I use the restroom and wash my hands. I open the door to be greeted by the kid himself. “Oh.” I jump back, before almost running into him. He stands in the middle of the hallway, blocking my way back to the table. “Excuse me.” I go to walk around, but he steps to the side, blocking me once again. I start to get aggravated. “Can I help you?” I growl.
He smirks, his eyes looking me up and down. “I think you can.” He reaches for me, but I take a step back out of his reach.
“I’m not here for you.” I straighten my shoulders. “If you would please …”
He steps into me, pushing my back into the wall between the restrooms. “How much?” he asks, running his knuckles up and down my bare arm.
I pull away the best I can. “Excuse me?”
“How much do you cost for the night?”
I gasp at his audacity. “You son of a—”
“Careful,” he interrupts me with a chuckle. This prick is enjoying himself. “I know you’re not his wife. And I also know that Jacob pays for his women.”
The hairs on the back of my neck rise. I never stopped to think of what others would think of me out with my date. Did I honestly think I would come off as a long-lost lover? A girlfriend? What if someone tells his wife I was with him? How would I explain that he paid for me? And who the hell would believe it wasn’t sexual?
“See …” He lifts his right hand and cups my cheek. I slap it away, and he grips my chin, shoving the back of my head into the wall, digging his fingers into my skin painfully. He lowers his face to mine. I can smell the liquor on his breath. “You are nothing but a whore. And all whores have a price. So name yours.”
My body shakes but not from fear. Anger. How dare this kid speak to me this way? “Fuck you,” I say through clenched teeth.
With a snort, he places his free hand on my hip, then yanks me to him. “I will. One way or another.”
I slam my fists into his chest, and he lets go of me. Taking a few steps back, he slides his eyes over me one last time before he walks into the men’s bathroom to my left laughing.
After spending a second to collect myself, I make my way back to the table. I plop down in my seat and pick up my drink. This date can’t end soon enough.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
EMILEE
“EVERYTHING OKAY?” JACOB asks me once we leave the restaurant.
“Yes,” I answer, staring out the back window at the lights on the Strip.
The kid never said another word to me. He just stared at me from across the table. It made me nervous, so I just kept ordering drinks. After my fifth, Jacob looked over at me, but he never stopped them from coming. As long as I wasn’t making a scene, he was allowing it.
Fucking bullshit!
“I had a nice time tonight.” He goes on.
I finally look over at him but say nothing.
He types away on his phone. “I know it was boring …”
I snort. “Boring would have been nice.”
He stops typing. “Did something happen?”
“No,” I lie. As far as I know, he knows what the kid did and didn’t care. It’s his business partner’s son, for fuck’s sake. He’ll take his side over the whore he hired to sit there and look pretty.
The limo pulls around to the private back entrance of Kingdom and comes to a stop. I grab my clutch off the seat beside me.
“Emilee …”
“Thanks for the dinner,” I say, exiting. I’ve already been paid, and the date is over. No need to make this longer than it has to be.
The limo drives off, and I turn to walk to catch a cab. I had too much to drink tonight to be driving home.
“Miss York?”
I spin around to see Nigel standing at the top of the stairs, holding one of the doors open with one hand and a cell to his ear in the other. He nods a couple of times and whispers something before placing it in his pocket. “Please come in.”
I grab my dress and pull it up to be able to walk up the stairs and into the building.
“Is something wrong?” I ask confused. Did Jacob call and complain about how many cocktails I had?
“No, not at all. Titan would like to speak to you.”
I nod. He pulls out a black key card and scans it for the elevator access. We step inside, and he scans it again, and the door slides closed.
I scan the buttons to see he pressed the one with an R. We stand silently while it makes its way up. I avoid looking at myself in the mirrored walls. It opens, and he gestures me to exit. I do so and see a set of black double doors ahead of me at the end of the single hall. The Royal Suite is written across the top of them. “What is this?” I ask.