Total pages in book: 66
Estimated words: 63445 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 317(@200wpm)___ 254(@250wpm)___ 211(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 63445 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 317(@200wpm)___ 254(@250wpm)___ 211(@300wpm)
At Midnight, she clocked out and ran the palms of her hands nervously over her jeans. Adam was waiting for her when she came through the swinging door. He led her to a Harley and her stomach dipped again. She swung her leg on, wrapped her arms around his waist, and breathed deep. It had been a very long time since she’d caught that scent- male and musk. Adam started the engine and they roared off.
He parked two doors down from her room and let her off. She tried not to fumble the key as she stood at her own door. She opened it and flipped the light on. For the first time since arriving in Rapid City, she was actually happy she didn’t have many clothes with her. Otherwise they’d be strewn all over the room, and she did not need Adam to see her underwear tossed haphazardly.
She did, however, have sketches on almost every available surface. Some were fully finished, hand drawn and colored in with pencil. Others were begun but quickly abandoned, barely more than dark smudges on crisp, white paper. Adam picked up one of each and studied them.
“Everybody has that one thing,” Daisy said, a little nervously.
Adam grunted and nodded. He set down the pages and crossed to the bed. Daisy held her breath, but he picked up her sketchbook, and began to flip through it. He paused on something she’d finished a few weeks ago and held it up. It was Daisy, herself, but drawn in 50’s pinup style. A short, polka dot dress flying up showing more of her panties than she’d ever have the guts to show in real life. Her lips were exaggerated, red and puckered for a kiss.
“This is good,” he told her.
She could only nod due to embarrassment. She didn’t really think of herself that way, as some kind of sex kitten, but it had been fun to draw.
“Very revealing,” he teased. He tossed the sketchbook onto the bed and pinned her with a long gaze. “So, now I’m at the tough part,” he told her.
Her hopes fizzled out. He didn’t think she was good enough. In her heart she knew she was though, and if Adam couldn’t see it then-
“...fuck you,” Adam said, catching her off guard.
Daisy looked up at him, startled. “What?”
“I want to fuck you, Daisy. I think that’s pretty obvious.”
Daisy stood frozen in front of him.
“I didn’t think you’d be this good,” he said, indicating the sketchbook. “You could’ve been lying. Lots of people do. If you’d been blowing smoke up my ass, well, then we’d still be here, and I’d stick my dick up your ass, among some other places, and it wouldn’t be a total loss.”
Daisy gaped at him as he spoke.
“But you’re good. Very good. And that’s a problem.”
“H-how?” she squeaked, still reeling from the ass part.
“I’ve worked hard to start my business. I had to hustle sharks for loans, built the space with my bare hands. I put everything I had into it, and I don’t shit where I eat. Crude, I know,” he said at her grimace, “but it’s true. I can get pussy. Pussy’s mine for the taking,” he told her. “But good artists are harder to come by. As much as I’d like to taste you, Daisy, and keep tasting you ‘til we’re both tired of each other, you’re worth more as an artist. If I take your work and show it around the same time you’re showing me that sweet ass of yours, sooner or later it’s not gonna work out between us. Then I’ve lost a woman and an artist. I’ll take you either way,” he said, and the deep baritone to his voice was almost hypnotic. It had Daisy imagining all the ways in which he could take her.
“It’s up to you,” said Adam. “You choose. If I take you to bed, I can’t go into business with you. That’s my rule. I’m not promising shit, in the bed or out of it. If we twist up your sheets a few times, and I’ve had my fill, I’m gone. If I show your work, and no one’s interested, there’s nothing I can do.”
Daisy swallowed hard and tried to get her heart to stop pounding away in her chest.
“What’s it gonna be, honey?”
Chapter 15
Easy strode up to the dirty, orange door with the peeling paint and raised his fist. He pounded on it so loudly he even surprised himself. He steeled his nerves as the doorknob turned. He was God damn irritated, and there was a distinct possibility that everyone in this dump would hear about it soon.
The door opened just a few inches, and Daisy filled the empty space. Her face probably mirrored his, a mix of shock and annoyance. “What the hell are you doing here?” she asked.