Chapter 41 - The Multimillionaire

Chapter 41: Chapter 41 - The Multimillionaire

Carrie looked down at the tablecloth. She didn’t say anything else.

The curtain swept aside, and Luca returned with the card machine.

Jesse punched in the total, then added a five-hundred-dollar tip without blinking. He swiped his card and handed the machine back.

Luca glanced at the screen. His eyebrows shot up. He looked at Jesse, at the loosened tie and the calm face, and at the stunning redhead across the table. He did a little math in his head.

Tech billionaire, Luca decided. Had to be. Some kid who sold an app for a few hundred million and didn’t know what to do with it yet.

"Thank you, sir," he said, with genuine warmth. "Thank you very much."

[Ding!]

[Harem Member Update: Carrie Morton]

[Affection: 20%]

[Ding!]

[You spent $20,000 on Carrie Morton. 10X Critical Hit! Base reward: $200,000.]

[Affection Multiplier: 20%. Base reward multiplied by 20.]

[Total earned: $4,000,000!]

[Ding!]

[Affection Milestone Reached! You have unlocked 2 Lucky Draws!]

Jesse kept his face perfectly calm.

’Draw,’ he thought. ’Both of them.’

[Congratulations! You have drawn: One-Time Full Recovery!]

[One-Time Full Recovery: All of the host’s injuries will heal completely. This effect can only be used once. The host may activate it at any time.]

Jesse nearly laughed out loud.

He thought about Dr. Ramsey’s worried face that afternoon. Two rounds of anesthesia. Swelling. Bruising. Recovery will take time. There’s no rushing it.

Not anymore.

[Congratulations! You have drawn: Sensual Touch!]

[Sensual Touch: The host’s touch greatly amplifies the pleasure a woman feels. The more intimate the contact, the stronger the effect.]

Jesse’s eyes flicked to Carrie.

She was folding her napkin into a careful square, completely unaware.

He remembered the way she’d gasped in the boutique when his hand landed on her ass. That had been without any special ability at all.

He looked away before his face could give anything away.

"Your takeaways are packed and waiting for you at the front entrance," Luca said. "Whenever you’re ready."

*****

Outside, the valet brought the Porsche around to the curb.

Jesse handed him a crisp hundred-dollar bill. The young man stared at it, then at Jesse, then at the overflowing back seat of the car, and decided he was definitely telling his roommates about this one.

Jesse opened the passenger door for Carrie. She slid in, carefully balancing two large insulated bags on her lap, the containers inside still warm.

They drove away from Tribeca and back across the bridge.

Carrie watched the city lights slide past the window. She was quiet, but it wasn’t the frightened quiet from before. She looked tired. Full. A little dazed, like she was still trying to understand what had happened over the last few hours.

It took her a while to notice where they were going.

They weren’t heading toward the address on the napkin. They were heading towards his house. Carrie was certain about it because no man will spend this much on anyone and not expect something in return.

He probably wants to have his way with me tonight, she thought to herself.

She sat up straighter.

"Wait. This isn’t the way to your house."

"No."

"This is my street." She turned to him, wide-eyed. "How do you know where I live?"

Jesse didn’t answer. He just gave her a small, sideways smile and pulled the Porsche over to the curb in front of her building.

The four-story walk-up with the broken buzzer. The flickering light above the entrance. The trash cans lined up along the sidewalk.

Carrie stared up at her own window. Then at Jesse.

He got out and walked around to open her door. He offered his hand. She took it and stepped out onto the cracked sidewalk in her gold slip dress and nude heels.

She looked so wildly out of place on that street that it almost made him smile.

Jesse opened the trunk and the back seat and started unloading. Garment bags. Shoeboxes. Shopping bags stuffed with tissue paper. The Hermès box. The Bottega bag. It took four trips up four flights of creaking stairs, Carrie leading the way with her heels in her hand, Jesse behind her with his arms full.

On the final trip, he set the last few bags down in front of her door and straightened up, a little out of breath.

"That’s everything."

Carrie stood in front of her door, surrounded by more luxury than her building had probably ever seen. She looked down at the two insulated takeaway bags in her hands.

She held one of them out to him.

Jesse blinked.

"What’s this?"

"It’s yours." She pushed it gently into his hands. "You said I could give it to whoever I wanted. So I want you to have it."

Jesse looked down at the bag.

He’d figured she’d keep both. One for herself. One for her sister, probably. Or she’d keep them both for herself, to stretch them out over a few days. After everything she’d told him about six hundred dollars a week and rent she could barely make, he wouldn’t have blamed her.

Instead, she’d given half of it back to the man who’d just spent seven hundred thousand dollars on her.

"Thank you," Carrie said quietly. "For dinner. For... everything. I still don’t understand any of this." She looked up at him, her grey eyes soft in the dim hallway light. "But thank you."

Jesse held the warm bag in his hands and looked at her for a long moment.

Tatiana hadn’t thanked him for anything he had done for her or worried about his wellbeing yet this woman literally gives a fuck.

Jesse couldn’t help comparing the two women. It was hard not to. Carrie was definitely much prettier and curvier.

He’d spent the last twenty-four hours trying to figure out who Carrie Morton really was. A con artist. A thief. A honeypot. An accomplice to the man who’d nearly killed him.

But standing in that cramped, dim hallway, holding the food she’d just handed him, he knew one thing for absolutely certain. She is not like Tatiana.

Carrie Morton wasn’t a horrible person.

Not even slightly.