Escorting The Billionaire #2 (The Escort Collection) (5 page)

She nodded. I wasn’t sure if I could believe her, but there wasn’t anything I could do about that right now.

“Second, you can’t ever go to my office again. My boss would have fired me today, except I’m on a job.”

She snorted and lit another cigarette. “That boss of yours thinks her shit doesn’t stink. I had a mind today to tell that beaver chomper—”

“Please don’t call her a beaver chomper,” I interrupted, “and just don’t ever go there again. She said she’d fire me if you do. She meant it. If you want to keep crashing your cars up, getting bailed out of jail, and borrowing money for the rest of your life, I sort of need a job, okay? So lay off.”

“Fine.” She blew out a cloud of smoke in my direction.

I didn’t know what I’d ever done to her to make her hate me, but she did. She didn’t hate Tommy—she didn’t take good care of him, but she at least ruffled his hair occasionally. But not me. Maybe it was just a complete and utter lack of love that I felt from her.

She was like the sun on a sub-zero day: she was there, but she gave no warmth. It was as if I’d come along and ruined her party just by being born, and now I had to pay. And pay. And pay. I took out my wallet and handed her the cash. It was the only money I’d kept from the advance. It was supposed to go toward rent, but there was nothing I could do about that right now.

Except go back to work.

“Bye, Ma,” I said.

She stuffed the money into her pocket and nodded at me. “See ya. Have fun in that fancy outfit.” The way she said it made me feel dirty.

I couldn’t wait to flee the smoke and everything else. I threw the door open, eager to breathe in the fresh air.

And there stood James Preston on the landing, just standing there, waiting for me.

I
caught
a glimpse of the mother. She was about Audrey’s height, but that was where the resemblance ended. I saw a barrel chest, stringy bleached hair, and a face that had seen too many Tequila Sunrises.

“Hey,” Audrey said, closing the door behind her quickly. “I told you not to come up.”

“I wanted to be here if you needed me,” I said. I pulled her to me protectively as we headed down the stairs.

“Did that go okay?” I asked. I had no idea what “okay” meant in this circumstance, but it was the only thing I could think of to say.

She shrugged. “It was typical. It was fine.”

“What does that mean, Audrey?”

She slid into the car and sighed. “Can I please have some bourbon?”

“Of course.” I poured her a glass and watched her take a shaky sip.

“You know, I thought I’d never drink. After growing up with my mom the way she was.” She shrugged. “But my mother taught me what it actually means to
need
a drink.”

I poured myself one and clinked her glass. “Cheers to that.” We watched the city lights as we sped from East Boston back through the Financial District. “Audrey. I know you don’t want to tell me what your mother wanted, but I wish you would.”

She stared out the window, the tension obvious in her shoulders. “She just needed money. Her car got… towed. That’s all.”

“Does she always ask you for money?”

“She doesn’t always ask, James.”

“Ah,” I said. “So she’s an alcoholic, and she’s a problem.”

“She’s an alcoholic, and she’s a problem.” She smiled at me bravely. “Just another sob story from your friendly neighborhood escort.”

I put my arm around her and pulled her to me. I didn’t know what to say, so I said nothing. I just held her close and hoped that made it a little better.

I
made
love to her again that night, slowly. We didn’t say a word. I understood her body now, what she wanted, and all I wanted was to be inside her. We came at the same time. As I spent myself into her she called my name again. It left me with a deep ache, a yearning. I didn’t know what that was, and I didn’t know what to do with it. So I just wrapped myself around her as if she were mine, holding her from behind while we slept.

But she wasn’t mine.
It’s like a timeshare, baby. No one gets to own me. You just get to stay a while.
Her words echoed in my head as I drifted off to sleep. I hated those crude words. I hated the truth behind them…

I woke up the next morning pressed against her, hard again. She moved closer in her sleep, but I rolled over, not letting my erection overtake my thoughts. Today was the day of the rehearsal dinner. Tomorrow was the wedding. Then, Eleuthera.

Then, no more Audrey.

I looked at her naked back, rising and falling with her breath. She was too young to have dealt with everything that had been thrown her way. I hadn’t let myself really dwell on the fact that she was a hooker.
She was a hooker.
I wouldn’t even let myself imagine all the men she’d been with.

Probably not as many women as you’ve been with, asshole,
I thought. That was true. And I’d only ever had feelings for one of them.

Now, two.

But when I thought about Danielle, what had happened… I shuddered. I couldn’t let anyone down like that again. I didn’t trust myself with another person’s heart.

Fuck,
I thought, and rolled back over. My erection pressed against Audrey, demanding and fierce. But what was I going to do? Move back to Boston so I could date my escort? Relocate her to California so I could put her up in a condo and see her whenever I liked, keeping her from my family and the rest of the world?

My family would never accept her, even as the fake orphan/graduate-school student she was pretending to be. Even buoyed by that lie, she wasn’t good enough. If they found out she was an escort from a destitute family, they would hate her. My mother would make her life a living hell.

Audrey’s background didn’t matter to me—neither did my family’s opinion. But they would never treat her like a Preston. Even if I could accept that, it would be cruel to ask her to.

My head was spinning. I pressed my forehead against her back, trying to block out my swirling thoughts.
This is why I didn’t want a relationship,
I thought.
Too many fucking issues.

She woke up then, turning over to me and smiling. “Hey,” she said, a blush creeping up her neck.

The only escort in the history of escorts who blushed. She was adorable.

Any thoughts I’d just been having about issues vanished when she smiled at me like that. “Hey,” I said and leaned down and kissed her.

She looked at me, sheepish. “I really need to brush my teeth.”

She went to get up, but I grabbed her arm. “Don’t,” I said. “Don’t go.”

Audrey looked at me, confused for a second, and then settled back down on the bed. She moved her body against my hardness. “Ah,” she said. “Do you need some services rendered, sir?” she wrapped her hand around my hard length and squeezed.

I sucked in my breath, hard. Maybe if I buried myself in her again, an answer about what to do would present itself.

Even if it wouldn’t, I had to get back in there.

I kissed her again urgently. “Yes. But I’m going to be the one doing the rendering. Lie back,” I growled.

A
udrey’s phone
kept beeping while she was in the shower. I went into the steamy bathroom to tell her and also as an excuse to watch her.

“Audrey. Your phone.” I could see her glorious silhouette, her ass and thighs tight and muscular. My cock stirred again.
Down boy,
I thought. We’d done it twice already this morning. We had to get dressed and eat at some point, even if I never wanted either one of us to leave that bed again.

“I’ll get it in a minute. Thank you,” she called, rinsing her hair.

I dragged myself out of the bathroom, away from her, her phone still in my hand. It was a funny looking old thing, with a keyboard you could pull out. It beeped again.

I wanted to check it to see if it was her mother.

You want to check it to see if it’s a guy,
I thought. She hadn’t mentioned any sort of a relationship, but then, why would she? It beeped again. I could still hear her in the shower.

I hit a button and the screen lit up.

It was a message from someone named Reina.
Your mother came in this morning and withdrew money,
it said.
The manager had to ok it. I’m so sorry.

The fact that it wasn’t a guy was where the good news ended. Was this from a manager at Audrey’s bank? Or something else? I put her phone down and paced for a minute. Audrey had given her mother money last night. But maybe it wasn’t enough, or maybe something had happened that wasn’t to her mother’s liking.

I remembered what Audrey’s face looked like yesterday afternoon when she’d been on the phone in front of the museum. Pale, cold, and furious.

Furious. Audrey was gentle, but something had made her beyond angry.

I immediately called Kai. “What’s the name of the place Audrey had you take her the other morning? Where her brother lives?”

“New Horizons, sir. In South Boston.”

“I’ll be down in five minutes. Have the car waiting.”

“
A
udrey
,” James called.

“Huh?” I asked. There was soap in my ears. I was using his Argan oil body wash on every available surface of my body. It smelled like him and literally made my mouth water.

“I have to run out.” I thought that’s what he said, anyway.

Maybe I shouldn’t have used so much in my ears. “Okay,” I responded.

“Okay,” he called. “I’ll be back in an hour. Have some coffee.”

“Okay,” I said. I wanted to add
babe.
Or
honey.
Or
I love you, please don’t leave me.
But common sense told me that would be very stupid, so I just kept rinsing.

“Audrey.” He opened the shower door a little and I was careful not to splash him. “Did you hear me? I wish I could come in there, but I have to run out. I’ll be back soon.” He leaned in and gave me a quick, hot kiss that melted my insides. His hair got sprayed with water, and he gave me a devilish smile, closing the door behind him and leaving me.

Thinking about that smile, and what he’d done to me earlier that morning with his mouth, made me pant. Which made me get water from the shower in my mouth. Which made me cough.

Which was the only thing that made me glad he was gone. I hacked and spluttered, getting out of the shower and wrapping an enormous, incredibly soft towel around myself. I dried my hair, combing it out carefully as I went. Then I searched for my phone in James’s room, but he must have stuck it somewhere. I’d just ask him when he got back. I grabbed the Wharton T-shirt he’d been wearing yesterday off the floor and put it on, inhaling the smell of him. Then I padded out to the kitchen, in search of coffee, wishing that I lived here with him and that this was my real life.

My real life.
I’d never met my father. My mother told me that he was her boyfriend, and that he’d stuck around at first after Tommy was born. Then she’d gotten pregnant with me, and then he was gone. I always hoped he’d come back but he never did… and he never sent a child support check. He was probably not a great guy.

But when I was a girl, I’d pretended that he was a king. That he’d sent Tommy and me to live with my mother to hide us, because we were important, and he was protecting us. In my fantasy, he came back—and I discovered that I’d been a princess all along. He took us to live the lives we were always supposed to have: our
real
lives, which were orderly and beautiful and perfect.

I looked out across the sunny kitchen. James’s apartment was sparkling and immaculate. It was orderly and beautiful and perfect. James was perfect. This was that royal life I’d always imagined and was never meant to have.

Yes, it was true that I loved James. I did. There was nothing I could do about that now.

But it was now truer than ever that I had to protect my heart.

“
Y
ou made breakfast
?” he asked an hour later. He threw some things on the counter and swept me into his arms. He was so much bigger than me, I felt protected with him wrapped around me. “That was nice of you.”

He kissed me deeply, and I got shaky from it. The raw energy between us was almost overwhelming. I ran my hands down his chest, feeling the muscles underneath his shirt. It should be criminal to be so gorgeous, with all those muscles and that wavy, steel-colored hair; it wasn’t fair. He ran his hands down me, too, kissing me hungrily.

“You make me crazy.” He rested his forehead against mine and held me close. I could feel his erection spring up against me. “I can’t control myself when you touch me.”

“You touched
me
, boss,” I said. “I was just standing here making French toast.”

“French toast?” He pulled back and looked at the stove hopefully. “That’s my favorite.”

“I know.”

He looked at me, a curious smile on his face. “How did you know?”

“You ordered it at brunch. And you ate it in about two seconds.”

“So you’ve been paying attention,” he said, impressed.

“I’m just trying to earn my keep,” I said. I kissed him on the cheek and smiled, vowing to keep all the wild thoughts and emotions going on inside of me at bay.

“Oh, you’ve earned it,” he said, his eyes flashing at me and that devilish grin coming back. “And then some. You’re absolutely my most valuable employee.”

“Ha,” I said, blushing with a mixture of pleasure and disappointment. I didn’t want to be his employee. I wanted to be his girlfriend. I was, however, pleased that I was pleasing him. I plated some French toast and set it on the island. I poured him coffee, black, like he liked it, and a glass of fresh-squeezed orange juice. I also set out some blackberries and strawberries. I looked at the spread, impressed. Expensive clothes looked better. Expensive food did, too.

He sat down and looked at the meal before him. “This is lovely,” he said. “Thank you, Audrey.”

“It’s my pleasure. I like taking care of you,” I said and blushed a little more.

There was an expression I couldn’t read on his face. “I like it, too.”

I sat down next to him and he intermittently rubbed my back while he ate. “Do you want some more coffee?” He nodded, and I grabbed his mug. I spied his cell phone and wallet on the table as I headed toward his fancy coffee machine. “Hey, is that my phone?” I asked. It was with his things. I grabbed it and flipped it on.

“Yep,” he said. He gave no explanation as to why he’d had it.

There was a text message from Reina at the center. I read it and kept my back to him while I made his dark roast, feeling a cold rage descend on me.
My mother had stolen from Tommy.
I made myself push that fact to the side for now: I would deal with her later, when I could.

“Did you take my phone for some reason?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“Did you read this? The message about my mother?” I asked. I held my phone up, but I didn’t turn around to face him.

“Yes.”

“Do you want to tell me why?” I was angry not only about the message itself, but also the fact that he’d read it before me. The fact that he’d read it at all.

“Come here.” I went to him, bringing his coffee and my phone. My guard was way up, on high alert. A man looking at your phone only meant one thing—he’d been snooping. I put the coffee down, and he pulled me onto his lap. I sat there stiffly. “Don’t be mad at me, Audrey.”

“Why did you have my phone?”

“It beeped when you were in the shower.”

“You told me that. When I was in the shower.”

“It beeped again.” He wrapped his arms more tightly around me.

“So?” I asked. I had nothing to hide from him except for my fucked-up family. Still, he shouldn’t go through my things.

“So I read your text message. I’m sorry.”

“I wish you hadn’t,” I said, pulling back to look at him. “Just like I didn’t want you to come in my mother’s apartment last night. Some things just aren’t your business. There’s some things I don’t want you to see. You have to let me decide what to share with you. That’s called having boundaries.”

His blue eyes burned into mine. “What if I want it to be my business?” He didn’t sound sorry. He was challenging me.

“James. Tell me first why you read my text.” I wanted to hear the truth from him.

He rubbed his face. “I wanted to know who it was from,” he said, looking away. “I wondered if you had a boyfriend you weren’t telling me about.”

I laughed. “You think I have a boyfriend?”

He looked at me then, a mixture of jealousy, embarrassment, and defiance clear on his face. “Do you?”

Boyfriends were on my list of outside interests, of which I had none. “No,” I said. “There’s no one.”
There’s only you.
“I’m not sure why you care, though.”

“I already told you last night. I care.” He wrapped his arms around me a little tighter. He didn’t say anything else, and I felt both angry at him and a little sorry for him. I was an
escort
. Having a boyfriend should seriously be the least of his worries about me, on a very long list.

“I’m sorry, Audrey.”

It sounded as if he meant it, and I forgave him instantly. “It’s okay,” I said. I leaned down and kissed him tenderly. I ran my hands through his thick hair before I pulled back. “I’m telling you the truth, though. You have to trust me—and I have to know that I can trust you to do that. If you want to know something, ask. Don’t go behind my back.”

“I do trust you—I was being juvenile. And insecure.” He looked so baffled by that I almost laughed. “It was a dick move. I won’t go behind your back again.”

I nodded and then held up my phone miserably. “I still have to deal with what my mother did.”

“I already dealt with it.”

“Huh?”

His eyes searched my face. “Before. When you were in the shower. Before I promised not to go behind your back again,” he said, sheepish.

“I read the message, and then I had Kai take me to your brother’s place. I handled it, Audrey. You don’t have to worry. Although you do have to sign some paperwork from New Horizons that removes your mother from the account.” He gently moved me off of him and grabbed some papers. “You should do it now. We can scan them and email them in. They’re under strict instructions not to release any more funds for any purpose.”

He held the papers out for me, but I couldn’t take them. I just stood there, shocked, not understanding. “What did you do?”

He looked me in the eye. “Your mother had withdrawn all the money you’d deposited for your brother. I went there and took care of it. And then I went to see your mother.”

“You did
what
?” I felt relieved, angry, and ashamed all at once. I couldn’t picture James in my mother’s filthy apartment, her walls yellowed with nicotine. I didn’t
want
to picture it. I covered my face with my hands, as if that could block the image out.

“Audrey. Your brother is taken care of. That’s the most important thing.” He came toward me and gently took my hands from my face.

“How did you know where he was?”

“Kai.”

I nodded numbly.

“And then I had him bring me to your mother’s apartment, because I wanted to make this okay for you. I spoke with her and gave her some money just to tide her over for now. You need a break. You’ve been dealing with this alone for a long time. I wanted to help.”

“You can’t help me,” I said. I sat down shakily on the couch. Tears sprung to my eyes. It was too much. I couldn’t have him in my life like that—especially when I was only going to know him for another week. I had to handle my problems on my own. I couldn’t get used to relying on somebody else. That was only going to lead to big trouble.

“I’m like a cowboy,” I said, wiping my tears away roughly. “I can’t have help. It makes me weak. Do you understand?”

He looked surprised and confused. “A cowboy? No. I don’t get it.” He sank down next to me and took my hands in his. “Please explain what you mean.”

I sniffled. “I read somewhere that good cowboys sleep on the floor when they come home after a long trip. They do it so they don’t get used to sleeping in a bed again. That way, when they go back out to herd, it’s not that bad—they’re still used to being uncomfortable.”

“So… you’re the cowboy,” he said. “And I’m the bed.”

“That’s right, James,” I said. “I’m the cowboy, and you’re the bed. I have to sleep on the floor—I can’t get soft. I can’t have you taking care of my problems and making everything all comfortable and squishy. Because after next week, I’m back out there, sleeping on the hard ground. And if you’re too nice to me, it’s just gonna hurt that much worse.”

“You need to stay rugged,” James said, playing along. “You don’t want you to throw your back out or worse, lose your edge.”

“Right?” I said, sniffling again. “No one wants that.”

“No one wants that.” He paused for a second, watching my face. “So maybe you shouldn’t go back out there.” He pulled me into his arms and held me close, kissing the top of my head. “Maybe you should just stay.”