I glare up at him, taking another step back when it feels like he’s too close and his scent starts to surround me. “This is me leaving. I’m sure you can find some other hooker with no value to fuck tomorrow.” I snap.
Adler sighs, but I snap again before he gets any words in. “I am not your little toy, I’m done!” I yell.
I try to turn away from him, but Adler grabs my arm and stops me. “I wasn’t done speaking to you.” He snaps back. “I hate to point this out, but you are a hooker, and you are my toy. We had a deal and it’s not over until the morning after the full moon.” He yells.
That hurts. He didn't deny what he said, he didn't apologize or say that it was a mistake. He's making no effort to repair the damage he's caused. I know it's because he doesn't care and that hurts so much more.
I could have overlooked everything if he had apologized, said he was just joking with a friend, and that he didn't mean it. I'd be hurt and embarrassed, but it wouldn't sting nearly as bad as this.
“I’m sorry I ever met you.” I say sadly. I shake out of his grasp and dart for the front door, needing to get away from this man if it’s the last thing that I do.
I spin back on my heel, glaring at him before I've made it to the door. “I’ve never had anyone make me feel as cheap and as stupid as you just did.” I admit.
Adler scoffs, crossing his arms across his broad chest. “I find that hard to believe given your chosen career.” He argues.
I have to fight back tears, glaring at this man that it feels like I barely know right now. “Career? Do you think I wanted to become this? Fuck you, Adler Lewis! I want my money; I want to go home.” I say as calmly as I can manage.
Adler walks away from me, storming back into his office while I’m left standing in the doorway like an idiot. I'm fighting with myself and the lump in my throat that's begging me to cry.
Does he expect me to just stand here and wait or is he going to come back? Is he even going to pay me at all? I wouldn't be surprised that he planned to stiff me at the end, that he'd take everything I had to give and throw me on the curb without a cent.
That question is answered when a few minutes later Adler comes back out the door. He throws a massive stack of bills at me and slams his office door with him inside. I don't even get any last words from him; I just hear him and Nico speaking on the other side.
Cash rains down all around me, falling over me and making me feel thick with regret. Regret over the last few minutes or the last month, I’m not sure.
I look at the cash littering the floor around me and sigh, this wasn’t supposed to end this way.
I spin on my heel and walk out the front door, just wanting to be away from this man before my chest implodes.
Chapter 26
Adler
After a few minutes of calming down and Nico laughing at me for being an idiot, I head back into the foyer to see if Violet really did leave.
I sigh when I see every bill I had thrown at her scattered across the floor and that she’s gone.
I rush outside, seeing her sitting on the curb at the end of my long driveway. At least she hadn’t made it far.
I walk down the driveway until I can sit on the curb beside her, surprised that she hadn’t picked up a single bill, or if she had Ican’t see it on her person. “You haven’t left.” I mention once I’m seated beside her.
Violet shrugs, her focus on the dead-end street in front of us. “I don’t know how to get home.” She answers.
I do live pretty far from the city that I had picked her up in. There are no cabs that will come this far unless you call them, no bus stops, and almost no traffic aside from my unit. “Do you want me to call you a cab?” I ask.
Violet doesn’t answer but she also doesn’t get up and walk away from me. She just keeps her gaze on the empty street and her arms crossed across her chest.
“I can unlock that collar if you’d like.” I offer when she doesn’t respond to me. “Apologize, asshole.” The alien part of me shouts in my head, forcing me to ignore him.
Again, she doesn’t look at me. She just shrugs her shoulders and tightens her arms across her chest. “I’ll cut it off when I get home.” She answers flatly.
I don’t like the silence and indifference that she’s giving me right now, it’s so unlike the last month that I’ve had her. I sigh and put my hand on her thigh, squeezing her slender leg for a moment. “Come back inside. We need to talk about this.” I beg.
Finally, Violet looks at me, a broken look across her face and tears in her eyes. “I thought I loved you and you think I’m justsome cheap hooker from the ghetto.” She says with a quiver in her voice that makes my chest ache.
“We love you too.” My alien side shouts in my head. I shake my head, silently telling him to shut up, to stop talking nonsense just because he wants to knot her tomorrow.
“I didn't say you're just some cheap hooker.” I protest. I would never say that about her, she's so much more than that to me.
