Chapter 14
Edward sat in the back of the limousine, strumming his fingers nervously along his calf. He was sure he was making the beat of a popular song, but as always, Harry narrowed his eyes at him.
"Edward, you have got to stop that. I'm an old man and you are making my blood pressure rise," he warned.
"Oops, sorry," Edward muttered, and began to hum internally instead.
Harry rolled his eyes and the divider went up.
Guess it wasn't so internal after all.
It was Thursday night and Edward had an appointment at the Four Seasons with a Ms. Bianca Manning. She was a young socialite from what he knew, so he was beyond thrilled she wasn't one of the older women who usually called in for dates. He just hoped she didn't have a toe fetish.
Ugh, he shivered. Edward tapped on the glass again to attract Harry's attention.
"You'll be back at ten, right?" Edward asked for reassurance. At one of the more recent engagements, Harry was more than delayed, and the elderly Ms. Betty decided upon herself that it would more prudent of their time to engage in other activities.
Like oral.
Edward had high-tailed it out of there, and hid in the lobby restroom until Harry showed up, blaming Emmett for his tardiness.
Harry chuckled. "Ten o'clock. Yeah, sure."
He didn't like the way Harry dismissed his comment, or the way he laughed.
"Oh, and your appointment is in room 2103," Harry told him quickly just as he pulled up in front of the luxurious building.
Frowning, Edward shook his head. "No, that's wrong. Rosalie said its 3114. See?" He pulled out a card with the handwritten date and time from the secretary.
"Fine," Harry said tartly. "By all means. Go to the other room and see what happens. When you get arrested for trying to grope some lady and her husband walks out of the restroom, then I'll be happy to say I told you so. 2103, Edward, 2103."
Edward planted the card back into his back pocket and waited for Harry to open his door. He did so and Edward gave a quick reminder before he entered the glass doors.
"Ten o'clock, remember?"
Harry just laughed again and ignored him completely. Grumbling to himself, he bypassed the bellhops with a nod and stuffed his hands tensely in his pockets. He didn't have the confidence like some of the others had, Jacob with his smoldering looks or Emmett with his ability to adapt to any situation. He was still the "newbie" as everyone liked to call him, and it always took some wine and deep breaths to calm him down.
Remember your family, Edward reasoned. This is for them.
Not that his father would appreciate any of it, but still. Deep inside, Edward wanted his father to be proud of him, just as he was Mason. He noticed the way the corners of his mouth turned up whenever one of his brother's accomplishments were named. Edward knew his day of nobility would come as well, and until then, he would be patient. Carlisle wouldn't even remember Mason's name when Edward presented them with a new life. All of this strife and heartache would be worth it.
In the meantime, Edward would have to pay his dues. He approached the door and knocked cautiously. He stood far away enough that if needed, he could make a quick get-away. Eric and Jasper had trained all of the employees what to do in case there were ever a police setup.
Step One: Run.
Step Two: Find hiding spot.
Step Three: Call Harry.
Good plan in theory, he supposed, until the dogs came after him, chewing him to bits from his knee caps down. He also noted how there was no step four for panicking.
Let's just say Edward had endured more than one nightmare about this exact event. None of them ended well.
"Come in," the sultry voice echoed out, and Edward had been too lost in his musings to notice the door was slightly opened.
He strolled in, not bothering to marvel at the now familiar hotel decorum. They all looked the same. He didn't see Bianca anywhere, figuring she was probably in the bathroom. He hesitated on sitting down. Each customer expected something different from him, and so he remained standing in front of the bed for the time being.
Edward lowered his gaze to the items lying on top of the exclusive hotel bedding. On top was a black silk scarf and a matching pair of boxers.
So, she was one of them, he thought with a touch of regret.
He examined the room, looking for such sexual toys such as whips and chains. It was just his luck to have the crazy customers. He had no intention of getting beaten to a pulp just for the sake of bondage acts. Planning a quick getaway in his head, he vowed to not sacrifice his body to the point of no return. No matter what this Bianca proposed, he always had the right to say no.
Edward shook his head and muttered to himself to suck it up and stop being a scared punk. This was not the time to start acting like a female teenager. He could do this.
Or at least that's what he told himself as he got dressed. He stripped off his clothes and put on the boxers, plopping down on the bed. Unsure of whether to lie down or not, he stayed in an upright position and tied the scarf around his eyes.
The air suddenly changed as sweet perfume penatrated his nostrils.
Edward braced himself as he heard the soft click of footsteps from the woman approaching him. It was awkward he could not see what she looked like, but in the end it did not matter. His sessions were all a blur anyhow. He had to shut off any emotional connection to who he was as a person, and the job he had to do.
She approached him cautiously, standing so closely that he could hear her heartbeat. Her soft hands lifted his own, and he silently obeyed as she rested them on her breasts. He squeezed them lightly, not wanting to acknowledge how soft and full they felt even in the constricted lingerie he felt with his fingertips.
"Lie down," she ordered in a whispered voice, and he slowly obeyed, scooting backwards on the bed and propping his head upon the pillow. He sensed her climbing overtop of him, trailing her thin fingers along his body, sending a tingling to his core. The tresses of her hair tickled him along his chest as she played with his heated skin, and Edward was so overwhelmed by her scent, he froze ridgidly.
"I can't."
Any vague hope he had of ever leaving the ghetto was broken in this one moment. Not even being able to see her, he could feel the anger radiating off of her before their sex even began. It was ridiculously frightening what halted his movements and how vulnerable he was in the hands of another woman. The problem was not her. Even without his eyesight, he knew she was most likely absolutely beautiful, the way her curves fit around his torso.
Edward's problem was not that Bianca wasn't attractive, or that she didn't have the sexual prowess of a lion in heat.
His problem was that she wasn't her.
Ever since that first night in the hotel room, and the second time in the office, Edward couldn't get Isabella off of his mind. His affection for her had grown even more since she had gone out of her way to purchase him a vehicle. And here he was, with another woman on top of him, and he couldn't even perform.
And Bianca's sweet perfume was like a noose hanging above his head, threatening him of Isabella's presence.
He didn't know how he was going to get out of this, and he was surely going to hear about this later, but as for now, he would follow his heart.
"I am terribly sorry, but I can't," he repeated, and in one swift motion, he tore the silk scarf off from his eyes and prepared to face the fury of his customer.
However, he was not ready for the image that flashed before him.
Edward drew in his breath sharply.
He pushed the woman off of his lap and scuttled toward the headrest like a scared child. How absurd he must have looked, but no one could blame him for his ludicrous behavior. It was not his fault the way his hands curled around the bedsheets, or how he was sure his eyesight was deciphering his environment wrong.
"Isabella?" he choked out.
He blinked again, and sure enough, there she was. Isabella's hands were on her hips, and she rolled her eyes dramatically.
"You just had to go and ruin this, didn't you?" she bade him harshly.
"Wha-what are you doing here?" he managed to stutter.
For an instant, sheer fury flashed her face, distorting her into a person unrecognizable. His throat closed on its own, unaware of the oxygen he needed to live.
"Enough games, Edward. Lie back down," she ordered. As if she needed to give no reasonable explanation for her actions.
As if she did not care.
"No..." he squeaked out. Not until she justified herself, or vindicated her behavior.
"Have you not noticed my regard for you? After all I have done for you?" she questioned in a low, sultry voice. "Is seems that you do, and yet, you refuse to return the favor."
Edward looked frantically around the room, as if someone would come to his rescue, and explain what the hell was going on. What was she talking about?
He had the urge to run, to catch his breath so that he could think, just think for a clear moment. Isabella's dark solemn gaze swept over his body and Edward had the sinking feeling he would not be leaving here a whole man. She was breaking him, bit by bit.
"Twenty grand Edward," she proposed, arching her eyebrow.
Surely she had lost her mind. That had to be it. To replace Bianca-who knew where that poor woman was anyways- and to boss him around as if he had no sense of his own.
"Thirty grand," she pressed again, and Edward started to lift his body off of the bed. He searched for the clothes he came in with, and thought fondly of the days when life was much simpler. He didn't have deranged supervisors trying to buy him out, or treat him like an object.
"Fifty grand."
Edward halted in his tracks and closed his eyes.
In his pause, he truly felt what some in society saw him as.
A whore.
He shouldn't have stopped. He shouldn't have comptemplated how much money that was, or what he could purchase. He shouldn't have seen dream homes in the suburbs or the grateful smile that flashed across his mother's face.
"Fifty grand. Everyday. One week. You'll be mine to use as I please. Mine to corrupt. Mine to consume. Until I've been fucked raw."
Edward prayed for deliverance, that someday, somehow, his sins would be forgiven. But right now, he was trapped, frozen in circumstances. He just hoped his deliverance wouldn't come in the form of a manipulative boss named De Luca.
"Lie down."
And this time, the command came from him.