Chapter 3
Claire
We pulled up to this titan of concrete and glass, spotlight beams from the roof pierced the clouds. It was the biggest hotel in the city. It might've been the biggest building period in the city.
The M Hotel. Of course Maynard would name the thickest, most erect thing around after himself. He was obviously full of himself, but almost twenty-four hours ago, I was full of him too. Sweaty flashes of desperate, groping hands and his cock firing like a piston made me gasp in air and hold it. I fanned myself quickly before the chauffeur could open my door to keep the heat from showing on my face.
“Here you are, ma'am.” My door swung open and the driver extended a hand to help me out. I took it. This dress was beautiful, but elaborate. I still wasn't all that confident that I wouldn't step wrong and fall on my face.
I think I'd passed The M once on a bus in the middle of the day, but I'd never seen it up close before. I was so mesmerized by the building's marble and crystal archway entrance, that I hadn't even properly thanked the chauffeur.
Shit, was I supposed to tip him?
I had no idea. I knew how to split a check and call for a ride share, but I'd never done any of this before. I reached for my purse and turned back toward him, but he was already gone.
Now I was completely alone.
Beautiful people passed me as I stood on the stairs awkwardly deciding if I was going to go in or run away. I didn't get anxious too often, but most of the time I didn't leave my comfort zone. I swallowed my apprehension and walked inside.
All the guests seemed to be checking in with a man by the elevators, so I got in line and waited my turn. The whole thing went pretty quick, I just hoped I was on the list. I shook the silly idea out of my head. Of course I was. I had to be, right? Anxiety bristled the back of my neck.
“Nice dress.” Came a voice from one of the people that filed in behind me. I turned toward the voice, which belonged to a stick of a woman who just had to be a model.
“Uh, thanks. It's a...” I couldn't remember the name of the designer to save my life.
“From the wrong century,” said the waifish man with the model. They both wore bright complicated clothing, like they had just stepped off a fashion runway.
“Tell me, Darling, whose attic did you pull that out of?” The model added. Her tone was so flat that it barely sounded like sarcasm, but of course I knew it was.
I eyed the woman, having no idea how to respond. I was a part time clerk at a college and I was in line with famous actors and musicians in a dress that cost more than my first car. I had no idea what I was doing. Who was I to even be here?
“Name?” The man checking people in asked me. Suddenly I was at the front of the line.
“Hi,” I turned back around, and smiled as much as I could despite the assholes behind me. “Claire. I'm here for Maynard.”
Here for Maynard? What was I, a pizza? Was I always this nervous around new people?
The man sized me up, then cracked a condescending grin. “I'm sure you are. Claire what?”
Oh no. I'd never told Maynard my last name. I might be on the list, but as what? Claire the gymnast? I couldn't say that out loud! I would have to step out of line, this was so embarrassing. God, this was such a mistake!
I shouldn't have come. I should be at home with takeout and Netflix.
“She's with me.” The familiar dusky voice made my heart stop. It wasn't booming loud, but the line had suddenly gone so quiet that it felt like it was. Maynard's footsteps rang out on the cold marble floor as he approached the head of the line.
It was clear that Maynard was the most important man in that building, and with one hand in the pocket of his suit pants, he walked with the confidence of a man who knew that fact. Dark cropped hair, perfectly chiseled features, he naturally exuded handsomeness. His three-piece tuxedo fit so perfectly that it looked like the style was made just for him.
Every set of eyes in the massive foyer was on him, most of the women hadn't bothered to conceal their intentions. They all wanted to fuck him. Most of them already had. On the ride over I had more than enough time to research Maynard Cooper. If I didn't need access to his databases, his reputation alone would have warned me away.
There were so many compromising photos and articles of Maynard out there. He was such a manwhore that there was a wing in the Playboy mansion named after him. I found three separate sex tapes of him floating around online, when I looked him up on the ride. In one of those videos he was even with a princess! I couldn't bring myself to watch more than a few seconds of any of them.
I had no idea why I was his latest conquest, but now that I knew what kind of man he really was, there was no way I’d ever let him turn me into another notch mark on his bedpost.
I got the whole bored billionaire part, but the one thing that confused me was why he'd want to see me again. He'd already won whatever twisted game he was playing. He got me to spread my legs for him, really spread them.
What else did he want from me?
Was this really the same man from the night before? He wore a nice suit then too, but he was somehow more low key. He could've been any handsome, well-dressed man at the bar last night, but here he could only be the Maynard Cooper.
Maynard stopped just before me. His eyes looked like storm clouds just after sunset, blue and dangerous. He looked me over with one of his apparently legendary half-smiles, that made everyone melt. I stayed strong, at least until he leaned into me.
“You look good,” He whispered in my ear, his cheek ever so slightly touching mine. Electricity crackled between our skin as he breathed in my perfume. “You smell good too.” I could feel the muscles in his cheek, spread the smooth smile across his face. “And I know how good you taste.”
Jesus, I swallowed a gulp of air. In front of everyone, my face immediately turned red. The strength of my resolve drained like bathwater.
“Thank you for coming,” Maynard straightened and extended a hand for me to take. Did everything he said have a double meaning? Or was I just secretly hoping it did. Either way I couldn't reply, I just took his hand and let him pull me out of the line.
“Jaste,” Maynard addressed the man checking people in, while holding the elevator door for me. “Remove that couple from the list.”
“What!” The model that insulted me earlier immediately started protesting. “We flew in from France for this party!”
“You heard the man.” Jaste said, with a shrug.
I couldn't help but smile at the model couple through the closing elevator doors. They could wear their trendy clothes all the way back to their hotel.
It was just him and I in the elevator and when it started to ascend, I shifted my weight wrong on my heels and stumbled. Strong arms closed around my sides before I could fall. Maynard was so fast!
“I've been meaning to have them adjust that. The elevator is safe, usually a little too slow for my liking.” He pulled me closer. His scent was mostly of a light cologne, but beneath that was the hint of a natural, manly musk. I drank as much as my lungs would allow.
The vibration, the closeness and the quiet were quickly smothering me. When I found my legs again, I put some distance between us. Focus! I was using him, not the other way around. Say something!
“I'm not having sex with you.” I blurted the words, then frowned at their brashness. Smooth, Claire.
“I agree. We'd need a lot more time than even this slow elevator is capable of. It's a nice thought though. You, naked, pushed up against the mirrored walls, watching a hundreds versions of us fucking.”
“You just don't quit, do you?” He was unbelievable, not even my bluntness fazed him. Sex really was the only thing on his mind.
“I don't remember you asking me to stop last night.” Maynard paused to think. “Or maybe you did, somewhere between the first and second toe-curling orgasm. I can't remember.”
“Why am I here, Maynard?” The question was eating me alive. Girls like me did not get invited to these things without some ulterior motive. “Last night was a one time thing so I don't know what you could want with me.”
“I could ask you the same thing,” Maynard replied easily. Maynard didn't shrug, adjust his stance or glance away like most people did when they had a conversation. He never tried to alleviate building tension, it was the opposite in fact. He didn't exactly stare either, his eyes just flickered about me. They let me know I had his undivided attention. It felt like I was looking into the sun. “If you're not here to fuck, then why are you here?”
Chills ran through me at his straightforwardness. I couldn't tell him the simple truth of it, could I? Because I wanted to be, felt like I was giving him too much power over me. I couldn't trust him with that much power. His gaze incited a lot of things in me. Steamy lust, forbidden temptation and nails-dragging-sex, sure, but trust wasn't one of them.
OK, so neither of us were going to trust the other. That was fine. It actually made me feel a little better, like we had both finally found some common ground.
“It's not everyday I get invited to fancy parties.” That was true, but it came out so juvenile. I blamed the polished, mirrored, walls for my lack of concentration. It was a trap. He was everywhere in that elevator. Even when I glanced away from him, all I could see were his handsome reflections.
“You've never been to a party like this.” A million copies of his kissable lips said the same sentence. How could one person look so perfect from every single angle, it was maddeningly unfair.
Oh man, that must mean he could see me from every angle too! I immediately became self-conscious. I could do my eyeliner fine, but I was never that great with makeup in general. Could he tell that just from looking at me? How did he see me? Ugh, just being looked at by Maynard was so damn exhausting...
Why did I care? I wasn't here to fuck him, remember? I was just taking a look around, that's all.
“The dress fit perfectly, by the way,” I tried to change the subject. “How did you know my size?”
Maynard's eyes licked down my body, like a flame caught in the wind. I'd never met anyone that could make my legs go weak with such a simple gesture. “How could I possibly forget?”
Oh my God! My eyes flashed wide. Thoughts of his rough hands all over me melted my panties. I needed to clear my head and said the first thing that came to mind. “This isn't going to be one of those 'Eyes Wide Shut' parties, where people are having weird sex all over the place, is it?”
“This is a hotel, Claire.” His intent, but emotionless expression cracked into the hint of a smile. “Of course they are, but only in their private rooms.”
We passed floor fifty and were still going up. How big was this place? I just prayed not to get a nose bleed when we reached the top. “Where is the party? The top floor?”
“One floor under that actually.” Maynard didn't bother hiding those proud facts. I glanced at the buttons, they went up to floor sixty-nine. “The top floor is exclusively mine.”
Seriously?
“You live on floor sixty-nine?” I almost laughed. Of course, he did.
“I do have a reputation to maintain. I'll give you a private tour, if you're good.”
“I'll pass.” I rolled my eyes, shaking my head. “I'm sure that's just a revolving door of women. How many hearts have you broken up there?”
“None,” Maynard frowned like I offended him. I felt the urge to apologize. He was a world renown womanizer, how could I possibly offend a man like him. And why did I care if I did? “You can fuck almost anywhere, but it's a special thing to take someone into your home.”
“It's not that special.” I said, carefully, trying to figure Maynard out. I was beginning to see that Maynard had more layers to him than he let on. “You certainly didn't have a problem coming into my apartment last night.”
“I asked your permission, that was different.” His air of flippancy hadn't returned as I thought it would when I brought up what I figured he wanted from me, sex. After a long moment of silence, Maynard added, “I live my life by three rules. I've already broken one of them with you, I won't break the other two.”
“What rule was that?” I was put off a little by the whole mystery man routine, but dammit if I wasn't interested. I scrubbed my mind for any tells, what had we done that a man like Maynard would consider taboo? It all felt so good, but nothing stood out as being exceptionally crazy.
“I kissed you on the mouth and almost spent the night at your place.”
“That's it?” I guess that was really intimate when I thought about it. Did he really never kiss any of the many girls he slept with? OK, so that was rule number one and rule number two,“What's your third rule?”
Every second of our first kiss was chiseled in my head. I'd never kissed anyone like I did Maynard. The passion and the freedom of letting go with another person was too memorable to ever forget.
Maynard didn't reply. He just smiled and studied me as the elevator whirred past ten more floors.
“What?” I asked. He knew something that he wasn't telling me, or maybe he was making some kind of decision about me. Either way, I didn't like being stared at. Especially not by a man like him.
Maynard touched a pad by the numbers, that read his fingerprint. Then he pressed another button and the elevator came to a full stop between floors.
“Don't worry,” he said, picking up on the obvious concern on my face. Handsome or not, I wasn't the biggest fan of being trapped in a metal box with a man, fifty floors off the ground. Maynard pulled out a thick money fold. “I just want a little privacy before we get up there?”
“What is all this?” I paused, uncomfortably. He wasn't soliciting me was he?
“Not what you think.” He smiled wide, understanding how everything must have looked to me. “The two things I don't pay for, are extra levels in Candy Crush and sex.”
“Say's the man holding the—”
“Five thousand dollars to be my fiance for the night.” He smiled, cutting right to it.
“What? Why?” I was stunned.
“Questions aren't part of the deal. I'll introduce you as my fiance and you'll play along. That's it.” Maynard opened the bill fold and took out a thousand dollars, handing it to me.
“I didn't say yes.”
“This is just for your inconvenience of coming out tonight.” He took my hand and gently closed it around the money. His touch was warm and gentle, but the offer made my throat go dry.
“Take a moment and think about it.” Maynard restarted the elevator, and we slowly got back up to speed. “If we reach the sixty-eighth floor and you want to go home, just stay on the elevator and it'll bring you back to the lobby. There will be a car waiting to bring you back home.”
I swallowed again, trying to moisten my throat. A thousand dollars just for showing up... That was more than a month's pay, I could afford to actually pay some of my bills with that. All I had to do was stay in the elevator. “And if I stay?”
“If you walk out those doors with me, you are my fiance in all ways. Well almost all ways”
“Because you don't pay for sex,” I exhaled, a little bemused. Maynard eyed me, nodding slightly. The implication on his face was that if we did have sex it would be after my service was done.
The elevator slowed a moment later, then came a ding and the doors to floor sixty-eight opened.
Maynard's unconcerned smirk reappeared as he stepped out of the elevator, and turned back to me. Was there anything wrong with what he was asking me to do? I guess not. But if it wasn't me in the elevator, I knew it would've been some other girl. That's how it was with guys like this.
I'd cut my losses now and walk out before I did something stupid, like stay. The doors closed between us, severing my connection to Maynard Cooper. This time I knew for certain that I would never see him again.
When it was apparent to him that I hadn't accepted his offer, Maynard's smirk faltered. It was quickly replaced with shock, he wasn't the type of man people said no to, then something else flashed in his eyes.
Genuine disappointment.
He wasn't just looking for anyone to be his 'fiance.' For whatever reason, he chose me. Maynard came off so bulletproof, but it would really hurt him if I said no. Was there more to him than I'd assumed? I realized my mistake too late for the doors had already closed.
Or they would have, had Maynard's hand not been lodged between them. He pried the doors apart with no small effort. Did he see me change my mind at the end? One of his strong hands pressed the doors open fully, the other was held out for me to take.
I could've refused and gone back downstairs. Instead, I extended my own hand, letting him lead me out into the party.
“Never reach for a closing door, its a good way to lose your hand,” Maynard said, as he slid a hand around my waist. What an apt metaphor, I thought. I'd already lost a part of myself to my ex boyfriend, Chance. I had to wonder if I was just about to do lose another part of myself to Maynard.
“Welcome to the party, fiance.” Maynard's words were a mouthful of warm honey.
What had I gotten myself involved in?