Moments later we were in the hallway outside the ballroom under the exquisite vaulted ceiling, which I normally would have rambled about since historic architecture was a neutral topic, when it hit me that I had nowhere to take him. The golden curtains fluttered on a breeze. Someone had opened the windows to let in the night air perfumed by the roses on the grounds. I tried desperately to think.
For everyone else in the auctions we’d prepared rooms. Biting my lip, I thought about explaining that this had been foisted on me, but Mother would be absolutely appalled if I did that, after the amount of cash this mystery man had spent. I stiffened my spine and came down on the side of acting in the best interests of the hotel. I led the way through the halls to my private rooms with my owner for the night at my heels.
It doesn’t matter what I want, I’ll just have to do this.It was possible this man had asked Mother to put me in the auction. There were always so many tangled webs going on around her, and I often had no idea what her true motivations were. He could be anyone. A politician’s son. A federal agent she was paying off.I had no fucking cluewhat this man might be able to do to us, to me, to her…. There was nothing else for it. I’d let him fuck me—it wasn’t like I wasn’t familiar with how that worked, in theory—and then he could leave happy. The dog beside him gave me a woeful look.You and me both, pup.
My chest clenched, but I forced myself to hold my head high as I led the way around the long halls of the Courtesan with as much poise as I could force myself to retain.
He cleared his throat, and I realized I’d been quiet too long. That was bad.
“Are you having a nice night?” I asked, as the silence grew to unreasonable proportions.
“It was okay. I’m assuming it will get better.” He turned his head and grinned, and as he did so, he lifted his sunglasses, flashing steel-blue eyes, then dropped the frames back down onto his nose. “I have seizures. You should probably know that in case something happens. The glasses keep the lights from triggering them… most of the time. I can see a bit of light on occasion, but my vision’s also not fantastic. I can see outlines and shapes and shadows. I don’t see the way you think of seeing.”
“Oh, I’m… sorry to hear that.” My skin crawled with the need to apologize further for being rude, but I held it in and tipped my chin up.
He shrugged. “I’m just explaining, since you asked.”
I stopped. He went a few steps past me and came to a halt. “Then why?”
“What do you mean?” he asked on a laugh.
“If you can’t see… why the hell would you pay so much? You can’t have lusted after me at a distance. My personality isn’tknownfor being wonderful, and I don’t have a reputation for being a fantastic lay.” I was being rude,again, but I was absolutely flabbergasted.
He snorted. “How do you know? Maybe the rumors say you’re the best fuck in all fifty states?”
“Trust me, they don’t.” My tone came out drier than July heat.
He laughed and shook his head. “You don’t remember me at all.”
Mentally I scrambled. “Should I?”
“I’d like to have this conversation in a more intimate space, not a hallway.” His tone drifted cooler, and I hated feeling so out of my depth. I frowned and thought about demanding how he knew where we were—since he couldn’t see well—decided that might be unforgivably rude—even if Ididwant to know—then simply trudged along to my rooms.
At least he wouldn’t be able to tell I hadn’t had time to clean everything before he arrived. Unfortunately, however, my rooms were off Mother’s suite, so I went in through the French-inspired gold-trimmed red door to her over-the-top white sitting room and made sure to turn the lock behind us. It irritated me that Mother and I lived so close together, now that I was older, but she’d given me my rooms when I was still a teenager, and she’d wanted me close for safety reasons. To this day she didn’t want me to step foot out of the Courtesan without a bodyguard, so I supposed things hadn’t changed much.
I turned on lights as we went. Grasping at conversational straws, I asked, “What’s your dog’s name?” The pup in question guided the man around the couch and after me as I took a right into a long hallway. Several doors lined the corridor, my mother’s personal rooms, and at the end of the hall on the right, I stopped in front of the door to my suite.
“Her name is Lemonade.” The growly depth of his voice gave me a pleasant shiver. I’d heard enough times that a professional should focus on something they liked about a client, and I loved that voice. He wasn’t bad to look at either, though. I perused his body again, the muscles clear even under his suit, and then I glanced at the golden retriever, who appeared to be giving me a doggy smile. I wanted to pet her—badly—but I’d heard somewhere you shouldn’t do that to a service animal.
The man stared in my direction expectantly, and I rested my hand on the doorknob to my rooms, apprehensive about having him in my private space but not sure what else I could do.
“What do you prefer?” I took a deep breath and refused to acknowledge the tremble that went through my hand as I pushed the door open and stepped over the threshold. He and his well-mannered pooch followed. I flipped on the light switch, which had the black iron floor lamps in all four corners burning bright. I liked simple and that meant I’d put my foot down on Mother’s interference, and the walls were a soft reddish-brown reminiscent of sand. There was no artwork to disrupt the color. It was dark through the archway situated in the middle of the wall directly across from the entrance. Hidden on the other side in the gloom was a small sitting room that contained a couch, bookshelf, and a television I hadn’t turned on in ages.
“In what way do you mean?” he asked, amusement clear in his tone. “I like lots of things and have lots of… preferences.”
As my attention landed on the bed, I swallowed hard enough that it hurt. The frame took up the center of the room, and my mattress was bracketed by a sleek black iron headboard and bottom panel that matched the lamps and the low, metal-sided dresser against the wall on the left. The drawer on my bedside table hung open, ready to crash to the floor. I’d rolled out of bed this morning, already intent on getting downstairs, and the white comforter Mother had bought two weeks ago was a rumpled mess. My closet door stood open to my right, with the suits in disarray from me rifling through them, and I wanted to storm over there and shut it. The only other door in the room, just past the closet, led to the bathroom, and it was ajar.
At least I scrubbed out the toilet recently.It was unreasonable that I was paranoid about my own space not being clean enough. I scrutinized everything with a critical eye. The auction winner might be a guest of the hotel, but this was the one spot in the world that was mine, and I refused to be absurd about it. I forced myself to get back on track with him.What does he want?I’d asked customers that very question a million different times. “Are you a top or bottom?”
His lips twitched as I spun toward him, but he managed not to outright laugh at me. “Verse. I usually top.”
“Of course you do,” I murmured, and my insides seemed to squish around and melt. “Do you prefer rough play or something more traditional?” My tone was frigid. There was no other way to describe it. Humiliation washed through me. Even now I was still the Ice Prince, and wouldn’t everyone think this was fucking funny? I shook my head at my thoughts and closed my bedroom door.
He chuckled. “Can’t we just let things untangle naturally?”
I glanced his way and froze. That was what I’d always wanted. I hadn’t been stupid enough to think I’d ever actually get a simple, normal relationship, not with my mother and the job I had, but I’d hoped eventually someone wouldn’t have heard how awful the Ice Prince could be. Someone might come to work for the Courtesan who would sync with me. Mother had declared it too dangerous for me to do most activities people my age did—namely have any sort of life—so that scenario of meeting someone here at the hotel was the only one I’d ever envisioned.
But not like this.
