Living in Sin (The Escort Series) (16 page)

She’s seen me with other women? I’ve only seen her once when I was with a client. Shit. I wonder just how many women she’s seen me with.

“Well, I don’t know how many women you’ve seen me with, but I can tell you that I’m almost a hundred percent sure that I didn’t sleep with all of the ones you saw me with. I won’t insult you by lying and say that I haven’t slept with other women. I have. A lot of them. That doesn’t mean I haven’t thought about you, though. I can’t fully explain to you why you’re different than those other women other than saying you’re the one woman I’ve
wanted
to be with in a long time.”

I can’t tell her that I’m only with the other women because they request me and pay to spend time with me. She probably won’t believe me, but it’s not easy to tell someone you’ve slept with that you’re an escort. I’m not lying when I say that I’ve thought about her. She’s definitely my type, and I’m not used to being with my type of women. I’m so used to putting on a front and pretending to be interested in women that I wouldn’t give a second look on the streets.

“So you go out with and sleep with women that you don’t
want
to be with? That doesn’t make sense to me. Why do it?”

“They want to be with me,” I reply.

She scoffs and rolls her eyes.

“Look, I’m about to begin working with this business full time,” I say, gesturing towards the club. “I won’t be dating a lot of women.” Meaning, I’ll be out of the escort business, but I can’t say that.

“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.