Total pages in book: 126
Estimated words: 124077 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 620(@200wpm)___ 496(@250wpm)___ 414(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 124077 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 620(@200wpm)___ 496(@250wpm)___ 414(@300wpm)
“The elevator won’t take you to the top unless you punch in the code,” he told her and gave it to her.
“Great. What time should I be there tomorrow?” she asked, all business now.
“Er…nine works for me,” Taurex said. In fact, he often conducted business at all hours of the day and night, but he knew most humans preferred what they called the “nine to five shift.”
“Fine. I’ll be there,” she said shortly. She paused for a moment then added, “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” Taurex wanted to say more–wanted to say that she’d been on his mind constantly and that he’d been worried about her only that night. He’d been having a worried feeling as though she was in danger. He’d even considered going back to The Doll House to check on her. Only the thought that she would be upset if he bothered her again had stopped him.
Now he wondered if the concern he’d felt had something to do with the reason she was calling him now. He wished he knew what it was–what had driven her to call him. Maybe someday he could ask.
“I’ll see you tomorrow morning at nine,” Terra told him. Then she hung up leaving Taurex to wonder what had happened to make her finally call him. Whatever it was, he swore to himself he wouldn’t give her a chance to leave the job he was offering her.
He just wanted a chance to be close to her…to prove to her that they were meant to be together.
11
TERRA
By eight-thirty the next morning, Terra was already beginning to wonder if she had made a terrible mistake.
Not because of Taurex exactly—though the fact that she had agreed to go work for a giant alien Minotaur she had met while naked in the VIP lounge of a strip club, was certainly high on the list of things that made her question her own judgment. At the moment, however, the thing making her swear under her breath was the ancient Honda sputtering unhappily beneath her as she crawled through morning traffic from Seminole Heights toward downtown Tampa.
“Come on, baby,” she murmured, patting the steering wheel as the engine gave an ominous little cough at a red light. “You just got a new alternator. Don’t start any more shit with me.”
The Honda responded by vibrating hard enough to make the rearview mirror shake.
“That's right. You think about your choices,” Terra told it.
The light turned green, and she eased forward, keeping one nervous eye on the temperature gauge. The car had been old when she and Jackson bought it used almost eleven years ago and since then it had acquired a collection of small problems that appeared and disappeared with maddening unpredictability.
The passenger-side window no longer rolled all the way down, the air conditioner only worked if she had already been driving for at least ten minutes, and the upholstery on the driver’s seat was split badly enough that Terra had covered it with a cheap seat cover from Walmart so the foam wouldn’t stick to the backs of her thighs.
But it was paid for–that was all that mattered.
She could have used part of the two thousand dollars Taurex had given her to put a down payment on something newer, but she wasn’t about to do that. The money needed to stretch. The Honda might be ugly and temperamental but, for the moment at least, it still ran.
And if this new job worked out, maybe eventually she could think about replacing it.
If this new job works out. Terra tightened her hands on the steering wheel. She still couldn't believe she had actually called him! Couldn’t believe she’d taken the job.
After leaving The Doll House the night before, she had gone straight home, showered until she felt like she had scrubbed Viktor Orlov's hands off her skin, then sat awake in bed for nearly an hour thinking about what she had done.
She hadn't told her mother what had happened—at least not the whole story. She had simply said she'd gotten an office job and wouldn't be working at the club anymore, which had made her mother so happy that Terra had immediately felt guilty for all the months of lying.
Of course, then she'd had to explain why this wonderful office job had appeared out of nowhere, so she'd said it was through a business contact.
That wasn't technically a lie–it was simply a very creative interpretation of reality.
She had also spent most of the night replaying her conversation with Taurex and wondering if she ought to call him back and cancel. He had sounded genuinely surprised when she'd asked about the job—as though he'd almost forgotten he had offered it—but he'd recovered quickly enough.
Office manager. That was respectable. More than respectable, actually. And when she had told him she was studying accounting, he had sounded positively relieved.