At Any Price

“I might be very tempted.” He grinned that boyish grin that made my heart flip.

“Remember, the early dinner will be before. I’ve invited some friends, so bring your best manners.”

I crinkled up my mouth. “I’ll try to find some by then.”

He took a step closer to me, reached up to brush the hair away from my face. I looked up into his eyes and a jolt of heat shot through me, remembering the feel of his mouth, his hands on my body that brief night in Amsterdam.

Now the magic had followed us home, and swirled around us as we stood on the tattered, rubber mat on my doorstep, likely with my landlady watching through her vertical blinds.

“Until Friday, Emilia,” and he dipped his head to drop a chaste kiss on my lips before pulling away, turning to walk down the steps and back to the town car. I watched him the entire way, my mouth slack in surprise. I was at least hoping to get a little tongue.

It was Sunday afternoon and I was exhausted, of course, but I knew I had to call Heath right away—on his strict orders—and let him know how the whole weekend had unrolled. “What?” he shrieked when I got to the part about the phone call, but for a minute I couldn’t tell whether it was his concern over the near-crisis with the game patch or that he couldn’t believe Adam had delayed the entire thing on account of business.

“He had you on the couch stripped to the waist and playing with your girl parts and he answered the phone? He’s gotta be gay.”

I laughed. “Wishful thinking, I’m afraid. It was very obvious that he was turned on and very reluctant to answer the phone. Apparently the guy was warned not to call unless it was an emergency.”

“Shit. So what’s the upshot? He gonna pay you? He had his night.”

I cleared my throat, fidgeting from one foot to the other.

“Hello? You still there?”

“Yeah.”

“So…?”

“So I think he might have been cool with doing that except I had a big mouth and joked about doubling my money by running another auction.”

“There’s no fucking way I’m doing another one, doll. Your favor debt to me is epic as it is.”

“It was a joke. I was trying to be funny—ha ha. It was awkward, he was acting all cold and distant, not like the night before.”

“Okay. So you joked around…and then what?”

“Well, then he gets all weird and starts saying I don’t have the right to sleep with anyone else but him until the contract is fulfilled.”

“Uhh.”

“Is that true? Is he right?”

“Doll, you can do whatever you want…it’s not like he can sue you for breach. The money has yet to be transferred into your account.”

“What if he’s planning to never pay me?”

“Oh, I made sure the agreement states that the NDA goes bye-bye if he doesn’t pay you. If he goes through with it and doesn’t pay, you sell your story to the press and he’s fucked.”

I took a deep breath. “But what about the other? That I can’t be with someone else until…”

“Were you planning on it?”

“No.”

“Does he intend to drag this out for six months and not pay you?”

“That’s what I asked him. He made arrangements to get together Friday night and…do the deed in international waters on his yacht.”

“Hmm. Okay. That works. Can’t help but wonder why he didn’t just get ‘er done the morning before you left.”

I shrugged. Maybe he wanted it to be more romantic? But I couldn’t help but wonder at that. The day we were touring around Amsterdam and Adam had asked me about my dating habits, he’d admitted to me that he didn’t do romance. That he’d never been in a relationship before and had little interest. Yet another thing in which we coincided.

“Well,” said Heath. “As long as he has a backup plan…but you gotta call me before you leave and when you get back. I don’t like the thought of him strangling you out there and dumping you overboard.”

I huffed. “Gee, now that’s reassuring.”

“Mia, I don’t think he’s a bad person, but he had a pretty shitty childhood.”

Now I sat up, interested. “What do you know?”

“I did a background check on him. Mostly public record stuff, really. His mom was an alcoholic and he was placed in the child protective system as a young teen.”

“Yeah, that I know. He told me as much.”