Chapter 8
Jessica loved her new dress and she could tell that Evan did, too. Earlier that day she had almost been caught. A man tried to rape her after she’d pulled her usual pretend overdose. Never before had she experienced such slime, but she still felt dirty. The feeling of his sweaty palms tearing at her dress still turned her stomach. She had clobbered him over the head with her high heel and made a run for it. He had almost caught her in the hallway, and had cut her face with a knife that he was brandishing. Somehow she had still managed to get away with his six-hundred bucks, as he ran after her, shouting that she was a whore. Some retail therapy and paying her bills helped set her at ease, and now she was here, sitting across from Evan Davis at the Top of the World in the Stratosphere Tower.
Never before had she seen Vegas from these heights. It was a new perspective of the dirty and seamy city that she knew. From up here, Vegas was at a safe distance, all beauty and none of the pain and danger that was her daily life.
The waiter brought a bucket of Chardonnay to the table, showed it off, and opened it. He presented the cork first to Evan, who smelled appreciatively as he sniffed it, and then to Jessica. She sniffed the cork and smiled to, though it didn’t smell any different than any other wine that she had smelled before. The waiter poured them both glasses and swept away, his hands behind his back.
“This is so romantic. Did you plan all of this?” she finally asked. No one had ever wined and dined her like this, with rose petals on the table and candles housed in red vases.
“Yes,” he nodded gently. “I wanted to give you a nice surprise.”
“Well, you succeeded.” She laughed and was embarrassed at how shaky it sounded.
She was continually giving away how charmed she was. With some effort, she kept composing herself and pretending like this was just another ordinary evening in her life, like many men had brought her to such places and spoiled her like this. But then she would let something slip, such as when she told Evan that she had never been up here before in all of her twenty-four years in Las Vegas. She kicked herself for that one. Something had told her not to come to dinner with him, yet she just couldn’t resist the temptation. Being around him calmed her; it made her happy.
Evan looked rather mysterious in the candlelight. He was studying her. “So what do you want to know about me?” she finally asked to break the awkwardness that she felt weighing on her chest, making her paranoid of her every move.
“I want to know about what you do. When you’re not working. Where do you hang out? What are your hobbies?”
Jessica stared down at her hands, which she had just gotten manicured a rich red. “Um. Well.” She laughed a little bit. “Honestly I work too much to have many friends. I don’t have any hobbies really.”
“Really?” Evan sipped his wine. “I have to do things outside of work or I get stir crazy.”
She nodded. “Like CrossFit.”
He grinned. “Exactly. And cooking. Those things help me keep my sanity.”
“You must not like your job much if you need to do other things to keep your sanity,” she observed. She liked her ability to keep the conversation focused on the other person and off of her. There were too many risks to talking about herself.
Evan shrugged and avoided meeting her eyes. While she knew that he prided himself on reading people well, she could too. “I don’t mind it. I just took the position on because it’s what my family wanted.”
“You mean your mother?” Jessica tested.
He managed a weak smile. “I must seem like a sad mama’s boy to you, don’t I?”
“Not at all,” she hastily assured him. “I really don’t think that of you. I just think your mother is a bit…overbearing. Intimidating.”
Evan nodded. “She certainly is that. She really wanted me to be just like my father, but she also wants to run the company herself. She wanted me to have this position of power, yet she was hoping to keep the power for herself.” He sighed. “It makes my job hard. And I never really felt cut out for a CEO position.”
“So what would you rather be doing?”
“Honestly?” He paused, then laughed. “This will sound like I’m blowing smoke, but I’d really like to do what you do.” He glanced back up at her, clearly trying to gauge her reaction.
Jessica was certain that she was safe. He wouldn’t have slept with her and prepared this romantic dinner if he knew her secret. So she laughed casually and said, “You really want to do what I do?”
“I do,” he nodded eagerly. “I love children. I love helping others. I got it from my dad. You like what you do, right?”
“Sometimes.” Jessica thought back to the groping hands early and had to suppress a shudder. “There are things I don’t like about it, of course.”
“Like what?”
“Like…dishonest people. Like watching others suffer and being around their personal pain. Like pretending to be someone I’m not.” That was all truth. Jessica hated how Evan seemed to draw the honesty out of her like honey from a comb. If she didn’t watch it, she would end up giving away everything about herself.
And how she wanted to! How sweet it would be, to drop the charade and look into Evan’s eyes and tell him the truth. To actually be with him, to have an adult relationship. Never before had she had anything like that.
“You hate pain, don’t you?”
“Who likes it?” she laughed. The waiter brought their calamari and she was relieved because now she could busy herself dipping pieces of fried squid into the marinara, giving her an excuse not to look Evan in the eye and get too personal.
But Evan was dead set on getting to know her. “I can tell you’ve been through a lot of it. Especially being an orphan. I’m so sorry,” Evan told her, reaching across the table to place his hand gently over hers.
Jessica felt that sharp pain in her chest that struck her whenever she thought about her mother. An image flashed behind her eyelids of the way her mother had looked on her death bed, a pale husk of her old self with black circles beneath her eyes, shuddering with pain at every breath. “I’ve been through a decent amount,” she admitted. “But I would rather not talk about that now. Let’s have a nice dinner.”
“True. I’m sorry for bringing it up. How rude of me. You just fascinate me, Lisa. You are… there’s a depth to you.”
“Can we get through the appetizers first before you start trying to get me in bed?” she quipped.
Evan looked embarrassed and withdrew his hand. “That’s not what I was trying to do, but okay.”
Jessica felt bad. She reached across the table and grasped his hand. “Evan. You really don’t want to get to know me too well. I think we’re having a nice time as it is.”
“We are. But I want more with you. I don’t want this to be a work fling that is over as soon as it starts. I want to be there with you from now on. That means you need to let me into your life. Let me see the real you.”
“What if I’m not ready for a relationship?” Jessica was starting to feel like she couldn’t breathe. The heights were not helping. Evan was making her panic. Because she wanted it too. But how could she be with a man when he didn’t even know her real name? When he was her mark? Never before had she developed feelings for a mark but she was falling in love with this sexy and kind billionaire.
“Then I’ll wait for you until you are,” Evan replied.