“What kind of business is it?”

“Real estate and venture capitalism. My family were large landowners in Vietnam. We’re also the main investors in a major tech company in Shenzhen looking to secure more defense contracts.”

“Is that what you’re meeting with Eric about?” I ask, hoping I don’t sound nosy, but I like making conversation with Tony and getting to know the man I’m going to sleep with.

“He wants to pitch me on a real estate development.”

“Do you like this kind of work?”

He doesn’t respond right away. “It is as good as any.”

“Is there something else you would rather do?”

He gives me an odd look, as if no one has ever asked him that before. “I never really considered other options. There were times I didn’t want to go into the family business and almost dropped out of college.”

“My mother is a social worker. Maybe that’s why I’m interested in the social sciences, though I wouldn’t call social work a family business.”

The mood between us has lightened. He asks about my family. I explain that my parents adopted me when I was a toddler. Lila was my caseworker, and every time she came to check on me, I’d cling to her leg and cry when she left.

He asks next about my birth mother, whom I know relatively little about, just that she was born in North Carolina, came out to California and got married, then became a dental hygienist. I had come out West to see if I could get to know her. Not that I felt the need for a mother. Lila filled that role better than anyone for me. But I did want to understand why my mother gave me up, and part of me had romanticized the possibility of becoming friends with her.

Room service comes a few minutes later. Not having eaten back at the house, I dig into the food, which is somehow even better than last night’s dinner. Tony pours a glass of wine for me.

“How do you like it?” he asks after my first sip.

“It’s good,” I answer.

He studies the label. “At eight hundred dollars, it should be.”

I nearly spit out my next sip. “God Almighty. You shouldn’t have.”

“It’s a somewhat special occasion, no?”

I blush. It’s a kind gesture on his part, but I can’t find the words to thank him.

“Aren’t you going to have anything to eat?” I ask.

“I had lunch.”

So the food was for me. The wine, too, and the hotel suite. I feel bad for having put him through this.

As if he knows what’s on my mind, he says, “You can change your mind. It would be the smarter course of action.”

I draw in a breath. “I said I’m okay with it. It’s just, you didn’t have to do all this—the hotel, the wine.”

“You don’t understand what I’m saying.” He leans toward me, pinning me with his stare, his tone serious. “You should change your mind.”

I blink, not sure what to say.

He continues. “I ruin things. And people. I’d ruin you.”

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

It’s not so much the words as the way he says them. I sensed that Tony had an edge almost from the moment I met him. Maybe it has to do with the BDSM he says he practices. Or maybe it’s something else.

“It’s not a big deal,” I assure him. “It’s not like in the olden days when losing one’s virginity meant one was being deflowered and would be cast out of society.”

He frowned. “That’s not what I’m referring to, though deflowering young women is not my thing, either.”

Tags: Em Brown Erotic
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