“Of course I’m nervous. I haven’t had sex in three years. I haven’t had alaughin three years, and there you are, looking like this, making me laugh, offering me of all people what could possibly be the hottest night of my life…”
“I can’t believe I’m gonna say this, but if you aren’t ready, if you’re gonna hate me or yourself in the morning, if you’re gonna feel guilty instead of happy, we can wait.”
“Wait? Like if I let you out of this apartment, I’ll ever see you again?”
“I’d love to,” he said without a shred of hesitation. “And not just once.”
For a brief moment, I had the craziest notion he was implying he wanted to see me, as in date me, but then I grasped what he really meant. He wanted me to be his client. “I’m afraid entertainment costs such as paying for escort services aren’t something I can afford at the moment.”
“I don’t want you to be my client, Gabriella.”
“I…I’m a little bit confused.”
He took my hands in his and brought my fingers to his lips. He did the one by one fingertip kissing thingy that made my fucking clit tremble. “Is it so crazy that I don’t want this to be fake anymore? That I never wanted it to be fake right from the start?”
I blinked like an idiot, shaking my head. “Right from the start?”
“I have a confession to make. This morning I wanted to ask you out, but it seemed like the most impossible task to achieve ever.”
I kept squeezing my eyes and blinking as if it’d make things clearer. “So the whole offer thing was to get me to go out with you? Like tonight was a real date to you?”
“Not exactly. I meant it about the challenge, and I have no illusions about what this night is, but…I think on a subconscious level, yes. I wouldn’t even admit it to myself, but it’s true.”
“What is true?” More idiocy. Like the hot flashes weren’t enough, now the brain damage was real, too?
“I want to see you, Gabriella. Not as an escort but as a guy who really likes you.”
He likes me? Lady Brighton of Grimaceland?
You can brush my hair, undress me everywheeeeere…
“Think about it. You’re gonna need a charming date for your future events from now on to keep the vultures at bay. Who’s more charming than me? And it’s gonna save you a fortune because any other remotely decent escort is gonna cost you a lot. I as a real date come for free. Then there’s saving you the trouble of lying. I know for a fact having to lie is pure agony for you.”
“Fabio—”
“Wait, I have more compelling reasons to make you say yes. Have you thought about faccia da culo? I’m not mansplaining you. I know you can handle him, but the best way to keep that ass away from you is convincing him you really aren’t available—”
“Fabio—”
“No. I’m doing this all wrong. What was I thinking? Hold on a sec.” He dropped my hands and started to unbutton his shirt.
“What the…” I giggled. I fucking giggled, and my eyes ogled at the slowly appearing abs.Yeah…Jack didn’t have these.I watched as if hypnotized as he pulled his shirt out of his pants with a teasing speed. When he was done, he put his hands on his hips, pushing the edges of his shirt and jacket aside, showing almost all his sculpted muscles underneath, his pants dipping a little, enough to show his Adonis belt.Jack didn’t have that either.
“And if that’s not enough, I can take it all off and make that speech all over again.”
“No!” That snapped me out of the trance his perfect muscles put me in. “No, you don’t need to take anything off or say anything else. Please.” Not if he wanted me to think. With my head. No woman could resist the temptation Fabio Zappa’s body was.
He swallowed, his eyes intense, the same pain of rejection from this morning darkening in them. What? No. I wasn’t rejecting him at all. I needed to say something. Fast.
“You don’t…” I bit my lip, my stare returning to their brazen ogling routine. “You didn’t have to come up with reasons to convince me.”
“I didn’t?”
I just shook my head, unable to form any more words because my stare had just tracked that incredible Adonis belt south where a tremendous bulge dwelled.
“So you’re saying yes to us dating, and it’s not just because you’re finally looking at my pants like I’ve been trying to make you all day? I mean, it’s yours if you want it, babe. Just say when.”
When.
