LITMIR.BIZ

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for a higher price with your virginity. Just a suggestion as you go forward with your new career. What is it called now? Paid mistress? Professional girlfriend?”

      “How can you be so cruel?” She shook her head. “When you came to the diner tonight, I saw the same boy I loved...”

      “Really?” He tilted his head, quirking a dark eyebrow. “Oh. Right. Since you’d kept your virginity in reserve all these years, you thought if you tossed in a little romance, I’d fall for you like a stone, just like I did back then. ‘I love you, Darius. I never stopped loving you,’” he mimicked mockingly.

      “Stop!” she cried, covering her ears with her hands. “Please stop!”

      Some of her blanket had slipped where she sat on his bed, revealing a curvy breast. He could see the faint pink tip of her nipple, and he could still taste the sweetness of her, still remember how it had felt to be deep inside her.

      His breath came hard. Sleeping with her hadn’t satiated his desire. To the contrary. He only wanted her more.

      The fact she still had such power over him was infuriating.

      Turning sharply, he went to his desk. He pulled a cashier’s check from a leather binder. Returning to the bed, he tossed it toward her.

      “There. I believe this concludes our business.”

      Letty’s lovely face looked dazed as she picked up the cashier’s check from the bed. She looked at it.

      “If you have another client tonight, don’t let me keep you,” he drawled.

      She briefly closed her eyes and whispered, “You’re a monster.”

      “I’m a monster.” He barked a low, cruel laugh. “Me?”

      Turning away, she rose naked from the bed. He waited, wondering for a split second if she’d toss the check in his face and prove him wrong. If she did...

      But she didn’t. She just picked up her panties from the floor and walked to the door. He sneered at himself for being naive enough to even imagine the possibility she’d give up her hard-earned money for the sake of honor, or even pride!

      She left the bedroom, going out into the great room of the penthouse. He followed, watching as she collected her bra and shoes, then scooped her white dress from the floor. Putting it on after slipping on her panties, she buttoned the dress quickly, leaving gaps where he’d ripped off buttons in his haste to get it off her. She wouldn’t meet his eyes.

      Darius wanted to force her to look at him. He wanted her humiliated. He wanted her heartbroken. His pride demanded something he couldn’t name. More.

      She stuffed her bra in her handbag and put her bare feet into her shoes and turned to go.

      “It’s just a shame the condom broke,” he said.

      She froze. “What?”

      “The condom. Of course I was wearing one. But it broke. So if you wind up pregnant, let me know, won’t you?” He gave a hard smile. “We will negotiate a good price.”

      He was rewarded. She finally turned and looked at him, aghast.

      “You’d pay me? For a baby?”

      He said coldly, “Why not, when I paid you for the act that created it?” His expression hardened. “I will never marry you, Letty. So your attempt at gold digging ends with that check in your bag. If by some unfortunate chance you become pregnant, selling me our baby would be your only option.”

      “You’re crazy!”

      “And you disgust me.” He came closer to her, his eyes cold. “I would never allow any child of mine to be raised by you and that criminal you call a father. I would hire a hundred lawyers first,” he said softly, “and drive you both into the sea.”

      For a moment, Letty looked at him, wide-eyed. Then she turned away with a stumble, but not before he saw the sheen of tears in her eyes. She’d become quite the little actress, he thought.

      “Please take me home,” she whispered.

      “Take you home?” Darius gave a sardonic laugh. “You’re an employee, not a guest. A temporary employee whose time is now done.” His lip curled. “Find your own way home.”

       CHAPTER THREE

      LETTY SHIVERED IN the darkest, coldest hours of the night as she walked to the Lexington Avenue subway station and got on the express train. It was past one in the morning, and she held her bag tightly in the mostly empty compartment, feeling vulnerable and alone.

      Arriving at her stop in Brooklyn, she came numbly down the stairs from the elevated station and walked the blocks to her apartment. The streets were dark, the shops all closed. The February—no, it was March now; it was past midnight—wind was icy against her cheeks still raw with tears.

      She’d thought it was a miracle when she saw Darius again. She’d thought he’d found out the truth of how she’d sacrificed herself, and he’d come back for her.

      Telling him she loved him had felt so right. She’d honestly thought he might tell her the same thing.

      How could she have been so wrong?

      You disgust me.

      She could still hear the contempt in his voice. Wiping her eyes hard, she shivered, trembling as she trudged toward her four-story apartment building.

      While many of the nearby buildings were nice, well kept, with flower boxes, hers was an eyesore, with a rickety fire escape clinging to a crumbling brick facade. But the place was cheap, and the landlord had asked no personal questions, which was what she cared about. Plugging in a security code, Letty pushed open the door.

      Inside, the temperature felt colder. Two of the foyer’s lights were burned out, leaving only a single bare lightbulb to illuminate the mailboxes and the old delivery menus littering the corners of the cracked tile floor.

      Even in the middle of the night, noises echoed against the concrete stairwell, a Doppler tangle of tenants yelling, dogs barking, a baby crying. A sour smell came up from beneath the metal stairs as she wearily climbed three flights. She felt wretched, body and soul, torn between her body’s sweet ache from their lovemaking and her heart’s incandescent grief.

      The fourth floor had worn, stained carpet and a bare lightbulb hanging from the ceiling. Going past the doors of her neighbors—some of whom she’d never met even after three years—she reached into her handbag, found her keys and unlocked the dead bolt. The door creaked as she pushed it open.

      “Letty! You’re back!” Her father looked up eagerly from his easy chair. He’d waited up for her, wrapped in both a robe and a blanket over his flannel pajamas, since the thermostat didn’t work properly. Turning off the television, he looked up hopefully. “Well?”

      As the door swung shut behind her, Letty stared at him in disbelief. Her handbag dropped to the floor.

      “How could you?” she choked out.

      “How could I get you and Darius back together so easily?” Her father beamed at her. “All I needed was a good excuse!”

      Her voice caught on a sob. “Are you kidding?”

      Howard frowned. “Are you and Darius not back together?”

      “Of course we’re not! How could you send him a message, pretending to be me? Offering me for the night!”

      “I was trying to help,” he said falteringly. “You’ve loved him for so long but refused to contact him. Or he you. I thought...”

      “What? That if you forced us together, we’d immediately fall back into each other’s arms?”

      “Well, yes.”

      As

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