“Be sure to return quickly,” he ordered and she pulled back, locked gazes with him and his eyes swept over her breasts. She didn’t like the way he said that to her and she glanced at all the men and hurried away and toward the ladies’ room.
After she took care of business and checked herself in the mirror she took a deep breath and debated about what to do. Head to the dressing room, change, and go home? How could she when supposedly her paintings sold? Hell, one for thirty thousand dollars? Jesus. Plus the money for working tonight. She would need to stay.
She was pacing and then headed out of the ladies’ room and right into a very angry and serious Slade James. He grabbed her upper arm and brought her into the opposite direction of the party and into a hallway.
“Are you okay?” he asked her, staring down into her eyes. She could see his concerned expression. Then his eyes grazed over her chest and she felt needy as well as pleased that he was checking her out. It was different than when other men did tonight. She liked his eyes upon her.
“I’m fine. What’s going on?” she asked.
“What’s going on? Well, let’s see, besides you parading yourself all over the joint with a fifty million dollar diamond and letting men stare at your body, hell, I don’t know. Isn’t that enough to piss me off?” he snapped at her.
“What? You’re pissed off at me?”
“You’re gorgeous and sweet and those men are criminals and untrustworthy. What were they talking to you about?”
“My paintings and how they sold tonight.”
“What?” he asked, shocked.
“Yes, I was shocked too, but apparently they all sold and one sold for thirty thousand dollars, Slade. Can you believe it?”
“No.” She narrowed her eyes at him and he quickly corrected himself. “Not that I don’t think your paintings are worth that, I meant it is shocking and in a good way. So selling the paintings tonight and this modeling thing should put you in a great place financially and you won’t need to work for Mulgoff or any of those other assholes with him. Great.”
“Wait, what do you mean work for Mulgoff? He may need me for something else. I can’t beat the money or the connections. He’s changed my life,” she stated.
“He can’t protect you. We can,” Falco said, joining them. He came closer and looked her over.
“Those men at that table are bad men. They could be part of the operations that hurt the Mondave brothers and even tried to hurt Pina.”
“What? How can that be? They seemed so—”
“Nice, wealthy? How many people do you know can buy a fifty million dollar diamond in a snap?” Falco asked her.
“Sixty million, actually, and me joining him for dinner as his guest tonight,” she added.
“He bought you, too?” Slade asked.
“No. God no, that isn’t what I said. He mentioned the purchase as long as I joined them for dinner as their guest.”
“Fuck, he wants her in his bed,” Slade stated then brought his wrist to his lips.
“You getting all this?”
“Who are you talking to? Are people listening in?” she asked and stepped back. Falco placed his arm around her waist and she gasped and looked up at him.
“Trust us to keep you safe. We think you should get out of here.”
“I can’t. I said I would have dinner with them and also I’ll need to get paid from Mulgoff and find out how much my paintings sold for and what’s the next step.”
“It isn’t a smart idea,” Slade said to her. She felt desperate. The tears filled her eyes.
“I can’t walk away from this. Don’t ask me to walk away from it. It’s thirty plus thousand dollars that I don’t have. Now maybe you don’t know what it’s like to be starving, to not be able to pay your bills, to eat once a day and still be hungry, but I do. I have to stay and find out the next steps and to get paid. If they’re dangerous, I really don’t care. I need that money,” she said and pulled her arm free and went to walk away.
Slade grabbed her and pressed her up against the wall. She gasped and gripped his sides.
Slade stared down into her eyes. She saw the intensity, the seriousness in his expression and swallowed hard.