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“How old was she?”

“She had just turned eighteen the week before. We’re Irish twins.” His brows furrowed and I explained. “Born less than twelve months apart.”

“That must have been hard.”

Another shrug. Our life was what it was. The years in Ireland had been the best of our lives, but never what I’d consider easy. “We made do. She ended up getting a job at the club close by but eventually fell into the same habit as my mom. Which led her to Oscar.”

“He seemed like a real winner.”

“Yeah,” I laughed, my lip curling in disgust.

He sat back and took a long pull of his beer, finishing it off. I struggled not to squirm under his scrutiny, forcing myself to sit still and wait for him to speak again.

“What are your skills?”

It was rarely with innocent intentions when a man asked me about my skills. I sat up straighter and my eyes widened, alarmed at what he wanted.

“Not that,” he explained. “What would be on your resume? Your last job? Any education? Things like that.”

Breathing a sigh of relief, I thought about the dismal list of skills I could give him. “I am currently working at a grocery store. When they need help, I also pull late shifts at the diner close to us. Transportation is expensive, so I try to stick close to home.”

“Any schooling?”

“Um.” I hesitated, looking down at my thumbs fumbling in my lap. “I’ve graduated high school.”

“Any college?”

“No.” I forced myself to look up. “I wanted to go to college for a business degree. I figured it was generic enough for anything. But I’ve watched a lot of YouTube videos and read a lot about website design and coding. I thought maybe I could do online work at the library, but I overestimated the cheap computers they have.”

Another long stare as he spun the empty bottle on the table, the ringing scrape the only noise in the room. I couldn’t tell if I wanted him to tell me what he was thinking or let me finish my meal and go to bed.

“You can come work for me tomorrow. I own an IT company.”

I should have had more intelligent words to say. I should have had better questions. Instead, I said the most prevalent thing rattling through the chaos. “What?”

“I know you’re limited on options. So, for tomorrow at least, you can come work for me.”

“And after that?”

His face scrunched and he hesitated. “Honestly, I don’t know. I’ve never done this before, so I’m kind of winging it. What I do know is you seem to want to learn and are willing to work for it. We’ll figure out the rest tomorrow. But for now, it’s late and I’m sure you’re tired.”

I nodded slowly, unsure if this was good luck or if I was looking at it with rose-colored glasses. “Okay.”

“Good. Why don’t you head to bed and be ready to leave by seven. I’ll have your five thousand waiting for you if you’re still here in the morning.”

“Okay.”

“There are toiletries under the sink in the bathroom. Use what you need.”

“Okay.” God, I sounded like a broken record. An idiot only capable of one-word responses. Before I could make a bigger fool of myself, I stood and brought my dishes to the sink. I was getting ready to wash them when he stopped me.

“Don’t worry about it. My cleaning lady can get it in the morning,” he said right behind me.

My heart stuttered, not having noticed that he’d moved into the kitchen. I set the dishes off to the side and turned, getting ready to bolt to the room, but found myself rooted to the spot under his stare. Only a small space in the galley style kitchen separated us from where I was at the sink and where he leaned against the island.

Something about the dark backdrop with glittering lights sparkling behind him made me stop. For the first time all night, I noticed him. Not as a man who would take my virginity. Not as the man dragging me around and insulting my intelligence. But as a man. A man who was offering me sanctum for a night. A man who was giving me more than any man had in years.

Looking at him like that, dropped my doubts and he looked different. The room no longer felt small because of how intimidated I was of him, but because of the heat slowly rising around me, creating a thick tension. He must have felt it too because we both stood frozen between the two sections of marble and stared like we were seeing each other for the first time.

Heat rose up my cheeks and I tugged at the briefs he’d given me. His gaze dropped to the movement but lingered before slowly—achingly slowly—scanning up my body. What would it have been like if he had taken my virginity? Staring at his large body, obviously muscular beneath his clothes, I couldn’t help but imagine him over me. The picture had me rubbing my thighs together to ease the heartbeat growing between them.