Strictly Business

It was almost impossible to move when she woke up the next day. Her entire body ached as she slid carefully out of her bed and went over to her chest of drawers to retrieve a clean towel before heading to the bathroom for a shower. Angel was sitting on the counter between the sinks, chattering away at someone who was occupying one of the showers. Scarlett slipped past her silently and hung her towel on the hook before stepping into an empty shower stall and pulling the curtain closed to undress.

Angel never shut up. She could jabber on and on about a fucking blade of grass as much as some dramatic event. The person in the next shower stall finally groaned and shut the water off but Angel just kept talking. And when the other girl left the bathroom, Angel followed her. Once Scarlett had finished her shower, she dried off and wrapped the gray towel around her body before scurrying back down the cold hallway to her room.

"Jesus, what the hell is all that?"

Scarlett jumped about a foot, gasping as her hand flew to her pounding heart. "You scared the shit out of me!" she hissed. "I forgot you were there." Celeste just laughed, sliding up in the bed and stretching her stiff limbs.

She'd been right about the new living arrangements. With two more girls than bedrooms, someone was going to have to double up. Scarlett volunteered to share her room with Celeste, and after a long, awkward silence, Tiffany finally gave in and offered to share hers with Linda. It was slightly inconvenient to have two women sharing the same small room, all their belongings packed tightly into closets, dressers, and under the bed, but she was glad to have her friend there.

"Seriously, what the fuck is all that?"

Scarlett sighed as she turned her back to Celeste and faced the mirror, dropping her towel to examine the full extent of the damage. Her customer from the night before liked it rough-- definitely a sadist, and probably also a little bit of a masochist. He had a heavy hand and a strong grip, which were proved by the dark bruises on her neck, hips, and wrists. Every place his hands had been was littered with deep purple spots left by his fingertips digging into her soft flesh. And then there was the angry red mark on the top curve of her breast, a perfect indentation of the teeth that had bit down hard on her skin.

"Rough customer," she muttered before shaking her head and moving over to her closet, quickly finding a baggy sweater and comfy pair of sweatpants and slipping into them. She pulled her damp hair up into a ponytail and flopped down on the empty side of the bed with a heavy sigh. "I know it's your first full day in Sterling, but could we maybe postpone showing you around til tomorrow?"

"Of course, babe. You don't need to go in public anyway with all those marks," she joked. "We can stay in, have a girls' day with some chick flicks or something."

Scarlett hated chick flicks, but she was grateful for the offer so she agreed. They went downstairs for a quick lunch before returning to her bedroom to watch a movie. A few of the other girls joined as well, all piling into Scarlett's queen sized bed, as they chatted amongst themselves and painted each other's nails.

She shooed them out around three so that she could do her normal getting ready routine and she left her long hair down so that it almost completely covered the bruises on her neck. Instead of wearing something low cut and sleeveless or strapless like she usually did, she opted to wear a loose black blouse paired with a gray skirt. She had never been dressed more conservatively for work.

Scarlett spent most of the night sitting behind the counter talking to Linda and Celeste. Felix had returned to the house just a few minutes before the first customer came in. It was Friday night, so there was a steady stream of customers coming in and going out, mostly men but one or two women too. An older gentleman who was a first time customer came in and requested a redhead so Scarlett called for Kimberly as the man handed her some money.

While Kimberly laced her arm through her new customer's and led him downstairs, Scarlett counted the stack of bills he'd given her. The front door opened again just as she bent down to put the money in the safe box under the counter and when she finally stood up straight again, her favorite customer was standing at the counter in front of her. She smiled warmly at him and he returned it as he laid out a stack of money on the counter between them.

"Welcome back, sir." His eyes were swimming with amusement at the word she'd just used to address him because they certainly didn't have that kind of formal relationship, but she was required to do it for all customers. "Would you like to have a look around at our selection?"

She only asked because she had to; she knew that he always said no, but honestly, this time she was hoping he would take her up on the offer and go find another girl just this once. She wasn't in any kind of shape to entertain a customer. A small part of her, however, didn't want him to, because if he decided he liked one of the other girls better, then she'd lose him. "No, thanks," he replied simply.

Scarlett bit down on her bottom lip as she glanced over into the great room where all the girls were, making sure that no one was near them. "Um, I'm not really in the best condition tonight," she told him softly, making sure to keep her voice down.

He look at her confused. "What do you mean?"

"Maybe you should, uh, have a look," she suggested again, motioning toward the room filled with other girls that he could choose from. "Find a girl you like."

"I have one I like, Scarlett. I don't need to look." He raised his eyebrows as if challenging her to suggest it again but she just shook her head, sliding the money off the counter and quickly counting it before putting it into the box. She called Tiffany into the room to stay by the counter while she was busy and then she led him down the stairs and into room 6.

He walked inside first, spinning around to look at her as she shut the door behind her and leaned her back against it. "What the hell was that? And what do you mean you're not in the 'best condition'?"

She sighed heavily and undid the buttons on her sleeves at her wrists before moving on to the ones that went down the front of her shirt. She shrugged the silky fabric off of her shoulders and pushed her hair back behind her so that he could have a proper view of all the marks on her body. His mouth dropped open as he took a few steps, closing the space between them. He took her wrists in his large hands and examined them, careful to avoid touching the bruises. "Jesus, what happened to you?" he asked, gently grabbing her chin and tilting her head up in order to see the bruises on her neck.

"I had a customer who likes it rough," she muttered.

His eyes fell to her chest and his face contorted into even further shock. He hooked his finger into the top of the cup of her black bra, pulling it down just enough to see the painful-looking indentation in stark contrast to her porcelain skin that had been partially hidden by the lace fabric. "Is that a fucking bite mark?"

She nodded, watching him closely as he sighed and sat down on the edge of the bed, shedding the leather he was wearing and folding it before tossing it easily onto the bedside table. He leaned forward, placing his elbows on his thighs as she gingerly took a seat next to him. "You, uh, feel okay? Are you hurtin'?"

Scarlett smiled slightly at his concern and shook her head. "I was a little sore this morning, but I'm fine now." He nodded slowly and absentmindedly ran his palm over the strip of dark hair on his head. "I'm gonna reimburse you for this, I promise."

"No, you're not."

Her brows furrowed as she looked at him for a long moment. "Oh," she finally said. "Okay." If he didn't want his money back, then that must have meant that he still wanted what he'd paid her for. She stood up in front of him and reached behind her back to unhook her bra, but he grabbed her arm before she could get it undone.

"No, Scarlett."

Now she was really confused. He let go of her arm and shook his head while she just stared at him, unsure of what exactly he was doing. "What is it?"

"I'm not gonna have sex with you," he told her before giving her the once-over again, taking in all the bruises and, apparently, teeth marks. "You're....half purple."

She waited for the look of disgust to appear on his face but it never did. Finally, she sighed, raking a hand through her dark hair. "But you said you didn't want me to reimburse you," she reminded him, a slight questioning tone to her voice.

"I don't want the money back."

"Then what do you want?" she asked, exasperated.

"I want you to take the fuckin' night off. Give your body some goddamn time to heal from what that prick did to you."

She blinked in surprise and sank back down onto the bed next to him, running her hand up his arm to his deliciously muscular shoulder, leaning in closer to him. "Sweetheart, you didn't pay me to take the night off. Besides, we're already down here. What else are we supposed to do?"

"We could just talk," he offered.

This was definitely a first for her. He had paid for an hour of her time and he was going to use it to talk? She quirked an eyebrow at him and shook her head. "What would we talk about?"

"Anything. Ourselves?" She started to protest but he chuckled, cupping his hand over her mouth before she could get a word out. "I know you're fuckin' rules but, really, you've already broken the personal conversation one. At this point, you'd only be breakin' it more."

Well, he had a solid point. She shrugged lightly and he dropped his hand from her face, leaning down to pull off his boots before sliding up to the top of the bed. She turned her head to look at him over her shoulder and he patted the empty space next to him. She rolled her eyes but kicked off her heels and crawled up the bed, laying down next to him.

"I can't believe you're using this hour to talk to me."

"Hey, you're not supposed to judge," he reminded her, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. "You're picking on me! Would you get away with that with any of those other guys?"

"Definitely not," she laughed.

"So what you're saying is, I'm special."

She smiled, letting her head fall to the side so that she could look at him. "Yeah, I guess you are."

The conversation started out light. She found out that he lived in the neighboring town of Charming and she in turn told him that she had come from Las Vegas. But even when it started to head into the direction of personal pasts, she didn't stop it and change the subject. "So you're from Vegas?"

"Oh, um, actually I'm originally from New York."

"Me too! Which part?"

"Queens."

His eyes widened and he propped up on his elbow to look down at her. "Me too!"

"Really?" she asked sarcastically. "I couldn't tell by that accent of yours."

"Well, where's yours then? 'Cause you certainly don't got one."

"I left New York when I was sixteen. I guess I've just sort of lost it over the years. Plus, when I entered this profession in Las Vegas, my boss kind of made it mandatory for me to get rid of it. She said I sounded like a mafioso."

He laughed. "So where in Queens did you live?"

"A shitty little apartment on a graffiti covered street in Woodside. You?"

"Flushing actually. Not too far away from you."

She shook her head, running her fingers through her long hair. "Small world."

"Why'd you leave?"

Scarlett lifted her head to glance at the clock and sighed when she saw that it was already almost 1am. On one hand, she was glad that his time was almost up because that would put an end to that particular line of conversation, but on the other hand, she didn't want him to go. "You don't have enough time left for me to be delving into that tragic story."

He could tell that she was uncomfortable with the topic so he didn't push it. Instead, he exhaled loudly, folding his arms behind his head. "Well, we still have eighteen minutes. What do you want to talk about now?"

"Actually," she started, sitting up from the bed to lean back on her hand as she looked down at him. "I wanted to thank you."

"For what?"

"Being a gentleman. You didn't have to do that. I honestly don't think any other customer I've ever had would have done that."

"Well, I'm special, remember?" he joked lightly.

"Yes, you are," she chuckled. "And I think since you're not gonna fuck me, you should at least let me give you something to show my appreciation." She reached for his belt, swiftly unbuckling it while his eyes widened in surprise and he cleared his throat as he sat up.

"Y-you don't have to do that, Scarlett."

She leaned forward and placed a kiss on his cheek, smirking slightly at the stain of red lipstick she left there, as she pushed him back down onto his back and rolled over onto her knees to work on his jeans. She climbed on top of him, straddling his knees as she quickly undid the button and unzipped the zipper before pulling them down his hips just enough to gain access to what she was after.

His eyes immediately fluttered shut when she took him in her hand and slowly started to move it up and down. He let out a soft grunt when she lowered her mouth down onto him and his hand went to the back of her head, knotting his fingers in her long hair. The fact that she'd forgotten a condom didn't even cross her mind until he came in her mouth; it was an absolute rule that the girls always use condoms no matter what, but then again, kissing was against the rules too and she'd kissed him many many times. She'd never done that with any of her other customers; he really was special.

Scarlett sat up, wiping her lips with the back of her hand as she looked down to see him watching her, his eyes heavily lidded and his muscular chest rising and falling with slightly labored breathing. She smirked as she returned to her previous position, flopping down beside him on the bed. "I just broke another rule for you, asshole."

"How is that my fault?" he asked, chuckling as he pulled his jeans back up his hips and zipped them up before quickly buckling his belt. "I was just receiving my thank you gift. And by the way, you are so fucking welcome."

She laughed, patting his chest as she sat up again, running her fingers through her hair, which was now messy thanks to him. "Time's up, babe. Back to the real world." He slid down to the end of the bed to pull his boots back on while she slipped her feet back into her heels and got up to retrieve her blouse that was lying on the floor by the door. Once she was fully dressed, she did her best to smooth down her hair before turning back to him and holding her hand out.

He grabbed her hand and stood up from the bed, grabbing his cut and tucking it under his arm as he followed her to the door. Just as she opened it, he spun her around to face him and backed her up against the wall, leaning down to kiss her. She finally pulled herself away from him, feeling breathless and a little dizzy, and he smiled. "See you next time."

And then he slipped right past her and out the open door.