He smiled. “You have a date.”
“With …” I paused and then took a big swallow of nothing before I was able to speak again. “With you?”
He gave a deep belly laugh and then leaned forward to grab the champagne bottle that was sitting in a bucket of ice. “As much as I would love to get a taste of your pure pussy … It is pure right?” He gestured with the bottle toward me. I curled up my lips in disgust and grunted. “I’ll take that as a yes.” He laughed. “Whales pay a lot of money to fuck a virgin.”
“Wait. What?” I sat up straighter, trying to sit as far back as I could from this man. I felt cornered, trapped and my heart began to race so fast that I knew if I didn’t calm the fuck down, I was going to pass out.
He filled two flutes then leaned forward, his arm reaching out with one of the champagne flutes in his hand. I glanced at the bubbly liquid and then back up to his face, finally getting a good look at the man sitting across from me. The interior of the limo was dark, the only light from the pin-point, multi-colored lights on the ceiling shining down, but I could see the skin on his face was a deep sun-kissed brown. Tony had dark eyes and a neatly trimmed goatee that was the same color as the hair on his head.
I’d never had a sip of alcohol before; never had the desire to try it. I’d seen Mother come home drunk too many times and I never wanted to be like her. But at this moment not being in this moment sounded like the best idea. I couldn’t believe what was happening and on my birthday of all days. I reached for the glass with a shaky hand, my gaze dropping down to the massive gold ring on the ring finger of his right hand and then took a sip—a big one of the bubbly liquid. It was tart and didn’t taste that great. I’d expected it to taste like juice. Why did people drink this shit?
“This is how it’s going to go, sweetheart.” He took a sip of his champagne as he leaned back in his seat. The colored lights from the ceiling shined down on his white shirt under his black suit jacket and I stared at them and not his face. “We’re driving to a hotel where your date Marco will be waiting for you. Jose will bring you up to Marco’s room, and then you’ll do whatever Marco wants you to do for two hours. Jose will drive you home when you’re done.”
“Who’s Jose?” Like that was the most important question to ask.
“The limo driver.”
“And where will you be?”
“I don’t make it a habit to escort my girls to meet their johns.”
“Um, what?”
“Which part didn’t you understand because we’re almost at the hotel?”
“I’m working for you?”
“Isn’t it obvious?”
“I can’t work for you. I’m seventeen. I’m in high school. And my best friend is a cop!”
He laughed and rubbed his goatee with his thumb and index finger. “Sweetheart, please, I have cops on my payroll. They don’t scare me. And your mother started much younger than you and look how she turned out.”
Exactly.
“You don’t have this cop on your payroll.”
He leaned forward as the car pulled to a stop. Tony pushed a button, telling Jose to give us just another minute, and then turned his attention back to me. “If I hear from Marco that you were not cooperative in every way, you and your mother are going to pay.” I blinked at him. “Do I make myself clear?”
“I thought you cared about my mother?”
He gave another laugh, the same one I knew would give me nightmares. “Sweetheart, your mother is nothing more than a whore makin’ me a shit load of money.”
“A whore?” I spat. “You turned her into one!”
He grinned. “It’s what I’m good at.”
Before I could respond further, the door opened and a hand reached inside. I looked up, then back at Tony and he nodded. This couldn’t be happening. This was supposed to be my surprise birthday dinner. Instead, I was about to walk into a hotel and lose my virginity.
“Go on, sweetheart.”
A lump was forming in my throat and tears were on the verge of spilling over my eyelids, but instead, I put my big girl panties on and grabbed Jose’s hand as he helped me out of the limo. My heart was beating so hard I thought it was going to beat out my chest and onto the stone walkway as I took a few steps on wobbly legs until I got my balance in the ridiculously high heels. Now I understood the makeup, the dress, and the shoes. And to think I had thanked my mother for this.
Jose and I walked side by side through the sliding glass doors and into the lobby of the hotel. A bellman or a valet (I wasn’t sure which) greeted us with a tip of his head and I wondered if he thought we were together. Jose was old enough to be my father. Tony was old enough to be my father and I was willing to bet Marco was old enough to be my father.
I thought about coming up with an excuse to use the phone to call Seth when I got up to the hotel room, but I didn’t know his phone number. I’d left it in my room under my mattress where Mother wouldn’t find it. I needed him—he made me feel safe. Could I call the D.C. Police Department and ask for Officer McKenna? Did it work that way? When I watched police shows, they had different precincts—was that how the real world worked? Every thought was running through my head at a million miles an hour.
As we stepped up to a wall of elevators, everything around me disappeared. I wanted to make a break for it, run through the lobby, run out the doors and run for my life, but I was in these damn heels and by the time I kicked them off, Jose was bound to catch me. I didn’t look at the button Jose had pushed. I didn’t remember getting on the elevator. Everything was a daze and I didn’t want to register that this was really happening.
Finally, the elevator stopped and Jose gestured for me to exit. I stepped out, but he didn’t follow. I turned slightly, wondering why he didn’t move. “In two hours, I’ll meet you here, Miss Marquez.”
“Two hours,” I confirmed, barely audible.
“You better go or you’ll be late. If you’re late, then your pay gets docked.”
“My pay?” I questioned.
“Si,” he answered. “If you don’t show up on time, Tony will find out. You don’t want to disappoint Tony, yes?”
I nodded. “Yes.” I figured I shouldn’t question Jose. Like me, he was only an employee. Fuck—I was an employee. How did that happen? Oh right, my mother.
“If I hear from Marco that you were not cooperative in every way, you and your mother are going to pay.”
I gave Jose a tight smile and took the steps down the hallway to the single door. I could hear my heart beating in my ears and it took everything in me not to break down and cry. Instead, I took a deep breath and raised my right hand, knocking lightly. A moment later I was staring into the eyes of the man who had bought me for two hours.
“Bella. Please, come in.”
Bella? Really? I wanted to roll my eyes and tell him my name wasn’t Bella, but instead, I smiled a shy smile and entered, stepping around him as he closed the door behind him. The hairs on the back of my neck prickled and I was certain it wasn’t from the air-conditioning in the massive suite I’d just entered. Before I could get a good look at the space, Marco spoke, coming around me so we were face-to-face.
“Do you prefer red or white?” I scrunched my eyebrows at him. He laughed. “Wine. Do you prefer red or white wine?”
Maybe he didn’t know I was underage? Maybe this was how hookers got through the night? Hell if I knew. “I’m not sure. I guess white.” I shrugged. I assumed white since I’d just had white champagne in the limo. I didn’t even like that shit, but if I had to get tipsy to get through the next two hours, I was going to chug whatever I needed to.
As Marco uncorked and poured the wine, I stared at him. I wanted to get a good look at the man who was willing to pay a large amount of money to fuck a virgin. Marco wasn’t bad on the eyes. In fact, he was easy on them as I’d heard people say. He had a lightly trimmed beard that was more stubble than anything, brown hair that was spiked perfectly with specks of grey on the sides, and when he smiled as he laughed, the creases accented his cheeks as if they were dimples—but they weren’t. The lines traveled down to a straight jaw that was strong and manly. The thought of his age was enough to make me want to throw up in my mouth. Instead, I reached out and grabbed the glass of wine as he handed it to me.