Escorting the Billionaire by Leigh James
Audrey
Jenny toldme that she’d had sex with Cole earlier today while they were out shopping, and it almost made me forget about the awful scene with my mother. And the story about Danielle. And Celia Preston’s offer to pay me to go away.
Which was saying something.
She wanted to tell me about how her assignment was going. We’d gone to a bathroom at the other end of the restaurant to avoid James’s family and anyone else connected to the wedding. “He’s frickin’ crazy,” she said, applying blush to her face with a pouffy brush. She added lip gloss and fluffed her hair. “I swear to God, I’ve never been with someone who wants to have this much sex. He can’t keep his hands off me.”
“Even in the dressing room at a fancy store?” I asked.
“Yeah. He totally thinks he’s above the law, right? It’s a billionaire thing—he thinks the rules don’t apply to him.
“He just followed me when I was trying this dress on. We weren’t in there for two seconds, and he pinned me up against the wall. With the sales clerk right outside! He had to lift me up so they couldn’t see our feet together. And he fucked me like crazy. I had to slap my hand over his mouth though ’cause he’s a yeller when he comes. Real loud, Dre. Real loud. And he likes me to do this thing with his balls—”
“Jenny—I don’t need to know the thing about his balls!”
Jenny fanned herself. “Fine. But I’m gettin’ hot just thinking about it. I should be exhausted, but I’m not. Jesus. He’s worse than Loospy and Fat Vinnie put together.”
“Do you like him?”
“Are you kidding me? This is the best time I’ve had with a John, ever. It’s like we’re the same person. Except he’s rich, and he’s a guy. And that thing with his balls.”
“Huh,” I said.
“Huh is right.” She turned to me and inspected my face. “Mr. Sex in a Suit is a little romance-y tonight, Dre. He’s got it real bad. I almost feel sorry for him. Did you bat him around like a cat toy last night?”
I decided to spare Jenny the actual ugly details of the past twenty-four hours. “I might have… a little.”
She nodded at me, a knowing look on her face. “It worked. You better watch it. I know that look he’s got.”
“Jenny, stop.”
I paused and then said, “What look is that, exactly?”
She rolled her eyes at me. “I think he might be in love with you. I’m just sayin’.” She shrugged. “He doesn’t look like he’s pretending anymore.”
“That only happens in the movies.”
“Then I’ll come over and film you,” she snapped. “Jesus, Dre. You gotta loosen up a little. Sometimes good things happen to good people.”
“Huh,” I said.
“Huh is right. Let’s go. We don’t want your Mr. Suit to cry because he misses you… and Coley’s hand hasn’t been on my ass in more than five minutes. My butt’s gettin’ cold.”
“What’s goingon with Cole and Jenny?” I asked James when we were driving home.
“I have no idea,” he said. “Last night I thought it was just physical. Tonight I don’t know. What does Jenny say?”
“That they have sex non-stop.”
“That’s what Cole said, too.”
“So that’s good,” I said. “They’re enjoying each other.” I wonder what’s going to happen afterward, I thought. If it’ll become a regular thing. I didn’t say it out loud; I didn’t want the conversation to circle back to us. It was something I wasn’t prepared to face.
“They’re coming to the Bahamas,” James said. All of a sudden he was shaking with silent laughter. “I think Todd’s rewarding me for my good behavior all week. My mother’s gonna have a fit.”
“I’m surprised Evie’s allowing it after Jenny tried to fight her last night.”
“Her cousins think Cole’s hot,” James said and shrugged. “They voted for eye candy on the trip.”
“Speaking of eye candy, I’ll make sure to tell Jenny to pack thong bikinis,” I said, grinning and feeling pleased. Being around my friend always made me feel better. I was glad she would be there next week just for that selfish reason, but the added benefit of her parading around in front of the Prestons in a minuscule bikini warmed my heart.
The downside, of course, was that Jenny wasn’t the most inconspicuous person, and I still had to pretend to be a legitimate, aboveboard graphic design student from New Hampshire. I also had to get her to stop calling me “Dre” somehow.
He linked his hand through mine. “This just keeps on getting better and better.”
“After the past twenty-four hours, there was really nowhere to go but up.”
“True,” he said. “Your mother didn’t come back tonight, though. That’s an improvement.”
“I know.” Still, I couldn’t shake the feeling that she wasn’t done with us. My mother was relentless. That’s how she’d lived this long on nothing of her own. “I’m worried about it, though.”
He put his arm around my shoulder and pulled me to him. “We just have to get through the next twenty-four hours. Then we’re getting on a plane and getting out of the country. It’s going to be okay.”
“Okay,” I said, wanting to believe it.
There were a lot of things I wanted to believe right now.
I wokeup before James the next morning. His broad chest was rising and falling in his sleep. I just lied there and watched him. I had so many emotions going on inside of me right now, it was hard to keep up. But one thing was certain.
I loved him, and I had to do what was right for him.
I got up and went out to the kitchen to make coffee. I needed to think straight. Today was the wedding; I had to play my part of loving girlfriend. That would be easy—too easy.
The problem was just about everything else.
My mother wanted to blackmail him and his family to keep quiet about the fact that I was an escort. A tabloid scandal like that might not do too much to injure James individually; he was a single billionaire, and he could do as he liked. Public opinion probably didn’t mean that much to him, anyway. But his family—his mother—was a completely different story. Having her proper family associated with prostitution would ruin the Prestons’ spotless reputation.
She would never forgive me for that. Worse, she would never forgive James.
So my mother was a threat and a problem. Celia Preston was both of these as well. She wanted me to disappear from James’s life after next week. She offered to pay me to go away. She’d made it crystal clear that I was not Preston material—and that was based on the moderately respectable and completely false profile I was using for this job.
If she found out I was a whore, she might do something far worse than make me cry really hard and then send me on my way.
Also, what she’d said was still ringing in my ears. James’s children are going to be some of the wealthiest people in the country. They have to be able to handle the duties that come with that sort of privilege—and their parents have to be able to help them do that.
I’d barely graduated high school. I had an alcoholic, grifter mother and an absent father. I lived in an apartment in the bad part of the city, and I was lucky to be there.
Also, there was the fact that I was a whore.
I swallowed my coffee. It tasted bitter, but I made myself drink it, anyway. I was not in a position to raise wealthy trust-fund children and help guide them through the duties that came with that sort of privilege. I got excited about James’s super-fluffy towels; his fancy coffeemaker was like a ride at Disney World to me. I didn’t have the experience or capacity to live in his world, or attempt to raise a family in it.
But it was this train of thought that brought me to my biggest problem. James was my John. Just because Celia Preston, my mother, and Jenny thought he cared about me did not make it true. Just because I hoped against hope that he cared about me did not make it true. He was paying for me to pretend I was his girlfriend. He was paying to fuck me.
The fact that he’d let me play with his hair yesterday afternoon and that he’d told me about his dead girlfriend did not a relationship make.
I was in love with him. That fact was as clear to me as the sun coming up outside. But I couldn’t let my feelings cloud my judgment. I had to protect myself a little, too. Otherwise this was going to hurt too badly. I wished I could put a shield around my heart, so it wouldn’t break all ugly and uneven when this was over…
Because that was the thing. James had told me he cared about me. But that was it. He’d held my hand. Our lovemaking had been totally intense—but how did I know he felt what I felt? Just being close to him made my heart feel as if it was going to burst. When he was inside me, I felt like I was going to weep because I finally felt complete.
I’d had a lot of sex. Too much. But none of it had ever made me feel anything close to the rush of emotion that I felt when I was with James. He’d been so tender with me, so loving, that it felt as if it was more than just sex for him, too.
But he hadn’t said a word about the future. He’d said he cared about me right now. And that was something, and I would cling to it when he was gone, but it was only what it was.
If he felt more than he was saying, it made it even worse.
“Hey.” He’d padded out to the living room in his sweats and nothing else. Of course, my traitor heart stopped when I saw him.
“Hey.” I got up and went to him. I ran my hands down his gorgeous chest and kissed him deeply. Because he was only mine for right now. And I wanted to remember all of it, every feel, every detail of him, for when I was alone again. Which would be all too soon.
