Paid Companion

by Nia Forrester

  A’ight, Blake said when he asked for the favor. You got first, but on Wednesday you’re helping me cook up a reason to take off on my own.

  On his own was not strictly accurate. Blake had an agenda and it most definitely did not include being ‘on his own’. It was only a matter of time before that whole situation blew up in all their faces but that was Blake’s concern. Kevin’s only concern at the moment was about five-foot three and walking a few paces ahead of him.

  Finally, after another aimless few minutes, Lia was done, and Kevin trailed her to the cashier and waited while she dumped all her selections onto the conveyor belt. When it was all said and done, she had racked up just over sixty dollars’ worth of nonsense. Just as she was about to dig into her purse, Kevin reached over her and handed the cashier his credit card. Lia didn’t do that thing that most other chicks would have done and pretended to resist; instead she tilted her head back and grinned at him like a kid who had just been handed an ice cream cone.

  “Thank you,” she said.

  Heading back out to the car, parked at the curb, Lia at his side swinging the Pepto-Bismol pink plastic bag from the store, Kevin realized he didn’t have much of a plan. Getting her away from the family and alone—that had been his plan. Beyond that, he had nothing. And as far as “seeing” Miami? He couldn’t think of what to show her, and couldn’t be less in the mood for sightseeing.

  Then he remembered—there was one place he definitely wanted her to see.

  “This is yours?”

  When they pulled up, the house seemed modest, quaint, even to him. It was a small bungalow, almost obscured by mangroves, painted a soft creamy, off-white, with a slate roof. A row of shuttered windows, Caribbean-style, lined the front, broken only by a single, cobalt-blue wooden door in the center.

  “Yeah,” Kevin said, reveling in the look of wonder and pleasure on Lia’s face. “C’mon lemme show you inside.”

  The entire house was comprised of only three rooms. The living area was wide and seemed expansive because of the lack of real furniture, except for a sectional that lined one wall, and the hammocks that hung from the wooden beams above. Colorful raffia rugs covered the tiled floor. An arched doorway to the left led to the kitchen, and one to the right led to the bathroom. But what had drawn Lia’s attention, as Kevin knew it would, was the rear wall of the house. Because it wasn’t a wall at all. It was a row of French doors, all of which he unlocked and flung open revealing the true secret of the house, which was that it was built on the beach, only steps away from the blue, blue water.

  “You know,” Lia said finally, “This is wildly impractical.”

  Kevin laughed aloud. He would have expected nothing less from her.

  Then she turned to face him, shaking her head. “It’s also the most view I’ve ever seen. Your house is amazing, Kevin.” she added.

  “I dreamt it,” he confessed. “One night when I was in college, I dreamed about a house like this. And I promised myself I would build it one day.”

  “You built this?”

  “Well. Not me. Not literally. I had it built.”

  Lia stood at one of the French doors, her hand resting on it as she stared out at the water, her expression dreamy.

  “Took a while before I could find someone who would actually do it,” he continued, feeling like he was babbling to fill the silence. “Because, yeah, it is impractical. Even though we’re on the leeward side, if there’s hurricane, then …”

  “There was a hurricane. There are always hurricanes. How does this house withstand all that?”

  “It survives,” Kevin said nodding. “It takes on a little water, but … it’s still standing.”

  While he talked, Lia slid off her sandals and headed out onto the sand. He watched her as she made her way closer to the water, scoring lines in the sand with her big toes as she went. From behind she looked even more diminutive. Suddenly, she turned and looked at him.

  “Is this beach private?” she asked.

  Kevin shrugged. “More or less.”

  Lia turned to face the water again and began peeling off her clothes. Kevin watched, transfixed as each piece was removed, not even blinking. He waited until she was down to her bra and underwear before he could even swallow, and when he did, it felt like he had a golf ball in this throat.

  He kept trying to talk himself out of his attraction to this woman, listing in his head all the ways she was different from the usual women he was drawn to. And yet he was finding it increasingly difficult to keep his eyes off her whenever she was around.

  Bringing her here was even more out of character. This was his sanctuary; the home he had chosen to make for himself when the old man had doled out the resources for each of his kids to buy a home. Blake chose to buy himself the bachelor pad, Nicki had saved her money until she decided to settle in the DC area and bought a house in Chevy Chase, and he had chosen to build this little bungalow, a place few people had been privy to.

  And yet he wanted to bring Lia, this woman he barely knew and had helped hire to be Blake’s woman. As if that whole situation wasn’t ridiculous enough, now he had spirited her away, for what reason, he didn’t even quite know.

  “You coming?” Lia looked over her shoulder again. “We probably don’t have much time before it starts raining again.”

  She was right. The sky was still dark, and weather pattern moving through was not quite done with the Miami area. But Kevin stripped down anyway, until he was in his boxer briefs, and walked out onto the sand to join her. Lia turned to face him when he was next to her, and they looked at each other. As if by prior agreement, they closed the space between them and Lia’s head fell back so she could look at him.

  “You are so short,” he teased.

  She smiled, and rose a little on her toes. “Better?”

  “Nah,” he said. “Not yet.” And then he reached down, cupping her ass with both hands, and lifting her up.

  Lia squealed, and on instinct, wrapped her legs around his hips and her arms up and around his neck. Now they were face to face. Kevin felt the rise and fall of her chest against his, and another rise, lower, at his groin.

  “This is better,” he said before he kissed her.

  But Lia was not one to passively ‘be kissed’. She was an active participant, her hands roaming his jaw, the back of his neck, the top of his head. She moaned and leaned into the kiss, her lips and tongue playing enthusiastically with his.

  When their lips finally parted, Kevin’s dick was like a steel rod that was maddeningly close, but far away, from where it wanted to be.

  “Y’know what?” Lia spoke against his neck, her lips soft and her breath warm but making him shiver. “I really like your whole family. But I’m pretty sure you’re my favorite.”

  “You’re silly,” he said turning his head and kissing her again. “And you’re a liar. You don’t like my whole family.”

  Lia pulled back. “Yes I do!” Then a smile crossed her full lips. “Okay, yeah, Kim and Tanya are pretty unbearable. But everyone else, I …”

  He kissed her once more, his hands on her ass gripping tighter to prevent himself from grinding against her like a horny schoolboy. After a moment, he felt Lia’s legs slacken like she wanted to be let down, so he obliged, gradually releasing his hold on her ass so she could slide back down and onto her feet.

  Once she was standing again, she looked up at him, that little sly smile of hers still on her face.

  “We’re really good at that together, huh?”

  Yeah. They were.

  Lia lifted an eyebrow.

  “Oh, I thought that was a rhetorical question,” he said, pulling her close against him again. “Yeah. We’re good at that together.”

  But as he leaned in, Lia braced her palms against his chest. “Since we have to head back soon, I want to do something real quick before we go.”

  “I don’t know if can promise it’ll be ‘real quick’,” Kevin joked.

  Lia slapped him on the chest
and rolled her eyes. “I don’t mean that. C’mon, lemme show you.”

  She dragged him back toward the house and picked up her hobo-style purse from where she’d dropped it by the door, fishing out a Ziploc bag and a small sketchpad.

  “The sun’s going to set soon,” she said. “I want to draw you. Sitting right there, by the doors, looking out at the sea.”

  He didn’t know why, but the suggestion moved him. Kevin submitted when Lia led him by hand to the French doors, and directed him to sit on the steps that led out onto the beach. She arranged him so he was in semi-profile, one leg almost extended, foot resting on the steps, the other pulled up, knee almost to his chest, his arm resting along it. It was the way he might naturally have sat—and probably had in the past—if he was alone here and just contemplating life, looking out at the water.

  He glanced back at Lia, who had perched herself in one of the hammocks, and had taken out a charcoal to begin working.

  “Don’t look at me,” she instructed. “Look out there.”

  “Yes ma’am. How long is this going to take? I can’t sit still for long.”

  “You don’t have to sit completely still. Just don’t move from that pose.” Her voice already sounded distracted, and Kevin heard the vague scratching of charcoal against paper.

  Outside, the rain began again. They hadn’t made it into the water, but he was still in his underwear and Lia in hers. Their clothes were on the beach, getting soaked through. He considered telling Lia that, but didn’t want to wreck her creative groove. And besides, they wouldn’t be any drier if he went to get them now.

  “It feels weird just sitting here while you stare at me,” he admitted.

  “I’m not ‘staring’, I’m studying. And you don’t need to just sit there, you can talk to me.”

  “What would you like me to talk about?”

  “Anything you want,” she said, her voice still dreamy.

  “Yeah, but what do you want me to talk about?” he said, still teasing her.

  “I want you to talk about why you have a different last name from your siblings,” she said.

  Kevin froze. He contemplated.

  It wasn’t something they talked about outside the family. Hell, it wasn’t even talked about inside the family. Spilling it to a virtual stranger was risky, even if that stranger had signed a non-disclosure agreement. But the words ‘stranger’ and ‘Lia’ didn’t go together. She didn’t feel like a stranger, she felt like a ‘familiar’.

  And even more curious, he wanted to tell her.

  “Okay,” he said finally. “I guess I can talk about that.”

  Kevin took a deep breath, and began.

  ~11~

  Kingfisher Key, FL, Wednesday, 12:49 a.m.

  “We’re going to have a lot of explaining to do in the morning,” Lia said, keeping her voice down as Kevin helped her off the boat. “I mean, a lot.”

  “Let me take care of that,” he said.

  The only light on the island came from the tikka torches on the beach, and the small dock where they had just disembarked. Though none of the cabanas seemed to have even a glimmer of light inside, Lia had a feeling more than one of the family members were waiting up, keeping their ears peeled for the sound of the boat returning. It had been reckless to stay out this late. She half expected either Kim or Tanya to come popping out from behind a banana tree, yelling, ‘Aha!’ But the island was deceptively quiet, except for the wind rustling through the leaves of the tall palm trees.

  “We should’ve left when the rain let up around eight-thirty,” Lia said.

  She walked ahead of him, her sandals in hand, the padding of her feet noiseless until she stepped on a creaky board here and there.

  Kevin touched her arm. Lia stopped and turned to face him.

  “Are you sorry we didn’t?” he asked. “Leave earlier?”

  He could barely make out her face in the gloom. Finally, she shook her head. “No. But …”

  “But, nothing. Don’t worry about the family. I got this.”

  “You do?” Lia took a step closer.

  “Are you flirting with me?” he asked, inclining his head in the direction of the cabanas.

  Taking a step back, Lia sighed. “You’re right. I bet Nicki’s waiting up for me. She’s going to ask a lot of questions.”

  Kevin shrugged. “And you should answer them.”

  “Truthfully?”

  Kevin’s head fell to one side. “Would I ask you to lie?”

  They both spluttered into laughter, recognizing the irony in the question.

  “Walk me to my door?” she said as their laughter subsided.

  He was so close she could feel his body heat. She didn’t want to leave him yet, even though she’d had him to herself all evening, but tomorrow the game was back on and he would have to relinquish her once again to Blake.

  “Yeah, c’mon …”

  They walked the remainder of the way to her cabana in silence, side by side, their arms lightly brushing. At the door, they paused.

  “Tonight …” he began.

  “Was pretty cool. Yeah,” Lia said.

  Kevin smiled. And after a moment he nodded. “Yeah,” he said. “It was pretty cool.”

  Then he leaned in, his motions a little jerky, a little hesitant until Lia got up on her toes to make it abundantly clear that she wanted the kiss just as much as he did.

  “Did you guys have fun?”

  The sound of Nicki’s voice in the dark startled her, and Lia gasped, putting a hand to her chest. Her eyes gradually adjusted to the dark inside the cabana so she could see that Nicki, though in bed was still clothed, in a t-shirt and white shorts, lying atop the covers, her legs stretched out, and arms folded behind her head.

  “Yeah, we did,” Lia said, trying to keep her voice light, and hoping Nicki hadn’t noticed her swooning against the door, recuperating from Kevin’s kiss. “Lost track of time.”

  “Well, consider yourselves lucky,” Nicki said. “You missed all the excitement.”

  Her tone was strangely flat, and almost emotionless.

  “What excitement?” Lia reached for the light-switch, but Nicki stopped her.

  “No,” she said sharply. “Leave it off please.”

  “Okay. But what excite…”

  “We had a new guest arrive tonight,” Nicki said. “Gabe. Gabriel. He manages my security detail.”

  “You have a security detail?” Lia asked. She sat on the edge of her bed, dropping her bag and sandals next to her feet.

  “Yeah,” Nicki said in that same, strange expressionless voice.

  “And why’re they here? Did something happen? Are you …?”

  “No, nothing happened. At least, nothing security related. And they’re not all here. Just Gabe. He just …” Nicki broke off and sighed, turning onto her side so that now she was facing Lia. “Can I confide in you?”

  After what Kevin had shared at his house earlier that evening, Lia wasn’t sure she had it in her to hear any more Morgan family secrets. But Nicki’s tone bore a pleading note, like that of someone who wanted desperately to unburden themselves.

  “Sure,” Lia said. Because she knew it was what Nicki wanted to hear.

  “Sometimes …” Nicki sat up as she began. “Sometimes … It feels terrible to say it, but sometimes being in this family feels like being … in a cult.”

  Lia sat very still, not knowing what to say. Even a sound of acknowledgment, or of comprehension could come across as impolite, as though she agreed with that assessment.

  “We keep each other so close, it’s … sometimes it’s stifling.”

  Lia didn’t ask what that had to do with the “excitement” Nicki had referred to, but just listened.

  “Gabriel. Gabe, my security guy? He isn’t just my security guy. He’s … We’re together. I’m in love with him. And he’s in love with me.”

  “Nicki. That’s …”

  “Before you tell me how romantic that is, or how much like ‘The Bo
dyguard’ it sounds, you have to understand something. It doesn’t matter where I live, or where Blake lives, or where Kevin lives … we’re all still under my father’s thumb.” Nicki gave a harsh laugh. “That’s where we really live. Under Daddy’s thumb. And none of us has the guts to get out. I mean, what do you think you’re doing here?”

  The bitterness in Nicki’s tone at that last remark stung a little, but Lia swallowed it.

  Of course, she knew why she was there. How could she forget? But despite that, she sometimes did. Earlier when she was with Kevin, she’d forgotten. And even for a little while now.

  Until Nicki reminded her of her status, she could almost have believed that she was being confided in by a friend. But the reality was, neither Kevin nor Nicki had much to fear after sharing their confidences, because she had signed a non-disclosure agreement that was probably airtight. Telling her their secrets was like telling them to a brick wall.

  “Jesus, I don’t mean that the way it sounded,” Nicki said, reaching out and touching Lia’s hand, as though she’d read her mind. “That sounded terrible. I’m … I’m sorry.”

  “So, what excitement was there?” Lia asked softly.

  “Gabe came to speak to my father. To tell him everything. We’d spoken earlier and he said he was getting impatient. That he didn’t want to lie about us anymore. And that if I was sure I wanted to be with him, I should tell my father everything. Or he would.” Nicki exhaled deeply. “I was going to … but then he just … showed up, and …”

  “Told your father?” Lia leaned forward, eyes widening.

  “Yeah,” Nicki said. “In the middle of dinner, he got here and just took Daddy off to the side, and …”

  “But … Nicki, then that’s good, right? I mean, now the Band-Aid’s been ripped off and you have nothing to be afraid of anymore.”

  “But he didn’t say anything. Just got this look on his face and said that he would talk to me and Gabe in the morning. And then everyone was quiet, and we all just finished eating, and went to bed, and …”