This guy is… deviant. I don’t get any sort of moral or honorable vibe from him, and it sets every last one of my nerves on edge.
“Sir?” He chuckles. “What a good girl you are,” he says low, his voice deep, sending a chill of fear down my spine instead of a quiver of desire like when Neil tells me the same thing. “So tell me, Astrid. How far are you willing to climb the levels of my club?”
The way he says willing makes me think he doesn’t actually care what I want. He’d find a way to force me to go further.
“Um, well… I’m comfortable in my position as the makeup artist for sure. I was told a second one would be hired in order to split the hours, so I wouldn’t have to work every day. And I really enjoyed dancing in the nightclub tonight. That was a lot of fun, and the men were gentlemen, which was a nice surprise. So I wouldn’t mind filling in for the regular girls every once in a while, if you have no other options. But that’s as far as I’m wanting to go as far as the other aspects of the club,” I answer, thankful my voice comes out steady and firm at the end.
His eyes go even darker as he seems to stare through me. And then he snaps out of it, blinking before standing from his chair quickly and making me jump.
“You’re sure? Because there is more money to be made than you could possibly dream of on the top level.” He comes around the desk, walking slowly until he’s standing directly in front of me. He then leans back, propping against the giant piece of wooden furniture, before reaching out to trace his finger along my jawline. I shiver at his touch, jerking back in my seat. He lifts a brow, his hand hovering in the air where my face had been, and then he crosses his arms.
“N-No thank you. I’m only trying to earn enough money to go to school, to further my training as a makeup artist. I don’t need anything extravagant. I’m very happy where I-I am, as far as everything else goes,” I tell him. If I hadn’t just felt his warm touch on my skin, I would swear he was a coldblooded demon looking down on me. And it’s in this very second in time that I swear if I get out of here unscathed—hell, if I get out of here at all—then I’ll never come back. I don’t want to work for a man that permeates the air with such evilness just by breathing. I will tell Neil he can pay for whatever the hell he wants. Just please, God, get me out of here.
“Hm. I… I think you might need some convincing,” he tells me. And I suck in a breath, ready to scream my very lungs out if he tries to force me to do anything, but then I let it out as he stands up straight and passes me by, slowly prowling over toward the bed where Kristin sits, sobbing silently. I’ve spun in my seat to watch him, seeing her eyes lift to reluctantly meet his.
“It would be so easy for you to pay for college, Astrid. You could pay it off in just one week, really, if you worked really hard and were a good girl for your Johns. Just one week, and you’d make a small fortune. And then I know you’d be hooked,” he says. “Now watch, and I’ll show you how easy it’d be to make twenty… thousand… dollars in one night.”
Kristin sits on the side edge of the bed, and Randy reaches down, gripping her knees, and jerks her thighs apart, moving closer to stand between her legs. He unbuckles his belt, his eyes coming to meet mine for a moment as he pulls it from the loops of his black dress pants, turning back to Kristin’s as he drapes it around her neck like a scarf.
Her tears come out faster, and something tells me either she’s been through this “training” before and knows what’s going to happen, or she’s heard the stories from other girls. Because why else would she be crying so hard? If she’s already an escort on the third tier of the club, then why would she mind sleeping with her boss? I see the wad of cash already on the nightstand next to the bed. Just as Crystal said, the girl is paid before the night begins. No, she must be this distraught because she knows what’s going to happen isn’t something she wants, isn’t something she’s agreed to. And she’s helpless against it.
She’s never been nice to me, always catty and rude. It’s awkward when I have to do her makeup, having to touch her and be close, right in her face, while I’m working. But I’d never wish something bad to happen to the woman, especially something she sees coming and has no power against it.