I laugh. “Should I call Cuthbert to give him the heads up?”
She knocks shoulders with me playfully. “Piano man better be worth it. I could have been playing doctors and nurses tonight.”
“He will be.” I beam. “Believe me.”
2
SULLIVAN
I tossthe new dildo to the woman in the black lingerie who’s reclined on the bed inside the suite I have at The Lanceford Hotel. Her sleek, dark hair fans out against the silk sheets beneath her.
“Get warmed up. I don’t have long tonight,” I instruct as I shrug out of my jacket and tug my tie loose.
The other woman in the white lingerie who could pass as her twin pouts at me, batting her eyelashes. “Why can’t we sleep over tonight?”
A muscle ticks in my jaw at her demanding tone.
“Because I have somewhere else to be,” I snap, unable to keep the harshness out of my voice.
She isn’t perturbed. Instead she holds my eyes suggestively and unhooks her bra, freeing her pert tits.
My eyes drop to her puckered nipples, and I take a step toward the bed.
Then my phone rings.
I reach for my jacket and pull it out of the pocket.
“Fuck’s sake,” I grumble at the name on the screen. I liftmy eyes to the two girls on the bed who are looking at me in anticipation. “Get started without me. I need to take this.”
Their disappointed whines get cut off as I step into the bathroom and close the door behind me.
“Why are you calling?” I snap the second my phone is to my ear.
“What? No hello?”
I pinch the bridge of my nose, forcing myself to take a slow breath. Her speech is slurred. She’s fucking wasted again.
“Natasha!” I snap, “I’ve told you. You talk to me through my lawyer.”
“I just want to know how Peaches is,” she drawls.
I clench my jaw so hard it hurts.
“Her name is Molly,” I spit.
“Did she get any more teeth?” she continues, ignoring me.
“Like you fucking care. Cut the shit and tell me why you’re really calling.”
The sound of her stumbling around and knocking something over blares down the phone. With any luck, it’ll be something large and heavy that lands on her skull.
“A pipe leaked in the kitchen and?—”
“No.”
“You don’t know what I was going to say!” she protests.
“That a pipe leaked, and you need to borrow some money until you get paid? Or you lost your job and need something to tide you over until the new one starts? Or your car broke down and you need a loan?” I say with an impatient huff. “Those have all been used. Time to think up some new material.”
