Rhapsody (Butcher and Violinist 1)

I nodded. “Yes.”

“My angel told me to come here and tell you all the negatives.”

I leaned my head to the side. “And what did the devil on your shoulder say?”

“To tell you how much Jean-Pierre is offering for the thirty day GFE.”

I sat up. “How much?”

“100k.”

I sat there with my mouth open. “So, 90k after your commission?”

“Yes.”

“Damn.”

“I know.”

“But. . .uh. . .the other girl tried to commit suicide.”

“With this much money, we could always get you a nice counselor afterwards. Maybe even a therapist or something to talk to while you’re with him.”

A crazy giddiness came over me. “Ninety thousand dollars? Is he serious?”

“That’s what I was thinking!” Shalimar raised her hands in the air. “I mean. . . hey I love your violin playing and you’re definitely good-looking, but 90k?”

“Shit.”

“I mean.” She looked me up and down. “I could pay 5k on you for one night, but 100k is for the girls that have been in the game for a long time. They know the ropes. No emotion. All acting with finesse.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment for paying 5k for me.”

“You’re welcome. Of course, Jean-Pierre set your standard for 10k. And now, he’s raising the bar even more, making sure that no one could ever outbid him.”

“Well, no one else is trying.”

She sighed. “Not exactly true. Men are constantly trying to buy you throughout the night. They come to me or the servers. It’s normal. Jean-Pierre is the only one that is going straight to you. Luring and enticing. Celina will kill him, if she finds out.”

“She won’t find out.” I rose and began to pace back and forth in front of the couch. “I can’t believe I’m even considering it.”

“I can.”

“What if he sucks in bed?”

“He doesn’t.”

I stopped and turned to her. “We have to be honest here.”

“Fine.”

“You’re kind of my pimp now.”

“Go ahead.”

“Were you the woman that fell in love and almost committed suicide over him?”

“I wasn’t her.” She put her leg over the other. “But I was one of them. Celina called us Jean-Pierre’s rotten apples. That was the only year I’d ever seen her so disappointed in me. We knew that the girls would fall in love with him after too long. She’d warned me. And for whatever reason, I walked right into it.”

I let out a long breath.

“I didn’t realize how alone I was, until I spent two weeks with him. He’d asked for thirty days and ended it sooner.” She shook her head. “And he was just so matter-of-fact about it. When he is being romantic, he is in that moment. And then in the next moment, he could shut it completely off, and he wants you gone.”

“That would annoy me.”

“Well…” she shrugged. “I didn’t play the violin. That could be the key. I mean. There were definitely moments of silence when we were together. Maybe there won’t be with you.”

“If, I do it.”

“You’re leaning toward yes.”

She was right. I’d already made a list of the things I could take care of with that large sum of money.

I went back to pacing. “He broke your heart, and how. . .how do you feel now? I mean…since he’s been back.”

“Oh, I despise him now. Not in a I-hate-him kind of way, but in a I-can’t-believe-I-gave-him-power-when-he-didn’t-even-ask-for-it way.” She blinked. “I’m annoyed because Jean-Pierre reminds me about Celina’s disappointment.”

I turned to her. “But you didn’t try to commit suicide over him?”

“No, that was Theresa.”

“How many others has he had the GFE experience with?”

“I have no idea before three years ago. I was one of at least five. He would have us in his penthouse, and then when he was bored, he sent us back. The good thing was that he never wanted a deduction of his expenses.”

“No refund policy.”

“Exactly.”

I walked over to the window and gazed out of it.

Shalimar came to my side. “What’s freaking you out about this. . .besides the obvious? In fact, think of me like a review site. I’m your Yelp™ for Jean-Pierre. What I didn’t personally experience, I’ve heard from others. What’s your fears?”

“Small penis.”

“He’s very big. Impressively big—”

“Okay. That’s good.”

She laughed. “Don’t get weird about it. Jean-Pierre is a client, nothing more. Put that in your head right now. What else do you want to know?”

“Is he good in bed?”

“Yes. Sensual. Slow. That’s all I want to say about that.” Shalimar ran her fingers through her hair. “Eden, you’ll have a good time. The problem is. . .if you’ll have too good of a time.”

“How do I guard from that?”

“Boundaries. Rules. Come up with some. Keep him to it. And always in your mind, remind yourself that this is business and nothing more.”

This is business. Nothing more.

I shifted my thoughts to that and considered something else. “What about the violin?”

Shalimar gave me an odd expression. “What violin?”

“Did he include the violin in the negotiation? I would want Belladonna for a year.”