Escorting the Billionaire - Part 3

“Audrey, you can live with me. And Elena can keep AccommoDating. But she can’t keep you.” I squeezed her hand hard.

“But I can’t just live off you,” she said, still not looking at me. “That’s not a smart five-year plan.”

“A small country could live off me,” I said. “It’s not really a big deal.”

She looked at me then. “It’s a big deal to me.”

“Is this that cowboy thing again?” I asked, feeling the inklings of a headache coming on.

“Sort of,” she said. She sat up. “It’s just that… depending on someone else for everything isn’t smart. You could get tired of me. You could get hit by a car. I have to take care of Tommy no matter what happens. You can’t be my job, James.”

I looked at her, letting the irony of that statement just hang in the air between us.

She swatted me and rolled her eyes. “You know what I mean.”

“I’ll make sure that Tommy is taken care of for the rest of his life. I know how important that is to you,” I said. If I could give her nothing else, at least I could give her that peace of mind. “And I can get you your own place out there, if that’s what you want.”

“No—that’s not what I want,” she said quickly. “But I haven’t said yes yet. I’m not prepared to ruin your life.”

“I’m going to keep working on you. With sex and booze as a large part of my strategy this week, I plan on being victorious.” I squeezed her hand again. “Listen, back to California—I know you like things to be even and fair. But I’m kind of out of your price bracket, Audrey. We can’t go ‘halfsies.’ No one can afford to go halfsies with me. You just have to accept me for who I am and deal with the fact that I have money.”

“I accept you for who you are,” Audrey said, “but I can’t pretend that’s my reality, too, James. I have to take care of myself. You’ve been generous and good to me. But we’ve only been together for a week. You shouldn’t be making promises about the future. You need to think it through.”

“Do you doubt your feelings for me, even though it’s only been a short time?” I asked.

“No,” she said, “but that’s a no-brainer. You’re kind of the total package, James. And I’m—”

“Exactly what I’ve been looking for my whole life,” I said. She looked at me, stunned and a little wary. “Listen to me, Audrey. My brother said something to me last week that made me think. He said that when you finally figure out what you want, you’re pretty ready… to be… serious.”

Actually, he’d said that once you figure out what you want, you were pretty ready for forever. But I didn’t want to scare the pants off of her, as skittish as she’d been. “I’ve figured out what I want. I’m ready to be serious. So don’t worry about me—you need to figure out what you’re ready for.”

She took a deep, shaky breath. “I want to be with you, James,” she said. “More than I’ve ever wanted anything. But I’ve never had anybody I could trust in my life except Tommy. I’ve always taken care of myself. And I’ve kept my expectations about other people really low—that way it hurts less when they disappoint you. I want to trust you and be with you. But does it make sense to you that I have no idea how to do that?”

“Of course,” I said. “I don’t either. I guess you just do it by doing it.”

“Huh,” Audrey said.

“Is that a yes?”

Audrey

I bitch-slapped my common sense into submission, and I nodded at him. “Yes,” I said. “That’s a yes.”

James pulled me into his arms, where I felt safe and loved, and I was almost shocked by the depth of his feelings for me.

I knew who he was now. I knew what happened next.

Even though it was scary to let myself be vulnerable, my love for him outweighed my fear. My feelings were like a riptide, a force of nature carrying me along. If I struggled against them any harder, I would go under and be lost. I knew that now. I’d tried to run from him, and it was no use. Turning away would only hurt us both.

I had to be strong, only in a different way than I was used to.

* * *

Everyone was drunk at dinner, and there were no signs of stopping. Cole grabbed a bottle of Patron and started pouring tequila shots, passing them down the long table. “Hair of the dog,” he called. “This might be a boot-and-rally sort of vacation.” I watched as everyone took a shot, including Mrs. Preston. She gave me a quick, sharp look afterward, and I was on my guard.