The door to her apartment squealed as it opened. A thrill of excitement tinged with fear had Madison tiptoeing to the door, beyond hopeful that Colton had come back. Hoping it wasn’t, instead, a masked murderer who had chosen that day to wander around trying door knobs.
Janie stomped down the hall toward her, her brown eyes filled with worry. The moment her friend saw her, relief passed over her face.
Followed by rage.
Oh shit.
“Really?” Janie yelled. “All night you ignore me?” She stopped in the hallway with clenched fists.
“I only checked my phone once, but I didn’t have time to text you. I didn’t have it with me most of the time.”
“Since when don’t you have your phone with you? Since when, in this age of constant connection, don’t you have your phone? You were at an event with a horrible ex-boyfriend, his mean-girl cronies, and a prostitute, need I remind you, and you didn’t think to check in with me?” Her voice had risen in level until she was shouting by the end.
“In hindsight, sure, checking in probably would’ve been a decent thing to do, yes.” Madison paused, not sure what else to say. “Oops.”
Janie raised her fist and shook it. “You are so lucky I don’t punch you in the face right now, do you know that? And I would if you weren’t so much scrappier than I am. You’d just block it and hit me back.” Her hands formed claws and she said, “Argh!” at the ceiling. “I was freaking worried, Madison. I hate being worried!”
“Sorry. But I felt completely safe the whole time. Colton was…” The memory of his touch fluttered her stomach. She sighed and closed her eyes for a moment.
“What the hell is that look?” Janie shifted her weight and stuck out her hip. “That’s a bad look, Madison.”
“There’s no look. He was a perfect gentleman.” Her sex tightened up and a weight settled on her chest—a longing to see him again. To laugh and talk with him. To kiss and lean into him.
“That wasn’t a date. That was a business arrangement. Remember? Business.” Janie knocked on her head, asking Madison if anyone was home. “You can’t like him, Madison. He does this for a living. He does this a lot for a living. He’s the most-requested escort at that company. I hear he’s got a waiting list a mile long. How you even got him, I have no idea, but you need to rub that look off your face, because only bad things will come of it.”
Madison threw up her hands and squeezed past Janie. She needed coffee. “I know. I slept with a prostitute. I get it—”
“Wait, what did you say?” Janie followed closely behind.
Madison rolled her eyes. “I know, I know. Don’t bother lecturing me because I’d do it again in a heartbeat. It was the best sex of my life. But yeah, in theory, it’s gross.”
Janie’s mouth dropped open as Madison grabbed the coffee filters. She shook her head and blinked for a moment.
“It’s just sex, Janie. It’s not any worse than a one-night stand, of which you’ve had plenty. Friends don’t judge, remember?” Madison scooped the grounds into the filter.
“You had actual intercourse with him? Like, he put his tab into your slot and you made a craft project?”
“Craft project? I had sex with him. It doesn’t really need an explanation. Besides, since when are you a prude? You’re the one who told me to use the escort service in the first place! Get off my back.”
Janie put up her hand. “He has a ban on sex. For the past handful of months, it sounds like. It’s on the website in big, bold letters. No extra services. That means no sex. No kissing. No canoodling. He gets harassing comments about it—which are hilarious, by the way—all the time. I had a good laugh.”
“Do you stalk that website or something?”
“Maybe…”
Madison widened her eyes at her friend.
“What? They’re hot.” Janie shrugged. “A girl can dream, can’t she?”
Madison shook her head, turning back. “Well, clearly he doesn’t. And yes, the company is aptly named. The thing was a monster.” She shivered with the memory of him entering her.
A crooked grin slid up Janie’s face. She slowly took a seat at the island. “They call him Thunder because of how well he fucks.”
“Another name that fits. His wait list is justified.” Madison shivered for a different reason, and her bliss fizzled.
“What happened?” Janie said, leaning forward to stare Madison in the face. “Where’d that morning-after vibe go?”
“I paid a guy to screw me.” She slumped against the counter. “I was ignoring what that really meant. But you mention other—”
“Nope!” Janie stood up and came around the counter. She reached up into the cabinet. “This is awesome. You are living. So what, you had a wild hair and slept with an escort?” Janie pulled down a bottle of Jameson before leveling a finger at Madison. “You used protection, right?”
“Of course! And put that back. I want coffee.”
“You’ll get coffee.” Janie took out the glasses for Irish coffee. They didn’t have a lot of food on a regular basis, but they always managed to have a nearly stocked bar. A side effect of the job.
“Plain coffee. It’s nine o’clock in the morning.”
“Meh.” Janie resumed what she was doing. “You’re a grown adult, you like sex, you had sex, he was worth it, and now you move on. Oh my God, I am so pumped! This is crazy. I want to do it. It’s a little taboo, isn’t it? I feel like it is. I like taboo.”
“I am aware, yes. Though you don’t go whole hog into it, thankfully.”
“Safe taboo. Do you think one of them would screw me in a library? Because I would pay for that. All my past boyfriends chickened out.”
Madison hit the button to get the coffee going, not mentioning that Janie didn’t have money to screw a carrot, let alone a human. “Why I thought you were judging me is anyone’s guess.”
“You were projecting your own judgment onto me. Dude, lighten up and go with it. Tell me everything! But first, do you have any whipped cream? Irish coffees aren’t as good without whipped cream.”
“Not unless you bought some.”
“Probably.” Janie peered into the refrigerator. “That’s something everyone should have on hand at all times. You just never know when you’ll need it.”
Madison could rarely say no to Janie. When she wanted Irish coffees in the morning, she got Irish coffees, and Madison went along for the ride. Grudgingly. Complaining the whole time.
In no time, the girls were sitting at the island, sipping coffee, whiskey, and a little whipped cream. The whipped cream can had been almost empty, and Janie had them on rations. Madison poured out the events from last night, the memories of Colton giving her hot flashes. The memories of the other wedding guests and James’s sliminess cooled her off.
“He really had your back,” Janie said in awe after Madison told her about Colton saving the day.
“Totally. He was the perfect gentleman all night. Easy and effortless, smooth and oh so confident. You should’ve seen the look on James’s face when Colton slammed him into the wall. He’s…awesome. That man is incredible. As a person, you know what I mean? Besides the sex stuff.”
“That look isn’t good. Sexually satisfied is okay. That look, though…” Janie ran her finger in a circle in front of Madison’s face. “That one isn’t good.”
“I know.” Madison stared at the dwindling supply of alcoholic coffee in her mug. “But I had more passion in one night with a stranger than I had my whole life with boyfriends.”
“Passion, cool. But that’s where it’s got to end.”
“I know.” Madison took another sip.
“So…what happened at the end of the night? You chased after him in desperation, your dress swirling around your legs, and what happened then? I need details. Actually, I need to paint this, is what I need to do. What a hopelessly romantic kind of scene.”
“I ran around the corner and smacked into him.”
“Then you embraced l
ike lovers and he swept you off your feet, right? I can just see it.”
“No, actually. I fell ass over end and he had to scrape me off the sidewalk.”
“Your reality kills my dreams, you know that?” Janie laughed and took a gulp of her drink. “Fine. So eventually, after you rolled across the ground like a tumbleweed, he swooped you up into his arms.”
“We’ll use swooped, sure. I meant to ask him to kiss me, because of his job, but I just went for it. Next thing I know, I’m trying to go down on a giant cock.”
Janie barked out laughter.
“I’m kidding,” Madison said. “I mean, that did happen, and it was a real struggle, but it was just part of the overall awesome that was the end of the night.”
“Did you orgasm?”
“Yes. Once with his mouth, and once with sex.”
“You are reenacting my dreams. Hallelujah! Dude, I’m jelly.”
Madison giggled and finished off her drink. It would be a sloppy day, she could already tell. She hoped drunkenness would cure the aching need to see him again. Or even just talk to him.
“And then he tucked you in, kissed your lips, and said au revoir?” Janie leaned her cheek against her fist and sighed dramatically.
“You’re going a little overboard with the whole romance thing…”
“I know. It’s a great contrast, don’t you think? Pretty Woman for the twenty-first century. Subtitle: Woman in Charge.”
“Whatever you say, whack job.” Madison got up to get more coffee. “And no, we lay there like corpses, fell asleep, and when I woke up, he’d tucked me in and left. Not hopelessly romantic at all.”
“Wait.” Janie held up her hand again. “Did you ask him to stay the night?”
“That’s what happens when you sleep with someone.”
“No. That’s what happens when you pay him for the whole night. If you don’t, they leave after sex.”
“I sure hope that isn’t on their website, because it is extremely illegal.”
“It’s in code. It’s not spelled out. Because yeah, that’s illegal.”
Madison rolled her eyes and held up the coffee pot for Janie. Janie finished off what was in her glass and reached over the counter for the Jameson.
“Are there prices up there, too?” Madison asked, filling the mugs with coffee. “Because I need to send him the extra. Unless they’ll just bill my card?”
“What did he quote you for it?”
“We weren’t in a place to discuss it. Or anything, other than various profanities and name screaming.”
Janie’s cock-eyed grin was back. “So, so jelly.” A troubled look crossed her face. “But they can’t actually charge you unless you, at least verbally, agreed to the extra stuff. I guess you found a loophole.” Janie shrugged. “Pay or don’t, but if you want to get out of it, you probably could.”
An uncomfortable feeling settled in the pit of Madison’s stomach. Talking about loopholes and screwing Colton out of his pay tarnished everything he’d done for her. She’d signed a confidentiality agreement upfront, which she was totally breaking with Janie, and signed an agreement to pay for the companion she’d requested, but all of that was background noise when it came to her night with Colton. He’d shown up an employee of a company, and in her mind, he’d left as someone she respected and admired. The thought of trying to apply her sometimes shyster-y business tactics to him made her sick.
“No,” she said firmly. “I’ll pay him. Do me a favor and find out how much.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Janie settled her elbows on the island. “What else could we possibly talk about that would top Thunder?” She shook her head. “Nothing. Let’s go over details and then gossip until we’re drunk, at which point, I’ll try to paint your toenails.”
“I hate when you do that.”
“I know. That’s why I like doing it.”
The day passed in a slow grind of alcohol—started much too early—a few visits from delivery places, and Madison coming to the conclusion that, regardless of whether it was a good or healthy thing, she missed Colton something fierce. It took everything she had not to pick up the phone and text him a thanks for the night before, just to see if he would respond. She constantly wondered what he was doing, and stupidly wondered if he’d thought about her at all throughout the day. Maybe a passing reflection on the night, or a surge of lust.
Madison and Janie had unpacked all of the boxes from Frank in a haze of drunkenness, without putting anything away. Later that evening, which felt like the middle of the night, they sat on the couch amidst the rubble of Madison’s past life, staring at the laptop screen in front of them.
“I can’t!” Madison protested, on the reservation page of Big Dick Escort Service. “No. This is ridiculous. How desperate would he think I was?”
“Woman, listen to me.” Janie punched M—the start of the “name” entry. “The man didn’t nail out a contract before he nailed you. He tucked you in. He stayed all night—”
Janie had pulled a 180 since this morning, but Madison wasn’t convinced. She jabbed the delete button.
“That was uncalled for,” Janie said. “You are destroying my hard work.” She closed an eye while looking at the keyboard, swayed, and punched the M again. “Now, as I was saying. He was not acting like those guys typically act. Probably. Again, I have not exhausted my investigation, but I am mostly confident he was outside of the box on this. That says good things. And he called you Maddie! He called you Maddie. That cements it.” She twirled her fingers over the keyboard before leaning too far in to hit the A key. “How do you work on these things? The stupid keys are all over the place. Fuck me sideways and call me Betty, that bottle of Jameson was a terrible idea.”
“If I call you Betty, then you can call me Al.”
Janie paused in her typing, then joined Madison in singing the Paul Simon song, her voice pitch perfect and absolutely lovely despite her intoxication level. She stopped just as abruptly, burped, groaned, and finished typing Madison’s full name.
“I can’t believe I’m letting you do this,” Madison said, falling backward and crushing something beneath her. It felt like jagged paper, but was probably something quite a bit harder that would leave a bruise. She’d feel it when she was sober, she had no doubt.
“You warned him that you’d hire him to watch The Princess Bride.” Janie straightened up and lifted her nose in a snobby way. “Did you not?” she said in a British accent.
“I was joking.”
Janie swayed back to the computer. “He probably didn’t know that. So, we are simply following up on your threat to force him to spend more time with you.”
“This is ego crushing.”
“An orgasm will make up for that.”
“No!” Madison struggled upward. “No. Just a date. Don’t reserve him for sex. I don’t want that hanging over us.”
“Sure, sure.”
“I’m serious, Janie. Don’t reserve him for sex. I’ll cancel if you do.”
Janie paused for a minute. “I believe you. Fine. But a good, long date.”
Madison dropped her head into her hands, got dizzy, then staggered over to the kitchen in search of more pizza. “I know,” she said, scooping up a cold slice. “Let’s put on rain boots and stomp on all this crap Frank dumped on me.”
“Nothing like a good lay with the god of thunder to get you over a breakup. I’m in. Let me just send this.”
Fourteen
Walking toward the gym, Colton checked his phone.
No calls.
He blew out a breath, but didn’t slip the phone into his pocket like he normally would’ve. Monday afternoon and he still hadn’t heard a word from Madison. There was a chance she hadn’t understood him before drifting off to sleep, but if he was being completely honest with himself, he was too chickenshit to text her and ask. Or text her at all. He was the paid hire. He needed her to make the first move.
But what if she didn’t know she was supposed to?
> He pushed open the door to the gym and found Dick sitting at the check-in desk, staring at his computer.
“Where’s Lana?” Colton asked, pausing by the desk. This was twice now he’d seen Dick out front.
“Quit. Found a job in a tanning salon. It paid the same, but she gets free tans. When she gets skin cancer from that crap, she’ll realize the medical there isn’t as good. Joke’s on her.”
Colton shook his head and took another step toward the divider, then paused. He lightly banged his fist on the desk. Usually they talked BD business post-workout, but this couldn’t wait. “For the Saturday night gig, refund that money, will you? I’ll pay your fee out of pocket.”
Dick paused in what he was doing and looked up. “We doing this now or later?”
“Yeah. Refund that money. But I’m done. No more gigs. I’m out.”
“Not even for repeat customers?”
“Not for anyone. I’m out.”
Dick sighed. “The guys aren’t going to be thrilled about that. Getting your leftovers was a big draw.”
“Where do you think that wait list is going to go?” Colton turned away with a churning stomach. After the night he’d shared with Maddie, he hated the thought of women lining up to fuck him. Shallow lays with mediocre results—he had no idea why the idea had ever excited him. Why he’d kept at it so long. He felt dirty. Not good enough for someone like Madison.
He wondered if she hadn’t called him because she’d come to her senses. If so, he wouldn’t blame her. He’d even warn her away if it wouldn’t kill him to do it. She was so far above his level, he couldn’t believe she’d let him into her bed in the first place. But he still wanted her. He still missed her.
“Hey,” Dick said, staring at him. “You gonna answer or stand around like a dipshit?”
“What’s up?” Colton turned back.
“She asked to be billed for the additional time. She gave me the figure.” Dick’s face stayed completely flat, businesslike. He wasn’t commenting. That was why he’d succeeded as their bookkeeper and organizer all this time: he knew when to keep his mouth shut.
Thunder (Big D Escort Service Book 1) Page 12