An Escort for Christmas

I curled into bed and glanced at the clock. It was one am, and I wondered if Jameson had found someone to indulge in for the night. Now that I knew he wasn’t gay, it was a very real possibility. The thought brought out my green-eyed monster again. I was really starting to hate that bitch.

I’d just closed my eyes when I heard him stumble into the room. He kicked something and cursed before he collapsed onto the bed. I flicked on the bedside lamp.

“Jameson, are you alright?”

His gaze met mine, and I was surprised by the amount of playful hunger I saw there. “Hello, beautiful.” He grinned.

Okay, so he was drunk. Like very drunk. But happy drunk, which was a definite improvement over the night before.

“Do you need some help?” I asked as I watched him struggle out of his jacket.

My words seemed to amuse him for some strange reason, and he nodded. I flipped off the covers and stood up, gesturing for his foot.

“I’ll take off your shoes.”

I didn’t get that far, because the next thing I knew, he was pulling me into his lap.

“Jameson?” I squeaked. “What are you doing?”

He nuzzled into my hair and breathed me in. “God, you smell good. Always so good, Harper Nichols.”

He smelled like whiskey, but even so, it was delicious.

“I haven’t stopped thinking about you all day,” he murmured into my ear. “About your lips on mine. Your perfect body rubbing against me this morning. It’s driving me fucking crazy.”

A soft mew escaped my lips as his mouth nipped at my earlobe. He’d managed to set a fire inside of me in two seconds flat. I was about to tell him that I couldn’t stop thinking about him either. About how much I wanted him.

But then he spoke again.

“So I was thinking,” he whispered. “That there’s only one way to rectify this problem.”

I leaned back against his chest and rubbed my bottom against his groin. “Yes, Jameson. I’m listening.”

“I want to take the no sex clause off the table,” he said. “I’ll pay you whatever you want.”

I froze in his arms, and instantly my arousal was gone. His words had just dumped a bucket of ice water on the fire he’d set only moments before. I shot up out of his arms and turned my back so he couldn’t see how upset I was.

“There isn’t any amount of money you could pay me to sleep with you.” My words were filled with venom, and I couldn’t hide it.

Jameson sighed behind me. “I don’t understand, Harper. This is what you do for a living. You’re acting like I’ve insulted you.”

A tear spilled down my cheek and I shuddered. “Just go to bed, Jameson. Please.”

He didn’t say another word. And when he got up and shuffled across the room, I crawled into bed and silently cried myself to sleep.

Chapter Fourteen

The King family took the expression shopping with the girls to a whole new level.

I’d spent all day following them to every high end department store they could find. It was fun, and I was more than happy to be away from Jameson and the hurt from the night before. But I couldn’t afford anything in shops like these, and they were starting to notice.

“What do you think?” Lily asked, holding up a floor-length crimson gown. It was beautiful, but I didn’t have to look at the price tag to know I couldn’t afford it.

“You have Jameson’s card,” she said with an evil grin. “Use it.”

I smiled weakly in response. He’d given me his card on our way out the door this morning as though this was the typical thing for him to do. Of course, I had no intentions whatsoever of using it. But they didn’t need to know that.

“I brought too many clothes as it is,” I said. “I can’t fit anymore into my suitcase.”

Lily just looked at me like I was speaking a foreign language before she put the dress back.

“Okay, well then have you bought Jameson’s presents yet?” she asked. “I still have to get him something.”

Presents. Crap. How did I not realize that I would need to get him a present to keep up the pretense?

“I haven’t,” I admitted sheepishly. “I wasn’t sure what to get him.”