InnocenceForSale.com/Jane (Innocence For Sale Book 3)

by Ada Scott

  Besides, it’s such a lovely evening I don’t really want to spoil it. We’re drinking glass after glass of fine wine, plucking delicious little hors d’oeuvres off silver platters, and standing close together with our bodies touching. I’m tipsy, elated from the rush of being in this exclusive environment, and tingly from being so close to a man like Caleb. We’ve been subtly flirting all night, whispering to each other about how boring and frivolous all these people are. We find ourselves standing in front of a true work of art—a Remedios Varo piece I never thought I would get to see in person.

  “It’s beautiful,” I whisper, staring wide-eyed at the masterful painting. “I could say a million things about it. I’ve studied it in class. I wrote a paper about it last semester. The emotions it evokes... Claustrophobia, futility, frustration, fear. Maybe even unrequited love. It’s like you’re doing everything you can, shaping your whole world around something or someone, but you’re never going to get it. You’re never going to win. You’re building a world you’re not actually even allowed to live in. You’re just spinning your wheels, working yourself to the bone in pursuit of something that will just leave you in the end. It’s heartbreaking, really. Just beautiful.”

  “Beautiful,” he agrees.

  I slowly become aware that Caleb isn’t looking at the painting. Those sea-blue eyes are focused on me. A wave of heat rolls down my body.

  “You’re brilliant, aren’t you?” he says as I turn to face him, my cheeks burning.

  I scoff. “No. No, I’m just a student. I’m kind of obsessed with this stuff, that’s all.”

  “It’s always fascinating to see something through the eyes of somebody who loves it that much. Adds an entirely new level of meaning to it,” he comments, taking my hand. My body is on fire, every ounce of my being stretching toward him longingly.

  “Maybe it’s time we got out of here,” Caleb says softly, his voice low and thrumming with intention. I think I know what he’s getting at, and I agree. We should go. Now.

  I eagerly nod. He grins and leads me through the crowd toward the elevator, and my mind is running in a million directions. There’s more than just a spark between us. There’s a blazing inferno. We’re on fire, and I want nothing more than to be consumed by the flames. I want to give him everything, and I think he might just want the same thing.

  But as we’re approaching the elevator, something catches my eye. There’s a man watching us intently, dressed in all black, with a stern expression. Something about him is menacing. Threatening, even. Why is he watching us? For a moment I wonder if maybe he’s just a guard from Innocence For Sale, tailing us to make sure everything goes smoothly.

  And then I notice that Caleb has stopped in his tracks. He’s looking at the man, too, and his body has gone rigid. There’s a grim look on his handsome face, and it worries me. He quickly tugs at my hand and pulls me into a different alcove of the gallery, out of the strange man’s sight. We weave around a corner and through a door. Wordlessly, Caleb pulls me along a corridor and through another door to a staircase. Then, he glances down at my high-heeled feet and without a moment’s hesitation, he scoops me up into his arms and starts quickly descending the staircase.

  Caleb

  I cradle Jane in my arms carefully like she’s more valuable than all the art pieces we’ve seen tonight, still moving as fast as I can down the stairs and to the floor below. It’s not the first time I’ve carried a civilian in my arms, but this doesn’t feel as impersonal as all those times in the past.

  Were we noticed? Are they on to me? As I feel Jane’s arms tight around me, her body curling into my chest and my biceps, my mind races with what might have tipped off the security. I think about the way I carried myself, the way I spoke, the way Jane and I interacted—anything that could be seen as suspicious.

  Someone must have seen me and thought I looked out of place, or maybe I said something to the wrong person. As far as everyone knows at this little soiree, I’m just a dumb brute the Russians keep around for muscle. They shouldn’t have any reason to suspect me.

  But these damn art dealers are high-stakes players. I should have known they’d have sharper eyes out than your average club scene or mafia card game.

  I push open the manual door of one of the non-alarmed fire escapes on the bottom floor and step out into the cool night air with Jane still in my arms. It’s only then that I realize just how hard my heart is pounding.

  My gaze turns to Jane’s, and I see that that her eyes are wide with fear. In that moment, reality starts crashing in slowly all around me, and I realize just how hyper-focused I’ve become. The sounds of the streets slowly come back to me, then the sounds of laughter and chatting from people far away from the alley we’re standing in, then my own breathing.

  “Caleb, are you okay?” Jane asks. My ears are ringing. The army psych warned me that things like this could happen in stressful situations. But I’ve been in tighter pinches than that by a long shot, and I’ve never felt anything close to what I feel now.

  “I’m fine,” I say after a few heavy breaths, casting a glance over my shoulder before the door closes shut behind us with a click.

  “What happened?” she asks.

  “I’m not sure,” I admit. “Someone was watching us.”

  “Plenty of people were looking at us,” she points out, and I notice her hand is giving my bulging bicep a gentle squeeze. Is she trying to calm me down? She adds with a smile, “You tend to stand out in a crowd. Kind of hard not to notice you.”

  I give a faint smile, but I shake my head. “No, not like that. I saw the guy who was checking us out, and I know that look. I’m a security guy too. I can tell when someone’s about to hone in on a guest. If we hadn’t moved when we did, we’d have men trying to haul us into some back room for questions, and…” I glance over my shoulder once more as I start to walk down the alley, Jane still in my arms, “…these aren’t the types of people you want asking you questions.”

  I see the fear written on Jane’s face again, and I feel my heart sinking. Fuck. She’s not used to any of this life. Hell, she was scared half to death at the very idea of doing sex work—what was I thinking dragging her into a forgery situation?

  “Do you think this was about the…?” she leaves the word forgeries unspoken, as if it would trigger some imaginary alarm.

  “Yeah,” I say simply. I want to say more, but I clench my jaw to hold my tongue. I’ve gotten her too entangled in this shit as it is. Jane doesn’t say anything, but she looks like she wants me to. The anxiety on her face is killing me, and I let out a deep breath and look at her sincerely. “Are you okay?”

  After a moment, she nods, gorgeous eyelashes batting as if she’s remembering where she is now, too. “Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine. It was a smooth ride.” She cracks a smile at her joke to lighten the mood a little, and I can’t help but return it. “I can probably stand on my own now, though.”

  “Oh. Right.” I had half-forgotten that I was still holding her in my arms. The weight of her small frame feels so natural that I might as well have been holding nothing at all. I gently set her down and hear her heels click on the ground as she stands up and smooths her dress out.

  “Do you think we’re being followed?” she asks, casting a quick look to the door behind us, and I offer her my arm, which she seamlessly slips hers around.

  “I don’t know. I didn’t hear anyone behind us, but we should play it carefully. Let’s get back to the limo, but act natural. You did great tonight, by the way—keep that up just a little bit longer.”

  She swallows and nods. I start escorting us to our ride after I give my driver a quick text. My gut is in knots at the sight of her reaction, though, seeing her so jumpy and uneasy.

  “I shouldn’t have gotten you involved in this,” I say, my tone stony. “This isn’t what you signed up for.”

  “I mean, if you want to get technical, there’s probably some legal gray area there,” she says with a soft smile. Even in the thick of
things, when she’s a complete fish out of water, she manages to keep herself upbeat.

  As we make our way down the sidewalk to the limo, I don’t fail to notice that she’s practically leaning in on me the whole way, hugging my side almost as closely as when I was just carrying her. Her body feels warm against mine. My heart is pounding, but it should have calmed down by now from the rush of dodging what might have almost been literal bullets a few minutes ago.

  I keep quiet the rest of the way to the car, since we’re walking near other people. It wouldn’t do to be chatting about art forgeries and dodging security in the middle of a crowd. I stroke her arm gently with my massive hand as we walk, and she seems to find some security in me. She isn’t nearly as shaky as a lot of civilians I’ve been around in situations like this.

  I open the limo door for her, casting one final glance around us before I get in.

  We sit close to each other, and almost the moment I’m in my seat, Jane is melding into my side, arms wrapped around my arm as if we’re still walking together. I look over to her and squeeze her hand reassuringly. We lock eyes a moment, then I turn to the driver’s window.

  “Let’s get back to the hotel,” I say in a calm but firm voice, and the driver gives a curt nod before rolling the partition up.

  “Seriously, don’t worry about me,” she says, even though her face betrays a little more anxiety than that. “I’m just your date, I’m not anyone they’d be worried about.”

  I shake my head, clenching my fists a moment. “That doesn’t matter. They’ve seen me with you. We’re on cameras at the gallery, too. If they think I was up to something in there, then you’re at just as much risk as I am now.”

  And she doesn’t have the benefit of military training to get her out of a tight spot.

  I run a hand over my face with a deep breath. Damn it, this is why I don’t get involved with people. This is exactly what I’ve been worried would happen. It’s not just that someone could get in the way—and Jane certainly didn’t do that tonight—but I couldn’t live with myself if something happened to her because of me. Because I put her in danger.

  Despite all that, though, I feel the warmth of Jane’s body at my side as the limo rolls under us across the roads of Las Vegas, and I can’t lie to myself—it feels good. Really good.

  Why, though? I just met Jane tonight, excluding our brief encounter at the club. She’s just an escort I hired to get this done quietly, and that’s shot to hell. I’ve got to keep myself under control.

  But she’s pressed up against me, and those soft amber eyes have been on me steadily this whole damn time. Does she really trust me?

  I’m the last person anyone should be trusting.

  “Well…maybe,” she finally admits, her voice soft, and I look back over to her. A few moments of silence pass between us. I can tell that the realization of very real danger is setting in. It can be a delayed reaction for people who are new to it. After some time, she manages a smile, nonetheless. She’s braver than she lets on. “So, what happens now?”

  We’re close. Closer than we have been all night. I can feel her breath on me as she waits for my answer, anticipation in her eyes. I know that look, and I know the feeling that must be rushing through her veins. It’s adrenaline. Excitement. The danger, the rush of the fight-or-flight response, it makes you feel things you wouldn’t normally feel. It’s like a drug.

  And it’s addictive.

  “Now, I keep you safe,” I say firmly, in a low and husky voice. “You’re my responsibility, Jane. I wouldn’t drag you into shit like this if I wasn’t going to keep you safe. I wish it didn’t have to be this way, but after all,” I crack a cocky smile, “you’re mine for the week, remember?”

  She bites her lip, careful not to mess up the lipstick on her full mouth, eyes looking into mine carefully. I feel like she can read into me, search me for my true intentions. If so, she’s doing something nobody’s ever been able to do.

  Yet I feel like she’s succeeding.

  “There could be worse things than that,” she says, snuggling in a little closer to me.

  Her whole body is hot against me, and there’s that blush in her cheeks again. Her legs shift. I need to stop this. I need to pull back, and fast. I never get involved with people. My life is too fast, too dangerous. There’s no room for ties like this to other people in my world, and Jane has so much going for her that it would ruin both of us to let this go on.

  I’m supposed to be a professional, but my body has other plans. My cock is swollen and hard under my pants. And Jane is controlling her gaze with so much difficulty that I think she wants to feel me.

  “You’re in over your head,” I say quietly.

  “I know,” she answers.

  Both of us are only half-conscious that we’re leaning in closer to each other, and I watch her soft lips part moments before the limo comes to a halt.

  We pull apart from each other, averting our eyes for a moment. She tucks a stray lock of hair behind her ear, and I open the door to the limo to help her out. As if nothing had happened, she slips her arm around mine, and I give a nod to the driver before escorting her through the hotel.

  We make our way up to her room, and she unlocks it to let us inside.

  “If nothing else, I don’t think anyone’s going to come after us in the middle of a hotel,” she says softly. “So, I think that for tonight at least—”

  Her words get cut off as I take her by the hips, spin her around, and press my lips to hers, shutting the door behind us.

  She’s taken by surprise at first, those gorgeous eyes wide open, but when I slide one hand behind her neck and the other around her ass to draw her closer into me, her eyes flutter shut, and I hear a soft moan from within her as she melts into me.

  I feel my body’s red-hot energy roar in triumph as I grip her possessively, giving it everything I’ve been denying that I’ve wanted all night. I’ve wanted her since the moment I saw her, and I can’t hold it back anymore.

  Her lips are soft and warm against mine, and our tongues explore each other as I slowly turn her around until we’re up against the wall. Her small frame feels so vulnerable against my hard, muscular bulk, but I’m as gentle as she deserves. My hands run down her sides, and I squeeze her as my lips move from her lips to her cheek, then to her jaw and down her neck.

  The sensation makes her gasp. She twitches in surprise and, at first, starts to recoil, but she makes herself expose her neck to me. My lips brush across her soft skin, from where her neck meets her jaw to her collarbone.

  I hear her little gasps as I explore her body. I’ve been gazing at it all night, and every sight of her, every one of her most subtle movements has been driving my body wild.

  I’ve never felt this way before. I’ve only known her for a day, but I feel like the tension in my body is coiled so tightly that I’ve wanted her for years.

  My hands go to her hips, and I lift her up. She gives a yelp, but she wraps her legs around me as if on instinct, and I walk her back to the bed and set her down on it.

  She lets her limbs sprawl out as I take her heels off without breaking eye contact with her. The sight of her is unbelievable, her chestnut hair spilling over the sheets as if floating through water, her legs just begging to be touched.

  I bring my lips to those smooth thighs, and as the scent of her unfurls in my nostrils, I let out a low growl of need.

  I’m about to do the most dangerous thing that’s ever happened to this girl.

  Caleb

  I descend upon her, my mouth to hers with a rough groan as I slip my hands under her, holding her up as I savor the taste of her on my lips. Now that I’ve gotten a taste of her, she’s like a drug to me, and my mind feels like it’s going wild over every inch of her.

  She runs her hands up my side, feeling my hardened abs just under my suit, and as her fingers clench, I know she wants to feel them even more intimately.

  My hands move up her back until I feel the zipper of her dress,
and my finger hooks over the top of it. I break our kiss to look at her steadily, fingers grazing her back as those eyes look at me with so much hunger yet so much patience.

  “I want these off,” I tell her, running my other hand across her dress. “Do you want that?”

  There’s a moment of hesitation written on her face as she pauses, completely still except for the rising and falling of her chest. Color rises to her cheeks. She bites her lip. Finally, she nods, a hand gripping my suit jacket.

  “Yeah,” she says, the word coming out nervous and excited all at once. “Yeah, I want that. But…”

  I tilt my head, watching her patiently, not wanting to pressure her.

  “I want this, but I’m nervous.”

  “That’s okay,” I say, putting a hand to her face and stroking her cheek softly. She puts her hand over mine and smiles. “That’s normal.” But then her eyes flit down toward the hardness in my pants.

  “I...I want to do something, though. Can we, like, fool around?”

  “‘Fool around?’” I repeat with a grin on my face. “Are you sure this isn’t prom night?”

  “Don’t tease me!” she protests with a playful slap at my chest, and I chuckle as I push myself up on my knees and slide my jacket off, tossing it to the side as our lighthearted pause melts away with her lustful gaze up at my form.

  One by one, I unbutton my white shirt, revealing more of my broad chest, rippling with muscle and swollen from the rush of our quick escape. I pull it off and watch with pride as her eyes go wide. She hasn’t seen me like this before, and I can tell I’m beyond her expectations.

  Her hand twitches as if wanting to reach up and touch me, and I crack a smile. “Soon,” I say, standing up and kicking my shoes off before I take hold of her legs and pull her forward. She yelps, and I sit her up. With one hand, I gently lift her chin up so she looks at my eyes.

  “Turn around,” I give in a soft but firm command, and she nods, turning her back to me and tucking her feet under her legs. She’s so close to trembling, but she holds still as I slowly unzip her dress and ease it down, then unhook her bra and let it fall to the bed.