#p#分页标题#e#
“Lucky.”
I groan in response.
“We have something else to discuss.”
My eyes drift shut. “What?” I slur.
“The subject of your friend?”
I become instantly alert. “Uh…yeah?” I sift through the cadence of his voice. Is he pissed off? Indifferent? “You okay with me having him over?”
“That depends.”
“On what?”
“Do you like him?”
I frown. “Why do you care?”
“Because I care if you intend to fuck him.”
“Does liking automatically equal fucking?”
“Don’t women think so?”
“What about men? What about you?”
“I like fucking you. A lot. Enough for me to wonder if you’re planning on giving that body I own to this friend who’s coming over.”
“No, I don’t plan on fucking him.”
“Tonight or at all?”
I shrug. His tone suggests he’s not pissed. But there’s something there. Q is fucking with my mind again. “Not while I’m yours.
“So you do like him then?”
“I don’t know how I feel about him. He’s…it’s complicated.”
“In what way is it complicated?”
“Wow, you’re full of questions. Are you bored, Q?”
“You want me to give you permission for some guy to come sniffing around what’s mine. He may be a mind-fuck artist for all you know. Give me satisfactory answers and I’ll consider it.”
My frown deepens as my confusion escalates. “I was just thinking the same thing about you.”
“What?”
“The mind fuck part.”
“Your friend and I have that in common?” he drawls.
Shocked laughter erupts from me. “I see you’re not denying it.”
“You’ve proven yourself adequate to the challenge of being mind-fucked.”
“Seeing and calling your bullshit doesn’t mean I enjoy the aggravation, Q.”
“Then why are you smiling?”
I wipe the smile off my face and glare around the room. “Where is the camera?”
“Cameras, plural. Headboard and floor lamp.”
“I’m going to rip them out. You know that, don’t you?”
“Yes.”
I raise an eyebrow. “You won’t get pissed off with me?”
“They were meant to be temporary. I’ve put in place a more robust protection detail.”
I surge upright. “What sort of protection detail?” The last thing I need are more people digging into my business.
“None that will compromise your privacy. Or put you on any radar you wish to avoid.”
I’m a little reassured, but all the same. “Q—”
“You won’t come to any physical harm, Lucky. Not while you’re with me.”
Something about that statement bothers me. Badly. Enough to make my heart lurch and my stomach hollow out. Before I can think of an adequate response, he speaks.
“You have my permission to see your friend.”
Umm…right. I’m a little put out that he’s not jealous. I expected more resistance from him, what with the, my body, my pussy, edict he’s so fond of throwing down.
“Okay. Thanks.”
“You’re welcome. But, Lucky?”
“Hmm?”
“Make sure you get enough rest. You come to me at midnight. And Viagra Night is happening.”#p#分页标题#e#
33
REEL
Lucky
After Q hangs up, I go in search of the cameras. I realize I’m not as upset by their presence, but I act on principle alone. They’re both wireless and connected via blue-tooth. There are no switches on the high tech looking gadgets, so I throw them into a drawer and slam it shut.
Then I fall back into bed and pull the covers over my head. My nap lasts two hours and I wake up refreshed.
Languishing in bed, I think back over the conversation with Q. The man has a way with words. And a formidable iron will. To say I’ve never met anyone like him is an understatement.
To say my feelings for him are a little murkier than whore and client? Also an understatement. The only person who ever looked out for me was my mother. And that was when she wasn’t off her head on cheap liquor to drown out Clayton’s cruel monopoly of her life. But it hadn’t all been bad. The nine months she stayed sober while she was pregnant with Petra were the happiest of my life.
I still don’t know how she managed to hide the pregnancy from Clayton, but I guess it was a combination of deliberately putting on weight so he’d keep his hands off her, and the very genuine illness and subsequent death of her mother, the grandmother I never met, necessitating my first out-of-state trip to Nevada. Petra was born while we were there, arriving a month early. Ma must have laid plans beforehand, because one minute, she had a baby in her arms, the next we were on the bus back to Getty Falls, minus said baby.