by Leigh James
“She’s a really nice girl,” Todd said.
She was a really nice girl. She just also happened to be my escort.
What she’d told me about my mother had set off a rage-spiral in me, and I had to control it. For Audrey’s sake.
I also had to keep my feelings for her to myself. Also for her sake.
I just had to get through dinner tonight and the next couple of events, I told myself. Then we had the rehearsal dinner and the wedding this weekend. The trip was after that, but I didn’t have to think that far ahead. Not yet. I was going to take it one step at a time and try not to fuck everything up further.
“Where are we going tonight?” she asked me, jarring me out of my self-admonishing reverie. I hadn’t heard her come back out.
“A restaurant called Ministry, in the Back Bay—it’s very trendy. And very overpriced,” I said.
“Perfect,” she said. “What does one wear to a very trendy and very overpriced Back Bay restaurant these days? When one is pretending to be a real-life person, I mean?”
I looked at her, and I couldn’t help myself: I smiled. I wanted to be a glacier, and here she was like the sun, melting my angry resolve.
“Something sexy and black,” I said, instantly regretting it.
She nodded, looking game. “I’ve got that, boss.”
“Would you like some wine before you get ready?” I asked. “We’ve got an hour.”
She marched to the kitchen and parked herself on a barstool. I noticed that she’d changed out of her earlier outfit to a pair of leggings and the T-shirt she’d slept in.
“I never say no to wine. Especially not your wine, James—it’s good,” she said approvingly. “Mine usually comes from one of those big bottles. Or a box.”
I shuddered. “Promise me you’ll never go back to drinking that,” I said, and she furrowed her brow at me.
Of course she was going to go back to drinking that.
“You promise me something,” she said.
“What,” I said, looking at her suspiciously and pouring us both hefty glasses of wine.
“Let’s try to have fun for the rest of the time we’re together,” she said quickly, in an earnest rush. “I was just thinking about it—I had fun yesterday. I can’t remember the last time I had fun. I didn’t think I was capable of it, to be honest.”
“I don’t know if I can commit to that,” I said. “Being around my family is usually the opposite of fun.”
“You’ve been handling them pretty well,” she said, shrugging. “Just thought I’d point that out.”
“Because you’re the pointer-outer of things,” I said.
“That’s right.”
I laughed in spite of myself. I wasn’t sure how I’d gone from berating myself about her to suddenly asking her to wear something sexy and pouring her wine, but it was like I could suddenly hear the clock ticking. She was only mine through next Friday. This was all I was going to get.
“I’m sorry about before,” I said, “after I picked you up. I can get a little moody sometimes.”
She shrugged, forgiving me easily. “Well, I’m sorry I said your mother needed a bitch slap,” she said.
“She does need a bitch slap,” I said. “You might have to show me how to give her one.”
“It’d be my pleasure.”
* * *
I put on my nicest dark suit, which was saying something. Audrey put on a cocktail dress with a plunging neckline. It was black, and it was very sexy.
I sucked in my breath, hard, when I saw her.
She was wearing black high heels, and her hair was loose and glossy around her shoulders. Her breasts looked fantastic—perfectly round and alert, like only a twenty-two-year-old’s can. Or Jennifer Lopez’s.
“Is this approved?” she asked.
“Yes,” I said, completely monosyllabic.
My cock twitched just looking at her.
“You look dashing, as usual,” she said and linked her arm through mine.
Kai averted his eyes when we came outside so I knew that it wasn’t just me—Audrey really was stunning. I felt stupidly proud then that she was with me, that no one else could have her.
I didn’t let myself examine the irony of that particular train of thought.
Audrey
Ministry was insanely beautiful. There were lush flowers and candles everywhere. We sat on reclaimed church pews at the table. Evie’s cousins and their besuited husbands sat on my left; James sat on my right, protecting me from his parents. He’d said hello to them but otherwise wasn’t speaking, concentrating instead on his food and on me.
To my simultaneous delight and horror, I’d caught him looking down my dress several times.
Todd was across the table from me. “Are you getting excited?” I asked.
He beamed at me. “You have no idea. It’s the best feeling in the world.”
He was earnest, as James had said; he was also open and kind, very unlike James.
“Evie told me about the flowers. Everything is going to be so beautiful,” I gushed. I couldn’t help myself. I liked Todd, and even if Evie was a total c-word, he was excited to marry her.
“She and my mom have taken care of every detail,” Todd said. “It’s easy for me. All I have to do is show up.”
James snorted. “And be married to her,” he said. I noticed that he was on his third bourbon, and I frowned at him.
“What,” he said, not bothering to make it a question.
“I am pointing it out to you that this is your brother’s special time, and you shouldn’t be a prick,” I said to him quietly, so nobody else could hear. “If you behave, we can watch Sports Center when we get home. And you can keep looking at my boobs.” I put my hand on his thigh and I felt him tense up, but it wasn’t a bad tense.
He was tensed as though he was ready to spring. At me.
“Do you promise?” he asked darkly, and it was as if someone lit a match between us. My hand was on fire where I touched him.
“Yes,” I whispered. I kept my hand on his thigh, inching it up a little, and turned back to Todd. “Now, tell me about the honeymoon. I want to know everything.”
Under the table, James put his hand over mine and moved it up toward his cock. He was rock hard. I ran my hands over it reverently, trying not to either moan or climb on top of him right there, while Todd was gushing about the villas we were going to stay at.
Then James took my hand and removed it from his lap. And put his hand on my thigh. My bare thigh.
It was as if my skin was scalded, branded from his touch, the feel of his skin on my skin. He moved his hand up higher, dangerously higher, and under my dress. I jerked at the tablecloth, making sure my lap was covered. I looked nervously to my left; the investment banker sitting there was fully engrossed with his steak. I could feel my heartbeat thrumming through me as James’s hand crept up to my underwear. He fingered the lace and quickly slid his hand underneath before I had time to prepare myself.
Still, I didn’t cry out. I nodded at Todd, pretending to listen about the best snorkeling reefs in Eleuthera as James began to run his fingers along my slit.
I was wet already. Hell, I’d been wet since I met him. He used the slickness against me, rubbing me until I was almost panting. He found my clit and swirled it, lazily, and then pinched it in between his two fingers.
That was all I could take; I almost came right there. I grabbed his arm as calmly as I could and moved him off me. I took the napkin off my lap and gently wiped his hand with it.
And then I took his hand and held it, counting the seconds until dinner was over.
* * *
We sat practically on top of each other in the back of the car. There was no divider, so we behaved, better than at dinner, anyway.
James had his arms around me and was crushing me to him. I could feel his cock, large and hard, against me. I shifted, uncomfortable with desire, and he moved his hand down to my ass. He rubbed it, drawing small, hot circles w
ith his palm, mesmerizing me, until I almost didn’t care that there was no divider.
James didn’t even wait for Kai to open the door. He jumped out and dragged me with him. We practically ran through the lobby.
There was an elderly couple waiting for the elevator. I smiled at them while James cursed under his breath. We rode upstairs in silence, while I privately prayed that James and I didn’t smell like almost-sex.
“Finally,” he said when the door opened at his apartment. He punched in the code and then turned and swooped me into his arms.
I laughed as he hustled me down the hallway.
“I have to get that fucking dress off of you. Now,” he growled.
“How romantic,” I said.
He placed me gently on my feet, just inside his bedroom. I looked up at him and threw my arms around his neck, drinking him in. His gorgeous steel-colored hair, his square jaw, his blue-gray eyes.
“Tell me that you want to do this,” he said. He ran his hands down my back.
“I want to do this,” I said immediately. “I want to do this now.”
I leaned up and kissed him, hard. He crushed his lips to mine and our tongues found each other, causing electricity to shoot through me. He pressed the small of my back and moved me against him, so that I could feel his rock-hard length pressing into my belly.
I unzipped his pants and freed his cock. It sprang out, enormous and thick, ready for me.
Oh thank God, I thought, relieved. If he’d been small after all this buildup, I might have run from the building, screaming.
He unzipped and removed my dress in what seemed like one motion. I took off his jacket, unbuttoned his shirt, and undid his pants so they dropped. Then I stopped, running my hands down his gorgeous, chiseled chest reverently. I wanted to enjoy this moment.
I kissed him, tracing his pectoral muscles with my tongue, and he moaned. It made me feel triumphant. He reached down and undid my bra, gently taking my breasts in his hands. He rubbed my nipples in circles with his thumbs, and I leaned into him, moaning with ecstasy and relief. His hands were finally on me, I thought.
It felt like they belonged there.
James ran his hands over my body and cupped my ass, pulling me to him. He grabbed the side of my black lace underwear and pulled them down gently. His tongue searched my mouth and I gave myself to him, surrendering to the urgency and surprising sweetness of his touch.
He laid me down on the bed, and his naked body loomed gloriously over me. He pushed the hair off my face and just watched me for a moment. Then he leaned in and kissed me again, deep and probing.
There was something else going on here, something besides sex, but I didn’t recognize the feeling. All I knew was that I wanted him inside me, right now, and that I wanted to cry.
I spread my legs a little, offering myself to him. He took a finger and ran it along my slit, making sure that I was wet enough. He slid it inside of me, testing me, and I moaned. I grabbed his muscled ass and pulled him to me, running the head of his cock over my sex, getting it slick and wet.
“Are you ready for me?” he asked, and I nodded.
He entered me then, all at once, and I cried out. He buried himself into me, and my body stretched to accommodate his. He was gentle at first. But I was impatient, and I grabbed his ass and pushed him deep into me, wanting to feel all of him, wanting him to overtake me. His body listened to mine, his long, deep strokes pushing me to the edge almost immediately.
He leaned up, and I greedily drank in the sight of his taut, muscled body.
And then he continued to fuck me, hard.
“Come in me,” I begged. I was on the edge, and I wanted him there, with me.
His strokes got deeper, more urgent, and then he did come, hard, filling me as my body clenched around him.
Our orgasm shook the bed.
“Audrey,” he cried out, shuddering on top of me.
* * *
Afterward, he lay next to me and I stared at his gorgeous face, pushing the hair back from his forehead.
He opened his eyes and watched me watching him.
“That was incredible,” I said, too undone to be anything but honest.
“It was,” he said. He kissed me slowly, deeply. “Let’s do it again.”
So we did it again. And again. With me on top, with him behind me. He took me in his mouth and then I took him in mine. By the time the morning came, we’d done it just about every way you could think of, and I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to walk straight ever again.
Which was fine with me. It was absofuckinglutely worth it.
I woke up, and now it was my turn to find James watching me, pushing the hair back from my forehead.
“What,” I said. I stared back at his gorgeous face.
“Audrey,” he said, stroking my hair. “You’re fired.”
James
I looked out the window as the sun came up. The roads outside were empty, just like my apartment.
I’d just had the best night of my life, and true to form, I’d managed to ruin everything.
Audrey was gone. She’d gotten up as soon as I’d said those horrible words. She left in her sweatpants and a tank top, leaving the wardrobe that Elena had packed for her behind. I’d followed her out of the bedroom and silently watched as she’d thrown on a pair of aviator sunglasses and grabbed her pocketbook.
“Do you want to take the car?” I asked just as she was almost out the door.
She turned, pushing her sunglasses down on her nose to look at me. “James.” She looked as if my name tasted like poison in her mouth. “Go fuck yourself.”
Then she slammed the door behind her.
I didn’t blame her. And even though I had forced her to leave, I hated that she was gone.
I hated myself even more.
I got dressed for the gym. I was going to punish myself, starting right now.
Audrey
I was sitting in the common room at New Horizons, watching dust motes fly through the early morning light. Tommy was drinking orange juice and reading a graphic novel. He’d been happy to see me, and now we were just sitting together, both comfortably lost in the silence—me in my thoughts, him in his novel.
James had broken my heart. I had given myself to him last night. For the first time in quite possibly forever, I hadn’t held anything back. I was with him because I’d wanted him. And when he took me, every single cell in my body told me it was right. That I belonged to him.
I was his escort. His hired plaything. But there was something else going on between us. Something real that you couldn’t pay for or pretend.
I’d thought he felt it, too.
So. Fucking. Stupid.
Tommy reached over and patted my shoulder. “What’s the matter?” he asked.
“Nothing,” I lied. He watched me for a second and then went back to his book. I went back to my study of the dust motes. I loved Tommy. He was the one person who loved me and now I was sure, the one person in the world I could trust.
And now I didn't know how I was going to be able to keep him safe.
* * *
“Elena, I’m sorry,” I said, fighting back tears. I paced back and forth inside my apartment. “I told you, I don’t know why he did it.”
“He must have had a reason to fire you two days before the wedding,” she wailed. I held the phone back from my ear and winced.
I fucked his brains out, and then he told me I was fired, I wanted to say. That was the truth.
I was his escort, and he hadn’t wanted to fuck me.
Then he finally did.
Then he fired me.
It. Made. No. Sense.
“I’m sure you can keep the deposit,” I said, trying to be upbeat. James had paid her one hundred thousand dollars, cash, up front. “That’s decent payment for one week’s worth of work.”
“I was pretty interested in the other half, too,” she said.
“Maybe you could offer him one of the other girls,”
I said over a large lump forming in my throat. “Someone more to his liking.”
“I thought he liked you,” she said.
“I thought he did, too,” I said, and I could feel the tears about to come. I bit the inside of my cheek to stop them.
Elena sighed again. “I’ll call him now.”
“Elena—one more thing,” I said. My stomach flipped nervously; I didn’t want her to be any angrier with me than she already was.
“What?” she asked.
“I left all the clothes and the jewelry over there,” I said, the words tumbling out on top of each other. “I had to leave quickly and I just… did. I left. Without taking them.” It was thousands of dollars’ worth of clothes, shoes, bags, and jewelry. A lot of it was on loan from a luxury goods company. Elena was going to kill me.
I took a deep breath. “And I sort of told him to go fuck himself. So he might be a little angry.”
The silence on the other end of the line was deafening.
“Dre,” she said finally. Her voice was flat.
“What?” I asked, bracing for it.
“You’re fired.”
* * *
Fired twice in one day, just when I thought things were finally turning around.
I should have known better. In my twenty-two years, things had never turned around for me. I curled myself up into a ball on my futon, watching as the sun came up over the sky. I hate the sun, I thought, and I did. I hated the sun, the sky, my futon, and James Preston. Not necessarily in that order.
I had no idea what I was going to do now. Without Elena’s assignments, it would be back to trolling for dates online. Or parking my ass on a street corner, trying to flag down Johns. Or waitressing.