Money Shot (41 page)

Snot streamed out of my nose. It mixed with tears and clung to my chin. I wanted to tell him the truth. The truth about me. I wasn’t that way at all. He caught us in a horrible, inappropriate moment. But that wasn’t me. It wasn’t.

“Captain Barclay,” I said, choking on the words as they muscled passed the lump in my throat.

“What? What could you possibly say that could mean anything? Surely, you don’t think I’m fool enough to believe your lies. I am no fool, Charlie.”

“I know sir,” I said. “It’s just that… that.”

I looked at my feet, at my red-painted toes poking out of open sandals. They seemed cute before. Now they seemed easy. Too forward. I didn’t want to see them anymore.

I looked up and caught his eyes.

“I’m a virgin, sir,” I said.

“What?”

“I’ve never been with a man, sir.”

“You lie.”

“No. It’s the truth. I’m saving myself for marriage. I know that’s what a real lady should do.”

That wasn’t the whole truth, but it sounded good.

“I wish I could believe that,” he said.

“I swear it’s the truth. Ask Ashton.”

“He would only know about any relations between the two of you. Not what may have likely happened before his ship pulled into your port.”

“Not Ashton. Not another. No man. I swear it.”

He shook his head and considered.

“There is a way to know for sure,” he said. “If you’ll cooperate.”

What did he have in mind? A lie detector test. He probably had all the equipment in one of the hundreds of rooms on board.

“Anything, sir. I have nothing to hide.”

“I’ll be the judge of that.”

A lie detector test then. I’d read how the people who gave them had to interpret the results of the scrawled lines. Had to judge which parts were truth and which were fiction.

Fine. I could do that.

Captain Barclay pressed a button on the intercom panel on the wall.

“This is the captain,” he said. “Locate Dr. Fox and tell him to meet me in the clinic. Don’t disturb Mrs. Barclay about it. I don’t want her disturbed.”

“Umm, yes sir,” the speaker echoed back.

Was Dr. Fox trained in reading the wavy lines of the test? A psychologist probably.

“Charlotte, I want to believe you. It’s clear Ashton is fond of you.”

“I promise you it’s the truth, sir. I’ll take the lie detector test.”

“Lie detector test?”

“You know. So you can see that I’m telling the truth.”

“You mistake me. I have a much more accurate method to determine the truth of your assertion.”

“You do?”

“Yes. I will have Dr. Fox check your vagina for innocence, or deception.”

He was no psychologist.

I almost passed out. My pulse raced. My full bosom strained against the buttons of my dress.

My vagina? What?

“If you don’t allow the inspection, rest assured that you will never marry my son.”

I stood there. Naked and defenseless. Clothed in the shame of what was to come. But armored by my love for Ashton.

He was worth it. He was worth anything. And what did I have to hide? Dr. Fox would check and it would be over with. He would see my inexperience and report it to Captain Barclay.

It was horrible. Terrible. Horrifying. Terrifying to consider. But the thought of losing Ashton forever was worse. I would do anything to have a chance at my forever with Ashton. He deserved that. We deserved that.

Besides, the seed of an idea sprouted in my mind. Maybe I could have everything. Love and revenge.

“Fine,” I said.

“Fine, you agree to withdraw your ridiculous assertion of propriety?”

“No. Fine, let’s do the examination.”

“How long will you play out this charade, girl?”

“Until you accept me as your future daughter-in-law. Until you understand it is no charade.”

Chapter Six

The defiant fire in my belly returned. It gave me strength. If not courage, then something close to it. What right did he have to call my truth a lie?

The smug bastard. The thieving thug.

Our worlds were nothing alike, but that didn’t mean I walked the streets at night, slinging blowjobs for five dollars a pop.

And I certainly didn’t shit on people’s dreams because it made me money. What an arrogant asshole.

“Follow me, Charlotte,” Captain Barclay said. “I sincerely hope you aren’t lying to me.”

“You want me to show you right here?”

I grabbed my dress and hinted at lifting it. I shouldn’t have said it. It merely confirmed the loose suspicions he already harbored.

But it felt good. To push against him. To show him I wasn’t beaten. Wasn’t his doormat to dirty and discard.

“I’m sure I wouldn’t be the first,” he said “But no. Dr. Fox’s expertise is required.”

That was something. Dr. Fox was about ten thousand times nicer than Captain Barclay. If I had to show my pussy to somebody, I could cling to that small ray of sun.

I followed him through another endless series of doors and hallways. Seriously, did any person need this much? If not, then how much was enough? For the first time in my life, I realized that maybe enough was never enough for some people. Like no matter how much they took, they still wanted more.

It didn’t have to make sense.

This excess of wealth certainly didn’t make sense. The rooms we passed through looked surgically clean. Like they’d never been lived in, which they probably hadn’t. It was room to be room. Unoccupied space as modern art. Indulgent like the poorer aspects of it.

We finally arrived at the clinic. It was a small lobby. An old-fashioned scale was against one wall. A couple of plush chairs and a couch along another. There were no magazines on the glass table. I guess you didn’t need any when there was never a wait.

“Come in, come in,” Dr. Fox said.

He ushered us into an exam room and slid the door shut. It looked basically like every doctor’s room I’d ever visited, only the art was nicer. Not those sad, lifeless prints that showed a happy sunset on the beach or over a hill. The colors all washed out and dull. The kind you see in every hotel corridor.

The art on the walls was a series. The female form in broad strokes. Blues and reds. Beautiful.

“This is Mrs. Barclay’s exam room,” Dr. Fox said, “but I don’t suppose she’d mind if you borrowed it.”

“Better not to tell her,” Captain Barclay said. “She can be so possessive, you know.”

“The captain sets the course,” he said.

The speaker on the wall by the door crackled to life.

“Captain, sir,” a voice said.

Captain Barclay thumbed the switch on.

“What is it?”

“Mrs. Barclay is looking for you.”

“Tell her I’m indisposed. Sick from shellfish. Tell her any goddamned thing and don’t bother me again!”

He shouted into the intercom and then whirled back around.

“Do I have to do every goddamned thing around here?”

Dr. Fox patted him on the back.

“Easy Captain, remember your blood pressure.”

Captain Barclay huffed and snarled.

“What are we here for,” Dr. Fox said.

He touched my chin, tilted it back and forth, looked into my eyes.

“Feeling queasy? Motion sickness getting to you?”

I did feel queasy. The subtle motion as you walked down visibly stationary halls didn’t help. But that wasn’t the big reason.

The big reason was because he was going to be looking at my pussy in the not distant enough future.

“It’s not that, Ollie,” Captain Barclay said. “We’re here for a more delicate matter. For Ms. Dunn’s sake, one we should keep to ourselves. “

Dr. Fox’s eyebrow arched like a mountain grew on his forehead. His slender face grew more so as he sucked his cheeks in and pursed his lips.

“And what might that be?”

“The girl has designs on my son. As much as I wish it were otherwise, Ashton seems taken. Why I don’t know.”

“She’s not so bad, now is she?”

“That is what we are here to determine. I have no confidence in her assertions of virtue. If any daughter of mine—”

“Get to the point, Howie,” Dr. Fox said.

Captain Barclay looked scandalized for a moment. I guessed he didn’t like inferiors cutting him short. Even if they were lifelong friends. His expression eased in an instant and he continued.

“I won’t allow a woman of ill repute to be a part of this family,” he said. “I’ll have no whore bearing my grandsons.”

Dr. Fox turned to me.

“Dear, are you a whore?”

I almost laughed.

“No.”

He turned back.

“There you have it, Howie,” he said.

“Despite masturbating my son in my presence, she claims to be a virgin. Claims to be a woman of high moral standing.”

“Just after we met? You are a feisty cat! Got the curves for it,” he said as his eyes lingered on my chest.

“I want proof, Ollie,” Captain Barclay said.

“The only way I know would be to—”

“Exactly,” Captain Barclay said. “Her words do not assure me. I want evidence.”

Dr. Fox turned back to me.

“And you’re okay with this?”

NO!

I wasn’t okay with this! What kind of dumbass was this guy? But did I have a choice? Did I have any other option if I wanted to keep Ashton in my life? Not so far as I could see.