Одри Карлан - February (Calendar Girl #2)

I groaned. “That’s nasty, Auntie. Don’t put shit in your face. You could stay that way.”

“God willing!” she responded jovially. Millie chuckled then got down to business. “Anyway, the reason for my call is Mr. March. You’re headed to Chicago!” Buttons over a keyboard rang through the receiver. I planted a hand to my forehead.

“Chicago.” Never been there. Hell, I’d never been anywhere aside from Nevada and California. “Who’s the lucky guy this time?” I responded sarcastically.

She clucked her tongue. “Anthony Fasano. Big restaurateur. Owns the largest chain of Italian Restaurants across the nation. You know, Fasano’s?”

“Holy shit! I’ve eaten there like a million times. Gin and I love Fasano’s. Best Italian in Vegas!”

“Yeah, well, Anthony Fasano inherited the twelve hundred store chain of restaurants throughout the US when his father passed away last year. Apparently, the family is big on him finding a wife and having an heir. He’s the only male out of five children so you are coming in to be his on and off again long distance girlfriend, now fiancé from the West Coast. He’s bringing you in so you can meet the family and get the heat off his tail.”

“This sounds like all kinds of Jerry Springer .”

“Look Mia, we only care that they pay the handsome fee for your pretty hiney. What it entails doesn’t really matter. Board meeting, social event, muse, pretending to be someone’s fiancé to fool their family…” I could practically hear her shrug. “Doesn’t matter to us. Just do your job. Besides, another fine male specimen. You could make your extra twenty percent. Speaking of, you received an additional twenty percent on your fees deposited into your account by Mr. Channing and just yesterday by Mr. Dubois. Seems like you’re having a good time,” she remarked.

“I’m sorry, what did you say?”

“Besides the fact that you’re making a mint…”

“No! Yes. That. Wes and Alec paid me…for sex?”

I closed my eyes and felt my heart stop beating. “What the fuck?” I whispered, a deluge of tears formed in masses, ready for the dam to burst and set them free.

“Doll face, they’re supposed to pay you. I’m surprised you didn’t notice it earlier. Mr. Channing requested your bank routing information and transferred the money in before you left Malibu. Mr. Dubois had it posted by one of his assistants yesterday. What’s the problem?”

I shook my head and clenched my hands into fists wanting nothing more than to pound both into the nearest wall. Heat flooded my body as if I was hot lava burning a path down a volcano. “I gotta go. Send me the info on the next client.” Abruptly, I hung up pressed a few buttons and hit Send.

The phone rang a few times. Just enough for my rage to reach boiling.

“Hey you?” Wes’s voice came through the line all salt and sand. “I was just thinking about you…”

“Save it. What the fuck do you think you are playing at?” My voice was razor sharp and held no protection against the bloody sting.

“Excuse me, back up. What’s the matter?” He sounded concerned, but it was all bullshit. Everything between us was a total fucking lie.

“The money, Wes! How could you do that?” My voice croaked trying to get the ugly words out.

“Didn’t you get it? Oh my god. Is your dad okay? I can come out. I’ll pay whatever you need. Tell me you’re okay, Mia!” he roared through the line.

“My dad is fine. Still in a coma. I wasn’t talking about what I owe the sharks. I was talking about how you could deposit the money for being with me. Intimately. Or was it just fucking to you?”

His voice was raw when he responded, filled with emotion. “It was never about the fucking money, Mia, and you know it as well as I do!” I could hear the fight in his voice, the attempt at holding back his own frustration.

“Then why? Why would you treat me like your whore!” The tears streamed down my cheeks faster than I could wipe them away.

“No. Christ, no! Don’t you dare say that. Mia, it wasn’t like that.”

“Oh no? Then why is an extra twenty thousand dollars sitting in my account from you! Millie told me so!”

“Who the fuck is Millie?”

“My Aunt. Ms. Milan . It’s her escort service. Ring any fucking bells? Ding, ding, ding!”

“You work for your aunt?”

I ground down on my teeth, anger filling the sadness and replacing it with white-hot rage. “Not the fucking point, Wes! I thought what we had meant something. That’s why I didn’t tell you about the fee! I would never have made you pay it. I’m not a call girl! I was with you like that because I wanted to be, not because you were paying me.”

“Mia, sweetheart, listen to me. It’s in my contract. Besides, I wanted you to have that money. You wouldn’t let me pay off the sharks to help your dad. At the very least, I thought you could use that to help get you out of their debt faster. I’m so sorry. I never meant to hurt you.” There was a long pause where I didn’t hear anything but a deep sigh. “Fuck! I’m sorry. Mia, you gotta believe me. I would never think that about you. I care about you. So much…” he whispered the last part. “I miss you. More than I should. I’m…tell me what to say to make this better.”

I sucked in a huge breath and stared out the window. Everything looked really green after so many days of rain and now sun. “Wes, it hurt. What you did. But…”

“But what?” He sounded like a man who was grasping at straws, at anything that would get him out of the hole he’d dug.

I closed my eyes and swallowed the lump in my throat. “I get why you did it. It’s going back...the money.”

“No, sweetheart, no. Please let it help you get out of this sooner. It’s selfish, I know, but...” His breath was ragged coming through the line. “Maybe it will bring you back to LA sooner. Help your sister with college. Whatever you need. Mia, I just want to help you. Please just let me do this one thing.”

“Wes…”

“Please.”

“Fine.”

“Thank you.” Wes murmured softly, the way a lover does. “Are we gonna be okay? Are we still…”

“Friends,” I offered.

He chuckled low in his throat. It was the most beautiful sound I’d heard in three weeks. “Yeah, friends,” he finished.

“We are. I gotta go.”

“Your client?” His words were flat, held no emotion.

I nodded even though he couldn’t see. “I miss you too you know.”

“You do?”

“I do. We’re gonna be okay. Catch you later?”

“You know where I am, sweetheart. You’ve got the key.”

“Bye, Wes.” I hung up before I could hear his reply. Hearing it would make me want to jump through the phone and kiss him, soothe him, make him better. Make me better. At least he did what he did to help and truly didn’t realize what message he’d sent to me.

I am no man’s whore.

Time to deal with Alec.

***

“ Ma jolie ! I am ready for you. We must do stills for “Selfish Love,” Alec bustled the moment I entered the loft warehouse. He ushered me to the white sheet that had been spread over padding. “Clothes off, we mustn’t waste any time.”

Before I could express the rage simmering within me about the money, he’d whipped my top over my head and was undoing my pants. Instantly, the space between my thighs heated at his insistent caresses. Traitorous body.

“Frenchie, stop! I need to talk to you.”

“ Non . Remove your clothes, but leave your lingerie on.” He moved from me to the ladder. His movements were quick, precise and not helping the situation. Alec was knee-deep into his creative headspace—that place where he’d stare blankly or paint incredibly fast, seemingly without seeing what he was doing. It was downright strange.