Page 17 of Riding Dirty

“Pictures?”

I hum, my eyes widening slightly, and I hope to fuck she can read what I’m saying without me having to say it. I'll make it a bit clearer. She doesn’t know exactly what we do here, so it’s not like I can spell it out completely. NDA or not, I don’t know how much I can trust her yet.

“Of everything. Ceiling, electrical boxes, floors, walls, everything.”

She presses her lips together in a thin line. “You’re asking me to do this, so I have to assume it’s illegal?”

I shake my head slowly. “You taking pictures after you’ve been hired to do a cleaning job is not illegal in the slightest. The owner will want those to prove you did the job he hired you for.”

“But it’s off-the-books cash,” she points out.

“Off my books and cash from me, and a check from the owner.”

“How much?” she asks.

“A two-thousand-dollar check from the owner, and I’ll match that in cash.”

She looks behind her, back at her cousin, then shifts her gaze back to meet my own. I wait, knowing she’s going to say yes, but I want to hear the words anyway. Then she nods once, her gaze never leaving mine.

“When?”

“Friday night. They have a small event planned, and it will be finished before ten. You’ll go in at midnight and clean, then come here when you’re finished.”

“So, like… at two in the morning?” she asks.

My lips twitch into a smirk. I can’t get enough of her. Every expression she makes is sexy as shit. “Two in the morning, babe.”

She inhales a deep breath, holds it for a moment, then lets it out slowly. “Okay,” she exhales. “We’ll do it. Just clean and take pictures.”

“Just clean and take pictures,” I confirm the job. “The owner will give you his check on Friday when he opens the building for you. My cash will be here when you’re finished.”

I hate that I’m somewhat involving Elodie in my plans, but at the same time, it’s a perfect fucking execution for what I’m going to be doing. This will also give me a really good idea of how things like this will work out with her in the future. I don't expect this to be the only time I ask her to do something like this.

“Okay,” she murmurs.

I let my hand fall from her wrist, even though it physically pains me to do so. I want to keep touching her. I want to kiss her, feel her warmth press against my body. I want her spread for me, in my bed.

CHAPTER

THIRTEEN

ELODIE

“Are you sure this is all we were supposed to do?” Alex asks from beside me.

We’ve cleaned the entire venue. It wasn’t messy or dirty at all. It was relatively clean. The bathrooms were probably the worst of it, aside from the main room floor that just needed a good sweep and mop.

“And take pictures,” I mutter as I snap pictures of anything and everything I can think to take pictures of.

“That wasn’t two thousand dollars’ worth of work,” he states the obvious.

“Four thousand,” I correct.

There is a moment of silence. A long one. I can feel Alex’s eyes on me. I don’t know what he’s waiting for, what he thinks I’m going to say or not say, but it doesn’t matter, because I got nothing. I came here to clean a venue and take some pictures, and that’s what I’m doing.

“I’m pretty sure something shady is going on here,” he says.

I turn my head to look at him. “No shit,” I state. “But we want a leg up in this world. We want to build our business, hire employees, buy houses, and be able to buy toilet paper and groceries in the same month.” I ask.