- Chapter 21
ABBY
“Hi, Aldo, how are you?” I asked when he called me.
I knew I needed to be nice to him for Theo’s sake, but I didn’t really mind. Aldo had been really nice to me, and I thought the evening had gone really well up until I kissed him and ruined it.
It was exciting to me out with Aldo; I suspected it would feel even more dangerous now that I knew more about him. A smart girl would have been afraid to go out with Aldo, but I guess I wasn’t so smart after all because I was excited to see him again. The dark mystery was appealing to me. It was also appealing to feel the way I did around him. Aldo had a command about him that was unlike any man I had ever been with. It was much clearer to me now after talking with Theo; Aldo was like that with everyone.
“I’m going to send a car for you at five o’clock,” Aldo said without answering my question.
“Okay, where should I wait?”
“You can stay where you are. He can come get you there, just give me the address.”
Isabella and I were standing outside the women’s shelter talking with some of our friends. It certainly wasn’t the best spot to have Aldo come and pick me up. But I couldn’t think of another place quickly, so I had to wing it.
“He can pick me up at the women’s shelter; I’m volunteering there today,” I said, shrugging my shoulders at the women around me.
Everyone that was around me knew that I wasn’t volunteering at the shelter. On the nights that I slept there, it was certainly a good enough place for me, but it wasn’t someplace I wanted to hang out and volunteer at if I didn’t have to. I did fantasize about being rich enough to bring a huge stack of new blankets to the shelter someday. The blankets that were there were disgusting.
“The shelter?” Aldo asked, and I hoped he wouldn’t keep asking me questions. It was incredibly hard to lie to Aldo.
“Yes, the women’s shelter on fifty-second.”
“I know where it is,” Aldo said slightly annoyed. “He will be there at five. You’ll need to dress nice. We are going to look at an apartment my friend is selling, and then we will likely go to dinner.”
“I can change, no worries. I’m excited to see you again,” I said in as upbeat sounding voice as I could muster up.
Something seemed different with Aldo, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on what it was. He was still nice to me, and I was excited to see him again, but things felt different between us.
It probably didn’t help that I had Theo on my mind and wished I was spending the night with him, instead.
“See you at five, dear.”
And just like that he was off the phone. I wondered how his wife dealt with him always being so serious. Perhaps he had a different side that only she knew. Maybe when they were alone, he was super funny. I could only imagine what their life was like together in their open relationship. It certainly was an odd thing for me to understand. But then again, if I was married to someone as serious as Aldo, I might be interested in finding a little fun on the side.
I did wonder if the whole story was true, though. I couldn’t imagine a woman that was married to Aldo would be willing to sleep around on him. Unless, maybe she only slept with other women? Aldo had said she liked me. That made much more sense to me than the idea of her sleeping with other men. Perhaps if the topic came up during our evening, I would ask him. I snickered to myself; there was no way I was going to ask him anything that personal.
“I’m going out with Aldo at five o’clock,” I said to Isabella and our friends.
“Shit, we need to fix you up. Let’s go grab one of those dresses Theo gave you out of the storage unit,” Isabella said as she started walking and didn’t even wait for me.
“Wait, I told him to pick me up here at five o’clock.”
“Then we better hurry.”
Isabella walked like she had someone chasing her. I literally had to jog just to keep up with her. It was funny to see Isabella so involved in who I was going out with. I could tell that the excitement of everything I had told her was getting to her. She was the one who normally dated exciting people, and I was the one who normally dated boring people. It was fun to have someone exciting to go out with. Both Theo and Aldo were exciting to me.
Theo was certainly much more of my dream guy. Even with everything that had gone on between us, I could tell that he was a good guy and that we would do well together. Of course, I didn’t like that he had set me up with Aldo. Or that he hadn’t refused to let me go out with him. That part of everything was hard for me to understand.
On the other hand, I enjoyed my time with Aldo. He was unlike any man I had been with, and I fantasized about being with him. I would never admit it to Theo, but if the moment came up for me to sleep with Aldo, I thought I might do it. He wasn’t a normal boring guy, that was for sure, and I couldn’t help imagining what it would be like to make love to him.
I imagined that Aldo was a gentle lover. Perhaps he took time to make his woman happy before he moved on to his own happiness. Especially after learning that he liked delayed gratification; all I could think about was how he would probably want to give his woman multiple orgasms while he tortured himself by not giving in.
“Abby, are you listening to me?” Isabella said as I finally came out of my daze and actually started listening to her.
“Of course.”
“Then what did I say?”
“I have no idea,” I said as we both started laughing.
“This one is the sexiest, but this one is the prettiest; which one do you want to wear?” Isabella asked as she held up two of the dresses that Theo had purchased for me.
“That one for sure,” I said, pointing to the sexiest one.
It had a low cut back, and I was dying to feel Aldo’s hand on my back again. Certainly, I was comforted in the fact that all he wanted to do was tease himself with my body. That suddenly made it much easier for me to tease him back. On our first date, I thought all about not being too sexy because I didn’t want him to expect sex from me. But if he really didn’t want sex, then I was going to turn on the sex appeal.
“How much is Aldo paying you for today’s fun?”
“Oh, crap, I didn’t even ask him. Maybe I’m just going out with him for free. Like a normal girl instead of an escort.”
“Speaking of escorts, I’ve got my first date tonight. I didn’t want to tell you; I wanted to surprise you when I was done. But I can’t keep it inside any longer.”
“You’re really going through with it? How do you know the guy is safe? Did I tell you about what happened with that girl at Theo’s house? There are some crazy people out there.”
Isabella always had a much bigger sense of adventure than I did, so it wasn’t unusual that she wasn’t worried at all. In fact, it would have been more unusual if she had been worried about going out with a stranger.
“It’s alright. Jack knows the guy, and he’s a good high roller.”
I absolutely hated that Isabella was so excited to be an escort, but I was pretty much doing the same thing, so I didn’t have anything really to say. As much as I didn’t want to consider what I was doing with Aldo as the same thing an escort would do, I knew it was. I knew that by agreeing to go out with him for money, I had taken a big step into a world that I wasn’t really sure I wanted to be part of.
“You be safe out there,” I said to Isabella.
It was the same thing we always said to each other at the end of the night when we went home with someone. Especially if we felt a little concerned about the person the other was going home with.
“You be safe out there with your super handsome older rich man,” she teased me.
Exactly at five o’clock, a black SUV pulled up to the shelter. A nice guy got out and opened the door for me. He didn’t say a word to me and didn’t offer an introduction at all. It seemed a little clandestine for my taste, but I figured I should just go with it, knowing Aldo was sending the car for me.
When we pulled in front of Trump Towers, I was pretty damn excited. I had secretly always wanted to see inside that place. Aldo was just inside the front door, and he quickly opened it for me when I arrived. He was an old school gentleman and that was admirable to me. There weren’t that many men out there that truly still treated women with dignity and respect.
“Good evening Miss Abigail, you look ravishing,” he said with a slight smile.
“Thank you sir,” I said playfully.
I knew I looked damn good in my dress and hoped Aldo was going to pay me again for spending the evening with him. Even though we hadn’t discussed money at all during our call, we had discussed it before, so I assumed he was going to give me another $10,000. Unfortunately, I knew that assuming something didn’t make it true.
“We are going to meet my friend Briggs Moeller here. He’s a real estate agent and has a penthouse for sale that he wants to show me.”
“The penthouse is here? In Trump Towers?”
“Yes, of course.”
“I’m so excited,” I said as I latched onto his arm and walked with him into the building.
I could tell instantly that Aldo liked it when I grabbed onto him. He liked the playful excitement I showed, and I made a mental note to keep doing it. I had started to understand the role of an escort, even though I hated that that was what I was. As an escort, it wasn’t my job to be there with the man, it was my job to make him feel like he wanted to feel while I was there. My little conversation with Theo had certainly helped me a lot in figuring out what Aldo liked, and I couldn’t wait to test my skills on him.
“Did I tell you how amazing you look?” Aldo asked when we entered the elevator.
I liked that he seemed more like himself than he had seemed on the phone. Over the phone, he had sort of sounded annoyed with me, and I was concerned he wasn’t going to be fun at all when I saw him that night.
“I picked this dress just for you. Look at the back,” I said as I rapidly twisted around to show Aldo the plunging back of my dress.
He quickly pinned me against the wall as he came up behind me. His five o’clock shadow on his face pressed up against my back as his lips gently kissed my exposed skin. I was so turned on that it made me feel guilty almost instantly. I didn’t want to be there with Aldo, and I was only doing it because I knew it would help Theo and because Theo said that Aldo liked the tease more than the actual action. But I felt guilty because I was so damn turned on by Aldo.
“You wore this for me?”
“Yes,” I said as I pressed my ass back toward him.
“You wanted to tease me?” he questioned.
“No, I wanted to please you,” I said innocently.
Aldo quickly twisted me around as he continued to press up against me. I felt his intense stare as he looked from my lips up to my eyes. I knew I had to hold his eye contact, but his intensity was too much for me, and I eventually looked to the ground.
“What else do you want to do to please me?” he asked in an aggressive tone.
I knew what he meant. He was trying to see if I knew about the whole escort thing or not. This was my time to prove it to him, to prove to Theo too, I had the acting skills that I needed for this part. Even though I was horrible at lying to someone, I had always wanted to be an actress, and that meant that I needed to use those skills at that moment.
“I don’t know,” I said shyly as I looked up at him. “I like the feeling of having you near me.”
“So if I wanted to fuck you right here in the elevator, that would be fine?” Aldo asked.
“No!” I said as I pressed him away. “And I didn’t think you were that kind of guy.”
I looked angrily at him and crossed my arms in front of him. I had to pretend to be offended by the offer. My job was to convince Aldo that I wouldn’t sleep with him just because he had paid me money. It was a silly game, but I was more than happy to play that game if it meant I could help Theo and that I didn’t have to actually sleep with Aldo.
“I’m sorry, that was a joke. Of course, you deserve better than an elevator,” Aldo said as he pulled my hand from in front of me and held onto it. “Let’s enjoy the apartment showing. You can tell me if it’s a place a woman like you would want to live in.”
“Well, I’d like to live pretty much in any apartment here. So we can save you time,” I teased. “Let’s get back to you kissing my back. I liked that use of our time much better.”
Aldo smiled back at me, but we kept walking toward the apartment. When we arrived, Aldo didn’t knock or anything, and instead, we went right inside. A tall man was inside; he was dressed in an expensive suit, but he looked like a jerk. The way he held himself slightly cocked to the side and his slick hair were not appealing to me at all. He was probably similar in age to Aldo, but certainly I did not have the same attraction to him.
The two men said hello, and then Briggs gave us a tour of the large two-story penthouse condo. It was exciting to see such an amazing place, but I didn’t actually like it at all. I especially didn’t like it when Briggs said the cost was over $30 million. It was old and outdated and seemed like it would need to be totally renovated before anyone would want to live in it. And for that price, you could certainly buy a brand new condo on another block.
Aldo got a phone call and left me there with Briggs. It was awkward between us, and I instantly felt like this was some sort of test again. Briggs moved up close to me and started to trace his hand down my chest. It was so incredibly rude that I couldn’t stop myself from reacting.
“Excuse me,” I said sternly. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“Just getting a little taste of the merchandise,” he said with a cheesy car salesman grin.
“Aldo!” I screamed out.
The man pulled his hand away from my chest as I ran over toward Aldo. I absolutely wasn’t alright with a guy like Briggs touching me and wasn’t exactly sure why he thought it was alright to do it. Aldo didn’t seem like the kind of guy who liked to share his women with a chump like Briggs.
“I hate this place, and your friend is a little too handsy for my taste.”
Instead of reacting in anger at his friend, Aldo just smiled at me and wrapped his arm around my waist.
“It’s okay darling, he’s just a little bit of an animal,” Aldo whispered in my ear.
“No, it’s not okay. I’m not some piece of meat that your friends can just touch whenever they want,” I said firmly. “Maybe I should just leave.”
I felt the tears starting to well up in my eyes and was pretty damn proud of my performance. The problem was, I still felt that damn attraction toward Aldo, and it was a huge driving force in my ability to react the way I was.
There was an animal attraction between Aldo and me that I couldn’t deny. Oh, I wanted to deny it. I wanted to leave and go back to Theo and have this all over with, but I couldn’t make Aldo mad. It was one last date with him, and I would have everything cleared up and could go back to seeing Theo.
“Leave us,” Aldo said to Briggs. “We will meet you at dinner in a bit.”
“Sure,” Briggs said as he turned and left quickly.
It was amazing to me how easily Briggs listened to Aldo, yet he had the balls to touch a woman that Aldo had brought with him to the apartment. I wasn’t exactly sure what was up with that Briggs guy but was really happy that Aldo had sent him away.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I know I shouldn’t have been so mad. But he was just touching me like he didn’t care that I was here with you. It was disrespectful.”
“But you wouldn’t mind if I touched you like that?” Aldo said as he pressed up against me.
My face turned red with desire as his hands grabbed my waist and his eyes looked intently at me again. The power that spilled off of his body was hard to resist. If I hadn’t had such deep feelings toward Theo, and if Aldo hadn’t been a killer, I might have been willing to sleep with him.
My life was feeling pretty out of control at that moment, and I didn’t feel like I was gaining any control any time soon. I tried to continue my acting skills, but the more Aldo looked at me, the less confident I was in my ability to manipulate him.
“I do like the feeling of your hands on my body,” I said sweetly as I pressed my hands against his chest.
Our bodies pressed and teased each other, but both of our hands stayed up high around our torsos. I felt his hips as they moved against me and fought the urge to let my hand slide down and into his pants. I wanted to feel his throbbing body in my hands. I wanted to slide my fingers around him and hear him moan as the pleasure built up. But I denied myself that pleasure and Aldo too; instead, I leaned in and tried to kiss him.
Aldo stopped just shy of actually kissing me, and I could tell he was questioning my motives. I wasn’t sure myself what my motives were, but I knew that I wanted to feel his lips on mine again. I hated that I wanted him and really didn’t want to be so damn attracted to him, but there I was. There he was. And I couldn’t help myself.
“Would you like to feel my lips on your body again?” Aldo asked.
I laughed and looked around the apartment. I did my best shy girl look as I glanced at Aldo and then down to the ground. The easy answer was yes, I did want to feel his lips on my body. But I didn’t think that was really what he wanted to hear. Theo had said that Aldo liked the tease involved in everything. So I had to try and tease him more and he was going to resist me.
“No one will come in?” I asked.
“Does it matter?”
“Yes!” I said as I pressed him away playfully.
But he wasn’t about to be denied the pleasure that he wanted. He moved in again and placed his lips on my neck, forcing me to look up into the air as his lips gently kissed me. I involuntarily moaned at the touch of his lips. There was a fine line between acting and reality, and it was clearly hard for me to determine where that line was anymore.