The Blue Room Vol. 2: The Blue Room Series Read Free Page B

she
gives up and lets me in.
                “Miss
Atussi?” Mrs. Walters looks up coolly when I arrive. “What a surprise!” Her
voice is faint. “What can I do for you, Miss Atussi?”
                “I
want Mr. X.,” I say. I keep my voice calm, businesslike.
                Mrs.
Walters looks bemused. “So does every girl here,” she says. “I'm afraid Mr. X.
is grieving, and is indisposed to visit us all at the moment.”
                “I've
got something they haven't got,” I say. It's my trump card, and it makes me
sick to use it, but right now I haven't got a choice.
                “What's
that, dear?”
                “I'm
a virgin.”
                Technically,
anyway, but men like Mr. X. are probably big on technicality. Men like that
just want the idea of a woman, all innocent and sweet, to deflower.
                If
he thinks I'm innocent and sweet, boy, he's got another thing coming.
                Mrs.
Walters looks amused. “A few days ago you were fretting about losing your
virtue – now you're barging into my office demanding to sell your virginity to
a man you've never met.” Her eyebrows arch. “My, how you've grown.”
                “Not
sell.” I keep my eyes steely upon her. I have a plan, and I'm going to put in
into action.
                “No?”
                “Give.”
                She
looks at me in surprise. “In market terms – your virginity can probably net you
at least twenty thousand dollars more than a single... evening .”
                “I
know.”
                “There
are other patrons,” she says, “patrons richer still than Mr. X., who can offer
you even more than that. Granted, their tastes are a bit more...extreme...”
                “I
don't care,” I say. This has to work – this has to – or all I've been
through now will be in vain. “Call him up. Tell him you're sending him a
virgin, on the house, to help make up for the damage of what he's been
through.”
                If
he really loved Roz and Rita the way he said he did – not all the virgins in
the world would be enough to tempt him.
                “That's
unprecedented, Miss Atussi. May I ask why the insistence?”
                “It's
an investment,” I say. “I hear a girl can go a long way with Mr. X. If I'm
going to get into this business, I'm going to do it right. After all, I didn't
say I wouldn't charge in the future...”
                Now
Mrs. Walters smiles.
                “You are a businesswoman,” she says. “If you don't mind stepping outside –
I'll telephone him and relay your...offer.”
                The
waiting is excruciating. I tap my toes so often the secretary looks like she's
about to throw her desktop monitor at me. But at last Mrs. Walters opens the
door and greets me with an inscrutable smile.
                “It
looks like your proposal has made an impression on our Mr. X.,” she says. “He
has agreed to see you next Saturday night, the 19 th . Eight o'clock.”
She arches her brow. “Mr. Blue will be away next weekend on business.”
                Immediately
I want to fall through the floor in shame. But I don't let her see.
                “Perfect,”
I say, as cool and collected as she is. “I'll put it in my calendar.”

 
    Chapter 3
     
     
                S o much is rushing through my mind. I can't
even focus. I know that I've just set myself up for one of the biggest – no, the biggest – challenges of my life. What will happen next? I have no idea. All
I know is – the last two women who slept with Mr. X. ended up dead or
disappeared. And now I've just given up everything I have, including the shot
at a pretty bundle of cash, for a chance at being #3. What are you thinking,
Staci?