No.
No.
This was not good.
‘You can’t do that,’ she breathed, appalled, as it dawned on her that if what Theo was saying was true then he’d scuppered what, as far as she could see, was her only chance of making some serious, much-needed money fast.
‘I can,’ he said grimly. ‘And I have.’
‘How?’
‘It wasn’t hard.’
No, it wouldn’t be to a man of his considerable influence and power, but—‘You had no right.’
‘Probably not.’
‘So why?’
His eyebrows shot up, the only sign of expression she’d seen in him since she’d walked in. ‘Why?’
‘Yes, why?’ What was it to him? Even if he did know who she was, which was doubtful, why would he care all of a sudden?
‘You signed up to an escort agency, Kate.’
His tone was brutal and icily condemning but she refused to be intimidated. It was all very well for him and his billions in the bank. Lesser mortals had to think more creatively if they didn’t want to firstly destroy the happiness and security of their vulnerable younger sister, secondly lose the home they’d once shared with their adored, much-missed brother and lastly be declared bankrupt and never work in the field they loved again.
‘And so what?’ she said, resisting the urge to lift her chin since a punchy show of defiance could well make him reassess his decision not to fire her.
‘How could you be so reckless?’
Reckless? She wasn’t reckless. Desperate and exhausted and all out of options, yes, but reckless, no. ‘I’m not. I did my research.’
‘So did I,’ he said ominously.
‘Well, then.’
‘Belle’s Angels is basically an online brothel.’
‘Possibly,’ she had to admit, since there was that aspect to it, ‘but it’s a very high-class one.’
A tiny muscle began to tic in his jaw. ‘That is utterly irrelevant.’
‘No,’ she said. ‘It isn’t. Because this one has different levels of service agreement, and I only signed up to level one.’
He looked at her as if she’d grown two heads. ‘Did you honestly think someone was going to pay you a thousand pounds an hour for conversation?’
‘Why not?’ she said. ‘My conversational skills are first class.’
‘I have no doubt they are. However, believe me, your...clients...would have been expecting far more.’
‘Yes, well, you obviously have more experience of such sites than I do.’
In response to her demure yet pointed little dig Theo’s face darkened and the look he gave her was hard and forbidding. ‘I’ve heard stories,’ he said flatly. ‘None of them good. Do you have any idea of how dangerous it could have been?’
Kate opened her mouth to reply and then closed it because he might have a point there. Truth be told, she hadn’t exactly been thinking entirely rationally when she’d signed up to the site late last night. Another exorbitant bill had just come through from Fairview on top of a none-too-friendly email from the loan company Mike had used and a letter from her mortgage company informing her that she’d missed a payment, as if she needed reminding.
She’d had a couple of glasses of wine to dull the resulting anxiety, but they hadn’t worked; they’d just made her feel even sicker. A documentary about webcamming had been on TV in the background, and in the midst of her despair it had suddenly struck her that sex sold. Extremely well, apparently. And while she wasn’t desperate enough—yet—to perform for the camera, she’d figured there had to be other less extreme options.