Escorting the Billionaire (The Escort Collection 1)

“What do you mean?”

I tightened my grip on her hand. “What do you want to do when we get back from the Bahamas? About us.”

She looked down, and I could see how flustered she was. “I don’t… I don’t know what to say.”

“Do you want to keep seeing me?” I asked. My temples were pounding hard. Fuck. What if she said no? Why the fuck was I doing this to myself?

The thing was, women never said no to me. Never. As in not once. But that was for a different reason than the one I was looking for from Audrey.

“Of course I do,” she said, the words coming out of her all in a rush.

I felt relieved until she looked up at me, her eyes dark and sad. “I ju

st don’t know if we should.”

“Because of your mother?” I asked.

She nodded miserably. “Yours, too.”

“What did she say to you yesterday?”

“Honestly, you don’t want to know right now.”

Anger flashed through me. “I don’t even care anymore,” I said flatly. I could pay Audrey’s mother off, and I would shield Audrey from mine.

If that was what she even wanted.

“I’m tired of them both. We’re adults. We can handle them.”

The car pulled up at Trinity Church; it was unfortunately close to my apartment. Now that I’d finally started it, I wasn’t ready to let the conversation end. I wanted to know where I stood. But we had to go in. The ceremony was going to start soon, and I had to go out back with my brother.

“We’ll finish this later.” I watched her until she nodded her assent.

“Audrey.” She looked up at me, her face a mask. “Smile.”

* * *

I deposited her with Cole and Jenny, who were both looking very fancy and freshly fucked, in a pew toward the front of the church. I headed back toward the rectory, giving curt nods to my mother and father.

“There he is,” Todd said when I came around the corner. “I was hoping you weren’t going to jilt me.”

“Ha ha,” I said. I pushed all the bullshit in my head to the side and smiled at my brother. “This is your day. I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

“Good,” he said. There were nine of us back here; Evie had wanted an insane number of bridesmaids so Todd had to ask as many cousins and friends as he could, just to match her.

“Are you ready?” I asked, slapping him on the back.

“I’m past ready,” he said. “I’ve been wanting to marry her since the day I met her. I just want her to be my wife, already. I can’t wait.”

“You get to be married forever,” I reminded him.

“I know. But when you finally figure out what you want, you’re pretty ready for forever. You know what I mean?”

* * *

The enormous church was packed with guests. “How many people are here?” I whispered to Todd. We were waiting in the front of the church for Evie and her bridesmaids to come out.

“I think Evie said it was close to five hundred.”