The Billionaire's Whispers Of Pleasure

Chapter 12

“I think you're just mistaken, Nick, but thank you for coming here and telling me,” I say, trying to conceal the fluctuation in my voice. Nick leaves a while later, and when I'm alone, I try to think of what I should do: I know Nick was telling me the truth; I just didn't want him to think that there was, in fact, someone following me.

I leave the apartment and head for my car, but I stop my steps and scan the surroundings to make sure no one is watching me. When I make sure there isn't, I go straight to my car and get the memory from the dash cam placed at the back. I insert the memory in my phone, but I mutter a curse when I realize that the dash cam was not turned on. It was not the first time that someone followed me: even before I met Rocco, I always had a feeling that someone was watching and following me, but I thought I was just exhausted from my lack of sleep, so I never really thought so much about it. But if they really want to do something bad to me, they have had a lot of chances, so as of now nothing is really making sense.

In the morning, I wake up with only four hours of sleep, and my lips are dry. I only eat the donuts Nick brought yesterday for my breakfast before I text Luz to meet me at a coffee shop. I haven't told Luz about the car, so her lips part in confusion as she gives me a questioning look.

“I borrowed it,” I lie as I pull out a chair across from her and slide in.

“Oh, that makes more sense. I thought you'd become a millionaire overnight,” she jokes, raising a hand to call for the waiter before looking back at me. I just laugh along. If only she knew what has been going on with my life. I love her, but currently I prefer to not tell anyone about me signing a contract with someone as their s*x buddy. Luz will certainly freak out if I tell her.

“You know what, Val, I think I might look for a sugar daddy. If you know someone, tell them I don't rate that much,” Luz blurts out, and I swallow as guilt crawls on my skin.

“Well, I also want to find one, but I will certainly not lower my rate.”

When a waiter arrives at our table, I thank her mentally. Luz can easily tell if I'm hiding something, so if our conversation goes on, she will definitely figure it out, and she is someone that won't stop prying until you tell her.

When the waiter asks what I want, I just tell her to get me what Luz orders.

The waiter tells us that our orders will be served in fifteen minutes and leaves.

“Do you have anything else to do today?” I ask Luz.

She thinks for a moment before saying, “I don't know. I might have something to do later. Why?”

“I will be visiting our old house.”

“Sure, I'll go with you,” she cuts me off excitedly. Our drinks arrive in less than ten minutes, and Luz talks again about finding a sugar daddy if nothing happens to her this year, and I try to divert the topic to something else, but Luz frowns at me and says, her voice suspicious, “I feel like you're hiding something. Did you...” Her eyes widen as she trails off.

“What? Hell no. Stop it, Luz,” I hastily deny, but the panic in my voice is obvious. I sip on my drink and try to compose myself.

Luz lets out a laugh. “I was just making fun of you. You're so serious that you make it seem like you're really hiding something. But I know you. You would tell me everything.”

I'm about to respond when my eyes spot a familiar face. Mr. Edward is seated a few tables from us. He's with someone, but I can't see who it is as his broad back is facing us. Could it be... panic rises in my throat.

“Who are you looking at?” Luz asks, looking over her shoulder and following my gaze. I look away, covering my face with my hair when Mr. Edward suddenly looks in our direction. Biting the lower of my lip and reaching for Luz's hand, I say, “Let's go.” I take money out of my purse and place it on the table before I drag Luz to my car.

I open the driver's seat, and Luz goes around and opens the door to the passenger. When she's inside, Luz asks, her voice confused, “What's going on? Who are you hiding from?” When we enter inside, I pull the car out to the main road, and when I look out the window, the man across from Mr. Edward tilts his face away in time from my view, preventing me from seeing his face.

I heave a sigh of relief as we get farther.

“b***h, what was that?” Luz asks again, her arms crossed over her chest as she looks at me with suspicion.

I press a hand over my stomach and feign pain. “My stomach is just reacting to the drink. I need to...”

“Cut the act, Val. Oh my god!” Luz exclaims, putting a hand over her mouth and her eyes enlarging as if she just realized something.

Rolling my eyes, I say, “It's my stomach, Luz. Stop overreacting.”

Luz doesn't say anything, but she keeps her eyes on me, and I give up. There's no harm in telling her anyway, and I did nothing wrong. “Fine. I borrowed money from that person to pay for my apartment, and I don’t know where to get the money to pay him back,” I tell her half of the truth, my eyes trained on the road.

“That's it?” Luz asks, dismayed as she brings her eyes on the road.

“Yes, Luz, that's it. What else do you think it is?”

“I thought you had s*x with those two men at once to pay for the apartment,” Luz blurts out casually.

“What the hell, Luz? I don't know how you came up with that idea,” I react, even though she almost got the truth right.

“You acted like you didn't want to be recognized by the two men you f****d for money,” Luz spills out frankly, and I try not to panic as she basically got it right. I'll be more cautious next time.

“You're disgusting,” is the only thing I say.

“I would do it, Val, for money. It's not that bad,” she states.

“Whatever,” I respond, though hearing Luz say it makes me think that it's really not that bad. People only think it is because society manipulated them to think that it's not morally accepted. If you're just trying to survive and not hurting anybody, it should not be used as a tool to condemn people.

We stop by a drive-thru and order food before we resume driving, and we arrive at the place almost two hours later.

“What are we going to do here anyway?” Luz asks as she unbuckles her seatbelt and slings it out of her. She takes out a mirror compass and looks at herself as she runs light lipstick over her lips.

Taking the key out of the ignition, I respond, “Actually, I don't know either.”

Luz throws a look before saying, “You're getting weird lately.”

When we get out, Luz comments, “The place is well-maintained; do you rent this?”

I'm paying monthly to have someone maintain the place, but I don't allow them to enter the house, so I'm not sure what the current state is inside.

“It's just the outside. I have had someone maintain it for years now. The inside is probably a mess, though,” I say as I scan the surroundings. I did think of selling it when I had literally nothing, but I thought I might regret selling it. I'm glad I didn't end up selling it when I had nothing to eat.

“I don't understand, Val. You have this house, and you choose to suffer to pay for the apartment,” Luz says, genuinely curious.

“It's hard to continue living in a place when it's once filled with laughter. When my parents died, I couldn't make myself live here,” I reply honestly. When I moved out from the parents who adopted me when I was young, I came back here, but I couldn't stand the sadness it brought living in the house, so I decided to live somewhere else.

“I'm sorry, Val. You had to endure all that,” Luz comforts. And I smile appreciatively.

We step on the porch, and when I open the front door, dust welcomes us. I cover my nose, and Luz does, too.

“Wow, you had a beautiful home, Val,” Luz exclaims before going straight to a picture frame sitting on a table.

“You didn't bring anything when you moved out of here?” Luz asks, her eyes on the picture of me and my parents.

“I didn't. I wanted to preserve everything here,” I say as I head for my parentsʼ room, leaving Luz in the living room. When I enter inside, my heart tightens as the scenes from when I was a child play back in my memory. When I had nightmares, I would ask my parents to let me sleep in their room. Looking at the bed now, I suppress my tears from coming out. Until now, I don't know what I need to find or if coming here will answer something. I head for the drawers and open the first layer. Dust puffs out, and I slap it away from my nose before I rummage through what's inside. I crouch down before I move onto the next layer, but only to sigh in disappointment when I find nothing.

I open the last layer, and I pause when I see a white envelope. My fingers slightly tremble when I slowly reach for it. It might just be nothing. When I'm about to open it, Luz's voice screaming in fear reaches the room. I quickly stand up and bolt out of the room, my heart pounding fast.