Chrissy straightened and let out an agitated breath. “No, you did, but it’s okay.” She looked up smiling. “I’m getting used to you being a bitter bitch.”
She was clearly joking, and we both laughed, but after she walked away, I couldn’t let the words go. Joke or not, she was right.
Chapter 3
Knox
The makeup artist powdered my face and did whatever else she had to do to get me camera ready. I had no idea what the makeup was actually for. I was shooting an ad for a new line of underwear. People weren’t going to be looking at my face. As long as my abs and dick looked good, it didn’t really matter what my face looked like.
“I love your tattoos,” the girl said as she ran a finger across my eyebrows, smoothing them into place.
“Thanks.” I glanced at the time over her shoulder. I had to be back in Vegas by seven for a meeting with my manager, Mike, and this was already taking longer than I anticipated.
Her finger pointed at the tattoo above my heart. “Who is Zoey?”
Hearing her name was like a a hot dagger to the heart. It always was. The last thing I wanted to do was to forget her, but remembering was so painful. I was about to answer when the photographer came over, saving me from having to go there.
“Is he ready?” he asked, and the makeup artist nodded.
“He’s good to go. People like him make my job easy.” She batted her long over done eyelashes at me.
“Well, let’s hope he knows how to model and can make my job easy.” Maksim Abrankovich was known for his unruly temper, but he was a God behind a camera. He could make the ugliest subject look beautiful.
I stood in front of the white backdrop and did as he instructed. I flexed and smiled for over five hours before he finally called an end to the shoot. He showed me a few of his favorite shots and they were pretty fucking good.
I left feeling good and looking forward to seeing the actual ads.
Modeling and endorsements weren’t something I ever thought I’d do. I was a poor boy from the mountains of North Carolina who grew up with little. Fighting was where I excelled, and it gave me the opportunity to earn the money I needed for Zoey. I just never thought when I left North Carolina for the City of Sin that I’d be living the life I now was. I loved the money and the fame, but it would never bring back the one thing that brought me here in the first place. And, because of that, I merely existed. I got up every morning and went about my day thankful for what I had, but knowing I would never be truly happy again in this lifetime.
Car service dropped me off at the airport, and I got onto Sebastian’s private jet. Beige leather with Sebastian’s monogram wrapped all the seats and were surrounded by dark wood accents. A fully stocked bar sat to the left of a sectional and two TV’s cut into the wall. It was nice having friends with connections.
My phone buzzed and I slid it out. Julius sent a group text to me, Marco and Sebastian. I opened it up, and shook my head at the picture of him in the middle of a group of naked chicks. The caption reading, While your lame asses are working, I’m getting it on.
I texted back. Maybe you should be working because at this rate your ass is going to be broke in a year.
Julius: Nah, I have Sebastian covering my ass with investments. Sebastian: In a meeting.
Julius: What’s new?
Knox: I’m about to take off. Wrap your dick before you stick it anywhere.
Julius: Good looking out.
Sebastian: Knox, don’t make a mess of my plane.
Knox: You mean don’t jerk a load off on your seats?
Sebastian: You’re a sick fuck.
Marco: Who’s jerking what?
I laughed at Marco’s text. He was always a few messages behind when he was filming. I slipped my phone back into my pocket and put my headphones in. It was an hour and a half flight from LA to Vegas and just enough time for me to catch up on a few z’s. I tapped my chest and smiled up. Keep me safe up there, Zoe.
Once we leveled out, I unclicked my seatbelt and stretched my legs out. The flight attendant, a man with a small build, brought me a piece of grilled chicken and steamed vegetables. The food was the same as it always was when I borrowed the jet, organic and to my liking, but the help on the other hand would take a little to get used to. Before Annabelle came into Bastian’s life, he only hired female flight attendants whose uniforms consisted of tiny skirts and low-cut shirts. Now that he was happy in love, we all had to suffer.
“Thank you,” I said as he placed the plate down in front of me.
“Will there be anything else, Mr. McArthur?”
“No, that will be all.” I forked a piece of chicken into my mouth and the flight attendant went back to his station while I finished my meal. It was a short flight, but I wouldn’t have time to eat before meeting with Don. And there was no way in hell I was going to eat the shit they served at the casino we were meeting at. I was surprised that food was even legal to serve.
Growing up on a farm, I understood the importance of organic food and how horrible that processed shit was for the body. There was a reason I was honed to perfection. I was in amazing shape because I knew everything that was entering my body, and I wasn’t about to poison it with crap.
I rested back in my seat and closed my eyes. It had been a long day and it wasn’t ending any time soon. If I could just get a few minutes of sleep in now, I’d be good for another eight hours. But when I closed my eyes, visions of that stripper popped into my mind.
It had been so long since I had sex. It was too distracting when I was training, so I just avoided the opposite sex all together, but that girl had me craving a hot and dirty release.
She made me feel like I was more than a job to her. She ground against me, letting my hands roam freely across her beautiful curves without a single warning. She wanted me to touch her as badly as I wanted to.
I laughed, realizing how naïve I sounded in my own head. It was absolutely ridiculous since it was her job to get a guy all horned up. The hot electric spark I felt between us was nothing more than her trying to make an extra buck. Still, I couldn’t shake her from my mind.
There was just something about her.
Chapter 4
Mila
I pulled into my parking spot at Paradise Glen and cut the engine. My eyes felt like they weighed nine hundred pounds, and my body ached in places I didn’t know were possible. I glanced at my watch and sighed. It was six in the morning. I should’ve been home hours ago, but a last-minute bachelor party walked in, and they were throwing money around like confetti. There was no way I could walk away from that. Especially not when rent was due in a week, and I was a hundred bucks short. Again…
Twenty minutes. That’s all I had before I had to get Mackenzie’s ass out of bed and in the shower. I wasn’t in the mood for the fight she would put up like she did every goddamned morning. But I would deal because getting her on that bus to school meant she was one step closer achieving a better life than me.
I fought with her every day and would continue to do so till she made something of herself. I had no choice. It was either use my body or find us out on the streets hungry and homeless. I would be damned if I let Mackenzie have to put up with the shit I did in order to survive. She was going to do something better with her life. I’d make sure of it, even if it were the last thing I did.