Beauty from Pain (4 page)

She takes my offered arm. “You’re not from
Wagga Wagga?”

“
No.” That’s all I give her and
she doesn’t push further.

I allow her to walk ahead of me through the
revolving door into the lobby. “Are you staying in this
hotel?”

“
No. I’m staying at an estate in
the country.”

“
Oh.”

I escort her toward the back of the restaurant
to our table. I pull out her chair and slide it under her when she
sits. “Are you hungry?”

She smiles and I find myself wanting to know
all the secrets she hides behind it. “Very. I’m not one of those
girls who’s scared to eat in front of a date. I hope you don’t mind
that.”

“
Not at all.”

She’s quiet as she reads the wine list and our
server arrives to take our drink order. “I’ll have a Sauvignon
Blanc.”

She lifts her eyes from the list. “I have no
idea how to order wine. I’ll have what you’re having.”

“
Two Sauvignon Blancs.”

She holds the menu in front of her and I can’t
see her face. She’s studying it like there could be an exam later.
“I don’t know what I want. Everything looks good.”

“
My business associate recommended
anything seafood.”

A moment later she places the menu on the
table. “Seafood sounds good. I’ll have the stuffed
prawns.”

After the server brings the wine and takes our
order, we continue our safe, generic conversation. “How did your
friend’s vintages fare last night?”

“
Ben did well, but I never
expected anything less. Wine is his family’s business.”

I remember the waitress mentioning that. I
believe she said he was from California. “I understand that. You’re
much more passionate about it when it’s your
livelihood.”

“
You say that like you know from
experience.” She’s a sharp one.

“
I do. I’m employed in the
wine-making business as well.” It’s a half-truth since I neglect to
tell her I own a large number of the wineries across South
Australia and New Zealand.

She smiles and I see her make the connection.
“So that’s why you were at the vintage dinner last
night?”

“
Yes. My employer donates money to
the wine program, so he is given an automatic invitation to the
event. I was sent in his place as a representative.”

We talk about nothing in particular and I feel
the mood of our conversation shift when we finish eating. “I’ve
spent the last hour having dinner with you and you still haven’t
told me your name. Maybe it’s an Australian thing, but where I come
from, that is one of the first things you tell someone. Is there a
reason you haven’t told me?”

I’m interested in picking her brain, hearing
her possible explanation. “Why do you think that could
be?”

She studies my face and for the first time I
notice her unusual eye color. I thought they were brown, but now I
see I was only half-right. They’re lighter, more like caramel than
chocolate. And her hair isn’t a single shade of brown; it’s full of
honey-colored streaks.

Her back stiffens. “I think you’re married
with a wife and two-point-five kids waiting for you to come
home.”

I almost forget her question, I’m so caught up
in watching the windows to her soul. I see something there, but I
can’t put my finger on what it is.

I hold up my empty left hand and point to
where a wedding band would be if I had one. I smile because the
thought of me being married is such a polar opposite from the
truth. “No wife. No two-point-five kids.”

She sits back in her chair and doesn’t appear
as though she’s buying what I’m selling. “The lack of a wedding
band doesn’t prove anything.”

“
I am secretive, but it has
nothing to do with being married.”

Our server returns to remove our dishes and we
fall silent until he walks away. “Why are you
secretive?”

“
For lack of a better answer, it’s
just how I am.”

She frowns. “Well, that explains
everything.”

These are dangerous waters I’m treading. This
girl is different from the others. If I don’t handle her the right
way, she’ll run. Of this, I’m certain. “You and I will both be in
Wagga Wagga for the next three months. I’d really like to see you
while we’re here.”

“
Would I finally get to know your
name?” She’s laughing but has no idea that withholding real names
is my number-one stipulation for dating.

Hell! She’s got me off my game and feeling
like I’ve never done this before.

I draw a breath to clear my head before I
begin. “My life is complicated for reasons I won’t discuss. When it
comes to dating, I need it to be simple and undemanding. Disclosing
my identity complicates things, so you wouldn’t know my real
name.”

“
You’re not joking.”

I can’t read her reaction. I have no idea if
she’s on board or freaking out. “When the three months is over, so
are we. I’ll move on and you will too. Because you won’t know my
name or any identifying information about me, you’ll have no way to
contact me. Ever.”

This face I can read, and it’s full of
confusion. “But why?”

I have reasons, but I won’t explain them.
“Because that’s the way I need things to be.”

She’s clearly pissed off as
evidenced by the scowl on her face.
“If
you never wanted to hear from me again, that wouldn’t be a problem
on my end, Jack.”

I smile because she has no idea she just used
my real name. “You’d have the same courtesy. You don’t have to tell
me your real name and you choose how much or how little you want to
tell me about yourself.”

She puts her elbows on the table and leans
forward. “You’re crazy as hell, but you already know that,
right?”

I feel her slipping through my fingers, so I’m
forced to use my last line of defense. “I’m a very wealthy man. The
three months we spend together would be the best of your life.
You’d never be able to top what you’d experience with
me.”

She sits back and laughs. “Well, at least
you’re not egotistical.”

I wasn’t finished. I had one more card up my
sleeve. “I’d make your fantasies a reality.”

She licks her lips and then draws the bottom
one into her mouth. God, I’d love to do that for her. “You want me
to have sex with you.”

Now she’s catching on. “Yes, I would like that
very much.”

“
Sounds like you need an escort or
a prostitute, and I’m neither of those things.”

Oh, shit. I’ve fucked up royally
now.

I reach for her hand to calm her. “I wasn’t
suggesting you were either. Sex wouldn’t be the only part of our
relationship. There would be much more to it than that.”

She jerks her hand away. “I don’t sleep with
strangers and apparently that’s what you’d continue to be since you
won’t even tell me something as basic as your name.”

I pull my hand back. “You have a very
reasonable argument, but it wouldn’t be like that. We would come to
know each other in our own way.”

“
To hell with this shit. I’m outta
here.” She pushes away from the table. “Please call your driver and
ask him to take me home.”

Way to go, Jack. Way to go.

I pull my phone from my pocket and call
Daniel. “Front of the hotel, now.”

I watch her face as she stares off, refusing
to look at me. I regret we didn’t have more time together. I wish I
could take it all back and handle it differently.

“
He’ll only be a minute. Please,
allow me to walk you out.” She doesn’t agree or object as I stand
to walk her toward the exit.

The car is at the curb as we move through the
revolving doors. I open the back passenger door for her and her
caramel eyes meet mine before she gets inside. “Have a nice life,
whoever you are.”

Wow, that’s final.

She climbs in and I stand, my hand on the
door, waiting to shut it. I don’t want to let her go like this. I
fight the urge to get into the backseat with her but I know it’s
useless. I’ve insulted her, and she’s made it clear she wouldn’t
accept my proposition. But dammit, I don’t want this to be the last
time I see her, so I stop arguing with myself and get into the
car.

She regards me with narrowed, suspicious eyes.
“What are you doing?”

I close the door. “I’m riding with
you.”

She scoots as far from me as possible. “My
answer is no, so what’s the point?”

Great question. “I don’t know.”

We ride in uncomfortable silence as Daniel
drives us to where she is staying. I rack my brain trying to think
of an alternate approach, but come up short.

After the car stops, Daniel opens the door and
she gets out. I follow, walking by her side toward the apartment’s
entrance, and I can’t fight the urge to make another plea. “Please,
think it over and reconsider my offer.”

She stops dead in her tracks. “You arrogant
jackass! You rode with me so you could try to talk me into going
along with this crazy-ass idea of yours.”

I’m not sure why I feel like I have the right
to touch her or why I think she’d let me, but I reach out and place
my finger over her lips. “Shh. Don’t say no again right now. Wait
until you’ve had time to think about it. This is a new idea, and
you might find you feel different about it once you’ve thought it
over.”

I trail my thumb to her bottom lip and rub it
as I remember the way she sucked it. If you say yes, you’d spend
the next three months having the time of your life.”

I take my hand from her face. “I’ll be in the
hotel restaurant tomorrow night at eight o’clock if you decide you
want to discuss it further.”

5

Laurelyn Prescott

I unlock the door and all but fall inside the
empty apartment. Addison is out with Zac for their first postcoital
date. I have no idea where Ben is, but I’m glad to be alone. I
don’t want to explain why I’ve returned from a date with a man I
can’t name.

It’s
still
early but nothing is on
television, so I change into my pajamas and go to bed. Sleep
doesn’t find me easily because my mind keeps racing with thoughts
of what Mr. Nameless has asked me to do.

It’s shocking. It’s bizarre. It’s
interesting.

It’s a fascinating idea. At least I know how things
would end. There would be no chance of a broken heart. He said it
would be the best three months of my life. I’d experience new and
wonderful things. He’d make my fantasies come true.

Why choose me?

I’ve known from the time I was a small child
something was wrong with me. I’ve never been able to have a normal
relationship with a man—neither romantic or nonromantic. Maybe my
problems stem from my father—or lack thereof––or my mother’s
unrequited love for him. Neither have been much of a positive
influence on my feelings regarding romantic relationships. Whatever
the cause, I’m damaged goods. Maybe I should consider this. It’s
not like I have better offer on the table.

It takes hours for me to doze off because I
can’t stop thinking about the things Nameless said. But I do fall
asleep, only to be awakened by Addison sneaking into our bedroom
again. Does she think that Ben is stupid? He has to know what she’s
doing with Zac.

I look at the clock: 6:27 a.m. this time. She
almost made it to a reasonable hour.

She slides into bed next to me. “Tell me I’m
not going to wake up to this for the next three months,” I
say.

“
I make no promises. I see you’re
here so the good-looking suit must not have been a serial-killing
weirdo. How did it go?”

She was dead wrong about the weirdo part. “It
was a bizarre date to say the least.”

“
I’m finding out Aussie guys are
different.”

I can think of many words to describe
Nameless, but none do him justice. There needs to be a new word for
what he is. “Different doesn’t even begin to cover what this guy
asked me to do.”

“
Ooh, that doesn’t sound
good.”

“
My first thoughts were that it
was crazy, but now I’m not sure. I’ve had time to think about it …
and it might be sort of hot.”

Addison sits straight up in the bed. I have
her full attention. “What did he do? Ask you to give him a hand job
under the table at dinner?”

I can’t bring myself to tell her the part
about how he wouldn’t tell me his name or anything personal about
his life. “He asked me to date him for the next three months and
then walk away without any further contact.”

She lies back on the bed. “So, the guy isn’t
into long-distant relationships? Seems pretty reasonable since
you’ll be nine thousand miles away. Zac and I sort of have the same
arrangement.”

No, it’s not the same, but I can’t tell her
the rest. “I guess. He told me he was rich and he would make the
next three months of my life the best I’ve ever had. He said he’d
make my fantasies come true.”