The driver turns to me. He looks more like a bodyguard than a chauffeur and indicates that I should go around to the other side.
“My lady,” he says as he opens the door, and I’m unable to hold back a snort.
“My lord,” I say without really thinking about it, and he cackles as he closes the door after me.
Suddenly, I’m in the confines of the dark little space with Crawford. It’s gorgeous beige leather inside, with endless legroom, but I can feel myself getting hot. Being this close to him after everything we did this morning makes me ache.
He’s on his phone, not looking at me, and all I can think about is being naked on top of him. I look out of the window to distract myself as the driver gets in.
“Zanetti’s, please, Melvin, and step on it.”
“Right you are, sir. Would the young lady like some music on?”
Crawford shoots Melvin a look so venomous it makes me shrink back in my seat. If it were aimed at me, I’d assume I was fired on the spot. But Melvin just winks, and, to my surprise, Crawford gives a low, reluctant laugh in response. His lips quirk upward, and his eyes soften. It utterly transforms his face.
“Just shut up and drive, Melvin,” Crawford mumbles, the irritation firmly back in his voice.
“Right you are, Mr. Crawford. You let me know if you need the heat up in the back, my lady; he likes it arctic in here.”
“Would you be quiet and do your job, man? She doesn’t need to be pampered.”
I hide a smile as Melvin rolls his eyes at me in the rearview, and I can’t help letting out a little laugh. I’m pretty sure I hear Crawford sigh, but the rest of the journey is silent.
He’s on his phone the whole way, and when I glance at his phone screen, it looks as if he’s reading a lengthy document peppered with tracked changes. I want to ask if there’s anything I should be doing. He hasn’t explained where we’re going or what is expected of me. I’m nervous, wondering if I should be actively working in some way.
His presence is making the inside of the car feel like the size of a thimble. My eyes follow his strong jawline, pausing on his pouting lips.
I wonder what it would be like to kiss him.
I blink, turning back toward the window, pushing that thought firmly away, and squeezing my hands together in my lap.
Eventually, we turn down a tiny side street between two dark brick buildings. Ahead of us, a vent in the street sends billowing clouds of white smoke into the air.
I frown, looking around me. It’s dark and dingy here, and not at all where I was expecting to end up. Everything about Crawford is so classy, and we appear to have stopped in a place unhoused people might choose as a quiet spot to sleep.
Melvin hops out and comes to my side first. I feel a quiver of unease as I get out of the car. I’ve just blithely got into a car with two men I hardly know and haven’t asked any questions about our destination.I am an idiot.
“It’s this way.”
Crawford is already walking along the street with a purpose. There’s nothing obvious ahead of us in the little alleyway except a low, black awning on the right-hand side.
We pass two bulky dumpsters, a strong odor coming from one, which makes my nose wrinkle.
Crawford stops beneath the black awning, ducking his head under it as he knocks at the even smaller door beneath. I glance at him in confusion, then back at Melvin, but to my dismay, the car is already backing out of the alley. My throat tightens.
Where the hell are we?
I jolt slightly as the door opens. In the darkness beyond, a tall man emerges wearing an immaculate three-piece suit.
He opens it wider, nodding to Crawford, who steps inside without hesitation. I stare after him, not knowing what awaits me at the base of the stairs. The tall man is motionless; his gaze fixed on me as Crawford disappears.
“Amelia, hurry up!”
I leap forward, following his voice down a long, rickety staircase to a short hallway. My mind is imagining every possible scenario under the sun.
Could this be a secret sex club he’s decided to bring me to? Surely, he’d have had to approve that with me first?
Crawford’s expression is bored as we wait for the man to descend the stairs behind us, and then he opens a door to my right and beckons for me to go in.
