Lust and Desire

Julian

I don't know why I told her to stay.

That's the truth of it, stripped down to nothing. She crosses her arms, her chin lifting, and I have no real answer for why I said the words out loud instead of letting her walk.

Nineteen. Barely legal. My dick doesn't seem to have gotten the message, and it's making a fool out of every rule I've lived by for the last decade.

"Let me get one thing straight. When you said, 'For however long I stay in this house, I'll do as you say'... what exactly do you mean by that?"

"What do you think I mean?" I ask, shoving my hands into my pockets.

"Mr. Macini..."

"Julian."

She looks at me, a little stunned that I just gave her permission to call me by my first name.

Another decision I've made this morning without thinking it through.

Having her call me Mr. Macini would have kept a clear boundary between us. But the moment the word left my mouth, I realized I'd just erased that boundary myself.

"Julian."

My name rolls off her tongue like honey, tasting, and a depraved part of me pictures exactly what it'd sound like coming out of her mouth with my cock buried deep in her cunt.

I swallow back my lust.

"I'm not a whore," she says, and I wonder where that came from. "The money you're paying me is to watch your daughter. Sex is off the table, if that's what you meant by what you said."

I scoff, the corner of my mouth curving into a smile. "You don't have to worry about that. You're not exactly my type."

Her face falls at that, looks almost like she's disappointed I said it, but she holds her defiant composure, refusing to crack.

"Deal or no deal, kid. I don't have all day." I check my watch.

"Deal," she says. "But I need to go home first. Pick up a few of my things. I'm not wearing your clothes all weekend."

"Fine. I'll take you."

She hesitates, then asks it fast, like ripping off a bandage. "How do you want to pay? Now, or half now and the rest later?"

Something in my chest goes flat. Of course. "I'll write you a check."

"Perfect." Relief floods her face, and she doesn't bother hiding it.

I check my watch again. "Twenty minutes."

She disappears down the hall. Every woman who's walked through this house has had a price. She just named hers fast.

She's no different from the rest of them.

My study is quiet by the time I get there, the kind of quiet I actually prefer. Luca's already waiting with a folder tucked under one arm, and the look on his face tells me whatever's inside it isn't good news dressed up politely.

"The Delgado shipment came in short." He drops the folder on the desk. "Twelve percent under what we agreed."

I flip it open. The numbers confirm what I already suspected walking in, that this isn't a rounding error, it's a message. "Parker's fingerprints are all over this."

"Looks that way."

"Get my money ready." I close the folder. "And call Parker. Tell him it's time we settle what we agreed on. About his daughter."

Luca's face barely moves, but I've worked with him long enough to catch the flicker under it. "You're actually going through with it."

"He's owed me for six months. It's only fair I take something he treasures."

"He has two daughters." Luca lays it out carefully. "One from his late wife. One from the wife he has now."

"The one he loves most." I lean back in my chair. "That one. It'll hurt more that way."

Luca holds my gaze a second longer than the moment strictly needs, the closest thing to a question he'll ever let himself ask me out loud. Then he nods, once, and lets it go.

"I'll pull her details."

He leaves, and I sit there longer than the work in front of me requires, thinking about a girl two floors up who has no idea what kind of house she's just agreed to spend the next three days in, or what kind of man just told her welcome to the job.