“Waiting for a client?”
“Yes. Don’t ruin this one for me, please.” Her voice was desperate. If I had to guess, the amount of money I was paying her tonight really made a difference to her.
Putting her out of her internal panic, I inched closer to her ear. “Cameron, nice to meet you,” I whispered, reaching out for her hand.
Her red lips popped open.
“You … You … You’re fucking kidding me.”
“No, Bella, I’m not. Give me one night, please.” I was damn near close to dropping to my knees to beg.
One night to change your mind about me. One night to show you how a woman of your caliber should be treated. One night with no rules—whatever happens, happens.
Her features softened, giving into my plea to spend a night with me.
“What would you like to drink?” I asked, inviting her to stay.
“Um … Maybe I’ll just start out with some chardonnay.”
“Bottle of your best chardonnay, please,” I asked the bartender before walking away with my hand on her back, guiding her to where I sat as I watched her walk in.
“Shouldn’t we wait for our drinks?” Avery looked back at the bar in concern.
“The place is ours for a few hours before dinner. He will bring it over to us.”
“W-what do you mean the place is ours?”
She wanted to meet in public, but what she didn’t know was that I rented out the entire bar. I told her it would be a private setting and the last thing I wanted was a distraction.
Her eyes would be on me tonight with nothing—or no one—around to interrupt us.
“The only thing I lied about in those e-mails was the false name I gave you. I requested a private night, and that’s what I’m giving us.”
“You didn’t lie aboutanythingelse?” She raised an eyebrow in question.
“Maybe I left out a little bit of information, but I didn’t lie.”
“Mhm, and what did you leave out?”
Just when I was about to answer, the bartender walked over, placing two glasses of white wine on the table in front of us and the rest of the bottle chilling in a silver ice bucket.
“Thank you.” I nodded toward him as he walked back to the bar to give us the privacy I requested.
Picking up our glasses and turning back toward Avery, I handed her a glass and continued where I left off. “I’d like to treat tonight as a date. What you’d get from me if I didn’t pay you to do all of this.”
“And what does that include?” She took a sip of her drink, leaving a red lipstick stain behind.
“I’m not going to force you to do anything. But I want to start by getting to know each other. Like the first night at the bar. The only difference is you’ll spend all night with me. I’ll treat you to a good meal. I’ll take you home with me, we can talk more or watch a movie, whatever you want. I’d like to hold your hand as we walk together, and I’d like to hold you while we sleep. And like I said in my e-mail, I’d like to make you breakfast before you leave. The ball is in your court for anything else.”
Crossing her legs, she took another sip of her wine.
“Let me get this straight…” She cleared her throat. “You spent twenty thousand dollars to date me for one night; you rented out thisentirebar for a few hours to get me alone,” her finger swirled in the air, pointing out the empty bar, “and you want to spend the night talking to show me that you’re the perfect gentleman?”
“Precisely.” The corners of my mouth lifted into a smirk.
“I’m going to need more wine for this.” As she went to grab the bottle, I beat her to it.
“Let me know when to stop.” I topped off her wine, the liquid hitting about halfway.
