Page 56 of Slumming It

"Yeah, well…" She gave the money another look, this one longer than the first. The wad held only hundreds, and from the hunger in her eyes, this detail hadn't gone unnoticed. Still, she squared her shoulders and stiffly announced, "My forgiveness isn't for sale."

It was cute that she thought so.But I didn't want her forgiveness. I wanted her compliance. "Baby, haven't you heard?" I gave her a long, lingering look."Everything'sfor sale."

Chapter 20

Emily

My mouth went suddenly dry.Again with the baby?

Tonight, Reese Murdock was wearing jeans and a basic black T-shirt. His shirt was untucked, and his jeans were faded with a ragged hole in one knee. The pricy oxfords were nowhere in sight. Instead, he wore black high-top tennis shoes with plain white laces, only loosely tied.

The changeup threw me for a loop, and I didn't know what to think. In all of the pictures I'd seen online, he'd been dressed far more formally in rich-guy attire that looked brand-spanking-new.

So why the casual look now?Was it because it was Saturday night?

No.That couldn't be it. In at least some of the pictures, he'd been out clubbing on the weekend, and he had never been dressed likethat.

Weird.

Regardless of the reason, the jerkwad still looked like a million bucks.

Okay, a billion. But who was counting?

I couldn’t even blame his platinum watch, which appeared to be the only expensive thing he was wearing on his stupidly hot body.

His legs were long and lean, and the T-shirt gave me a good eyeful of his bulging biceps and muscular forearms along with the barest outline of pecs so fine,somegirls would've forfeited much more than five hundred dollars to spend some serious time alone with him.

But not me.

I hadn't been lying. I wassodone with this guy even if hewasholding a fat wad of cash.

I was practically quivering as I coldly informed him, "Maybe inyourworld everything's for sale, but that's not the way it works around here." The pronouncement, even from my own lips, was a sad reminder of why I'd taken up with him in the first place.

I'd been planning to prevent him from buying up the whole town.

What a joke.

I hadn't even managed to stay inside his car.

In the quiet hotel room, he looked far too cocky as he said, "If you're talking money, it works the same everywhere."

"It doesnot," I insisted. "Not the wayyoumean."

In reply, he started peeling off bills from that distracting wad of cash. They were all hundreds, and I silently counted as he separated five of them from the rest. With a knowing look, he shifted them to his free hand and held out the five bills in my direction.

My pulse quickened.Five hundred dollars.Maybe hehadn'tbeen joking.

We were standing several paces away, so if I wanted the money, I would need to move forward to claim it.

From the look on his face, that's exactly what he expected.

I stiffened my spine and stayed put. "Forget it."

Undaunted, he peeled off fivemorebills and held out the cash yet again.

Ten bills total. All hundreds.I resisted a sudden, humiliating urge to lick my lips.A thousand dollars.

Damn it.That wasa lotof money. If we called it a gift, I wouldn't even need to pay taxes on it. I could buy groceries – or even better, put the thousand toward the down payment to buy the hotel.