Halfway up the stairs, I let out a loud sigh and stop walking for a moment. The young hooker turns around and glances down at me curiously, but I don’t know how to tell her that making her into something beautiful will have to wait another day because my workspace is preoccupied at the moment.

“Everything okay?” she asks me cautiously. I almost laugh out loud at the look on her face. She stood by and watched me back her pimp down, threatening to stomp him to death, and only now she’s concerned about the man she’s gone home with?

“No. I’m sorry, it’s just I forgot something important, but it’s nothing that can’t wait until tomorrow,” I explain, forcing a friendly smile across my face.

She nods once as she turns and continues up the rest of the flight until she gets to the elevator door.

“So, is this whole place yours?” she inquires, glancing up and down the dark hallway.

“All mine,” I confirm, pushing the button to open the doors.

“Wow. You must be really rich, or something, huh?” she presses curiously.

“Or something,” I reply with a smile, holding out my arm toward the now open elevator doors. “After you.”

“Thanks,” she replies, pushing a strand of hair behind her ears and stepping in. She seems to be a bit calmer the more I converse with her and to be honest, I don’t care at this point. I have no use for her anymore and I’m kind of aggravated with myself for forgetting about the pet I already have upstairs.

Once we reach my main floor, I pull up the elevator gate and let her step out first. It’s at this moment that I realize I have no idea what her name is.

“So, like I said before, I’m Gray,” I say, turning around and pulling the gate down. She falls into step beside me as we walk the few feet to my door and waits patiently for me to unlock it.

“Julie.”

“Nice to meet you.”

“Yeah, same.”

I appreciate the small amount of silence she allows me as I pull the door open and once again, allow her to go first. I may not have much for humanity these days, but I’m pretty damn good at remembering my manners when I need to.

“Home sweet hell,” I say to her with a grin as soon as we’re inside. She giggles and glances around the floor curiously. There’s nothing in this particular space that will give anything away to my work, so I don’t mind if she has a poke around, which she clearly wants to do.

“You can look around,” I assure her with a nod. “Just don’t wander off too far. This place is bigger than it looks and I’m not in the mood for a game of hide and seek.”

She raises an eyebrow and instead of satiating her obvious curiosity of where I live, she takes a step closer to me as a wicked grin slips across her half full lips.

“What are you in the mood for then?” she asks in a new found, throaty tone.

I suck my teeth and look straight into her eyes. I can tell that I’ve unnerved her a bit by doing so, but the professional inside of her that’s used to earning her money, doesn’t back down.

“What I want, I left behind in a bar,” I reply bluntly, crossing my arms over my chest. “Think you can take my mind off of it?”

“I’m pretty sure I can manage that,” she agrees, tilting her head to the side and slipping her arms around my waist. The width of my intertwined arms makes for an awkward embrace on her part, but I have no intention of dropping them because I’m not entirely sure yet if I’m in the mood for such a constantly misused pussy.

I roll my eyes and decide to relent.

“On your knees then,” I say softly, nodding at her.

Her grin widens as she licks her lips and it takes everything in me not to shudder. Julie is not unattractive by any means, but the fact that she can go from woman to whore in such a quick flash kind of rattles me.

Before I have a chance to properly react to her switch, she’s pulled my dick out of my pants and swallows as much of it as she cans. I close my eyes and pretend that she’s Penn—with her full lower lip, she very well could be if I can just imagine it hard enough. I place a hand gently on the back of her head as she bobs it up and down, purposely gagging herself on me, then rubbing her saliva up and down the length before swallowing it again.

I wonder if Penn would suck me off like this or if he would let me do it to him. I take in a deep, shaky breath as she reaches up and cups my balls giving them a gentle squeeze which makes me move my hips. I pull my shirt off and toss it to the ground; she can use that to wipe her mouth off when we’re done here.

When her head goes further down my shaft, my hips thrust forward forcing it further down her throat.

I lean my head back and let out another breath as she quickens her pace, my balls beginning to tighten in her grip. I can feel my release coming and I find myself wondering how many times she’s let a man cum inside of her mouth before.

I look down at her and place my other hand on the back of her head, interlacing the fingers, and continue to thrust my hips a little harder than before.

“Little Julie, the corner whore, fifty dollars gets her knees on the floor,” I say in a sing-song tone. I grin when she begins to struggle against my hands, obviously offended by my choice of words, but I don’t let up thrusting. If this is all I can stomach from her tonight, then this is what she’ll give me.

“Don’t stop now—I’m almost done,” I grunt, pushing her head down further.

She tries to push me away but I’m too far into the moment, too close to cumming, to give her any sort of reprieve. I assume she’s used to being so roughly handled anyway, and I’m not forcing her to do anything she wouldn’t have finished had I not composed my little sonnet for her.

I’m so close to the edge. I can feel it. It’s starting to make my body shake, my knees are becoming weak, and I’m almost done with her.

I move my hands, still interlocked, down to her neck and use my thumbs to press on her windpipe. Her struggle starts to become violent as I cut off her air, and just when I’m ready to press down and kill the little bitch, the familiar sound of raucous hand slapping against the door reaches my ears.

“Fuck!”

I push her away and let her land on her back, while I shove my dick back into my pants. Aiden’s here and I’m aggravated because I didn’t even get to get my fucking rocks off.

Julie whimpers and I turn and give her a deadly stare as I make my way toward the door.

“Little Julie—if you want to keep sucking dicks for a living, I suggest you shut your fucking mouth about what just happened,” I warn her ominously.

Room in my workshop or not, I’m sure I can find something to do with her if she tells Aiden how rudely I just handled her. It’s not that I have a thing for Aiden, because I don’t, it’s just that she sees me a certain way and even though she knows what I do for a living, she chooses to ignore that side of me and see me as a person and not a paid mutilator.

“Stop slapping the goddamn door!” I bark at her as I pull it open.

Aiden grins as she leans against the now open door frame. Her right eyebrow arches when she sees that I’m shirtless and glistening from sweat.

“Busy?” she asks pointedly.

“Not anymore,” I grumble, running a hand back through my hair. “What’s up?”

She smirks and glances behind her, drawing my eyes to the obvious thing I had managed to miss.

Penn Harris is standing behind Aiden and as they exchange a knowing glance, I wonder why the Earth hasn’t opened up and swallowed me yet.

“Maybe we should come back some other time,” he suggest to Aiden, turning his back to us and heading toward the elevator.

“Get rid of whoever’s here,” she hisses, leaning in toward me. “I’ll go back and get your crush.”

“How?” I ask, pulling her back toward me.

“Toss them out the window for all I fucking care. He wanted to make sure you got home safe and I think it would be a nice gesture if you let us come in,” she shoots back in a hushed tone. Before I have a chance to ask anymore questions, Aiden turns around and jogs toward the elevator where Penn is waiting patiently.

I close the door to my loft and run my hands over my face. I have no idea what to do with Julie, but I refuse to let him come in and find me with a fucking hooker.

“Fuck it,” I say to myself.

I walk quickly into the space I left her in and pick her up off the floor. She’s still upset with me because she tries her best to pull away from me. Being much stronger than her helps my situation because I twist her arm and drag her toward the staircase.

The workshop may be occupied right now, but this bitch can ruin something for me that I want more than I even realized until this moment.

“Come on!” I grunt at her angrily, as I begin to drag her up the stairs.

“I thought you were nice,” she sobs as she continues her struggle to get away from me.

I raise an eyebrow at her and smirk when an idea suddenly comes to mind. “You want me to be nice to you? Fine.”

I let Julie’s arm go and she begins to teeter on the step we’ve reached halfway to the top. Her arms pinwheel at her sides, but she still manages to lose her footing as she goes tumbling violently, landing in a heap at the bottom of the stairs.

I jog back down and crouch over her. She’s still breathing but it’s ragged—she won’t last much longer and even though I think it would be more of a mercy to end her, I simply don’t have the time right now.

I’ll leave her in the dark, cold staircase to gasp for air that will never reach her lungs as I go back out and entertain my guests.

Much like pre-constructed pieces, sometimes dead ones fetch a much higher sum than the ones that I’ve been commissioned for.