Wild Dirty Secret(93)

I raised my eyebrows. What’s this?

He raised his back in unspoken challenge.

Okay, then. As I laid his jacket on the side table, I slipped the gun underneath the seat cushion.

“How much time do we have?” I asked in my usual voice. It was a customer question to ask at the beginning.

“Thirty minutes.”

Oh, how the mighty had fallen. Once, my time had been sold by the evening. Hourly rates were available, of course. But half hour? I was a little offended. I guess a soul was worth something after all.

Major’s expression was hard; his eyes glinted. Jade would have interpreted that as lust, or good old-fashioned cruelty. I knew it as tension. He was nervous, which meant I was nervous too. He glanced at the bed, then turned away and sat down in the chair Henri had used. I sat across from him.

“What…” I tried to think of something innocuous, something I would ask as an escort when all I really wanted to do was pin him to the ground and ask him if he’d heard anything in the news. “What would you like to do tonight?”

“See, I have this problem.”

“You do?”

“I don’t want to come too soon.”

“Oh.” I made a face that I hoped was sympathetic, even though it amused me that he was using premature ejaculation as a code. He and I were cut from the same cloth.

“Right.” Humor danced in his eyes. “You understand how it would be, with those urges to finish quickly. But sometimes I think it’s better to go slow. Don’t you agree?”

“However you want to do it,” I forced out.

“How accommodating,” he said, his expression sardonic. “I don’t like the girl to come too quickly either. In fact, not at all while I’m here, you understand? If you need to go, you do it after I leave.”

“Okay.” I drew out the word, not quite sure what he meant.

“Right after I leave.”

“Oh.”

He stood and wandered over to the window, looking outside. He tapped lightly on the windowpane, seemingly casual. “I think it’ll be a shattering climax.”

It took me a second to register. He wanted me to jump out the window. Right after he left.

Oh hell, no. I shook my head frantically. “You know, I don’t think I’m a shattering climax kind of girl.”

He smiled wolfishly. “Tonight you will be. You’ll go just the way I came.”

I followed his line of sight to the Jaguar in the parking lot. I understood the plan, such as it were. I should jump out the window and head for his car. But God, this was a horrible idea. The only thing more horrible than doing it was not doing it.

“Now come to the bed, sweets. I paid a lot for my time, and I intend to walk away satisfied.”

After thirty minutes of moaning for me and two hundred and forty push-ups for Major, we were ready. Jade came and knocked at the door to bring him back down. He was sweaty and panting, clothes askew. I was armed with a few more directions he’d been able to squeeze out during exhales.

I waited at the window until I heard shots fired downstairs. The men standing outside ran in, and that’s when I tried the window. It wasn’t locked from the outside, so after a few pushes, I managed to get it open. The bigger problem was the bars on the window. That was where the gun came in.

“Aim for the brick,” he’d said, panting through his workout.

I leaned over the window, looking at the large screws that held the bars to the wall. If I blasted the bricks they were in, the whole thing would come off. Hopefully.

I took aim, squinting into the sight. Lining it up. Slowly, slowly, I pulled the trigger. Oh shit, what am I doing? I thought right before the sound of gunfire exploded in my ears.

The shell ricocheted back into my face; the gun pinged directly off metal. I ducked back into the room for a second, but the shouting from downstairs spurred me on. I peeked over the ledge and saw that the metal had bent right out of the wall.

Hah! So much for hitting the brick.

I congratulated myself on my badassery before moving to the next one. Which I missed, entirely. But there wasn’t time, so I shot again and again. As the third one came off, the whole grate tilted on its axis, hanging from the last screw.

I didn’t need to remove that one to get out, so I slung one leg over the window and prayed. I didn’t bother with shoes, and at least the black sheath was easy to move in.

I looked down at the garbage dump. Footsteps sounded outside the door, and I jerked, almost falling headfirst out the window. The door slammed open, and I thought my heart would burst. That didn’t happen, but I did pee myself—just a little.

It was Jenny, white as a sheet. “What’s happening?”