‘Is he really paying double?’
‘I don’t need more than what I asked you for.’
‘Then why go to him? He is no different from me. He will drop you like a bad mortgage when he is finished with you too.’
She nods. ‘Of course he will, but like you said, I came with a price. You wanted to bargain and he was willing to pay it.’ If only she can keep him talking until Blake returns.
‘So am I, now.’
‘Besides, you want fifty shades of grey and he just wants a woman.’
‘Perhaps I’ve changed my mind. Perhaps I just want a woman too.’
He comes closer.
‘Blake has gone to get my coat. He’ll be back any time.’
‘Not without this he won’t.’ He holds out her ticket.
He puts out a hand suddenly. She tries to move back, but he grabs her by the arm. His grip is vice-like, his fingers dig painfully into her flesh. He hauls her closer.
‘You’re hurting me.’
‘You’ll be surprised how much pain the human body can take.’
‘What do you want, Rupert?’
‘I feel aggrieved. Something I wanted and was promised to me has been stolen by another. I was given a taste of something which I very much liked. You resist beautifully, Lana. Perhaps, you will do both of us. I will pay you too.’
Lana blinks. She can’t believe what she is hearing. If it wasn’t so humiliating, it would be surreal. The surroundings she is in, the obviously powerful men who are suddenly apparently willing to pay huge sums to have sex with her.#p#分页标题#e#
‘I wouldn’t do that to Blake.’
‘He’ll never know and even if he does, he won’t care.
It’s not like he wants to marry you. You’re just a fuck, Lana,’ he pronounces dismissively.
The door opens and Blake stands at the threshold with her orange coat folded over his arm. His face is like a closed steel door. He comes into the room and Rupert lets go of her arm. She moves away from him and rubs it.
Already there are red marks on it. Blake eyes them silently, then helps her into her coat.
‘Ready?’ he asks.
She nods.
He turns towards Rupert and socks him hard on the chin. So hard the ex-rugby player falls to the floor with a grunt.
‘She may be a cheap slut, but I’m paying what you baulked at, so she is my cheap slut now. You’d do well to remember that,’ Blake throws casually over his shoulder.
Rupert clutches his busted, bleeding lip and shows his fury to the only person he dares to. ‘You’re fired, Bloom,’
he shouts impotently.
Blake takes her arm and leads her out of that place.
There is not a single person at that party that does not turn to watch them leave.
Five
lake’s monster of a car, a gleaming sable-gray Aston BMartin is parked beside a lamppost. It is one of those old-fashioned wrought-iron ones with a fluted surface.
She stands on the curb and loops her hand around its rough, cold metal.
‘Get in,’ he says.
‘What if I’m sick in your car?’
‘My secretary will have it valeted.’
She nods and unhooks herself from the metal post. Is life really this easy? With those shoes and the drink in her it is impossible to get into the low-swung seat elegantly.
Blake’s eyes are on her legs. She swings the last one in and shuts the door.
The interior of his car is plush and luxurious. It even smells expensive. She has never been in such a car. He has been listening to classical music. The sound system is excellent and superb music fills the car.
‘What is this music called?’
‘Handel’s Messiah,’ he says, and switches it off. He turns to her. In the light of the streetlamp he looked harsh and distant. In the softly lit darkness of his car there is still no softening to his face. Again the thought, a cold, cold man.
‘I have to be in New York tomorrow, but my secretary will call you and make all the necessary arrangements.’
She nods gratefully and looks away. It is as if she is in a dream.
‘Where do you live?’
‘Kilburn.’
‘Got a postcode?’ He sounds very American then.
She gives it to him and he sets his GPS system.
They drive in silence, until she can bear it no more.
‘Don’t you want to know how much?’
‘Yeah, tell me.’
She tells him and his eyes leave the road briefly to look at her. ‘What made you think Rupert was the man for the part?’
She shrugs in the dark. ‘I don’t know. I heard a rumor that his secretary was sometimes tasked with stuffing envelopes with ten thousand pounds in cash and booking expensive hotel rooms for him.’
‘I see,’ he says quietly.