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Mrs Kingswood clears her throat. “Happy birthday, Alex. I want you to meet the daughter of a good friend of mine, Jessica. She’s going to be having dinner with us tonight. Isn’t that nice?”
Wait, hold on a minute. This is Alex? No, no, no! No way!
There’s a short, seething silence. I can sense her son’s eyes burning into me, looking me up and down, drinking me in. Then…
“How much did my mother pay you to be here?” he demands. Flabbergasted by the directness of his question, I’m struck mute, not knowing what to say.
Mrs Kingswood gives a shrill laugh. “What are you talking about? Jessica is the daughter of my old friend Douglas Winters. You do remember Dougie, don’t you? The one who lives in Kenya and works for the oil company.”
“Yes, I dimly remember you mentioning someone called Douglas,” Alex concedes. “But you haven’t seen him in years, and I don’t recall him having a daughter. Let’s cut the crap, shall we? Mother, you’re so transparent it’s laughable. This is very clearly a call girl you have paid to be here.”
“No, she’s not,” Beatrix Kingswood splutters. “You’ve got this all wrong, I would never, ever hire a call girl. I can’t believe you think I would ever do such a thing…” Her sentence dies, her protestations diminishing to nothing. The game is up. We both know she’s been busted.
Still with my eyes fixed on the table, I listen to the heavy thud of Alex’s footsteps as he moves across the room to the head of the table and sits down. He sighs audibly.
“There’s no point denying it,” he continues. “Come on! What girl in her right mind would come anywhere near this house unless she’d been paid to? Please don’t insult my intelligence. Let’s just be honest with each other and get this out in the open, shall we?”
As he speaks, I’m struck by his voice: deep, seductive and velvety as chocolate. It’s hands-down the sexiest voice I’ve ever heard and with my eyes closed, I would never imagine he looks the way he does.
“Why do you think I would hire a call girl?” his mother stammers, attempting to dig herself out of the ditch. “What possible reason would I have to do something like that?”
“Simple,” he replies. “We haven’t been getting along lately. I’ve been moody, we’re at each other’s throats and you think it’s because I’m sexually frustrated. You think I have all this pent-up tension that needs to be released. You think all I need is a good, hard fuck to get it out my system and then I won’t give you such a hard time. Well, I’ve got news for you. I’m not that easily bought and there’s no way I’m going to sleep with this girl as some kind of demented therapy session.”
My shoulders sag with relief.Thank fuck for that! Please can I go home now?
I’ve decided I need to get out of here fast. I no longer want to be part of this sordid set-up and most of all, I need to get as far away from Alex Kingswood as possible. He absolutely terrifies me and the sooner I can leave this place and forget any of this ever happened, the better. As far as I’m concerned, they can keep their money. Nothing is worth enduring this insanity.
Moistening my lips, I finally muster the courage to speak. “Listen guys, it looks like you have a lot going on and I wouldn’t want to intrude in your private business. If I am no longer required to be here, then I’m happy to go. If I leave now, I could probably catch the last train home.”
I stand up in preparation to exit stage left.
“Sit down!” Alex bellows. The fury in his voice makes the whole room shake.
Instantly, I return to my seat, quaking with fear.Fuck, fuck, fuck.That wasn’t a request, it was an order and I dare not disobey him.
Closing my eyes, I let my breath out slowly and try to keep it together. Shit, I’ve never been so scared in my life. Do they plan to keep me captive here? If I try again to leave, what will they do? Restrain me? Dammit, I just want to get the hell out of this place.
Then an awful thought hits me. If I went missing, nobody but Jane Waters knows I’m here. Not my family, not Amina, no one. I could be kept a prisoner for days and nobody would know where to come looking for me. I am such a cretin. Why, why, why did I ever come to this crazy house with a woman who is clearly unhinged? If I make it out of here alive, it will be a miracle.
“So, Jessica,” Alex drawls, addressing me directly for the first time. “Now we have established you are indeed a call girl, would you mind telling me how much my mother is paying you to be here?”
I remain silent. Lord Jesus, I still can’t look at him. I want to be brave and stare him straight in the eye, but my body won’t let me. It’s almost a reflex action. Fuck, how on earth did I end up in this situation? Someone please rescue me from this nightmare.
“Alex, stop it,” Mrs Kingswood admonishes sternly. “Leave the girl alone. This is all my doing. She is not answerable to you.”
“Then I repeat, how much did you pay her? I’m not going to let this matter drop until you’ve answered the question. What is the going rate for a woman to be forced to endure the night with me?”
“All right, I’ll tell you. Excluding agency fees, I’m paying her £50,000.”
“Are you serious? £50,000?” Alex gives a bitter laugh that sounds more like a snarl. “Wow, am I really that repulsive? My God, I knew things were bad but this…this is on another level. You’ve got to pay that amount of money just to get a girl to come here and fuck me? I have no words.”
The room is now so cold I actually fear I might freeze to death. Yet at the same time, my heart goes out to Alex. I can understand why he is hurt. What Beatrix did is indefensible. What son wouldn’t be distressed to learn his own mother had conspired to hoodwink him so deviously? This situation is so perverse it’s unreal.
“The fee I agreed to pay Jessica has no bearing on your attractiveness,” Mrs Kingswood says quietly. “The high price I’m paying is because she’s a virgin.”
“A virgin?” Alex sounds stunned. “Wow, what a birthday present. You’ve really outdone yourself this time. You’ve found me a good girl prepared to do naughty things for money. What a supremely tantalising prospect…”
My cheeks flush and once more, I can sense his demonic eyes scorching into me. My muscles stiffen. I don’t enjoy being the object of his attention at all. The very thought of him looking at my body or making any type of sexual advance makes my skin crawl. Fuck, this feels so surreal, like something out of a horror movie. I can’t actually believe I’m sitting here with these people, discussing my virginity like it’s the most normal thing in the world. It’s like some weird Gothic nightmare from an Edgar Allan Poe story. Please someone pinch me and wake me up.
