3. Margaux
MARGAUX
I knew that Carrow Thorne was an asshole playboy. The tabloids said as much. Reina would want to hear about this. She was good at knowing everything I didn’t.
The thing about seeing him tonight and knowing he was the prick that demanded drink after drink and was happy to feel up other women even with a date around? If I had needed validation to take control of my future was it. I needed out, like yesterday, and I would have no regrets. Forget that prick.
I clenched my teeth just thinking about that asshole. Irony was having all the money in the world but having no access to it. Hence this job. I was done being controlled.
The guy at my back, the one that handed Reina extra money, what could I get out of him?
Reina wasn’t here to stop me or talk sense into me, and I hoped she enjoyed time with her boyfriend. Her rebellion was dating a man her dad would never approve, but she didn’t seem to give a fuck.
I could be like her. I could be anyone I wanted to be tonight.
I felt his presence behind me before I realized he was there. This was the guy on the wall, the one watching everything. He seemed to be in charge.
He was so close I could smell the masculine scent that was uniquely him.
“Can we poison him?” I asked under my breath.
The chuckle wasn’t what I expected.
“You’re unexpected, little bird. But sorry. Fresh out of poison,” the guy said.
I stepped away from the guy, not paying much attention to anything else. I wanted to do something and I had very few skills.
Lucky me, Carrow seemed rather drunk and moved slowly. He’d taken a detour to the bathroom, just to finally head back toward the door. I had to move quickly to cut him off. When I did, I saw the lust in his eyes. This might be fun.
“Hey, leaving so soon?”
I ran my finger from his collar down to his fourth button.
“Hey, sexy. I’ve been trying to get your attention all night,” Carrow said.
I kept the fake smile on my face, hiding how much he grossed me out.
“Well, here I am. What were you thinking?”
Me? I was chasing ideas in my head. Get him naked and take incriminating photos and send them from his own phone to newspapers?
Or I could tie him up naked and leave him to rot for days or however long it might take for hotel staff to discover someone who wouldn’t be missed much.
Someone yanked me away.
“Not a chance, little bird.”
It was the same damn guy.
“Get the fuck out and take that bimbo with you.”
Said bimbo was eyeing me like I’d ruined Christmas. Whatever.
“Excuse me, buzz kill. You said you were out of poison. I have another plan.”
He carried me away, and I heard the guy at the door excuse them. I stopped fighting.
“Why did you go and spoil my fun? Who are you to care?”
He carried me back into the room, back toward the tables.
Ten minutes ago my feet ached and I wanted to leave.
But when Mr. Tall, Dark and Broody planted my ass on the edge of the poker table, I realized there were only four men here.
All four with matching masks, like they were all part of the same set.
This one though, the one who had pointed out Carrow, I studied him as the night had progressed.
All predators. The four of them were and something in me wanted to collect them all.
The way the jacket he wore clung to him, it wasn’t hard to imagine the muscles it no doubt hid.
I hoped the smile I plastered on my face looked seductive. I went to hop off the table, but he caged me between his arms. I should have been afraid, but maybe my uncle had killed that side of me long ago.
“Do I get extra if I stay?” I asked with confidence, because I had nothing to lose.
I liked the way his hand rose and grazed my cheek.
“Depends. You play a round with my guests and make it interesting, I can promise you more than even your little friend got.”
When I sucked in air, I couldn’t ignore the scent of him. Clean soap and musky male. His hair hung in almost perfect strands over his forehead, like even it didn’t dare not listen to this man.
Goosebumps chased along my arms, and it wasn’t just because of the man in front of me. Someone came up behind me. I couldn’t see him, but his presence couldn’t be ignored.
“So, Ronnie, do we have a fifth?”
I didn’t mean for my breath to shudder, but the guy at my back, the way his hand slid over the skin around my shoulders and slid down to my hip finding the peekaboo slits around my waist?
What the hell was this? Lust. It was lust. The way guy A’s bedroom voice had a hold on my heartbeat and the strange effect guy B had just by a simple touch?
My uncle's little bargaining chip was about ready to corrupt her value and happily.
“A fifth?”
My mind had an imagination that my touch-starved body was on board with as I had a pretty vivid thought about being bent over one of those poker tables and letting each of the four very alpha males show me what the hell my life was missing.
“You’re the one called Mara?” said the guy who had been paying us. The one that seemed to be in charge. Maybe, his name was Ronnie? The way he said my name though? It was like he mocked me. Like he knew it wasn’t really who I was.
I blinked myself out of that little fantasy that had no place in reality.
He slid his finger up my neck to my chin.
“What is going through that head of yours, little bird?”
It was all I needed to be back in the moment. I looked up beneath my lashes, liking the way I swore his eyes were a bit darker than they had been moments ago.
I wanted to touch him. I wanted that fantasy. Pushing aside all the grooming my uncle had tried to beat into me ever since my parents had been killed, I ran my fingers under his tie, up the length of it and stopped at the knot.
“I can be whoever you want me to be as long as I like the price.”
His eyes bore into mine. Neither of us looked away.
The heat of a foreign voice brushed over my neck.
“Oh, pretty girl, you don’t want to know the price he’d ask. Me? Much cheaper. I can promise–”
I reached my free hand up to the guy now at my side and blindly ran a finger over his face until I found his lips.
“Shh. I want to hear his answer. Besides, who’s saying I’m not willing to pay both?”
A loud laugh burst from the area of the tables.
“Sounds like she’s game. Bring her pretty little ass down here.” I couldn’t be sure which of them was speaking. I didn’t really know any of them well enough to know much of anything.
It was a different voice. One I’d heard joking all night, and I could picture the five o’clock shadow that almost acted like a mask for the bottom half of his face, but I didn’t look.
“Fifth what?” I finally asked. “I could really use the money, so I’ll do whatever you need.”
That might have been the wrong answer, or maybe it was right because the two men near me both moved as if they were so used to each other their actions were almost choreographed.
The guy in front of me, I guess Ronnie, was he the scariest of them at the moment, he was the one to reach for me, and pick me up, stopping just short of throwing me over his shoulder.
I screamed a little too loud as I tried to keep the already too short dress down over my ass.
“I already said I would do whatever. Put me down.”
Lucky for me we were just heading to the poker tables. I watched over my shoulder as one of the four grabbed a fifth chair and put it at their table.
“You did, but this was the quickest way to get to our first request. You are our fifth.”
He flopped me into the plushy chair, and I grabbed my dress.
“Stop manhandling me; this dress isn’t made for anything but looking cute.”
I squirmed as all four pairs of eyes looked at me, trailing up my body.
I crossed my arms, hands over opposite shoulders as I tried to hide my body. Because although I didn’t mind being ogled, this was on a whole other level.
“Excuse me, boys. You paid me to serve.”
One of the guys, one that hadn’t given me too much notice, was now pulling out the chair next to me.
“Serve is subjective. You defined that as drinks and food. Me?” I noticed his green eyes, knowing they would either be a wet dream or haunt me.
Were they all flirting with me?
There was a lot of asshole alpha male energy, but then there was a side of me that liked the attention. Because, for whatever reason, this didn’t feel the same as all those men my uncle introduced me to. Slowly, I removed my arms and crossed my legs.
“Alright, boys. Teach me how to play poker.”
One of them didn’t crack a smile. I studied him, the dark brown hair was just this side of too long. It hung over his ears, and if I could see his eyebrows behind the mask, they would be covered too. His blue eyes, though? I swore they could see me right down to my core. I shivered.
I wasn’t supposed to know who anyone here was, but I really wished I could see their faces.
I was so busy getting lost in those eyes that I missed someone grabbing the ribbon of my mask and pulling it until the mask fell into my lap.
“Hey. No, this is supposed to be anonymous.”
The chuckle behind me said what words didn’t. The rules no longer applied. A door closed and I assumed that was the bartender. There had been guards, where were they? Had the last person outside of these four left?
I was really alone. And the thrill of it?
I should have been terrified. Should have realized this was anything but okay or right. My uncle would be livid.
I couldn’t stop the small smile. He would be livid. All the more reason to stay.
Sure I should have been mad about the mask. I should have been afraid of four obviously dangerous and strong men. They towered over me and that was a red flag. But why did all these red flags feel like green to me?
Bash in a guy’s head? All I could think was, I wish I had that kind of strength. I wanted revenge, but alone that had seemed hard.
But, now? It was my turn. I could feel it. My turn to create some kind of chaos. A deep breath later, and I met their gazes, one by one.
“You’ve seen my face. Now I want to see yours.”
I started to stand up, but they shifted and whoever was behind me pulled me back into my seat. His chin resting on my shoulder in the next moment.
“Angel. If we show you ours, what will you give us? Your life?” I caught a glimpse of him as I side-eyed the quiet one with green eyes.
Why his chin on my bare shoulder seemed like a lot more than just an innocent little touch was beyond me. His scruffy chin tickled. I shivered, but not from cold.
I had shitty timing. Twenty-five years of shitty timing to be exact.
I had years of anger and regret. Years of pent-up resentment.
“Angel? Who are you to call me an angel? Are you my demon?” He reached around, moving his head away from my shoulder, his hand wrapping around my neck ever so softly.
“At one time or another we’re all demons. But for you, angel? Call me your devil.” I could feel the way that five o’clock shadow tickled every time he brushed my skin. But I still didn’t know his name. I didn’t know any of their names.
He moved, one by one they dropped the masks. I’d never thought anyone could truly be breathtaking in a sense of literally stealing the air around me. But they did that.
They weren’t just handsome or mysterious. They were dark, sinful, and I’d bet in another life they would have been the reason kingdoms fell, because right now? It felt like the false castle tower my uncle had so carefully built was crumbling and it was freeing.
“Alright, princess. Since we have you locked away in our kingdom and you’ve seen ours and we’ve seen yours, play with us,” said the guy with dirty blond hair. His eyes were so dark I wasn’t sure they weren’t black. Did he even have a soul?
Something about the way he said the words left me wondering if he meant something other than poker.
Instead of shying away or doing anything smart, I bellied up to the table. I wanted to live.
“Sure. What are we playing?”
None of them looked alike, but they all moved in unison, as if this was something they did often, and it was a bit unnerving. They all took seats at the table, leaving me to my own chair.
Space to breathe.
“Texas Hold’em, pretty girl?” said blue eyes.
I shrugged.
“Whatever you say, pretty boy. I don’t know how to play poker regardless of what you call it.”
That got me a grin that had my body heating. What I might give him if he kept smiling like that. They were all bad news, and everything I needed.
I sat in the chair, careful enough to keep my dress covering my essentials, but I couldn’t stop it from riding up as I crossed my legs and leaned my elbows onto the edge of the table, letting them have a good view of my breasts. This was what I was willing to offer and my uncle couldn’t stop me.
I didn’t mean to let a high pitch squeal out, but when brown eyes, the one who screamed he was in charge just by the way he held himself, grabbed my chair and pulled me closer to him, I did.
“We can teach you the game, little bird. But what will you offer us? You’ve yet to tell us your bet.”
I looked at each of them, then a pile of chips I knew went with some very real money in a safe at the back of the room. Who was I kidding? There was plenty of money just sitting on the bar to back all those chips, I was sure of that.
I shifted in my seat, facing a man I’d never see again, and found that little dark part of me that was so fucking tired of it all.
I traced the line of his jaw, loving the way everything about him tried to seem unaffected, except I felt the way the muscle in his jaw tightened.
“How much is my virginity worth?”