Good.
“Five times more.”
“A lot of money.” I snort. “For that scrawny thing?”
Taylor shoots me a look of pure venom. Interesting.
“She’s a virgin,” Yevgeny replies with relish.
Oh fuck. Static goes off in my head. Well, that makes everything worse. I… Of course I didn’t have any illusions about what was going on here, but Taylor is a virgin?
“You don’t expect me to believe that.” I arch a sceptical eyebrow. “You sell her that way every night?”
Would I really be her first?
A base instinct is triggered in me.
“She gets inquiries, but no one wants to pay her price,” Yevgeny says with a touch of pride.
“You’ve overpriced her,” replies Aleksandr without emotion.
“It’s not a candy bar you can eat twice.” Yevgeny spreads his hands expressively. “Believe what you want. She arrived with us at sixteen, and no one has ever paid her virgin price. The girls help set their value, and that was what she decided on.” He shrugs. “It’s high because she was so young, but everyone wants the blondes, anyway.”
I don’t want a blonde. I want Taylor Love.
“A novelty.” I smirk. “I’ll have her.”
Aleksandr laughs. “You really need this deal.”
“She’s pretty,” I comment indifferently. It’s better to leave a mystery about my exact intentions. There’s a fine line. They could think I’m indirectly paying for the business deal that’s the excuse for me to be here, that I have a virgin fetish, or I think she’s beautiful. All of those assumptions are okay.
What they can’t know is that Taylor specifically is important to me.
And she is. She’s the only reason I’m here at all, and I fear she might be a lot more.
“You’ll have to tame her yourself,” Yevgeny says, and I manage not to punch his lights out.
“That won’t be an issue.” I smooth my hand over my clenched fist, and pause. “What about pregnancy? That would ruin their dancing. Do I have to?—”
“No need for concern,” Yevgeny interrupts me. “We deal with any consequences afterwards. You pay, you do what you like. There are no rules here.”
Aleksandr nods approvingly.
What I like will be spiriting this girl away from under their noses.
“You never wanted what everyone else wanted, Konstantin,” Aleksandr observes, and he’s not wrong. “Yevgeny, have her brought to our guest after the show. But first, business.”
Aleksandr turns away from the dancers and I force myself to, though my every instinct is to stare at Taylor. She’ll be mine for the night, and never again.
The girl who, I suspect, will own my heart forever.
And the thing that terrifies me more than the setup here, or the danger I’m about to put myself in by rescuing Taylor, or even the likelihood that Taylor will hate me, is that I’ve never felt this way about anyone.
Protective.
Possessive.
Taylor Love doesn’t know it yet, but I don’t think I’ll be able to let her go. She’smine.
