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I nervously licked my lips. My mind raced. I hadn’t been at code-red levels of self-preservation since my mom’s last boyfriend, when she dropped me at my grandmother’s in Yorba Linda and ran. That guy eventually finished destroying Mom’s life. Grandma passed away three years ago, not long before I met and succumbed to Frederick and his charm.
He’d plucked me when I’d been ripe for the taking.
Now I was in a golden cage, being told to flap my wings. Only this time, he wanted me to flap other things as well.
“Don’t tell me the girl who shows her tits to random men night after night is suddenly a prude.” He rose, freeing me with a suddenness that turned into more of a light shove. His snide laughter was dull against the tapestries hung above the bed and on the walls. “I thought you were a worldly woman. A lady with culture.” In the mirror, I watched as he shoved his hands in his pockets and presented his profile, a pose that was so damn suave, but now I saw it was part of the mask he wore. “I’d hate to think I was wasting my time and money on a girl from the streets. I’d hate to think I offered you all this”—he held his arms out, making the cut of his suit even more impressive—“for nothing.”
I steadied myself, flattening my hands on the cool oak surface of the vanity. My heart hammered against my ribs. Flashes of my childhood rose and disappeared in my head.
Mom packing me up in the middle of the night, telling me that if I didn’t make a sound, I’d get to pick out a jumbo sucker. The way she’d trade duties with owners of dance studios. Usually, that meant sweeping and cleaning toilets. When I got older, I realized that, in one instance, cleaning toilets was a euphemism for sucking dick.
As an adult, I’d been through slumlords, lecherous directors, and narcissistic boyfriends. I thought Frederick was my ticket out. But he was all of them rolled into one, and if I didn’t tread carefully, the little square door on my pristine cage would be glued shut and bumped against the wall.
“Of course not. You’ve been very generous.” And controlling, if I was honest with myself, which I finally was. Frederick had influenced how I dressed, the way I performed, where I danced, and my finances. The last part stung and pumped a steady stream of panic into my blood.
I forced a smile that looked more like a maniacal stare. “It’s, you know, going to take me a little bit to get used to the idea. I’ve been a one-man woman for a while.” Like my entire life. I didn’t dog on threesomes, polyams, or group sex, but none of them were for me, and that was okay too.
Apparently not to Frederick. He wanted me to strip naked tonight—something I never did—and...clean toilets.
My stomach twisted. I met Frederick after a show two years ago. Thelma told me I’d never find true love in the pockets of a millionaire, but I hadn’t listened.
He crossed the room to me and patted my shoulders. “That’s my good girl.” Hearing his words curdled the protein shake I’d had as part of my pre-show routine. “They get a special show. And then a very special dinner.”
He bent to press a kiss into my hair. I let my eyelids slide shut. Men like him weren’t fooled easily. I opened my eyes to find him watching me.
“It won’t change things between us, right?” I added a little extra whine to my voice. To him, I was the inferior partner in this relationship. I needed him to keep thinking that. “You won’t think differently of me?”
He smiled, his blue eyes shining with a predatory gleam. “How could I, Tova, my dear?” He knelt down, lifted my curtain of hair, and tongued my earlobe.
A shiver wracked my body. I was nothing, if not a performer. I called on my skills and let out a breathless giggle that hid my nerves.
“I’ll reward you dearly,” he murmured, and my stomach heaved. “Something special, just for us.”
A gang bang at your next board meeting, shit stick?
My lower lip stuck out in an expert simper. “Promise?”
Another wet, sloppy kiss along my neck. Ugh. I finally let the low-key disgust that I had experienced grow when he did this. I no longer found anything sexy about this man. My dwindling passion for him dropped harder than my credit score.
“You know I never go back on my promises,” he purred.
He never made any.
The realization hit. No wonder he’d gotten one over on me. He was smoother than any crook I’d come across. Maybe I had been inferior, but that would end soon.
“You have a couple hours to prepare before the car arrives. Don’t embarrass me.” He straightened, yanked his suit coat down, and walked out of the room. He’d spoken, and his will would be done.
He was gone, but the room remained stifling. Had it always been this way? Had I only wanted to see the potential? I’d wanted to think this was my future, that after struggling for my entire life, I could have something that was mine. A home. And while I knew Frederick’s house and cars and staff were his, I was confident that eventually I’d get there.
For a girl who’d lived her life so carefully, I’d tumbled right into a well-dressed trap with more money and resources than I could dream of. Yet none of them were mine, and Frederick controlled what should be in my name. In small increments, I’d molded myself in accordance with his advice. I hadn’t noticed Frederick wanted a tool to make more money, and he thought me spreading my legs would earn him a nice bonus. Flattering as that was, Tova Grace Evanson was her own woman, and she was not making her mother’s mistakes.
One day. One day, I would be able to live exactly how I wanted.
I got up and went to the door. The handle wouldn’t move.
Locked in.
Disbelief spread through me. Why was I surprised? Yet I tried the door again, my brain refusing to acknowledge I’d never noticed the door could be locked from the outside. Had he changed the doorknob around, or had it always been like this? I’d been distracted by the elegance and hadn’t bothered to look. Why would I?
