The Mistaken Escort's Pleasure: A Liaison Novel

by Valerie Ullmer

  Nina’s very un-ladylike snort brought a smile to her face. “You’re such a bitch,” Nina moaned.

  She couldn’t hide her smile. “I love you, too, Neens.”

  At the sharp intake of breath, she jerked her head up, and when she saw tears in her friend’s eyes, she felt horrible. Today was a record for her. She made two women cry, and she had no idea why. She wrapped Nina in her arms and hugged her tight.

  “How long have we known each other?” Nina mumbled as she pressed her face into Ellie’s shoulder. Nina squeezed her before she stepped back, her face serious, waiting for an answer.

  “Five years.”

  “And it’s taken you this long to tell us you love us?” Ben shook his head, before he ruffled her hair. “We love you, too, kid.”

  She couldn’t remember the last time someone had told her that they loved her, and already feeling off-kilter because of Lucian, she burst into tears. Ben wrapped her up in his arms, and surprised her when he kissed the sensitive spot underneath her ear. She could’ve sworn she heard a low rumble deep in his chest but she pulled away from Ben, unsure why he kissed her, and turned toward Nina, wiping the tears from her eyes with the back of her hand.

  Nina pulled her against her side, and Ellie threw them both a confused look as Nina glared at Ben. Ben’s eyes were down cast, and she could feel the tension between the two of her best friends.

  She detached herself from her friend’s hard grip and walked to the sink to splash water on her face. The water soothed her heated cheeks, and after patting her face with a clean dish towel, she threw it aside and turned to see her friends. After blowing out a breath, Nina turned her back to Ben and focused on Ellie.

  “You never answered my question,” Nina said.

  She walked around the kitchen island to the fridge, opened the door and hid behind it for a moment as she stared at a six-pack of beer that she kept for Ben and the bottle of white wine that Nina preferred.

  She wasn’t thirsty, but the cab ride home wasn’t nearly enough time to figure out what happened at Liaison between her and Lucian. She loved that her friends waited until she gathered her thoughts. When she was ready to talk about it, she shut the door and turned to face both of them, her hands gripping the counter behind her.

  “I told them I would think about it,” she said.

  “Them?” Ben asked.

  Ellie nodded. Ben was a details man, and of course he would pick up the topic she didn’t want to discuss. She could see that his fists were clenched at his sides, as if the entire subject disturbed him.

  “Rebecca, the owner of Liaison, and Lucian, who offered to get to know me and be my date for Tim’s wedding.”

  “Lucian?” Nina purred.

  She pulled herself up on the counter and crossed her legs, reaching for an apple in the bowl to her right. She took a bite, enjoying the sweet tartness on her tongue, and debated for a split second on what to tell them. She went with the entire truth.

  “He’s like no one I’ve ever met. He’s over six foot, broad shoulders, sculpted chest, a woman’s dream, but to me, he doesn’t look like an escort.” She shook her head before she continued. “Not that I know what an escort looks like.”

  “Why would you tell him you wanted to think about it?” Nina screeched. “You don’t want to go to the wedding alone.”

  “He’s…gorgeous. I would feel inadequate next to him.” Ellie shrugged.

  Nina stepped out of her killer heels and stepped up to the counter, reaching for Ellie’s arms.

  Ellie wasn’t deceived by her friend’s pasted smile. She braced herself and waited for her friend’s true feelings to show. She didn’t have to wait long.

  “Are you fucking kidding me? You have breasts that I would die to have, your hair is beautiful, and your eyes are spectacular. You have curves that drive men wild—just ask Ben,” Nina demanded.

  Ellie’s eyes widened and she turned to Ben, who leaned casually against the island in front of her, nodding his head in agreement while his eyes raked down her body and back up. She cleared her throat and looked down at her apple, not sure how she should interpret Ben’s perusal. When Lucian had looked at her that way, her body flushed and she wanted to jump in his arms and nibble on his lips. With Ben, she felt nothing.

  “What aren’t you telling us?” Nina asked.

  “That’s a leading question, counselor,” Ellie responded.

  Nina blew out a breath and tilted her head back, not before Ellie saw the huge eye roll. “Stop watching Law & Order reruns.”

  Ellie laughed and finished her apple, hopping down and stepping on the pedal to open her garbage can, and threw the core away. She returned to her sitting position on the counter, and her mind wandered back to Lucian.

  How could a man she’d known less than an hour color every thought in her mind?

  When he kissed her, he encompassed her in his large frame and for the first time in her life, she felt protected. Throughout their encounter, he made sure that she was comfortable, and although heady, his focus was on her. He never looked away from her, even when they reached the ground floor and were interrupted.

  She had never known real affection before, not with her parents who treated her as a nuisance, or her casual dates. Even Tim, who had known her since she was a child, never went out of his way to make her feel special. With one look from Lucian, she had the strange sensation of being cherished.

  “You’re blushing,” Nina stage-whispered.

  Ellie opened her mouth, but the sound that escaped was a squeak. She cleared her throat, and tried again.

  “Have you ever met someone and instantly felt a connection that you couldn’t explain?” Ellie asked both of her friends.

  Nina shook her head before she crossed her arms and leaned back against the counter. Nina had never been interested in relationships, too busy building her career as a corporate tax lawyer to ever settle down with one man. She had short affairs with men, whom she called distractions. In all the years that she had known her friend, Nina had never had a fling that lasted more than three months.

  When Ellie glanced at Ben, his brown eyes flared, and he jerked his head back and forth to her question.

  “So you want him?” Nina asked.

  “No…yes…hell, it’s more complicated than that.”

  “There’s nothing wrong with wanting to get to know him. You’re curious about him, attracted to him, and you’re both adults—why not find out if there’s more to it?” Nina said.

  “He kissed me,” Ellie blurted.

  Nina’s smile widened. “And did you kiss him back?”

  Ellie nodded, unable to find her voice. She replayed the kiss in her mind, and her lips tingled and her body flushed. God help her, but she wanted him to do it again.

  Nina took Ellie’s hands in hers. “I’ve never seen you so affected by a man you just met. I think that you’ll regret it if you don’t see where this leads you.”

  Ellie thought about it. Her heart lurched at the thought of never getting to know Lucian, even if all that came out of it was a handful of dates and the memory of his kisses.

  She lived with caution most of her life, never taking chances in her personal life, and concentrated on her career. She pushed herself to work harder and to put herself in situations where she might not be comfortable, but if it propelled her to the top of her career, she was bold and courageous. The more she thought about it, the more she wanted to take a chance and get to know Lucian.

  “You’re right, as always.” Ellie grinned.

  “Good. Now that it’s settled, let’s order in and have a movie marathon. I’m going to change,” Nina said.

  Ellie felt Ben’s eyes on her as she rifled through the menus they had collected over the years they’d known each other. Whenever one of them had come across a new restaurant, they grabbed a to-go menu and they tried their food the next Friday night, unless one of her friends had a date. She remembered Nina had picked up an Indian menu, and dug through the drawe
r for it. She smiled at Ben in triumph when she found it, and he seemed to relax.

  Ellie ordered a meal fit for an entire family, and went to change after Nina emerged from her room. She pulled on comfortable yoga pants and changed into her favorite pullover, and settled onto the couch.

  Instead of concentrating on the movie, or what her friends talked about, her thoughts kept going back to Lucian, replaying their entire meeting. By the end of the night, she felt a little obsessed with him, and chided herself for becoming so enamored by a man she didn’t know. But no matter how many times she admonished herself, though, her thoughts went straight back to Lucian.

  She bid her friends a distracted good-bye and when she crawled into bed at a little past two on Saturday morning, she fell into an exhausted sleep and dreamed of him.

  Chapter Four

  Ellie moaned aloud as the edges of her dream faded away at the sound of light knocking on her front door. She threw an arm over her eyes and ignored whoever wanted her attention so early on a Saturday morning.

  She wanted the vivid dream to continue, where Lucian took his time running his hands over her body as he kissed her breathless. Her body felt like a raw nerve exposed as she squirmed on the sheets of her queen-sized bed. She tried to hold onto the images for a while longer.

  Another knock came, louder this time, and her dream faded into blackness. Her eyes popped open, and she turned her head to glance at her alarm clock.

  She growled and whipped the blankets aside. As she sat up and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, she wondered whether she could ignore the intrusion. But her mind reached for all the possibilities of catastrophe that could have happened last night after her friends headed home, and she rushed to the door, fumbling with the locks. Another knock jolted her as she tried to get her fingers to respond to her brain’s command to open the door.

  “Hold on a minute,” she grumbled.

  A triumphant smile broke across her face as she unlocked the fourth, and final, lock. As she opened the door, she wondered whether she was still dreaming, because on the other side of her door stood Lucian.

  “Holy crap, I’m still dreaming,” she mumbled.

  His eyes crinkled in amusement; when he smiled at her, her breath hitched in her throat. She clenched her fists to stop herself from reaching for him and rolled her shoulders instead. Several moments later, she was relaxed and drew a few deep breaths as her eyes wandered over him.

  He was dressed in jeans and a sweater; a white collar of a dress shirt peeked up from his neck. Even in casual clothes, he looked extraordinary.

  “No, love, not a dream.”

  She gazed down as the aroma of coffee assailed her, and smiled when she spotted the handles of the bag in his hand. She opened her mouth to ask him what was in the bag, but a strangled sound came from his throat. She noticed that his eyes widened and traveled down her body, taking his time, but when he realized the front door was wide open for all to see in, his mouth drew into a straight line and his face was a mask of anger.

  When he lifted his head and glanced at her, his moss-green eyes flared to life. She could have sworn she heard a growl erupt from deep in his chest. Before she could figure out why, he stalked toward her as she scrambled back into her apartment. She stopped a few feet away from the door, and watched him in surprise as he slammed the door and locked it before he set the bag and coffee on the side table by the door.

  “Why are you mad at me?” she asked.

  “What are you wearing?” he growled.

  She looked down at herself and blushed. When she went to bed the night before, she had on a pair of pajama bottoms along with the white tank top she was wearing. Sometime in the middle of the night, she must have shed the bottoms, because she stood in front of Lucian in a pair of boy shorts and a tank top that left little to the imagination.

  Her head jerked up at the sound of his loud steps on her hardwood floor. Her first reaction was to back away from him, but as her mind replayed the conversation with her friends last night, and remembered the vivid dreams that she had awoken from, she tensed her body and waited to see what he would do. When he reached her, his hands cupped her shoulders and squeezed for a moment before he rubbed his hands up and down her arms.

  “I won’t hurt you, love. You surprised me when you answered the door wearing practically nothing.” His growl was back.

  “I thought something happened to Ben or Nina. No one visits me at seven in the morning on a Saturday,” she shot back.

  His hands tightened on her shoulders, and he bent down until their eyes met. “Who the hell is Ben?”

  She didn’t know whether he spoke the words in anger or jealousy, but she ignored the question and peeked over his shoulder at the coffee he left near the front door. “Did you bring me breakfast?”

  He stood and blinked at her abrupt change in subject. He scanned her face for a couple of seconds before he nodded. “Are you trying to distract me?”

  She shook her head and braced her hands on his chest. Her movements were slow as she lifted herself on her tip-toes and kissed his cheek. It was meant to be a simple thank-you, but once she touched him, her brain shut off.

  She wound her arms around his solid shoulders as she smelled his faint fragrance of wood and citrus. Her body reacted by moving closer to him, until she could feel his defined muscles pressed against her. She snuggled her face into his neck and shivered when his hands roamed her back. She smiled and kissed a soft spot on his neck, before blowing out a breath and settling in his arms.

  “I like your way of distracting me.”

  She laughed as he pressed her deeper into his chest, and for a few minutes, neither of them spoke.

  When he leaned down and brushed a kiss against her lips, she pulled back and glanced at his face. He was relaxed and a small smile played at the corner of his lips, so she leaned in and gave him a brief kiss before she walked toward the food. Halfway across her large loft-style living room, she remembered what she was wearing and veered toward her bedroom.

  “I’ll be right back. Make yourself at home.”

  She looked back at him before she walked through her bedroom door, and stopped in her tracks. His hands were braced against the island that separated her living space from her kitchen, and he had his head bent down and his eyes closed. She didn’t know whether he was affected by her affection for him so soon after they’d met, or whether he was still upset by the way she answered her door. Either way, she took the opportunity to stare at his long legs, and up to his taut butt, his slim waist and his broad shoulders, and shivered.

  Everything about him called to her.

  She walked through her bedroom to the master bath, and cringed when she spotted the dark circles underneath her eyes. The strands of hair that had escaped her braid that she had forgotten to brush out the night before were stuck up in all directions, and she couldn’t prevent a groan that escaped her throat at her appearance.

  She flipped the handle to the faucet with more force than was necessary and scrubbed her face clean. She loosened the braid and brushed out the tangles, first with her fingers, and then with a brush, leaving her hair cascading down her back. After she brushed her teeth, she felt almost human. She slipped on a white hooded sweatshirt and black yoga pants, and after a deep breath, she rejoined Lucian in the living room.

  In her absence, he had found the plates and cups, and her stomach rumbled when she spotted the spread. He had brought an assortment of bagels with several flavors of cream cheese, but the best of all, lox.

  She glanced up at him to thank him, again, but the heated look in his eyes gave her pause. Her mind conjured the dream from the night before, and as much as her rational side screamed for her to take their relationship as slow as possible, her body flushed with need. All from a simple look.

  “Lucian?” She had no idea what she was asking him for, but she knew that he felt the same way.

  Without a word, he pulled out a chair for her and sat close to her right. A twinge of d
isappointment stabbed her chest, but she swallowed and relaxed back into her chair. They were silent as they each created their breakfast, and when she brought a dollop of cream cheese to her mouth and licked it off her finger, she heard Lucian groan.

  When she caught his gaze, he leaned forward and licked a small portion of cream cheese that she had missed. Her entire body froze at the intimacy of his actions. She wanted to lean into him, but confusion swirled at his actions, so she held herself in place and went on the defensive.

  “You’re very good at this,” she said.

  He sat back, looking confused at her statement. “Good at what?”

  “Making a woman feel wanted.”

  “I do want you.” His simple statement slammed into her with the force of a sledgehammer.

  She gave him a sharp look when she felt a pang of jealousy slash through her chest. She didn’t want to think about all those other women who he dated for his job. She couldn’t stop thinking about him, so after her friends left, she searched Liaison’s web site for the escorts Rebecca had available. But she couldn’t find a picture of Lucian anywhere. The escorts were more along the lines of what she pictured when she had made the appointment to find a date. Young, suave, and not even close to her type.

  “Why are you up so early this morning?” she asked, changing the subject.

  She watched, mesmerized, as his tongue darted out and licked his lips before he picked up his coffee and took a long drink from it. She watched as his Adam’s apple bobbed as he drank and chided herself for being so fascinated by it. She flushed as he sat his cup down and caught her staring at him.

  “I’m an early riser. I have another business that I own, and I spend time there on Saturdays.”

  “You own your own business?”

  “A small tech company. We design software for business, but recently started a gaming division.”

  She looked down at her empty plate as she tried to wrap her mind around what he had told her. “You moonlight as an escort?”