My Exception (My Escort #2) (8 page)

W
ith only minutes to spare after Cassidy left, I completed the outfit by putting on the beautiful golden bangle and dangling earrings. I couldn’t help but admire the knee-length red cocktail dress. I felt like I was worth millions, yet I knew the moment Damon looked at me it would seem irrelevant what I was wearing.

Damon knocked on my door. Instead of letting himself in, he waited until I opened the door. I held my gold clutch tightly, absorbing his beautiful masculinity. He wore a black tux with a simple black bow. He looked, as always, dashing.

He looked me up and down from head to toe, his eyes intense as a cocky smile stretched across his lips. “I knew you would look great in that,” he said, raising his fingers to my hair. “You look so beautiful.”

I felt red streak across my cheeks as if that were the first time I had ever heard him say it. “You don’t look too bad yourself,” I said with a shy smile.

He grabbed my hand, pulling me into him quickly and looking down on me. “Tell me I’m pretty,” he teased. He wasn’t serious, but he loved it when I was under his spell like this and entirely his.

“You’re very pretty,” I repeated, smiling. He kissed me. I laughed to myself as I began to rub away the pink gloss that was now over his lips. “
Especially
pretty now.”

He escorted me outside to where a flash silver car was. It was one of those sports cars you often saw on the front of car magazines, with the leather interiors and sexy models.

“Oooh, flashy!” I remarked to him as he opened the door for me. Instead of pulling out, it pulled up. “Remind me where we are going?”

“You will see,” he said with a smile. He quickly walked around the car then leant over and buckled my seatbelt.

“Really, you don’t think I could manage that myself?”

“Clover, you look so ravishing tonight that I couldn’t possibly expect you to dirty your hands on such trivial matters. This is me being chivalrous,” he said with a sly smile.

After a short drive, I knew where he was taking me. I said nothing until it was obvious where we were turning into. “Are you taking me to a casino, Mr. Brogardt?”

“I told you this would be boring. We don’t have to be in here for too long. As long as we make an appearance and conversation for a while we can leave as soon as possible.”

“Oh, don’t want me interacting with these upper-class men?” I teased.

“You, my sweet little thing, are very much all mine, and I refuse to share,” he said with a wink. “It is only for a while, I promise. We don’t even have to stay for dinner.”

I gasped in pretend anger. “Well I never, won’t even take me to a classy dinner.” He gave me a cocky smile in response to my theatrics.

Damon parked the car at the front of the casino where people of all classes left and entered. A young man politely walked up to the car, opening the door for me and then accepting the keys from Damon.

“So, what is the main event?” I asked, slipping my arm around Damon’s extended elbow. I let him guide me through the doors and I felt like some sort of movie star. This seemed different to the usual work conventions we went to. A flash blinded my sight as I looked towards the entrance.

“Just smile and breath,” Damon said with a dashing smile. He wrapped his hand around my waist as a woman took pictures. Nervously, I smiled. I hadn’t expected a paparazzi situation. Damon nodded to the photographer.

“I thought you didn’t want photos in the headlines,” I said, somewhat shakily and still shocked at what had happened.

“Becoming CEO makes it a little hard at the moment to stay away from the photographers’ eyes. I promise you it won’t happen often, but because of this event a few photos might leak out. Besides, you’re my woman, Clover. I want the whole world to see that photo and know that,” he said with a smile.

Bright lights caught my eye as we stepped into the marble lobby. The Casino of Manhattan was glorious. I hadn’t been to many casinos. Gambling wasn’t exactly my forte. Despite my name, I had no luck whatsoever.

“Today there was a charity auction. This is where the after party is. I couldn’t attend the auction personally but Michelle went on behalf of the Brogardt family. We only have to make an appearance and then we can go. Mostly it is just a bunch of rich drunks,” he said with a smile as he led me past all the bright lights of the flashing machines. We passed people playing various card games like blackjack and poker. I watched on, in awe at how many people were there. “Are you sure it’s okay for me to be here?” I asked, feeling self-conscious. I felt out of my comfort zone.

He gave me a worried look. “Clover, why wouldn’t it be? You are the most important thing to me, why wouldn’t I take you everywhere I go? I didn’t want to bring you for too long in case you felt uncomfortable. You are beautiful and shouldn’t lose that confidence I love so much,” he said, giving me a light kiss on the lips and swelling me with light. I had been to so many events before, but my gut wrenched at this one. Maybe it was because of the paparazzi that caught me off guard. I straightened my back again and swayed my hips like I always did.

He is right. I am a confident, successful woman
.

“There she is,” he said, nodding in approval.

We entered a large catered conference room, where wines were being offered around the room to a large crowd. Some of the guests I had met through my years in the magazine industry, others, however, were big names.

“An hour tops, I promise,” Damon said as an older man and his wife came over to us.

“Damon, so good to see you. Your sister had me on that blue vase, she upped me 15k,” he laughed. If I had a drink I imagine I would have either choked on it or sprayed it everywhere.
Fifteen thousand dollars above what he bid… just how much was that blue vase?

“Ah yes, she tends to get carried away. But it all goes to charity, so how can we complain,” Damon smiled charismatically. “David and Mellissa, I would like you to meet my girlfriend, Clover Granture. She is our travel columnist at
Be True
.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you both,” I smiled and offered my hand.

“How wonderful. I never thought I would see the day where the gossip was true for once and he had settled for one woman,” the wife gasped jokingly. Her joke upset me slightly. I suppose Damon would’ve been seen numerous times with other women during his escorting days. So people thought I was just another one of those women, then.

“If you will excuse us, I think we need to get a drink,” Damon said, placing his hand on my lower back and escorting me to where one of the staff could hand us some white wine from her tray.

“Don’t worry about Mrs. Wiley. She often gossips. She is very jealous of you. That I can tell you straight away,” Damon said as he took a small mouthful of wine. “I promise you, only one hour of this and your real surprise is waiting.” He stole a kiss before I could respond. “Quit your grumbling, it doesn’t suit your fabulous face, baby.”

M
aking conversation with people I didn’t know was never difficult for me. My years working for
Candice and Clive
magazine gave me the charisma and confidence I needed to easily mingle in with a crowd full of strangers.

I couldn’t help but be grabbed by the bright lights. So many people were here. And most of them were happily spending their money on either machines or drinks. This sort of world never really appealed to me. I had almost forgotten it existed.

Eventually, Damon seemed happy for us to slip out. “Would you like to have a few games, Clover?” Damon asked, leaning over my shoulder and grabbing my attention again.

“No, I really have the worst luck,” I said. A smile spread across his face as he grabbed my hand and started to pull me towards a table. He looked at his silver watch. “We have twenty minutes to spare.”

“No really, I am terrible,” I said, as he led me through the glamorous crowd. A few men shuffled around to make space when we stopped at a roulette table. Damon placed some money before the dealer, who then gave him various coloured chips in return.

“Pick a number and a color,” he offered, gesturing at the table.

“I am not gambling your money,” I asserted. Trapping me, Damon wrapped his arm around me, both hands on either side of me on the table. “I’ve trapped you and we are not leaving until you’ve either lost all of this money or you have doubled it. I don’t believe my woman could be so unlucky.”

I wanted to argue with him, but looking behind my shoulder and up at his serious face, I knew there was no point arguing. “Um… red, thirteen,” I said nervously. Damon put a quarter of the chips out. I didn’t even know what value they held. As the dealer spun the board and dropped the ball, I felt my breath escape as I watched in suspense. Before I saw what number it was, I saw that it dropped into the black.

“Black, fourteen,” the dealer called loudly. I looked back at Damon, who smiled and put his head down, defeated.

“I won’t believe it. Go again,” he said, smiling. I attempted it another two times, failing each time. Damon’s laugh passed through me as his chest was firmly pressed to my back.

“You are utterly terrible,” he said, bemused.

“I told you I wasn’t lucky.” I felt myself pouting as I crossed my arms. “Well, go on, show me what you’re made of.”

Damon continued to laugh as he held my arms, embracing me. “Push the pile forward,” he growled into my ear. “Red, eighteen.”

“Is eighteen your lucky number?” I asked, smiling as he hugged me.

“It is. It was, after all, the day that you were born. And my, don’t you look ravishing in red,” Damon said with heated breath. I turned around and kissed him.

“Red, eighteen,” the dealer said loudly. I swung around, shocked.

“We will pull out now, thank you,” Damon replied.

“There is no way you knew that would happen,” I said. “You only had one go, what are the odds of that.”

One day I will find a way to turn the cards and surprise him
, I vowed.

“Well someone had to clean up after your terrible performance,” he laughed, collecting the chips. “Now come on, let’s put this in so we are not late.”

“Late for what?” I asked.

“It’s a surprise, Clover.”

*

We had now been driving for twenty minutes. At Damon’s request, we went through the drive thru of a burger place. When I tried to nibble at the chips he slapped my hand and told me to wait. I slurped on my coke grumpily. The cheap burgers smelt so good. And I had to admit I probably did prefer the look of them over any five star meal I could have had at the casino.

How ridiculous we must look
, I thought, considering the attire we were both in. After another five minutes of driving he pulled into a side booth where a young girl with braces smiled and took tickets from Damon. In exchange she gave him some popcorn and a bag of candyfloss. I raised my eyebrow at the exchange. It finally clicked when I saw the masses of cars and a large screen in front of us.

“Have you brought me to a drive-in cinema?” I asked with a big smile. I had never been to one.

“I might have,” he said as he found a space between two cars. One was an old hippie-looking sort of van and the other car next to us contained two teenagers making out. I looked at Damon for a long time as he unwrapped the burgers.

“I can never guess your game,” I admitted out loud. I never wanted to give him that satisfaction or ego boost, but it was the honest truth.

Damon began laying out our dinner as if it were some five-course meal. He placed the burger wrapper carefully on my dress.

“Well, I
am
an enigma,” he nodded, leaning over the seat to give me a kiss.

“Yes, you are,” I agreed, cupping his beautiful jaw line and placing another kiss on his lips.

Twenty minutes into the black and white movie, I was nestled comfortably under Damon’s arms. It seemed surreal to be by such an amazing man’s side and to feel so happy with my life. He literally had turned my world upside down.

His hand slowly lowered down my hips, and I could feel the light tap of his finger — whether he consciously did it or not — as he watched the big screen.

“To bad for you, you went to all this effort and it is my time of the month,” I said with a disappointed expression. I felt myself grow hot at the thought of making love to Damon right here in public. I didn’t know if I could do it, but for some reason it aroused me, just the thought of it.

“That’s not too bad for me,” he said, pushing away my hair from my face. “I am more than content just holding you here. And when I take you home tonight, I will continue doing so. You’re just the perfect fit,” he said, kissing my forehead.

A shudder of warmth swept through my body as I continued staring into his beautiful blue eyes. “I really love you,” I told him earnestly.

“I really love you too, Clover.” He kissed me on the lips again, cupping my nape as his tongue led mine into a beautiful, passionate kiss.