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“I want to know if you’re willing to stay with me tonight,” he finally says, his persona slipping back into the shy man that first approached me.

“Always,” I reply with a big grin. “Just tell me what you’re into and we can get this show on the road, Lowell.”

He laughs and walks around the front of his car, to the passenger side, and opens the door. I raise an eyebrow at him and he motions for me to get inside. It seems that Lowell is quite the gentleman too. That’s not something I’m used to either. I’ve been beat up, fucked and tossed out of cars with no money, and robbed more than I’ve been paid. It appears that my luck may actually be changing, for tonight at least.

“Thank you,” I say to him as I follow his trek around the front of his car and slip into the passenger seat. He nods and closes the door firmly behind me before he makes his way back toward the driver side and gets in.

I wait patiently while he fishes around in his pocket for the keys, slides them into the ignition, and turns the car on.

“It shouldn’t take too long to warm back up. I’ve had it on the entire time I was—,” he cuts himself off and laughs nervously.

Watching me, I finish in silence for him. Since he’s being nice to me, I don’t want to embarrass him or scare him off.

“Here. Put your hands in front of the vents. You’ll warm up faster that way,” he says as he nervously reaches for my wrists and holds them close to the lukewarm air that’s blowing softly into the car.

“Thanks.”

I rub my hands together in front of the vents and like he promised, the car is almost completely warmed up.

“No problem,” he says as he puts his hands on the steering wheel and gently begins to drum his fingers against it. “So, not to sound like a total jerk right now, but um, how much?”

“Depends on what you want. A blowjob is twenty and so is a handjob. Sex is a hundred and anal is an extra seventy-five,” I reply nervously. I’ve never charged that much for anything before, but I don’t think he’s done this before either. Maybe I should have told him higher prices.

Leaning back against his seat, he lets out a laugh. He’s still nervous but I’m all business now and if he wants me to ‘stay’ with him tonight, then he’s going to ante up and keep me off the streets for a few days.

“Tell you what,” he begins as he turns to face me. “I have a better offer for you.”

“This isn’t a negotiation,” I snap at him. “Either you have the money or you don’t. Also, I’ll be needing to see it before we do anything, so pick your poison and let’s do it.”

He blinks in rapid succession, mouth hanging slightly open, as he holds his hands up. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t—wow. You must think that I’m a total asshole. I wasn’t going to try to talk you down, I was going to try to offer you more.”

“How much more?” I ask suspiciously.

“You know, for a second there, I thought you were going to bite my head off,” he says, pulling on the collar of his shirt.

“How much?” I repeat, ignoring his boyish clumsiness.

He sighs and leans back in his seat again, glancing out the driver’s side window. “How much do you think you’re really worth?”

“A lot more than anyone is willing to pay,” I grumble. I find my mood starting to sour and realize that maybe I don’t need a night with a nice guy. Maybe I need to be roughed up by a bastard that’ll at least throw a twenty at me for a full-on fuck and ride away with the rest of what I was promised. It would be a hell of a lot less painful to my soul that way.

“Okay, well, allow me to make an offer. And if this isn’t what you were thinking, then by all means, feel free to counter me.” He leans to the side and pulls his wallet out of his pants pocket. Clearing his throat, Lowell opens the wallet wide enough for me to see the endless amount of bills inside, and licking the tip of his thumb, counts out ten bills and sets them on the dashboard.

“For every night you stay with me, I’ll pay you this same price,” he says, glancing at me.

I furrow my brow and lean forward to look at the money. The one on top is a Ben Franklin, and as I reach forward to fan out the rest of the money, I can feel myself becoming light-headed. They all are. He’s tossed one thousand fucking dollars onto the dashboard and he’s offering it to me just to fuck him for a few nights.

The survivalist in me is tempted to take the money and run, but the bleeding heart in me knows that he’d be disappointed. And more than likely hurt at being robbed like I’ve been so many times, I take my hand off the money and lean back in my seat.

“One thousand dollars. For each night I spend with you?” I confirm quietly.

“Correct,” he replies. “And let me assure you that this isn’t a joke, Burgundy. I’m sure you can tell by looking at me that I’m not used to being around beautiful women all the time—or ever really, so I’m willing to pay for the pleasure of your talents and company for as long as you can put up with me.”

I turn my eyes toward the windshield and think of the possibilities. With one thousand dollars, I can get off the streets for at least a month. With two, I wouldn’t have to work again for even longer, unless I wanted to. And with three, I could probably get a small studio apartment somewhere with a short lease and maybe some groceries to last me for a little bit.

“Deal.”

The ride back to Lowell’s place is a quiet one, which I’m fine with. I think we’ve said far too much to each other already, so I don’t mind the silence. To be honest, I don’t think he does either since his mood seems more upbeat now, instead of racked with nerves and fearful of possibly saying the wrong thing.