven’t thought about you in exactly the position I found you in tonight. That sharing a room with you and not touching you isn’t going to be a challenge. But nothing has changed since the day I didn’t kiss you in the car. I’m not going to pretend to offer something I don’t have to give just to get you in bed.”
The stark honesty startled her, hitting some unfamiliar spot inside her. She wasn’t used to guys straight-shooting with her. All her life, the men she attracted were the smooth-talkers, the snake charmers, the guys with the wink-and-a-smile promises. This man wasn’t feeding her a line. If she took this money and stayed with him, he’d keep his hands off her no matter how much he wanted to do otherwise. She knew it without a shade of doubt.
But the question was, would she survive it? She hadn’t slept with anyone in almost a year and for the last few months, the man sitting across from her had been playing the lead role in her fantasies. Fantasies that had scared her, had made her want things she hadn’t been able to do with anyone else. Things she’d been dreading doing tonight with Colby …
“Thank you for being honest with me. And I know I can take you at your word,” she said, her voice steady as resolve began building in her, crystalizing.
“You absolutely can,” he assured, some of the darkness and tension lifting from his face, hope replacing it. “So you’ll do it?”
Twenty-five grand would solve her most pressing issue with the snap of her fingers. She’d be able to move and get on her feet, find another job. One magical sweep of the money wand and it’d be done. Someone else fixing her problems for her again. The carrot danced in front of her at the end of that stick. And it looked mighty delicious.
But before she could reach out and take a bite, she thought back to her session yesterday with Hawk, the way she’d felt when he’d dropped that fifty-dollar bill on the table. Did she want to be bought by yet another man? Hired help? The little spark of pleasure she got when she was around Wyatt would be twisted and tainted once money got dumped into the mix. And that spark was the only pure thing in her life at the moment.
A menacing voice whispered in her head. You’re going to trust this guy, you stupid girl? You’ll be all alone with him. He could hurt you, Kelsey. It could be a trap like last time. Why else would someone like him want trash like you?
She swiped her damp palms on her pants and mentally gave Davis Ackerman’s ghost and his ugly whispers the finger. “I’m not taking your money, Wyatt.”
His mouth
