No Strings Attached (The Escort #1) (5 page)

Chapter Eight

Leah

The Scituate Bay Hotel Was The Scene Of The Crime
. Twenty years ago, I let Rich take my virginity on the beach that was shadowed by this building. Of course it was prom night, and I was left with sand in unmentionable places for days. If I had to sum up my marriage to Rich in one night, that would be it. Naturally, Kari thought this was the perfect place for our reunion.

Once we got to Massachusetts, I dropped Raven off at her friend Kenzie’s house then headed to the hotel. The streets I’d driven most of my life offered me no comfort. I never belonged here, it just didn’t bother me anymore.

Familiar faces dotted the lobby. My heart pounded. Not because I was worried about getting their attention as I avoided making eye contact with any of them, but because I had no idea if Jagger actually showed up. All of the arrangements had been made through his agency. My anxiety level hovered somewhere around Defcon Two.

“Leah!” A voice that had the same effect as claws scraping down a chalkboard stopped me dead in my tracks just before I made it to the elevator bank. I’d almost made it to my room unscathed. The voice echoed through my brain because she kept repeating my name until she grabbed me by the shoulder.

I mustered the sweetest fake smile I could when I turned around to face Beth, Shelley’s best friend. It was hard not to slam her up against the elevator door by her throat and tell her what I thought of her. But I really wanted producers to go for my rehab project idea, not to have to smooth over an assault charge. Beth already had her way with my past, she wasn’t getting my future. “Sorry, didn’t hear you.”

“I didn’t think you were coming.” Her smile mirrored mine, nothing happy about it. Instead she looked like a hunter staring down its prey. “You’re famous now. I figured you’d be too busy for us.”

For years I’d begged Beth to help me out. She worked as a set designer on the movies that filmed in the Boston area. I would’ve done anything to get out of retail purgatory, even suck up to Beth, but she refused to give me any contact information. She’d also been an instrumental player in helping Shelley fuck around with my husband. When they started their arrangement, they’d meet in the vacant in-law apartment above her garage. Until that became too inconvenient and they started screwing in my bed.

“I’m here to support Kari.” I dug my heels in while I waited for the elevator to come back down to the lobby. The hotel only had three floors, but this was going to take an eternity. “I’m never too busy for a friend.”

“Yeah, I guess she’d have to come since she was class president. No one ran for that because they knew they’d have to put this together.” Beth chuckled. Right. Like any of these people ever had looked twenty years in the future in terms of anything but their mortgage.

“Have you seen her?” I’d been so wrapped in my own head about Jagger I’d totally forgotten about Kari until I saw Beth. This wasn’t going to be any easy weekend for her, either.

“Can’t say I’ve been looking for her.” Beth and her friends had decided that Kari was a slut sometime in the summer between eighth and ninth grade. It would’ve been funny if they hadn’t tortured her over it. She didn’t actually date until college, but thanks to Beth, she’d had plenty of chances to offer her services in the boys’ locker room. Beth looked to either side of me as I rolled my suitcase toward the open elevator door. “Did you come alone?”

“My date is meeting me later.” I turned to see her mouth open as the door closed.

At least that was the plan.

**

The light on the phone was blinking when I entered the hotel room. I dropped everything on the bed and let the butterflies in my stomach lead me to the phone.

“Hey, it’s Jagger. I’m in room 312. Give me a call when you get in. Can’t wait to see you.”

I listened to it three times because I was so relieved he was actually here.

“Hey,” I tried to keep my giddiness at bay when he picked up. “You came.”

“Of course I did.” His voice sounded deeper on the phone. “Did you just get in?”

“Yeah. And I saw my phone was blinking. Very old fashioned.”

“I was going to leave you a note at the desk, but I knew they’d lose it. And if you didn’t notice you had a message, I would’ve come looking for you.”

I sucked in a sharp breath. “I might have liked that.”

“We just got here. There’s no telling what can happen.” Jagger chuckled. “How about we head down to the bar in about a half an hour?”

“There’s a thing happening tonight in the bar with the reunion people.” I did my best to make it sound more like a ritual sacrifice than a party. Just in case he thought I actually wanted to go. “I don’t need to see any of those people until tomorrow night.”

“Yeah, three people made sure to tell me about it when I was downstairs.” He stopped, giving me a chance to groan. “Why don’t we check it out? If it sucks, we’ll make our own fun.”

**

It was going to suck.

There weren’t many things that were guaranteed in life. Death, taxes, and the class of ’95 getting on my very last nerve. Since I’d dragged Jagger fifteen hundred miles away from sunny, warm Miami to deal with these people, I probably owed him a sneak preview of the main event.

Jagger’s hands were in my hair as soon as I opened the hotel room door. His lips pressed against mine immediately. Pulling my head back gently, he scraped his teeth along my bottom lip before welcoming himself in. It wasn’t just the kiss that took my breath away. I’d been craving the taste of him since he’d left my bedroom.

“Hi,” he said, his mouth moving against my cheek when he came up for air. “I’ve been thinking about you.”

“What have you been thinking about?” He’d taken his hands out of my hair, now they circled my waist. I rested my hands on his arms. That’s why I needed him here this weekend. Even if it was a false sense of security.

“That.” Another quick kiss. “And a few other things.”

The vibration of his voice against my skin kicked up the dust in my neglected nether regions. My entire midsection throbbed, my heart right down to my core. “We don’t have to go to the bar,” I whispered.

“You brought me here for a reunion.” Jagger pulled away but didn’t let go. “And I’m going to make sure you go through with it.”

“I thought you said you didn’t have any rules.” It took everything I had to walk away from him and grab my purse. If I had my way, I would’ve dragged him over to the bed and ripped his clothes off.

“I don’t. But we’re here. For the reunion. If we start avoiding it now--” He took a few steps toward me, his hands sinking into the back pockets of my jeans. “--we’ll miss the whole thing.”

“You’re usually pretty persuasive.” I grazed his bottom lip, realizing the door was still open when a little girl stopped in the doorway. She giggled and I peeked around Jagger’s shoulder and waved. Thankfully, her mother dragged her away and slammed our door shut. Thanks, I think. I looked back up at Jagger. “But now is not one of those times.”

“I can be persuasive,” Jagger whispered against my mouth, easing his way back inside. His tongue moved against the roof of my mouth slowly and my knees buckled. He chuckled without breaking the kiss. His hand was out of my pocket, circling lower and parting my legs. When he let go, I thought I was going to go into freefall. He stopped in the doorway, waiting for me to move. It wasn’t easy. “And you are quite the seductress.”

I laughed. “That’s something I’ve never heard before.” I took his hand and headed to the elevator. “What are you doing to me?”

The doors closed behind us. Jagger backed me up against the wall, and there was nowhere I could look but his eyes. One knee was between my legs, and his hands burned the skin on my stomach underneath my sweater. “You look amazing,” he whispered.

I hadn’t planned anything special for tonight. New underwear, that was all. Maybe I should’ve paid more attention to Kari when she told me about the schedule. I’d worn a sweater, scarf, jeans, and knee-high boots. “So do you,” I murmured back. Jagger was one step ahead of me in black dress pants and a deep blue button down shirt. It perfectly complemented his olive skin and dark hair. The more I thought of Jagger in terms of art, the more beautiful he became.

Jagger cupped my bra as his lips once again found mine. We could barely complete a sentence since he’d come to my room without our mouths crashing against each other. Going to this party was a terrible idea. After a drink or two I’d be begging him to take me on the bar. His fingers drew slow circles, dipping inside my bra, brushing back and forth against my nipples. They pebbled at his touch. I tangled my hands in his long hair, pulling him closer to me as I moaned against his mouth.

I hadn’t even noticed we weren’t moving until the alarm went off. We jumped away from each other. “What did you do?” I asked. “Didn’t you just hit the lobby button?”

“I hit stop.” Jagger had his hands up like he was about to get arrested.

“You can’t do that here.” I slammed my hand repeatedly against the lobby button to make the alarm stop screaming. The elevator started moving. “The fire department is probably already on their way. This is a small town. They’ll be talking about this until the next reunion.”

My stomach tied itself in knots complicated enough to flummox a boy scout as we walked through the lobby. The older woman at the front desk glared at us. “See?” I bumped against Jagger, who smiled and winked at the clerk. She turned bright red as she looked back to the computer. “We were seconds away from thanking the firemen for their commitment to service.”

Every head in the bar turned as we walked in. I made a beeline for the bartender, pulling Jagger along with me. He ordered our drinks. “You didn’t ask me what I wanted.”

“Don’t you want sangria?” He surprised me even more by pulling out his wallet. “You practically purred when you drank it in Washington. I’m not sure what you liked more, me or the sangria. But I know I liked the way it tasted on your lips.”

“How did you even know they had it? Some places throw bar garnish and Sprite into cheap wine and try to pass it off as the nectar of the Gods.” I leaned back against the bar, hooking my boot into the barstool, trying to play this cool. If Jagger had any idea he could knock me over with a feather right now he might stop trying so hard. I wanted to see what else he had in him. “They can’t fool me with that crap.”

“I checked before you got here.” Jagger tapped his glass against mine before taking a long sip of whatever he got.

I knew all along they had it. I’d been here more times than I could count. “And if they didn’t?”

“We’d find someplace that did.” Those hazel eyes smoldered. So many emotions I couldn’t read yet marched through them.

I put the glass down on the bar and turned back to him. It took everything I had to keep my hands to myself. “And if that wasn’t what I was craving?”

Jagger leaned closer to me and I could feel every eye on the room on us. “I will make sure you’re satisfied.”

We took stools at the bar. It was still pretty early. A cover band I’d been going to see since my twenties was setting up in the corner, and only a handful of my classmates had shown up so far. I wondered if we’d see many locals. Getting a babysitter two nights in a row was such a bitch.

“So that’s Eric. He went out to LA to act and he’s had a bunch of bit parts in movies, and it looks like he’s here with…” I squinted to see better, then squealed when he took the hand of someone I didn’t expect. “Michael. Nice. I think he’s still in the Marines. I knew he was stationed at Camp Pendleton, but I didn’t realize they were a couple. It makes total sense, now that I think about it, they’re always together in their Facebook stuff.”

After finding the bottom of my drink, I had no problem openly pointing out the weekend’s players to Jagger. A fresh drink appeared like magic, and I dove right into it. “And that’s Marcy. She was my manager at Design Spot. We used to put wine in our coffee cups to deal with the monotony of that place. Oh, God. You must think I’m a total lush, right?”

“No.” Jagger laughed. “Which one is Karina?”

I had to think about before answering him. “Who’s Karina?”

“Your best friend?” Jagger slid the glass away from me. “The guys at the agency have nothing but good things to say about her.”

“Oh! Kari.” I took it back. “I never think of her like that. Unless I’m giving her a hard time. Her reputation would precede her.” Good for her. “I don’t know. She should be here. She’s technically our host.”

She’d been coy in the last couple weeks, much more concerned with my plans for the reunion than sharing hers. Probably because being here was just as much of a nightmare for her as it was for me, even if our reasons were completely different. She’d definitely bring a date to the battle ground.

The band started, tearing through their nineties set with slightly less fire than they had in the actual nineties, and Jagger started drumming the beat against the bar. “Let’s dance,” he suggested.

“Sounds fantastic.” After the second sangria it easier to join the few other couples on the floor, and I waved to the people I’d pointed out from the bar. So far, we weren’t behind enemy lines. None of those people had shown up yet. I twirled around Jagger, singing the lyrics of the song to him as he put his arms around my waist and pressed my back against his body. We swayed together to the beat, his hair falling into my face as he joined me on the harmonies. I turned into him when the song changed, our hips grinding to the raunchy beat of the song. If this was any indication of what I had to look forward to when we went back upstairs, I had no idea why we were still here.