Pretenders (Firsts and Forever 3)

He signed the bill, then took my hand as we got up and left the restaurant. “So, what would you like to do today? It’s our last free day in Bora Bora, unless we end up blowing off the wedding tomorrow. Should we go exploring? Maybe hike on the main island? I feel like I haven’t shown you all that much since we’ve been here.”

I glanced at him and smiled. “Let’s just keep doing what we’ve been doing. A full day of fucking and being lazy on the deck sounds fantastic.”

“Sounds good to me.” He stopped walking, and when I turned to face him he ran his thumb over my lower lip. “You had a bit of syrup on your mouth,” he explained.

I took his hand between both of mine and sucked the syrup off his thumb, as flirtatiously as I could possibly manage. Then I asked, “Did you get it all?”

“Let me check.”

His tongue flicked over my lip, and then we both sank into a long, slow, deep kiss. I didn’t really care that we were in the middle of the lobby, and I would have ignored whoever came up to us and cleared their throat, but Wes looked up and muttered, “Hello, Jack.”

His ex was dressed up in a suit, and his expression was grave. He didn’t even acknowledge me as he asked Wes, “Can we talk in private?”

“Absolutely not.”

Jack frowned at that. “You really won’t want him to be a part of this conversation.”

“If you can’t say it in front of Ash, then I don’t want to hear it, either.”

We started to walk away from him, but Jack called, “I talked to Darrah, and she told me about your financial arrangement with this person.” We both turned back to him, and he said, “How the hell could you bring a—” he whispered the next word, as if it was too shameful to say out loud, “—prostitute to stay with your family, Wesley? What were you thinking?”

I felt like I’d just been punched in the gut.

Wes narrowed his eyes. “Why did you think it was okay to call Darrah and check up on me?”

“I’ve been friends with her as long as you have, and we talk occasionally. I was worried about you with the way you’ve been acting, so I called to see if she could offer some insight into any of this.”

Wes sounded exasperated. “Cut the crap, Jack. You don’t give a damn about me. So, what were you really doing when you called her, looking for dirt on my relationship with Ash?”

Jack exclaimed, “What relationship? You’re paying some two-bit hooker to be with you! How the hell did you think it was okay to bring someone like that to my wedding?”

“Listen closely, you judgmental asshole, because I’m only going to say this once.” Wes’s voice had a sharp edge to it. “He isn’t a prostitute. I thought he was when I met him, but I was mistaken and gave Darrah the wrong information. Even if he was though, I’d still feel exactly the same way about this man. And for the record, there’s no shame in being a sex worker. It doesn’t mean someone’s immoral, and it sure as hell doesn’t mean you’re better than they are.”

Jack tried to hold his ground. “Yeah, but—”

“Just stop.” Wes sighed and shook his head, disappointment clearly spelled out in his expression. “You’re being a narrow-minded douche, Jack. In fact, you’ve turned into the kind of person you and I both used to hate, the kind who’ll find any excuse to look down on others. I expected better from you.”

That finally seemed to get through to him. Jack took a step back and dropped his gaze.

Wes started to walk away, but I turned to his ex and growled, “One of my best friends is a sex worker, so on his behalf,” I flipped him off with both hands and said, “go fuck yourself, Jack-Jack.” Then I hurried after my boyfriend.

When we reached our bungalow, Wes stopped in the middle of the living room and rubbed his forehead, as if that exchange had induced a headache. I murmured, “I’m so sorry.”

He turned to look at me. “Why are you apologizing?”

“I should have told you right away that I wasn’t actually a paid escort…although I did technically become one when I took your money. That’s not the same as a prostitute, by the way, but it’s not like your family will bother to differentiate. They’re just going to judge you for hiring me.”

“I don’t care if they judge me, Ash.”

“You don’t?”

“No. But I’m not okay with them looking down on you.”

I sat on the arm of the sofa and shrugged. “Let’s face it, that was pretty inevitable, even before Jack dug up that dirt on me. The good news is, I really don’t care what they think of me. I just never wanted to give them more ammunition to use against you.”