Dani curled herself into a chair opposite Rand’s low couch, pulling one of the handy blankets half over her body. Anything that provided a barrier between this man and her raw emotions was a very good thing at this point.
Play it easy, play it cool. She needed to go back to what he originally had offered, and set the man’s mouth aside for the moment, no matter how exceptionally gifted that mouth was. Rand had said explicitly that he wanted to pay for her time—and just for her time. Her time and her commitment to do what she said she would.
Okay, well, fine. She could see her way through to that. Lou paid for her time after all, making her show up here night after night to stand behind a bar. Someone would be paying for her time whether her employer was MetLife or McDonald’s. The fact that Rand Sterling Winston IV was the one signing her paycheck didn’t change the nature of a deal like that. She would still be the one calling the shots.
She just had to con Rand into thinking he was getting absolute value for his little financial transaction—without actually giving up anything. Piece of cake.
“So let me make sure we both understand each other,” she said, speaking into Rand’s continued silence. The slight smile on his lips merely deepened, as if he’d expected her to be the one to push the conversation forward. “You pay me to show up and hang out with you on demand, and then, to do what I say I’m going to do, whatever that may be?”
“That about covers it, yes.”
Okayyy. She thought about the short game they just played. That had totally worked out to her benefit, and if she had the right to refuse anything Rand asked, then she could see no downside here. As far as she could tell, she wasn’t missing any loophole here. Moving on… “All right, fair enough. I’m expensive, but you can afford me, I’m sure. I also get bored easily, so this little arrangement of ours, I’m looking at a month, tops.”
Rand sat back in the couch, as if he routinely negotiated such terms with his business associates. Hell, maybe he did. “I believe a month would be a perfectly reasonable amount of time, yes.”
“And you don’t own me,” Dani followed up quickly. He’d already given her the first yes, which meant she was well on her way to a successful close. But she needed to draw her own lines in the sand. “I have other jobs with established time requirements. I can slack off my schedule here somewhat, but not completely.”
“Why would I ever want to take you away from this?” Rand said, mocking censure clear in his voice as he waved a lazy hand. But before Dani could snap back at him, he continued. “However, I’m also a busy man. I will require your availability most nights, but only occasional days over the course of the next month. I will give you a complete schedule should you require it.”
She narrowed her eyes. “I work most nights. I told you—”
Rand cut her off, but his words were completely civil. “This is a twenty-four-hour-a-day club. Have your manager switch you to the day shift for the duration.”
Dani scowled at him. “That’s going to cost you,” she said. “Day shift has shit for tips, and once you move a bartender up to nights, it’s like peeling off a leech to get her to give up the time slot.”
“I suspect you’ll figure that out.”
“Uh-huh.” Dani tilted her head, reading the slight quickening of Rand’s words, the focused intensity of his gaze. She was missing something here, dammit, there was no two ways about it. So she might as well hit it head-on. “Okay, Richie Rich, let’s cut to the chase here. Because I still don’t get it.”
By Rand’s sudden stillness, she knew her instincts were right. He still thought he was playing her, that he had one up on her. She leaned forward. “Not that I’m not an extremely interesting girl, because I am,” she said. “But you really expect me to believe you’re going to drop serious cash just for us to be besties? I call bullshit.”
“So distrustful,” Rand murmured, unperturbed, but the smile playing around his lips assured her she was on the right track. “But that is the deal. I’m paying for your time and for your willingness to do whatever it is you say you’ll do.”
“Which means you’re going to ask something of me. Your mysterious ‘things I might not like’ clause. So, what, you want me to knock over a bank or something?”
His lips quirked in amusement. “Hardly. I assure you I won’t ask you to do anything illegal, damaging to your person, or morally reprehensible.”
Here we go. Specific wording, carefully chosen. There was danger here, she knew there was danger. “Damaging” covered a lot of territory, but she suspected in Rand’s mind that meant that he wouldn’t physically endanger her. Which went pretty far, but not far enough.
Still, she needed more. “But why?” Dani pushed. “Why me?”
For a second, it seemed like Rand was going to answer. Then that infernal smile just broadened, making her instinctively distrust anything that came out of his mouth. “Perhaps I’m just that bored.” He lifted a hand to forestall any more questions. “You have the job offer, Dani. Name your price.”
Dani kept her gaze steady. Well, shit. On the surface, Rand’s offer was sound enough. Stupid, but sound: She showed up, and if he asked her to do something, she did it—or not, whatever her mood was. But once she agreed, she couldn’t back down. The why shouldn’t bother her. Maybe Rand really was bored, maybe he had a masochistic streak and needed someone to tell him no a lot, maybe his shrink had just dumped him and he needed someone to listen to him moan about his first-world problems. What was the difference, as long as he paid up front?
And the right amount of money would solve a lot of problems, fast. She had no idea what kind of drug trouble Jimmy had gotten himself into, but she was certain he wasn’t using now…or almost certain, anyway. Furthermore, she’d kept closer tabs on him up until he’d gotten married, so she knew the circles in which he used to run. Some very bad people, yeah, but they weren’t high flyers. There was an upper limit to the amount of debt Jimmy could’ve incurred with that group. At least she hoped so.
Still, she also knew she needed to go in high with Mr. Moneybags, just in case she had to negotiate down. Naming that kind of price wasn’t an issue, at least. Dani had a very healthy appreciation for how much her time was worth…especially if it meant time she’d have to spend trying to beat Rand at whatever game he was playing.
“Fifty thousand dollars,” she said evenly. “For the next four weeks. Payable up front, wired to my account.”
Rand didn’t flinch. “In exchange for you being available, whenever and wherever I want you, and that if I ask you to do something and you agree—you don’t back down.”
Dani tried not to react to Rand’s words, but failed. You don’t back down. A flush crawled up her cheeks, and she shifted in her chair as she considered all the angles once again. They’d already agreed that sex wasn’t part of the picture. He’d also laid out his little “nothing illegal, damaging, or morally reprehensible” line. And for God’s sake, how crazy could this guy really be? Rand wasn’t some kind of junkie gangbanger—he was a blue-blooded Ivy Leaguer whose idea of danger probably involved eating with the wrong fork. What really were the odds that he’d push her into a place she didn’t want to go? And they were talking fifty grand here. Even if she agreed to something that turned sour, she could con her way out of anything for that kind of cash.
Couldn’t she?
A warning still riffled along her nerves. She might be good, but Rand swam in an entirely different end of the pool than she did. She had to assume he would find her every weakness and exploit it ruthlessly, if it entertained him to do so. She needed a fail-safe, just in case.
“Agreed, with one caveat: I get one no on the stand-down clause,” she said finally, forcing herself to relax, to give Rand a smile that was both challenging and coy. “Just one, but it’s a hard no. Without that, there’s no deal.”
His gaze sharpened on her with interest, as she’d expected it would. “You think I will ask you to do something you’d absolutely refuse to follow through on?” he asked, his voice laden with sensual threat. “I confess, I can’t imagine what that would be.”
Dani didn’t drop her gaze. “That’s the agreement, Rand. Take it or leave it.”
His smile was cool, assured. “I’ll definitely be taking it.”
Rand hadn’t felt this alive in longer than he could remember, but he wasn’t about to lose an inch of his position. He reeled the net in another notch. “I’ll have the money in your account by noon,” he said. “And I’ll expect you at my apartment tomorrow evening.”
“Not tomorrow,” Dani said automatically. “I still need to clear my schedule, and there are a few jobs I have to get through that can’t wait a month.” She shrugged. “Once we start this little game, I’ll be at your beck and call, as agreed. But if I don’t get these items cleaned up first, they’ll be a distraction. And I suspect you’ll want my full attention once we really get things rolling.”
Another punch of desire woke up the rest of Rand’s body. He inclined his head. “Monday it is, then. The money will still be in your account by tomorrow at noon.”
He didn’t miss the fleeting look of reprieve in Dani’s eyes. He would have paid far more to ensure that their game would continue, but Dani didn’t look victorious, as much as relieved. So she had a definite need for the cash—not a desperate need, but one still powerful enough that she was making concessions he suspected she ordinarily wouldn’t. Which was something he should keep in mind.
The flush of success was still lighting his blood on fire, however. He tilted his head, contemplating her, but once again, Dani surprised him. Shrugging off her relief like a discarded shirt, she slipped off her chair, then glided toward him. Her eyes were steady, her walk once more assured. She stopped right in front of him and knelt, placing her hands on his knees.
He was still wearing only the towel. Beneath it, his shaft stiffened as she pressed her body into his. She kissed him gently on the mouth, her spicy scent swirling around him. But he was only paying the barest attention to her lips, given what her hands were doing. Long, strong fingers curved around his cock with an assurance that was echoed in Dani’s expression. As she smiled, she tightened her hold on his shaft just enough that Rand went rock hard in her grasp, and he clenched his teeth at the slow, sensual roll of her hand around him, the answering touch of her fingers beneath his balls. A flush crept up her neck as she fondled him, which told him that she was not unaffected either—although, arguably, he was the one deriving the most enjoyment at this particular moment.
“You know what I like best about our little arrangement?” she asked breathily. Her eyes had gone dark and liquid again, and there was no mistaking the desire in them. For all that Dani craved control, she was already setting foot on a slippery slope. And Rand was more than happy to give her a push, if it meant she’d end up in his arms—and in his bed.
He smiled. “Besides the fifty-thousand-dollar price tag?”
“That is compelling, yes.” She nodded, then shifted her hands again, pulling up on him with long, smooth strokes as he tightened his own hands into fists. With the adrenaline spike still powering through him, he was a lot closer to climax than he wanted to be, and Dani clearly knew it. Her full lips curved into a knowing smile. “But it also means sex isn’t a regulated activity. If both of us want to play, we play.” She leaned away from him, taking her hands out from under the towel, the sudden loss of her touch almost painful. It was only with the greatest of effort that Rand didn’t reach out to grab her, to keep her in place in front of him. Instead, he let her rock back until she settled on her heels. “If we don’t, we don’t. You can stop it whenever you want—and so can I.” Her smile was radiant as she claimed the partial victory his expression clearly granted her. “I really like that.”
“You seem pretty certain that you’ll want to stop,” Rand said, his voice steady as he regained control over his body and his racing pulse.
“Oh, I will.” She stood then, stretching luxuriously. “But duty calls at last. I assume you can see yourself out?”
As she smiled, the thin veneer of her control barely in place, a surge of need shot through Rand that had nothing to do with desire, and everything to do with control. He was determined to break Dani, and he would. It wouldn’t take him anywhere near a month to do so, either. So he might as well start now—which meant he needed to know everything about her, experience every moment of her day. “What are these jobs you’ll be taking care of?” he asked as she reached for her pants.
“Nothing you need to worry about. Just something I’ve agreed to do.”
“I see.” He noticed the edge that had crept into his voice. It sounded dark, even to him. “I can find you, you know. The city isn’t that big.”
“You can try,” she said. Then she winked at him. “But if you do, have the grace to keep quiet, okay? I’ll be working.”
With that she turned and glided away from him, pausing only long enough to slip back into her clothes before she exited the room. Rand watched her go, aware and pleased at the challenge she’d just thrown down. She wanted him to find her, to seek her out. The only question was, why?
He stood as well, dressing quickly. He had his own set of obligations to manage, but he had more than enough time to take care of those. He could have eyes on Dani quickly enough, to get him the information he needed.
As to whether or not he decided to do anything with that information, a lot of that depended on where he found her and what she was doing.
And with whom.