CHAPTER 2
Rayna
I thought about the years that passed since that first day as I parked in the lot by the office. There was a lot of resentment in the fact that James became verbally abusive towards me as well as the signs of being physically violent with me. Had it really been just five years since the wedding?
If I didn’t have the escape of work, I would have gone crazy. I think it is what got me through the harder times since I collaborated with warm, fun people in a professional setting. There were days that I didn’t even feel like it was an escort agency since I was merely booking appointments and getting the information to the necessary parties. The money was great, and at this point, I was stocking it away so I could leave James and make it on my own. I knew that our families would be horrified since we were the picture-perfect couple everywhere but home. James faked it well though I had a hard time eating if we were at any kind of lunch or dinner, causing me to drop some weight.
That only prompted the families to tell me to get pregnant so I could out some weight on, though I knew that they really meant they wanted an heir to the family fortune. They wanted a capable person that would go into law just as all the men had, preferably a man.
They could go to hell if they ever thought I’d have children with James. Our sex life was practically non-existent being that we worked different schedules. When I did go home late at night, he was often gone. James worked at the office every chance that he could though so I wasn’t surprised. He had a place to sleep there for the nights that he worked through to the morning, just to catch a nap.
I got out and walked down the walkway and up to the glass door that led to my building. I wasn’t sure how the owners did it, but they had a legitimate space for us to work. I knew it wasn’t an obvious name and that we kept our communications vague, but there were much worse issues to deal with in this city than an escort service. It was professional, and the girls were as safe as they could be, with background checks on the high-end clients and strict rules for everyone involved to be careful.
I took the elevator up and walked through our main door to my office, calling out my hellos as I moved forward. The girls said hi back with big smiles on their faces, and I set my bag down on the desk as I looked out of the window over Hollywood Boulevard. “It’s busy today. There’s a holiday weekend coming up, and everyone needs a friend,” Sarah warned me with a weak smile as I powered on my computer.
She wasn’t lying. The site was full of bookings to be made, and I pulled up everything I needed to work, sipping my coffee as I started to read. I matched requests to the girls, depending on their schedules and the fetishes that these clients preferred didn’t even phase me anymore. I sent texts about appointments to the girls and return messages to customers with nothing but a time. We used a regular hotel that was high end over in Beverly Hills for the meetings all the time, where the girls would be secure. All of the customers knew that.
There were signals if that didn’t happen, but in my five years here it never had.
I was halfway through my list when I frowned. James was the next client looking for a woman I knew well, Angela. James, my husband. I sensed from his message that he was familiar with her and I bit my lip as I fought the urge to fire back something reactive. He didn’t know where I worked and never cared, so I wasn’t about to reveal the truth now. I kept reading the message until my head was throbbing, making me close my eyes and take a deep breath.
Angela was a beautiful brunette woman with an enormous chest, and my husband was fucking her. More than that, he was paying to do so, and I compared the differences between us for a long moment. I was more blonde with a more athletic body. I shook my head. That didn’t matter at all. We never had a strong physical attraction, to begin with, and this wasn’t jealousy that I was feeling.
I thought about just deleting the message. However, it was a job to Angela to let my husband fuck her between her toes as I read again and scowled. I never knew he was into that. I was still looking at the computer when someone walked into the office, making me tear my eyes away from the screen to see Lana. “Are you okay? You look like a ghost.” Her eyes were filled with concern as she took me in and I licked my full lips. I moved away from the screen and gestured for her to look at it, frowning as Lana came around the desk. “What is it?”
“That’s my husband,” I replied as Lana bit her lip and looked at me. We all knew that men that came to us weren’t often single, and Lana would admit that she’d slept with a lot of married men.
“Oh, shit.” I knew that I’d have to admit that he didn’t know what I did for a living as she stared at me.
“He doesn’t know what my job is. They think I assist a freelance photographer for a hobby. There are so many secrets about this part of my life, so this isn’t any type of revenge.” I was hiding the bruise that was on my arm under the long-sleeved silk shirt, a secret from all the world. They were becoming more common, and I hated to admit that there was a part of me that was relieved that I’d caught him cheating. I could leave, even as the pain filled my heart. This marriage was truly a lie now, and there was no denying it. “To admit that I know he’s doing this, I have to admit where I work. To say that my family would be devastated is putting it mildly. They would disown me, Lana.”
“Well, I could delete the message. I could do that, but this is Angela’s job, and I’m confident that she wouldn’t do it if she knew who he was. I can tell you from experience that these men aren’t discussing their family life at home. What would you prefer, Ray?”
“Book it. I can’t do it but…I know it’s done with him in my heart. I know that I’m holding onto nothing.” I shook my head as I stood to give her my seat. “I’ll be right back.”
I left my office to walked into the small lobby, taking deep breaths. Did it matter if James slept with Angela once or twice? Did it matter how many there were more than that fact that he was cheating at all? I don’t know why I was surprised because we had a business relationship more than a loving marriage. It always had been. Now I could leave it, and I dropped my head back before I walked back in. “Is it done?” I asked as Lana nodded and gave me a nervous look.
I was twenty-seven years old, and I had never done anything wild. I married James a year into college, and he was my first sexual partner, a very vanilla one from what I read in books and saw on television. I wanted to throw caution to the wind, and I looked at Lana for a moment. “Isn’t Maria out for a week because of her surgery?” The newest escort had gallbladder surgery suddenly, and we were shifting her clients around to the others, and I had a crazy idea.
“She is,” Lana replied carefully, staring at me.
“I want one of her clients,” I stated bravely as her eyes widened. “Nothing crazy and nobody with any weird fetishes. I just want to know what it feels like to be with another man, Lana.”
“Well, you are a beautiful woman. Any guy would be lucky to have you,” Lana said after a moment as she took me in. “I’ll advertise you to a clean-cut man as a newbie. Want to do a salon visit before and have some fun with your hair and makeup?”
“Yes, let’s do it.” I smiled as she rubbed her hands together with a hesitant smile.