“I take it you’re pro-choice.”
“Damn right.”
“Your body, your choice.”
“Right, you’ve said that before.”
“Shouldn’t you get to do with your body whatever you want?” he pressed.
“Yes, but...sex has been used for so long as a weapon to keep women down, to cheapen and objectify us. You’re suggesting prostitution is somehow empowering?”
He took a step closer to her. “Shed the expectations of a patriarchal society for a minute and think about what you want, what you like. Do you like sex?”
Damn it. Her lips were still parted. And he was close enough to pull her to his body.
“S-Sure,” she said. “When I choose to have it. And if he’s—if the guy is attentive and knows what he’s doing.”
He lowered his voice. “Trust me. I know what I’m doing.”
She seemed to swallow with difficulty. “How can I trust you? I barely know you.”
“You have your safety word.”
“And you’ll honor it?”
He was being drawn into her vortex, eager to be close enough to feel her breath, but her doubt pulled him out. “Of course.”
“So what if I said I wasn’t up to doing anything at all?”
“At all? Like you want to leave and go home?”
“Yeah.”
He rubbed his chin, where his five o’clock shadow was coming in. He felt like she was testing him. “Then you should leave and go home.”
“And you’d let me go?”
He gave a wry look. “You think I’d force you to stay? That would be kidnapping.”
Was she into kidnapping fantasies? Is that why she was asking? Or was she really having second thoughts?
“I feel like I’ve been kidnapped. I wasn’t told I was coming here, and I don’t know how to get back home. I kind of doubt I can get Uber out here. I don’t even know where ‘here’ is.”
He let out a long breath. “If you need a ride back, my jet is at the Weaverville Airport. It can fly you to SFO.”
Her eyes lit up. “You’re serious? You’d let me go? What about the money you paid to Jake? I’m not sure he’d want to refund any of it.”
“That’s my problem. I’ll figure it out.”
She was silent in thought. When she met his gaze, she seemed less guarded. “You weren’t at the Scarlet Auction. Why?”
“You asked me that already.”
“You didn’t supply an answer.”
He went through his memory and realized she was right. “I had better things to do with my time.”
“Like what?”