"You can think what you like, but I can assure you my qualifications are all above board." She bit out.
"Nevertheless you have used them to your advantage, have you not?" He observed. "You handle daily some of the most priceless artifacts in the world. Tell me, Rebekah, have you been tempted to steal something from the museum and sell it on the black market yet?"
She threw him a caustic glare. "I am not even going to dignify that question with an answer."
"Why did you not tell me your father served a considerable time in prison for armed robbery?" He asked after a small but carefully timed pause.
Rebekah could feel shame weighing her shoulders down but forced herself to hold his obsidian gaze. "My father died behind bars several years ago. I don't even think of him now."
If he was in any way taken aback by the cold unemotional delivery of her statement he showed no sign of it. His eyes bored into hers for another beat or two before he continued in a tone that contained an unmistakable threat.
"It would be rather unfortunate if I were to be forced to reveal to your employers your little indiscretion of four years ago. They might not like the thought of harboring a thief in their midst."
Rebekah knew he would do it. She could see the ruthlessness in his gaze as it challenged hers. "You are all I most despise in a man. " She said through tight lips. "I cannot think of a man I hate more."
"Then it will make our relationship all the more exciting, don't you think?"
"It will make it disgusting and unbearable." She shot back.
"I will make sure you are adequately compensated." He said as he reached for his check book in the inner pocket of his coat. "You will need an array of glamorous clothes, for which I do not expect you to pay for yourself."
She watched in sinking despair as he slashed his distinctive signature at the bottom and handed it her. "It's blank." She said glancing down at it without taking it from him.
"That is because you can name your price, Becca." He said. "I am willing to pay you whatever you want. You, of all people, know I can afford it."
Rebekah felt like asking for a totally outrageous sum but her pride wouldn't allow it. He had wrapped his proposition in the euphemistic term of mistress but she knew exactly what he was expecting in return.
A vision slipped into her mind of her sister taking money off strangers to feed her habit. Night after night Jennie rented her body and yet here was a chance for Rebekah to put an end to that forever. She skittered away from the thought of being Ted's lover again but the images came creeping back into her brain: his long legs entwined with hers, his body pumping its frantic passionate response into the tender sheath of hers.
Her stomach gave a funny little somersault at the thought of feeling that level of sensuality again. No. She would not, could not, do that again.
"Since you are having such difficulty deciding on the amount, I will leave you to fill it in yourself." Before she could stop him, he took her bag from her shaking fingers and opened the clasp.
Rebekah's breath screeched to an halt in her chest, her face feeling as it if a bonfire had been lit in each cheek as he took out his wallet, his long tanned fingers seeming to her as if they were moving in slow motion.
"I—I was going to give it back to you…." She said as his accusing eyes locked on to hers.
The white tips of anger about his mouth distorted his arrestingly handsome features into harsh lines of revenge. "You lying, thieving little bitch." He ground out. "You are working as a team with your sister. I should have guessed."
"No! That's not true!" She said. "I'll g-get your money back for you…"
His brows snapped together in time with the closing of his wallet. "Indeed you will." He said. "But in the meantime you can pay me back in kind."
Rebekah swallowed convulsively. "I can't do this, Ted." She said brokenly. "Please don't ask me to."
"I'm not asking you, Rebekah—I'm telling you. If you do not agree to be my mistress, then your sister will face the authorities as she so clearly deserves."
She felt her shoulders drop in defeat. It seemed there was going to be no way out of this.
"How much do you want?" He asked again, each hard-bitten word driving a stake through her heart.
She stared at the floor and mumbled what she thought would be enough to cover the cost of Jennie's rehabilitation—her face fiery red with shame at what she was committing herself to in agreeing to be his short-term mistress. It was a pathway to heartbreak all over again, but what other choice did she have? She could hardly tell him the truth about her motives. Jennie's issues aside, if he found out he had a child he would stop at nothing to take Emily away from her.
He wrote the figure on the check and handed it back to her. "I can see how you have perfected the art of camouflaging your real motives. You give every appearance of being uncomfortable accepting money from me, but I know that is all a clever little ruse of yours to get me to lower my guard."
"I feel uncomfortable accepting a glance from you, let alone anything else." She said in arctic tones. "The thought of sharing my body with you sickens me to my stomach."
His gaze visibly hardened his jaw tensing as he fought for control. "It did not seem to sicken you a short time ago in the limousine. We both know I could have taken you then and there."
She knew it was foolish but she couldn't resist retorting. "It would have been by force."
He gave a mocking laugh. "You think so?"
"I hate you Ted DiBiase. I hate you with every breath and bone in my body."
"I am sure you do, but perhaps I should make clear at this point that your hatred and loathing is to be kept strictly private. In public we will be like any other couple who have nothing but the highest regard for each other."
"And if I don't comply?"
"I am surprised you have the gall to even ask me that."
She lowered her gaze in case he saw the desperation she was feeling. "How do you wish to conduct our relationship?"
"I would like to see you on a regular basis."
Rebekah felt her insides twist in anguish. Her little daughter Emily hated it when she went out more than once or twice a week. It was hard enough juggling a day job without trying to burn the candles at both ends. And this particular candle was going to be a very dangerous one…
Ted looked down at her wide frightened blue eyes and frowned as his conscience gave him a sharp little nudge. Had he pushed her too far? He hadn't thought so but how could he tell? She was a master at deception and he wasn't going to allow himself to forget it for a minute. She had fooled him before with her declarations of undying love but she had betrayed him in the end. She had ruthlessly used her relationship with him to get to his family's wealth and that he would never forgive. Tonight was yet another example of her artifice. It could hardly have been a coincidence that her sister stole his wallet. Rebekah had known for months that he would be there that evening. What better payback for the way he had uncovered her thieving in the past than to do the very same again, albeit vicariously?
"I will expect you to be available to me each evening." He said into the stiff silence. "There will be late nights on occasion."
She looked up at him, tears sparkling like tiny diamonds in her blue eyes. "I can't stay overnight…"
His hand tipped up her chin. "Is there someone else?"
What could she say? Yes, your little daughter who will expect me to tuck her in each night. It would be asking for instant heartbreak. She'd have to find some way of fulfilling his expectations of her without compromising Emily's well-being. It wasn't as if she could rely on her sister, but her friend Christina Mizanin was another option she could explore. They often traded babysitting time when either of them had something important on in the evening.
"No…no, there's no one else…." She had to think on her feet and added, "I'm doing an online course on archaeology. I have to study most nights. I have assignments to complete…it's a big workload…" She held her breath to see if he believed her, his eyes ranking her face as if searching for the color of her lie.
He released her chin after an eternity and stepped back from her and held open the door. "I will see you tomorrow evening." He said his voice detached and cold. "Seven-thirty in the bar downstairs. I will make sure the concierge issues you with a swipe card to my room if I am not there to meet you on time."
Rebekah walked past him on shaky legs. She turned around but he had already closed the door, the sudden movement of air feeling like a slap on her tear-streaked face.
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