“Amy,” he says, and my heart stops.
“Alexander,” I say, and he steps aside to let me pass.
I flinch as the door slams behind me. “It’s Ted fucking Brown,” he snaps.
I nod. “Ted,” I whisper.
There’s no champagne this evening. He reaches into his jacket and pulls out the envelope.
“Let’s get the fucking practicalities out of the way first, shall we?” he spits.
I shake my head. “I don’t want your money,” I tell him. “I’m not here for the money. I never have been.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes.”
It was the wrong thing to say. He tears into the envelope with a fierceness that makes my legs tremble. He throws the notes at me in plumes of rage. They rain down on me, landing on the floor like leaves.
“Pick it up!” he snaps. “Don’t be fucking shy. You want more?”
He pulls out his wallet and empties it at my feet.
I’ve never felt so cheap as I do when his loose change lands on my toes.
“Why are you here?!” he seethes. “Are you that fucking greedy for more?!”
“I don’t… it’s not about money…” I repeat, but he doesn’t care.
“I’ve made you a fucking millionaire, isn’t that enough?! You want more?!” He takes off his watch and throws that at me too.
I can’t stop the tears as his cufflinks bounce off my chest, and I don’t understand it. I’m not a millionaire. I’m not here for his money.
“Pick it up!” he shouts, but I don’t move. He drops to his knees and gathers notes from the floor to throw in my face all over again, and I don’t even flinch. “Take it!”
“I don’t want it,” I whisper. “I swear I don’t. I used the money for my brother, that’s all, to make sure he has enough for a good life.”
“Oh he’ll have a good fucking life,” he barks as he gets to his feet. “He’ll have a whale of a fucking time with the six fucking figures I paid for you.”
My eyes meet his, and I don’t get it.
“Don’t play fucking dumb,” he snaps. “I know you get seventy fucking percent.”
“I get what you give me,” I tell him. “I’d have taken whatever you gave me. I’d have taken nothing.”
He sneers. “What I give you and the rest of the fucking money Claude wires to your fucking account, you mean?”
But I don’t. I don’t mean that. I don’t know what he’s talking about. I tell him so and he rages all around me. He storms across the room and pours himself a whisky from the mini bar, and I just wait.
“Enough of the lies,” he says and lights up a cigarette. “I’ve had fucking enough of it.”
“I’m not lying,” I tell him.
“You’re telling me Claude never fucking paid you?”
“You paid me.”
“And Claude, yes?”
I shake my head. “He said it would be cash… he said never to ask…”
He still thinks I’m lying and I know. His eyes are hostile and suspicious as they stare into mine. I don’t blame him.
“If you’re fucking lying to me…” he threatens.
“I’m done with lying,” I tell him and my voice breaks.
He sits down on the edge of the bed with his hands in his hair, and I so much want to touch him. It pains right through me to leave him be.
“He didn’t pay you?”
“No, never,” I say again.
“Amy, if you’re lying…”
My legs don’t want to hold me anymore. I’m exhausted and empty. I drop to my knees amongst the scattered money.
The silence is heavy as neither of us speak another word. I don’t care. I only care that I’m with him, even though he hates me.
He finishes up his cigarette and drops it into his empty tumbler.
“He really didn’t pay you?”
I shake my head.
“I paid half a fucking million for your virginity and a five percent compulsory cash tip on top. You didn’t get it? What about the million I paid for your fucking settlement fee last Sunday? What about the ten fucking grand I paid twice a fucking week?”
My jaw drops open. “You did what?!”
“You didn’t get it? Not any of it?!”
“I got twenty-five grand the first time, but it was more than enough. It was more money than I’ve ever seen. I get the envelopes. I get whatever you give me. And I don’t know anything about a settlement fee! I don’t know anything about a million pounds, I swear!”
I stare numbly as he pulls out his phone. I watch him as he gets to his feet and presses it to his ear.
“Amy’s fucking money,” he says. “Where the fuck is it?”
I can’t hear the other end of the conversation and I don’t care.
“What do you mean it’s fucking pending? What the fuck does pending mean?!”
His eyes meet mine for a heartbeat, and his next words are for me.
“Did you give the prick your bank details?”
I shake my head.
He turns away. “You don’t even have her bank details you slimy fucking cunt. You thought her name was Amy Randall.”
“I don’t care,” I say. “I don’t want it.”
He silences me with a raised hand.
“Transfer it to my fucking account,” he snarls. “I’ll make sure she fucking gets it. You have twenty-four fucking hours, Claude, or I’m pulling the fucking plug on your seedy fucking operation and I don’t care who I fucking take down with me. You can pass that little gem onto my fucking father.”
He hangs up and tosses his phone onto the dresser.
“You’ll get your money,” he says.
“Please keep it,” I tell him. “Please, Alex- Ted. Please, Ted.”
“You earned it.”
“Being with you was the best thing that ever happened to me. You being my first was all I ever wanted.”
“Shut up!” he snaps.
But I can’t. “You’re everything I ever wanted. I lied because I wanted you. I lied because I thought it was the only way.”
“You lied because you scoped my fucking house out and thought you’d rip me off for some fucking cash.”
I cry-laugh, because it’s so far from the truth, so insanely far from the truth.
“Why are you even here?” he snarls.
And it’s my chance. Maybe my only one.
“I came to say sorry,” I whisper, and the tears roll down my face. “I’m so sorry, Alexander. I never meant…”
“You’re fucking sorry?!”
I nod. “You’ll never know how sorry I am. You’ll never know how much I wanted you.”
I can hardly see him for the tears. I wipe them away and choke them back. I wish I hadn’t. He looks so fucking pained.
“You’ve said it,” he tells me. “So leave.”
I shake my head. “Please don’t make me go.”
“Go,” he snaps, but I can’t. I just can’t. “Get out of here, Amy. Fuck off.”
“Please…” I breathe. “Please don’t…”
“Please don’t what?! Don’t throw you out? Don’t fucking touch you? What?”
“Don’t throw me out,” I whisper.
“Get out or give me my fucking money’s worth.”
My eyes widen. “You mean…”
“I mean get the fuck out of my fucking hotel room or give me what I fucking paid for. That’s why I called you here, Amy. To get my fucking money’s worth.”
I drag myself to my feet and force back the tears. My eyes are on his as I pull my top off over my head and unclip my bra. I take off my jeans and my knickers with them, and I don’t care how exposed I am. I don’t care how angry he is, just as long as he lets me stay.
“You’re fucking insane,” he tells me.
And I am. I am insane.
“You really want to fucking go there?”
I nod.
“Walk away.”
“No.”
&nbs
p; “Jesus Christ, Amy. Just fucking go.”
“I won’t,” I tell him. “Not unless you make me. I’ll never walk away unless you make me.”
I half expect him to. I half expect him to turf me out into the corridor stark naked, but he doesn’t.
His eyes are so cold as he gets to his feet. “On the bed,” he says, and I move for him. “On your fucking front,” he tells me, and I do as he asks.
I hear him unbuckle his belt. I feel the heat of him as he comes near.
“Tell me you don’t want this,” he hisses as his weight bears down.
“I’m done with lying,” I whisper. “I do want this. I always want this. I want you.”
“Tell me to stop,” he snarls, and I shake my head.
“Never.”
“Never?”
“Never,” I say again.
“We’ll fucking see about that,” he snaps, and I take a breath as he grabs my hair. He tugs hard and I don’t even flinch.
It hurts so bad as he pushes inside me. I’m not ready but I don’t care. It’s everything just to take him.
“You’re an excellent liar,” he tells me as he fucks me rough. “I believed every fucking lie you fed me. I believed you liked this.”
“I love this. I loved everything.”
I cry out as he slams in deep. His breath is in my ear and his fingers are rough in my hair, his body pounding mine with everything he’s got.
I take it all.
I love it all.
“I fell for you,” he snarls. “You took me for a fucking fool, but you’re the fucking fool for coming here, Amy. You’re the fucking fool now.”
“I love you,” I whisper through the pain. “I’ve always loved you.”
“How about taking my cock in your tight little asshole? Do you love that as well?”
“Yes,” I breathe, and I know what’s coming.
I can’t stop myself whimpering as he forces his way inside. It burns so bad, like my insides are on fire, but I don’t care. I grit my teeth and take him. I buck back at him even though it hurts like hell.