Fall For My Ex’s Mafia Dad
Chapter 65

Janeen seats me at the kitchen table while she fixes us both another drink. When she slides into the seat across from me, her face is gentler and more considerate than it was before. I sigh, grateful for it - Janeen has always teased me, and I don't really care about that, but this is the big sister I came to see. The one who I know has my back through anything.

"Fay," she starts gently. "Does this contract make you feel like a whore?"

"Um," I hesitate, awkward, but really considering her question. "I guess...that was my knee jerk reaction? That he was asking me to be his whore, to pay me for s*x?"

"And would that be a...bad thing?" she asks carefully, her hands wrapped around her drink. "To be paid for s*x?"

I blush as I look away from my sister, realizing that I might have done something very wrong here. I mean, my sister doesn't get paid to have s*x with people - at least, I don't think she does - but she's certainly in an industry that has no shame about taking men's money in exchange for turning them on.

"It's okay, Fay," Janeen encourages me softly. "You can tell me what you think, you won't hurt my feelings."

"Well," I reply, turning back to her. "I guess - no, I don't think it's a bad thing. I don't have any problem with s*x work, as long as women are respected when they do it and aren't exploited. I'm just not sure that it's something I've ever imagined myself doing." I look down at my drink, feeling a little ashamed and not quite knowing why.

"To begin," Janeen declares, her voice soft, "I don't think that this is sex work. I don't think Kent is asking you to be a hooker. That's a much more defined arrangement - s*x exclusively in exchange for money. This contract," she says, pointing at it, "actually doesn't say anything about s*x."

"It doesn't?" I sit up and look towards it suddenly, curious. I mean, I hadn't read it closely, but...

"No, Fay," Janeen says quietly. "What he seems to be asking you for here is discretion. It sounds like he wants to be involved with you, romantically and sexually, but he wants to control the terms and he'd like you not to blab to the press or his enemies about it. And in exchange for your discretion, he'd like to give you, well," she laughs a little here, running a hand through her hair as she stares at the number on the page, "a ridiculous amount of money. Like seriously, Fay, if you turn this down ask him if he's interested in me because I would take half of this amount to -"

"Janeen," I scold, frowning at her and snatching the contract away.

"See?" she quips, smirking at me and lifting her drink to her mouth. "You like him. You don't like me putting his name in my mouth."

"Amongst other things," I murmur, glaring at her, and she laughs, taking a swig and returning her glass to the table.

"Fay," she continues as I take a sip of my own drink, looking over the contract. "What it all comes down to is what you want. Because it sounds like you're already deep within this world, and I think," she gives me a careful look here, inviting me to tell her she's wrong, "that you like it there. That you want to stay in it. Because if you don't, we can pawn that gigantic engagement ring right now and get you on the next plane to Belize."

I blink at her, wondering what she's talking about, and then look down at my hand to realize that I'm still wearing Daniel's engagement ring. I stare at it, shocked, and realize that she's right - right about all of it. That I could run, if I wanted to, but...

Damn it, but I don't want to. A huge part of my knows that it would be the smart thing to do, but the other part of me...

I look my sister in the eye. "You're right," I say, a little grim. "I don't know what it is about this world, Janeen. But I'm not ready to leave it yet."

She shrugs. "I get it. I'm a stripper. Everything logical tells me that this is not a career path that's viable forever, that's not going to get me a white picket fence and the American dream. But honestly, that's not what I want anyway. Baby, you have to figure out what you want."

I bite my lip, looking up at my sister through my lashes, a little ashamed of myself as I finally admit to myself what I want. What I've wanted for weeks now. Janeen steadily holds my gaze. "You want him."

Slowly, I nod.

Her face falls a little with sadness and worry. "It's not...the easy path, Fay," she says, reaching a hand across the table and taking mine. "But I get it." She wrinkles her nose at me. "He's really hot."

I burst out laughing at this, squeezing my sister's hand and pressing my other to my face, covering my eyes. "Oh my god, Janeen," I laugh. "You have to stop saying stuff like that."

"What!" she cries, laughing harder. "If he were really ugly I would tell you to go, but come on Fay, at least he looks like someone who is going to rip your panties off and -"

"Janeen!" I gasp, ripping my hand from my face and glaring at her.

"Oh Fay," she says, letting my hand go and sitting back in her chair. "What do you think you two are going to do, play checkers?" She rolls her eyes again.

I sigh, ignoring her and sitting back in my chair, staring at the table.

"It's a good deal, Fay," she says, gentle again. "I mean, the way this is headed, it sounds like you were going to fuck him anyway. May as well get something from it."

"But how do I do it?" I sigh, slumping in my chair and feeling defeated. "I mean, if I did decide to do this - Janeen, I'm not as brave or savvy as you," I shake my head. "I have no idea how to play this, how to make this world give me what I want. I'm afraid - I'm afraid it's going to eat me alive."

I cover my eyes with my hand again, overwhelmed.

"I don't know, Fay," Janeen replies, and I can hear the smirk in her voice. "It sounds to me like you made the mafia king want to bone you so badly that he called off your engagement to his son and offered you a horse, a beach house, and millions of dollars just to get in your pants." I snap my gaze up at her, again shocked.

She just cocks her head to the side and smiles at me. "Whatever you're doing," she says, raising her glass. "Maybe keep doing it."

"Yeah," I say, laughing a little and wrapping my hand around my own drink. "Maybe I can get a private jet next."

We both grin at each other as our eyes meet, though I roll mine. She doesn't, and instead holds her glass out to me in invitation. After a second of hesitation, I clink mine against it.

"Whatever you decide, Fay," she says happily. "I support you. But whatever you do, don't forget that you're doing this for you. Not for him. When it stops serving you? Get out."

I nod to her seriously, grateful for her wise advice.

And then I drain my glass, leaning forward across the table to ask my sister to help me plan my next steps.