The Mistaken Escort's Pleasure: A Liaison Novel (3 page)

As they waited, he glanced down at her face, and could see the light blush stained on her cheeks and the residual effect of their kiss on her swollen lips.
 
As much as he wanted to continue where they’d left off, he needed time to think, to figure out a way to convince Ellie that they should get to know each other, and not just for the sake of her friend’s wedding.
 
He kept his eyes locked with hers as the cab pulled up to the curb, and he absently reached for the handle and opened the door for her.
 
As she walked toward the open door, he reached for her hand and gave her a squeeze of reassurance before he kissed her on the cheek.

“I’ll see you soon, love.”

She nodded but he could feel her reluctance, so he leaned down and placed his mouth near her ear.

“I’ve never met a woman I want more than I want you.
 
You’re the most sensual woman I’ve ever touched,” he growled.

She stepped closer until her body was flush to his, and moved her face toward his ear.
 
Her breath brushed against his cheek, sending his temperature soaring.
 

“It was a good thing you pulled back when you did,” she admitted.

His right brow drew up in surprise at what she revealed to him.
 
When the corner of her mouth turned up in a smirk, a groan erupted from deep in his chest.

“You’re going to kill me, love.”

“Hopefully not before I see you naked,” she stated.

Unable to stop his body from responding to her words, he slid his hand to the small of her back, spread his fingers, and pressed her soft body against his.

He couldn’t stop touching her.

He could hear people shuffling by and cars honking, but his full attention was focused on the woman he held in his arms.
 
He closed his eyes and focused on her soft curves, the stuttered breathing that had her chest rising and falling at a rapid rate, and her light scent that danced in the air.
 
She was the perfect combination of innocent and seductress.

He brushed his lips over her cheek before he stepped back.
 
“Soon,” he promised.

Her mouth opened but no sound escaped.
 
Instead, she nodded and slid into the back of the cab.

He forced himself to close the door and back away from the curb.
 
She met his eyes as the taxi pulled away, and the small smile she gave him strengthened his determination to get to know her.

He stood in the exact spot on the curb for several moments, until her cab disappeared in midday traffic.
 
Then he strode toward back into the building and straight to the elevators, determined to get Ellie’s information from Bec.

He found himself whistling as the elevator door opened on the floor that housed Liaison.
 
His thoughts replayed every moment since he spotted Ellie, and with a hurried pace, he walked through the reception area and into his sister’s office.

He knew that despite her surprise that he had volunteered to be her date, and her arguments that they weren’t compatible, their attraction was off the charts.
 
He had no idea what he’d been thinking, passing himself off as a hired escort, but one look at Ellie and all thoughts fled his mind, everything but his need to get to know her.

There was nothing about her that didn’t ring true.
 
From the streaks of purple in her hair, to the way his body responded to her in a casual pair of jeans and a plain white shirt that emphasized her curvy body, and her genuine smile.
 
When he spotted the sketch she created for his sister, he knew that all her success was because of talent.
 
She was beautiful, brilliant, and funny.
 
Everything about her intrigued him.
 

He hadn’t wanted to deceive her about his identity, but the thought of her getting to know another escort, or another man, was unacceptable.
 
He wanted to tell her the truth from the moment he opened his mouth, but her arguments about why he wouldn’t be a believable date had stopped him from doing so.
 
She had seen the look that passed between him and Rebecca when Ellie questioned him about being an escort, but he was already invested in being her date, to get to know her, so he kept his mouth shut.

He wanted to have the chance to get to know her, and for the first time in his life, to have her get to know him as a man, not a successful business owner with more money than he knew what to do with.
 
He would be her date for the wedding of a man who failed to see the beauty of a woman who was becoming an obsession to him.

But he wouldn’t make the same mistake.

He just needed time to come up with a plan to tell Ellie the truth about him, and to convince her that they would be perfect together.

He strode into the office.
 
His focus was to find more information about Ellie, and he rooted around Bec’s desk for Ellie’s file.
 
For the third time that day, his focus had caused him to ignore everything and everyone around him.
 
It wasn’t until he found the file and he blew out a relieved breath that he glanced up to his sister’s smiling face looking back at him from across her desk.

He sighed as he tightened his grip on the file, walked a few feet to the chair that Ellie had vacated a few minutes earlier and sat down.
 
Her light scent of lemon grass and coconut still lingered, and his body tightened at the smell.
 
He focused across the desk, knowing that Bec would have questions about the way he acted, but he wasn’t sure how he was going to answer them.

“How are you feeling?” he asked.

She shook her head and leaned back in her office chair, waiting for him to explain his behavior.

But for the life of him, he had no explanation to give.
 
He acted on instinct because Ellie had enchanted him from the moment he spotted her curled up in this chair, her braid draped over her left shoulder and her sky-blue eyes widening as his gaze raked over her.
 
What they shared in the few minutes they were together was beyond his realm of explanation, and until he spent more time with Ellie, he couldn’t explain it to anyone else, so he remained silent.

Bec blew out a breath before she smiled at him.
 
“I called Gabriel and told him what happened.”

Lucian growled at his sister.
 
He knew she and Gabriel had no secrets between them, but he hoped to understand why he reacted to Ellie in such an elemental way before they dissected his reactions.
 
He considered Gabriel to be as close as a brother, and he’d been happy when Gabriel and Rebecca acknowledged that they were in love.
 
But he didn’t need his love life examined by the two people who were the epitome of love in his eyes.

He knew that you couldn’t build a relationship on deception, but he knew that if he had told Ellie the truth of who he was, she would have rejected him outright and he would never have the chance to get to know her.
 
And he had to get to know her.

“Don’t look at me like that.
 
I’m happy that you’re interested in Ellie, but when she finds out that you’re not an escort, she’s gonna be upset, to say the least,” Rebecca pointed out.

He nodded to acknowledge the truth in her words.
 
But once he spotted Ellie, there was nothing that would discourage him from getting to know her and touch her.
 
He craved to know that whether her skin was as soft as he imagined it to be.

Her white buttoned shirt had exposed a patch of skin just below her neck, and he wanted to take her into his arms and kiss her there, to see whether it was as sensitive as it looked.
 
He loved the flare of color in her hair, but it was encased in a braid, and he wanted it loose so he could run his fingers through it, to know how it would feel against his naked chest.

Hell, in a matter of an hour, she had managed to make him think about nothing else but her.
 
And what surprised him the most was that he was happy to have his sterile existence turned upside down.

“I know that look,” Bec said.

He opened his mouth to deny it, but closed it without uttering a word.

He had seen Gabriel look at his sister with such affection that sometimes he couldn’t stand to be around them.
 
Not because he wanted to deny either of them happiness, but it reminded him of how incomplete his life was.

He realized that work was just that.
 
Work.
 
When he came home to his empty apartment, his loneliness would sneak up on him until it crowded out everything else.
 
He’d dated enough women over the years to know that most of them wanted him for his position or the money that he made.
 
He’d found out the hard way that money blinded people to what they wanted and who they were.
 
Instead of making him balk at relationships, it made him yearn for a real one.
 
One that he could imagine with Ellie.

Unable to stop himself, he opened the file and memorized her address and phone number.

“I’ve never known you to lie,” Rebecca said.

“She thought that I was out of her league, and if I would have told her that I wasn’t an escort, she wouldn’t have agreed to get to know me.
 
I plan to follow the rules you set out for your escorts, and I plan to tell her the truth, but after she gets to know me.”

“And if she chooses not to see you again?” Rebecca asked.

His heart jumped in his chest, but he kept his calm exterior, despite the rage that coursed through his body.
 
He knew that could be a possibility, but he would do his best to convince Ellie to explore their attraction.

He shook his head and ignored the question.
 
“I know what I’m doing.”

“I hope so.”

Chapter Three

Ellie glanced up as the cab slowed outside her apartment building.
 
She hadn’t realized that she gave the man her home address, but she pulled out a crisp twenty and slid it to him before she opened the door and stepped out.
 
She thanked him before she shut the door, and walked to the entrance of her building.
 
She absently nodded at Henry, the doorman, for opening the door, and she walked to the elevator, all without conscious thought.

She couldn’t stop thinking about Lucian and the kiss they shared.
 
She could still feel his arousal as he pressed her to his body, and she couldn’t bring herself to care less that the man was paid to get to know women and to know what they desired.
 
As she slipped her key in the door to her apartment, she shook her head in an effort to expel the images of Lucian in her mind.
 
But they refused to budge.

She let out a gasp as the door was opened from the inside, and she reached out and grabbed the doorframe to prevent the nosedive from the abrupt movement.

“Well?”

Ellie straightened and looked into the eager faces of her two best friends, Nina and Ben.
 
Nina was as beautiful as ever, dressed in a crisp black fitted jacket over a cream blouse.
 
Her matching pencil skirt ended just above her knees, with her makeup as perfect as it was first thing in the morning, even though it was late afternoon, and her sandy-blonde hair was bound in a tight bun.

Ben, who worked as the one IT guy in the entire firm, dressed in blue jeans and a blue V-neck sweater over a white t-shirt, but his hair was thoroughly mussed and his eyes sparkled with mischief.
 
He looked like a model, but his wicked smile, sense of humor, and his casual outlook on life made him one of the two true friends she had in her life.

“Work was great, thanks for asking.”
 
She skirted around her two friends, who had posted themselves as sentries in front of her door.
 
She pulled off her messenger bag and laid it on the couch, trying to keep herself busy so she wouldn’t have to answer questions she didn’t quite have the answers to.

Nina’s very un-ladylike snort brought a smile to her face.
 
“You’re such a bitch,” Nina moaned.

She couldn’t hide her smile.
 
“I love you, too, Neens.”

At the sharp intake of breath, she jerked her head up, and when she saw tears in her friend’s eyes, she felt horrible.
 
Today was a record for her.
 
She made two women cry, and she had no idea why.
 
She wrapped Nina in her arms and hugged her tight.

“How long have we known each other?” Nina mumbled as she pressed her face into Ellie’s shoulder.
 
Nina squeezed her before she stepped back, her face serious, waiting for an answer.

“Five years.”

“And it’s taken you this long to tell us you love us?” Ben shook his head, before he ruffled her hair.
 
“We love you, too, kid.”

She couldn’t remember the last time someone had told her that they loved her, and already feeling off-kilter because of Lucian, she burst into tears.
 
Ben wrapped her up in his arms, and surprised her when he kissed the sensitive spot underneath her ear.
 
She could’ve sworn she heard a low rumble deep in his chest but she pulled away from Ben, unsure why he kissed her, and turned toward Nina, wiping the tears from her eyes with the back of her hand.

Nina pulled her against her side, and Ellie threw them both a confused look as Nina glared at Ben.
 
Ben’s eyes were down cast, and she could feel the tension between the two of her best friends.

She detached herself from her friend’s hard grip and walked to the sink to splash water on her face.
 
The water soothed her heated cheeks, and after patting her face with a clean dish towel, she threw it aside and turned to see her friends.
 
After blowing out a breath, Nina turned her back to Ben and focused on Ellie.