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“What do you mean?”
“You have value. Priceless, in fact.” I hold her gaze.
“You really think that?” Her eyes start to water.
I reach for her hand. “Oh, precious, I’m sorry. Did that upset you?”
“No. I mean—” She shakes her head, then looks at the knife. “Oh.” She slides it away from her and back onto the cutting board across the counter. “Onions. They’re kind of strong.”
I hide my smile in another bite of food.
She tears off another piece of bread and adopts an all-business tone. “So what do I have to do for the $20,000?”
“Straight to the point, aren’t you?”
“I just want to know what you expect.” She takes another bite, and I can’t help but enjoy the fact she likes my cooking. “I’m not going to just lie on back and tell you to draw me like one of your French girls, okay? I’m not that easy. I’m not judging sex work, but I don’tdosex work.”
“But you agreed to sell your body to save your brother?”
“That’s different.” She angrily dips her bread into the olive oil. “That was, what’s the word?”
“A devil’s bargain?”
“Coercion.” She angrily bites her food.
“I’m aware of what sort of woman you are, and I’d never force you.” I reach out and tuck a lock of hair behind her ear. “That’s not what this is.”
“Then what is it?”
“All you have to do is stay. Simple as that.”
“All I have to do is stay in this mansion with you?” She looks perplexed but keeps eating.
I suspect she hasn’t had a home-cooked meal in a long, long time.
“For how long?”
“As long as it takes.”
“As long as it takes to what?”
“For you to understand just how priceless you are.”
“That’s not a thing.” She tosses her fork down on her plate. Then, with a sigh, she picks it back up and takes another bite. “Why is this food so good?”
“My mother’s recipe.”
“She taught you to cook?”
“She taught me a lot. Though I must admit I was a rude boy, always in trouble, running the streets, not giving her the son she deserved.”
“Does she live here with you?” She looks around at the large kitchen and the expansive view of Vegas beyond the wide glass windows.
“She passed.”
“Oh.” She turns back to me, true regret in her eyes. “I’m sorry.”
“So am I. I would’ve liked her to meet you.”
