The car came to a stop outside what looked to be a residential address, the tall pillars on either side of the heavy wooden door giving it a grandiose feel. Reading the name on the brass plaque to the left of the door, I realized where Ashton had brought me. I’d read about it in magazines at the diner. Celebrities had been spotted here. It was one of the most expensive places in the city.
“Here?” My voice was incredulous. This was too much.
“Yes, here. Come on, I’ll walk you in.”
On legs that felt like jelly, I climbed out of the car and followed Ashton inside. My shoes clicked against the marble floor of the foyer, and pictures of models sporting different hairstyles lined the walls. At the counter stood a woman, dressed in a tan business suit, her long hair hanging loose. Soft music filled the air.
“Hello, we have an appointment scheduled for Elena.”
“Let me check,” the receptionist said. “Ah, yes, here we are. Full session?”
“That’s correct.”
I noticed the way the girl’s eyes focused on Ashton every time she thought he wasn’t looking. It wasn’t hard to see why she was staring, with his neatly styled blonde hair, and green eyes hidden behind his glasses, Ashton was absolutely gorgeous. Wait. “What’s a full session?”
Ashton smiled at me. “It means the works. You’ll get all of the services today.”
“All of them?” I knew I was just repeating what he said, but I needed to make sure I’d heard him correctly.
“Yes. Now promise me something.”
“What’s that?”
It was hard not to smile back at him when he was being so sweet. Last night he scared me when he’d hurt the other man and he could have used me, done what he wanted then discarded me, but he hadn’t. Instead, he’d put me in a beautiful room, told me to go to bed and get some sleep, and now he was sending me to get pampered for the day.
“Promise me you’re not going to worry about any of the bullshit with Dominic. Relax and enjoy yourself.”
“I’ll try.” I faced the receptionist. “Okay, I’m ready.” My heart raced, but it was hard to keep the grin off my face.
“Great,” she said, her bubbly personality shining through. “My name’s Lisa, and I’ll show you around before getting you ready for your first appointment.”
Ashton leaned forward, his mouth dropping down to my ear. “Lewis will be here to pick you up later. Remember, relax.”
I nodded and clasped my hands together to keep them from shaking and said, “Thank you. I’ll see you later.”
Following Lisa back through the door, I embarked on my first day of being pampered. Why would Ashton set this all up? Did he want me to sleep with him? No, that was stupid. I’d tried last night and he turned me down. There had to be a reason, but until I figured it out, I’d been brought here to be pampered.
Might as well enjoy it.
CHAPTER 5
Ashton
Seeing the look on Elena’s face, I knew I’d made the right decision in getting everything set up the night before. The way things were, Elena couldn’t see her worth, but I intended to change that. It would have to happen slowly, though. Her low self-esteem, no doubt ingrained by her husband, had been given years to take root. Changing the way she saw herself was going to take time. I needed to do it slowly.
First things first, I had to stop by my dad’s house and let him know what had happened. He’d be looking for the money sooner or later. I figured a face-to-face explanation was the way to go.
The drive to his place gave me an opportunity to plan what to say. While I preferred a house outside the chaos of downtown, Dad liked living right in the middle of things. Fucking stupid, if you asked me. With all the pies my father had his fingers in, surrounding himself with law enforcement was asking for trouble.
So far, Dad was off grid as far as the police were concerned. To the community, he was nothing more than a local businessman, and that was by design. He was clever. Regardless of their suspicions, the cops could walk into any one of the four car dealerships he owned tomorrow and demand to see his books and wouldn’t find anything. It helped that he had a forensic accountant on his team. Tired of working for the government, he helped disguise any wrongdoing, keeping it away from prying eyes. My father paid him handsomely to make every transaction look clean.
My brother, Miller, was not so invisible. Sports betting was harder to hide. He’d had a few run ins with the police, but lucky for him, he had a few politicians in his pocket and having them owe him favors helped to make any potential problems disappear. Miller got smarter after one instance. He went to ground for a while and came back having created a system that eliminated the need to use the back room of a bar to place the bets. Lately, he’d also been helping Dad at one of the dealerships. I couldn’t deny the business was a great cover. It didn’t do too badly either.