CHAPTER EIGHT
Zachary
I wasn’t one for PDAs. But with Jewel, I couldn’t help it. Her tits? The picture didn’t do them justice. I started sucking, and I didn’t want to stop. The desire to taste her, all of her, had been far too powerful.
And I was quickly finding out that no picture could compare to what I’d experienced in the flesh. I didn’t think I’d ever felt an ass so exquisitely sculpted. I knew I’d spend a good amount of time admiring it tonight, when I had her naked in bed. It was obvious she worked out.
That made one of us. Except for a stint on the rugby team at Harvard, I was entirely against visiting the gym. So far, it hadn’t affected my physique much. I was just lucky that way, the type who didn’t put on weight and got muscles from doing everyday things. But my avoidance of the gym didn’t stop me from appreciating the bodies of the women who were devoted to it.
Jewel’s hard work was definitely going to be rewarded tonight. I would have taken her, right there on the balcony over Central Park. I would have lifted that dress of hers up and sank into that sweet pussy, listening to her moan, if we hadn’t been disturbed. I was ready for it.
But as we walked downstairs, into the cruel light of the real world, I remembered my mother. She’d stared at Jewel like she was subhuman, just because she was an escort. The last thing I needed was to prove my mother right by fucking her like a whore in public. We needed to get out of there so I could do this right.
When we reached the gala ballroom again, I found the champagne and handed her another glass. We needed some cooling off before we left. I downed it as she patted her flushed chest.
“I think I’ll go to the restroom for a minute,” she said, smiling coquettishly, a cute little dazed look on her face.
I didn’t know what it was about her. She made it seem like I was the only man who’d ever gotten her off.
I nodded, took her champagne flute, and spied my mother talking to some of her old friends, smiling and laughing and being her usual charming self. The first lady of the United States had nothing on my mother. That was, until she was introduced to one of my dates. Then, the woman sprouted fangs and claws.
I supposed she had a reason to hate the women I’d been seen with. I had shown up with a different woman at every one of these events in recent years, and most were not the gala-attending kind. Not escorts, but women I picked up in bars or wherever. They definitely weren’t well-bred debutantes from fine families, like herself. Those socialites? I stayed away from them. They were dull and passionless. Uninteresting. I needed raw sexuality, a sensual woman who stirred my senses.
Like Jewel. I needed her, right now.
I turned toward the Great Hall to see if she was returning and spotted Gavin walking toward me. He had a different woman on his arm, this one an Asian beauty who was about half his size. He was double-fisting the champagne, no surprise for him.
“Hey,” he said to me as he approached, downing one of the champagne flutes as he neared. His tuxedo tie was askew, probably the result of him and his latest date getting dirty on the limo ride over.
“Hey, what’s up,” I said, watching the door for Jewel.
He downed the other flute and didn’t bother to introduce me to his girl. He never did, because that’s just how much they meant to him. He leaned into me and said, “So I just saw her, you lucky fuck.”
I tore my eyes off the door and fastened them on him. “You saw who?”
“Her. Damn. She’s hot. How much are you paying for her?”
“Seven-thousand,” I muttered, as the reality came crashing in on me once again. I was paying her. And from the look in Gavin’s eyes, I knew what was on his mind. “For the night.”
“Man. She’s fine.” He whistled. “Would you mind if I took her away from you for a quickie?”
I swallowed the caustic bile in my throat and nearly choked on it. Why did the idea of sharing Jewel annoy the fuck out of me?
He must have read it on my face. “What, are you telling me you’ve been with that fine piece of ass all night, and you haven’t hit it yet?”
I didn’t answer. I looked at the hall, willing Jewel to come back.
My nonanswer told him everything he needed to know.
“Man, what? Have you lost your thing for a beautiful woman? What the hell is wrong with you?” He shook his head. “If I had her for the night, I’d make the most of it. I’d get it early and often, and as much as I could.”
“I’m getting there.” I shrugged, downing the rest of my champagne. “I’ve found it’s more fun if you wait.”
“Right.” Of course he didn’t believe that line of shit, since we had both been manwhores back in our college days.
“Anyway, what about…” I pointed to his date, who was sitting silently beside us, almost like one of his accessories. He hadn’t introduced her, hadn’t said one word to her during our exchange.
Gavin looked at the woman, seeming almost surprised to see her there. “Uh. Grace. Grace, this is Zach.”
She shook my hand and smiled pleasantly. It occurred to me that Gavin had mentioned taking my escort away for a quickie, and she hadn’t even minded. Where did he dig up these women?
The waiter came by, and we both deposited our empty glasses. Gavin took two more, and I noticed how he didn’t hand one to his date, so she had to reach over and grab her own. I just wanted to get the hell out of there, now. “So what’s her name?”
“Jewel,” I muttered as she appeared in the doorway.
God, she was exquisite. So pale and light that she lit up the entire doorway. She slinked carefully down the steps, watching where she stepped. She wasn’t as confident as most women in the city, but I thought that was part of the act and what made her so damn sexy.
Gavin looked back at her, running his teeth over his lips. “Kitn.com?”
Dazed by her appearance, I blinked when I realized what he was asking. He was going to look her up. He was going to arrange to be her client. Eventually, he’d know what it was like to be with this exquisite creature, and he’d give her the same shitty treatment he gave all the girls who came in his path.
Fuck, no.
Jewel was too good for that.
I took a deep breath as she approached, smiling at me, and only me. Like she only had eyes for me. She’d applied fresh lip gloss, some deep berry, glossy red that matched her dress, which I couldn’t wait to taste. I couldn’t wait to taste all of her again.
But the shitty thing was, if Gavin wanted her, I could do nothing about it. She was a fucking escort, for god’s sake. Not made for one man.
And when had I ever wanted a one-man woman?
“Who’s this?” she asked coyly, studying my best friend with interest.
“This is Gavin,” I muttered, really wishing I had something stronger than champagne as he lifted her delicate hand and planted a gentle kiss on her palm like he was fucking Prince Charming.
“Hello, my beautiful Jewel,” he said in that smooth, low voice that made women across the island of Manhattan drop their panties.
I’d known Gavin since grade school, and I didn’t think I’d ever wanted to beat the shit out of him more.
Thankfully, Jewel didn’t giggle, and she removed her hand from his and deposited it in mine a second later. I’d hoped she was immune to his charms, but I wasn’t sure any woman was. Gavin wasn’t just a good-looking guy, he was rich, charming, and well… hard to resist. And if he bought her, which from the wolfish look in his eyes seemed destined to happen, he’d have her. Again and again. Without wait.
Fuck.
I leaned down, pressing my lips to her ear. “What do you say we get out of here?”
She blinked. “Is it ending?”
No. It wouldn’t be over until midnight. But I’d had enough of this and wanted her more than ever. “I think I need some air.”
“Oh. Whatever you say.”
Whatever you say. What a good escort she was.
I excused us from Gavin’s leering gaze, and we walked out through the Great Hall, and down the steps toward Fifth Avenue, where my car was waiting. The Four Seasons was only a few blocks away but talking with Gavin had lit a fire under me. I didn’t want to wait to be with her anymore.
When we ducked inside, I looked out the window at my old home and barked at the driver, “Four Seasons.”
When I turned to Jewel, her eyes were wide.
“I got us a room there,” I said to her, taking her hand again. “That okay?”
“Well, I…” She licked her lips, and I knew what she was thinking. She’d been embarrassed at the gown, the shoes, everything, so she was likely embarrassed about my spending five-thousand dollars for a suite in the nicest hotel in the city. I held her hand on my lap and moved my thumb over her palm until she said, “That’s fine.”
“Listen to me.” She leaned into me, and I put my finger under her chin, tilting her head up to me. I stared into her eyes. “It’s fine. Okay? I want to do this. I want to treat you right, like you deserve.”
She nodded. Her voice was soft and fragile as she whispered, “I want to do this too. I just…”
She hesitated, looking sheepish. But I’d been between her legs, tasting her, making her come while she writhed against me.
We were beyond that now.
“I think I might have ruined the dress. It has a bunch of pulls in the back, from the wall…”
“Don’t worry. It was worth it.” I cupped her jaw firmly and kissed her again, sucking her plump lower lip into my mouth and tasting the sticky sweetness of her lip gloss. This time, her tongue melded with mine, and she opened her mouth hungrily to let me in. Her chest heaved as I pulled away when the car stopped in front of the bright lights of the Four Seasons hotel front.
I pushed open the door almost before the car came to a complete stop and guided her to a set of revolving doors flanked by doormen. The lobby was bright, glaring. I blinked, wanting the cover of darkness. Avoiding the cheery greetings of the various hotel employees, I walked her to a bank of elevators, trying to call as little attention to us as possible. I’d had Joel send over her clothes, so with any luck, they were in the room already, and I wouldn’t have to ask about them later. I pressed the up button several times, as if that would make the elevator come faster.
There was a ding, and gilded doors opened to an empty elevator. I guided her inside, pressing the button for floor fifty-two, unable to wait any longer. I cornered her against the gleaming mirrored walls before the doors had a chance to close. Foreheads pressed together, I stared intently into her big blue eyes. “God, I want you so bad.”
“I’m right here,” she whispered. “Just take me.”
There could be no sweeter invitation. As much as I wanted to, there were cameras in the elevator. The ride was going to take forever. For the first time ever, I wished I hadn’t gone for a suite on the top floor of the hotel.
She stared at the button I’d pressed, at the damn doors that still stood wide open. “We have to wait fifty-two floors?” she asked with a pout, pressing tighter against me. “I don’t know if I can.”
I reached over and jabbed the door close button. “We don’t have to,” I said, caging her between my forearms as my mouth began to descend upon hers.
But before the elevator doors could close, a group of women ran up, springing the doors open at just the last moment. Oblivious to us, they chatted away loudly as the small, closed space filled with the competing scents of their perfumes.
I frowned at the intrusion. “To be continued,” I whispered into her ear before separating from her and dropping my hands to my sides. She innocently started to inspect her manicure.
We spent the next few minutes standing shoulder-to-shoulder behind the women, innocently watching the digital display over the door count floor after floor, when all I could really think about was tasting her. The feeling was too much to stand, because quite of its own volition, my hand reached around her back and started to caress that incredible ass of hers. Round and full, muscled and firm, I had a feeling that it was more an act of God than a gym machine that had created such angelic perfection.
After an eternity, on floor twenty, the doors opened, and the women all left, without even a glance back at us.
“Thought they’d never leave,” she said as I pushed the door close button and turned to her even before the doors had fully shut.
I gazed into her eyes as we rose to the suite, my senses working in overdrive. I stroked her cheek, thinking that it had been so long — too long — since I’d wanted something so much.
The elevator finally landed on the top floor, but of course, our room was at the very end of what felt to be a never-ending hall. We made it to the room. When she walked inside, mood music was already playing, and the shades drew back at our entrance, automated. I flipped the switch to the “privacy” mode as she walked around, inspecting the lavish living room with its grand piano. The three-hundred-sixty degree view of the city was breathtaking, and I could imagine taking her up against the glass. My cock pulsed as I watched her wander into the bedroom and run a hand down the silk bedspread covering the massive king bed.
“This is nice,” she said of the enormous suite.
My mouth quirked at the understatement. I fought the urge to say, Only the best, because it was clear that this didn’t impress her. She turned around, her cheeks pink, and then pointed to the restroom off the bedroom, with the jetted tub overlooking Fifth Avenue.
“I think I’ll just…”
I nodded. “Be my guest.”
She silently swept past me and into the room, closing the door.
Outside, I pulled off my jacket and draped it over a chair before opening the closet’s mirrored doors, noting the his and hers robes, the safe, the luggage rack. My attention kept falling back to the plush king bed, where the magic was supposed to happen, then at the view overlooking Central Park.
Feeling suddenly nervous, I changed the smooth jazz to the old classics and Marvin Gaye’s “Ain’t that Peculiar” started to pipe through hidden speakers. Then I opened the refrigerator and poured us both a glass of the champagne I’d asked to be delivered.
Damn. This was awkward. And I usually didn’t do awkward.
Damn, Gavin’s right. I am rusty when it comes to this.
Hell, I was nervous. Like a kid on his first date.
I didn’t want to screw this up.
I went to the mirror and laughed at myself. You can’t screw this up, dickwad. You’re paying for her.
Remembering that, I reached into the pocket of my jacket and pulled out the envelope of cash. Seven thousand dollars, just as we had agreed upon. She was a new escort and talk of money seemed to embarrass her. I figured she would appreciate discretion.
I picked her purse up from the bed and opened it. There was a tube a berry red lip gloss and a small box of Tic Tacs. That was it. On closer inspection, I found her wallet and apartment key in a side pocket. Disgusted with myself for snooping, I zipped the side pocket closed before slipping the money next to the green Tic Tacs and zipping that compartment closed too. Then I placed it on the table so it would be out of the way.
A moment later she stepped out, her hands pressed against her stomach, and from the rapid rise and fall of her chest, she was breathing hard.
“Hey,” I said gently, a wave of tenderness I didn’t understand washing over me.
She smiled, but it quivered a little on her pretty face. “Hey. Marvin Gaye.”
“That okay?”
She walked toward me, her ankles wobbling slightly. Nerves, I knew. Somehow, I was right there with her.
Come on, dude. You don’t do awkward. What had Gavin called you? The legendary ladykiller? Own it.
I pointed at her purse on the table. “I put the… you know. Your purse. Is that okay?”
She looked at it for a moment, confused, and then nodded. “Oh! Yes, that’s fine.”
I inched closer to her, bridging the distance. She was so fucking beautiful, with her hair falling on her shoulders, her eyelashes blinking up at me, blue eyes wide and full of desire. But there was something else in her eyes, something hesitant that I’d never seen in an escort before. It made me want her all the more.
I stopped, only a breath away from claiming her mouth, and my voice was urgent. “You’re okay with this, right?”
“I’m okay with all of it,” she answered in a timid, sweet voice that sounded nothing like that of a professional escort. Her breaths were coming quick and short, and I could almost see her heart beating in her chest. But maybe that was what made her so damn exciting… she was so unexpected. She licked her lips and said in a breathy voice, “Put your mouth on me.”
That was everything I needed. The answer, I supposed, a good escort was supposed to give. Be up for anything and let yourself go.
I may have been her first client, but she’d have many, many more if she kept this act up.
But I willed myself not to think of that. I willed myself not to think of Gavin, or the company, or my parents. Or anything but the two of us right here, right now.
I just wanted to feel.
I wanted to feel my Jewel under me, her skin against mine.
I pressed into her, my mouth descending upon hers.
The night was growing old. It was time to claim what I’d paid for.