“No thanks. I'm not that desperate yet,” she said, hoping to piss him off.
He simply shrugged it off like it didn't matter when they both knew that it mattered a great deal to him. The man was a whore and she doubted he'd survive another week without sex. Actually, she fully expected him to come begging on his hands and knees in another day or two. She'd of course refuse, but she really was looking forward to torturing him before she turned him down flat.
“Okay, then how about this,” he mused, crossing his arms over his chest as he studied her, “you come work for me and I'll set you up with a place to stay and I'll even help you get some new ID's, but you have to stay until I can find someone to replace you.”
“Doing what?” she asked cautiously. She didn't trust him, never had. He was up to something, she just didn't know what that was yet, but she fully planned on finding out.
“I need a waitress. I'm short staffed and I don't know how long it will be before I can get some shifters interested in the job,” he admitted with a shrug.
Her eyes darted back to Mick to find him nodding in agreement. So, he was having staff issues. That was interesting, but that didn't explain why he’d screwed her over. She also knew that he couldn't just hire humans to work for him. It was too risky and as a Pack Alpha he wouldn't take a chance exposing their world to the humans. Then again, he could hire demons to staff his club, but that brought a whole new world of other issues that no one in their right mind would want to deal with. There might be a few female vampires interested, but Masters paid them more and they would be shunned if they worked for a shifter.
She thought about it for a minute before she stubbornly shook her head. It didn't matter that she was desperate. She couldn’t trust him. For all she knew this was part of his plan. He'd get her to work for him and then what? Would he wipe everything away again and make her life a living hell until she took him up on his penthouse offer?
Probably that and more.
“Thanks, but I'm going to have to pass,” she said, wondering if anyone had a claim on that old refrigerator box near the dumpster. It probably wouldn't be a pleasant experience, but at least she'd stay dry and out of the wind for the night.
“I guess you're all set then,” Drew said, pushing away from the wall. With a nod, he gestured for Mick to return to work. With a grunt, Mick let her know that she could always come to him if she needed help as he returned to the club, leaving her with the man that had destroyed her life.
“If you change your mind, I'm offering you a room, board and a job, but I guess sleeping with rats suites you just fine. Let me know if you change your mind,” he said, walking away as a he whistled an annoyingly jaunty tune.
She looked around the alley and worried her bottom lip. She didn't want to stay here another minute never mind spend the night here. Was she really thinking about doing this?
Yes, but she knew that she couldn't do it, couldn't trust him not to screw her over again. She was just going to have to stay here tonight and figure out a way to salvage this mess and get the hell out of Boston on her own, she decided seconds before the skies opened up and poured down on her.
*-*-*-*
“That package you've been expecting is waiting for you in your office, Mr. McNeil,” Troy, one of his best bartenders, said as Drew walked past the bar to check on the front line, but as soon as the bartender’s words registered in his head, he turned around and headed towards his office, trying to wipe the triumphant grin off his face.
When he opened the door to his office he lost that war and grinned hugely as he took in his unwanted soaked little mate. That glare she was sending his way lost its effect as she stood there, shivering uncontrollably.
“What can I do for you, Kara?” he asked offhandedly as he walked around his desk and sat down. He leaned back in his chair as he watched her struggle with the need to tell him off and ask for help.
“Is that job still available?” she bit out tightly through clattering teeth.
He made a show of thinking it over. “It might be. Why? Do you know someone interested in the job?”
Her eyes narrowed dangerously on him and he had to wonder if it was wrong to get so much joy out of making her life hell when she was already down. Probably, but he didn't care. He was enjoying himself and as far as he was concerned she had it coming.
After all the years of bullshit, taunting him, teasing him and working him to the point where he didn't know if he wanted to fuck her or strangle her, she had this coming. Even if this didn't lead her to being his mistress it should at least teach her a lesson in humility.
“Cut the crap, Drew. How much, how many hours, when do I start and where's this room you promised me?” she demanded in her typical no bullshit fashion.
“Well, I normally pay ten dollars an hour, but seeing how you need room and board I can only offer you half of that.”
“What? That's bullshit!” she snapped.
“You get to keep your tips of course,” he explained, which seemed to please her if that calculating gleam in her eye meant anything. Then again, maybe he should tell her that he was going to assign her to serve humans and the vampires who were notoriously bad tippers. Nah, he'd let her discover that one on her own.
“You'll pay me under the table,” she informed him, not asked, he noted.
“Of course.” It might not be legal, but he had to do that for several of the shifters that worked for him since none of them wanted their old Packs to find them.
“I'll need an advance,” she said, trying to sound firm, but failed.
“Not going to happen,” he said, wondering if she really thought he was that stupid. She'd take his money and run and they both knew it.
She scoffed as she gestured to her ruined clothes. “I need to buy clothes. I can't go around naked.”
“You could if you took me up on my penthouse offer,” he said, making a mental note to enforce naked Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays when she finally took him up on his offer.
With a small shake of her head, she headed for the door. “Forget it. This was a stupid idea anyway.”
“Oh, so you have a place to stay once you come into heat? Which if what I've been told is true, could be tomorrow or a month from now? You know what you'll face if you don't have somewhere safe to hide when it hits,” he said, knowing damn well that he'd have her ass in the penthouse before her first mating heat hit.
There was no way that he was allowing any other man to have access to what was his and he sure as hell wasn't going to miss the first mating heat, not after everything he'd heard. He was also going to make damn sure that he was only male around when it came time and he was going to make her beg him for his cock before he gave it to her.
He almost laughed when he felt his dick stir to life in his pants. It should make him happy to know that the damn thing worked, but it didn't. Instead it reminded him of this seriously fucked up situation that he was in. If she hadn't been leading those fucking humans on last night they wouldn't even be in this mess. Hell, they probably never would have realized that they were meant to mate. He could have continued to fuck anything that moved and enjoyed his life if she hadn't screwed everything up.
Since he’d hit his sexual maturity he’d made damn sure to stay away from all unmated females. He never wanted to be tied down to one woman and he made damn sure that he always kept a healthy distance between him and Kara. If she had been part of his Pack he could have forced her to do a blood oath so that he could touch her and punish her when she needed it and he knew damn well that she would have needed it often.
Their mating would have remained hidden until they had sex and he knew that never would have happened. They hated each other, always had. Although he wouldn't have minded taking a go between her legs, he knew the damn woman would stubbornly deny her attraction to him with her dying breath.
“Where's this room?” she asked as she ran her hands over her face, probably wishing this day would end. No doubt she wanted to take
a shower, crawl into bed and sleep the rest of the day away. That was really too bad, because her day had barely begun. She still had nine hours of busting her ass for five bucks an hour ahead of her to look forward to.
“You're taking the job?” he asked casually, trying not to let her know how much this pleased him. He gave her a week before she got sick of the bullshit he was going to dish out before she came crawling to him on her hands and knees, begging him for a chance to be his mistress.
As a gentleman, he of course would ease her suffering and set her up in his penthouse, but only after she proved that she could beg prettily.
“Just so you know,” she said, opening the door, “I'm not going to sleep with you.”
“Of course not,” he agreed. He had no plans on sleeping with her, but he was more than willing to fuck her.
Chapter 6
"Where's the rest of my uniform?" Kara asked as she looked down at the tight black t-shirt with the words "Club Luna" written in yellow across her breasts and ended just above her navel. Her short skirt was just that, short. It hung low around her hips and ended a few inches shorter than she was used to.
Sandy, the head waitress, shoved a pair of black high heels into her arms. "You know how to serve drinks, right?" she asked, sighing heavily as if she doubted that Kara could do even that much.
Reminding herself that she needed this job and didn't want to get put in charge of scraping the bottom of the dumpster clean, something that Drew would probably have her do anyway once he thought about it, she ground her jaw shut and simply nodded.
"Good," Sandy said with a relieved sigh. "Just stick to the rules and you'll be fine."
"What rules?" Kara asked when the woman turned to leave the break room.
"No drinking, no drugs, and no fucking while you're on the clock," Sandy said, not breaking her stride as she walked out of the break room and shut the door behind her, leaving Kara standing there to stare after her as she once again questioned how she’d ended up in this predicament.
She'd saved and prepared all her life for something like this, but apparently not well enough. Then again, she never thought that she'd be mated to the prick or have her entire existence wiped out in one day. After all that planning, scraping just to get by and going without to make sure that she could take care of herself and here she was with nothing to show for it. She didn't even have a dollar in her purse. Not that it mattered since her purse had been stolen.
Worst of all she was now completely dependent on the man she’d vowed to knee in the balls on the day that he’d found his mate only to discover that she was the poor bitch that ended up with him. Could things get any worse? she wondered as she squeezed her feet into the small black pumps that were way too small and mentally cursed Drew to hell.
"What's taking you so long? We have thirsty customers out here. Move your ass," Sandy said as she popped her head into the break room to see what was taking Kara so long.
With an annoyed sigh, Kara readjusted her breasts in the too small bra she'd been forced to borrow since hers had been damaged, and followed the bitter woman out of the room, hoping this night would end quickly.
Of course it didn't. As soon as her feet hit the hardwood floor outside of the break room she was thrown into hell. Everyone wanted a drink and they wanted it now. They didn't care that she had about a hundred other customers to take care of or that she was carrying a tray overflowing with drinks, everyone she passed did whatever they could to get her attention and if she didn't immediately take their order they got really pissy.
For the first two hours, she bit her tongue and took their whining, grabby hands and attitude with a forced smile. She even forced herself to ignore the smug smiles that Drew sent her way and stopped herself from sending him a rude gesture that would probably get her thrown out, but the very second she felt that hand snake beneath her skirt and palm her ass she'd had enough.
Slowly, so very slowly, she turned around to glare down at the human male who still had his hand up the back of her skirt and had a handful of her ass. She looked pointedly at his arm where it disappeared beneath her skirt, to the face of the cocky bastard who actually had the nerve to give her ass a squeeze as his friends laughed and cheered him on.
"Remove your hand," she said tightly, struggling against the urge to shift and tear his throat out.
“Aw, relax, sweetheart,” he said, laughing along with his friends as he gave her ass another squeeze.
“Don’t worry, we’ll make it worth your time,” one of his friends said as he tossed a crumpled dollar bill at her, making her decision so damn easy.