Page 4

YULIAN

My offer has her head spinning.

I’ll tell you what I need and why you’re perfect for it, and when you tell me yes, I’m going to put a large amount of cash in your hand, and you’re going to thank me for the easiest money you’ve ever made in your life.

Her face goes through all the colors of the rainbow. I can practically see the gears in her brain working overtime. Cataloging bills to be paid. Clothes to be bought. Dreaming of a vacation, maybe, for once in her overworked life.

It’s like everything she is has been splayed out before me. I can taste her despairing midnight tears, the ones she doesn’t dare show anyone. I can feel the heartbroken clench of her fists as the world frustrates her again and again.

She’s been beaten down by it.

This is a leg up she taught herself long ago never to expect.

“I need a plus-one,” I tell her succinctly. “My date is… indisposed, on short notice. You’ll take her place.”

“I’m not a whore ,” she hisses, cheeks bright red.

“And I don’t pay for sex.” I send my location pin to Maksim so he comes to collect me and my new date here. “Ten thousand. That’s my final offer.”

Her blue eyes go wide. “T-ten…?!”

“Ten thousand dollars. For one night of your time. You’d be stupid not to accept.”

I can see more emotions clashing in her eyes. Pride versus practicality.

It’s easy to see which will win.

“I have conditions,” she says carefully.

“Name them.”

“Nothing illegal,” she blurts. “Nothing sexual. And no names.”

Her boundaries amuse me. As if she has any idea what real danger looks like.

By stepping into my world for even one night, she’s already in deeper than she realizes.

But it costs me nothing to humor her. To pretend her little boundaries mean anything at all.

“Sure thing, Nurse Winters.”

Her gaze darts to her nametag. I find myself enjoying the blush creeping higher and higher along her cheeks. Can’t help but wonder if the skin beneath her collarbone has the same delicious scarlet hue.

“Look—”

“I don’t give a shit,” I interrupt. “You have fifteen minutes to make yourself presentable. Go, or the deal’s off.”

I can tell she wants to mouth off some more, but she must realize how badly she’s rushing against the clock.

With a final glare at me, she rushes back upstairs.

The second she does, I pick my phone back up.

“Maks. It’s me. Run a full background check on a ‘Nurse Winters’ living in Brownsville, right near the pin I just sent you.”

I adjust my cufflinks and feel a smile slowly widening on my face. Muscles I rarely use, now warming up again.

That nurse’s attitude, her utter refusal to bend the knee…

It makes me want to see how far I can push her before she breaks.