Yours for the Night (2 page)

The Girlfriend Experience

He’d made up his mind. She’d have to figure out another way to pay for the repairs.

Was it too late to move to Kansas?

THAT VERY SAME EVENING, JEWEL BISHOP STARED INTO MARIANNA’S

crammed closet. “You’re not going to get a damn thing for these,” she said.

“Every pair is at least a year outdated.”

Most were several years out of fashion, not that it bothered Marianna. She bought on sale at the end of the season, she didn’t toss a pair until she wore them out, and most were more than two years old. She loved shoes as much as she loved books, and her closet was as full as her bookshelves. “So it was a stupid idea.” Besides, selling her shoes on consignment wasn’t going to get her the money fast enough. Nickie, her car guy, wouldn’t buy the new windshield without cash up front.

“I can loan you some money.”

“No.” It came out a little too harshly, but she was not bumming off her friends. It was bad enough bumming off her dad. She was still reeling from this afternoon’s confrontation. “I mean, thanks, but I’ve got to solve my own problem this time.”

“You can pay me back,” Jewel continued. “With interest, if it makes you feel better.”

They’d gone to college together, and even though they were poles apart in everything, they’d become good friends. Jewel had dark hair, brown eyes, and was a petite five foot two, while Marianna was blond and hazel-eyed, and a full four inches taller. Looks weren’t the only thing differentiating them. Jewel had started her own accounting firm five years ago, and bought a house in San Mateo last year. That was the last sale Marianna had made. Jewel had helped her out that way, and Marianna couldn’t accept any more charity.

“Thanks, but no. I’ll figure something out.” Maybe her sister could help. God, what was she thinking? Her sister was the worst person to ask. Besides, Marianna knew she’d be in the same boat next month. She needed big cash. She needed to make a damn sale.

“You could always declare bankruptcy.”

Marianna snorted. “Right. My father would disown me.”

“Who gives a fuck what your father thinks?” That was Jewel, telling it like it 10

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is.

“I’m thirty-five years old. At some point I’ve got to grow up and start taking care of myself.” She parroted her father, a familiar lump in her throat. “I’m a loser,” she whispered.

Jewel grabbed her arm, squeezed. “You listen to me. You’re just in a slump.”

“I’ve been in a slump for thirteen years. I should have made better decisions, gone into something high-paying like accounting, the way you did.”

“It’s not everything you think it is.”

“You’ve got a house, your own accounting firm, all those galas up in the city that anyone who’s somebody goes to.”

Jewel was quiet a long moment, tension flitting across her face. “The business isn’t doing as well as I tell everyone.”

Marianna’s heart dropped to her toes. Jewel was her shining beacon, the example she tried to live up to. “But you could afford the house.”

“I needed some supplemental income to swing that.”

“You mean like a second job?”

“Sort of.” Jewel tipped her head, pushing her long, glossy black hair over her shoulder. “Do you really want a way to make some fast money and pay off your bills?”

“I’m desperate.” Tension rode her spine, floated up to her eyeballs, pounded in her head. She had to prove she wasn’t a failure, and for her father, money was the only yardstick.

“This requires a champagne cocktail while I explain.” Jewel tugged Marianna to the kitchen. Which didn’t take much tugging, since Marianna’s apartment was the size of a postage stamp.

“I’ve got the cheap stuff.” With a cocktail, you didn’t dare use good champagne. You simply added bitters and sugar. It had become one of her favorite drinks because it tasted decadent without being hell on her budget. Only minutes later, ensconced on the couch—two steps from the kitchenette—champagne in hand, Marianna clinked Jewel’s glass. “Now spill.”

She was giddy with the thought of a way out.

“All those parties and galas you talked about? Well, I get paid to go.”

“Paid?”

“Yes, I receive money to attend.”

Marianna tapped her finger to her chin. “You mean the organizers want to 11

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make sure they have enough women?” She had to admit she didn’t understand. Jewel shook her head slowly. “No. The men I attend with pay me. They like a pretty woman on their arm.” Jewel was gorgeous, with flawless cheekbones, full red lips, and all the right curves.

“Uh-huh.” Marianna nodded even though she still wasn’t sure exactly what Jewel was saying. “And you make enough money to pay for a house?”

“I make a lot of money for an evening.” Jewel set her champagne on the table and linked her pinkie finger with Marianna’s. It was a childish thing they used to do right before a big test or a speech in college. A show of solidarity.

“And after the party I have sex with them.”

A flush rode through Marianna’s body. Her face burned. The champagne bubbles made her head spin. “They pay you to have sex with them?”

Jewel held her gaze steady. “They pay me a lot.”

“That’s like being a . . .” Marianna couldn’t say the word.

“It’s being a courtesan,” Jewel finished for her. “I please men. They tip me well.”

Marianna’s heart beat wildly in her ears. “How much?”

“I attended a five-hundred-dollar-a-plate charity dinner last week and the man I went with gave me four thousand dollars.”

Marianna’s jaw dropped.

“You’re catching flies, Marianna.”

She didn’t know what to think or how to feel. “Was he gross?”

“No. He was quite decent-looking.”

“Was he ancient?”

Jewel shrugged. “About fifty.”

Fifty wasn’t bad at all. “Did he hurt you?”

“I don’t allow anyone to hurt me.”

“Did you have to do awful, disgusting things?”

“Define awful and disgusting.”

Marianna didn’t want to even imagine.

“It was standard sex,” Jewel supplied. “The basics. His wife doesn’t like giving oral. I love it. And quite frankly, with how good he is at giving that in return, he could be as old as Harrison Ford or look like Quasimodo.”

Marianna suppressed a shiver at the “oral” comment. She wasn’t a prude. She enjoyed sex. And Harrison Ford was still pretty darn hot even at his age. The 12

The Girlfriend Experience

shudder she experienced was purely sexual. “So he’s married.”

“Most of them are. Being with a courtesan is a safer route than having an affair. They’re not worried their mistress is going to start making demands on them, and they like the power of paying for what they want.”

A courtesan. What Jewel was talking about was more like a whore. A hooker. A call girl. A prostitute. But four thousand dollars ? This was no street-corner shindig. It would pay for Marianna’s windshield, the radiator, the new tires, with money left over.

“I can’t even think about doing that,” she said aloud.

“It’s not so bad, Marianna. I like sex. I like men. And I love the money.”

“But what if you get stuck with someone totally disgusting?”

“You never have sex unless you want to. You never do anything you don’t want to do. And you always use protection.”

“But—” She stopped. She couldn’t use that word with Jewel. Not whore.

“You think I’m a terrible person, don’t you?”

“No, I just . . .” Honestly, Marianna didn’t know what to think. Four thousand dollars in one night. It was mind-boggling. But what about the morals of it?

“Don’t you feel sort of . . .” She couldn’t define it. She loved Jewel, counted her as one of her best friends.

“Go ahead and say it.” Jewel sipped her champagne cocktail, her fingers tight on the glass stem.

Okay. “Doesn’t it make you feel sleazy and dirty?” Marianna was dying to know.

The smile was slow to grow on Jewel’s lips, but when it came, it was sexy, sultry, secretive. “Getting paid for it is the hottest thing I’ve ever done, and so damn sexy. This is better than a one-night stand, and you don’t have to worry about how to get rid of him in the morning. Oh my God”—Jewel rolled her eyes—“if a one-nighter is looking for a relationship . . .” She punctuated with finger quotes. “If I decide I don’t like a guy, I tell my consultant not to put his calls through.”

“You have a consultant?”

“That’s what we call them, the person who answers the calls for me and sets up the dates.” She laughed, her voice musically sweet. “Maybe we should call them matchmakers.”

Marianna couldn’t judge, especially when the thought of all that money set 13

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her pulse racing. “I’m still in shock.”

“I get paid for having sex with no complications.” Jewel touched Marianna’s knee, lowering her voice to a whisper. “What more could a girl ask for?

14

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2

COMPLICATIONS. Marianna, however, was having no sex and a whole bunch of complications.

And Jewel? She’d wanted her own business, to be her own boss, to have her career totally in her control, but with the Sarbanes-Oxley rules instituted after the Enron debacle a few years ago, the personal liability an accountant had to bear on audits made it harder for small single-person firms to stay in business. Marianna hadn’t realized it affected Jewel to the point that she had chosen to become a call girl on the side. Jeez, what was the economy coming to?

“I never dreamed of happily ever after, Marianna. Sex is just biological. If I couldn’t get it on my own terms, I’d probably pay for it, too.”

Marianna had started to believe happily ever after would never come her way either. “You don’t have to explain. I don’t think badly of you.”

“It’s something I want you to consider. You could be out of your money problems like that”—Jewel snapped her fingers—“as long as you don’t feel guilty about it later.”

“I don’t think it’s right for me.” But . . . she bit her lip. “Is four thousand in one night typical?”

“I’ve gotten as little as five hundred, and once a man gave me ten thousand for the weekend at his villa in Sedona. He paid for the flight, of course. I never pay for anything.” She shrugged. “And sometimes I get jewelry.”

Marianna eyed the ruby ring Jewel wore on her middle finger.

“Yes, this was a present from a pleased client. I’d say I average fifteen hundred. That’s pretty standard when you’re talking dinner, a party, dancing, then back to a hotel room. But I never stay the night. I call a cab by three at the latest.” She leaned forward to poke the air. “They pay for that, too.”

Marianna laughed, a touch of a scoff in it. “You’re really trying to talk me into this, aren’t you?”

“I’m just saying you could end your money troubles. Even if you did it a few times, you could get yourself debt-free and start over. Without hitting up your dad.”

That was the kicker. Marianna couldn’t see a way out of her current situation 15

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without going to her mother or her sister now that her father had said no. She laughed again, shaking her head. “So I don’t borrow money, I prostitute myself instead. How is that better?” Honestly, she didn’t want to make Jewel feel bad about her choice, but she couldn’t see herself doing it.

“It’s easy if you don’t feel immoral about it. And you’d be building your network for your real estate business.”

“You’re kidding.” Marianna’s jaw dropped. “I’m going to tell these men my real name and hope they ask me to sell their house? How am I supposed to tell their wives how I met them?”

“They aren’t going to reveal how they met you any more than you’ll tell on them. I mostly date men from out of town to avoid the problem of running into their wives. But even if I do date someone from the Bay Area, I always get a picture first to make sure it’s not a friend’s husband or something.” Jewel touched Marianna’s knee. “These men are movers and shakers, either here in San Francisco or another big city, even internationally. I’ve gotten a couple of new accounting clients out of it.”

“That’s one thing I wouldn’t do,” Marianna said, flapping her hand, “tell them who I really am. What if one of them was a cop? They’d know exactly where to come and arrest you.”

“First of all, clients come through referrals only, and second, I never ask for money; it’s a gift. It’s understood up front that if I choose not to sleep with them for whatever reason, then nothing happens.”

Setting her empty champagne glass on the coffee table, Marianna wanted another, but she didn’t want Jewel to see how badly. “I’m worried. What if something happens to you?”

“Someone knows where I am at all times. I check in, I always have my cell phone with me. I never go anywhere that isn’t prearranged unless I call in first to let my consultant know. Protection on all fronts is the name of the game.”

“What about something you can get from the sex?”

“Protection. Or I don’t do it.”

Marianna picked at a loose thread on the seam of the leather sofa. Six months ago she’d replaced the ancient flower-print pull-out she’d inherited from her sister. Marianna was always living in hand-me-downs, and she’d finally broken down and bought the brown leather. It had been a floor model. Jewel sighed. “Maybe I shouldn’t have told you about this. I should have just 16

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let you sell your shoes.”

“I don’t know what to think. I’m all messed up.”

“Is it going to affect our friendship?” Jewel touched her hand. Marianna’s head popped up. “Of course not. Just because I don’t want to do it, doesn’t mean I think you’re a horrible person because you do.”

Jewel let out a pent-up sigh. “Good, because I wouldn’t have told you any of this if I thought you’d hate me.”

“You’re such a freak.” Marianna snorted. “I’m not going to hate you.”

Jewel hugged her hard for one second, then bounced off the couch, back to her usual pragmatic attitude. “All right, so let’s go pick out what you’re going to put on eBay.”

Marianna didn’t suddenly start hating Jewel, but she did think about Jewel’s extracurricular activities long into the night. It couldn’t be right to take money from men for sex. But God, she kept seeing dollar signs hovering over her head as if they were angels. She needed money, needed it bad. She was in an untenable position. No matter which way she turned to get the money, she’d be wrong in her father’s eyes. No Whitney had ever declared bankruptcy. Selling her Jimmy Choos on eBay wasn’t going to make her solvent. But was following in Jewel’s footsteps any better?