“Now listen to me, Faith. I willingly entered into this auction and chose you. That means whatever situation you have outside of tonight becomes part of my life. And I am not sorry. Especially if that means I can help a fearful woman who looks like a goddess and kisses like a siren find her way to a beautiful life. With me. And my daughter.”
Her eyes widened and her face paled. “Daughter,” she sputtered out.
I smiled wide. “You’re gonna love her. It will be a match made in Heaven. I can already tell.”
With those parting words, I tucked Faith against my side, opened the door, and let my bodyguard lead us out of the building and into the waiting limo where we sped off down the Las Vegas Strip toward The Alexandra.
Episode 18
Ruby in the Sky with Diamonds
RUBY
“So, what happens next?” I twisted my fingers together in front of me and worried my bottom lip.
“We take you home to London,” Nile announced.
“London as in Europe?” I gasped.
Nile tilted his head and cocked a haughty eyebrow. “As in Great Britain or England the country within the continent of Europe. Where the city of London resides. It seems you’ve not traveled much… I gather.”
Crap. My World History teacher taught us all about other countries and the major cities within them. I just didn’t pay a lot of attention, being that at sixteen I was more worried about making money so that I could pay off my mother for room and board than I was about high school. The alternative was allowing the parade of “stepdaddies” to continue to defile me, or worse, start in on my sister. I spent years protecting Opal from being abused more than she already had been. I wasn’t going to focus my attention on studying when the only way out of the nightly torture was paying off my junkie mother .
“No, I haven’t. The flight to Las Vegas was the first plane I’d ever been on,” I admitted, lifting my chin and standing as tall as I could. Feeling very thankful for the sky-high stiletto heels the stylist put me in. I may not have been on even ground in the smarts department, but with my natural height and heels, I stood nose to nose with the identical twins, daring them to say anything more.
“Well, we can’t go to London until after the meeting tomorrow with Madam Alana.” Noah approached his brother. He put an arm around his shoulders in a brotherly gesture that relaxed my own shoulders a bit.
“Such a waste of time.” Nile’s lips pursed as he lifted his arm and looked at his watch. “I have a call with a business associate in Tokyo that I must take in a couple hours. I’d planned on doing it from the plane.” He sighed. “Since we can’t leave, why don’t we retire for the evening. Allow Ms. Dawson to pack her things and prepare to depart for London after the meeting tomorrow.”
Noah clapped his brother on the back a few times. “Sounds like a plan. Ruby?”
I nodded. “Mmm-hmm. That works for me.”
I started to move to the door as Noah dashed over to it and held it open.
“After you, my lady.”
A gentlemanly gesture, but the Cheshire cat grin he wore highlighted a devilish side I knew he hid very near to the surface. I’d have to be careful with this one. I’d originally marked him off because he was the exact type of man I always fell for.
The Player.
The User.
The chew ’em up and spit ’em out type.
Maybe he was none of those things, or all of them. Time would tell.
“Thank y’all for choosing me. I won’t let ya down,” I said over my shoulder, and took my leave, swaying my hips as I made my way to the elevator, never looking back. I didn’t have to. I knew they were watching me.
Men loved to watch me leave. They just never wanted me to stay.
The second I got to my room, I raced over to my prepaid phone sitting on the charger. I dialed the only number I remembered by heart.
Opal answered on the first ring.
“Guess what, Ruby Roo!” she squealed into the phone.
Hearing her joy and excitement filled my heart up to bursting. “What, Opal Loo?” I teased back.
“I got an A-plus in my Archaeology II class! I’m so glad it’s over. Professor Swanson was such a bear too. He got angry because I knew about King Tut’s suspected assassin and that he had two stillborn children and a whole host of other information that he didn’t think was even relevant to share with the class. But it so is, Ruby. There’s more to King Tut than his discovery by Howard Carter in 1922.”
“Yikes. Sounds like you may have schooled him,” I shared, pride in my sister’s intelligence making me sit up straighter on the bed as I clutched the phone to my ear, hanging on her every word.