“Oh yeah?” I grinned. I knew for a fact Darcy did a lot of the work at the Courtesan, and as much as the man rubbed me the wrong way, I was curious. Mark and I couldn’t be the only ones swept up in each other’s company. What was she doing if he was distracted?
She inhaled and smiled forcefully. “As I said, it all went well.”
I knew when to drop the topic, but Mom’s pointed expression confirmed it was time to change the conversation. Leaning back into my chair and crossing my ankles under the table, I sighed. “You lied to me.”
Mom’s eyes widened, and Madam Winters turned fully toward me, her lips pressed into a thin line.
“How did I lie to you?” she asked, voice sharp with warning.
A spike of fear slid through me because only a man with a death wish wouldn’t be a little afraid of her, and I’d always listened to that animal part of myself that controlled my instincts. She ran a tight ship with the Courtesan and had some powerful allies. I didn’t want to know how many bodies she’d probably buried. She never told, and I never asked. All I needed to know was that she ran a brothel.
“I raped Mark. I didn’t have his direct permission that first night. He didn’t want to be there for the auction, but you were forcing him. So when I chased him, I put him on his knees and made him suck my cock.” Mom let out a strangled sound, but I ignored her. I glanced at the girls from the corner of my eye, but they were fine, splashing water at each other and giggling out of earshot. Keeping my voice low, I continued. “I’m not a rapist, Madam Winters. If I’d known he didn’t want to be there—”
“He signed the required documents,” she said calmly, her voice laced with something dangerous. “I take my job seriously, Camden, so I’d be very careful what you say next. He made horrible statements about our business and the Courtesans under my care. That, I will not accept.”
“That’s no excuse for turning me into a rapist,” I hissed out quietly, leaning forward. Mark’s expression that night still haunted me. Even though he’d consented before we went to bed, and I’d made sure he had a safeword, the anger and guilt were like a ten-ton brick in my stomach. I’d fucked up, too. Even though I’d had no idea he didn’t want to be there, Istillshould have given him a safeword. I’d known better, but I’d gotten carried away.
“Camden….” Mom touched my shoulder, but I wasn’t finished.
“I like him, a lot. I went there expecting someone willing. You promised me he was ready for the game. You can’t consent for someone else. They need to do it.” I sat back and sighed. “I play roughly, Madam Winters, and I needed someone who understood that.”
She crossed her legs at her knees, her calves and thighs long and smooth. I could see why she’d once been a professional. “Do you want me to apologize? I’m not always a good woman. I take care of my people and won’t have anyone insulting them.”
“So, because he said something you decided was horrible, he deserves to be raped?” I winced because I hated saying the R-word, but the fact was, that’s what I’d done. Unintentionally, but it had happened. “Could you imagine if that happened to my girls? Then again, you did it to your son, didn’t you? You sold him off without him knowing.”
Her calm expression should have terrified me, but her eyes glinted in amusement. “I did what I needed to do, sugar. Darcy was never going to relax on his own.”
“So, you sold him off. Tell me, how many other people were there against their will?”
“None,” she snapped sharply, her tone turning deadly.
“Camden, that’s enough,” Mom pleaded, but I wasn’t done.
“How do the bidders know that?” I straightened. “Because Mark wasn’t, and neither was Darcy, if I had to guess.”
Madam Winters leaned in my direction, her mouth pursed so tightly her lips were paling under her deep red lipstick. “Every single person at the Courtesan is there of their own free will. Darcy was an exception because I am hismother, and I know what he needs. Mark needed to realize what it was like to be one of us. I am not a fool, and if it’d been truly against his best interests, I wouldn’t have done it. But he’s much like Darcy. I saw it the moment I met him. He needed to pull the stick out of his ass.”
I shook my head and stood, the chair scraping across the cement of the pool area. “That’s not for you to decide. I like Mark, probably more than I should, considering all the longer we’ve known each other, but now we have to get past the fact that he thinks I bought him. He probably thinks I’m a skeeze who does it all the time.”
“Do you want me to tell him that you didn’t pay a cent?” She relaxed against her chair again, smiling. “Because I will.”
“That doesn’t change anything,” I murmured, more to myself than her. “I have to work at making him believe I want him beyond the sex.” Sighing, I squeezed the bridge of my nose and glanced at the girls again, who’d stopped to look at me with curious stares. I forced myself to smile and walked over to the edge of the pool, crouching. “Hey, my sweethearts. Are we still going to the arcade?”
“Yes!” Addy screamed in excitement, paddling closer to me.
“Then get out, dry off, and go get dressed.”
Addy was the first one out of the pool, nearly tripping over herself to get to her towel laying across a white lounge. Ellie took longer, and as soon as her feet were on the pebbled cement, she came around to give me a hug. I kissed her cheek and brushed her long blonde hair off her face, and she smiled as she skipped over to her towel and followed her big sister out the gate of the pool area and toward the house.
I rose and turned to face Mom and Madam Winters again. Stepping closer, I took a deep breath. “I should have told him the safeword from the beginning, but I didn’t, and that makes me just as guilty.”
“And now that he has it, does he use it?” Madam Winters asked, her mouth curled smugly.
“No, but that’s not the point.”
Her smile spread wider.
“Just because he doesn’t use it now, doesn’t mean he wouldn’t have used it last weekend.” I shook my head. “I like you, Madam, because you’re a no-bullshit woman whodoestake care of her people, but you should stop deciding what everyone needs, especially when they don’t agree to it.”
