“I’m not even sure how to take that,” she says with a shake of her head.
“I’d like to get to know you, Adrienne.”
“I think you know me pretty well,” she says and starts walking towards the stairs.
I follow her, watching her hips sway as she tries to walk as fast as possible. I grab her elbow and pull her closer to me. I grab her face with both hands and stare into her eyes.
“I know you physically. I know you’re beautiful. I know how your body feels under my own. I know how you taste. I know the way you sound when you cry out as I fuck you. I know how you feel when you come, but I want to know more. I want to know where you went to school. I want to know what your favorite food is. I want to know if you have any siblings. I want to know what kind of music you like. I just want to know you, Adrienne.”
Releasing her face from my hands, I take a step back and wait for her response. I can only hold my breath and hope for the best.
“If you wanted to know me, then why haven’t I heard from you since we were together? You have my work number, and my address.”
“I didn’t think you’d want to see me again. The last time I saw you, you all but ran away from me. It was like you couldn’t get away fast enough. I thought about getting in touch with you, but I didn’t. I apologize.”
“So, we’re gonna try to be friends?” she asks.
“That would be nice.”
“No benefits,” she says, and I’m not sure if it’s a statement or question.
“Do you think you can resist me?” I say playfully.
“Oh God,” she says dramatically.
“I think I’ve heard you say that before.”
“You won’t be hearing it again as long as you’re still going out with women you don’t want to go out with,” she says with an eye roll.
“Fair enough.”
“Good. Now show me your level and I should be good to go.”
We walk up the stairs that lead to the top level, and she once again walks around making notes. Once she’s done walking around the deck outside, she walks towards me.
“Done?” I ask.
“Yep. I think I have everything I need. I’ll confirm the food and door prizes with you, or should I speak with Mr. Edwards?”
“You can get in touch with any three of us, but I’d prefer if you’d contact me,” I say with a smile.
“I guess that means we should exchange contact info, huh?”
“It does.”
She smirks up at me and then writes down her email address and phone number on a page in her notepad, rips it off and hands it to me.
“Email address is for work purposes. That’s how I contact a lot of my clients. My cell is on there as well if you ever need to get in touch with me, and I wrote down my work number, in case you lost it.”
She hands me the notepad and pen. “I need your information too, sir,” she says with a playful smile.
I take them from her and jot down all my information, and hand it back.
“And if I want to get in touch with you for something that’s not work related?”
“I always have my cell on me, so I’d try there first.”
“Okay. Do you have plans this weekend?” I ask.
She gives me a funny look.
“Friends can’t make plans?” I say with a laugh.
“Mmhmm. Anyway, I have to work this weekend.”
“All weekend?”
“Well, Friday night and then most of Saturday.”
“I see. Well, I guess we’ll have to make plans for a later date then.”
“Yeah.”
We begin our descent to the first floor in silence. When we reach the front door, I walk her out and to her car.
“It was nice seeing you again,” I say as I open her door.
“Yeah. You too,” she replies.
“Talk soon?” I ask.
“Sure…friend,” she says and then gives me a wink.
She climbs into her car and drives away. I pull my phone out and send a text, then make a phone call.
I drive away, my hands feeling clammy on the steering wheel, and I’m smiling like an idiot. Friends. I can be friends with him. I’ve had plenty of guy friends; maybe not any that had been as good looking as him, or had given me amazing orgasms, but friends nonetheless. I’ll just try not to think about the sex we had, or the size of his dick, or the way he licked my pussy just right…fuck!
When I get back to the office, I grab my purse and phone and see that I have a message.
Hey, friend. Want to go out to lunch as friends? I promise it will be a friendly lunch. –J
I can’t help the joker-like grin that spreads across my face. I add him into my contacts before responding.
Me: That depends. Are we going as friends? I couldn’t tell.
GLC: Funny. Yes, friends. Is that a yes?
Me: When and where?
GLC: Is today too soon?
After I read his message I do a little squeal and my cheeks begin to hurt from smiling too much.
Me: I suppose I can pencil you in. Where? I take lunch at 11:30.
GLC: Great. I’ll be in touch with the details.
Me: Umm…okay.
He doesn’t respond back, so I guess I just have to wait for his next text to find out where we’ll be meeting. I go into my office and try to keep myself busy with work and not think about my lunch date with Jace. Instead I make sure everything is good to go for the Roberts’ wedding this weekend. I can only hope that everything goes according to plan because I don’t even want to think about the hell Mrs. Roberts will raise if it doesn’t.
While I’m on the phone, Cindy comes in with a bouquet of flowers and a dumb smile on her face. She places them on my desk and starts digging for the card. I snatch it from her and she smiles again before leaving. As soon as I hang up the phone, I read the card.
They say yellow roses symbolize friendship. They also say pink roses symbolize appreciation. I appreciate you not only accepting my invitation to lunch, but also my friendship. I’ll pick you up at 11:30. –J
I re-read the card several times before finally placing it on my desk. I lean over the beautiful bouquet of pink and yellow roses. Their intoxicating smell has already filled my office, but I feel the need to bring my nose closer to them. As I’m inhaling their scent with a smile on my face, Cindy creeps into my office with an even bigger smile on hers.
“Does somebody have an admirer?” she asks.
“No. Somebody has a friend.”
“That’s an awfully big bouquet to be from a friend,” she replies with her eyebrows raised.
“I guess I have some nice friends.”
“Hmm.”
I ignore her inquisitive stare and pull my makeup bag out and begin touching up my face.
“Who are you getting all pretty for?” she asks playfully.
“You sure are in my business, Cindy. Maybe you need a date.”
“I do, that’s why I’m bugging you.”
“Or you could do some work,” I say as I apply my lip gloss and then drop everything back into the drawer of my desk.
“Eh,” she says with a shrug. “Bugging you is more fun.”
“For you.”
“So do you have lunch plans or something?” she asks.
Before I can answer her, I see Jace in the doorway of my office and he takes my breath away. Even though I just saw him this morning, I’m surprised by how good he looks. He changed and is now wearing some dark blue jeans, a royal blue T-shirt with some sort of design on it, blue and white sneakers, and a blue and white baseball hat. He sure does know how to match his clothes up. You can tell he isn’t the type of guy to leave the house in sweat pants and flip flops. I like it.
I peek around Cindy’s shoulder and he smiles, showing off his perfectly white teeth.
“Hey, are you ready? I didn’t mean to interrupt.”
Cindy turns around and her jaw drops. She checks him out for a good minute
before swinging her head back in my direction. Her eyes go wide and I decide to ignore her.
“No, it’s fine. I’m ready,” I say with a smile as I walk past Cindy.
“Great,” he responds.
I turn back to Cindy. “I’ll see you when I get back.”
“I’m sorry. I’m Jace. I’ll be taking Adrienne to lunch,” Jace says as he extends his hand to Cindy.
She smiles and takes his hand. “I’m Cindy. Adrienne’s assistant. She didn’t tell me she had a date today,” she says as she looks over at me and narrows her eyes.
“Well, I hope she doesn’t have a date. We’re just friends because she refuses to date me,” Jace says as he looks back at me and winks. “This is a friendly lunch.”
I roll my eyes.
“Hmm. Well I hope to see you around here more often, Jace,” Cindy says with a flirtatious smile. Skank.
“Okay, we should go now,” I chirp.
Jace walks towards me and places his hand on my lower back and we walk out.
“I look forward to talking to you when you get back, Adrienne,” Cindy calls from my office.
When we get outside I see his blue Bentley parked out front. He opens the passenger door for me and I slide in. The cream, leather interior is spotless. It has some wood paneling, and it looks like it was just driven off the showroom floor. There is no trash in here, no leftover cups or water bottles anywhere. No receipts in the side panels. Definitely not like my car.
When he gets in, he looks over at me and smiles, then starts the car and drives off.
“Nice car,” I say. “Pretty spacious in here.”
“Thanks. Yeah, I need as much space as possible. I’m a big man,” he says and then glances at me quickly with a grin on his face.
“Uh huh. Why didn’t you get an SUV or something? I mean, this is nice and obviously big enough for you, but an SUV would be bigger.”
“I do have one. I just like this one more.”
“Oh. So where are we going?”
“A little hole-in-the-wall type place, but I promise the food is delicious. Plenty of meat, I know how you like it.”
I can’t help the small laugh that escapes. “Oh good. It’s been a while since I’ve had some good meat.”
He smiles but doesn’t say anything in response.
When we arrive at the restaurant, it definitely doesn’t look like much from the outside. It’s crammed in between a couple of other food places, and the neon open sign on the door is starting to go out. Jace opens the door for me and I walk inside and see a ton of people. Must be good.
Jace leads me to table near the wall and a waitress comes over to take our order. She’s an elderly lady with her blondish gray hair put up into a messy bun. She takes our drink order, leaves some menus, then hurries off.
“So what would you suggest?” I ask Jace as I look at the menu.
“Everything is good here, so I guess it depends on what you’re in the mood for. Cheeseburger, steak, ribs, chicken. You can’t go wrong with any of it.”
“I’ll just stick to a cheeseburger.”
The waitress comes back and drops off our sodas and takes our order.
“So, Adrienne, tell me something about you.”
“What do you want to know?”
“Anything. Everything.”
“Okay. My dad raised me by himself from the time I was ten until I moved out. I have no siblings. My favorite color is purple, but like a dark purple. Uhh…that’s about it. Your turn.”
He smiles and leans forward with his arms crossed on the table. “Okay. I was raised by my mom. I had one brother, but he died several years ago. My favorite color is blue, any shade will do.”
“I’m sorry to hear about your brother.”
He nods and gives a sad smile, but doesn’t say anything else, so I leave it at that.
“Is blue your favorite color because of your eyes?” I ask, trying to lighten the mood.
He lets out a small laugh. “No. You’ll be surprised to know that I hate that my eyes are blue.”
“What? Why?”
“I don’t know, probably because everybody makes such a big deal out of them.”
“They’re just not your usual kind of blue. They’re very unique, and you’re obviously mixed with something, so it’s rare to see those kinds of eyes on someone like you.”
He laughs again. “I guess you’re right. Also, I’m a mixture of black, Spanish and French. In case you were wondering.”
“Ah. Well I’m a mixture of black, Cherokee, German, and French.”
“I knew you had an exotic look for a reason,” he says with a grin. “So are you from here?”
“Yep. Born and raised. How about you?”
“No. I’m from New York, but I’ve lived here since I was nineteen.”
“What made you move here at such a young age?”
He pauses momentarily. “I needed to get away, I was young and Vegas was intriguing, and I figured it would be easy to find a job here.”
“It’s not easy to find a job in New York City?” I ask with a laugh.
He smirks. “I guess I just wanted a change of scenery.”
“Whatever you say.”
“So what made you stick around here? You never wanted to move?”
“Sure I did, but I wanted to stay close to my dad. I felt like he needed me. Plus, I found a good job here, and you can’t really go wrong with Vegas. I mean, the heat is a bitch, but you always have plenty to do.”
“Very true.”
Our food arrives and the cheeseburger isn’t at all what I was expecting. It’s huge! It takes up almost half my plate, and the cheese is dripping down the sides. Jace has a pulled pork sandwich and that’s huge too. Pork is falling out of the bread, but everything looks delicious.
As he watches me inspect my cheeseburger, trying to figure out how to bite into it, he begins laughing. “Can’t handle it?”
“Well I’ve never had to try to get something as big as this in my mouth before,” I say and then look up at him with a smirk playing on my lips.
He leans back and his eyes go wide momentarily. “Oh really? Never, huh?”
“No, I don’t think so.”
“That’s a shame.”
“Indeed,” I reply before taking a bite.
I think back to the night we had sex and how I wanted then to take him into my mouth. His size was intimidating, but I wanted to feel him in my mouth. I wanted to see how much of him I could take. I squirm a bit in my seat before snapping myself out of that thought process.
When I sneak a peek back at him, he’s watching me closely.
“Got something on your mind?” he asks.
“Nope,” I say, maybe too quickly.
We continue to eat our food while talking about school, music, and movies. I’ve learned that Jace is very well-educated, loves drama and horror movies the most, is pretty eclectic music wise, and totally gets my sense of humor. We both are pretty quick-witted, but I think I may be more sarcastic than him. Before I know it, it’s time for me to head back to work.
“Thank you so much for lunch. You were right, the best meat in town, and biggest. I’ve never had bigger or better meat before.”
“Okay, you need to stop,” he says with a laugh while shaking his head.
“What?”
“I get your little innuendos.”
“I have no innuendos. I just said I enjoyed the meat here. The burger was big and thick. I liked it.”
“Uh huh. I have something else you’d like,” he mumbles, but I still heard him.
“As do a lot of people, I’m sure,” I respond under my breath.
He looks down at me as we walk out, but doesn’t say anything, and I give him my most innocent smile.
“Thank you for the flowers by the way.”
“You’re welcome.”
We get to the car and he opens the door for me once again. I’ve never had a boyfriend or any guy friend do that for me. I guess chivalry is
n’t dead for everyone.
“You never mentioned any relationships or boyfriends while we were getting to know each other in there,” he says after he starts the car.
“You never mentioned any girlfriends.”
“I haven’t had a girlfriend in a long time.”
I turn in my seat to face him and scrutinize him. Once he glances at me, he laughs.
“Why do you have your mouth twisted up like that? It’s true.”
“I’ve seen you with women before. None of them were ever girlfriends?”
“No. They were dates, but I haven’t been in a relationship in a couple years at least.”
“Hmm. Okay.”
“And you? What’s your story?”
I let out a long and loud sigh. “My last boyfriend kissed my best friend. He was a douche. We were together for eight months, and broke up about the same amount of time ago.”
“So you haven’t been on dates with anyone since him?” he asks.
“Only if you count your manipulative dinner date to get my phone back as a date. Other than that, no.”
“I’m not manipulative. I just know how to get my way,” he says with a small smile.
“Uh huh. I’m sure you do.”
“You know I do.”
“Whatever.”
“Well, if I knew that was your first time on the dating scene in a while, I would have done a lot more.”
“I think it ended up just fine.”
“Just fine? That’s it? You really know how to hurt a guy’s ego.”
I laugh. “Right. I don’t think you need any help with your ego.”
“Do you really think I’m that full of myself?”
I look over at him and study his beautiful but masculine face. He’s truly gorgeous. His strong jaw line is covered with a five o’clock shadow. The sun is causing the blue of his eyes to really pop, and his full lips look soft and kissable. He’s obviously rich, good looking, and has women near him all the time. Being a cocky bastard is something that he could be, but he’s not. He’s funny, charming, kind, and thoughtful. Getting to know him in the restaurant was great. He left the waitress a wealthy tip because he overheard her on her cell talking with someone about being late on bills. He’s bought me flowers twice now, and never allowed me to pay for my own food. He makes me laugh and opens doors for me. He’s truly a gentleman.
Living in Sin (The Escort Series) Page 12
