“We’re supposed to wait until all the Masters have finished.”
Taking a seat at the table, he indicated the chair opposite him. “Sit down.”
She looked around before sitting.
He pushed the plate of eggs and toast to her. “Eat.”
/> “Aren’t you hungry?”
“I told you to eat.”
He watched her pick up a fork and scoop a small amount of eggs into her mouth. He liked watching her eat. Occasionally, she would look up at him, and he wondered what was going through her mind.
He got up to make tea, then poured them both some orange juice.
“Thank you...Master.”
The word didn’t fall comfortably from her mouth, but a ripple went through his groin nonetheless.
“What about the Scarlet Auction appealed to you?” he asked. “You’ve got a Stanford degree. It’s not like you can’t get a job to make money.”
She chewed her toast slowly and swallowed before answering. “Like I said, it’s good money. And fast. I get paid within a week when everything’s all done and over with.”
“You need the money in a hurry?”
She shrugged. “I’ve got student loans to pay. I only had a partial scholarship to Stanford.”
He narrowed his eyes. She had to be on a payment plan for her student loans, so that hardly qualified as urgent. Maybe she had maxed out her credit cards. “So you don’t have a job?”
“I have a job.”
She sounded almost defensive.
“What do you do?”
She hesitated. “I work as an office assistant.”
“Where?”
“At a financial firm,” she mumbled into her food. “The pay’s not that great. It’s expensive to live in San Francisco. Rents are through the roof, and they just keep getting higher.”
“Your parents or family can’t help you out with expenses?”
“I’m not going to ask my parents for help. They already dipped into their savings and retirement accounts to help pay for Stanford. They’ve done enough for me.”
He was curious to know more about her family, her background, but that would be getting too personal.
“What about you?” she asked. “What do you do? Apart from paying exorbitant amounts of money for sex.”
He leaned back to better view her. She said it half-jokingly, but there was an undercurrent of judgment there.
“My family’s in real estate.”
“What kind?”
“All kinds.”
“Residential or commercial?”