The Billionaire From Los Angeles_A BWWM Billionaire Romance Read online

  Maurice was still staring at her, and he shook his head. “No, I don’t mean do you believe he asked you, I mean do you believe that he really was going to pay you a million bucks to spend the night with him. So? Do you?”

  Tami blinked and frowned, looking over at Maurice as she picked up her glass of champagne that Shane had bought for them. “Yes, of course. He’s staying here in this hotel. He has the penthouse at the top of the hotel. He even gave me his key card so that when I change my mind I can go up and see him. He said he’d have the manager take care of getting the money for me, but it’s just ridiculous. I would never do something like that. You know that you can trust me. Not even for a million dollars.” She shook her head adamantly. “And I told him that.”

  “You did?” Maurice asked, growing thoughtful as he gazed at her with some serious consideration on his face.

  “Of course, I did. I wouldn’t cheat on you with anyone for any reason.” Tami sipped the champagne and savored it, loving the way that it felt going down, and the taste of it, which was the best she had ever tasted.

  “Well, what if you did?” Maurice asked, leaning closer to her and planting one elbow on the bar and his other hand on his hip as he faced her.

  “What if I did what?” she asked in confusion, frowning slightly.

  “What if you took him up on it and did it? What if you spent one night with him for a million dollars? I mean, it’s just one night, right? And then you get a million? Is that the way of it?” he asked, growing more interested in it. The wheels in his mind were spinning, and she could see it. Her stomach began to tighten as she really read the expression on his face and in his eyes.

  “Maurice… yes, that’s the deal, and no I wouldn’t do it.” She raised her voice a little and took on a stern tone.

  He reached his hand up to his mouth and rubbed his fingers over his full lips and his chin as he stared down into his beer. He was silent for a long moment, dropping his hand to his beer mug and holding it thoughtfully before picking it up to bring it to his mouth.

  She watched him, wondering what he was thinking while simultaneously wishing that she didn’t need to wonder what he was thinking. She felt that he should not have been asking questions about it the way that he was, but he had, as if he was entertaining the notion, and it bothered her deeply that he seemed to be doing just that.

  “So, how was your work today?” she asked a bit uneasily, hoping to change the subject.

  He took a long pull off of his beer and set it down, closing his mouth with a smack after swallowing the brew. He shrugged. “It was fine. Long day.”

  Tami sipped her champagne. He said nothing more, only looked into his mug. She cleared her throat. “I had a good day. We were busy at the office, and that made it go by faster, or at least, it feels like it goes by faster when we’re busy.”

  She looked over at him and bit at her lower lip. He was resting his elbows on the bar with his shoulders hunched up around his ears, nursing his beer. She felt for a moment like she needn’t have even been sitting beside him, as he was so focused on it and not saying hardly anything at all to her.

  “Do you have a lot of pools to clean tomorrow?” She pressed a little more, trying to get him to talk with her. She didn’t like that he was thinking as much as he was without saying anything to her. Maurice had been a pool cleaner for many years, and though he worked for a reputable company, he was hoping one day to have his own pool cleaning company so that he would be his own boss doing a little less of the same kind of work.

  “Yeah.” He nodded after a long moment. “I do. It’s going to be another long, hot day in the sun, working my ass off.” He sneered, turned his beer mug in a circle as he gazed down into it, and Tami thought that she might wait until he spoke of his own accord, rather than trying to make him have a conversation with her.

  He was silent a while longer, and then he turned to her and spoke, raising his eyes but not quite meeting her gaze. “A million dollars is a lot of money,” he said quietly.

  Her heart quickened, and her stomach tightened and turned. “Yes, I guess it is.”

  Maurice turned and faced her fully. “I think you should do it.”

  She blinked in utter shock. “What?” It was as if everything in her mind and body stopped simultaneously, and nothing made any sense to her.

  “It’s a lot of money. We could use that money. It’s only one night. I think you should do it,” he stated simply, as if he had just told her the weather forecast or where he had parked the car.

  Her mouth fell open slightly. “You must be joking! You’re kidding!” She shook her head, trying to make herself believe that he wasn’t being serious.

  “I’m not kidding,” he reaffirmed, looking up into her eyes finally. She saw then that he was entirely serious.

  Totally affronted, anger flashed in her eyes. “You seriously think that I should take that man, a complete stranger, by the way, up on his offer of giving myself to him for a whole night for money? So, I’m basically selling myself to him, and you think it’s a good idea? You think that I should do that?”

  “Yeah, I do,” he stated flatly, reaching for his beer and taking a long drink from it.

  “You must be out of your mind. What in the world would ever make you think that I would do something like that? And how can you stand there as my partner, my boyfriend, and tell me that you think I should? You’re normally so jealous of other men! What in the world are you thinking?” she demanded, wondering in utter amazement where all of his common sense had gone.

  “I’m not out of my mind. It’s a million dollars, right? If he’s really going to give you a million, well… then, I think you had better do it.” He shrugged one shoulder as if it wasn’t anything in the world for her to be paid to be intimate with a stranger and betray their relationship.

  Tamika shook her head angrily. “I’m not going to do it. I’m not going to sell my body to another person. I can’t believe you’re saying that you think I should! You have lost your mind! I am not for sale!”

  Seeing that she was nothing short of infuriated, he reached his hands out and took her hands in his, though she tried to pull hers away, unsuccessfully. “Listen, baby… listen,” he began smoothly.

  She turned her head and looked away from him. “I’m not listening. This is completely ridiculous,” she snapped at him.

  “No, seriously… listen to me. You been upset because we haven’t gotten more serious with each other, right?” he asked, prodding gently. She turned her eyes and looked at him, though her head was still facing away.

  “Come on now, think about this. We ain’t been able to be serious because we ain’t making much money. We can’t afford to get a place and move in together. Right? We’re both just kind of getting by. Now… now, think about this. If you did this… if you made this one little sacrifice, just one quick night, probably won’t even take that long, then we could buy a house and settle down like you want to. You been talking about it all the time.

  Now we could do it. I haven’t asked you to move in because I ain’t making enough money to support the two of us or afford a down payment on a house. Now come on, baby. Think about it. A million dollars. We could get a nice place with money like that. We wouldn’t have no problems at all. Come on.”

  He moved closer to her, pulling her up against his chest and wrapping his arms around her as he kissed her forehead and then looked into her eyes. “Come on. Think about it… one little old night, fast as anything; just let him do it once, then you’re out of there, and we have a whole future together.”

  She found the things he was talking about becoming images in her mind. One fast night. A million dollars. A house of their own, with a yard and a pretty little fence, maybe even with a pool in the back yard. She had wanted to settle down with him for a long time, and he had constantly pushed it aside and put it off for one reason after another, but for the first time, he was finally talking about it. For the first time, he was bringing it up, and it sudden
ly seemed to her like it might actually be a possibility.

  Tami looked up into his eyes, wondering how he could let his woman go into the arms of another man so easily. He was smiling at her. “You should do it, baby. I know why he want you. You a beautiful woman. He can have you, just one night. One time. He has you, and then he pay you, and you come back here to me, and we all set. We can get us a home and settle down together. Think about that. Wouldn’t that be good? That what you want, ain’t it?”

  She frowned slightly. “You never wanted to talk about it before,” she said quietly, surprised at his acquiescence to discussing it at all.

  Maurice shook his head. “We ain’t never had money to do it before. Wasn’t no sense talking about it when we couldn’t do nothing about it. Now we could, if we had that money, baby…” He ran his hands over her hips and curves, squeezing gently. “Yeah, we could have it all. Just… one night. Let him have a little bit of this booty for one quick night, then it’s all over.

  Then we rich. Then we can get us a house, and I can start my own pool business. Things would be good. Better than good. Better than they ever been. Yeah, you should do it. Go give him what he wants. Do it for us, baby. For our future. Think what I could do with all that money. What we could do.” He gave her a winning smile and squeezed her again.

  Tamika could not believe what she was hearing from her boyfriend, and more than that, she couldn’t believe that he had her seriously considering it too. She sighed. She didn’t want to think about it as a possibility, but the words he had said, the pictures that he had painted in her mind about a home together, and a future, settled down together finally so that they could have children, that was something that she had wanted more than anything, and he was finally talking about it with her. He was thinking about it and talking about it, and he had never wanted to before then. It was enough to make her consider sleeping with a stranger.

  “I can’t even believe I’m thinking about this,” she muttered miserably, her mouth forming a sad frown.

  He held her even closer and kissed her cheek. “Don’t you worry, baby; you just go up there, you let him do what he wants to do, just close your eyes, and it will all be over so fast. You could pretend it’s me; just imagine that it’s me doin’ whatever he do to you, and then you come back to me, and we be all set. We be rich. We can buy a house and settle down, just like you want. I can start my own business and do things I want to do. That’s just a small sacrifice to realize our dreams, baby. Just one little night of sacrifice.

  Now, you go on and get to it. He gave you his room key, didn’t he? He waitin’ for you, ain’t he? Go on up to him. Go let him have you. It’s just one night. Get the money, and then come and give it to me, and I’ll take care of everything. I’ll handle all of it. Come on baby. You love me, don’t you?” he asked, holding her face in his hands and looking into her eyes.

  She nodded. “I do love you. That’s why I don’t want to be with anyone else.”

  “Come on now, baby, you say you love me, then you go and do this thing for me, go do this for us. Come on now. Go on up to him, let him have what he want, just one night, then it over, and you and me we be sittin’ pretty. No more long hot days cleaning out pools for me. I can have my own business. No more waiting for us to have enough money to settle down. We can go find a place. Go on now. Go do it. Just close your eyes,” he continued to urge her, encouraging her.

  She bit at her lower lip, wondering when her scruples and her morals had run so low that it had become a realistic possibility that she might sleep with a man for money, especially while she was in a relationship. Some part of her, deep down in her heart, wished strongly that he loved her so much that he couldn’t bear the thought of another man touching her or holding her, that no amount of money would ever be enough to let another man have her, because it seemed to her that it meant that she could be bought, that she had a price, a value, and somehow that equaled a limit to his love.

  He didn’t love her more than she was worth as a sex partner to another man. That hurt her, and it hurt her deeply. She found herself wondering what it would be like to be with someone who loved her so much that no amount of money or bribery would ever be enough to buy her away from them, even for one night.

  “Come on, baby. Say yes. That’s a lot of money. It’s more money than you or I will ever have in our lives if you don’t do this. I ain’t gonna make a million dollars cleaning pools, and you sure as hell ain’t gonna make a million dollars sitting in a cubicle working as a customer service rep. We gonna be middle class all our lives if we don’t get ourselves out of it. You need to think about that. You need to think about what kind of future you want for us together. Come on. Just go up and let him have you for a bit. Go do it. Just think about tomorrow. Everything will be different tomorrow.”

  He nodded to her and stepped back, releasing her. She stared at him and felt as if she was stepping off of a precipice as she rose from her bar stool and stood on the floor. It seemed as if it might crack open and swallow her whole, as if she was about to commit a sin of the heart that could not be forgiven, ever.

  “I can’t believe this,” she whispered to herself.

  “Come on, baby. It’ll be done before you know it. You’ll be right back in my arms and in my bed in no time. Go on. Go do it. Go on, now,” he encouraged her again and again. “That’s my girl.”

  She turned and walked away from Maurice with steps slow and methodical, forcing herself to take each one, making herself go forward when all she wanted to do was run back to him and tell him no, she couldn’t leave him, she couldn’t cheat on him, she couldn’t let a stranger touch her, she couldn’t let a man buy her body and her dignity, and her pride. She couldn’t be bought or sold or used, but she could hear him, behind her, sending her words of encouragement. Go. Go on, baby. Go do it. His words echoed long after his voice faded from her ears; it did not fade from her mind.

  Tamika went to the front desk, her heart pounding hard against her chest, her blood racing wildly through her, and she cleared her throat. The young woman at the desk looked up at her and gave her a smile.

  “How may I help you?” she asked in a cheery voice. She looked like a Barbie doll in a dress suit: perfect, plastic happiness. Tamika felt her stomach tighten again, and she drew in a breath long and slow and made herself a vow that she wouldn’t throw up.

  “Um…” She cleared her throat again. “I… I have a friend staying here. He gave me this key to get to his room. I think he’s in the penthouse. He said he left my name on a guest list.” She hesitated. “Shane…” She couldn’t remember his last name. She couldn’t remember if he had told her his last name or not and if she had never heard it or if she had just forgotten it.

  Barbie perked up and grinned. She knew right away who Tamika was talking about. “Oh! Mr. Carson! What’s your name please?” she asked, looking dutifully down at a paper she had on her side of the desk barrier.

  “Tamika James,” she answered quietly. She didn’t want anyone to hear it. She didn’t want to hear herself say it. As she stood there, she was Tamika James, girlfriend of Maurice Little. After that night, she was going to be someone else. She would be Tamika James, cheater, prostitute, sell out, girlfriend of Maurice Little and part time lover of billionaire Shane Carson. She would be someone she didn’t recognize when she looked in the mirror. She would be someone she wasn’t going to be proud of being, not at any point in her whole life. She wondered again why she was even considering it, and Maurice’s words echoed once more in her mind.

  The future. Their future. His business. A home for them. A chance to have their dreams. She sighed. Barbie grinned and pointed to a hallway that seemed partially obscured from the main view of the area around them. “It’s just over there. Just go to the elevator and run your room key over the scan panel. Then, press the button inside and run your key over that again. You’ll go right up to the penthouse. Enjoy your visit!” She’s far too bubbly for her own good, and certainly for mine, Tami
ka thought to herself.

  Tamika nodded and gave the girl the best smile that she could muster, wishing that it was more, that it was better, that it was a smile goodbye and that she was walking out of the hotel instead of to the elevator that would lift her to what could possibly be the worst decision she was ever going to make in her life.

  She scanned the key card. The door opened. She stood there looking into the elevator and stared at its finery. Her heart banged hard in her chest. Her breath grew short. The elevator door closed. She swallowed and stood still for a long moment before lifting her hand and waving the key over the panel again. The elevator door slid open a second time. She didn’t move at first, but then she forced herself to take the step, then to take another, and then she was inside the box and the door closed again.

  Tamika looked around and saw a reflection of herself looking back at her. She wondered when she had become a woman who would agree to sell her body to a stranger. She heard Maurice’s voice in her head. Future. Home. Settled. Business. Money. She waved her card key over the panel inside the elevator, and it began to glide smoothly upward.