After Hours by Rochelle Alers Page B

we?”
    She couldn’t tell him that there were people in Atlantic City who knew her face, that she’d been seen with too many high rollers and that she’d pulled off too many scores to risk going back. “I don’t…I don’t go to places where there’s gambling and fornication.”
    Lance stared at Dina as if she’d just dropped out of the sky. The last time he’d heard someone mention fornication it was his grandmother, who’d warned him about drinking, smoking drugs and fornicating with fast-ass young women who would try to saddle him with a baby because they knew a good catch when they saw one. He’d been four months shy of his eighteenth birthday when his grandmother had accompanied his parents when they’d driven him to Georgia to enroll in college.
    â€œYou don’t drink, smoke or gamble.” His question was a statement.
    Dina nodded. “And I don’t fornicate.”
    â€œYou don’t sleep with men?”
    They regarded each other for a beat. “No.”
    â€œI’m going to ask you something, and you don’t have to answer it if you don’t want.” She inclined her head. “Are you a virgin?”
    Dina stared wordlessly, his query causing her reply to wedge in her throat. She couldn’t tell him that she’d lost her virginity at eleven when one of her mother’s many “friends” robbed her of her innocence, then gave her money not to tell anyone. She’d become his special girl and he her secret. What he didn’t know was that she hated him, hated what he did to her, but had gotten used to the five or ten dollars he gave her after he finished sweating and grunting. He’d always said the same thing: Baby, you have the sweetest pussy in the whole wide world.
    After he would stumble out of the apartment, she would get up and wash, but no matter how long she’d sit in the tub or linger under the shower, she never felt completely clean. He’d become the first of many who gave her money to lie with them. The only man she hadn’t taken money from was Terence, but he’d given her something the others hadn’t—a baby.
    â€œYes.”
    Lance was momentarily speechless in his shock. He hadn’t realized he’d been holding his breath until he labored to exhale. Usually cautious and distrustful of women, he wanted nothing more than to protect and take care of the petite, exotic woman with the hypnotic hazel eyes with whom he shared the same space. He ran a hand over his face, then stared through the windshield.
    Dina knew her false admission had shocked Lance. That had been her intent because she didn’t want to sleep with him. More than anything she wanted friendship, someone she could trust not to use her for his own selfish motives.
    â€œWe don’t have to go out.”
    â€œWhat!” Lance’s head spun around as if suspended on a spring, his flaring nostrils opening wider. “What the hell are you talking about?” he shouted at her.
    Dina flinched as if she’d been struck across the face. “I said we don’t have to go out—see each other.”
    Lance struggled to contain his rising temper. “Did I say I didn’t want to go out with you? That I didn’t want to see you?”
    Dropping her head, Dina shook her head like a chastised child. “No.”
    â€œThen why would you say that, Dina?” His voice had softened considerably.
    Her head came up, eyes shimmering with unshed tears. “I may not have slept with a man, but I’m not stupid or naive. I know eventually you’re going to want me in your bed, and that’s when it’s all going to come to an end. It’s happened with me before, so I suggest we end it now.” Dina knew she was giving a flawless performance, so much so that she almost believed herself. She suppressed the urge to laugh.
    Shifting on the black leather seat of the