Because that was exactly what would happen if he was her date.
“Sorry,” Madison said to the newcomer. “I spilled my drink and this is a new dress. We’re in chaos mode. Come in, please. Do you want a drink?”
“Sure.” He closed the door and glanced at the boxes.
“Don’t worry about those.” She waved away the sea of cardboard. “I recently broke up with a longtime boyfriend. He’s forcing all this crap on me.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
“It’s fine. He’s already found someone new, and I get a breather from looking after a toddler I didn’t give birth to.” She chuckled at her tone. “I sound scorned, I know, but I’m really not. His timing was the pits, is all. Come in. I’m only unhinged because of the dress.”
“Every breakup is an adjustment.” His deep voice coated Madison’s skin like a velvet blanket, tingling her insides and fluttering her stomach.
Which reminded her.
“I actually ordered— I’m sorry. You’re human. What a dick thing to say. I mean, not dick like your…” She cleared her throat as Janie hurried back out, blow dryer in hand. “What I meant is that I reserved someone else. His name on the website is Sam Evans, but his real name is Colton. In the picture, he had dark hair and half your…” She held her hands out to reference his girth. And height. And all around…bigness.
“Sam no longer works for our organization. I’m Colton,” he said, stepping forward with his arms out, as if he planned to hug her.
“Oh.” She jutted out a hand. She was an awkward hugger, and he was a stranger and a prostitute. All around, a handshake was safer. Especially since she wasn’t so sure she could stop herself from randomly humping him. “I’m Madison.”
Surprise flitted through his expression as he glanced at her outstretched hand. He adjusted seamlessly, going for the shake, his hand large and warm. Electricity surged through the contact, stealing her breath.
“Nice to meet you,” he said, a smile tickling his shapely lips.
Had the guy been carved from stone or something? He was a little too perfect.
And for sale. She’d do well to remember that.
“Wow.” She took a big step back. The crush needed to end now. “Okay. Well, this will have to work. Um, Janie, do you want to make him a drink?”
“No, because as soon as I start, you’ll remember that there are still two wet spots on your new, very expensive dress, and you’ll tell me to abandon ship. Come here.” The blow dryer was already plugged into the nearest outlet, and Janie gestured her over. “Hurry up.”
“Is that silk?” Colton asked, his smell wafting to Madison’s nose, spicy-sweet cologne riding a scent of fabric softener and man. Her toes curled and her eyes fluttered closed. The devil was in that smell.
“Yes,” she heard Janie say. “I already blotted it with warm water, but Madison doesn’t believe the damp spot will go away.”
“Big night, huh?” Colton asked, squeezing between her body and the boxes behind her, trying to get to the kitchen or a stool. His hands hit off the sides of her waist, sending glorious tremors through her insides before pooling heat deep in her core.
She jolted forward into Janie. “No touching,” she murmured. It was safer that way. Certainly less distracting. Her antisocial, nerdy traits were starting to show.
“Excuse me,” he said as Janie fell on her butt.
“Really?” Janie asked from the floor. “Get a hold of yourself, woman. If you go to the wedding acting like this, it’ll be high school all over again, and when you call me crying this time, I’ll do something that gets me sent to jail.”
“Sorry! Sorry. I know.” Madison took a deep, calming breath. “He’s just a surprise, is all. And the stain. They just threw me for a loop. I’m good.” Kinda.
“For the last time, it’s not a stain. It’s a wet patch. It’s already drying.” Janie switched on the blow dryer, yelling over the noise, “You’re going to have a lot of surprises tonight. You’ll probably see some of the same old jerk-offs that made James into an asshole in high school. You’ll see the mean bitches we used to hate. I’d tell them what you do for a living, act unaffected, and walk away. If you stay and talk, they’ll just belittle you, and you’ll start sounding like a nerd. Talk to people you don’t know.”
“How do you know all those people will be there?” Madison yelled into the suddenly quiet room right as Janie clicked off the blow dryer. A moment later, ice and liquid rattled in a shaker in the kitchen. Colton was making a drink. He’d made himself at home rather quickly.
“I’m not positive, but a bunch of his crew, including him, went to college locally. They probably stuck together so they could constantly relive the glory days in high school when they mattered.”
Madison heaved a sigh of relief at the sight of her newly untarnished dress. “Thanks, Janie. That would’ve sucked.”
“Yup.” Janie yanked the plug from the wall and headed toward the bathroom.
“Sorry about that,” Madison said, weaving through the boxes as Colton poured his martini. “And about the mess.”
“It’s no problem, really.” He put the shaker down and lifted the glass, slightly held out as though he were waiting for something.
“Oh.” Madison kept her distance from her drink, holding it at arm’s length. She clinked her glass with his. “Cheers.”
He winked, something she’d only seen people do in the movies. He must’ve practiced. And she was glad he had. It worked.
He took a sip of his drink with those very shapely, very kissable lips.
“Right.” She tore her eyes away. “I had you get here a bit early so I could brief you.”
“Great.” He shifted into a power stance, his six-foot-two frame dwarfing her tiny kitchen.
“Right,” she said again, drawing out the word and realizing this might’ve been a very big mistake. “This is my ex-boyfriend’s wedding. I—”
“How long ago did you break up?” he asked.
“Oh. About ten years, I think. Before high school ended.”
“He was your first boyfriend?”
“Yes.”
“You lost your virginity to him?”
“Yikes.” Madison reached for her drink. She’d chance the spillage.
“First love, first screw, first guy who fucked her over,” Janie supplied in a breezy tone as she walked in, taking a seat next to Madison, who was still standing. “Mind making me another one of those?”
“Of course.” Colton set down his glass and reached for the shaker with the finesse of a practiced bartender.
“No. You don’t have to do that.” Madison hurried around the island and braced a palm on his bicep.
Good God, it felt like stone. Hot, bulging stone.
She yanked her hand away and vaguely pointed a finger instead. “You don’t have to do that—you’re a guest. She’s just a lazy cow. Don’t mind her.”
“Yes, I am,” Janie agreed.
“It’s fine, really.” Colton smiled down at Madison, showing even, white teeth.
“This is never going to work,” Madison blurted into his face. “They’ll know I hired you. I’m going to make a fool of myself.”
“How are they going to know you hired him?” Janie asked, gesturing for Colton to keep making the drink.
Madison raised her eyebrows to her hairline and hooked a thumb toward Colton’s face. “Hello?” She waved her hands in front of his upper body. “Like…hello?” She ran her hand in front of her face and body. “One of these things is not like the other.”
“Isn’t she annoying?” Janie asked Colton. “She does this all the time. Her last boyfriend was a douche, with a capital D, yet she thought he was on her level.”
“You’re just mad because he dumped me,” Madison interjected. To Colton, she said, “Janie is very protective. He was fine. It just didn’t last. It was nobody’s fault.”
“He was an idiot,” Janie said as Colton measured alcohol.
�
��Regardless…” Madison gave her friend a look that promised death. “That has nothing to do with this situation.”
“Is that why you chose Sam?” Colton asked, leaning away before he shook the cocktail.
Questions crowded her mind. Why did it look so manly when he did that? Would those biceps break out of his suit sleeves? What did he look like naked?
“What?” she yelled, jolting herself out of the whirlpool of unwise questions.
Janie looked at her askew.
“Oh right. Sam.” Madison edged away, forcing her mind to clear. “I chose him because he had a real first name, for one, and two…” Madison shrugged, her eyes stuck on Colton’s bicep as it wrestled with his jacket. “Two…” Thoughts weren’t sticking as well as they should have.
The shaking stopped and the bicep relaxed as his arms straightened out.
“Two?” Colton asked politely.
“Sorry,” she said, reaching up to drag her fingers through her hair.
“Don’t!” Janie yelled as a cold and impossibly strong grip snatched her wrist. Electricity jolted through Madison’s body, heating her up from the inside out, boiling her blood.
“Good catch, Colton,” Janie said with an approving nod. “Stop her if she tries to rub her face, too. She’s not used to looking like a pageant princess.”
“I apologize.” Colton’s fingers unpeeled from around her wrist, his gaze intense. “I didn’t think you’d want to mess up your hair before you got there.”
Despite his skin’s chill from mixing drinks, the place where he’d touched her tingled as if kissed by flame. She dropped her hand to her side, breathing hard without understanding why.
“No problem,” she managed.
“I’m sorry if I overstepped my boundaries.” His eyes roamed her face and a small crease formed at the bridge of his nose.
“No, no. Do you know how much hairspray the hairdresser used on these natural-seeming loose curls? A lot. I would’ve looked like I rolled in hay. Thank you. You helped out. Really.”
“Time is winding down,” Janie reminded her. “Also, I’m Janie. Since we haven’t properly met.”
“Hello.” Colton bent to shake her hand, but she waved him off.
“You don’t need to be so formal here.” Janie handed over her glass. “I doubt this is like your normal gigs.”
“Yes, so you were telling me about tonight.” Colton glanced at Madison before pouring Janie’s drink. “He was your first love, and I gather from a few things you’ve said that it didn’t end well.”
“He made a public display of dumping her to cement his friendship with the cool crowd,” Janie said.
“Puberty was kind to him.” Madison scoffed, returning to her seat. “I stayed a nerd.”
“She didn’t hit her stride until college.” Janie sipped the freshly made martini. She nodded approvingly. “We might have to hire you to bartend so I don’t always have to do it.”
“If you’d just accept a beer every once in a while, we wouldn’t have this problem.” To Colton, Madison said, “I can open a mean beer.”
“You were long past puberty when you left high school, so what changed?” Colton asked, back to his power stance.
“Two people can make a martini glass look manly.” Janie held up a finger. “You.” Two fingers. “James Bond. I’m impressed. Go on with your bad self.”
Madison frowned at her friend. Then ignored her. “I started working out and eating well, which made me feel better about myself. The rest was doing well in school and achieving, I guess. I came out of my shell.”
“Why?” He took a sip of his drink, his focus acute. It was making her nervous.
“Why what? Did I start getting healthy?”
“Why did you finally come out of your shell? Was it because of confidence, or because you were tired of hiding?”
Janie looked her way, clearly interested in the answer.
Madison was interested, too. She’d never really thought about it. “Maybe both?”
His smile really suited him—it made a handsome guy into an irresistible heartthrob. Or, more accurately, an irresistible heartthrob into a sex god. “It’s not a test, Madison,” he said.
“Feels like it.” She shivered and barely stopped herself from running her fingers through her hair again. “I still don’t think this is going to work.”
“Get over it and hurry this up. You guys have to leave soon.” Janie glanced at her watch.
“You’re her roommate?” Colton asked Janie.
“I’m her friend who randomly stays over. I’m not staying at present, though. I’ll be leaving shortly after you guys do. Just FYI.” Janie waggled her eyebrows and lightly drummed her fingers on the counter.
“She’s being an idiot,” Madison rushed to say. “There won’t be any overtime, I promise. Also, I’ll be staying at the hotel, so you can just drop me at my room and sneak off afterward.”
“That sounds so much worse,” Janie murmured.
“Oh! No, not like that. Sorry, I’ll just start back up with the briefing, shall I?” Colton’s face was expressionless. She forged ahead. “I’d already booked a room in the wedding block when I thought Frank was going to go—”
“Frank was your recent ex?” Colton asked.
“Yes. After deciding to hire your…firm, I figured I’d leave the reservation. I had no idea how I’d explain the cancellation otherwise. It would seem like there was trouble in paradise. So, as far as you’re concerned, we’re staying in the hotel tonight but need to be out early—I still have to figure out why—so if we’re invited to any brunches or gift opening or whatever tomorrow morning, we sadly can’t go. Before all the other guests head to their rooms, you’ll drop me off upstairs. I’ll probably be loaded anyway, drowning my misery at forever being the nerd to his awesome—”
“Keeping it positive, I love it,” Janie said sarcastically.
“—so you can just open the door and shove me in. If you get caught leaving, you’ll have to come up with a reason why you had to leave the hotel. That sound okay?”
“Yes,” he said, his jaw clenching and unclenching.
“So you’re my boyfriend of…one year.” Madison asked Janie, “That’s long enough to be established, don’t you think? But we still wouldn’t know everything about each other.”
“Six months, but I’m madly in love with you,” Colton said, his velvety voice washing over her again, giving her shivers. “We can know next to nothing about each other that way.”
“I don’t play blinded by love very well.” Madison bit her lip.
“That’s where the alcohol comes in.” Janie made a circle in the air with her finger and tapped Madison’s glass. “Keep them coming. She needs it. She’s wound tighter than a corkscrew.”
“I’m not sure that makes sense,” Madison said.
“See?” Janie shook her head.
Colton set his half-empty glass down and started to make another martini. “Have you spoken to him recently?”
“No. Not since high school. We’re friends on Facebook, but we never interact there. I haven’t posted pictures of Frank in a long time, thankfully, or none of this would work.”
“And do you know the future spouse?” he asked.
“I’ve never met her. From the save-the-date, she looks pretty.” Madison shrugged, then held up her hand. “I’m not trying to get him back, or anything.”
“I didn’t think you were,” he said.
“Good. Because that’s not what this is about. I just want to show him that I’m doing great. That he didn’t break me.”
“I understand completely.”
“So I need you to be…” Her thoughts trailed away with her words as he started to shake that cocktail mixer again. Why it was so fascinating to watch, she did not know, but she was riveted.
When he was done, his eyebrows rose in a silent question. That, or he was wondering why she was staring at him like a drowning man would ogle a lifeboat.
“I nee
d you to be personable and act successful. You can make up whatever job you want, but you should probably clue me in on your cover story if you don’t share it in front of me. Just make people like you, however that works best. I don’t care if you threaten to knife half the party and high-five the other half, as long as they all like you when it’s through. That make sense?”
“You want me to help you pull off the perfect image, and to do that, we need to be the perfect couple.” Colton topped up her drink before dropping in two olives. “Easy.”
Janie started laughing.
“Is there something I’m missing?” he asked.
Janie pointed at Madison.
Madison slapped Janie’s hand away. “I’m not exactly…good under social-pressure situations.”
“I saw that when I came in. Don’t worry; I’ll make you shine. I’m great at babysitting.”
His smile said he was joking about something, but Madison had no idea what. She was certain, though, that making her look good would be a lot harder than he anticipated.
Four
Colton kept pace with the stunning beauty as they walked to the overhang sheltering visitor cars. He’d been surprised to learn she lived in this apartment complex, it being on the cheaper side of town and not as nice as she could definitely afford.
He’d looked her up before fully committing to this gig, anxious that he’d made a huge mistake in agreeing to one more client before quitting completely. She was a director for a distribution company that dealt with various types of alcohol. He didn’t know the particulars, nor did he care, but she was one of three VPs. Judging by a salary calculator, she was bringing in six figures a year, even assuming a lower rate of pay for her gender. Social media pegged her as a ball buster, though, so she’d probably fought for her fair share and crushed the salary gap, just as she had clearly broken through the glass ceiling. All of that had given him an idea of what to expect.
He’d completely had the wrong idea.
“Ow.” Madison jerked, and she reached out to steady herself on his arm.
On autopilot, having seen this move countless times and experienced the grabby hands that usually followed it, he slowed his pace but kept facing straight ahead. She could use him as a wall to balance against, but that was it. The no-touching rule was a good one.
Thunder (Big D Escort Service Book 1) Page 4
