What's Your Price? Read online

  “I saw the way you were with that couple at the diner the first day I saw you. There was no attitude. You care about them. You want what they have.”

  She looked up. “No, I don’t.”

  “You can pretend you don’t, but I get it.”

  “Gabe, you don’t know me.”

  “I know enough.” He reached out, putting a hand on hers, stopping her from chopping. “You don’t have to hide from me. I see you.”

  For some reason, this made her feel sick to her stomach.

  “Do you understand me?” she asked, pulling her hand out from beneath his.

  “Yes.”

  She put the peppers into the pre-heated pot. “If you understand me, why are you still around me? You know I’m not going to be easy.”

  “I’m not after easy people. Never have been.”

  “You talk in riddles.”

  She continued to cook, remembering to put some water on for the pasta at the last minute. She was so annoyed. No one understood her. No one cared.

  Gritting her teeth, she got to working on their food. Gabe was silent for several minutes, and she was happy about that. It gave her time to focus. She didn’t want anyone to look at her, to notice.

  She had long ago lost all care for anyone wanting her. She’d been the little girl hoping for families to come in and notice her. To want her to be a part of their families. She got used to the feeling of being glanced over, of not being seen. When families or couples would visit, she stopped trying to impress them. It was easier that way.

  Over the years, she’d learned to rely on herself alone, until Gabe.

  Why was he different?

  She hadn’t cowered away from his display at his nightclub. She wouldn’t give in to his demands now.

  She turned toward the sink and washed her hands. A gasp escaped her as Gabe’s arms went around her.

  “You can’t stand for me to know anything about you, can you? I bet it’s easier that way. You can hold everyone back, but I refuse to be like everyone else. I’m not like everyone else.” His lips brushed across her neck.

  “No? When you’re done with me, you’ll just kill me.”

  His teeth pressed against her neck. “You really think it would be that easy?”

  “Wouldn’t it be?” she asked.

  He didn’t speak up, and she stayed tense.

  “The world has broken you, Laura, but I promise you, I’ll build you back up.”

  She spun around. “I’m not broken, Gabe. That’s where you’re wrong.”

  “You don’t think you’re broken?”

  “I know I’m not.” She pushed some hair off her face. “Is this what you’re going to spend the next two days doing? Trying to mold me into what you want? Have you ever considered I might actually be happy with who I am?” She ran her hand down the front of his pants. “I’ve got nothing to hide. I made a lot of choices, but I’m not defined by them.” She cupped his cock. “I’m not a damsel in distress. I don’t need nor do I want your money. You’ve got nothing to offer me.”

  “Then why are you here?” he asked.

  She sank to her knees before him and worked at the button of his pants. “For something you don’t understand. I want your cock for free.” She pulled his dick from the confines of his pants. Working her fingers up and down his length, she smiled up at him. “And that confuses the fuck out of you.” She took him into her mouth, moaning as his pre-cum slid across her tongue. The moment he hit the back of her throat, she didn’t stop, instead, she took him even deeper, moaning more as he filled her.

  The taste of him exploded on her tongue, and he released a curse, grabbing her hair and wrapping it around his fist. He began to thrust into her mouth, and she swallowed as much of him down as possible. Glancing up, she loved the power she held over him. With the touch of her tongue, she could stop him from enjoying this. Too much teeth would render him on his knees.

  She chose pleasure.

  She gave him everything he wanted, and in return, her arousal built.

  “Fuck, Laura. Fuck.” He growled, gripped her more tightly, and thrust deep into her mouth, sinking to her throat. He came hard and she swallowed every single drop without complaint.

  She licked her lips as he pulled out, but Gabe wasn’t done with her yet. He lifted her over his shoulder and proceeded to carry her across his apartment. She held on to his ass with a squeal. “The food. The food.”

  “The food can wait. I already turned it off.”

  She’d been so into sucking his cock she’d completely forgotten about the food.

  “You’re going to see there’s a benefit to having takeout,” he said.

  The moment she hit the mattress and looked into his eyes, she knew she wasn’t going to complain about a bit of takeout.

  ****

  “Tell me about you,” Laura said, dipping a tortilla into some hot salsa.

  “What do you want to know?”

  “The real stuff. How you became this city monster. Leader of all minions and all that.” She licked her fingers before picking up another tortilla. This time, she dipped it into the guacamole. “This is really good.”

  “I know all the good places.”

  “I’ll have to get their number because this is so good.” She moaned, and for a few seconds, he admired her eating. “Are you going to tell me? How did you go from foster kid to king?”

  “I’m not a king, and the usual way. There was a job opening.”

  She chuckled. “Yeah, because this is the normal job.”

  He took some tortillas and dipped them with salsa. “I was always good with my fists, and I can problem solve. Had the skill when I was a kid. Could talk my way out of everything. The cops hated me because I always found little loopholes. One day, I was about thirteen, maybe younger, or older. I can’t remember. I was sent to live with this guy. He gave me the creeps. He stunk really bad. Like he didn’t wash. He was only taking kids in for the money, and it turned out he liked to play with them. He got a kick out of forcing the boys to do things.”

  He hadn’t told anyone about this. “One night, my second one there, he came to my bedroom. He gripped me around the throat and told me I was going to suck his cock or the only food I was going to get for the next year was his friends’ cum. Anyway, he let me go. Being a street kid, you learn to have something to take care of yourself. I had a knife. Instead of my mouth on his dick, he got a knife in his, and then I gripped the bastard thing, and severed it. That was the start of earning my reputation.”

  She frowned, and he saw she’d stopped eating.

  He loved that she sat opposite him, naked, with no intent to hide. Her knees were drawn up, and her hair fell around her in waves. She spun toward him, crossing her legs at the ankle. “Do you still have the knife?”

  “I do.”

  “Did you get arrested?”

  “Nope. The bastard never filed charges. I was to later find out that he had a whole bunch of child porn in his home.”

  “Is this guy still alive?”

  “No. He met his untimely fate when he took way too many heart pills.” Again, when he realized the bastard was still hurting kids. At the age of twenty, he paid the fucker a visit and he left that house after the guy went cold. “What was your weapon?”

  “I … I didn’t have one.”

  “You didn’t.”

  She shook her head.

  “You didn’t have a good life though, did you?”

  “No, I didn’t. It was an interesting time for me.” She picked up another tortilla. “I don’t like to talk about it.”

  “Talk.”

  She tucked her hair behind her ear. He’d come to notice it was a habit when she didn’t want to talk.

  “I was a big kid. I wasn’t beautiful, nor was I flattering. I was always called fat and ugly. I was even told that anyone who showed any interest in me I should be grateful to.”

  “Who told you this shit? The kids?”

  “No. A couple of the f
oster moms along the way. I got a thick skin to the name-calling. Then at around fifteen, I think I finally grew into my body, and that was when life got … intense.” She pressed her lips together. Her brows drew together and he wanted to soothe whatever troubled her.

  “The guy. The one you ran away from?” he asked.

  Laura blew out a breath. “Okay. I will talk about this once. I don’t want to go over old ground or anything. If you find that you don’t like me after this, that’s on you.”

  “I won’t be affected.” He’d kind of built the story in his head. All he wanted was for Laura to fill in the blanks.

  She rubbed her hands together. “I went to stay with this family. They seemed nice. They always do. Hard-working parents. Sweet kids. They didn’t know hard life or being passed over. For a couple of weeks, everything was fine until I discovered why the guy wanted my bedroom to be in the basement.” She stopped and she stared at her hands. “That night, I lost my virginity.”

  “He took it.”

  “I didn’t exactly fight him off.” She closed her eyes, and he saw her hands clench. “So, the next night, I thought that was it. It was done. He came again and again, until I couldn’t stand it. I ran. I ran to the nearest city, and it was there I bumped into a woman. Obviously, a week or two has passed by this point. I’m starving. I’m broken. I’m alone. Her name was Liza. That’s what she said. She had no ID, but she told me her name was Liza. She took me in, and for five days, she taught me so much.”

  He couldn’t stand to see her eyes closed. The man in the pictures was as good as dead. “What did she teach you?”

  “Men wanted something for a price. She told me that the world wasn’t ready for me. That if I didn’t take control of myself and who I was, I was going to break. I’d lose everything.” She pressed her lips together. “On the last night with her, before her pimp beat the living crap out of her and killed her, she told me that the only person who can tell me to do what I want is me. I’m in control of my own destiny and men, their weakness is their dick. You control the dick, you control the man.” She averted her gaze. “So … I went back to him. I made an arrangement. He could have me as much as he wanted and often, but I needed my education and money.” She got up from the bed.

  “Laura.”

  “I stayed for two years at least. I got my high school education and enough money to get the hell out of there.” She took a step away. “He and one other guy are the only ones I’ve ever slept with. The other one, he was a tester to see…”

  “If you liked sex.”

  “I do like sex. It got to the stage where it became fun.” She frowned, and he saw the tears in her eyes.

  Laura ran from the room. He didn’t even think, he followed. He caught her in his arms and she started to sob.

  “I’m fine. Let me go.”

  “I know you’re fine. I’ve got you.”

  “I’m disgusting.”

  “You did what you needed to do in order to survive. That’s all.” He pressed a kiss to her head.

  “I’m dirty.”

  “You’re clean. You’re perfect.” He cupped her face, forcing her to look at him. “You’re nothing but pure.”

  She burst out laughing. “Are you kidding me? Look at how fast this is moving. You want me, and I offer to fuck you.”

  “No money is changing hands. We want this.” He took possession of her mouth. “I still want you. I will always want you.”

  “I’m dirty.”

  “You’re not. You’re a survivor. That asshole shouldn’t have touched you.”

  “I wanted to go to the police, but he said no one would believe me.” She covered his hands with her own. “Why wouldn’t anyone believe me?”

  “Because they’re assholes of the highest order. They don’t deserve you.” The truth was, neither did he. He’d known the man in the picture was a piece of work. The way he looked. Everything about him had screamed trouble, and now, his days were numbered.

  Where there was Laura, there were so many other girls.

  Laura stopped crying, but he didn’t let her go. He refused to.

  “How can you even want me?” she asked. “After what I just said?”

  “I told you before, I understand you. You think I haven’t done stuff I’m not proud of? You have to in order to survive. This world isn’t for the fainthearted. It’s cold, hard, and brutal. We were given bad starts.”

  “And look where you are now,” she said. “The king. The one in control.”

  “And I’m looking for a queen.”

  She shook her head. “No, Gabe. I’m not the girl for you.”

  “Good. I’m not looking for a girl. I’m wanting a woman.”

  She rolled her eyes. Her hand reached out and stroked his chest. “Thank you.”

  “For what?”

  “For not judging.”

  “Have you ever told anyone else?” he asked.

  “No. There was no one else to tell.”

  “And Liza is gone?”

  She nodded. “She had a mouth on her. When I first met her, I didn’t realize she was a prostitute. She saved me, though. Fed me. Gave me the advice that got me here. The pimp she worked for wanted me to start on a corner. Liza wouldn’t hear of it, and so, he kept hitting her until there was nothing left to hit.”

  “I’m so sorry.”

  “It’s not your fault. You didn’t cause it.”

  Chapter Six

  “Spread those legs for me.”

  “Seriously? You got this game just so you could order me around?” Laura asked, standing up and glaring at him.

  “I got this game because it was fun.”

  “Yes, when there is more than one player.”

  “Bend over.”

  “You’re not even spinning that thing.” She pointed at the board he held in his hand.

  “I don’t need to spin it.”

  She rolled her eyes at him, and even though she loved teasing him, she bent forward. The moment he got her to stand with her feet wide apart and then bend so it would give him the perfect angle of her open and exposed, her suspicions had risen. It wasn’t like it was hard. She’d been with him for twenty-four hours. During that time, she’d opened her heart and soul to him.

  No one had known about Liza. Even when the cops came to clean up the mess, she’d hidden away and watched the pimp pay them off. Just another body in a city full of them. Liza had been old, alone, and no one cared if she lived or died. Rather than stick around for that kind of future, she took the bus back and arrived on the porch of the man who’d raped her. She’d made a deal with herself. Under no circumstances would she ever allow a man to control her life.

  You’re naked in Gabe’s home.

  She tried to ignore the little niggling doubt that she’d fucked up.

  Gabe was different. He’d taken her by surprise, and it wasn’t like he controlled her life. She still worked, admittedly, half of her work was with him, seeing as he was the owner of the bar.

  “Are you satisfied now?”

  “No. You need to have dots put on your ass so I can stretch it wide.”

  She smiled and then reached around and spread her cheeks wide. “Like this?”

  “Oh, baby. I told you this was the best fucking game.”

  Flicking her hair over her shoulder, she glanced behind her to see Gabe had his cock in his fist, working it up and down.

  She’d expected his appetite for her to dwindle. Men only wanted what they couldn’t have, but Gabe, each day, he constantly came back for more.

  “Tell me what you want,” she said.

  “You.”

  “Which part of me?”

  “Walk back to me.”

  “Are you always this playful?”

  “Only with you.”

  She could live with that. Stepping back, she walked all the way until she was perched above him. He grabbed her hips. “Hold me.”

  Laura reached between her thighs, held his cock, and slowly began to sin
k back onto his length.

  They both moaned.

  “Oh, fuck, baby.”

  Up and down, she rocked on his length, taking him as deep as she could. Gabe took over. With his hold on her hips, he began to rock her up and down his length.

  She touched her pussy, stroking her clit, and rocked on him.

  “That’s it. Come all over my cock, babe. Let me have it.”

  Laura cried his name, and as she came, she flung her head back, resting on his shoulder. They were both panting for breath.

  Gabe’s cock was still rock-hard inside her.

  He lifted her up, and this time, he moved her. His slick fingers touched her asshole. She sank her teeth into her lip as he moved his cock to her back entrance.

  Staring straight ahead of her, she expected pain, and there was a tiny bit as she sank on his length, but not too much.

  He thrust inside her, going slowly. Taking her ass with control until she was fully seated on his length.

  His hands moved from her hips, one going back between her thighs as the other glided up, wrapping around her neck, holding on to her. She moaned.

  “I’m fucking addicted to you. Do you know that? I can’t get enough of you.”

  “Please.”

  He stroked her clit, two fingers rubbing either side. With her ass full, she couldn’t help but move, to cause the friction she needed more than anything. His lips bit down on her neck, and the pleasure went into a completely different world. She couldn’t think. All that was there was the pleasure he gave her.

  Laura didn’t think it was possible to have another orgasm so soon, but Gabe stroked her body until she erupted in pleasure, begging him for more. He gave it to her, fucking her harder than ever before. She loved it.

  He changed position, moving her so she lay on the sofa. Cushions were shoved beneath her pelvis, lifting her up for easier access. He held on to her shoulders and fucked her ass. She thrust back to meet him as he took her.

  Each glide of his cock in and out turned her on even more.

  “Oh, fuck, babe, I’m going to come.”

  She was ready for it as he slammed in deep. His balls slapping against her pussy, she felt his cum filling her up. Each wave of it flooded her.