The Rental (12 page)

I was listening to the footsteps pass the closed door. As Rick approached, I had no hint it was him as the wall had no windows. It was just the medium-to-heavy clomp of his step and the long length of his strides that perked my attention to his arrival.

When he stepped in, the air flushed as if it were affected by his presence. I couldn’t name what shifted other than the feeling around me, but he seemed cool, collected, running his gaze over me in my chair appreciatively and turning to close us in alone with a deep click.

“Victoria, right?” he asked, and for a moment every system in my body froze. I wouldn’t survive if he shut me out as such this whole time. “I love the name but I might go with Vee, or little vixen, even.” He quirked an eyebrow at me. The expression shot sexy attitude straight to my eyes, and I returned with a soft smile and batting my eyelashes down toward his shirt. He knew how to wear a suit unlike most men who purchased a size too big. Rick filled out the tapered cut at his waist a touch shy of tight, and he had a couple of buttons undone, enough to spark the lusting woman in me.

He pulled up his dark slacks as he sat in his chair, a simple action that caught me right in the throat.

“Thanks for doing this,” I shot out quickly. It was one of the lines I’d practiced to say when he finally showed. It was so stiff.

“No worries.” He leant on his elbows, the shift in air filling my breath with his aftershave, so I cut my air supply off and tried again through my mouth. “I wanted to see you, Vee.”

“Me, too.” I crawled my hand out to breach the gap over the desk. It felt so far. My muscles tightened as he reached for me at the same time. His hands weren’t baby smooth, but the warmth he gave me from his touch was.

“I’d apologise for being bossy, but I wouldn’t mean it.”

“I’d apologise for being a little vixen,” I said, “but that would mean I regret what happened next, and I don’t regret all of it.”

“Which bit, Vee?” His voice was stern while his touch smoothed over the fleshy skin between my thumb and pointer finger.

“Your knee jerk reaction—or should I just say your
jerk
reaction.”

Rick swallowed hard and shifted his hips on his seat. He cleared his throat. “Tonight’s booking with Jimmy could likely involve some jerking action. Are you ready for that?”

“I suppose,” I answered in a soft tone. I cleared my throat, wanting to move the conversation back up a step. “But I do regret what happened later. Why did you take the fall for me? Mum still doesn’t quite believe it was mine.”

“Well,” Rick shrugged, “that makes sense.”

“Thank you. But I don’t want you fighting my battles.”

“I’m just providing the sword, Vee. Just providing the sword.”

I tried on a smile, but it fell right off into my lap. I stared there thinking about the many ways Rick probably meant ‘my battles’ and his ‘sword.’

“Rick, I’m not using you.”

“For my ‘sword?’” He grinned, but removed his hand from mine, and my grip flexed in and out, as if they were a pair of lungs, trying to breathe life. “It’s not really relevant, is it? I just have to stay away from you. Make sure you wear a scarf over your neck for the booking, and I’ll hardly bat an eyelid.”

I looked down. The sweater cut deep enough to expose my cleavage. Rick inspected it, but it didn’t feel like much of a reprimand; it didn’t affect me the way it should have. I licked my lips and dropped my gaze, but the desk was in the way of his lap.

“We’ll … act like distant friends here and you know, not hang around my house either or yours, and … meet somewhere else.”

I sounded shaky, stupid in my attempts to reduce our complicated status into boy meets girl. Rick and I wouldn’t have that luxury—we’d either be boy dates girl or boy fucks the brains out of girl. The way I imagined it, we could go out for dinner or a movie, or he’d have me alone in his car. It was romance or sex, but I didn’t want to pick one.

“We’ll discuss what Amber needs me to share with you, okay?” he said but didn’t pause for long, going into our ‘meeting’ in the next second.

He showed me the contract the typical client signed, and ran through images—rental and clients on dates and in rooms, the rooms varying from lounge-room-esque to sex dungeon, and women on arms at official events. He opened up a folder and we read through details about the company and how bookings worked.

He said, “Unless the client has been charged by the courts of law, going through proceedings, or convicted of an offense, you must accept them all. The Rental doesn’t discriminate. If checks pass them as a suitable client and pose no personal risk, and you don’t know them personally, you can’t cancel a booking unless you’re sick, injured, or cannot work for another serious reason.”

“Never?” I asked. “No other exceptions? Even if you feel awkward with them?”

“Does this look like the job for someone who’s worried about being awkward with a stranger?”

I nodded. “Good point.”

“It’s done for fairness, not to make the staff’s lives harder. People don’t come here unless they’re lonely and can’t find a partner, or want a stranger to keep them company for some other reason. Amber doesn’t want to discriminate if the clients are nothing but nice people.”

His professional, sure tone stumped me, and I mostly listened for the rest of our meeting. We talked right up until quarter past six. Rick pulled out his mobile phone to show me something on the internet when his eyes popped and he hurried me. He clutched the papers and folder under his arm, and escorted me out, leading me to a dressing room.

We stopped outside the same door I’d first gone into, where we’d shared our first kiss. I liked that I’d be stripping naked in the same space, though it wouldn’t matter. Rick wouldn’t physically be there, and I didn’t know when I’d run into him after this.

“You look beautiful,” he said, running his hand along my waist, hooking it at the small of my back. “You already look like a dream come true.”

• • •

I
HADN’T NEEDED
to do much, so the quarter hour loss of time didn’t affect my stress levels.

I pulled on a brown-haired wig that matched my profile, straightening it to hang loose over my spaghetti-strap aqua dress. The light material hugged my curves to mid-thigh. My hair swung forward like a curtain as I peered down to my nude pumps. It was a long, sexy way down there, and the nude shoe colour fooled my mind as to the true length of my legs.

When I checked the time, the wall clock read ten minutes to seven, and the confirmation of the impending booking thumped hard in my chest. I could see the semi-transparent reflection of my face on the glass clock face—dark eyes from the smoky look I created and defined red lips. The red was vivid, reminding me of what my lips might be doing soon.

Up until now, I imagined myself pretending the client was Rick, but I didn’t want to pretend Rick was anyone other than himself. What if instead Rick watched? How would he react? I’d watched a show with him and other girls and I wondered if forced to see it like I was if he’d enjoy or loathe what happened.

I took one last breath and then pulled the handle open. Rick was leant against the opposite wall, a knee bent, a shoe on the wall, and arms tightened around his chest. He sucked in a long breath, nostrils flaring.

If I worried about looking virginal and weird, I needn’t have been. It didn’t show up on his I-almost-just-came expression.

“What are you doing here?” I whispered, not knowing why I had lowered my voice.

“Walk you there?” he offered, but he seemed jumpy all of a sudden, unsure. I couldn’t pick if he was leading me there as my bodyguard or as my boyf— “Okay,” I said, cutting off my thoughts.

We rode the elevator up and found the corridor containing doors numbered 100-130. The carpet flowed along the floor in a cool charcoal colour, met by light and washed-out blue walls. The space felt larger than it was. Rick and I, side by side, felt wide enough apart to fit another body between our hands.

The plaque glued to the door of room 107 was outlined in silver leaf on black, the text printed in light silver. The door was mocking in its carbon copy replica of every other one we’d passed. It was different in every way, because I could be seducing another man, and I had no idea if there would be the possibility for that with the man next to me after it.

Rick looked deep into my eyes before I stepped forward to knock, hands shoved in his pockets. He must have become as flustered as I was during the walk over, because my eyes were drawn to his shirt, rolled to his elbows and the slight sheen on his chest in the triangle of skin where his two buttons were undone.

“Fuck it,” he growled and flipped me to the wall, shoving me into it.

I moaned into his mouth as he consumed my jaw, my neck, sucking and kissing all over. He met my mouth rapidly. The passion and speed in his movements was like he had to get it done now before other bodyguards wrenched him off me and led him away forever.

I felt the tsunami of fear and relinquished to it. I gave my body to his, pushing into him and encouraging his hips.

“You guys,” a man’s voice called.

Rick pulled his mouth back from me but remained attached at our hips, tight with want against my dress. The guy at our door was completely nude, and judging by his hard on, he’d started with his original rental before our arrival. He laid his forearm against the doorframe and looked us up and down.

Jimmy should have been an overweight man in his middle age with too much money to blow and not enough charisma to attract girls naturally.

This
real life
Jimmy, however, had a fine arm leaning on the door and a toned stomach. He didn’t have a grey through his hair in sight, but he did have the slightly rugged skin of a man in his early thirties. His grey eyes perused me carefully.

I couldn’t lie my way out of this. He’d seen my profile and had no doubt taken a long look at it. Plus, it was a few minutes to my arrival time of seven. Rick’s throwing me into the wall must have been loud enough to remove this naked man from his intimate moment.

I probably shouldn’t have liked how Rick had that effect on me.

The man smirked at us those few seconds we both stared at each other, leaving no room for me to freak out. He zoned in on my tits and rubbed the head on his cock, eyes shutting out the real world and transporting him elsewhere.

Seconds later, when he was done, he opened his eyes and turned, calling back into the room. “Is this one a freebie, Nix?”

I remembered the name. She was the original rental. On cue, Nix sauntered into view of the open door. She stood only in heels, a waist-high corset and a G-string. Her breasts spilled over the corset, red around the nipples.

“Rhett?” she asked. “Well, he’s on the books. Up to you.”

Rick pulled away from me toward the door, and no sooner had the gaping space separated us, Jimmy’s eyes fell to Rick’s pants.

“He’s definitely
up
for it. Rhett, is it?
Up
to you, mate.”

Rick snaked his arm around my waist, looking down into my eyes. My gaze softened, soaking up the need in his expression. I wasn’t done with him, and I didn’t have to be it seemed. We could ‘work’ together simply because he worked for The Rental in some capacity. Us thrown into the moment meant we couldn’t actually talk, but I wished I could have pressed pause on the world so we could discuss this. Such as what were the rules for Rick? Would he have to let this man do whatever he wanted with him?

The idea of all of us in that room and not knowing what could happen heated my desire, and I bit back a sound at the sensation of my juices running down, as if readying me for the erotic explorations ahead.

“May I?” Rick held out his hand, and I took it.

We both stepped in, hanging by the wall together. Jimmy shut the door and stepped back to include Nix.

“Hi,” she said, walking to us. “I’m Nix. You the new rental?”

I nodded. “Victoria.”

She was a couple of inches taller than I was in her heels. She bent and pecked a kiss on my lips, feathering a touch along my arm and over her breasts, and then turned to Jimmy.

“Beautiful, isn’t she?” She smiled at Rick. “Rhett.”

“Hey.”

I looked anywhere but at them, inspecting the room. It was styled similar to one of the photos Rick showed me. There was a long sofa along the wall, black studded leather and some chairs nearby. The far end of the room held a king size bed—a silky duvet spread cover in champagne and black thick stripes with matching pillows in the solid colours. Right on the other side, a kitchenette was nestled against the corner, a small section of tiles meeting the cupboards and fridge, and a couple of metres out, a table set.

The room was darkened with no overhead lighting, only soft yellow tones from wall shades hung on the half-wall baroque wallpaper. This room was luxurious, but it also had homely touches, as if Jimmy wanted to play out a certain fantasy of his.

That fantasy became mine, grabbing at the possibility to have Rick for one more moment in a way that wouldn’t be wrong.

Nix sauntered up to Jimmy and guided him backward with two straight fingers pushing at his chest. He fell into a well-placed chair, and under his gaze, she leant over his legs and made a show of dribbling on his cock while he rubbed himself. Her ass faced Rick and I, the G-string nearly swallowed between her ass cheeks. Her folds squeezed and contracted around the skinny fabric, making me squirm.

The skin pinched together and spread out, matching the shapes and thrusts of her hips and legs as she put every muscle in her body to use for the show. And shit, was she wet. Lampshade glow lit up her backside. There was a glistening sheen that ran at the apex between her thighs and the darkened fabric along the seat of her G-string.

It enticed my hunger, and I felt a growl from within like it wasn’t my stomach empty, but my womanly needs.

I imagined Rick’s fingers teasing my mound, torturing me into the beautiful and feverous state like this woman was. Her exposed flesh and the visual of Rick pleasuring me made my eyes roll.