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Aaron
I can’t sleep.
All night, I lie wide awake, allowing my brain to turn over all the information and events of the evening.
After returning to Jonah’s apartment, I make sure my sisters have eaten dinner and are ready for bed. Jonah’s apartment is small. Too small even for him and more so for the four of us. The girls need their own room back. Kenzie will be fine for a while, but Shelby is a teenage girl. She needs her own space away from me and our little sister. We can’t stay here for long.
I finally get hold of our mom after three days of silence. It’s not uncommon for her to go on binders lasting a few days. She only returned my call because she ran out of money and wanted me to loan her some. After thirty minutes of arguing, I convince her to hold her appointment with CPS. She doesn’t even ask how the girls are doing before she hangs up on me. I need to stop giving her credit she doesn’t deserve. I thought once she got home and saw the electricity off and the girls missing, she would call to find out if we were okay. Stupid me.
Shouldn’t have surprised me that she didn’t. Mom stopped raising me a long time ago. She sure as hell never lifted a finger to help with the girls or make sure they have what they need.
Ever since I turned eighteen, four years ago, I’ve been dreaming of saving enough money to get a lawyer and file to become the girls’ legal guardian. First thing I need is a place of my own. Somewhere the girls can have a room of their own and a yard to play in. Without worrying about the junkies and homeless population.
I’ll never be able to save enough money working part-time. Unless...
Hell, no.
I’m not thinking about the offer from Mr. Addison Cooper. No fucking way.
We don’t need his money. I’ll quit school and get a full-time job. I can always go back when the girls are older.
Being so close to graduating and walking away is like a punch to the gut. I had hoped I could stretch my paychecks out a few more months and make it to summer. Once classes are over, I could find a second job. At the rate the bills are piling up, I’ll have to drop out and hope I can get my scholarship back when I can return to school.
Fuck.
“Aaron?” Kenzie’s small voice calls for me. She’s lying on the makeshift bed of blankets Jonah, and I put together on the other side of the living room. Jonah offered his bedroom to the girls, which was nice of him, but I couldn’t let him give up his space for us. Besides, Kenzie tends to wake up in the middle of the night crying sometimes. It’s easier if I’m close at hand.
“Yeah, piglet. What’s the matter?” I ask, sitting up from the lumpy cushions of Jonah’s couch.
“I...” she buries her face in her hands and starts to cry. Her little body is visibly shaking.
“Aw, come here, piglet. Bad dream again?”
She nods and won’t pull her hands away from her face to answer.
“Ah, sorry, kiddo. Bad dreams suck. Come here.” I push the blankets away from me, making room for her to curl up next to me.
Kenzie climbs up on my lap, and I pull the blanket over the two of us. She lays her head of soft hair against my chest, and I wrap an arm around her.
“It’s okay, kiddo. The bad dream is gone now,” I tell her as I wait for her tears to slow down. When her sobs are all but quiet, she turns her puffy red eyes up at me.
“Where’s Mommy?”
Shit.
I knew this was going to come up. Shelby is older and understands Mom isn’t reliable. Kenzie isn’t old enough to have witnessed firsthand her own mom choosing not to be with her.
“Mom’s staying at a friend’s house for a little while. You will see her in a few days. Okay?”
I’m telling her this to calm her down. How in the hell am I supposed to know when we will see our mom again? The woman has no need for her children, unless it’s to collect a welfare check.
“Can we go home? I miss my babies.” Kenzie turns her face into my chest, wiping her snotty nose against my shirt.
“Why didn’t you bring them with us?”
“Shell said I can have one, but the others had to stay. I want my babies, Aaron.” She wails once again.
I try to soothe her, but it takes me promising to go back to the house to get her baby dolls before she will stop crying.
“Okay, piglet. Time for you to go back to bed. Come on.” I try to move her off my lap, but she holds still as she stares up at me.
“Aaron, I don’t want to go with family services,” she said.
I lean in wrapping her in a hug. “I won’t let you, piglet.”
“Do you promise, Aaron? Promise I can stay with you?”
With my pounding heart in my throat, I make my six-year-old sister a promise I might not be able to keep. Still, it doesn’t stop me from making it.
“I promise, kiddo. Now, back to bed.
I am such an asshole.
***
Cooper
I GLANCE DOWN AT MY phone for the tenth time. Why I’m not paying attention to the conversation happening around me baffles me. Today’s meeting is important. It’s the difference between making or losing millions of dollars for my companies. My head should be in the game, playing hardball, getting my company what we want. Not waiting for a sexy blue-eyed man to text me back with a signed contact.
I’m not normally this hung up on paid escorts, but the one from last night feels different. Yes, he checks off all my boxes. Young, sexy, prideful, and most importantly, straight. But there is something about him that makes him stand out from the others.
I know being attracted to straight men is a fucked-up kink. What can I say, I’m tempted by forbidden fruit. Turned on by the chase and challenge of turning them against their own sexual knowledge. I’m not interested in a friendship or a bromance. This isn’t my struggle with emotional or physical intimacy. I want to teach, awaken, and fuck straight, virgin men.
I never have and never will force anyone into a situation they don’t want to be in. All my encounters with other men are consensual and agreed upon through contracts. The contracts protect me from rape allegations after our time together has ended. It’s happened before.
They beg me to stay with them, pleading for me to take them when I go. I never do. I’ll never take a partner. I don’t want to get married or live my life with the two point five kids, or the damn white picket fence. Love and family are nothing more than fantasy. I may have wanted it once, but that was a long time ago, and I learned my lesson.
“Mr. Cooper?”
My head snaps up, bringing me back to the conversation taking place. I push my phone back into my pocket, giving my attention to the older gentlemen at the head of the meeting table. It’s his company that is on the brink of foreclosing.
“My apologies. As you can see from the documents we sent out, our legal team requests a week to comb through all the information. This merger is the best solution for both parties. Neither party has made a decent profit in the last two years. Yes, you’re staying in the black, but when was the last time either of you were able to make a decent size profit? I’m sure that’s not the dream you had for your businesses. This is your chance to change that. Without this merger, our numbers show there will only be a decline in revenue in the next four years. Bringing you to the red and possibly closing your doors, gentlemen.”
I stand and gather my laptop and then tuck it away. I’ve learned, in my ten years of merging businesses, decisions this risky won’t happen with me in the room. I’m the guy they call in to make sure everyone leaves happy. No one is fucking happy when you’re forced into handing part of your business over to someone else.
“Gentlemen, we will meet again in two days. We will need to sign off on papers if we are to move forward. You both have my number; call if there’re any questions.” I stand and shake hands with everyone at the table before leaving the room.
I head for the elevators and loosen my tie as I wait. Reaching into my pocket, I pull out my phone. I’m prepared to find a blank text screen indicating no new messages are waiting for me. I should have listened to myself and not gone back to that escort agency again. The last two times I was in town, I had no luck finding a nightly companion. What made me think this trip was going to be any different?
I can’t believe I doubled the amount last night. What the hell was I thinking? My prices are always firm and non-negotiable. However, I’m not too sure I wouldn’t have tripled the amount if I thought he would say yes right then. There was something about the kid that I...wanted.
Just then, my phone pings, alerting me of a new message. Looking down at the phone, my hopes lift and a smile plasters across my face. I have an answer waiting for me.
