Stay with him

I froze and felt ice shards freezing my veins as Luke leaned down. He braced one hand on the wall by my head and the other started to reach for my face. My stomach turned over itself and the room felt a thousand degrees colder as he got too close.

"I wasn't asking for myself. Although I have thought about it....", His fingers traced over my cheek and his breath that smelled heavily of onions assaulted my nose.

"Then please get to the point, Luke." I snapped back, turning my face away from his.

"Some bastard offered Dax a shit ton of money to have you exclusively." The words struck me, and my heart leapt into my throat. "A three month exclusive contract for the lovely Rhea Martinez."

"Holy shit." The words slipped out before I knew it and I almost forgot about Luke in my personal space as my mind started leaping to the conclusion that it was . I normally only saw one or two men a month, but now it would be just him for three months. After experiencing him on two separate occasions I couldn't stop my heart from racing to think of what his voracious hunger would lead to.

Luke's hair twirling around the strand of my hair that had slipped loose from my ponytail during practice pulled me back out of my thoughts as though I were thrown against a brick wall. I jerked away from his touch and willed my body to melt against the wall at my back just to get away from him and his lecherous fingers.

"I have the copy of the new contract for you to sign, and you have to get tested again this weekend." That got my attention.
"Again? I just did," I argued. We had to get tested frequently.

"Yeah, you can read the details in the contract. Here," Luke grumbled and pulled folded papers from his back pocket. "I need you to read and sign and get that back to me before the show tonight."

"Why so soon?" I accepted the papers and looked started to back away. It allowed me a moment to take a full breath before my eyes drifted down to the contract. My eyes scanned the words and the terms before even Luke made it across the floor.

"He wants me to fucking stay with him?" I shouted. " Oh my God, this is too much!" I didn't speak out loud on the part about him not needing to use a condom if we both tested clean.

"Yeah, but look at the amount you're getting Rhea. Can you really say no to that?" Luke paused near the door to smirk back at me.

"Shit," I hissed. "That's a lot of zeroes"
"Five hundred thousand for you to be his little live in fuck toy for three months. You'll still stick to the ballet during the day, but at night you'll be all his at all hours. Can you afford to turn this offer down?"

"No, I can't." I tried to fight it, I really did while Luke was still standing there, but there were tears streaming down my cheeks as I read the contract again and again. Each time my eyes would pause on the amount and the name.

$500,000. Aleksander Makalov.

Not only had been serious about the contract he was willing to pay so much. The biggest shock, however, was the addition of living with him.

Why? What the fuck? Is this really happening?
"Is this real? I gasped when Luke put his hand on the door.

"If you sign the contract, and your tests come back negative, you'll have the money in your account by Sunday. But, like it said, you have to sign it and put it on my desk before the performance."

My mind was racing so quickly I wasn't even sure what to really feel. It was a lot of money and I need it to pay all my debt from paying for my grandpa's hospital. It would be enough to keep his spot at that medical centre for the rest of the year.

And when I thought of that, of Papa, and everything he did for me, and suddenly didn't matter what I had to do for the money.

Aleksander seemed nice enough, and we had intense chemistry when we were together. I had to believe that no matter how insane this seemed it was going to be worth it in the end if kept Papa where he needed to be.

"I'll do it!" I shouted.

Luke stopped in the open doorway, angling his head to look at me. I didn't like the smile on his face when he replied. "Perfect, then sign."

He stayed where he was, and I reached down to push my phone off my purse and pull out the pen. I pressed the contract against the white brick wall and signed.
Some part of me felt as though I was Ariel signing her voice away. But I still did it.

I stomped across the studio and pushed the contract back at Luke. A breathy chuckle left him, and his fingers purposely brushed against mine as he took it causing me to internally cringe.

"Better start getting ready for the show, Rhea. You're being delivered to him tonight." Luke smirked and left me standing alone in the studio once more.

But now the silence was deafening. And the lights were too bright, I fell to the floor, wrapping my arms around my knees and hugging them to my chest as tears fell freely down my face again. I didn't stop the tears as they came, and I allowed myself a moment to son.

~~~~~~~~

The show was perfect. There wasn't anything negative the critiques could say about my performance tonight. It might even be one of my best shows yet.

Was it because all the sorrow on my face was more acute than normal? Or because the misery I felt was too recent? And there was agony in the uncertainty of what the next three months would be like for me.