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She looks at me. She really expects an answer.
So I shrug, not sure what I can say that will satisfy her. “Um. Well, no. I don’t make a habit of asking my friends about their pubic hair.”
Her eyes narrow at my minor sarcasm, and she shakes her head like I’m hopeless. “We’ll get you cleaned up down there before your physical.”
Physical? Cleaned-up? Huh?
I don’t ask. I don’t need to. She sees the confusion written all over my face.
She rolls her eyes impatiently. Like I should know all this. As if being nabbed by my father’s debt holders is an everyday thing. “You’ll be examined by a doctor. Blood tests, hymen test, all that business.”
* * *
CHAPTERSEVENTEEN
Charleigh
Hymentest? What in God’s name is that?
“Wh… why?” I ask, wrapping my arms around myself again, creating a little shell of protection.
She huffs loudly. “First, to make sure you don’t have any STDs. Or at least any that aren’t curable.” She drops her head back and cackles like a witch. “And then, to make sure you really are a virgin.”
“I… I don’t understand,” I sputter.
“Honey, you may start out serving drinks, but that’s not all you’re going to do here. If you’re really a virgin, like your creep father said you are, you’re going to be making the Alekseev brothers a lot of money.”
The disgusting taste of bile rises in my mouth and I try hard to swallow it away. I was brought a nice dinner the night before but managed to choke down only a few bites. I’m now so hungry I’m light headed, and Dominika’s casual comments about my future compound my nausea.
“I… I think I’m going to be sick,” I whisper, bringing my hand to my mouth.
Taking me by the upper arm, Dominika shoves me to a seat on the edge of the bed. “Here,” she says with a push, “put your head between your knees. It’ll pass. Take some deep breaths.”
I close my eyes and wish I were anywhere else. Really, anywhere. I don’t care where. Just someplace that’s not the Alekseev brothers’ club. Or whatever the hell this weird place is.
When the fainting sensation passes, that’s the only thing that’s improved. I look up at Dominika. “What do you mean about being a virgin? And making money?”
She puts her hands on her hips. “Look. Don’t worry about that for now. Just throw on this robe. We’re going to the salon.”
I catch the plushy robe she throws in my direction but am stung by new fear. “Don’t I need to put on something more than this? If we’re going out to a salon?”
She gestures for me to get a move on. “We’re not leaving the premises. We have a salon here.”
Here?At this nasty place? This creepy warehouse hiding a fancy bedroom and sumptuous dinners also has asalon?
It’s so… disorienting. Even if they don’t have big plans for me, the jumbling in my brain is enough torture.
I pull on the thick robe, nothing like the tattered one I have at home, and follow Dominika out of my room. As my bare feet slap the floor beneath me, nearly drowned out by the sky-high platform shoes Dominika is wearing, I take in my surroundings in a way I wasn’t able to before, hysterical as I was.
The hallway is dark, not in a creepy way but in a fancy-chic style with glittery chandeliers and gold-painted trim around the doors. Up ahead I see one that’s slightly open, so I slow my walk, pretending to adjust my robe, and glance inside as I pass. I catch a sliver of the brother with the dirty blond hair, Niko, and before I am out of sight, he glances up from his desk, a corner of his mouth upturned as he lays his eyes on me.
It's a momentary sighting, but as horrified as I am by my situation, I also get a strange rush that a man so exquisitely handsome smiles at me. And before we get much further down the hall, he calls after Dominika and me.
“Ladies, how are things?” he says from his door.
In the dim hallway light, he’s better looking than the night before, if that’s possible. He has a little unshaven scruff on his face, and his necktie is loosened. His belt hangs nicely around his hips, emphasizing an incredibly flat stomach. He walks toward us in two or three steps, that’s how long his legs are.
And I am shaking so hard.
