The Bedroom Barter Read Free

barely recall what he looked like, or the sound of his voice. One day she might forget his touch, she thought with a shiver, or even the painful delusion that she'd been in love with him.
    In a way, she acknowledged, everything that had occurred between them seemed remote—as if it had happened to two other people in some separate lifetime.
    Only it hadn't, of course. And that was why she found herself here, duped, robbed and dumped, in this appalling mess.
    It might be humiliating to retrace the steps that had brought her here, but it was also salutary.
    After all, she'd needed to escape from her life in England and the future that was being so inexorably planned for her. In spite of everything, she still believed that It was just unfortunate that, through Ramon, all she'd done was jump out of the frying pan into a fire like the flames of hell.
    But somehow she was going to wrench her life back into her own control.
    I'll survive, she told herself with renewed determination.
    As she hung the black dress back on the rail the flimsy curtain over the dressing room entrance was pushed aside and Lina, one of the lap dancers, came in.
    'Mama Rita wants to see you, girl, in her office—now.'
    Chellie's brows snapped together. It was the first time she'd been summoned like this. Usually a girl was called up because of some misdemeanour, she thought, tensing in spite of herself. She'd seen several of the girls with scratched faces and bruised and bleeding mouths after an encounter with Mama Rita's plump ring-laden hands.
    Aware that the dancers operated a grapevine second to none, she strove to keep her voice level. 'Do you know why?'
    Lina's eyes glinted with malice. 'Maybe you're going to start working for your living, honey, like the rest of us.'
    Chellie faced her, lifting her chin. 'I do work—as a singer.'
    'Yeah?' Lina's tone was derisive. 'Well, all that may be about to change. The word is that some guy wants to know you better.'
    Chellie felt the colour drain from her face. 'No,' she said hoarsely. 'That's not possible.'
    'Take it up with Mama Rita.' Lina shrugged indifferently. 'And don't keep her waiting.'
    The office was one floor up, via a rickety iron staircase. Cheilie approached it slowly, the beat of her heart like a trip-hammer. Surely—
surely
this couldn't be happening, she thought Surely Lina was just being malicious. Because Mama Rita had told her at the beginning that there were plenty of willing girls at the club, and that she would never be pressured into anything she did not want.
    And Cheilie had believed that. In fact, she'd counted on it.
    There was a clatter of feet on the stairs and Manuel came into view.
    Cheilie stepped back to allow him to pass, trying not to shrink too visibly. From the moment she'd started working at the club she'd found him a problem. If she hadn't already been repelled by his coarse good looks, then his constant attempts to get her into corners and fondle her would have aroused her disgust.
    The first night in her cramped and musty room, some instinct had prompted her to wedge a chair under the handle of her door. And some time in the small hours she'd woken from an uneasy sleep to hear a stealthy noise outside, and the sound of the handle being tried in vain. She'd observed the same precaution ever since.
    There was no point in complaining to Mama Rita either, because the other girls reckoned Manuel was her nephew— some even said, her son.
    Now, he favoured her with his usual leer. '
Hola
, honey girl.'
    'Good evening.' Chellie kept her tone curt, and his unpleasant grin widened.
    'Oh, you're so high—so proud,
chica
. Too good for poor Manuel. Maybe tomorrow you sing a different tune.' He licked his lips. 'And you'll sing it for me.'
    She controlled her shiver of revulsion. 'Don't hold your breath.'
    The office door was open and Mama Rita was sitting at her desk, using her laptop. She greeted Chellie with a genial smile. 'You were a big hit tonight,
hija
. One of the