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going to react when I told him what I wanted? How was I going to pull this off?
    His arms were tight, crushing me to his sweat-damp chest. Beneath it, his heart was racing as fast as my own. A tight laugh rumbled in him, shuddering his shoulders.
    “Well,” he said finally, “tonight did not go how I thought it would.”
    “No fucking kidding. I wasn’t even supposed to be here,” I muttered, distracted with thoughts of the man upstairs with the bank of monitors behind his desk and an earpiece to alert him to any situations. Did Joseph know how big of a situation was brewing in Room One?
    “Me, neither,” Dom said. “I was supposed to go out with my friend tonight, the one that got engaged, but apparently he’s sick.”
    Any sound in the room faded from my ears.
    It wasn’t coincidence. The man who leased Logan and Evie’s fabulous apartment, he lived temporarily overseas Evie had told me once. He was a friend of Logan’s, she’d said. This explained how Dom, who lived in Tokyo, knew about this exclusive and secret blindfold club. Dom’s referral had come from Logan.
    Like I needed any more bullshit to think about kicking around in my head.
    There was a sharp rap on the door and Nina’s husky voice rang out. “Everything all right? Can I get you two something?”
    I had to go, time was running out. “Stay,” I ordered him.
    Dom nodded.
    Nina startled when I pulled the door open, stepped out into the hall, and closed the door swiftly behind me.
    “Oh. Should I let Marques know?” she asked, eying my robe.
    “No. I have to talk to Joseph immediately.”
    There were three other girls on tonight, and two of them had already finished seeing their clients. Only Chantel was on the flickering bank of monitors behind Joseph. She was getting it in the ass with a ball-gag in her mouth. Joseph’s indifferent gaze swung away from the screen to land on me and his eyebrows peaked.
    My manager was young and attractive. Thin, broad shouldered, and omni-sexual. He had a warm smile when needed, but otherwise maintained a professional veneer.
    “This has been an interesting client for you,” he commented.
    Tell me about it. “I need to ask a favor.” My heart beat so loudly, surely Joseph could hear it. “You have to cancel his contract.”
    He laughed lightly, then sobered. “Payton, you can’t be serious.”
    “Like a fucking heart attack.”
    Joseph didn’t look angry, he looked completely lost. “On what grounds? Seems to me the guy had a good time. He came twice.”
    The tightness was back in my chest. It was hard to speak, to think, to breathe.
    “Please, I know this is crazy but I can’t take his money. I’ll make it up to you.”
    Concern flooded Joseph’s face. “Why can’t you take his money?”
    “I don’t know if I can do this anymore. It’ll make me feel,” I gasped, “like a whore.”
    That was yet another reason why I didn’t want Dom to pay. I’d spent my life dealing with assholes calling me all sorts of things that I let roll off my back. Slut. Bitch. Cunt. I didn’t care about those, but for some reason, when someone called a spade a spade, it cut deep inside me. Take the money, whore. The phrase repeated, over and over in my mind.
    “Honey, no.” Joseph rose from his desk with alarm. “That’s not what you are.” He knew how damaging that word was to me. It was to all of his girls. “Don’t ever say that, but you know I can’t turn him away. If it got out, I’d have everyone demanding a refund.”
    He had a point. “All right, I need my payment in full. Tonight.”
    “Payton, that’s not possible. Maybe if I had some warning I could have made arrangements, but not at one thirty in the morning.”
    “Bullshit. You can do it.” The profanity and tone wasn’t helpful, but I was coming apart.
    I wasn’t about to screw Joseph out of his three thousand because I’d made this drastic and reckless decision. All I could do was give Dom back the rest, and consider the three