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“I'm not frigid!” I shout, surprised by my own backbone. “I said I barely had sex, not that I didn't like it!” Realizing what I admitted, I bite my bottom lip. It's official, my filter and decision making skills are busted.

Shawn watches me with his eyebrows knotted up. “Huh. How do you know you like sex if you fumbled at it twice with your awkward boyfriend?”

“Sex is more than just two people fucking,” I say. Looking at them is hard, but I make myself do it, daring them to tell me I'm wrong. “Also? I've watched plenty of porn.”

Jared covers his smirk with two fingers. “You're trying to say you masturbate a bunch.” Instead of waiting for my answer, he leans over me, his shadow blocking out the array of bright lights. “All I'm trying to make clear is this. If you offend anyone by acting frigid, the charade is over. Oliver will claim you intentionally lied about your skills when you signed the contract, and that makes it forfeit. You won't have a say in if you stay or not, then.”

My skin prickles uneasily.Pretend I'm into strangers? No, I don't think... But what else can I do? Paying back that money is impossible.My fingers drift up to my throat.This tattoo has taken away every option I can think of.

Jared is scrutinizing me. “You need water and something to eat,” he says. “Then a bath. We can make youlooklike an expensive slave, at the very least.”

Shawn spins on a heel, walking through an archway to the left. “I'm not here to feed people who should be servingus.Call me when you want help with teaching her the rules around here.”

Jared pinches the bridge of his nose. “Whatever. Veronica, follow me.”

For a second I debate not going. I'm positive they won't stop me from leaving now that they've explained the situation in full. They've put the choice inmyhands. Plus, they're smart men; they know better than to commit literal kidnapping.

If I walk out of here, I'm robbing myself of the only path I can see that frees me of twenty thousand dollars worth of debt.

With a final, longing look at the exit, I trail after Jared.