Lawful Escort (13 page)

“Ms. Snyder authorized it since I’m taking you out of town tomorrow.”

He took her arm and led her out of the shop.

As they arrived at her building, he took her hand into his again. “Bring some casual clothes, we’ll be touring the vineyards in Sonoma. And a swimsuit. There’s a pool at the place we’re staying. I’ll pick you up at 9am.”

He kissed the palm of her hand then let it go.

“Daniel,” she started.

He locked eyes with her. “What?”

She shook her head slowly. No, she couldn’t tell him the truth. “Nothing. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Good night.”

When she reached the flat and opened the door, Holly was waiting for her.

“And? Is he going to cancel?” she got down to the most important question immediately.

Sabrina shook her head. “No, he’s picking me up tomorrow morning to go to the wine country for the weekend.”

“Are you okay with that?” Holly asked softly.

“I think you should stock up on ice cream, because when he leaves and goes back to his normal life in New York, I’m going to need comfort food. A lot of comfort food. Holly, I’m so screwed.”

Her friend instantly wrapped her arms around her and took her into a tight bear hug. “Is he that bad?”

Sabrina sobbed uncontrollably into her friend’s shoulder. “No. He’s that good,” she wailed.

Holly gently stroked her hair. “Oh, sweetie, just try to enjoy the time you have with him, and maybe it’ll all turn out all right.”

***

Daniel had debated whether to spend the evening with Sabrina, but he didn’t want to push her. He needed to tread carefully from now on. He had to make her trust him, and this would be a slow process.

Instantly dragging her back into bed with him wouldn’t work, as much as he wanted to do just that. That’s why he’d suggested to her that she would be the one to initiate sex. Maybe it would give her the safety net she needed. And he was willing to keep up his end of the bargain, as hard as it was for him.

He had to work on a slow seduction without her even noticing what he was doing. Holly was right, Sabrina could be easily scared away if she found out too early that her whole charade had already been discovered. She felt safe now, pretending to be somebody else, but how would she react when she knew her cover was blown? The only way to make her safe after that was to replace her cover with trust.

Daniel sat across from Tim during dinner at a small neighborhood restaurant.

“Let me get this straight. You want to romance an escort?” Tim grinned from one ear to the other.

“As I’ve already told you, she’s not a real escort,” he pointedly corrected his friend.

“Semantics. Nevertheless, she slept with you for money.” Tim was clearly having fun needling him and would continue as long as he could get away with it.

“She didn’t take the money, her friend did.”

“So she slept with you because …? Help me out here, Danny.”

He frowned. “What? You think I can’t attract a woman without shelling out money? Maybe she found me attractive. Is that so far fetched?” Tim was pushing all his buttons, and he knew it.

“Calm down. I’m just messing with you. Of course she found you attractive. Hell, I find you attractive.” Tim’s voice was a little too loud for the small restaurant, and several heads turned into their direction.

Daniel rolled his eyes, and Tim just chuckled. “Relax. This is San Francisco. Nobody cares.”

“Easy for you to say, you’re a Californian. I’m from New York, remember?”

“How could I forget? Maybe you should move out here. Life’s much more relaxed. I bet even you wouldn’t be that uptight here.”

“I’m not uptight,” Daniel barked indignantly. Maybe just a little uptight.

“Of course, you are. But I think the San Francisco air is having a good effect on you already. Barely in town for a few days, and here you are, dating an escort. Now if that’s not liberating, I don’t know what.” Tim sipped from his wine.

“Would you stop calling her an escort. Her name is Sabrina.”

“How are you going to introduce her to Mamma and Dad?” Tim liked referring to Daniel’s parents as if they were his own.

Daniel’s mouth dropped open.

“Don’t look at me like you haven’t thought this through. I know you too well.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Daniel gave him a frustrated stare.

“When did you last take a couple of days off to go out of town on a vacation?”

Daniel opened his mouth, but Tim stopped him.

“Don’t answer that, ‘cause I know the answer. You can’t remember when. Funny. During the entire time you dated Audrey you didn’t spend one lazy weekend with her anywhere. Yet suddenly, you’re taking a weekend off to take the hot little Sabrina up into the wine country without a business meeting in sight. So why would that be? Go ahead, you can answer that.”

Daniel shook his head. “I’d rather hear your theory.”

“Very well. ‘Cause the high and mighty
I-don’t-want-any-messy-relationships
Daniel has finally fallen for a real woman. No more plastic girlfriends like Audrey et al. Congratulations, my friend, I hope she feels the same way.”

Tim lifted his glass in toast to Daniel, who just sat there, shell-shocked. He’d known it deep down, but had been unwilling to accept it, because it seemed so impossible. The jealous rage he’d felt when he’d seen Hannigan and thought he’d been one of her
clients
had been a clear indication of his feelings for her, but he’d tried to ignore it.

He, Daniel Sinclair, didn’t fall in love with a woman in two days, especially not one he, at the time, had believed to be a prostitute. Yet, the fact that he’d treated her more like a date than an escort from the very beginning, had shown him that there’d been something special right from the start. Right from the moment when she’d stood at the door to his hotel room.

“Tim, I think I need help.” Daniel gave his friend a serious look. “I can’t afford to screw this up. And I’m already walking on thin ice with her.”

Tim rubbed his hands. “In that case, we’ll have to devise a little plan of action.” He looked at his watch. “We have about fourteen hours, plenty of time to put a few things together. Come on, eat up, we can’t dilly dally.”

8

When the door bell rang exactly at nine o’clock, Sabrina knew who it was. She took her small travel bag and cast a look back at Holly, who stood in the door to her bedroom wiping the sleep out of her eyes.

“Breathe.” Holly gave her an encouraging smile. “You can do this.”

Without another word, Sabrina left the flat to meet him downstairs. Daniel looked relaxed in his shorts and polo shirt as he leaned casually against the hood of a red convertible. A large grin spread over his face as soon as she approached him.

Sabrina felt his eyes taking her in from head to toe despite the fact that they were hidden behind his sunglasses. She’d opted for a pair of shorts and a tank top as well as flat sandals. The weather report had promised a scorching hot weekend even in San Francisco, which was unusual. Up in Sonoma County, where they were headed, it would be a good ten to fifteen degrees hotter.

He greeted her with a friendly kiss on the cheek. “You look great.”

After stowing her luggage in the trunk, he held the door of the car open for her and closed it after she’d taken her seat.

Minutes later, they were weaving through light traffic making their way to Golden Gate Bridge. It turned out to be a smart idea to leave early. Since it would be a fog-free day, San Franciscans would use the opportunity to soak up the sunshine at the various beaches around the Bay and the Ocean, and all roads leading out of town would be choking with traffic later.

Daniel made light conversation during the entire drive north, telling her about his family back East, his temperamental Italian mother, and his American father.

“No, I’m an only child, unfortunately. I always hoped for a little brother or sister, but it just didn’t happen. They sure were trying, constantly.” He gave her a sheepish sideways glance.

Sabrina laughed. “Are you saying you listened in on your parents having sex? That’s gross!”

“It was hard to avoid. My mother is a very vocal woman. When I couldn’t take it any longer, I finally got them to move my room to the other side of the house. Now that was a relief. As much as I love my parents, I didn’t need the mental picture of them in bed together. It can really screw a kid over.”

“Have you inherited any of your mother’s traits?” As soon as she asked the question, Sabrina realized how its meaning could be completely misconstrued. And it was. Nothing escaped him.

“You tell me.”

Her cheeks burned, and she knew she blushed down to the roots of her hair. Of course he had to pick up on the sexual meaning, typical him.

“I mean her temperament and her physical appearance.” Sabrina tried to bring their conversation back on the straight and narrow.

“I’m not exactly a five foot two, curvy woman,” he started, grinning from one ear to the next, “but I did inherit her dark complexion, her eyes, and her hair. I got my physique from Dad. He’s quite an athlete. He’s a great tennis player, and he swims daily. Mamma tries to keep up with him as much as she can.”

Sabrina looked at him from the side and could instinctively imagine what he would look like thirty years older. Still the same flawless body but with some gray around his temples, a few more lines on his face, around his mouth and eyes, and still the same wicked smile.

“It’s nice to have parents, who are still together and love each other,” she mused.

“Yours aren’t? Still together, I mean?” Daniel asked somewhat surprised.

She shook her head. “They divorced when I was fourteen, but at least they both stayed in the same town. During the week, I lived with Mom and on the weekend with Dad.”

“Were you torn between them?”

“Sometimes. But frankly, I learned to play them.”

Daniel raised an eyebrow. “You mean manipulate them?” A smile curled around his lips.

“That sounds harsh. I just knew how to get the best of both worlds. Nothing wrong with that, especially since I was in the middle of it all.”

“So, how good are you at that manipulation game of yours?”

Sabrina laughed. “As a businessman you should know never to show all your cards. It’s like playing poker.”

“The only poker I’m interested in playing with you is strip poker,” he retorted quickly but kept his eyes on the road.

She had to hand it to him. No matter what subject they were talking about, he managed to bring it back to sex every time. He might have promised her to not force her to have sex with him, and she trusted him to keep his word, but it didn’t mean he was going to keep the subject off the table.

She’d have to be careful not to have him trip her up. If she wasn’t vigilant this weekend, he’d have her tumbling into his arms in no time. She couldn’t allow herself to let her guard down and give him another chance at hurting her. The damage he’d caused was already big enough.

Even though she’d accepted his explanation about his ex-girlfriend Audrey, she wasn’t truly convinced that he was honest with her. No man would spend thousands of dollars for a few days with an escort without expecting to have sex with her. He was up to something, and she was determined to get to the bottom of it.

After they left the highway to find the turnoff that would bring them to the little bed and breakfast he’d reserved for them, they go lost for a short time. She was surprised when Daniel stopped to ask a passing farmer for directions. She knew plenty of men who would have rather driven around in circles than admitted they were lost.

He smiled at her as if he knew what she was thinking. “We should be there in a couple of minutes.”

The place he’d chosen was a dream. They’d arrived at a working vineyard, which operated a small bed and breakfast. But unlike other bed and breakfasts, this one had a few little cottages dotted around the large estate. One of those would be theirs.

Daniel dropped their bags in the living room as they stepped into the place after picking up the key from the main house. There was a small kitchen to the left of them. It would be sufficient to make coffee in the morning.

Sabrina walked through to the bedroom. It was furnished with a Queen size bed, night stands, and a dresser as well as a couple of comfortable chairs. The en-suite bathroom had both a tub and a shower. The French doors in the bedroom led out to a large terrace spanning the entire width of the cottage.

But the view was something else. As soon as Sabrina opened the doors and stepped out onto it, she was mesmerized. Looking down from the top of the hill on which the cottage was perched, the vineyard stretched out into the valley. Gently rising slopes on either side surrounded the rows and rows of vines.

“It’s beautiful,” she whispered.

“Breathtaking,” she heard his voice behind her, his breath caressing her neck. “You think you’ll enjoy staying here for the weekend? Even if you have to put up with me?”

She turned her head and gave him a soft smile. “Even if I have to put up with you.”

His eyes caressed her, but he made no attempt to touch or kiss her, which surprised her. “Come, let’s go for a walk around the vineyard.”

Daniel offered his hand, and she took it without hesitation as they left the cottage and wandered down the path, which led through the vines. The sun was already hot and pleasantly touched her skin while she strolled along the dirt paths with him, her fingers intertwined with his.

It was a casual touch, not the purely sexual touch she was used to by him. She wondered what had brought this change about. Even when they’d met at the coffee shop the night before, he’d been full of barely contained desire. But now he’d turned into the sweet guy from next door. He was funny and entertaining, and apart from the few sexual innuendos he’d made in the car, he’d shown no sign of wanting to seduce her.

It had felt as if the further away from San Francisco they’d driven, the more he’d left his seductive side behind. His easy going demeanor relaxed her, and it felt as if the tension from the last few days finally left her body. Even the unpleasant and potentially dangerous situation with Hannigan faded into the distance.