Prince Player(77)
I’ve never seen anything so nice in my whole life. I knew he was rich, or at least I knew it on some abstract level. But now that I’m seeing his actual objects and the house he lives in, I can really appreciate it.
The place looks like a museum or a high-end hotel or something. It’s absolutely spotless and nothing is out of place. As we move into the kitchen and Ethan tosses his wallet and keys onto the counter, a door off to one side opens and a man steps out.
“Jenkins,” Ethan says, smiling. “We have a guest.”
“Do we, sir?”
Jenkins is an older man, short and thin, maybe in his sixties. His white hair is slicked back but his crystal clear blue eyes are sharp and intelligent. He looks at me appraising, but he doesn’t smile.
“Nice to meet you,” I say to him.
“Charmed,” he responds without looking at me.
“This is Aria. She’s going to be staying with us for the next month.”
Jenkins pauses and I catch the slightest surprise on his face. “A month, sir?”
“Yes, Jenkins,” Ethan says. “Please prepare the second room for her.”
His surprise is even more evident. “The second room, sir?”
“Am I speaking clearly?” Ethan looks at me, smiling.
I just shrug, feeling too awkward to respond.
He sighs and looks back at Jenkins. “Don’t give me a hard time, please.”
“Of course not, sir.” He turns to leave.
“And be nice to Aria, damnit!” he calls out as Jenkins disappears.
“He doesn’t like me,” I say.
“He’s just an old curmudgeon. Doesn’t like change.”
I smile at that. “You have a butler.”
“I have a butler.”
“A cranky, old butler.”
“It’s a regular British estate.” He grins at me. “Want a tour?”
“Of course I do.”
“Well, right this way, miss.” He offers his arm and I take it with a laugh.
The whole house is actually six townhouses in one, three on the front block and three on the back. There are ten bedrooms and fifteen bathrooms plus a gym, an indoor pool, a large entertainment room, a small theater, and more. Ethan almost seems embarrassed as he walks me through the place, like the extravagance is too much.
Truthfully, it almost is too much. There’s more money in this house than I’ll ever see in a lifetime, or at least that was the case before I landed this job. I know people that live on less per year than he has invested in end tables.
It’s mind-boggling. The comfort, the wealth, the power, I just can barely understand it all. I’m exhausted and it’s late at night, probably around two in the morning, and I feel like I’m running on fumes.
We finish back up in the main living room. “So, what do you think?” he asks.
“It’s... big,” I say.
He laughs. “I know. It’s absurd.”
“Do you use it all?”
“Hardly,” he admits. “I’m barely even here to be honest. I have guests staying here all the time and the place is mostly for them.”
“So you live in a hotel.”
He laughs, pouring himself a drink. “Pretty much.” He gestures at the bottle of whisky. “Want one?”
“Sure,” I say, although I don’t like whisky. He pours and hands me the glass. I accept it and sip it.
He laughs at the face I make. “You don’t have to drink that if you don’t want it,” he says.
“I’m sorry. I’m not much of a whisky drinker.”
“Don’t worry about it.” He takes the glass from me and pours it into his, making it a double.
“I guess I’m not sure how to act in this situation.”
“I know. Strange, right?” He shrugs, sipping his whisky. “Just be yourself. What do you like to drink, anyway?”
“Wine,” I say. “Anything white.”
“Perfect. I have two thousand bottles.”
“Seriously?”
He laughs. “Seriously. Like I said, it’s a hotel.” He walks to the refrigerator, opens a small drawer toward the bottom, and pulls out a white. He opens the bottle, pours me a drink, and hands me the glass.
“Cheers,” he says. He clinks and sips. I look around the room, wondering how the hell I found myself in this situation.
I don’t belong here. Jenkins must have seen through me the second I walked through that door. He knows that I’m trash, that I don’t belong in a place like this with a man like Ethan.
Worse, maybe Jenkins knows what I am. That I’m a hooker for Ethan. That he bought and paid for me and now I’m contractually obligated to do whatever Ethan wants.