by H. Q. Frost
A picture of Justin's bare chest, gloriously flaunting defined pecs, and beautiful tattoos sent her stomach into a flip. Glancing around as if someone were there to catch her ogling, she let out a small giggle, quickly halting it. She couldn't have him sending half naked pictures; that'd surely piss Ian off if he ever found out.
Following the picture and the thousand worried thoughts that filled Lilith's head, he sent text.
JUSTIN: See the red? That's not my tattoo, I broke out in hives from this janky ass toxic shit
Relief had her laughing out loud as she studied the picture closer to see the redness he referred to. The only thing she saw on the screen was a chest she wanted her tongue on, tracing the lines of the intricate work tattooed on his flesh.
Biting her lip, she typed out a message and hit send before convincing herself not to.
EL: Do you work on the weekends?
JUSTIN: Nope. Do you? ;)
EL: I work 365 days a year if I have to.
JUSTIN: Think I can book you last minute? Only problem is my day is kind of jam packed, like 10 hours jam packed and a 20G date isn't in my budget this weekend.
EL: How much can you afford?
Lilith laughed aloud. The guilt for charging him was there, but she wanted to see him. If it wasn't a paid for date, she worried Ian would not only be stressing over work and Karen, but about Lilith's interest in Justin.
JUSTIN: I got 5G on it
EL: That'll get you 2.5 hours. Call Ian Jacks. I'm sure he'll want to make a little money today.
JUSTIN: So after 2.5 hours are you gonna walk home? It's a long walk
EL: I suppose if I'm having a good time I'll stay, not with you of course, I'll wander off and do my own thing
JUSTIN: I could actually see you doing something like that
EL: Really? You think I'm that much of a bitch? Tisk tisk Mr. Borg you don't know me that well.
JUSTIN: I hate MR. BORG!
EL: I suppose I don't know you that well either. You should probably stop texting me and book that date.
With a laugh, Justin dialed Luxe.
"Good afternoon. Luxueux."
"Ian Jacks, please."
"He's in a meeting. Perhaps I can help you? This is Tash."
"Hi, Tash, I need a last minute date, in like thirty minutes."
"Oh. Well, uh, okay. Let me see who's available."
"I'll only see Lilith."
"Oh um, I don't think she's available. I'm sorry, who is this?"
"My customer number is J B twelve twelve."
"Oh okay. Um, I have to call Lily. Do you want to hold?"
"I'll hold. Thank you."
While Tash dialed Lilith, Justin text her.
JUSTIN: You better say yes
"Lily?" Tash hesitantly asked.
"Hi, Tash."
"Oh, you knew it was me?" She giggled. "I have a date for you today but it's in thirty minutes. I know it's last minute but he just called. Can you do that?"
The amusing thought to decline flit through her mind but if she only had thirty minutes, she didn't have time for games.
"I can do that. What kind of date?"
"I didn't get the details yet. I wanted to make sure you're free. I'll send it to your sched okay?
"Thanks, Tash."
Tash clicked back over to Justin. "You still there?"
"Yes." Grinning, he waited to hear that Lilith said no.
"She is available. What type of date, sir? Also, I have to contact the driver."
"No, I'll pick her up."
"I can't allow that. I'm sorry. She's a driver only escort."
"Yeah, okay. It's at a cider mill so she needs to dress warm. She's meeting my family so appropriately dressed to portray she's my girlfriend. Two and a half hours."
"Yes, sir, and just charge it to the Amex on file?"
"Yeah. Thank you." Upon hanging up, he called Lilith.
"Mr. Borg, to what do I owe the pleasure?" She grinned.
After a growling chuckle, he said, "I really thought you'd give me a hard time."
"I thought about it."
"You need to call off your driver. She wouldn't let me pick you up and I don't have time to wait for him."
"Okay. When will you be here? I'm at the condo."
"You jump around a lot. I'll be there in thirty minutes."
Lilith caught Tony just as he was leaving his house to pick her up. "You don't have to come. I'm meeting him in the city and I'm walking."
"I'll meet you out. I have to keep an eye on you."
"No you don't. If there's a problem call Ian and tell him I wouldn't let you. I'm leaving my house right this minute so don't show up." She hung up the phone and opened the schedule app to get the date details, wincing because he didn't mention family.
Like a teenage girl getting ready for a date, she began pulling clothes from drawers and the closet. Black jeans and a red shirt. The shirt offered too much cleavage. She threw it into the pile of clean clothes on the floor then pulled on a blue sweater. After frantically brushing through her hair several times, she applied a slight amount of makeup until she heard the doorbell. While pulling her boots on, she hopped toward the door, running the rest of the way once they were on. To appear natural and collected, she took a quick inhaled breath before pulling the door open.
It was a failed attempt at looking collected and he laughed. "Hi."
"Hi." She smiled, trying to slow her panting.
"Running from zombies, ZP?" He stepped inside.
"Uh, yes." She pushed him back out. "The house is full of zombies. We should go."
He attempted to look around her while she carefully pushed him down the stairs.
"My house looks like a tornado hit because I only had twenty minutes to find something appropriate enough." Pausing a beat, she looked down at what she was wearing. "Does this suffice?"
"More than you know." He got into his jeep with a smirk.
When her phone began to ring, she winced seeing it was Ian. "Lilith Tudor." she answered.
"Why isn't Tony driving you?"
"I'm with a client at the moment."
"Don't give me shit, Lily. I know who you're with. Why didn't Tony drive you?"
"It was within walking distance. Can I get back to you in two and a half hours?"
"Lily—"
"Bye." Hanging up, she smiled at Justin, enjoying his messy curls and aviators blocking his blue eyes.
"You want to tell me about your boyfriend? Does he know what you do for a living?"
"No." Her gaze went out the window, not wanting to have a conversation about her boyfriend.
"Does he know you like spending time with me?"
"No."
"Do you often spend time with your clients besides work?"
"No. You're only my second client."
"Do you often spend time with men other than your boyfriend?"
"We're not that serious," she stated.
With raised eyebrows, he glanced at her. "You failed to mention that."
"Oh, did I?" She smiled.
"Oh, you did." He shook his head with a laugh. "Why are you playing hard to get?"
"Hard to get!" She started to laugh. "I'm going to meet your family!"
"I'm paying you!" he exclaimed and she laughed harder.
"I'm giving you a hell of a discount, which if my boss finds out about, I may get in trouble for."
"How will he find out? He keep tabs on your personal life?"
"We are friends." Changing the subject she said, "Your dad doesn't like me."
He didn't doubt it but he wanted to know what made her form that opinion. "Why do you say that?"
"He informed me he knows what kind of girl I am and he thinks I'm after you for your money."
"Well, aren't you?" He grinned.
"Friday I wasn't and after—" She looked at the time. "Four today, I won't be."
"What else did my dad say? He giving you a hard time?"
In an attempt to remembe
r, she scrunched her nose. "I'm troublesome, I think he said that. I don't remember. It was last night at your office party."
"Yeah, ignore him," he muttered. "Rancorous old man."
"I'm sure he's sweet when he likes someone."
"You don't know him." He laughed.
"I apparently don't know anyone. So why don't you tell me."
"About my dad?"
"No. I'm not dating your dad. What if your family asks me questions like where the hell did I come from?"
"We'll tell them we recently met at a party and we've had a few dates, which is the truth."
"Where'd you grow up?"
"Here, Chicago. You?"
"Princeton. Your parents still together?"
"My mother was killed eight years ago—"
"Oh god, sorry." She glanced at him.
"It's why I became a lawyer." He smiled. "My dad always assumed me and Barry would follow in his footsteps, but I never wanted to be a lawyer."
"What'd you want to be?"
"Besides in a band?" A playful chuckle bounced around the jeep. "I wanted to be an archeologist."
"For real?" Pain slapped her face as her smile widely expanded.
"Yeah, I did. Then my mom was killed and my dad was fighting to get the asshole behind bars, but there wasn't enough evidence to incriminate so I wanted to dig deeper, get through the loopholes and shit."
"What happened to your mom?" she hesitantly asked.
"She was mugged and stabbed." He glanced at her.
"Oh god, Justin, that's terrible."
"I got him behind bars. It took years, but I did it. I was in school down in Florida when it happened and immediately dropped out and went to school here until I could get into Harvard, which my dad paid for my acceptance. They didn't want a recently married college dropout except with the right amount of money. Anyway, after school, my dad gave me a job and I got the asshole convicted."
"Why couldn't your father do that?"
"He could, he didn't want to." His impassive shrug didn't match the irritation in his tone. "He chooses to ignore things that upset him, and eventually the case became too much for him."
"So you and your ex moved to Massachusetts so you could go to school?"
"Yeah." He bitterly laughed. "We were married. My dad wanted me in classes year round and didn't want me to work, so I told him he'd have to support us. He did because she sure as hell wasn't going to. She got high all day while I busted my ass in school almost being kicked out several times for attendance reasons due to her overdosing."
"She really was on drugs?"
"Still is. She's got a lot of problems."
"Doesn't everyone?" Lilith looked out the window.
"I suppose so. What about you? What kind of problems do you have?"
Her mouth opened but she stopped herself from spilling it. When he glanced at her with a smirk, she chuckled.
"Come on, El. Let me in a little." A playful smirk stayed on his lips, but he meant it.
"My father died from liver cancer because he was an alcoholic. My mother left me when I was ten and a few years later my stepmother became my mother. Well, the best she could to a damaged prepubescent teen. When my dad died I moved here and worked for a leasing company and started dating someone I worked with. I pretty much moved in with him only knowing him a little while. He treated me like I was his child more than his girlfriend. I ended up leaving him because he got rough with me one day and then I found out he was extorting cash from the company. I'm still waiting to be pulled into that somehow."
"You knew?"
"No! No, I had no idea he was stealing, but his ex-wife knew and she offered me thirty thousand dollars to testify that Sloan, that's my ex, tried to rape her because that's what happened to me."
"What did? He raped you?" he blurted.
"He tried. He'd told her about it so she got the idea to come to me and pay me off to say he did the same to her and that she tried to warn me but I didn't believe her. Then he did it to me. Just ridiculous stuff I did not agree to." She rolled her eyes.
"El, if you need a lawyer for any of that you better call me."
"I thought you only dealt with celebrities." She grinned at him.
"I'm serious." The earnest look hardening his face made her smile.
"I will. I've escaped it this far. Anyway, those are my problems."
"I think we're about even in fucked up-ness."
"So you're still friends with your ex?"
"Yes and no. I've been taking care of her so long I feel like that's what I'm supposed to keep doing. It's hard to distance myself from her."
"Do you still love her?"
"I think I'll always love her in some way, deep, deep down." He glanced at her, checking for an understanding expression, but there wasn't one. "You still love your ex?"
"No." She chuckled. "Not at all. I thought I did, but I really don't think so. After him, I found out what real love is. I loved him because he took care of me, like my father did. I know it sounds sick, but I didn't love him like you should love a boyfriend."
"So what happened? Shaun?"
Her cheeks pinked and she chuckled. "Maybe."
"Alright, too personal." He grinned. "I just avoid it all together. Women, relationships, love."
"Well I'm a woman and you're paying for a relationship with me. You're not in love with me, but the other two things apply."
"I pay for women so I can avoid all that other shit. I don't pay for sex. If I want to have sex, I pick a girl up from a bar or something."
"So why didn't you just meet a girl at the bar?"
"I don't want one single girl around too long. That's a relationship. My dad started paying for escorts for me and that was so our family and the public thought I was moving on from Layna. I was, but he wanted to sell it with a fake relationship. So in the past two years I've had about six of those. It's getting kind of old."
"What is?"
"Hopping fake girl to fake girl. I'd prefer one steady fake girl." He laughed.
"Well, hopefully I'll be that fake girl. Don't you worry someone will see you out at the bar picking up a random girl and think you're a cheater?"
"I did have to switch escorts once because a girl I slept with told my escort I was cheating." He smirked looking over at her.
"Why don't you just pay the escorts for sex?"
"I don't need to pay for sex," he scoffed.
"No, I'm sure you don't, but wouldn't it be easier?"
"Not really. I can't imagine what your rate is." He laughed.
A second blush hit her. "I don't do that. I don't have sexual contact with any of my clients."
The grin that took over his face offended her.
"What?" she scoffed.
"Nothing." He let out a chuckle leaning back into his seat as they hit the open road.
"I'm not a whore."
"Whoa! Hey, I didn't say that."
"That's what you're insinuating." Her arms crossed over her stomach, wanting to disappear inside herself.
"That's not what I was insinuating at all." Laughing like she were crazy, he shook his head.
"That's what I got from that laugh and the look on your face."
"Well you're not very good at reading me then."
The thought she misread Justin's interest in her made her feel idiotic and anger had her spitefully saying, "Why don't you enlighten me?"
With a fixed grin he replied, "I don't want to offend you anymore."
"See! You were."
"No I wasn't. Calm down." He let out a laugh. "You're not a whore, El, but you want to fuck me. I know you do."
She wished she could see his eyes behind his sunglasses when he looked over at her.
JUSTIN's open to deceit
She's got crazy girl tendencies, but I've never met a woman that doesn't. She completely misread my smile and I didn't want to tell her because I didn't want to embarrass her, but she's insisted and now she's a nice shade of red. She might be angry, bu
t she's a fucking liar if she tries to say she doesn't want me. I know she's a good, nice girl, and her coyness is just because she is nice, but I also know she wants me, and I want her. I'm just not sure when it'll happen.
"That's rather sanguine of you."
"I'm a sanguine guy, ZP." I grin at her. "All kinds of full of myself."
The gears are turning in that cute little head while she gauges her anger, probably trying to calm down. It's kind of mean of me getting off on her anger, but it's fuckin' cute.
The rest of the forty-minute drive is silent except for the bad radio station I didn't realize I left on until the Low Rider song came on and she turned it up with a laugh. She's bobbing her head and knows all the words. Not that there are many, but I don't know all of them.
The first thing I spot in the packed lot is my sister's minivan and I smirk, unbuckling. "You like kids?"
"Sure." That didn't sound convincing and I can't help but chuckle.
When I get out I notice she hasn't made an attempt yet, so I round to her side, pulling open the door.
"You hate kids?" My eyebrows raise as I start to think maybe this wasn't a good idea.
"No!" She gasps at me like I just asked her if she ate babies. "I've never been around kids." The way she admits this is like she's embarrassed, and she shouldn't be.
"My sister and cousin have a few kids."
"So this is really your family?"
Without thought, I take both her hands as she gets out of the jeep. I sway them back and forth while I prepare her for who'll be here.
"My sister and her family, my dad, maybe Barry, my cousin and her family." I'm staring down at her like this is real and I'm trying to ease her first encounter with my family or some stupid shit.
I need to remember this isn't real. I'm paying this girl five grand to pretend she wants to meet my family, and with that thought thrusting into my head, I let her hands go.
"It's my nephew's birthday." Heading to the back of the jeep I smirk as I open it to Pete's gift.
"How cool!" There's a gleaming smile on her face as she stares at the mini four-wheeler. "I want to ride it."