This Dre was trouble. I inwardly cursed Elena for picking her, my mother for having me, and my stupid brother for getting married. Then I cursed Dre for being drop-dead gorgeous, having hips, a lovely smile, and eyes like fucking Bambi.
Fuccccck, I thought, and I knew that word was going to get me in trouble over the next two weeks, one way or another. It would certainly get me in something. Or maybe someone. I hoped that it would and wouldn’t all at the same time.
My cock twitched again. Traitor.
“Are you ready, Mr. Preston? Or do you want me to call you James?” Dre grabbed my elbow, and I stiffened—several parts of me stiffened, actually, and I cursed myself some more—as I tried to smile at her as if I was a normal person.
“James is fine,” I said, leading her through the door.
“Bye, Jenny,” she called over her shoulder. “I’ll see you soon.”
“Bye!” Jenny called, clapping her hands together. “Have fun!”
Elena was waiting for us at the front desk; she beamed at me over her glasses. “I see you found her, Mr. Preston,” she said. “Everything to your liking?”
I might have imagined it, but I thought Dre winced a little.
“Everything’s perfect,” I said smoothly. I decided I did not care for Elena. “We’ll see you in two weeks.”
She smiled at me and nodded at Dre. “Have fun,” she said to her, sounding like a mom trying to convince her shy daughter to dance at the prom.
We got into the elevator, and Dre released my arm.
“What sort of name is Dre?” I asked. “I’ve never heard it before.”
“My name’s Audrey,” she said, looking up at me from under all that luscious hair with those big brown eyes. I felt myself stir again, and I bit the inside of my cheek, hard, just to bring myself back down to earth.
“But I go by Dre for work,” she continued, and shrugged. “It’s more street. Audrey’s too prim.”
“Why would you want to sound street?” I asked her.
“Because I’m a streetwalker,” she said and laughed. “So I figured, if the shoe fits…”
“You’re not a streetwalker,” I said. “You’re an escort.”
“Aw, James…are you complimenting me?” She gave me that smile again, and I realized that it was practiced, that she was using her dimples against me like she had used them against hundreds, maybe thousands, of other men.
“No,” I said. “But I’d prefer to introduce you as Audrey to my family. Prim is fine with them.” As long as prim has a trust fund and a penchant for vodka at midday, I thought.
Technically, under that narrow definition, I was prim.
“Whatever you prefer, James,” she said smoothly, the pleasant smile still on her face like a mask.
“Which do you prefer?” I asked.
“Audrey,” she said. She gave no further explanation.
We reached the ground floor, and this time, I took her arm. From now on, I was going to initiate all contact, stay out in front and in control of every interaction we had. I’d hired her, and I needed her to fill a specific function.
If I changed my mind about the things I needed her to fill, or what I needed to fill, that was fine. But it was going to be a choice, not some stupid reaction to her doe-like eyes and my mystifying, painful erection.
Kai was waiting for us at the curb, a wide smile on his face.
“Mr. Preston,” he said, nodding politely at me, and smiled at Dre. Audrey. She went into the car ahead of me, and I finally saw her glorious ass. It was one that you could grab on to with both hands.
“Don’t smile at her,” I said to Kai as soon as she was out of earshot.
He nodded and dropped the smile immediately. I slid inside the car.
“Why don’t you want your driver to smile at me? We’re the hired help, after all. We should stick together,” Dre said as soon as Kai closed the door. She’d heard me after all. She crossed her toned legs and smiled at me playfully.
“I’m a divide-and-conquer kind of guy,” I said. “I don’t want to get ganged up on.”
“I won’t do that. I promise,” she said.
The car pulled out, and Audrey suddenly laced her fingers through mine. Heat shot through me at her touch, and I winced. I looked at our hands and then at her, my eyebrows raised in a question.
“We’re supposed to be in love, right?” she asked me. “We should probably be able to hold hands. We need to look legitimate. That’s what I’m getting paid for.”
She waited a beat. “Is that okay?”
With no small amount of indignation, I felt my palm begin to sweat.
“Maybe later,” I said. I pulled my hand away and wiped it on my pants. Audrey had the grace to not watch me while I did it.
“Elena tells me you’re a student,” I said, desperately trying to start over.
She looked shocked. “Really? I’m totally not. I’m hooking full time.”
We just looked at each other for a beat.
“Oops. I mean, Elena probably meant my cover—so yes. I’m a full-time graduate student. New England School of Graphic Design.”
“Why’d Elena pick graphic design?” I asked.
My hand was still hot where she’d touched me, but I wasn’t going to think about that.
“She said it was perfect because it’s too boring to talk about. We were going to do law school, but she said your family had a bunch of lawyers in it.”
“She’s right. My brother, Todd—the one whose wedding we’re going to—is a corporate lawyer. His fiancée, Evie, is a lawyer too, but not for long.”
“How come?” Dre asked.
I snorted. “She was just waiting to marry into a pile of money. You know the type, right? Just goes to law school to meet a rich guy?”
A look of distaste crossed her face, but she stifled it immediately. Almost immediately.
“Trust me. She deserves every bad thing I say about her. She’s a twat,” I said and desperately wished that I’d just hired this woman to fuck me senseless. For the first time in years, I felt self-conscious. Every word I said made me sound like a bigger and bigger jerk.
Usually, that was the idea. In my business ventures, it worked to my advantage for people to think I was unpleasant and difficult to deal with. But right now? I had to stop talking
“Okay then. The sister-in-law-to-be is bad,” Audrey said, her voice soothing and agreeable. She probably thought I was upset because I’d called Evie a twat. But she would learn, as we went on, that I always called Evie that. Because she was one.
I grabbed a decanter filled with bourbon from the side of the car. “Would you like some?” I asked.
“Sure,” she said, accepting the small tumbler I poured for her.
I poured myself a drink that was significantly larger and took a sip. Something about Audrey unnerved me. She seemed like a whole person, not someone broken that wanted to get fucked up and then fucked hard, just to shut the world out. Which is to say, she was not what I was expecting. She seemed like somebody’s sister. Like a graduate student.
Like somebody’s girlfriend.
“So…tell me about this wedding. The more details you give me, the better prepared I’ll be,” she continued, all soothing efficiency.