Lawful Escort (2 page)

“How the hell should I know? Do I look like someone who hangs out with escorts?” Tim sounded less miffed and more and more amused. Daniel could even hear what sounded like a stifled laugh coming through the phone.

“Come on, do this for me and I’ll tell you why I broke up with Audrey.” He knew just how much Tim liked some good gossip. In that respect gay men were like women.

“Every dirty detail?” Tim negotiated quickly.

“Can’t get any dirtier than that.”

“You’re so on. Any preference? Brunette, blonde, redhead? Big boobs? Long legs?”

Daniel shook his head and grinned. It wasn’t like he wanted to sleep with the escort; he just wanted her to accompany him to that darn reception. He really didn’t care either way what she looked like, as long as she wasn’t ugly and could parade as his girlfriend.

“Why don’t you surprise me? See you soon.” He was about to disconnect, then thought otherwise of it. “And, thanks Tim, for everything.”

“Love you too.”

How he’d ever ended up being best friends with a gay man, he had no idea. When he’d first invited Tim to his parents’ house in the Hamptons during the summer holidays when they were attending college together, Daniel’s parents had been afraid Daniel was about to tell them he was gay.

Just thinking back and remembering the relief on their faces when he’d told them that he was as straight as the A’s he brought home from college, made him chuckle. Not that they wouldn’t have loved him the same, they had assured him and given Tim an apologetic look, but they did want grandchildren one day. No pressure, of course. And yes, Tim was always welcome at their house.

They’d practically adopted him after that summer and, politically correct as they were, they loved parading him around, telling everybody who did or didn’t want to know that Tim was gay and their straight son’s best friend.

Daniel settled into his comfortable first class seat and reviewed the last remaining issues of the deal. He would have his assistant send all current contracts electronically to his new attorneys, who could take over where Judd had left off. At worst, it would delay the deal for a week, but he didn’t care at this point.

Maybe he could use the downtime and go up to the wine country to relax for a few days. He’d ask Tim to recommend a place. As a wine snob, Tim was bound to know the best places in the area. He would unwind with a good bottle of wine in one hand and a book in the other.

Hell, who was he kidding? Since when did he know how to relax? During the last year, he hadn’t taken a single day off away from his company. Even on Sundays, he’d been working, trying to put together another deal, even when Audrey had begged him to go away with her for a weekend. He couldn’t really blame her that she’d found solace in Judd’s arms. He hadn’t exactly been the most attentive of boyfriends. Or the most romantic. He just wasn’t the type.

Daniel already pitied the woman who fell for him one day. Good luck to her ever pulling him away from his work. Audrey certainly hadn’t managed to, and she was beautiful and enticing. But his priority had always been his work, and that wouldn’t change. Ever.

He hadn’t come this far—and without taking any of his father’s money—to have a woman stifle his ambition and make him feel guilty for not spending enough time with her. That was the path other men took. It wasn’t his. He needed the challenge, the conquest, the battles. Not a woman sitting at home and whining that he didn’t have time for her.

He’d pretty much given up on finding the right woman, suspecting that the woman who’d put up with him wasn’t born yet. It wasn’t that he hadn’t tried, but the women he’d ended up attracting were like Audrey: high maintenance, spoiled, and ultimately after his money. No, thanks.

Looking back at his life, Daniel couldn’t put his finger on the exact point when he’d turned from a fun loving young man into the driven businessman he was now. Women had always flocked to him, mostly because of his Italian good looks, so he’d never really had to work at it, and had taken them for granted.

Sex was certainly a part of his life, but not an important one. He’d often foregone sex with Audrey for late night business meetings. And it had seemed that she hadn’t minded that much as long as he went to every important society event with her. These events had been few and far between, as most of them bored the hell out of him.

Daniel rarely appeared in any gossip pages, which had bothered Audrey tremendously since she loved reading about herself in the papers. He was much more of a private person and certainly not as flashy as she’d wanted him to be. Looking back now, he didn’t know why he’d ever started dating her. They were completely unsuited for each other.

2

If only Sabrina Palmer had taken the other job she’d been offered and not this one at the Law Offices of Brand, Freeman & Merriweather, she wouldn’t want to crawl out of her skin right now. She’d be sitting in an air conditioned law office in Stockton with a job that would probably go nowhere, rather than having one of the senior associates hover over her from behind, pretending to read the document on her computer screen when she knew he was peering down her blouse.

But no, Sabrina had to go for the job with the most reputable firm in San Francisco in the hope of gaining the right kind of legal experience to advance her career. She’d passed the bar with flying colors and thought she could take on the world, only to come up against an age-old problem: she was a woman in a man’s world.

And now, instead of getting to work on any of the interesting cases the
male
junior associates were assigned to, she was relegated to routine corporate law while Jon Hannigan, or Slime Ball Jonny, as the secretaries called him behind his back, checked out her boobs.

Not that her boobs were that pronounced, but for her petite size she had a nicely proportioned set, together with a relatively curvy figure. Slim like a model she wasn’t, nor was she tall. She would have loved to be at least a couple of inches taller so not all men would automatically be able to look down to her navel when she wore a vee neckline, but she couldn’t change her genes.

Sabrina wore her hair shorter than she had in law school, and she’d recently had it trimmed so that it barely grazed her shoulders. It was what her enthusiastic hairstylist called darkest brown. He’d also begged her to allow him to lighten it up with highlights, but she’d refused each time and only let him layer it so it framed her face with a softer style.

“You’ll need to rephrase this paragraph,” Hannigan suggested as he leaned even closer and moved his arm past her shoulder to point at the screen. A whiff of body odor accompanied his movement. “You need to convey intent.”

“I understand.”

She knew all about intent. His intent. The day she was introduced to Jon Hannigan, she knew he’d be trouble. The sleazy look he’d given her had told her everything she needed to know: to be on guard. He’d squeezed her hand with his sausage fingers for far too long, and Sabrina had to keep all her cool not to yank it out from his grip, causing an unpleasant scene.

His pasty face was accentuated by an often slightly red nose, which could have been either caused by too much exposure to the sun or too much imbibing of alcohol. She suspected the latter. Hannigan wasn’t handsome, but he wasn’t particularly ugly either, even though this personality made him ugly from the inside.

If she had to describe him to anybody, she would have said he was average: just an average asshole.

“Sabrina, I’ll let you in on a little secret. You want to move up here, you just stick with me.”

Sabrina shuddered inwardly. Moving up wasn’t what he had in mind, she was certain. Moving down was much more likely, down his body. She’d heard enough from the secretaries who’d been harassed by him. The mere recollection of what she’d heard made the hair on her neck stand up in high alert. The man was a pig.

“I can revise the brief first thing tomorrow. It’ll be on your desk before you get in.”

“How about
you
’ll be on my desk first thing in the morning?”

Sabrina sucked in a quick breath. Yes, she’d heard all right. Hannigan was getting more brazen. She had to get away, now.

“I’d better finish off for today,” she said cautiously and powered down her computer.

Hannigan didn’t make a move, but remained standing behind her chair, preventing her from pushing it back.

Turning her head slightly in his direction, she made another attempt. “Excuse me, please.”

He moved back only a foot, enough for her to get out of her chair, but it brought her far too close to his body. She sucked in air and tried to squeeze past him. He had a sick grin pasted on his face. Did he really think he looked seductive like that? The homeless guy at the bus station had a better chance at getting into her pants than Hannigan.

“Why in such a hurry?”

“Doctor’s appointment. Excuse me.”

After giving her boobs another palpable glance, he moved aside and let her pass. Sabrina felt nauseous from the mix of his overwhelming cologne and his body odor. Without turning, she snatched her handbag off the desk and headed for the door.

“See you tomorrow, Sabrina.”

His voice, too close behind her, made her speed up. She had to get out of there.

Even though it was barely four in the afternoon, and normally she worked at least past six o’clock, she couldn’t stand it any longer. The doctor’s appointment had been an excuse to escape Hannigan. Another minute in his presence and she would have puked or passed out.

How she was supposed to stick it out in this job for at least a full year, with him heavily breathing down her neck, or rather her blouse, she had no idea.

“Gone for the day?” Caroline, the receptionist asked as Sabrina passed through the foyer.

Sabrina answered with a look that said more than she could have imparted in a ten minute conversation.

“Hannigan again?”

She nodded and leaned over the counter to whisper to Caroline. “I don’t know how much longer I can take this.”

“You know what happened to Amy. If you complain, they’ll just find a reason to get rid of you.” The receptionist gave her a pitiful look. It was true. Apparently the partners valued Hannigan’s achievements enough to overlook his indiscretions.

Old boys club, that’s all it was. Like swimming against the current. The question was, how long was she going to struggle, or was she going to get out of the river?

“Doesn’t leave me many options, does it? See you tomorrow.”

Despite the fact that it was a warm summer day, Sabrina found the air refreshing when she stepped out of the building. She hadn’t been able to breathe in her office at all, not with Hannigan around.

The funny thing was that the secretaries had been happy that the firm had finally hired a female junior associate. Now she knew why: Hannigan wasn’t bothering the secretaries much anymore. Sabrina had become their lightning rod. As much as she felt for the secretaries, she had to look after herself and make a decision about what to do. Could she risk filing a formal complaint? How would this impact her career?

Remembering that the fridge at home was nearly empty, Sabrina decided to use the extra time to go grocery shopping on her way home. The supermarket was incredibly busy, and only one of the checkouts was staffed. Apparently some computer glitch had shut down all remaining checkouts.

While she made sure she could keep her place in line, she went back to the freezer aisle and picked up a pint of ice cream. She hoped Holly, her roommate and childhood friend, was home. Then they could devour Ben and Jerry's together while bitching about men in general and Hannigan in particular.

By the time Sabrina finally entered their shared flat, it was past six, the time she usually came home.

“Holly, you home?” she called out and headed for the kitchen, placing the bags of groceries onto the counter. Before the ice cream could melt, she put it in the freezer and turned when she heard a sound coming from the bathroom down the hall.

“Holly, you ok?”

The bathroom door was ajar. Holly was crouching on the floor in front of the toilet. She was in her pink bathrobe and throwing up.

“What’s wrong, sweetie? Did you eat something bad?”

Sabrina squatted down and pulled her friend’s long blonde hair back. Her face was ashen.

“Don’t know. I was fine a couple of hours ago. But then …”

Holly’s head veered toward the porcelain throne again, and she lost yet more of the contents of her stomach. Sabrina rose and seized a washcloth from the linen closet, soaking it in cold water before she sat next to her friend again.

“Here you go, sweetie.” She pressed the cold cloth against Holly’s neck while she continued holding her friend’s hair back. “Just get it all out.”

“You look stressed. Bad day?” Holly tried to make conversation, evidently hoping to distract herself from her nausea.

Sabrina smiled gently. “Obviously not at bad as yours.”

“Hannigan again?” Holly gave her a knowing look as she clutched her stomach again and held her head over the bowl.

“Not any worse than before,” Sabrina lied. It
was
getting worse. He’d started making distinctly sexual suggestions and she’d run out of excuses to get out of his way. But she wasn’t going to burden Holly with this right now.

“You should really do something about it.” Holly was adamant.

“Well, let’s take care of you first before we make any plans on how to deal with Hannigan, shall we?”

She helped Holly up and sensed how wobbly she was. Sabrina supported her weight while Holly cleaned her face and rinsed her mouth with mouthwash.

“Do you want to stretch out on the couch or your bed?”

“The couch, please.”

While Sabrina helped her to the living room, the phone rang.

“Let the machine get it. I can imagine who that is.”

Sabrina only raised her eyebrow, but didn’t question her. Since she herself rarely ever got phone calls on their landline, she was pretty sure the call was for Holly anyway.

As soon as the beep sounded, an irritated female voice came through the answering machine. “Holly, it’s Misty. I know you’re there, so pick up the damn phone. Do you hear me? If you think you can just leave me a message to say you’re not taking tonight’s booking, you’ve got it coming. After what you did with the Japanese client last week, I have no more patience with you.”