Even if his plans seemed a little off the rails.
“Okay,” I said.
“Okay?” Justin asked.
“Yes. Okay. But I have no idea where you’re going to find a woman that will impress the likes of old royalty like Bauer and hold herself with a poise expected of a woman at my side.”
“A professional, of course,” he said.
“A professional that won’t want to sink her claws into New York’s most eligible and richest bachelor?”
“Nice to know you don’t have an ego.”
I turned my chair back around as a grin slid across my face.
“The magazine called me that. Not myself. And if we’re going to do this, we’re going to do it perfectly. I’ll have picky standards, from how she looks to how she speaks.”
“Hence a professional,” he said again.
“I’m curious as to what you mean by that.”
Justin began typing on his laptop as I drew in a deep breath. He’d been my right-hand man at G.P.Software ever since its inception. What began as a company developing GPS software with military uses grew into technology I spun off into a dozen different subsidiaries over the years. After the military made my technology standard in all their drones and newly developed ships, the money I raked in went to other projects I founded in different countries for different reasons. And Justin had been there to oversee every single one. A friend since college, an equal partner in my businesses, and the only person I trusted after my childhood best friend stole my technology right from underneath me and attempted to sell it as his own.
Good thing it was only the first beta and was riddled with bugs that needed patching.
I spent all my time working. It was the only thing I knew. I had an en suite bathroom and small bedroom attached to my penthouse office suite on the top floor of my headquarters in New York City. Besides the view from my penthouse apartment, it was my favorite place to sit and overlook the city. The press constantly hounded me about who I was dating, if I was married, if the woman that had come forward and professed her child to be mine was, in fact, mine.
But I didn’t date. I had no time. No patience. No trust when it came to people.
I didn’t enjoy the game of it all. The sitting down for dinner and plastering on smiles. The fake laughs at jokes that were never meant to be funny. And I sure as hell didn’t enjoy women contorting themselves in bed to my every whim just so I’d pull out my wallet for them in the future. I didn’t enjoy games and I didn’t enjoy facades, so dating wasn’t something I indulged in. Work was the only thing that stayed honest and ungirded, raw and vulnerable without any shame or shadow.
Work was my only love. My only passion in life. And my bank account boasted of the success I’d had over the years.
“This is what I mean,” Justin said.
His voice ripped me from my trance, and I watched him set his laptop down in front of me. A website entitled “Executive Escorts” sat on the screen, and I rolled my eyes. A legal prostitute. Great. I sighed and shook my head, my eyes closing as a headache began to creep up on me.
“Here, read their ‘about’ section.”
“The escort site has an about section?” I asked.
“Just read it, asshole.”
A chuckle fell from my lips as I opened my eyes. They flickered across the screen, taking in the promises the company said they could deliver on. Intelligent women. Decorous women. Discreet escorts for businessmen on the go. Discreet was nice. She’d have to keep her mouth shut on the deal at hand. But I didn’t simply need someone intelligent; I needed a woman with grace. A woman with poise. A woman with a taste for muted decadence and one who would keep her legs closed around the rest of the rich men I’d be around for an entire week.
“You want to hire me a high-class call girl,” I said.
“From the research I’ve done, they provide the most tailored experience and the best women to do exactly what we need for the next week.”
“Did you try this out personally?”
Justin groaned as he reached over and clicked a button.
“Look through these pages. You can tailor down what you’re looking for in a woman, though I already set a few parameters,” Justin said.