Three Little Mistakes (Blindfold Club 3)

The company that would be mine one day.

Joseph’s gaze swept back to the corner where the man probably lurked, and I could feel the tension in his body in my hands. I didn’t want to start the trip off on a bad note. “Are you going to discipline me for giving you an order?”

His attention turned back to me. The concern evaporated and was replaced with a slow, burning heat, and I shivered.

“No, little girl.” His lips grazed mine. “Because once again, you want it, and that defeats the purpose. But if you’re good, maybe I’ll reward you later. And you’re wrong. I’m interested in Noemi Rosso.”

My friends said I was crazy, but also that they were jealous of me. Joseph and I had been together only a little more than a month, and here I was, sitting beside him on a plane bound for paradise, where I’d also meet his family. Seven days with him non-stop, under his command. I was excited beyond belief.

“What are you reading?” Joseph asked when I’d fired up my iPad, waiting for the plane to takeoff. He glanced at the screen and raised an eyebrow. “You’re reading the Erwin biography? Is that for a class?”

He’d probably expected some sort of beach read, a break from the dry textbooks I read day-in and day-out. I gave a sheepish smile. “No, I wanted to.” Michael Erwin was a tech giant who’d taken his start-up public, and continued to run his business successfully while using unorthodox methods. I’d always loved the well-written biographies. “Hey, it’s fascinating. Don’t judge me.”

“Noemi, I told you I wouldn’t do that.” He unsnapped the cover of his iPad and tilted the screen my direction.

“You’re reading it, too.” I laughed.

After dinner, we’d both finished the book and the sun had set, leaving the cabin dark. I leaned over in my spacious seat, and curled up beside him, launching into a book discussion that lasted another hour. Who’d have thought my bad boy had such a head for finance?

“I don’t understand. Why didn’t you go to college?” I asked. “You run circles around the people in my classes.”

He exhaled slowly. “Well, first off, I’m a lot older than them. I bought my first business when I was your age. And second,” he hesitated, “I had cancer. My grades were okay before that, but it was hard to care about the future when I didn’t think I’d have one.”

I’d been tracing patterns on his knee with my hand, but his words made me pause. My heart hurt. So much of his life had been derailed.

“And third, even if I’d gotten accepted somewhere, we couldn’t afford it. My mom couldn’t keep her job with all of the doctors’ appointments, and I was in and out of the hospital.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. I’m doing just fine.”

I glanced at his half-empty glass of wine that rested on the tray table of his first class seat. Yes, he was doing all right. I needed something to change subjects. We hadn’t talked about his cancer since the anniversary a few weeks ago.

“If you slam that wine,” I asked, “could you get drunk enough to tell me the story of how Payton and Dominic met?”

He snatched up the glass and drank a sip, his gaze unfocused as if contemplating. “Payton used to be an escort.”

“An escort?” Was this a fancy wine bar term, because the only escort job I knew of was a nice way of saying—

“She was a prostitute. Dominic was her client.”

I couldn’t reconcile the woman with the concept. Payton was intelligent, beautiful, and confident. The stereotype I had of prostitutes were skinny, sickly drug addicts that stood on street corners wearing cheap clothes and desperation on their faces. Not perfect bodies, high-end clothes, and college educations. She was a hooker?

“I don’t understand.” I was horrified for her. What had happened in her past that forced her into selling sex for money?

Joseph’s gaze watched me like he was studying my reaction intently, and it made me uncomfortable. Was this some sort of test? She was his friend. A good friend, and possibly an ex, so I had to tread lightly. I wouldn’t want to talk badly about her, and I liked Payton.

“What don’t you understand?” he asked softly. “Why she would do that?”

“Yes.” How was that not apparent?

“She likes sex. Why not get paid to do what she likes?”

Was he serious? “Joseph, sleeping with strangers for money is illegal, not to mention, disgusting and dangerous.”

The muscles along his jaw flexed as if he were clenching his teeth. “So if she hadn’t charged them, then it would be all right?”

“No, of course not.”