by Leigh James
I looked at her, indignant. “He had a basement filled with handcuffs and shackles, permanently affixed to the walls,” I said. “It seemed pretty bad at the time.”
She squeezed my face as if I was an insolent child. “I forgive you for running,” she said, even though I wasn’t asking for her forgiveness. “But I want you to make this James Preston thing your triumph. Your return to good graces. You remember that you owe me for giving you another chance. If you make him happy, I’ll be sure that you only get the best clients from now on. The normal ones, who just want to pretend that you’re the perfect girlfriend. And maybe jerk off in your face.”
“I’d take that over being chained up and hate-fucked by that fat, hairy dude any day,” I mumbled.
“Duh,” said Elena. “Who wouldn’t?”
* * *
Elena went back to her office, and I started pacing, intermittently misting my mouth, waiting for Mr. Preston.
“Dre. Dre!” my friend Jenny called. She burst into the room, breathing hard.
“Omigod, Dre. James Preston is out front! And he’s frickin’ gorgeous! Can I switch with you? Please? You can have Fat Vinnie, and Loopsy, and all my other regulars, but I’m not kidding you, you’re gonna die when you see him—”
“Jenny, I’m gonna die if you don’t stop talking so fast.” I said, laughing. I grabbed her hand and squeezed it, trying to calm her down. Even though we were about the same age, Jenny was like my little sister. I was always trying to soothe her and keep her out of trouble.
I smiled at her and shook my head encouragingly. “Okay? You okay?”
She exhaled a shaky breath and nodded. “But I am not kidding you, Dre, you’re gonna frickin’ die. He’s that hot. I cross my heart and swear to God. My underwear are soakin’ wet just from looking at him.”
I laughed and held up my hand to stop her. “Okay, Jenny. I get it. He’s good looking.”
She looked at me expectantly. “Aren’t you excited?” she asked. She sounded disappointed.
I looked at Jenny, her sweet, open face. Jenny was my friend, but she was not the brightest of bulbs. The fact that my new client was frickin’ hot, as she put it, was not enough to get me excited.
“Of course I’m excited,” I lied, and pulled her in for a quick hug. “I’m just nervous.” This, at least, was the truth. “I’m worried about being around his whole family for two weeks, for starters. And going to all those brunches and cocktail hours. Then a vacation. That’s a lot of family time…and I’m pretending to be someone else. Someone normal. Educated.”
“Dre, you are normal. And smart. You’re the smartest girl I know!” She hugged me again, her dirty-blond curls bouncing against me. “He’s gonna love you. He’s gonna love you in that blue dress you got on. You look good, girl. He might even try to buy you.”
I laughed out loud. “Buy me? Like a sweater?”
“Yeah, like his own personal sweater. Don’t be silly—you know what I mean. He might really like you. Enough to not want to just rent you.” She slapped me on the ass. “Although he’s gonna enjoy renting you!”
I laughed and swatted her away. “I don’t think it’s going to get that serious. Elena told me he said no sex,” I said.
“Shut the fuck up,” Jenny said. She sounded crushed.
I shrugged. “It wouldn’t be the worst thing,” I mumbled.
“Oh, Dre, when you see him? You’ll know that would be the absolute worst thing that could happen to you. I’m telling you, he is—”
“Frickin’, panty-liquefying hot,” I finished her sentence for her. “Thank you. I’m glad you approve.”
I grabbed her hands again. “Listen, I’m not gonna be able to talk to you for the next two weeks. I’m gonna miss you. You have to take care of yourself—don’t let Loopsy push you around. I mean it.”
Jenny had a bunch of regular clients who saw her weekly, but I still always worried about her. She was blonde, round faced, and twenty-one, with pillowy, Angelina Jolie-like lips. Men always told her she had a mouth that was built for shoving a cock into. That’s what she told me the day I met her. And she’d laughed about it. She didn’t let things like that bother her, which was good, because they happened to her a lot.
There was a knock on the door, and Elena poked her head in. “Dre, Mr. Preston is here. Jenny, Loopsy’s called for you. Twice.”
“Tell him I don’t want to see him and his nasty, saggy balls,” Jenny said, smiling wickedly and inspecting her nails.
She looked up and saw the madam frowning at her. “Just kidding, Elena! Tell the squirrelly little bastard I miss him—and his nasty, saggy balls.”
She turned to me and gave me one last hug. “If Loopsy ends up buying me, and James Preston ends up buying you…I’ll be frickin’ hurt. I mean it.”
I shook my head at her in mock disgust, but suddenly I realized I was close to tears. “I’m gonna miss you, Jenny…be safe.”
“I’m gonna miss you, too…but don’t be such a baby,” she said, tossing her curls over her shoulder and winking at me. “And if he lets you get in there…suck it hard, girl! Let him know what it feels like to have a real woman.”
“Okay,” I said, laughing. “I will suck it. Hard.”
“That’s a relief,” said a man’s voice, from near the door.
Jenny and I just looked at each other, eyes wide. Then she let out a whoop of laughter, and we both looked toward the door. And there stood a man, the most gorgeous one I’d ever seen. He had steel-blue eyes, dark hair, and massive shoulders underneath his suit.
He was exactly my type, and I didn’t have a type.
He was my worst nightmare, and I had to pretend that he was the best thing that had ever happened to me. For two weeks.
“Mr. Preston,” I said and forced myself to smile at him. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
James
I was going to go out on a limb and assume that the brunette in the tasteful blue dress was my date and not the blonde with the semi-exposed breasts and the big, honking laugh. That girl had a round, pouty face and luscious, full lips surrounding a mouth that begged to be…put to use. She was beautiful and voluptuous, but she was not my type.
The brunette next to her, however, was exactly what I liked.
And what I usually avoided.
“Ladies,” I said, smiling at them tightly from where I was. “One of you is coming with me.”
The blonde looked as though she was going to hurl herself at me for a second. She must have had some loyalty, though, because she held back. She took her friend’s elbow and brought her forward a little bit.
“Mr. Preston, this is Dre,” the blonde said.
“Excuse me?” I asked.
“Dre,” the blonde repeated. Dre herself came forward then and shook my hand firmly. She was shorter than most of the women I dated, and curvier, with breasts, hips and…I wanted to ask her to turn in a circle for me so I could check out her backside. But I figured that would have made her feel too much like livestock being eyed for the slaughter. Her dark brown hair was thick, falling in waves down past her shoulders, and her eyes were a sweet, liquid Bambi brown.
Sweet, liquid Bambi brown? I seethed at myself. Where the fuck did that come from?
“Pleasure to meet you,” I said, relieved that no one could hear my ridiculous thoughts. “I’ll have your bags brought down now.”
“Okay,” she said and smiled at me. Her smile was lovely and revealed two dimples. She put her hand on me, and I felt as if I’d been electrically shocked. My cock actually twitched, as though it was trying to get closer to her.
This Dre was trouble. I inwardly cursed Elena for picking her, my mother for having me, and my stupid brother for getting married. Then I cursed Dre for being drop-dead gorgeous, having hips, a lovely smile, and eyes like fucking Bambi.
Fuccccck, I thought, and I knew that word was going to get me in trouble over the next two weeks, one way or another. It would certainly get me in something. Or maybe so
meone. I hoped that it would and wouldn’t all at the same time.
My cock twitched again. Traitor.
“Are you ready, Mr. Preston? Or do you want me to call you James?” Dre grabbed my elbow, and I stiffened—several parts of me stiffened, actually, and I cursed myself some more—as I tried to smile at her as if I was a normal person.
“James is fine,” I said, leading her through the door.
“Bye, Jenny,” she called over her shoulder. “I’ll see you soon.”
“Bye!” Jenny called, clapping her hands together. “Have fun!”
Elena was waiting for us at the front desk; she beamed at me over her glasses. “I see you found her, Mr. Preston,” she said. “Everything to your liking?”
I might have imagined it, but I thought Dre winced a little.
“Everything’s perfect,” I said smoothly. I decided I did not care for Elena. “We’ll see you in two weeks.”
She smiled at me and nodded at Dre. “Have fun,” she said to her, sounding like a mom trying to convince her shy daughter to dance at the prom.
We got into the elevator, and Dre released my arm.
“What sort of name is Dre?” I asked. “I’ve never heard it before.”
“My name’s Audrey,” she said, looking up at me from under all that luscious hair with those big brown eyes. I felt myself stir again, and I bit the inside of my cheek, hard, just to bring myself back down to earth.
“But I go by Dre for work,” she continued, and shrugged. “It’s more street. Audrey’s too prim.”
“Why would you want to sound street?” I asked her.
“Because I’m a streetwalker,” she said and laughed. “So I figured, if the shoe fits…”
“You’re not a streetwalker,” I said. “You’re an escort.”
“Aw, James…are you complimenting me?” She gave me that smile again, and I realized that it was practiced, that she was using her dimples against me like she had used them against hundreds, maybe thousands, of other men.
“No,” I said. “But I’d prefer to introduce you as Audrey to my family. Prim is fine with them.” As long as prim has a trust fund and a penchant for vodka at midday, I thought.
Technically, under that narrow definition, I was prim.
“Whatever you prefer, James,” she said smoothly, the pleasant smile still on her face like a mask.
“Which do you prefer?” I asked.
“Audrey,” she said. She gave no further explanation.
We reached the ground floor, and this time, I took her arm. From now on, I was going to initiate all contact, stay out in front and in control of every interaction we had. I’d hired her, and I needed her to fill a specific function.
If I changed my mind about the things I needed her to fill, or what I needed to fill, that was fine. But it was going to be a choice, not some stupid reaction to her doe-like eyes and my mystifying, painful erection.
Kai was waiting for us at the curb, a wide smile on his face.
“Mr. Preston,” he said, nodding politely at me, and smiled at Dre. Audrey. She went into the car ahead of me, and I finally saw her glorious ass. It was one that you could grab on to with both hands.
“Don’t smile at her,” I said to Kai as soon as she was out of earshot.
He nodded and dropped the smile immediately. I slid inside the car.
“Why don’t you want your driver to smile at me? We’re the hired help, after all. We should stick together,” Dre said as soon as Kai closed the door. She’d heard me after all. She crossed her toned legs and smiled at me playfully.
“I’m a divide-and-conquer kind of guy,” I said. “I don’t want to get ganged up on.”
“I won’t do that. I promise,” she said.
The car pulled out, and Audrey suddenly laced her fingers through mine. Heat shot through me at her touch, and I winced. I looked at our hands and then at her, my eyebrows raised in a question.
“We’re supposed to be in love, right?” she asked me. “We should probably be able to hold hands. We need to look legitimate. That’s what I’m getting paid for.”
She waited a beat. “Is that okay?”
With no small amount of indignation, I felt my palm begin to sweat.
“Maybe later,” I said. I pulled my hand away and wiped it on my pants. Audrey had the grace to not watch me while I did it.
“Elena tells me you’re a student,” I said, desperately trying to start over.
She looked shocked. “Really? I’m totally not. I’m hooking full time.”
We just looked at each other for a beat.
“Oops. I mean, Elena probably meant my cover—so yes. I’m a full-time graduate student. New England School of Graphic Design.”
“Why’d Elena pick graphic design?” I asked.
My hand was still hot where she’d touched me, but I wasn’t going to think about that.
“She said it was perfect because it’s too boring to talk about. We were going to do law school, but she said your family had a bunch of lawyers in it.”
“She’s right. My brother, Todd—the one whose wedding we’re going to—is a corporate lawyer. His fiancée, Evie, is a lawyer too, but not for long.”
“How come?” Dre asked.
I snorted. “She was just waiting to marry into a pile of money. You know the type, right? Just goes to law school to meet a rich guy?”
A look of distaste crossed her face, but she stifled it immediately. Almost immediately.
“Trust me. She deserves every bad thing I say about her. She’s a twat,” I said and desperately wished that I’d just hired this woman to fuck me senseless. For the first time in years, I felt self-conscious. Every word I said made me sound like a bigger and bigger jerk.
Usually, that was the idea. In my business ventures, it worked to my advantage for people to think I was unpleasant and difficult to deal with. But right now? I had to stop talking
“Okay then. The sister-in-law-to-be is bad,” Audrey said, her voice soothing and agreeable. She probably thought I was upset because I’d called Evie a twat. But she would learn, as we went on, that I always called Evie that. Because she was one.
I grabbed a decanter filled with bourbon from the side of the car. “Would you like some?” I asked.
“Sure,” she said, accepting the small tumbler I poured for her.
I poured myself a drink that was significantly larger and took a sip. Something about Audrey unnerved me. She seemed like a whole person, not someone broken that wanted to get fucked up and then fucked hard, just to shut the world out. Which is to say, she was not what I was expecting. She seemed like somebody’s sister. Like a graduate student.
Like somebody’s girlfriend.
“So…tell me about this wedding. The more details you give me, the better prepared I’ll be,” she continued, all soothing efficiency.
“I’m dreading the wedding—I don’t have a great relationship with my family,” I said. I could hear the tension in my own voice. I always sounded like that when I spoke about them, which was one of the reasons I never did.
“James.” She put her hand on mine again. “None of the guys who come to us have good relationships with their families. None of the girls at work do, either. You have nothing to be embarrassed about. Trust me,” she said.
The fact that she understood put me at ease. Until I thought about it some more, and then the fact that it put me at ease made me uneasy.
“So,” she said, “back to the wedding.”
“I’m the best man,” I said. “I think Todd did that to make sure I’d show up. My mother informed me that I had to come to every non-stop event. Evie really wants this week to be a big lead-in to the wedding. There’s a dinner tonight and an endless series of brunches, cocktail hours, and photo shoots that we have to attend. Then Friday night is the rehearsal dinner at Il Pastorne. And Saturday the wedding is being held at Trinity Church. Then we’re off to Eleuthera for a week with the happy couple, my parents, some cousins, and
some friends.”
“It all sounds very proper,” Audrey said. She sounded impressed.
“It’s going to be a complete cluster fuck,” I said.
She nodded at me. “I have a family. Mine’s probably messed up in a different way than yours, but I get it, James.”
I swallowed the rest of my bourbon, hard. “I hired you because I didn’t want to deal with questions from them about why I’m still single,” I said. “I broke up with someone a few months ago. I’ve decided to take a break from dating and just concentrate on work. My family’s beside themselves that I’m almost forty and not married. They’re worried about not having any heirs.” I smiled at her grimly. “So I hired you to bear the brunt of the misery with me.”
“I’m on it,” she said, upbeat and optimistic. “I’ll do whatever you ask. You tell me how you want me to be. This is all about you. Your comfort. Your experience. I’m a buffer.”
She was a pretty hot buffer, but the fact that I thought so was something that I was going to keep completely and solely to myself.
There was a reason I stayed away from women I liked. And I’d learned it the hard way.
Audrey
James was quiet for a minute after he told me about his family. We were stuck in midday traffic on Massachusetts Avenue. I watched the brownstones crawl by as I sat, lost in my thoughts.
I couldn’t figure out whether it was good luck or bad that James Preston was gorgeous. And that he had feelings and people he was worried about dealing with. It made him seem too human.
Family made him vulnerable, and we had to deal with his family. I didn’t know what he was normally like, but right now, he seemed nervous and quite possibly afraid of the next two weeks.
I couldn’t have that, for a couple of important reasons.
First, we had to win this. We were going to be the perfect couple. His family was going to be completely fooled, and I was going to be paid lots of money for exactly that. I believed, like Elena, that James Preston was my golden ticket. I was going to make him happy these two weeks, and I was going to play my part perfectly. Then he’d recommend me to all of his jet-setter friends, and I’d be sucking rich cock for the rest of my life. And then I could make everything okay, at least for my brother. For me? I could survive just about anything. The fact that I was here, right now in this hired car, was living proof of that.
