Chapter 1

Mia:

“Fuck, you’re so tight.” He said, pushing himself deeper inside me, hitting a spot that made me cry out. He smirked against my neck and pulled out before thrusting back inside me, hitting the same spot, making my eyes roll to the back of my head.

“Shit…” I whimpered, feeling the knot in my stomach tighten more than I would have wanted it to.

I tightened my arms around him, trying my best to control myself as I saw stars. “Cum, I want you to cum for me…”

I curled my toes, and arched my back on instinct, my heart racing against my ribcage as the two of us reached our climax at the same time. He groaned as he leaned his forehead over my shoulder, riding the two of us off as he thrust in gently.

He pulled away from my shoulder, looking me in the eye for a second before pulling out of me, making me whimper at the feeling of being empty. And that was when I realized the mistake that I’ve made.

I shouldn’t have done it.

I shouldn’t have given in to something that I couldn’t truly understand.

I shouldn’t have given in to a stranger that I didn’t even know.

I knew it the moment his fingers left my skin and he walked across the room like I meant nothing. Like everything we just did, everything he just took from me, was nothing more than a transaction.

The sheets were still tangled around my legs, clinging to sweat-slicked skin. My chest was still heaving from the storm he’d stirred inside me. My mouth tasted like him, like the kisses he left down my neck and the lies he didn’t have to say aloud.

And still, he didn’t even look at me. “So, that’s it? Nothing in between?”

“What is?” He asked, his voice filled with an arrogance that I found myself despising. “I am not sure that I following what you are saying.”

“You are just leaving?”

“Did you really expect me to stay?” He asked, scoffing.

The man was rich… arrogant. Dangerous in that cold, beautiful kind of way that makes you want to destroy yourself just to feel him one more time. “Pretty much expected a little more than sex and just leaving before you’ve managed to even catch your breath.”

“Well, you shouldn’t have.” He muttered, not turning to look at me. “The less time I stayed, the better. It makes things less complicated.”

He was pulling on his shirt, slow and methodical, every movement oozing control, while I sat on the edge of the bed, naked and exposed, wondering what the hell I had just done, or why I did it in the first place. “Wait, though. There is something else.”

“What more can you take from me?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Oh, I am not taking anything.” He said calmly. “I doubt that you have anything that you can offer me anyway.”

His words made my stomach churn and it took everything in me not to get up and slap him in the face.

“Excuse me?” I asked, but he shrugged as if it was nothing.

He stepped toward the nightstand, pulled out his wallet, and without a single word… dropped a thick wad of bills onto the table. “This is for you.”

I stared at the money like it had slapped me across the face.

My throat tightened. “What the hell is that supposed to be? Do you think that I am some…?”

He finally looked at me, cool eyes meeting mine like I was some forgettable story he didn’t care to hear the ending of, stopping me from whatever I was saying without even opening his mouth to utter a word.

“For your time,” he said casually. “The trouble. And of course, to ensure your silence and that you forget that this night ever happened.”

My blood boiled. I stood without thinking, the sheet dropping from my body, not caring if he saw me like this, because hell, he already had. “Are you kidding me? You’re being serious right now?”

He didn’t blink. “I believe that I am. Is that a problem? You are getting paid for something that you offered.”

I laughed, sharp, bitter, painful. “So that’s what this night was to you? A goddamn service? This is why you came here?”

“You’re the one who came home with a stranger, sweetheart.” He grabbed his watch off the dresser. “I just made sure it was worth your while. And you got paid for it. You should be thankful given the runt that you’re living in. This should ensure something better. That is unless you aim to get wasted in another bar. Then that would be your problem.”

Every word sank like a knife into my chest.

“Go to hell.”

“I’ve been there,” he said calmly, sliding his coat on. “Trust me, it looks a lot like this room, a little fancier, though.”

“Get out.” I said, pointing at the door.

“Oh, don’t worry… I had no intention in staying.” He said, walking toward the door. “Just be sure to forget I ever existed.”

And just like that, he walked out, closing the door behind him as if I was nothing more than a runt that he used for his pleasure.

No name. No apology. Not even a glance back.

The door clicked shut behind him, and I stood there, numb, humiliated, shaking.

I told myself to leave the money. That I wasn’t the kind of woman who would take it. That I had self-respect. That I had pride.

But as I stared at the rent notice crumpled in my bag, the one I had no idea how to pay…

I picked up the cash with trembling fingers.

And I told myself it didn’t matter.

Because that’s what survival looks like when you have no one left.

“At least you can get something out of it.” I whispered to myself. “No matter how humiliating it may seem…”