She smiled, a flash of wolf, even if she wasn’t one. “Not that stuck.”
I liked her. I told her to sit on my lap.
She didn’t flinch, didn’t hesitate. She straddled my knee, her scent—generic store perfume and something rawer—hitting my nose like a slap. I slid a hand up her thigh, watched for a shiver or a twitch. None. Good.
“Turn around,” I said, and she did, back to my chest. I bent to her ear and whispered: “If I told you to take three men in the back, you’d do it?”
She didn’t move. “If you paid me enough.”
“Money’s not the only thing,” I said. I let my hand rest on her ass, fingers digging in. “I want loyalty. I want silence. I want a girl who won’t ask questions about what happens in the VIP rooms.”
She nodded, hair brushing my cheek.
“You think you’re that girl?”
“Icanbe.”
I looked at Vex. “She’s better,” I said. Vex grunted, made a note.
I let Alexis go and stood up, feeling the rush of adrenaline through my chest. I towered over her, and she didn’t shrink.
“Now, take off the dress,” I said, gesturing to the back office, where the real interviews happened. She looked at Vex, and then back at me, and in that half-second I saw the calculation, the cold math of survival. She unzipped and let the dress pool at her feet, standing in just a black bra and nothing else.
“Turn,” I commanded.
She did, slow and steady, letting me see every angle.
“Good,” I said. “Now kneel.”
She dropped to her knees on the newly painted concrete.
I circled her, boots echoing in the hollow room. “You will call me sir. You will not question my orders. If a customer asks you for something, you give it. If they want to tie you up, you let them. If you need help, you ask Vex, and she will decide if it’s worth my time.”
I knelt, bringing myself to her level, and put a hand on the back of her neck.
“Say you understand.”
“I understand, sir.”
I grinned. The world was full of broken girls, but this one wasn’t quite finished. That was the fun part.
I stroked her hair, then grabbed a fistful and pulled her head back. I leaned close and ran my tongue along her jaw, just to watch her skin goosebump.
“Last test,” I said, voice soft. “If I fucked you right here, would you come?”
She smiled, not with her mouth but with her eyes. “If you’re any good.”
Vex cackled behind me. I let go of Alexis’s hair and stood.
“Put your dress back on and wait with the others. Don’t talk to anyone unless I say so.”
She obeyed. I watched the muscle in her calves as she moved. She didn’t look back.
I sat back in the chair, ignoring the hard-on pressing against my zipper. Vex wrote a note and tore off the sheet, flicking it into my lap.
Her handwriting was ugly, all block capitals: “THIS ONE WILL DO WHATEVER YOU WANT.”
I looked up. “You think she’ll last?”
