Total pages in book: 126
Estimated words: 124077 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 620(@200wpm)___ 496(@250wpm)___ 414(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 124077 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 620(@200wpm)___ 496(@250wpm)___ 414(@300wpm)
Terra slowed without meaning to.
Holy shit–people actually lived like this.
She became uncomfortably aware of the fact that her purse had come from Target and the cheap portfolio under her arm had a scratch across one corner. She felt like the Country Mouse from the old fairy tale going to visit the City Mouse for the first time.
Nobody seemed to be paying attention to her, but Terra felt as though they were. How could anyone look at her and not know she was out of place?
That’s enough of that, she told herself firmly. You belong here as much as anyone else.
She straightened her shoulders and kept walking.
There were several banks of elevators along one wall, each with discreet brass lettering above it. RESIDENTIAL LEVELS, read one. AMENITIES, read a second. PARKING, was the one she’d come out of.
Separated slightly from the others, was a pair of elevators with polished gold doors. PENTHOUSE ACCESS, read the brass plaque above.
Terra lifted her chin and headed across the marble lobby toward the golden elevator. She was almost there when a woman's voice stopped her.
“Excuse me? Miss?”
Terra turned.
One of the lobby employees had come out from behind the reception desk. She was probably in her thirties, tall and painfully elegant in a fitted black suit with her dark hair pulled into a perfect bun. A little gold nameplate pinned to her lapel read Marissa.
“Yes?” Terra asked.
Marissa smiled, but it was the kind of smile that didn't reach her eyes.
“Can I help you find something?” she asked, her eyes sweeping up and down Terra’s cheap clothes and secondhand shoes. “I don’t believe we’ve seen you here before.”
“No, thank you. I know where I'm going,” Terra said firmly, though her heart was pounding. She turned back toward the gold elevators.
But Marissa clearly wasn’t one to give up when she thought that she’d sniffed out an intruder.
“I’m sorry but those elevators are restricted,” she said, with a warning tone in her voice.
Terra looked at her coolly, trying to appear unaffected by her tone.
“I know.”
“Penthouse residents and authorized guests only,” the other woman emphasized.
“I know,” Terra repeated.
For a moment the woman simply stared at her, like she couldn’t believe Terra could be so dense and so low class at the same time.
Terra knew that look.
She had gotten variations of it at expensive stores when she wore jeans, and nobody bothered to ask if she needed help and at school conferences when she didn’t have time to remove her wig and makeup after dancing. And she had certainly gotten it at The Doll House whenever some wealthy customer realized that “Bunny Canyon” actually had opinions.
It was the look people gave when they had already decided where you belonged and Terra was tired of it. It made her think of that scene in Pretty Woman where the snooty counter girl wouldn’t let Julia Roberts shop at the fancy boutique.
“I'm going to the penthouse,” she said bluntly.
Marissa's elegantly sculpted brows rose ever so slightly.
“And do you have an appointment?” she asked, clearly thinking there was no way Terra could possibly have an appointment with anyone who lived in such a rarified space.
Terra lifted her chin higher.
“Yes, I do.”
“With whom?” Marissa wanted to know.
Terra smiled sweetly.
“With a gentleman named Taurex. He’s a Minotaur Monstrum. Maybe you know him?”
For the first time, the woman's expression changed–not much, but enough. Instead of looking snooty, she now looked surprised.
“Mr. Taurex?” she repeated. “You know him?”
“Yes. I'm his new office manager,” Terra told him. “So you’ll probably be seeing me around quite a bit.”
She gave the other woman a knowing smile and then turned back to the elevator and pressed the call button.
To her relief, the gold doors opened immediately so she didn’t have to stand there with the snooty attendant staring at her in disbelief.
She stepped inside at once, but Marissa stepped in after her, a determined look on her face.
“I'm sorry, but you'll need authorization before—”
Terra opened the small keypad panel beside the elevator controls. Then, very deliberately, she punched in the code Taurex had given her.
The display flashed green, and letters appeared on the electronic panel.
ACCESS GRANTED. PENTHOUSE LEVEL.
For one delicious second, Terra simply looked at Marissa.
There–take that! she thought but didn’t say.
The other woman stared at the display in apparent disbelief, then she cleared her throat.
“Well, I suppose since you have the code…”
“Have a nice day,” Terra said sweetly. “I’m sure I’ll see you later when the boss and I go to lunch.”
Of course, she didn’t know any such thing, but she couldn’t help rubbing it in some. She liked surprising people and disrupting their expectations–especially when they had already made a judgment about her.
Reluctantly, Marissa stepped back out, leaving her alone in the golden elevator and the doors slid closed.
Terra waited until they were completely shut before muttering,
“Big mistake. Huge,” and grinning to herself.