Chapter 698

Xander let out a couple of startled coughs on the other end, clearly caught off guard by my overly sweet tone. “What kind of favor?” he asked, trying to sound composed.

“DracoLux doesn’t just have male models; they must have female ones too, right? Are you close to any of them?” I asked bluntly. Now that I was sure he was Hayden, I didn’t see the point in holding back.

Honestly, it was almost laughable. After all my sneaky efforts to figure out if he was Hayden, a simple plate of meatballs had been the thing to out him.

“What are you planning to do?” he asked, still keeping up his act.

I couldn’t tell if the meatballs were his way of dropping a hint, but since he was so committed to the undercover bit, I decided to roll with it. “Oh, nothing big. I just want to try something new—see what it’s like to be a female model there.”

“What?” His voice cracked, loaded with disbelief.

“I want to be a female model in DracoLux,” I repeated, biting back a laugh. “I figured you could help me get in.”

“That’s not happening,” he said immediately.

Feigning innocence, I asked, “Why not? What, am I not pretty enough? Is my figure not good enough?”

“It’s neither of those,” he said, his tone suddenly serious—so Hayden. “It’s just not a place for you.”

“Why not? You’re working there, aren’t you?” I shot back on purpose.

The line went quiet for a few seconds before he finally said, “I won’t let you go there. And I won’t refer you.”

Now that’s the Hayden I know.

But since he still wasn’t admitting it outright, I decided to keep up the act. As far as I was concerned, he was Xander—the perfect target for a little teasing.

“Fine, then. I’ll figure it out myself,” I said, acting like I was about to hang up. Before I could, though, he cut in.

“What do you want to do? Just say it, and I’ll help you,” he said, clearly catching on to my intentions.

I tapped my nails on the desk, keeping my voice playful. “I really do just want to experience the life of a ‘female model’ in a nightclub.”

He didn’t answer right away, so I threw in a dramatic sigh. “Why is it that men can ‘experience’ whatever they want, but we women can’t?”

His tone dropped, serious and angry. “Do you even know what the female models at DracoLux actually do? Do you understand how hard it is to get out once you’re in?”

His words hit like a bucket of ice water. My chest tightened as his anger sank in. Demi hadn’t been lying—Cole had. DracoLux wasn’t some harmless “entertainment only” spot like he’d tried to sell me.

I thought about Hayden—no, Xander—spending months at that place. Before I could stop myself, I blurted, “And you? How many women have you… slept with?”

The silence that followed was suffocating. My thoughts started spiraling. “Why aren’t you answering? Is it because there were none? Or because you’ve lost count?”

“None,” he said.

I let out a small sigh of relief, but it didn’t last long. A place like DracoLux wasn’t somewhere you could just refuse clients without consequences. If Hayden had managed to stay clean, I couldn’t even imagine the price he’d paid to do it.

Still, knowing Hayden the way I did, I couldn’t imagine him touching another woman so casually. If he had, how could he face me now?

Loyalty—especially when it came to the body—wasn’t something anyone could just brush off, no matter who they were.

But this wasn’t the time to press him on it, so I let it slide and threw his words back at him instead. “If you can stay clean in a place like that, then so can I.”

He exhaled heavily on the other end. “You’re really set on this?”

“Of course,” I said, leaning into my stubborn tone. “I want to see what DracoLux is really like—with you.”

“You won’t get in,” Xander replied, his voice dropping. “Not while Cole and Wayne are keeping you under their protection. You’re their golden girl.”

The bitterness in his tone didn’t go unnoticed. I laughed lightly. “Exactly. Which means even if I do get in, no one would dare book me, right?”

“And do you really think they’d even let you in?”

He was right, of course. I wasn’t actually planning to go. Like he’d said, once you were in, it wasn’t easy to leave. I wasn’t about to gamble with my safety.

But teasing him? Oh, I could do that all day.