off."
"Free country, Nova-girl." Enjoying the exchange and the way she believed he'd bend to her attitude, he winked, driving his point home.
"Asshole," she muttered.
"Never claimed I wasn't one." He hung his wrist over the steering wheel. "You can either walk your pretty legs to where you're going or hop in the car, and I'll take you where you need to go. But, you're not going to stay under the viaduct by yourself when there's an interstate above your head and any fucking traveler can spot you and decide he'd like a piece of you. Your choice. I have until seven o'clock before I have to go to work, so take your time."
Nova caught her jaw dropping and leaned her head into the car. "Okay, Mister-push-his-nose-into-my-business, did you ever think that I'm a woman who doesn't want a stranger to find out where she's staying?"
"There's only a few places in Federal where a visitor can stay. I have a fifty-fifty chance of picking the right one," he said.
Her full lips puckered and she lowered her brows. "Call me stupid, but I'm not a complete idiot. I don't want you to know my room number and when I lock the door behind me, I'd like to be able to sleep knowing some loser with a shitty car isn't getting his kicks off by stalking me."
"Don't bring my car into this," he said. "It's a Nineteen seventy Plymouth Hemi 'Cuda.
Nova cocked her eyebrow in victory, turned, and walked away. He stared at her ass, swaying from side to side, under the weight of her hurried escape. She judged his car the same way she'd judged him. The same way his friends teased him when they admired his wheels. The same way a woman understood how to aim for his heart.
The same way someone desperate to deflect the attention off themselves lied until they believed themselves.
He started the engine and pulled out onto Main Street with every intention of cutting her off once he turned onto Cedar Street. Nobody was allowed to put down his car.
If she had a problem with him, she needed to deal with him face to face.
He slowed down, rounded the corner, and gazed down the block. Unable to find her, he shifted into second gear and looked in his side mirror. Where the hell had she gone?
Chapter Three
T he last knock on Nova's room came. She remained in the half closed bathroom as instructed by her madam and yawned, covering her mouth. After sneaking back inside early in the morning from her quick escape to the trailer park—thankful she had enough twine to double up and pull the ladder down without it breaking—she only slept a few hours before the noise on the second floor of the building woke her. Then, she'd joined the other ladies for lunch in the kitchen area.
The door to her room closed, and she strutted out, her short robe opened to her naked body.
The tall customer stood with his back to her. She stopped at the end of the bed, ready to finish working for the night.
"There's a condom on the dresser. Put it on." She placed her hand on her hip and kept her voice firm with authority. "What's your name?"
A gruff voice answered her. "Joe."
Unsurprising, he was the third customer who claimed his name was Joe today. Why men chose the name Joe when visiting prostitutes escaped her.
She only knew every time she fucked a Joe; it felt a little like revenge to the original Joe who took her mom away from her. Sex with a Joe was her way of silently shouting the proverbial 'fuck you' at her mom for leaving her behind.
She watched to make sure he put on the condom. A rule that left no room for mistakes.
Nova walked up to him, gazed down at his hardened cock covered with protection, and stepped around him. "You're going to fuck me now and like it."
Brown hair fell forward as the man nodded his head in agreement. "I will."
She pointed to the bed where a rubber backed throw rug lay on the comforter. "Sit down."
Men who wanted a bossy, dominating woman for sex at Red Light bordello requested her services. She sighed loudly in impatience to hurry the customer