Escorting the Billionaire by Leigh James
Audrey
I finally madeit to the bathroom. Relieved to be alone for a moment, I splashed cold water on my wrists. I would have shoved my whole face under the faucet, but my makeup would run. I needed to keep my game face on—for James, for his family, for his buddy Cole, for myself. Easy girl, I thought, willing my racing heart to slow down. It’s just another date, I reminded myself. He’s just another John.
Except he wasn’t.
I looked up in the mirror and fixed my hair. I put some lip gloss on. I sprayed breath freshener into my mouth five times and straightened my shoulders. Think about Tommy, I reminded myself, and that calmed me down. My brother needed me, and no matter what I felt about James, no matter how hard and how fast I wanted to run away from him—or toward him, I still wasn’t sure which—I was going to stay put.
For Tommy, I told myself. I didn’t let myself think anything other than that.
The restof the dinner passed in a blur of cocktails, delicious food, and curious stares from Evie, Cole, and Mr. and Mrs. Preston.
I smiled and ignored the stares. I held hands with James and ignored the battling feelings of desire and impending doom that raged on inside me. He talked to me like I was his girlfriend, and I answered him like he was my boyfriend. I ate the delicious food and pretended to care about the details of the wedding, which were discussed in minute detail by Evie and her cousins, who were her bridesmaids.
Finally, it was over. The party was breaking up, and James pulled me away. “We don’t have to say goodbye,” he said. “Let’s just head out. We’ll be seeing them all in twelve hours anyway.”
“Great,” I said and laughed weakly. His highfalutin family was exhausting. His mother had watched us all through dinner, and had clearly taken notice of the hand-holding.
“I know—I told you they were assholes, right? Let me just go outside and call Kai. He’ll be here in two minutes, and then we can go.” James squeezed my shoulder, and I stood inside the door, watching him stride outside in his gorgeous suit and tap on his fancy phone.
He was only gone for a second when I felt someone nearby. I turned and jumped a little: Cole Bryson had snuck up on me.
“Hey, Cole,” I said. My tone was friendly even though I only felt reluctant at his proximity. He was looking at me the way most men looked at me. But most men weren’t my date’s best friend.
“Hello, Audrey,” he said. He gave me a wide smile. Cole was rich, tall, and muscular. His black, perfectly gelled wavy hair glinted above his forehead and his green eyes. He had a large, square jaw. He was a physically stupendous specimen.
He was smiling at me as though I was his next meal—a juicy piece of meat roasting on the grill—and he just couldn’t wait to put a spear in me and make me a Cole-Bryson-dick-shish kebab.
I wished Jenny was here so I could throw her at him. Then she could have her own billionaire, and Cole could just leave me alone with mine.
“James is calling for the car,” I said nervously. He was so close but just out of reach, right outside the door.
“I know,” Cole said. He lazily leaned up against the wall next to me. “He told me about you, you know.”
My heart stopped. But I didn’t let my face betray me.
“Really? What did he say?”
“I know why you’re here,” Cole said. “I know he hired you. He never could stand to be alone with his family. But he also told me things aren’t physical between you two. That’s why you should come home with me tonight. And I’m not saying this to be an asshole—I’m saying it to help.”
I felt sick, but I looked up at him with as much indignation as I could manage. “You’re not saying it to be an asshole, Cole? Are you sure?”
“I’m sure,” he said, smiling at me. “It’s a business proposition. You fill my need, I’ll fill yours. You come home with me tonight, and I’ll pay you your regular fee. And James will still be paying you. You’ll make a tidy profit. It’s like a twofer.”
He leaned over me, looking triumphant—as if he had just solved all our problems. He was ready for his shish kebab. Cole Bryson was a successful, gorgeous man, and he was used to getting what he wanted. I had the feeling “no” wasn’t a word he often heard. He smiled down at me, and I winced. The problem was, I didn’t know if James wanted me to say no to him.
“Don’t say no to a tidy profit,” he said. “You’ll break my venture-capitalist heart.”
I felt as though I was going to throw up. “Did James say this was okay?” I asked, my voice small. I held my breath until he answered.
“No,” Cole admitted. “I didn’t run it by him yet. But James isn’t exactly sentimental.”
My heart was pounding in my chest, hard, when I heard the door open behind me.
“It’s true, I’m not sentimental,” James said, coming toward us.
I held my breath a little longer and felt the blood drain from my face. I had a feeling this was about to go very, very badly.
He reached me, and to my complete surprise, he took my hand. I looked at our hands linked together like that. I just stared at them as if they belonged to other people, and then I looked up at his gorgeous face.
He was glaring at Cole. “That was a dick move,” he said. “By the way, I heard almost everything you said.”
“It’s not like I was trying to hide it,” Cole said easily.
James looked at my face. “Are you okay?” he asked.
I nodded, biting my lip.
He turned back to Cole. “You are on my shit list.”
His friend looked at him and snorted, unfazed. “I’m an entrepreneur—you know that,” he said. “I see an opportunity and I move for it, fast.”
James smiled at him tightly. “You’re my best friend,” he said, “which is why I haven’t punched you in the face. Yet. But for the record, Audrey is a person, not an opportunity. So please do not approach her with any more business propositions in the future.”
Cole studied his friend’s face and let his glance trail down to our interlocked fingers. “Why James, I didn’t know you cared.”
I felt James stiffen for a second but only slightly. “I care that you find someone else to put your entrepreneurial hands on tonight. Audrey has agreed to be exclusive with me for the next two weeks. Please don’t get her into trouble—not with me, and not with her employer.”
A look passed between the two friends, and Cole nodded at James.
“Call me tomorrow,” James said. “If I answer, it means I’m speaking to you again.”
Cole smiled at the both of us, unabashed, and then he winked at me. “See ya,” he said. “It’s too bad James can’t share—I’m much more fun than he is.”
James gave him one final disapproving glare and then hustled me out to the car. I was shaking a little, still biting my lip. I nodded at Kai and got into the car silently. James climbed in after me and sat close by.
“That was unfortunate,” he said.
“Is that how all your friends treat you?” I asked.
“Cole is my only friend. And he would never do anything to hurt me,” James said carefully. “He must have thought it was okay.”
“I wasn’t going to say yes, if that’s what you think,” I said and looked out the window. Cole could have offered me a million dollars, and I wouldn’t have taken it. Which meant I was completely fucked up and in deep trouble, as far as I was concerned.
“I can pay you what he offered—so that you don’t have a loss,” James said quietly.
“I don’t consider it a loss,” I said. I kept my face turned away. There was a tumble of emotions inside me—I felt betrayed that James had shared our secret with his friend, thrilled that he had stood up for me, and darkly hopeful that he wanted me for himself.
It was the darkly hopeful part that was killing me. That part had to go.
“I’m sorry that I told him about us,” James said, and I heard him pour himself another drink. I kept still, my face turned toward the window. “He thought we were an actual couple, in love. He was making such a big deal out of it. So I told him to shut him up. Which was a dick move in and of itself.”
I shrugged, looking out at the darkness, but I felt as though my heart was being ripped in two.
He thought we were an actual couple, in love.
I’d only met James today. We were not in love. We were playing a game, putting on a show. But I had all sorts of inappropriate feelings for him, bubbling up right underneath the surface. I was not a feelings person—I didn’t have the space for them in my already-complicated life. But for whatever reason, or for a whole host of reasons, James had gotten under my skin quickly. He was not just a John to me. That was a huge fucking problem on a long list of huge fucking problems.
I needed solutions, not more problems.
I also needed money. I closed my eyes and willed all my stupid feelings to go away. But they didn’t, and I found myself on the verge of tears. I couldn’t do this. I couldn’t cry in front of him—that was Escorting 101.
“I don’t know if I can do this tonight,” I said, my voice treacherously thick.
He sighed. “I’m sorry, Audrey. I’ve hurt your feelings twice tonight. I’m completely fucking this up.”
“I think I should go home,” I said miserably.
I turned back just in time to see him finish his bourbon, a bleak look on his face.
“I think that would be for the best,” he said stiffly.
I hadthem drop me off three blocks from my apartment. I didn’t want him to see the crappy building where I lived. Kai pulled over, and James got out with me.
“I’m sorry tonight turned out like this,” he said, his jaw clenched.
“It’s okay,” I said. “I just need to be alone.”
“I need your number,” James said. I recited it to him and watched him tap it into his fancy phone, wondering when, and if, he was ever going to call me. I wasn’t sure what our separation meant. This was supposed to be our first night together, and I was going home to sleep alone. Would I still have him as an assignment? Would he phone Elena and tell her I was too much trouble? Would he decide that I was a pain in the ass, and I’d never see him again?
A lump formed in my throat, but I smiled at him when he was done. “Thanks for the ride,” I said. “And the drinks.”
“Anytime,” he said and unceremoniously got back in the car.
My heart dropped at his curt departure. But I made myself head home with my chin up, taking long, confident strides. As if I knew I was making the right choice by walking away from him.
Plus, I didn’t want him to see my hot, confused tears.
My apartment seemed even more disgustingthan it had this morning, and that was saying something. I was acutely aware of the contrast to James’s multi-million-dollar condominium. Good thing I’m here alone, I thought, but it didn’t feel good.
I made myself some tea and went and sat on my windowsill. James Preston. His big-shouldered, suit-clad image filled my head, crowding out all coherent thought. I would have Googled him, but I had no Internet access, no smartphone. It was better that way. I didn’t want to see the society pictures that Elena had mentioned, of him with other women. Real women, real dates.
I decided to worry about Elena instead. If he let me go, she would, too. She would be absolutely furious with me. And then I’d be back to turning tricks on the street, trying to make rent and keep my brother in his residence home. Except that I’d never make enough money.
I thought about getting a legitimate job for approximately one second. The idea made me laugh—the only other thing I’d ever done was waitress, and I could make more money in an hour turning tricks than I could in a whole shift waiting tables. I had my brother to think about.
My body was just my body. When I was with a John, I could distance myself from what was happening, almost as if it was happening to someone else. I could do at least that for my brother. I was all he had, and he was all I had, and I had to protect him using any means necessary. My body and my pride were a small price to pay for his well-being.
Any dreams or hopes for myself that I’d had were a small sacrifice, too.
I thought about James again, unable to block him out. I thought about how he’d held my hand earlier tonight, and how warm and comforted it made me feel. I couldn’t remember the last time someone had held my hand like that—maybe never. I pictured him smiling at me, and my chest got tight. He’d left me on the street just now so easily, it was like I was nothing to him.
That’s because you are nothing to him,I thought.
I knew that was true, but the tightness in my chest persisted. I realized it was the sensation of common sense strangling the hope that was living there, inside my heart.
It hurt. It really, really hurt.
