He had worried she wouldn’t be that excited to see him, and this would end up being just another woman pretending she likes him. He really doesn’t know these days. He’s met so many who just want to use him for his money and will go to any length to win his heart and his wallet.
Once, he was actually hooked on a woman named Linda, and it turned out she was the secret spy of another CEO, sent in to get in on Brad’s corporate secrets. He couldn’t risk that humiliation again and it nearly lost him the majority of shares in his own corporation.
He learned not to let his heart care when it came to the women he seduced, so now he’s a bit taken aback at how he is letting himself trust Jane so easily. He suspects it is because she really didn’t know who he was that night at the bar, and she still accepted this proposal.
“So, Jane, what do you like to do for fun?” asks Brad, half-hoping it might lead to some naughty play.
“Well, that’s a word I haven’t heard in ages,” laughs Jane, breaking the sexual tension in the room. “All I know is, I’m having fun right now,” she says, very sincerely.
Brad smiles and relaxes back into the recliner. “Me, too,” he says, thinking he hasn’t felt so truly at ease with a woman since Kelly, “me, too.”
Chapter 13
Jane takes off her shoes, and curls her legs up on the wide chair. Brad hands her a blanket in case she’s feeling chilly. It seems as if they’ve known each other forever, given how comfortable they already are. She has a sweet and light laugh, one that is genuine and says she’s truly listening to him.
He asks if he can rub her feet.
“Really?” Jane asks. “I’ve never had anyone ask me that before. Do I have to take off my nylons?” she asks.
Brad doesn’t know if that’s an innocent question or an inviting one.
Brad imagines her turning around and bending over, the satin dress tightening across her ass. Then pulling her dress up just enough, without revealing too much, then pulling down her nylons slowly, lifting one leg at a time. He loves watching a woman undress. He would push up against her, grab her hips, unzip his pants, pull out his hard cock, and fuck her long and hard from behind, all the while reaching around and fingering her wet pussy, giving her the best experience she has ever known in her life. He’d show her what fun is, and make her beg for more.
“Brad? Nylons on or off?” Jane tries to get his attention.
“Oh, sorry. On is just fine,” replies Brad, knowing he doesn’t totally trust himself already, and it would be even harder if he watched her take them off.
She stretches out her leg and gives him her right foot. Placing it gently on his lap he goes to put his hands on the bottom of her foot and she immediately starts to giggle.
“Oh, so you’re ticklish, are you?” Brad jokes. “I wonder where else you’re ticklish,” he winks, hoping it won’t scare her away.
“Well, that’s original,” Jane quips.
Huh, she is a bit sassy, he thinks. He raises his eyebrow at her, then starts rubbing her feet more deeply.
Jane loves it. She’s taking it all in. Nobody has ever done this before, and her whole body relaxes at once. She pushes the chair back so she is lying down. For some reason, she feels like she can trust Brad innately and that she could even fall right to sleep without worrying. As she has that very thought, she dozes off.
Brad scans her body and wishes he could spread her legs wide open, thrusting himself toward her pussy and fucking her while she’s half asleep and half awake. He imagines she would moan and squeeze her pussy naturally, wanting more and more of his cock inside of her, letting him have whatever he wants as she surrenders to him totally.
He can see up her dress a bit. She is wearing a garter belt to hold up her stockings, and he can see the outline of the champagne and rose-laced panties he bought her. He is getting another hard on, dying to see more of her, to spread her open and see how beautiful she looks. He wants to stroke her legs and get her tingling from the inside out, turning her on until she wants him as badly as he wants her.
He wants to get her all worked up and sweaty, to the point where she has an animalistic desire to fuck him until it hurts, and coming just at the thought of him entering her. He’d lift her up to straddle him, pushing her up and down on his cock so hard and fast she would have to explode in a flood of hot wetness all over him while he stays hard the whole time. He’d keep pushing her up and down until he explodes inside of her, so much that it drips out all over the seat.
She would scream and moan, so loud that the pilot could hear how much of a man Brad Halliwell is—a good, chick-fucking lover. The pilot would know that this beautiful young thing wants him, and he can satisfy her like no one else.
Jane wakes up slightly and can feel Brad’s hand moving up her calf. She likes it, including the way it sends goosebumps up her spine, but she knows it could lead to something more, and she’s not sure if she’s ready to go there yet. She leans over, grabs Brad’s hand, and pushes it back down to her feet.
“I really like when you just massage my feet,” she says directly.
Brad nods and respects her request.
“So, Jane, how did you get involved with ballet?” Brad asks, genuinely wanting to know.
Jane doesn’t like telling the story, as it seems stupid and childish, and a man like Brad probably wouldn’t understand since it seems like he’s always been destined for success.
“First,” says Jane, “I want to know about you, like where did you grow up?”
“Arkansas City.”
“What did your parents do?”
“They owned the company I own now.”
“Are they dead?” Jane asks bluntly, then realizes that could be inappropriate. “Oops. I’m so sorry, never mind.”
“No, it’s okay. They died two years ago in a car crash.”
“Oh, gosh, I’m sorry.”
Jane looks away feeling embarrassed and then goes silent.
“No, it’s okay, really. We weren’t that close. They saw me more as a business transaction,” Brad says, reassuring her by holding her hand.
“Oh, that’s weird. I’m sorry you didn’t have loving parents.”
Jane again feels like she is getting too personal, but doesn’t know what else to say.
“No, it’s true. I envy the people who have caring parents,” Brad says, looking to see if that’s the case with Jane.
“Yeah, my parents care, maybe too much sometimes. It can be suffocating,” Jane says.
“Were they the ones who got you into ballet?” Brad pries.
“Why do you want to know so badly?” asks Jane.
“Well, this trip is more than inviting you to be a beautiful woman on my arm, you know,” Brad says. “I am curious, partially to figure out if I should invest in you as a ballerina, and also whether I should continue to support the ballet company you are a part of. Let’s call it a bit of a job interview process.”
“Ah, okay. That’s fair,” replies Jane. “Like a business transaction,” Jane smirks. “What do you want to know about me?”
Chapter 14
“How did you get into ballet?” Brad asks, leaning forward to show that he sincerely cares and wants to hear her story.
“Well, mine isn’t the typical story of parents who sent their child to ballet school at age three and had her performing for commercials at age five,” replies Jane, preparing him for a story that isn’t one of fairy tales.
“Go ahead. I don’t like typical anyway,” says Brad, reassuring her that he doesn’t need her to be perfect.
“Well, the truth is, I was watching ballet on T.V. when I was seven years old. I was mesmerized by the tutus, the women and the music. I would watch it for hours and hours. I thought the women on the show were stunning and beautiful. They would take me away to a magic world,” Jane says wistfully, like she is back to being a child.
“As beautiful as you are,” Brad says, looking into her eyes sincerely.
“Well, that’s n
ot true now, Brad, though I will accept your flattery,” Jane blushes.
Brad can’t believe she isn’t able to see herself for who she really is. The more he is in her presence and the more he gets to know her, the more beautiful she becomes.
He loves how natural she is, and her quirky side that is trying so hard to fit in and do well, but her personality can’t help but shine through.
Her skin is smooth and tender. She has an adorable, crooked, front tooth that shows her small-town roots where every child doesn’t get braces to fix their teeth. She has three tiny moles on the side of her neck that look like fairies have pranced on her with muddy feet.
“So, do you want to hear the rest?” Jane asks, trying to snap Brad out of his trance, thinking he’s grown bored of hearing her talk.
“Of course! Sorry, I was just getting lost in imagining you as a child. Go ahead.”
“Well, my parents are pretty practical people. My mom was a bookkeeper at the time, and my dad was a line worker at the local factory. They worked hard and cared only about paying the bills and going to church.” Jane explains as if she has told the story many times before.
“Do you still go to church?” Brad asks, hoping she isn’t too moral.
“Only when I go back home and visit my parents. They are more into it than I am, though I do like some of the teachings,” she says earnestly.
Phew. Brad is relieved to know he won’t have the ‘sex after marriage’ barrier to deal with.
“So, dreaming and doing something for the joy of it wasn’t something my family encouraged, if you know what I mean.”
“Oh yes, I can understand that very well.” Brad reminisces on his own difficulties with lost dreams as a child. “My parents were all about business, and I just followed suit, so to speak.”
“Did you ever dream of doing something different?”
Jane is curious, wondering if maybe they could relate on something like this.
“Well actually, I always wanted to be a pilot. We went on trips all the time, and I used to sit in the cockpit and watch all the lights and gadgets. I thought how cool it would be to be in charge of something so big. I could go anywhere in the world that I wanted and get away from it all,” recalls Brad. “But being a pilot was considered a step down in my family, and out of the question.”
Jane suddenly sees Brad in a whole new light. He was a boy who didn’t have the courage to stand up to his parents, and instead, followed their dream of what they wanted him to become. Perhaps he always lived in a world of ‘what ifs’.
“Well, that’s too bad, Brad, but you still could become a pilot, you know. You have the money and the plane,” Jane comments matter-of-factly. “Sorry to be so bold.”
“No, I like it. I could do it now, I suppose. I just don’t have the time. I’m always too wrapped up in business deals and managing a major corporation. It seems like if I so much as sneezed, everything could fall apart.”
“Oh, that’s too bad.”
Jane reflects on how lucky she is that she’s not that important.
“So, back to the story, tell me more,” Brad insists.
“Oh, right. Well, I begged Mom to send me to ballet classes. She would only give me ballet dolls to play with instead. I decorated my room so it looked like a ballerina’s castle—pink and sparkles, plus everything in-between.”
“Including a knight in shining armor?” Brad jokes. “Sorry. Continue.”
“Well, the thought did cross my mind,” Jane winks.
At this point, Jane looks like she is relaxed and at ease. She is using her hands and arms to express herself openly, and she is giggling from her heart. When she leans forward, Brad catches a bit of her cleavage out of the corner of his eye. He wishes he could take his finger and stroke it down into her dress, tracing her nipples while she tells her story of innocence and dreams.
He’d love to make her giggle and tingle until she got goosebumps all over her body. He wants to take a strawberry and put it in her mouth, then bite the other half so he can kiss her deeply on the lips, then give her champagne to sip while he slowly unzips her dress and licks her body from her neck, down her breasts to her belly button, tracing her pubic bone with his lips. He’d pull her body down, gently spread her legs, and lick her gorgeous, sweet, innocent pussy, making it all his to enjoy.
“So, because I couldn’t go to ballet school, I’d practice every day at home while watching television. Finally, a teacher at school took notice of the fact that I had ballet-everything—ballet pencils, ballet binders, ballet erasers, you name it. She took me aside and asked if a ballerina is what I wanted to be when I grew up. I nodded with embarrassment, thinking no one ever had such stupid dreams, but she saw something more in me and called my parents and told them they needed to enroll me in classes. So, when I was 10 years old they did, and it became my whole life.”
“Wow! Now, that’s a girl who really knows how to follow her heart,” he acknowledged, looking at Jane with more admiration.
“Really? You think so? There’s still a part of me that feels a bit foolish.”
“Why is that? You’re living in New York and attending one of the best ballet schools in the United States, and you just danced at the finest hall imaginable,” Brad points out. “You’ve got my attention, that’s for sure,” he added.
“I never looked at it that way,” said Jane. “Quite honestly, I’ve been struggling with the other girls at school. I’m flat broke, and about to be evicted. I don’t know a soul in New York, and now I’m doing crazy things like kissing a stranger in a bar,” she says, referring to Brad.
“Well, did you like it?” he asks and smiles.
She smirks and isn’t sure how to respond. Not knowing if she wants him to really know how she feels at this point.
“Um, yeah, I’d have to say I did.”
She turns her head away, afraid that if she looks him in the eye, they would kiss again.
“Yeah, me too,” he replies assuredly. “Your lips are very soft.”
Chapter 15
“You know, Jane,” Brad says, while getting up for more champagne. “I am really impressed by you. You have a determination to go after what you want.”
“Thanks,” says Jane, feeling a bit tipsy. “Not many have seen it that way.”
“It’s often lonely when you’re out doing your own thing while everyone else is just plugging away at their regular lives. You have passion inside of you. A true zeal and a sense of who you really are.”
“Well, you’re far too kind. I wish the world would support ballet the way you do. It seems to be a dying art, and that really doesn’t make much common sense,” Jane remarks.
Brad reaches over to touch her chin, and she raises her head.
“Listen. Whoever was so hard on you and made you doubt yourself was a small, mean-spirited person,” Brad says, staring right into her eyes. “You are beautiful, Jane Bryden, in body and spirit, and you have such guts, something I haven’t seen in all the women I’ve met in my life. You haven’t given up, and you haven’t let them bring you down. You have a grace and a dignity up there for the art, not just some movements you learned because your parents told you to, like the other girls.”
Nobody has ever stood up for her this way. Her dad was a pretty quiet guy, always taking direction from her mom. And her mom was only interested in living a mediocre existence and telling everyone else what to do, but not paying attention to what they needed.
Jane was an only child and would often spend her days playing with dolls and dreaming up a fantasy life far, far away.
Tears start welling up in her eyes at the memory, and she worries she is going to ruin her mascara and look like hell.
“Excuse me, I have to go to the washroom,” she says.
“Jane, did I offend you?” Brad asks, concerned that he’s messed something up.
“No, I just need to take a bit of a break. I think the champagne is getting to me,” she replies.
Brad realizes how
lonely and sensitive she is. He knows she needs a man to hold her and make her feel loved and safe. He wants nothing more than to be that man.
He can see she has never been treated as the beautiful young woman she is, and is thrilled that he gets to be the first person in her life who shows her what love really feels like.
When she comes back, he wants to pull her into his arms, drape her across his lap, and comfort her while she sobs and lets out all of her pain. He would stroke her shoulders, kiss them, and help her feel secure in this world that has been so mean. He would help her melt away the neglect and the critical words that have wounded her heart, until it all went away.
Jane returns, still dabbing tissues around her eyes. Brad reaches out his hand to her.
“Are you alright?”
“Yes, I’ll be fine. Just had to get myself back.”
“You don’t have to be fine with me, Jane. None of us are perfect. You can just be yourself around me, you know. I’m not afraid of a few tears,” says Brad.
Jane laughs a bit. “Well, that’s what you say now. You don’t know what floodgates you may be opening.”
“I can take it. Really, I can,” he says, still holding her hand.
His hand feels warm, strong and comforting, like all the problems in the whole world could just melt away.
Jane wishes she could pull herself closer to him, where he could wrap his arms around her waist, as she cries out all the pain of her life, her hurts, her desperate loneliness, and her fears, feeling like she can relieve herself of it all with him, then rest safely in his embrace.
She would kiss him all over and passionately fall right into him, straddling him with her dress hiked up, stroking his cock to make him feel wanted.
She wants to show him, even if it’s only for a moment, how special he is to her right now. She would get on her knees, unzip his pants, and lick and suck his cock the way she has seen in those late-night movies. She would make him feel like the most special and important man alive, because he is the only one who has ever really seen her.
Bridesmaid for Hire Page 26
