He reaches for my hand and gives it a gentle squeeze. “Of course. Let’s go for a little ride.” As he’s talking, the car’s been gradually accelerating. The wind whips through my hair as small rocks and gravel fly underneath the wheels of the speeding car. I know we’re breaking the speed limit, but I don’t care. For once in my life.
We’re the only ones on the road, and this car was built for speed.
I will my rapidly-beating heart to still and take a deep breath. We don’t talk much on the way into town, but there’s no need to. He places a big, calloused palm on my leg and massages in a way that erases my mind, until I’m unable to focus on anything but the pulsing between my legs.
He effortlessly glides his beautiful car through the city. It rides so smoothly, I feel like we’re practically flying in on a hoverboard or something. The engine purrs softly, and I wonder for a moment before I come to my senses if I’m the one making the purring noises.
We come to a stop outside a hotel with uniformed valet attendants out front. Is it my imagination, or are there murmurs when we pull up? At first, I think it’s the car, but a closer glance shows the eyes of every single person within a few yards focused on my escort.
Escort. Yes, I like the sound of that. It sounds... risqué, and a little mysterious.
Hell, everything about this night’s mysterious.
I don’t look at the name of the hotel when we pull up. Sometimes, ignorance is bliss, and this is absolutely one of those nights where I welcome no details. Probably one of the only times I ever have.
This place is posh, though. Seriously bougie.
The silver accents by the entryway door are lit by tiny round globes of light, stunning amidst bustling city streets, and for one brief moment in time, I’m not who I am and he’s not whoever the hell he is. We’re two people who came for a night of luxury and bliss, and nothing, not a random draw or an almost-caught jaunt in the park, will stop us.
That did not happen. No one saw us. No one knows we’re here. Nothing could convince me to reveal why I was here and who I was with. Tonight, I am not myself.
For the love of… for one damn night, all I want is anonymity and casual sex. It’s the one time I’ve wondered if my mother didn’t have a point when she decided not to trust anyone anymore. When she thought that cutting off everyone and anyone that ever had meaning in her life was the right thing to do.
It was just some kids, or… something. Doesn’t matter. No one saw us, nothing happened… except I grabbed my gun on instinct and tried to push him down.
I am not used to a man trying to protect me, and I don’t need a man to protect me. He saw the way I held my gun. I’m going to have to explain myself.
“This way, sir,” someone in a uniform says to him. He opens a sleek steel door, and my escort puts his hand on my lower back in an instantaneously possessive move. My heart does a little somersault just being touched by him, my skin on fire as if ignited just by his touch.
I know that he’s obviously not new to the casual one-night stand, but something tells me this suave, self-confident guy’s gonna make it so fucking worth it.
So worth it.
Worth everything…
I’ll give him a night he’ll remember as well. I so will.
I watch as he casually slips his keys into the palm of the valet, then hands him a stack of bills. They know him here, step back when he approaches, nod their heads discreetly. I can’t help noting every detail.
The way one of them glances at his forearm. I glance too but only see tendrils of the end of one tat peeking from under his sleeve before he pulls it down and ushers me inside. The one-hundred-dollar bill on the outside of the stack of bills, and the way he hands it off like he’s giving someone a stick of gum.
You can never tell how rich a guy is by what he drives or the cash he carries. Some men will steal and plunder to get their asses in a sweet ride, whether they can afford it or not. Some men carry wads of smaller bills with hundreds on the outside.
I’m not impressed. Curious, though.
But when staff open the door and discreet nods head his way from the hotel lobby, I can’t help but note it. He’s… known here. Like the car and the money, that sudden knowledge can go two ways.
I watch his car drive by the window, handled by a uniformed valet. Time to probe a little. “You let someone just drive your car like that?” I murmur under my breath. He gives me a lopsided grin that makes my heart flip.