Chapter 21
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
WYATT
On the bedroom floor was a tie. It wasn’t Starlight Sands blue.
It looked like tarnished silver. I picked it up and ran the smooth fabric through my fingers.
The initials "JS" were embroidered on the back. Julian Silver. I didn’t think he left it here on purpose.
This morning, he dragged himself from the bed, apologizing for falling asleep.
Then he took the weight of the world with him.
Leaving a vast hole in mine. He and I were feeling like more. Bigger than what we started out as.
If I had friends, I would ask them what the turning point was. What happened when it went from sex to something else? When I was the one who had the feelings? If I had friends that lived this life, I’d ask them when it was time to get out and what to do with a man like Julian.
“Wyatt?” Maverick’s voice filled the space.
I dropped Julian’s tie in my bag. “Yeah,” I called, walking into the living area. I could tell by the way he said my name he was in a mood, and I didn’t have the energy to make him feel better about himself.
“Did you have an overnight client?” Maverick’s eyes flicked to the bedroom, heavy with accusation—like he’d caught me doing something wrong.
“When?”
“Last night?”
I didn’t know how to answer that. Did I fuck Julian last night? No. I fucked him in the shower this morning. “Why?”
“Just answer the question.” Maverick stood before me.
“Okay, yes, I did.” I poured myself a cup of coffee.
“Without Jackson here. With the elevator locked. What if something would have happened?” He glared at me.
“Well, something didn’t, so no need to worry.” I blew on my coffee, not wanting to do this this morning.
“Who is he?”
I tilted my head, letting my gaze drift over Maverick in his perfectly tailored suit. He looked the part as always, all put together. No worry sat heavy on his shoulders. “No one.”
“Oh really? And how does Mr. No One get away with not paying for an overnight? And before you lie, I saw the money transfer. Four thousand this morning at five a.m. Is there some friends and family discount I’m not aware of?”
So we were doing this, Maverick forgetting that he didn’t have a say in who I fucked. I hadn’t asked Julian to pay. The sex this morning was more for me than him. I really needed to stop crossing and uncrossing lines. “Why are you in my financials?”
“Margo told me. She’s concerned, and frankly, so am I.” Maverick took his casino owner stance with me. Arms crossed, feet apart.
“Concerned?” There was more to this than Maverick’s concern. His shoulders were stiff, and he had a pinched look to him.
“What else would it be?”
I set my coffee cup on the counter, carefully choosing my next words.
“You tell me. I’ve been doing this for sixteen years, and never once have you expressed your concern.
Not when I have to fly to London or New York.
You weren’t concerned two years ago when a client reversed the transaction, claiming fraud. Or the one that brought a gun.”
“Oh really? The ten thousand dollars that I put back into your account? You don’t think that was me being concerned?
” Maverick ran his tongue over his teeth, looking around the suite.
“I won’t always be here paying for Margo and Jackson.
You won’t always have use of this room. And what if I sell the house in Henderson? ”
I had no idea where the hell this was coming from.
It was as if Maverick had suddenly forgotten what I did for a living.
“If you want me to find another place to entertain my clients, say so. Victor has offered the Oasis. As for Margo and Jackson, you offered them to me. Sell the house. I don’t care. ”
“You have an answer for everything, don’t you?” His gaze narrowed. “I don’t even get an overnight, and I pay you ten thousand a month.”
I didn’t see the ten thousand. I could only assume that was the mortgage in Henderson or the nightly rate for the penthouse. I had never asked for either. He had built the house for Dana, but she didn’t want to leave Summerlin. I either lived in it or he sold it.
“Did you want an overnight?” I asked, walking over to him and pressing against him.
“Will your wife let you out to play with your whore?” I ran a finger down his silk tie, stopping at the buttons of his pants.
“Do you want to start now, Mr. Sands? Do you want me to play the role like Dallas does?” I pouted.
“Stop it.” He grabbed my hand. “What has gotten into you?”
“I could ask you the same thing.” I stepped away. “I entertain clients here. I talk to them. Then I fuck them. I thought you understood that.”
“It’s not the talking and fucking that bothers me. It’s the risky behavior. If you’re going to act that way, do it somewhere else.” Maverick brushed my fingerprints off his tie. “I don’t want to be a witness to your downfall.”
I laughed. “My downfall? Careful, Maverick, your jealousy is showing.” I had been worried about Julian’s feelings when I should’ve been worried about Maverick’s.
We had been together for a long time, and never once had he asked me to quit.
And there had been times I would’ve for him.
Back when I still confused love and lust. But Maverick taught me there was a difference.
And he was like all the other men in my life. The only thing he wanted was sex.
“You think I’m jealous? Of what? You’re a whore.
I can have you anytime I want. I could have you right now if I wanted.
Tell you to get on your knees or bend you over that couch,” he shouted back.
“Because that is what you are. A whore. I pay for the bed you sleep in and the food you eat. Without me you have nothing.”
“Shut up.” I fought the tears of frustration that burned the back of my nose.
“Tell me, Wyatt. Does he know you like I do?” Maverick stepped closer to me.
“Does he know all your little secrets? Did you tell him that you loved him?” He lifted a strand of my hair to his nose.
“Women like you are a dime a dozen in my world. And I could have one in that bed in an hour.” He nodded over my shoulder.
“For less money. And she’s much…” He let the hair slip from his fingers. “Much younger.”
“Then I guess we are done here.” I brushed by him on my way to the bedroom, grabbing the few personal things I kept here. I bit back the tears that took me by surprise. I was too old to cry and especially over Maverick.
“I’m not done,” he called after me.
“Now you know how I feel.” I opened the door to find Jackson and Margo standing there.
“Wyatt.” Jackson moved to help me.
“Don’t.” I pushed past him and Margo. Don’t cry, I reminded myself.
“You don’t have any shoes on,” Margo called.
“Fuck off.” I pushed the button on the elevator. Thankfully, the door opened.
Maverick tore open the penthouse door. “Get back in here.”
“If you want to finish, Mr. Sands, then go find Dallas.” I stepped inside the elevator and pushed the down button.
I sagged against the wall, taking a bit of pride in the fact that I didn’t cry.
On the ground floor, I kept my head high as I walked barefoot across the lobby.
In any other city, this might look bad, but in Vegas hearts broke every day.
And women were reminded of their place more often than not.
I stood looking out the glass door, realizing I had nowhere to go. I left my purse and keys in the fucking room. I was still that stupid girl Maverick had to rescue all those years ago. I had learned nothing. And that’s when the first tear fell.
“Wy—Cassidy.” Jackson’s voice boomed across the lobby. He jogged up to me. “You can’t leave without shoes.”
“I hate him.” I hated myself more.
“I know. Come on.” Jackson hustled me through a secure door to the employee area.
Down the hallway, he scanned his badge and pushed open the door.
The room looked like a break room. Tables and chairs were scattered in the dimly lit room.
“In here.” He held open another door to a smaller room with a couch and TV. “You want some coffee?”
I shook my head no, still clutching my clothes.
“Margo is going to get him calmed down, and then we can go back up.” Jackson motioned for me to sit. “He saw Silver leaving this morning. And there is no reason for a hockey player with damp hair to be here at seven a.m., other than you,” Jackson said, pouring me a cup of coffee.
I took the coffee and blew on it. It smelled bitter and old, but I still sipped it, hoping for warmth. “I wasn’t being careless with Julian. He wouldn’t hurt me.”
“I know. I wouldn’t have left you with him if I thought you’d be in danger.” Jackson sat down, throwing one arm over the back of the chair.
“He’s just a client. It’s nothing. Julian is just a… a client. It’s nothing more.” I didn’t know if I was telling Jackson or myself that.
Jackson snorted out a laugh. “Right, and next year I’ll be playing for the Raiders.”
“Crazier things have happened.” Jackson had been the one to bail me out of jail.
Jackson dealt with the German who brought a gun.
The guy who didn’t want to use a condom.
The one who wouldn’t leave. It was always Jackson.
Not Maverick. I was nothing without Jackson.
Men like Maverick were also a dime a dozen.
“Like you letting Maverick hurt you?”
I looked over at the employment posters on the wall.
It wasn’t the words Maverick spoke. It was the truth of them.
The reality of them. Julian was nothing more than a client.
Like Maverick and Richard. And in a few years, we’d end up here too.
Bitter and angry for the choices we had made.
I didn’t want that for Julian and me. I wanted a happy ending for us.
Okay, maybe happy was the wrong word. A good ending. “I really fucked up, didn’t I?”
“With Mav, no. He’ll be back to his charming self by lunch. As for Mr. Hockey, I think you’ve finally met your match with him. You don’t know what to do with a man like Julian.”
“He’s just a man,” I whispered. “A regular client.”
“Keep telling yourself that.”
Margo walked in, carrying a pair of shoes. “He’s gone. Are you okay?” She looked at me.
“I’m fine.” I let Jackson’s and my conversation die on the tile floor of the break room.
It didn’t matter what he thought or what I wanted because as much as I hated Maverick, he was right.
I needed the money this job paid me because I’d been rich and I’d been poor.
And being rich was a hell of a lot easier.
Margo shifted her attention back to Jackson. “I didn’t run any reports. I just got here. He saw Julian leaving.”
“I know. Jackson told me.”
“I know it’s not an excuse, but Mav does care about you.
He doesn’t want you to get hurt.” Margo sadly smiled, and Jackson scoffed.
“Anyway, he said he didn’t mean any of it and you are, of course, welcome to stay here and in Henderson.
I suggested he go for a run or a fucking lobotomy.
And that if he tried to talk to you without the words ‘I’m sorry’ coming from that stupid mouth of his, then Jackson would beat some sense into him.
” Margo picked up the shirt I had dropped.
“Jackson can take you back up and make sure pissy pants stays away.”
As much as I didn’t want to go back to that life, it was the only one I knew.
And Julian didn’t fit.