Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 132657 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 663(@200wpm)___ 531(@250wpm)___ 442(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 132657 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 663(@200wpm)___ 531(@250wpm)___ 442(@300wpm)
Except he always got hard around her.
It was a mystery for later. She had to get her head in the game. “So why did you change your hair? I bet you’re a cutie with pink hair. It’s the one color I won’t use, though. It’s kind of my mom’s signature color, and my dad calls her Cotton Candy and it’s gross.”
Miranda watched as Harlow “fixed” her hair and redid her lip gloss. “Oh, it was a lot of work.”
Harlow smoothed down her own hair and wondered if Niall liked the deep purple color. She’d kept her blue bob for a long time until she’d realized it was a connection to Jensen.
I love this color. So bright. Like you, baby.
She’d gone straight to the salon and changed the color and started growing it out. “I like going to the salon. Sometimes it’s my only me time. It’s my self-care time.”
“I like it, too,” Miranda said with a smile. “I guess I do miss it. I liked to color coordinate my hair and nails. But then I got this job, and they don’t want us to stand out like that. Natural colors only. I could go red if I wanted to, but I don’t like the way I look with red hair, so this is my only other option.”
“They tell you what to do with your hair? I kind of thought subs were supposed to stand out.”
“How much do you know about the lifestyle?” Miranda asked.
Pretty much everything since her parents didn’t think shame was a real word. But she wasn’t about to talk about her unusual upbringing. “I read a lot. Nate is more into it than I am. He wants to give it a try. I like the way it sounds in the books. It seems like a nice way to live.”
“Oh, this place isn’t like the romance books. I don’t know what other clubs are like because this is the only one I’ve ever worked in, but it’s not like that,” Miranda admitted. “I’ve read those, too. I thought it would be…more like a family. I guess that’s part of what I was looking for.”
Oh, Harlow would bet that was exactly what the young woman had been looking for since she knew what happened with Miranda’s mom. She hadn’t held back when she told the story of their estrangement. Miranda’s mom was pretty filled with guilt. “Yeah, that’s what I like about it, too. I guess I was thinking this place would be like those clubs, but you don’t even have a locker room. Where do you get ready?”
“Oh, we have to come in ready,” Miranda explained. “We have a break room on the floor above where we can store our street clothes, but it’s not easy to get ready there, and there are so many of us we don’t fit.”
“I guess I thought Doms liked to treat subs like they’re princesses.” She loved when Niall called her princess. But only because she could hear the warrior part.
Was he playing her for some reason?
“I’m sure some do. It’s like anything, I guess. Everyone’s different, but I think some of the women who come through here end up leaving because they don’t like it.”
Was Miranda trying to save her? It definitely felt like she was trying to steer her away, which was not the job she’d been given. “What does your Dom think of this place?”
“I don’t have one.”
“You’re a sub without a Dom? Working in the lifestyle? Do you have any you play with?”
Miranda’s head shook. “No. I was seeing this guy before I got the job here, but he wasn’t into this kind of thing. Not that I would have done that stuff with him. I don’t play yet. I know some of the hostesses do and they get good tips, but I haven’t tried it. I think it’s one of the reasons Phil gets pissed with me sometimes. It’s one of the reasons they don’t want us to have boyfriends. They might get jealous.”
And it sounded like she didn’t want to. Harlow turned. She wasn’t going to be able to do this slow. “This doesn’t sound like a normal job. If you’re not comfortable playing, you absolutely shouldn’t play. I know that much.”
Niall would flip his shit when she told him what was going on here. She’d been lucky he hadn’t freaked out and stopped everything when they’d walked past that completely unsafe scene.
Miranda looked over to the door as though trying to make sure no one came through. “You seem nice. Maybe you should get your boyfriend to take you somewhere else. He seems kind, and I worry if he runs with the men who own this place, he won’t be for long. Nice guys don’t last long around here, if you know what I mean.”
“I don’t.” She needed as much information as she could get. Harlow was starting to get a bad feeling about this place. A familiar feeling.