“It’s okay,” Beau said. “I understand her concern. She’s right to be cautious.” He scratched the long, stubbled line of his jaw as he thought. “It’s simple, really. I just want one thing in return for the money.”
“What, our first born?” Johnny joked. “Free Macallan for life? Name it.”
“Lola.” Beau looked from Johnny to Lola with such intensity in his green eyes that she reached back to steady herself against a barstool. “I want Lola for one night.”
3
As if Beau’s words had stopped time, Lola, Johnny and Beau stood frozen where they were. Lola didn’t breathe. She might’ve thought Beau’s proposition was a joke and even laughed if it weren’t for his composure when he’d said it. As if to him, the deal were already made. He wanted Lola for one night, and that’s what he’d have.
“Excuse me?” Lola asked so quietly, she wasn’t entirely sure she’d spoken aloud.
Johnny stepped closer to the bar that separated him from Lola and Beau. He leaned his knuckles on the surface. “What the fuck did you just say?”
“Give me one night alone with Lola, and Hey Joe is yours.”
“You’re offering me money to sleep with my girlfriend?”
Lola hadn’t blinked in so long, her eyes watered. When she did, her mind caught up. It raced ahead. Emotions came as fast as her heartbeat. Thud. Shock. Thud. Indignation. Thud. Fear.
“What I’m offering you is your dream on a silver platter.” Beau looked at Lola. “Both of you.”
He had some nerve putting his eyes on her. Based on the last few hours, it wasn’t even that surprising he’d come on to her. But to try to put a price on her—and on their time together? Her heartbeat was pure anger now, short, quick bursts that made her ears hot. “Fuck you,” she said with her hands curled into two trembling balls. She wanted to say more, but she could only think of the crudest words possible. “Right, Johnny? Fuck him.”
Johnny’s neck reddened from his T-shirt to his jaw. Her concern shifted from herself to him. He looked like he might lunge for Beau, but Johnny wasn’t a fighter. She’d never seen him lay an angry hand on anyone. She reached out to touch him, but he ripped his arm away and pounded his fist on the bar. “Tell me this is a sick joke, man,” he said through a clenched jaw. That was Beau’s cue to leave.
Beau raised one eyebrow. “I still don’t have my answer.”
“You want an answer?” Johnny asked. “How about I j
ump over this bar and give it to you with my fist?”
“I’m not looking for a fight,” Beau said. “As long as we both have something the other wants, this can be worked out peacefully.” He paused and removed his suit jacket by the lapels. “However,” he said, tossing it over a stool, “we can do it your way too.”
A door slammed in the back. Beau rolled up his shirtsleeves. She needed him gone before any of the staff came back out. She jerked her hand to the exit and said, “He told you to leave,” but no sooner had she looked away from Johnny than he was ducking to get out from behind the bar.
Beau didn’t move except to turn and face Johnny, who was already past Lola. Johnny seized Beau’s crisp, white shirt. Beau’s body stiffened as he drew up to his full height and met Johnny head on. Johnny drew his arm back. In that split second, instead of raising his own fist or trying to get loose, Beau looked at Lola. There was no fear in his expression, and that scared her more than anything. Johnny wasn’t a fighter. She had no idea what Beau was capable of. Somebody would end up hurt, and it could very likely be the man she loved. She jumped up and latched onto Johnny’s bicep.
“Stop!” Her feet were practically off the ground from giving Johnny’s arm all her weight.
“Let go,” Johnny said.
“Please don’t do this, Johnny,” she pleaded. “You won’t win.”
Johnny’s head snapped toward her. The tension in his muscle immediately melted under her hands. “What?” he asked with his mouth hanging open.
Afraid Beau might sucker punch Johnny, she forced her way between them. More specifically, she pushed Johnny back behind her since Beau was immovable. “Get out,” she told Beau.
Beau held her gaze while he picked up his jacket from the stool. He blinked over her head. “Five hundred thousand,” he said to Johnny. “There’s a number for you. That’s what this place is worth give or take.”
“What about what I’m worth?” Lola asked immediately.
Beau’s eyes returned to hers.
Johnny grasped Lola’s shoulders. “Move and let me handle this.”
But Lola could not be moved as she locked eyes with Beau. In her hasty reply, she’d missed the number. Half a million dollars. It made her flush to be associated with any dollar amount, but this dollar amount was so high that she was absurdly impressed with herself. No person would walk into a bar and offer that to just anyone. It had to be something about her.
Lola tried to keep her thoughts from her face, but Beau looked as if he knew everything. She forced herself to see past the amount. It didn’t matter whether this was about her specifically, because introducing money turned her from a person to a product. A service. The suggestion that she could be bought was a betrayal of her short but powerful time with Beau.
Beau raised his chin just noticeably. “What you’re worth depends on whom you ask,” he said to her. “If you want to know what you’re worth to him, ask him his counteroffer. If you want to know what you’re worth to me, bring me that counteroffer.” He reached into his breast pocket and placed his card on the bar. “In case you change your minds,” he said before walking away.
“We won’t,” she said.
He paused a moment then turned around. “Earlier, before we were interrupted, you asked me my opinion. I was going to say that you’re captivating. You’ve held my attention from the start.”
It wasn’t until the door closed behind Beau that Lola lost the strength that’d been holding her together. Her legs trembled as she turned around to face Johnny. She put her face into his T-shirt. It smelled like him. She would never not know his scent. When she didn’t feel his arms around her, she looked up into his face. His expressions were more familiar to her than her own, but this was one she didn’t recognize.
“How could you say that?” he asked through his teeth.