I wasn’t normally as honest with the women who worked for me. But I didn’t have anything to lose anymore.
“Is Abby the girl you like?” Megan asked.
“He loves her; I saw it in his eyes,” Kimberly said as she teased me.
It was funny to watch the girls talk about me like I was their best friend, and they had secretly figured out everything about me. I liked feeling that they were concerned about me, at least, and that they actually wanted me to be happy with someone.
“You know what, I might just love her. I haven’t actually had love in a long time though, it’s hard for me to recognize it.”
“Does she make you want to vomit when she is close to you?” Allison asked.
“Eww Allison, that’s not love,” Kimberly chimed in.
“Seriously ladies, I think I messed this one up. I need some female advice on how I can salvage this.”
I didn’t actually have many friends. My line of work made it difficult to make guy friends because if they weren’t in the business, they wanted to be dating the women I was around. It was impossible to make female friends, they never liked what I did for a living. So pretty much I was relegated to having a slew of beautiful escorts as my friends. I understood that it wasn’t the same thing as real friends. But they were going to have to do for the time being.
“So give us a rundown on what is going on.” Megan asked as she seriously looked at me and appeared ready to help me with whatever it was I needed.
Megan was a smart girl. She had an MBA from New York University. She wanted to start her own business but had decided to work as an escort to gain the capital she needed. The problem she ran into was the more she worked, the more she wanted to work. The lifestyle and the money were difficult for people to give up. I don’t think she had ever really considered giving it up recently, but in the beginning, that was all she talked about. Every time I saw her, she was talking about how much more money she needed to start her business. But a year ago, instead of starting her business, Megan invested all of her money into a lavish new condo. She was back at square one with her business plans but didn’t seem to mind it at all.
“Okay, so here’s the deal. Jack and I went out to the club to pick up a couple new girls. We thought it was time we got a few more in rotation,” I started my story slowly. “This girl Abby that I met, she was sweet and confident, and almost instantly, I knew there was something special between us.”
“Your hard on,” Allison blurted out.
“Well, she did give me that; of course. But it was different than with other women. I wanted her to like me. Do you know how lame that feels when you’re my age and you actually want a woman to like you?”
“Um, that’s every day of my life with guys,” Kimberly added.
“So I kept thinking that I was going to get over it. The feelings I had toward her were the same other guys would have, and she was going to make a great escort. I took her to Vegas …”
“Oh, the famous Vegas trip, you girls still remember when he took you?” Megan asked as the three women started to talk about their trips.
“Oh, fuck yeah. It was the first truly expensive pair of shoes I’ve ever gotten,” Allison said. “I still have those shoes, they are my lucky fucking shoes.”
“Lucky shoes you wanted to fuck or shoes that are just fucking lucky?” Kimberly teased Allison.
“Both.”
“Okay, okay, ladies …I know the whole Vegas thing is cliché, I get it. But I really didn’t know that I liked her yet. I thought I could still bring her into the business. But actually let me go back a bit. On the way to the airport, I stopped by to talk with Aldo about what happened with Kimberly and Rocco. He had seen her at a restaurant she worked at, and he liked her. Instantly, I could tell that he wanted to take her out.”
“Man, Aldo is one handsome son of a gun,” Allison said.
“I know. He’s all mysterious and sexy. And damn does he have style. I’d tap that dude all day every day,” Megan said in an uncharacteristically enthusiastic manner.
“You go girl,” Kimberly added.
“Seriously, what is it about that guy that drives women so bonkers? He’s old, he’s like fifty something.”
“He’s still hot as hell. You can’t even deny it,” Megan said.
It was obvious that Megan had a thing for Aldo even long after she had gone on a date with him. I knew he had the ability to charm the ladies, but I thought I was pretty damn good at charming women too, and I never had that kind of reaction from them years down the road. Somehow, Aldo could totally tease a woman, even take her to bed and let his wife watch the whole thing, and everyone was perfectly fine with it. He certainly had some sort of skills that I couldn’t even imagine.
“Okay, so anyways. He wanted to take her out, and I said she wasn’t going to work for me. It was before I even really knew what I was saying, but I just knew I didn’t want him taking her out. Then bam, he offered her ten grand to go to some film industry thing with him, and she took it.”
“Well, how long had you two known each other at that point?” Megan asked.
“One night.”
“Damn right she took his offer. At least you’re not in love with a stupid girl!” Kimberly joked.
“Come on ladies, I need real help. Let’s fast forward. Yesterday, Aldo is all upset that he thinks I told Abby she was his escort. Of course, I didn’t. But it turns out while they were out she kissed him.”
“Oh, yeah he hates that,” Megan added as she had become our resident expert on all things that pertained to Aldo.
“I know, well he thought she was trying to perform or make him happy, etc. He got pissed off at me and pretty much threatened to kill me. It wasn’t the first time he had threatened me, but I thought it would be best to talk to Abby about it. We made up, and I asked her if she would go out with him again and pretend like she didn’t know about the escort thing. I asked her to just pretend.”
“Wait a minute. Abby knows about the escort business?” Kimberly asked. “She didn’t know at all the last time she was here.”
“Yeah, Jack told her friend Isabella who then told her.”
“And she wasn’t pissed off? See, I told you that you had to tell her!”
Kimberly was pretty proud of herself since her advice had been for me to tell Abby all along. So it didn’t feel all that great when I had to tell her that Abby really had been pretty pissed off at me when she found out.
“Oh, yeah, she was pissed off, but we made up,” I said with a wink.
“She fucked you even after she found out you had lied to her?” Kimberly said with a shocked expression.
“Yep. I know. We didn’t even really fight about it. It was like the fasted argument I’ve ever had with a woman.”
“She likes you,” Kimberly added. “The only reason a woman would give up a dream fight like that was if she liked you.”
“And he told her to go out with Aldo,” Allison said as she started to laugh uncontrollably.
“Yeah, what was up with that decision? It doesn’t seem very useful at all,” Megan added.
“Aldo said he was going to kill me!” I exclaimed in a desperate attempt to get the women to come over to my side.
“Well, he says that to people when he’s angry. He loves you like a son; I seriously doubt he would kill you. Did you tell him you liked Abby?”
“Yep, he said I was being childish and living in a fantasy land.”
“Yikes,” Megan added as she appeared to be thinking through all the scenarios. “Well, the good news is that Aldo doesn’t like to sleep with many of his women. He likes to seduce them and get them to fall in love with him. But he only sleeps with a few of them.”
“How is that good news?” Allison asked.
“I mean, she might be in love with him when everything is done, but maybe she wouldn’t have slept with him.”
“Fuck, I need a better plan.”
> “Well, you’re shit out of luck until she reappears from this date she’s on with him tonight,” Kimberly said, looking to have lost interest in our conversation.
“I’m just supposed to leave it all up in the air and let him have her?”
“What other options do you really have? She’s already out with him, right?”
“Yes, but I was hoping you three could come up with some sort of super romantic gesture that would have me stealing her away from him. And not getting murdered,” I joked.
“I think you’re thinking of Charlie’s Angels, that’s not us,” Allison teased.
“Seriously Theo, you’re going to have to wait this one out. If she cares about you, one night with Aldo isn’t going to change that. But when you see her next, you need to right these wrongs. You can’t let her think you are alright with her going out with Aldo anymore. No more dates with him. Talk to him, it will be fine. I think he’s a romantic at heart,” Megan said.
I had left out the whole part about me giving up the industry. I didn’t want to worry the ladies about their jobs until I had a better idea of what I was going to do with the business. Certainly, I could find someone else to run it. Or like Kimberly said, the women could just do their own thing. But it was harder than they thought to research the guys and make sure they were legitimate. Plenty of men got in contact with me looking for escorts, but I only allowed about half of them to actually take women on dates.
Sometimes the guys just didn’t know the real expense that went into an escort. Other times, they were clearly looking for a prostitute and not an escort at all. It was my job to deal with all the losers so I could find decent guys for the women to date. I wasn’t sure any of them really understood how much work went into finding decent guys.
“Thanks for your help ladies; I appreciate your point of view. I’ll let you know what happens.”
The truth was that I really did appreciate their point of view. I didn’t have very many true friends, and it was comforting to know that the women who worked for me thought enough of me that they were interested in helping me out. For a brief moment, I felt like I had done right by them throughout the years that they had worked for me.
“We get an invite to the wedding!” Allison said.
“Ha, if Abby and I ever get married, I’ll make sure and invite you all.”
The women knew me well and didn’t seem all that surprised that I had fallen for Abby. I wondered what it was about the way I talked about her that made it seem so realistic for me to want to be with her.
As Kimberly said her goodbyes to Megan and Allison, I made my way into the kitchen to see if I could scrounge something to eat. I couldn’t even remember the last time I had eaten; I was so wrapped up in everything that was going on in my life. Plus, I was just plain sick to my stomach with what a jerk I had been over the past few days. If this was what it was like to be love sick; then I could see why people lost so much weight when they fell in love.
“Seriously Theo,” Kimberly said as she came into the kitchen after saying goodbye to her friends. “What were you thinking? Why would you let her go out with him?”
The anger in her voice caught me off guard.
“This is bad. You are never going to get out of the business if he gets a hold of her. I didn’t want to say this in front of Megan because she’s in love with Aldo. But he’s a scary mother fucker. My experience with him wasn’t good at all.”
“What do you mean? You never mentioned this before.”
“He was your friend. I couldn’t say anything bad about him.”
“Fuck, what happened?”
“He’s kinky as hell. He wanted me to fuck one of his friends while he watched. Of course, I wanted to make him happy. He was my first real client, and I just wanted to do whatever I was supposed to do. But then he got pissed off when I actually fucked the guy. It was like I couldn’t win with him at all.”
I was silent because I couldn’t think of a damn thing to say. She was right, Aldo never could make up his mind, and certainly the advice I gave Abby might have been the wrong advice for what would work with Aldo. I could only hope that she would continue to deny his requests and not fall into his traps.
“Abby is a smart girl, and whatever happens with Aldo, I’m going to forgive. It is my fault she is in that situation anyways.”
“Man, you really don’t understand what kind of trouble a girl with Daddy issues can get into with Aldo, do you?”
“What do you mean?”
“Abby’s got to be lusting after the guy, and when he starts twisting things around and proposing things to her, she’s not going to be able to say no. If he suggests something crazy like turning you into the police, Abby just might do it.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” I said as the conversation went to a place I hadn’t even imagined.
“Aldo has a way of getting back at his enemies. If something in your conversation made him believe you are now his enemy, then he is going to use Abby to get back at you. He might do it sexually. He might do it mentally. Or he might set you up with the police. But I wouldn’t trust him at all and would be really damn careful of trusting Abby when you’re around her. He has a way of getting into a woman’s head.”
Kimberly appeared to be speaking from experience, but I just couldn’t bring myself to talk about it another second longer. There was no way Abby could be turned against me. No way Aldo would do that to me or Abby or that she would be so susceptible to his deceitful ways.
The problem I was having was that I really didn’t feel all that confident in anything anymore. Being with Abby and dealing with this whole Aldo situation had really sent me for a loop. I didn’t even trust myself or my thoughts any longer.
Chapter 23
ABBY
As Aldo pulled away from me, I felt myself wanting more from him. I wanted his hands on me again, his lips, his hard body. There was more to Aldo than whatever Theo had said, but I couldn’t forget the dangers of what Theo had told me either. My mind and body were at odds as I tried to navigate my time with Aldo.
“So we are going to dinner with your friend?” I asked, trying to change the subject.
“If you won’t let me have you right here and right now, then I suppose we should go get some nourishment,” he said, smiling at me.
“I need to tell you something, and please don’t be angry at me,” I said.
It got his attention, and I felt the heat of his green-eyed gaze intensify. He had a small scruff of a grey beard that he fidgeted with, and I could see some of his numerous tattoos very clearly for the first time.
“What is it dear?”
“I fantasized about kissing you after our night together. I liked it a lot.”
It did not appear to be what he expected me to say, and he moved quickly toward me and pinned me against the wall of the entryway. I loved the back and forth going on between us. I could see why it aroused Aldo so much and thought it was a bit of a fun game to play.
“Tell me what you thought about,” he demanded.
Normally, I wouldn’t like it at all when a man demanded something of me. But the way Aldo did it, I felt more like I wanted to. I knew it was a turn on for him; I could see his throbbing member as it pressed against his pants and teased me.
“Oh, no, it’s too embarrassing. I shouldn’t have said anything,” I said as I shyly looked down at the ground. “We can go to dinner now.”
“I said to tell me,” Aldo said firmly.
His lips were only a few inches from my face, and I could remember what they tasted like still. My body throbbed with its own desires for him, and I wanted to tell him about them. I wanted to excite him, make him happy, so I could urge him to leave Theo alone.
“I was in bed, and when I closed my eyes I pictured us kissing. My body was wet, and I pressed my hips toward you because I wanted to know what your lips would feel like on my wetness.”
He was aroused an
d enthralled with my story. As he pressed his body next to me, I couldn’t resist letting my hand slide down and touch his throbbing cock, just briefly before I pulled my hand away.
“I’m sorry, we should go; I don’t mean to tease you. It was just a fantasy,” I said, knowing he loved his fantasies.
“Tell me more. What else happened in your fantasy?” he asked.
“I felt your tongue on my body; I felt your naked body on top of me. I closed my eyes and imagined you could be mine. I know, it’s silly.”
“Do you want it to become a reality?” Aldo asked as one of his hands slid between my thighs, and I felt my body react to him.
I didn’t answer him, but instead looked around the apartment we were in as if I was waiting for someone to surprise us. Suddenly, I didn’t think Aldo was just fantasizing anymore. His voice seemed much more interested in making it a reality.
“Not here,” I whispered.
“God, I want to fuck you so badly,” he said as his hand pressed higher toward my wetness. “Are you wet thinking about fucking me?”
He didn’t wait for an answer, and I soon felt his fingers as they slid inside my panties. Panic ran through me as I decided what to do. Teasing was his thing; I needed to tease him without totally refusing him.
“Oh … God …” I said, closing my eyes and letting his fingers play.
“Answer me, do you want to fuck me?” he said again firmly.
“No.”
“Your body is telling me something else,” Aldo said as he let two of his fingers slide inside of me and pressed his thumb on my clit while he tried to excite me more.
My knees were weak, and I couldn’t hide that his fingers felt good. I grabbed onto his neck as I closed my eyes and let him play with me.
“I don’t want to fuck you is what I meant,” I said breathlessly. “I want you to make love to me.”
“But your body seems to like what I’m doing right now.”
As his fingers moved inside of me, he quickly stroked my clit, and I felt my body building up quickly toward an orgasm. I couldn’t stop him and wasn’t sure that I wanted to. Then he leaned down and kissed me while his fingers moved inside of me.
The Deal Page 44