Wrapped Around My Finger (15 page)

His eyes were wide again. “Would she want me?”

“You come with a guaranteed offer, she’ll snap you up in a heartbeat.” I wouldn’t talk money, that was the agent’s job, but she hooked me up every time a proposal crossed her desk. When I was still married, working at Design Spot for a little more than minimum wage, I couldn’t imagine people actually made the kind of money I pulled in now. That woman was gold. “It goes beyond the show. I have product endorsements, speaking appearances, and she’s trying to get me a book deal based on the
Second Chances
concept. If we add your photography to the proposal that will be a done deal.”

“Wow.” He was still dumbfounded.

“I know, right? That’s how I felt when they approached me about the
Great Start
job.” I’d started to get some press in trade magazines and newspapers, but the call had been a shock. “Really think about it. It’s not for everyone. If you take this job, it will change your life.”

J
agger

Holy. Fucking. Shit.

I never expected to be asked to co-host Leah’s show. I hoped they’d hire me to go to the property, ask questions, do some research, and take pictures. Give all that information to Leah and let her do with it as she wished. Now, even though we’d be handling different facets of the show, we’d be working with each other to make the whole thing come together.

As an escort, I’d been taught to adapt to the situation, but never steal the spotlight. It was all about my clients, their wants, their needs. Not about me. The shock hadn’t worn off from the offer, and I had no idea how I felt about it.

The same thing went for Leah. She hadn’t stopped talking since we got on the plane, a surefire sign she was nervous. She’d told me about the entire crew of
Great Start Today
, what her typical day was like, her team, and so many other things my brain couldn’t hold it all. The only way to make her stop was to kiss her.

“We won’t be able to do that on camera.” Leah giggled, barely pulling away from me.

“Maybe we will.” I wiggled my eyebrows at her. “You never know, we could become America’s sweethearts.”

Her smile widened. “A divorced mother of a purple-haired teenager and her hired lover.” She nodded. “Sounds about right.”

“We already have our own reality show.” I sat back in my seat, and the stewardess frowned at both of us. We’d be landing any minute and it was time to get our shit together. “Leah, if this isn’t what you want, tell me.”

She didn’t answer me right away, but she leaned in for another kiss. “I’ll take you any way I can get you.”

**

“D
o you know how hard it is to get a table here?” Leah pulled me up the alleyway toward a mostly hidden restaurant. “Doesn’t matter that my best friend is sleeping with the owner. Or that I’m redesigning his house. This is the first time we’ve been able to eat here.”

We had a table for three at Reno Romano’s restaurant. Kari waited for us at the bar, glass of wine in hand. Leah had been doing the nervous talking thing again as we headed to the restaurant. Our track record with each other’s inner circles sucked. I put my hand on Leah’s back as we followed Kari to our table. Her shoulders relaxed, and she looked back at me and smiled.

Kari’s gaze followed me from when I pushed Leah’s chair in until I sat down. My second interview of the day.

“Guess who might be my new co-host?” Leah said as soon as we settled. “Spoiler alert, we’re having dinner with him.”

Kari’s eyebrows disappeared under her bangs. “Really? How did that happen?”

“I finally talked him into working on the production team—”

Kari laughed. “She’s recruiting all of us. I painted. Granted, it was for Reno, but I don’t paint. She’s got Raven at it, too. It was only a matter of time before she snagged you.”

“I wanted to be snagged.” I winked at Leah. “Didn’t plan on this, though.”

“Does this mean you’re moving to DC?”

“It doesn’t matter where he lives,” Leah said before I had a chance to answer. “We’ll be traveling all over the place.”

Didn’t expect that. “We’re getting ahead of ourselves. We still have to do the screen test.”

“Yeah.” Leah’s smile was back. “They need to see if we have any chemistry on camera.”

Kari’s laugh rang through the restaurant. “So that’s a done deal. Now tell me about this lawsuit.”

“Beth Barnes is suing the agency for breach of contract.” I didn’t have to explain the details, Kari was one of the agency’s best clients. “Barry refunded her payment. She wanted an apology. I refused.”

Kari rolled her eyes. “That’s as far as it should go. She’s got no case. I can’t believe a lawyer took it, unless they’re looking for scandal, and they’ll find it. You know as well as I do how many well-known women use the agency. Did they give a settlement offer?”

“It’s seven figures,” I said. Leah choked on her water.

“Oh, hell no. I’ll countersue for slander and defamation of character. If one person goes down in this, we can sue for lost wages, and I know everyone in that agency is pulling down a pretty penny. As well as anyone who can hire them. Leah’s net worth alone would send them reeling. Serves them right for what they’ve put her through. You should actually consider taking this job for that reason. I can lump you into the lawsuit, and it will double the damage amount automatically.”

Leah put her hand over mine. “Please don’t take the job to up the ante in a lawsuit.”

“Why not?” Kari’s lips curled up around her wine glass. “Just imagine Beth and Shelley watching the two of you together on TV every morning. They’ll choke to death on their jealousy. Good riddance. That crew put us in their sights sometime around seventh grade. They didn’t like me because I wouldn’t bow to them, did everything they could to make my life miserable, including torture my best friend. Leah wants to make everyone happy, so they had a field day with that. Now that I look back on it, I wonder if Rich marrying you wasn’t all part of their grand plan.”

I squeezed Leah’s leg under the table. At one time, she’d loved her husband. And she may never get over the fact he didn’t love her back. She didn’t look up from her bread plate.

“It’s a gift,” I said softly. “To make other people happy.”

“I agree. That’s why I’m so protective of her.” Kari reached across the table and picked up Leah’s hand. Leah met her gaze, and they shared a smile. Kari looked back to me. “Besides that, I have quite a bit at stake in this, too. I’ve done enough business with Barry that I consider him a friend. I’ll do everything in my power to make sure that lawsuit never sees the light of day.”

**

“I
’m exhausted.” Leah collapsed on the bed when we got back to her house. She bounced when she landed, and looked at me, her eyes heavy-lidded. Her makeup had faded and smudged throughout the day. I loved her even more like this because her guard was down. “The plane wears me out. Today was easy, just meetings. Wait until we start filming,” she said.

I crawled on the bed next to her and kissed her forehead. I slid my hand under her sweater, resting it flat on her belly. “What’s your favorite part of the process?”

“Of filming?” She put her hand on top of mine. I nodded. “The design. I could do that without the television part, but it gives me access to so many more resources and connections I wouldn’t have otherwise. I hadn’t realized how far I’d gotten away from it, but being short staffed and having to get to back to basics has actually been really cool.”

“I hoped that would be your answer.” I sat up so I could take a better look at her.

“If you get the job, you won’t have to break into the properties anymore. You won’t be able to because having a camera crew in tow usually draws a little attention. Especially in small towns. But when you have the show, people will tell you things they’ve never told anyone else, because they’re desperate for someone to actually listen to them.”

“That used to happen with my clients, too. They’d tell me things they couldn’t tell anyone else.”

Leah didn’t cringe anymore when I mentioned escorting. “I always thought it was incredibly sad, that these people have everything, yet they have no one. When I met you, I realized I was one of those people.”

I kissed her, soft and slow. “You have people. You have Raven and Kari.”

“They don’t listen to me.” Her eyes were so sad. “Kari talks. She’s used to sweet little Leah who doesn’t say boo. Then when I do, no one takes me seriously. I’m glad the whole thing with Beth happened at Christmas. It was my breaking point. I’m not that scared little girl anymore.”

That deserved another kiss. Leah took longer to open her eyes after this one, and I knew we didn’t have much longer tonight. “I like it when you say boo. I like it when you say a whole lot of other stuff, too.”

“Oh yeah?” She was more awake now. “Like what?”

“I want you to do something for me tonight.”

She shifted under my touch. “What’s that?”

“Tie me up.” My cock twitched at the suggestion. Being completely at Leah’s mercy. This woman made me lose all control, and to not be able to touch her, or react...
fuck.
This was going to be so hot.

Leah sat up, eyes bright, curls already wild. “Take your clothes off.” Her tone changed, more even. In control. Like she’d sounded during the interview in New York earlier, or when we’d hopped the concrete wall at the amphitheater. “And lay down.”

I looked to her for guidance as I followed her command, and she’d simply nod, or even better, lick her lips. I wasn’t sure if she knew she was doing it, but that little slip of the tongue drove me straight to the edge. I was flat on my back, my cock at full attention.

Leah opened her closet door and pulled out a handful of scarves.

“I want you to wear one of these when we do our screen test,” I said as she tied the first one tightly around my wrist and fastened it to the headboard. Like I’d done with the belt, she gave it a good tug to make sure the connection was secure.

“Why’s that?” Instead of walking around to the other side of the bed, Leah straddled me to tie my other wrist. Denim rubbed against my bare skin, and her ass bumped against my cock as she worked. I groaned, unable to answer her right away. She didn’t move when she was done—instead she smiled down at me, waiting for my answer.

“Because every time you wear one of these, I’ll remember this night.”

“That’s not a good idea. You need to talk on TV. And tonight I’m going to make sure I leave you speechless.”

A little sway of her hips before she climbed off me, brushing my shaft; she knew exactly what she was doing. I hadn’t expected her to bother with my ankles, but she did. My hips bucked off the mattress when she ran her thumbnail along the arch of my foot. She looked up at me, grinning. “Ticklish, huh?”

“Little bit,” I said. She already had me grunting.

“All the times we’ve been together and I didn’t know that.” She did the same thing on the other side, but that foot wasn’t as sensitive. “Seems like I’ve been neglecting your body, Jagger. What would you like me to do about that?”

I picked my head up just in time to see the sweater go over her head. Leah shook her curls out as she reached around to unhook her bra. She closed her eyes, but once her tits were free her gaze flicked back to me, a reminder she waited for my answer.

“Every single thing you can.” I craned my neck as far as I could. Leah bent over—that round, beautiful ass was bare and high in the air while she took her jeans off. She looked back at me and winked.

No wonder everyone liked her powerless. Give this woman a little bit of control and she could take over the world.

Leah sat next to me on the bed, licking her lips again. “I like that idea. A lot.” She ran her hand along my stomach, up to my collarbone, lingering at my nipple. Her thumb moved back and forth lazily as she watched it pucker, and she smiled as my breath stuttered in my chest. My nipples were so sensitive, and it was an area that most women overlooked.

She moved to the other one, and her tongue replaced the spot she just left. The movement was more urgent. I moaned loudly, and her head shot up. “You know the rule here.”

I chuckled. “Raven.”

“Right. We got spoiled at your house. But you know that she’ll come running at any loud noise.” Her hands were on the move again, circling my stomach, brushing against my cheek. I opened my mouth, hoping she’d stick them inside, fuck me with them, but she didn’t. The backs of her fingernails bumped along my chest in a straight line down to my cock. She held it firmly but didn’t move.

It was torture not to be able to touch her. If my hands were free, I’d guide her head down, encourage her to wrap those lips around my shaft. Give me some fucking relief. She had to be able to feel it throbbing. But her lips only curled into a wicked smile when I pulled against the restraints.

Leah let go of my cock and my groan caught in the back of my throat. She brushed her fingernails lightly along the inside of my thighs, bumping against my balls, but not giving them the attention they were begging for. Another trail down my legs, checking the backs of my knees. I thrashed, ticklish there, too.

She settled in between my legs, considering her next move. I had plenty of suggestions for her, and almost all of them involved my cock. The ones that didn’t had to do with her pussy, and by default my cock. So they all had to do with it. She crawled forward, then stopped. “I’ve got this all wrong.”

“Yeah,” I managed. “You’re completely ignoring my dick.”

“I am not.” She pressed her lips together, trying to hold in her laugh, but it was useless. I cracked up, too. “I’m making sure I do it justice. I could climb on top of you and slide myself down on it. My pussy is screaming at me to do that.”

Then why didn’t she listen?
“You’re going to drive me insane if you keep talking like that.”

Leah leaned forward and ran her hand down my cheek. Her tits swayed, hitting my cock. I mashed my lips together; one false move would send Raven running in here. Although she should know better than to question what was happening.

“I have an idea,” Leah said as she moved beside me. She straddled me again, this time with her back to me. She looked over her shoulder. “How about you show me what you want me to do to your cock by doing it to me.” Before I had a chance to say anything, she grasped my shaft, and slid her ass back, rocking up so her pussy was in my face.