Total pages in book: 64
Estimated words: 60905 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 305(@200wpm)___ 244(@250wpm)___ 203(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 60905 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 305(@200wpm)___ 244(@250wpm)___ 203(@300wpm)
“What’s going on, Brad?”
“It’s Brady, actually.” He pointed at Colton. “This is Cole. And that’s Gideon. We’re—”
“Down to Earth.” My eyes closed briefly as a lot of things clicked into place. Down to Earth was the name of their online channel.
They posted videos about simple things—how to grill the perfect steak. How to change a flat. How to hang a picture straight. Super boring stuff like that. But I doubted my audience was bored by the drama happening right now.
This was bad. Really bad.
“So you remember us.” Gideon’s deep voice was disapproving enough to pull my gaze up to his scornful face.
Brad moved to join the other two and addressed my audience. “Ms. James seems a bit tongue-tied, so I’ll fill you in.” He glanced up at Penny, and she nodded, indicating she was getting the shot. Even in this much of a shitstorm, the show must go on.
“As I alluded to a bit earlier, a few months ago, Ms. James said some things that were both unkind and untrue about our online channel. That we made boring videos and that you’d rather watch paint dry. And your thesis, which seemed to be that the only reason we were getting good ratings—particularly from young women—is because we were good-looking.”
“Well, the good-looking part is true,” Gideon muttered, and a wave of loathing rose up in me. Not only had these guys tricked me on camera, but they were being smug as hell about it. Or at least the new guy was.
None of this made much sense, but I knew I couldn’t let anyone online or offline see that I was upset. “So, you decided that the best revenge for what I said was to give me a massage?” There. Hopefully that would make them seem foolish, or maybe I was just grasping at straws.
“That was just to get you here,” Colton said. Or wait, no, his name was Cole, and the other was Brady. Now that they were standing side by side, I could see a resemblance between them. Were they brothers?
If so, I was surprised I hadn’t remembered that. I’d watched some videos on their channel, but that had been a few months ago. I hadn’t given them much thought since—except to wonder what had gotten into me.
“So there isn’t really a Pleasure Institute of Chicago?” I tried to put contempt in my voice for their choice of a name, but in actuality, it seemed like there should be something like that.
“Nope,” Brady said. “All fake.”
“But why?” I asked again.
It must’ve taken them an enormous amount of effort to get space in this building. If it were any other men, I’d think maybe one of them worked here, but as far as I could remember, they were three country bumpkins who lived in a town so remote it was miles from the smallest and farthest of the Chicago suburbs. I couldn’t remember the name of it, but I knew it was northwest of here.
“We wanted to prove a point,” Cole said.
“We did prove a point,” Gideon corrected.
Even though it had been Cole and Brady who had lied to my face, he was the one who bothered me the most. He just looked so full of himself, standing there in black jeans and a tight tee that showcased the muscles of his chest and biceps. I’d attributed the firm, steady pressure of the robotic hands to machine strength, but now I could see exactly where that strength had come from.
“Which is?”
“That we can best your high-tech toys,” Brady said with a grin. Unlike Gideon’s smirk, I didn’t want to smack it off his face.
“No one said that.” I spoke without thinking, which was never a good idea during a livestream.
“You did, sweetheart.” Gideon’s blue eyes were dark as he stared me down. “I believe we have several thousand witnesses.” He gestured toward Penny and my phone.
“Tens of thousands,” I corrected. “Okay, you give a good massage. But I stand by my comments. Would you really have spent so long and been so thorough if you hadn’t been trying to teach me a lesson or whatever your goal was?”
“Depends on who I was touching,” Gideon said. The audience was probably melting over those words—as I’m sure the bastard knew.
I switched tactics. “I use tech all day long. It’s brought nothing but good things to my life. What am I supposed to do, give all that up and replace it with a guy like you?” I should’ve said guys, plural, but this Gideon guy was really getting under my skin.
It was Cole who answered. “I’m glad you brought that up.” His evil smile didn’t have quite the potency of Gideon’s, but I instantly knew I’d made a mistake. “That’s exactly what we want you to do.”
“What?” They weren’t making any sense, but my muddled mind wasn’t helping the situation. It was jarring to be in the midst of pure, unadulterated pleasure one moment and then to be yanked out into this weird and hostile reality the next.