No Refunds No Exchanges: A Hudson Family Series- Book 4- Matt and Ali

by Chontelle Brison

  “Ask me your questions, I want to get the interview out of the way,” he suddenly demanded in a gruff voice.

  I swear the man’s mood swings were giving me whiplash. “Are you sure there’s no one I should call? Meds you should be taking?” I asked, the sarcasm unmistakable in my voice. I didn’t get this guy, not even a little bit!

  “Alison,” he growled as he leaned in until we were nose to nose. My head was pressed back into the headboard as far as it would go and I held my breath, not sure what he would do next.

  Then he surprised me by shaking his head and muttering, “Later, there will be time for that later, business first.” I was pretty sure he wasn’t talking to me, and when he sat back on his heels, I wasn’t sure what to do.

  Snapping his fingers like he suddenly remembered something important he leaped off the bed and darted out of the room. Before I could even move, he returned carrying the clutch I had with me at dinner earlier. Not sure where I had dropped it when we had come in, I watched as he popped open the clasp and brought out the recorder I had used for the questions I had asked him. Taking a second to mess with the buttons, I saw a red light come on indicating it was now recording.

  Setting the device on the nightstand next to the bed, Matt sat with one leg on the floor, and the rest of his body was sitting on the bed turned towards me.

  Turning on that smile I loved, he enthusiastically said, “Okay, let’s do this interview. Any question you want..hit me!”

  Part of me wanted to hit him, but physically and not with questions. Preferably with something blunt that wouldn’t pierce his skin, since it was beautiful and it would be a real shame to mar it, just something with enough force to knock the stupid out of him. I felt like I had missed something in the conversation. He was far too eager to get this interview completed and not because he looked forward to ending the night. There was no way that he thought we’d hook up after this, right?

  Matt

  Alison and I were so hooking up when this stupid interview was over. I wasn’t sure what it was about her, she wasn’t the type I usually went after. Maybe it was those long dark lashes, those dark chocolate eyes or the adorable way she seemed to want to blend into the scenery, only to come out with her claws when she saw the asshole mistreat his dog. Whatever it was, I couldn’t seem to get my cock to stop throbbing. The bitch of it was most definitely that she wasn’t even trying to get me to like her. Where most women went out of their way to flirt or talk themselves up to me, Alison acted as if she couldn’t wait for me to leave. I had to have her, there was only one way to get this woman out of my system, and if I didn’t fuck her soon, I was going to die from sexual frustration.

  Okay, that may be a tad on the dramatic side, but between her being unaware of how sexy she really was and the way she would go from shy to hostile in a blink of an eye was so much of a turn on, I couldn’t imagine not having this woman!

  “Matt, did you hear me?” Alison asked bringing me out of my head. I whipped my head towards her and realized she had gotten off the bed and stood by the window. It was clear she was putting distance between us. I could tell by the way she gripped the notepad she was holding. Trying to get myself under control, I reached for a mundane topic.

  “Why the notepad? I thought you recorded the interviews?” It was the only thing I could think of to say since my mind was blank. Damn, the things this woman did to me.

  She cocked her head to the side and smiled.

  “Okay Romeo, if this is going to work then you’re going to have to stop looking at me like I’m your last meal or something, it makes me uncomfortable,” she whispered as she pulled a leather messenger bag off the floor and rooted around the bottom of it. Finding what looked like a hair tie; she shook her shiny, black hair and pulled it back into the cutest, messy ponytail I had ever seen.

  My cock overrode my brain, and I stood up from the bed and stalked her to the window. It wasn’t until I had her back pressed against the glass, that I caught her wide eyes staring up at me illuminated by the moonlight, streaming into the darkened room.

  My hands pressed against the glass on either side of her head, and I dropped my head to wage a battle with my cock. My head knew I was pushing too fast and too hard, but my dick apparently had no issues with hard and fast. In fact, if given the chance he’d give Alison all the hard and fast she could handle.

  “Okay, I am seriously contemplating grabbing my mace and the nearest blunt object, Mr. Wolf!” Alison warned as she used her free hand to push me back away from her. I wasn’t a total asshole, I allowed her to back me up a good three steps, it was all my lower half would allow.

  “I don’t like to be stared at, I-I don’t like the way you’re looking at me. You’re s-scaring me,” she admitted softly as she pressed back against the window with her notepad clutched tightly to her chest as if it was a shield.

  I didn’t like the scared, wary look in her eyes. I didn’t want her to be afraid of me. I had no idea what her deal was with a man staring at a beautiful woman, but I needed to rein it in before she had me locked up for stalking.

  Taking a deep breath, I raised my hands in surrender and walked backward until my thighs hit the mattress. Pushing myself up on the bed, I motioned to the desk that was on the far side of the room. She didn’t take her wary eyes from me as she limped to the small maple desk chair. I suddenly felt like more of an ass, here she was hurting, and I was trying to get her naked.

  “Do you need anything for your leg?” she seemed surprised by the genuine concern in my voice. It was then that the things she had said at dinner started filtering my brain and backing down the lust fog I had been caught up in.

  “No, I don’t thank you. I would just like to finish this so I can leave.” She told me in a no-nonsense voice. She clicked on the desk light and readied her notebook. “To answer your question, I use the recorder so that I don’t miss anything later when I go over my notes later. The journal allows me to jot out thoughts or ideas while you’re talking so that I don’t interrupt you with something I may want to ask you later,” Alison told me in a flat, steady voice. Her eyes betrayed the calm in her voice. Her eyes were wide and wild, like a caged animal pacing in a cage. Get it together Hudson, you are losing the girl, and you haven’t even gotten to kiss her yet!

  Alison grimaced, uncrossed her legs, and held them closed together tightly as she began to rub the side of her thigh. I made a move to get off the bed, almost on instinct, but her raised hand and narrowed eyes stopped me cold. The message clear as day- Back Off.

  “I'm all right, yes my leg hurts, but I have done more walking and running then I’m accustomed to tonight. I took a muscle relaxer before dinner, and I will take an Ibuprofen when we’re done here.” She must have realized that I was going to say something because she quickly added, “I don’t want to talk about what was said in the restaurant Mr, Wolf. If you don’t want to do this interview fine, I will leave and if you make any more attempts to touch or grab me I swear to god I will find the closest blunt object, and you beat you over the head with it!”

  Nope, unacceptable sweetheart! You can’t leave until I get some answers, and I have you bludgeon me to death either. Deciding I needed to at least give Alison the appearance that I was all business, I smiled. “Okay, new deal. You ask a question, and then I ask a question.” I tried to hold back my grin as I saw her mentally reasoning out my offer, all the while looking for my angle.

  “No, I ask the questions, you answer.” She said pointing her pen at me. Her face told me she wasn’t prepared to give an inch. Okay, she knew how to negotiate, never take the first offer. Well, I had been negotiating with women as far back as I could remember; it was time to turn up the heat.

  I let my face fall into an expression of uncertainty, it usually worked when I needed to appear vulnerable. Women always did what they could to try to reassure my tender feelings. “I just feel very exposed and vulnerable when you ask me questions, I would feel better if I wasn’t the only one,” I pr
actically pouted. The only thing missing was jutting out my bottom lip and scoffing my foot on the ground.

  I saw Alison’s eyes soften, her mouth went from a hard, thin line to a gentle smile. Fish on! She got up from her chair and walked slowly to me, I lifted my sad eyes to her and gave her my most pathetic look letting my green eyes and long lashes do the work for me. Hook Set! She took one small hand and ran it down my cheek and into my hair where she stroked the back of my head tenderly. I smiled into her caring eyes and saw her…smirk? Warning! Warning! Mayday! Mayday! Abort mission! Abort mission! Just as I caught her sarcastic smile, I felt her hand grab my ear and twist so hard that I fell off the bed to my knees in agony. Before I could even grab her hand, she had turned behind me and grabbed my pinky finger and twisted until I was sure it was broken.

  “Holy fuck!” I screeched in pain. No acting here, this shit hurt!

  “Really? Does that ‘poor sad me’ crap actually work with women! I mean how insulting can you be? Did you actually think because you gave me the puppy dog stare, batted your sexy lashes and made those green eyes all innocent and sweet, that I would buy this bullshit?” She yelled as I tried to lean into her hand to make the ear wrenching pain ease slightly.

  “Well? Answer me Matt!” She shouted twisting my ear slightly.

  “Fuck! I didn’t know you actually wanted an answer! I thought it was a rhetorical statement! I just wanted to ask you a few questions,” I grumbled trying to fight the urge to sweep her feet from underneath her. While she had initially caught me off guard, I was a former Navy SEAL and could easily overtake her, but doing so would risk her getting hurt, and no matter how much she twisted my ear, I refused to cause her any more pain.

  “Why?” She demanded putting more pressure on my finger. Okay, I’m getting less and less concerned with her getting hurt the more I feel my damn finger about to pop!

  “Because I like you, I don’t know why, but I do. I just wanted to get to know you, it’s something I never do because it breaks my rule of crossing the line between fantasy and reality, but I can’t help it with you. I seem to be breaking all my rules tonight,” I admitted. I slumped against the edge of the bed and resigned myself to whatever she was going to do next.

  However, the minx surprised me again by letting me go and sitting so close that our legs brushed together. I heard her release a hefty sigh.

  “Was that so hard?” she asked nudging my leg with hers. I turned my head and was immediately captured by her sincere gaze.

  Cocking my head to the side, I couldn’t help but give an honest answer, “Yeah, it actually was. I don’t share real life details with my clients, and I only pay attention when customers tell me about their lives so I can cater to what’s important to them.” I told her. It felt good, to be honest with someone, to be able to lay it all out there and not feel like I had destroyed their idea of who I was.

  “Okay, I have a better offer,” she stood up and extended her hand to help me up. While I appreciated the gesture, I grasped her hand but made sure I didn’t give her any of my weight when I rose to my feet.

  “For tonight, for this interview, let’s talk like friends. I will ask you questions, and if you want to ask me things, I will answer. But only for tonight,” she insisted. When I quickly agreed by nodding my head, she added, “I’m serious Matt, no exchanging numbers, Facebook, emails or anything like that. We talk like real people, no bullshit, and after we part with no strings, attachments or awkwardness.”

  “Okay, I’m fine with that, no awkwardness, got it,” I answered, choosing my words carefully. There was no way I was going to just let Alison slip through my fingers. However, I didn’t want to spook her. I was desperate to get to open up to me so if she had asked me to sign the deal in blood I would have. Desperate times and all that! I hope your ready sweetheart because there is no way this is our only night together!

  Ali

  Whew! I gave myself a mental high five at the way I had turned the situation around. I couldn’t believe women bought his fake innocence routine. Had he no sounded so tortured when he had admitted the truth, I would have stomped out and never looked back. Against, my better judgment I decided to give myself one night, where I could just be me and let myself revel in the attention of a guy that was definitely out of my league. It was a win-win, I got my interview, and Matt and I got something that I think both of us desperately needed, a night off from the roles we had to play outside in the real world.

  “Okay, what do you want to know?” I asked him, deciding it was best if I opened up this ‘friendship dialogue’. I walked back into the living room, grabbed a diet soda from the wet bar and a bag of pretzels and flopped down on the sofa. I figured if I was going to be me, I might as well let all my freak flags fly.

  Matt came into the room, took one look at me sitting cross-legged on the couch and grabbed the bag of M&M’s I had purchased at the gift shop downstairs earlier, ripped them open and flopped just as dramatically as I had, on the other end of the small sofa.

  “Okay, friend, you mentioned a burn unit, how bad were you injured?” Matt asked his gaze was steady, daring me to back out of the deal I had made.

  “I had third-degree burns over twenty percent my body, a crushed pelvis, broken hip, broken leg in two places, two discs in my back carved out chunks in the sciatic nerve in my back and a Partridge in a Pear tree,” I answered laughing, hoping to keep the pain out of my voice.

  Matt let out a low whistle, “So where are you burned?” His voice was gentle, and I didn’t see any pity in his eyes so I relaxed just a little.

  “I have scars that look like ripples in a lake on my lower back, just beneath my breasts and on the inside of my thighs,” I practically whispered. I turned my head away from him because the last thing I wanted was to see the familiar look of pity. People always felt sorry for me when they heard the story of how my parents died and what had happened to me.

  A soft but firm index finger caught my chin and brought my face around to his. “Hey, friends don’t judge friends, they also do feel sorry for each other,” he promised, and I searched his eyes, relieved to see concern but not pity.

  “Okay, your turn. How did you get into escorting?” I asked popping a pretzel toward my mouth, I missed horribly, and it fell to the floor. Purposefully, I held back from picking it up. I watched as Matt looked from the pretzel to me and then back to the pretzel. It was like it physically pained him to see the mess I had made. Testing the waters, I dropped another one. Before it even came to rest on the plush carpet, Matt bent over, grabbed both disgraced pretzels, and put them in the empty candy dish on the coffee table. Note to self, inquire about Matt’s OCD tendencies. I couldn’t hold back the laugh that escaped me, Matt’s eyes turned dark and narrowed before his whole face lit up and he chuckled along with me.

  “Okay smart ass,” he teased good-naturedly, “we’ll come back to that little stunt later,” he promised as I settled back against the arm of the sofa smiling.

  “A year or so back, I came to Vegas on business,” he raised a hand to stop me from speaking, “and no I am not going to tell you what I actually do for a living, but I have a college education and a very lucrative career! However, on this business trip, I met an older woman a bar. The whole time we were talking, I realized how lonely she was. She was a top executive from California, but men were either intimidated by her power position or felt challenged by her take-charge attitude. I knew without her even saying it, that she wanted someone who would take control. Someone who would give her what she needed and wanted without making her feel weak or stupid. When she invited me up to her room, I told myself to give her what she really wanted, what she really desired.” Matt stopped, and I rolled my fingers in a circle to let him know to continue.

  “Well, when we got there I took total control, I blindfolded her, tied her to the bed, sucked her nipples, um you don’t want all the details, do you?” he asked a sudden blush tinging his cheeks.

  Actually, I had been fascinated by
what he had shared already, and if I was honest I was a little turned on. Even though some part of me hated imagining Matt having mind blowing sex with other women, I knew that after tonight, it would be business as usual for him; that meant a lot of sex with a lot of women. Suck it up Alison, it’s what he does for a living, no judgment! No jealousy!

  “Only if you want to tell me,” I said not sure if I wanted to hear the steamy details or not.

  “I’ll just stick to the highlights,” he replied giving me a wink that told me he had guessed my inner conflict.

  “So, when I woke up the next morning, there was a wine glass full of hundreds and a note telling me it was the best night of her life and if I was willing, here was her number. She wanted to hook up the next time she was in town.”

  “Did it make you feel weird to take money for sex?” I asked him as I sipped my soda.

  Matt shrugged, “Actually no. I had made this woman’s fantasy come true, it felt awesome to have that kind of power. I felt like the money was a good buffer, the fact that she paid me meant that she understood it was sex and nothing more. I liked the feeling of things being neat and clean with no messy strings.”

  “So, you decided that having sex for money was your calling?

  Matt smirked and threw a piece of candy at me, which I skillfully dodged then laughed as he chased after it when it hit the floor behind me. “No, I decided I liked the rush of being a woman’s fantasy man, it was like a drug, and I wanted more of it. It helped me balance out the stressful and sometimes mundane profession I’m in. I called a buddy of mine, who I knew had opened an escort agency and asked him about joining it. He was totally onboard, so we made up a last name, a Bio page with my pic and a short paragraph that would appeal to the ladies and Bam! An escort is born.” He finished.