Living in Sin (The Escort Series) (17 page)

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 isn’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.

“No. I think you’re perfect,” I say softly.

I realize now that we are stopped in front of my office. He looks over at me and his face is blank of emotion. Finally he gives me a small smile.

“I’m far from perfect, Adrienne, but I’d like to think I can be perfect for someone…someday.”

We continue to stare into each other’s eyes; my heart starts beating faster and I lick my lips. His gaze drops to my mouth before moving back up to my eyes. In my mind I’m begging him to kiss me, but then there’s another part of me that says I need to just get out of the car. I want him. There is no denying that, but I want him to want me and only me. I don’t think this friends thing is gonna work out. I won’t be able to hang out with him and not have thoughts of wanting more. I’m about to say just that when he reaches over and grabs my hand in his. My small hand just about disappears within his own. My poor heart is working overtime; I can feel it beating hard through my chest. He leans in closer, and closer still, and any rational thoughts that I could or should have, go out the window. In this moment I want his mouth on mine. I want to feel his tongue move over my tongue. I want his smooth and soft lips to caress mine.

His other hand moves to the side of my face and without thought, I close my eyes and nestle into it. He strokes my cheek with his thumb and I open my eyes and meet his gaze. His face gets closer to mine and I close my eyes waiting to feel the warmth of his mouth.

When I do, it’s not what I was wanting. He kisses me…on the corner of my mouth. It’s mostly on my cheek, but he lingers for a few seconds, and I revel in it. When he pulls back and I open my eyes, he’s already studying me. He caresses my face one more time and gives me a smile.

“Thank you for coming with me today. I had fun.”

I take a deep breath and smile back. “Me too.”

“Maybe I’ll see you soon?”

“Yeah. Maybe,” I say with a smile. What I don’t say is that I want to see him tonight. In bed. Naked.

He shows off his perfect smile, and squeezes my hand gently before letting go.

I get out of the car and once inside the building, I go straight to the bathroom. I’m completely wet.

“So what you’re trying to tell me is that you’re giving up pussy.”

“Troy, nobody said anything about giving up pussy,” I respond with a laugh.

“That’s basically what you just said. You said, ‘I’m lame as fuck and don’t want to get no more pussy.’ That’s what I heard anyway.”

“Whatever, fool. You better get your hearing checked then.”

I continue to get my suit on, and since Troy is already dressed, he’s standing in the doorway of my bedroom giving me a hard time.

“Are you really getting out of the escort game, though? I mean, you’ve made a shit load of money doing this.”

“Yeah, I know, but I can’t keep doing it forever. We’re gonna make a shit load of money with the club, too. It’s not like I’m gonna go broke.”

“Well I know that. Maybe I just love pussy too much. I don’t think I’ll ever stop,” Troy says while mindlessly playing with his watch.

“Come on, bro, you know you could get pussy without this job, so don’t act like that’s the only reason you do this.”

When he doesn’t say anything, I sit on the bed and put my shoes on.

“I knew Carla was cheating on me. She didn’t do a very good job at hiding it. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought she was cheating on me with my cousin, though.”

I look up at him and he’s still looking down at his watch. He doesn’t bring up what happened a whole lot, so I decide to let him talk until he doesn’t want to anymore.

“I was hoping that if I just spent more time with her that she would be happy and we would be okay. She never expressed her feelings to me. I had no idea how unhappy she was and I just wish she would have told me. Instead, she decided to sleep with my cousin while I was at work, making money for our wedding. It had been going on for months. I only found that out through him, because she tried to tell me it was only the one time.”

He finally lifts his head and looks up at me.

“I never treated her wrong; I worshipped the ground she walked on, and got her anything she wanted. I didn’t realize that I was buying her love. I had no idea she loved my money more than me, and I didn’t have a whole lot compared to now,” he says with a smile. “I bet she’d really love me now. I’m just afraid to go through that again, and with the money I have now, I feel like women would want more. More than just me. They’d want what I can offer them, and I can only offer myself.”

I take a minute to take in what he said before responding.

“Troy, you’re a good guy, and the right woman won’t want you for your money. The right woman will only want you for you. Carla seemed to be happy. She was happy getting the material things that you got for her and…whatever she was getting elsewhere.”

I pause, gauging his reaction. I don’t want to hurt him anymore, but I want to tell him what I think. When he doesn’t say anything, I continue.

“I’m sorry to say it, man, but Carla wasn’t the one for you, and I think you dodged a bullet with that one. That doesn’t mean you should swear off relationships altogether. You’re letting her win if you do that. Move on, meet someone, and be happy. You deserve that, it’s her that doesn’t.”

After a few minutes of silence, he finally speaks up.

“Yeah. Thanks for listening, man. I don’t mean to be all sensitive,” he says with a small laugh.

“No problem. We can stop being like girls now, right?” I ask with a grin.

“Definitely. You ready to go? We’re gonna be late, and you know the boss will have our asses if we are.”

“Yeah, let’s go. I don’t want to deal with that drama.”

We leave my place and grab a cab to head to the hotel. Almost all the other escorts from our agency will be there since we were invited by our boss, and you can’t really say no.

“You think there’s gonna be any hot chicks there?” Troy asks.

“Probably,” I say with a shake of my head.

“What? Maybe I want to find
the one
.”

“Right. The one for tonight maybe.”

“So you ain’t gonna be lookin’ for any hot ass tonight?”

“Looking and seeing are two different things. I may see some hot ass tonight, but I won’t be looking.”

Troy’s face transforms into a look of shock.

“What the fuck, man? Why are you looking at me like that?” I ask.

“Who is she?” he asks.

“What are you talking about?”

“The girl that obviously has you so pussy whipped. She’s why you aren’t lookin’ to get laid tonight. She’s the reason why you want to get out of the escort business too, huh?”

When I don’t respond right away because I’m thinking about what to say, he starts in again.

“I knew it! My boy’s in love.”

“Whoa! Calm down. Nobody is in love.”

“Well, what the fuck?”

I let out an exasperated sigh because I know he isn’t going to leave this alone.

“I did meet someone, but it’s complicated. We hooked up once already, and then she disappeared. I ran into her again because she’s the same woman who’s setting up our opening event. So the day you called me to take your place is the day I saw her for the first time since hooking up.”