Escorting the Billionaire by Leigh James
Audrey
We stayedin bed for the rest of the day. The Red Sox managed to win. I now knew where I stood with James. Even though I’d felt as if he’d broken my heart this morning, his clumsy explanation about his feelings put it back together again. And then subsequently melted it.
He was a John, but he was the best John ever. He’d fucked me like I’d never been fucked before, and I was going to make enough money to keep Tommy in New Horizons for the near future and then some. I had the next nine days to look forward to with James, nine days of luxury and pleasure.
In theory, I should be sitting back and relaxing, counting all my money and all my orgasms. In practice, I felt as if my heart was about to break all over again. And this time, all James’s money and all James’s sexual dexterity wouldn’t be able to put it back together again.
I was in love with him. The realization spread over me with sick dread as I was getting dressed for the evening and James was taking a shower. He was an assignment that was only going to last one more week, and I was in love with him. I looked at myself in the mirror and laughed. I sure know how to pick ’em, I thought. It just figured. I finally fell in love and it was never going to happen. That was typical Audrey Reynolds luck.
Not only that, but I was finally going to have enough money to make things okay, all the things I’d been wishing for. And now I wouldn’t even be able to enjoy it. Because I was in love with James Preston, and he was going to leave my world next week, and my life was going to be ruined forever.
Way to go, Audrey.
My phone beeped, and I got up to look at it. It was a text from my mom. Shit. It was never good when my mom came looking for me. She either wanted money, or she was in trouble, or she wanted money because she was in trouble. But I wanted to make sure there wasn’t anything wrong with Tommy, so I called her back.
“Audrey,” she said immediately.
“Everything okay?” I asked, not bothering to say hello either.
“No, it is not,” she said. “I got into a car accident earlier, and the Sentra’s totaled.”
“Was everyone all right?” I asked. I meant, were you high, and did you kill anybody?
“I’m fine,” she said. “I just ran off the road and hit some construction stuff that the stupid city workers left there. Can you imagine that? Just leaving concrete tubes and jackhammers and shit everywhere? It totaled my car!”
“It was on the side of the road, Ma. Not in the road.” I sighed. My mother always had a problem, and someone else had always caused it. I don’t think I’d ever heard her say she was responsible for one thing that had gone wrong in her life, not ever.
“So where’s the car?” I asked.
“I left it there.”
“Where are you?”
“I’m at a bar,” she said. Of course she was. I knew my mother. She was going to have a few drinks and tell the cops she’d been at a bar, drinking—after she’d totaled her car. They’d never be able to prove that she’d been drinking before, too, although they would expect as much. The cops knew my mom, and my mom knew the cops.
“Did you call anybody?” I asked.
“No. That wouldn’t have been a great idea,” she said. That was as close as she would come to admitting she’d been drunk earlier. “So I’m just in here for an hour. I’m gonna have a couple of drinks and then I’ll call them.”
“They might find you before that, Ma.”
“Whatever,” she said. She was muffled for a bit, and I heard her lighting a cigarette. “Hey, I talked to the clerk at Tommy’s center. She said you’d paid ahead through August. Business must be pretty good, huh?”
“It was a one-off. There’s no more money,” I said, bristling. I was disgusted that my mother was happy I was making money as a prostitute. I was even more disgusted by her tone—the one that told me she was going to be asking me for some of that money soon. “I gotta run. Be safe.”
“Have fun,” she said, and it made my skin crawl.
James came in then, a towel wrapped around his waist. “Who was that?”
“No one,” I said, and I meant it.
James hadon another dazzling suit, this time with a lavender tie. “What should I wear?” I asked, going through the racks of designer clothes in my closet. I wasn’t used to this many choices.
“That dress you had on last night worked for me,” he said, grinning.
“I’m pretty sure that’s dirty,” I said and smiled back at him. “Plus, I don’t want to wear anything that’s going to have us going at it under the table again. I don’t think your mother would approve.” I pulled out a conservative grey sheath and showed it to him. “What about this?”
“It’s fine,” he said. “But we’ll still probably go at it. It doesn’t matter what you wear. I know what you look like underneath—and I like it.” I went to him and kissed him on the lips, dropping the dress onto the bed. He wrapped his arms around me and kissed me back, hard, and that wasn’t the only thing that was hard.
I ran my hands over him, relishing the feel of his enormous, sculpted chest, but then I stepped back. “Too bad we don’t have time for that right now,” I said innocently. “You have to be photographed for your New England Brides Magazine spread.”
He sighed raggedly. “This fucking wedding.”
I started to put the grey dress on. “I don’t know—I’m enjoying it so far,” I said, and I meant it.
He came and zipped up the back for me. “I am, too. And that was the last thing I expected.” He ran his hand gently down my back, sending shivers through me.
His phone buzzed, and he grabbed it, reading the screen intently. “I have to deal with this. Sorry,” he said, and started quickly tapping out messages on his phone. “But we have to get going, too.”
I put on some metallic sandals, lipstick, and a bunch of bangles. Then I grabbed his hand, leading him to the elevator and out to the car while he dealt with his business. It was beautiful outside, and Kai was waiting with a friendly smile. James was holding my hand while he barked into his phone. It all seemed so normal, so natural. For one moment, I imagined that this was my real life, and I was his real girlfriend.
It was perfect. It was absofuckinglutely perfect.
He was on his call during the drive to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, where the photo shoot was taking place. I took the time to look at my phone, worried that my mother had managed to end up in jail.
To my surprise, I had three voicemails. The first was from my mother. “Audrey, they towed the car, and I can’t afford to get it. Call me. Please.”
The second was from Elena. “Dre, call me as soon as you get this. On my cell.”
I looked over at James, and he was still on his phone, listening intently to something. Blowing out a shaky breath, I called her back immediately. “Dre,” she said after it had barely started to ring.
“Hi, Elena,” I said nervously. She rarely, if ever, called us while we were on a job. “What’s up?”
“Your mother is what’s up,” she said. “She came by the office this afternoon. She said she knew you’d made big money recently and that she needed some of it.”
All the blood drained from my face. “Elena, I’m so sorry,” I said.
“It gets better. I told her that she was not welcome in our office. She smelled, Dre. She was butt-ass drunk in broad daylight, and she was belligerent. I proceeded to tell her that you were making your regular salary and that I didn’t know anything else, and then I asked her to leave.”
“What happened then?” I asked.
“She went into the bathroom and stole a bunch of those mini hand soaps,” Elena said, sighing. “Then she left. But I have a bad feeling she’ll be back again tomorrow. Dre, I can’t have this sort of drama associated with my business. I run a luxury company. I can’t have your alcoholic, bag-lady-looking mother coming in and yelling at me in front of clients.”
“I know,” I said. I could feel myself turning crimson red. My mother had been ruining things for me since I was a child. I was so ashamed of her. For years, I’d felt bad because of that shame. I’d always felt as if I should be spending my time trying to help her more, not being embarrassed by her.
But now I was a grown woman, and I’d been taking care of myself for a long time. And I’d also taken care of Tommy because she couldn’t—and she never had. I’d seen her ruin everything that she touched, take advantage of everyone who came into contact with her. And now she was threatening my livelihood, the livelihood that was keeping her son healthy and safe.
I didn’t feel bad anymore that I was ashamed of her. She was worthy of my shame.
“I’ll talk to her,” I said. “She won’t be coming back.”
“I need you to take care of this and still take care of our most prestigious client. Don’t let your personal problems get in the way, Dre.”
“I won’t,” I mumbled. “I promise.”
I hung up and nervously checked my third voicemail. It was from Reina, one of the clerks at New Horizons. “Hey Dre, just wanted to let you know that your mom stopped by this afternoon. I need to talk to you about your account. Give me a quick call when you have a second.”
We pulled up in front of the museum. James was still on the phone, talking lowly. I hopped out of the car and called her back immediately, a pit of dread forming in my stomach. “Hey, Reina. It’s Audrey Reynolds. Is something wrong?”
“You need to change Tommy’s account here, hon,” she said. “Your mother is listed as a responsible party for him, in addition to you. She came in today and demanded that we refund some of the money you prepaid on his account. I couldn’t do it, because the manager had already gone, but I wanted to give you a heads up.”
“She didn’t. Please tell me she didn’t do that,” I said, my stomach sinking. But it was true, and I knew it: that was just like my mother. She would take Tommy’s rent money for herself. She really was that low.
“Sorry, hon,” Reina said. “I just thought you’d want to know.”
I thanked her and hung up, my hands shaking.
And then I turned to find James, standing on the sidewalk next to me, a worried look on his face.
