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“Happy birthday, me,” she whispered, as the waiter presented it, and two glasses, with an appraising look.
He bowed obsequiously, and disappeared, leaving Jane to brood in peace. Jenna was late.
Could it get any worse?
She lifted her champagne and sipped it, coughing as the bubbles got trapped in her nose.
“Got another sucker on the hook for tonight?”
She froze, midway to placing her glass back on the table. She’d know that voice anywhere. Their acquaintance might have been short, but his voice had haunted her ever since.
Slowly, she angled her head towards Carter Mann-Hughes. “What do you want?”
His expression was carefully guarded, all emotion wiped from his face. He slid into the seat opposite as though he had every intention of staying.
“If I said that I wanted to finish what we started at my father’s party, would you hold it against me?” He leaned forward and lifted the bottle of champagne, pouring a measure into Jenna’s empty glass and drinking it contemplatively. His blue eyes seemed to glitter in his face, like a rare gemstone. “Would you charge me for it?”
She scowled at him angrily. His judgement hurt. Far more than it should, coming from a man she hardly knew. “Your father misinformed you. I’m not, and never have been, a prostitute.”
He laughed. A scornful sound, mixed with derision and disbelief. “I don’t much care who you’ve slept with, and what they gave you in return. We are all, in some way, prostituting ourselves. I almost applaud you for your honesty. Asking for money upfront makes you a hell of a lot better than the women who marry for money and claim it as love.”
Her jaw dropped to the table but she quickly composed herself. “That’s really cynical.”
“Isn’t it just?” He finished the champagne and poured another glass.
Her brown eyes regarded him bitterly. “Your father got me fired.”
“I’m not surprised. He was embarrassed and angry.”
She flushed. “I’m sorry I embarrassed him.” She shook her head. “It was incredibly unprofessional. I’ve never done anything like that before.”
He dipped his head in a nod of assent, though his opinion was obviously unchanged. “I don’t much care, as I said.”
Why did she care? The idea that he thought she might sell her body to the highest bidder filled her with a sense of deep, drowning panic.
“I mean it. The agency I worked for provides escorts. Most of my clients were either businessmen who needed a professional date to keep things social. Or a few lonely men, who liked to go out and have a chat, without feeling like there was more to it.” Her dark eyes shone with her honesty. “I have never worked as a prostitute.”
He furrowed his handsome face and leaned forward conspiratorially. “What would you prefer to be called?”
“I just told you. I dated guys for money. No sex. Not even any kissing. It was purely professional.”
His laughed goaded her temper. “You were dressed like a woman begging to be taken to bed.”
She narrowed her eyes. The dress had been a little suggestive, but Hank had requested as much when he’d booked her. Evidently, making people stare at his date had been sort of the point. “You are a horrible, horrible person, do you know that?”
He shrugged her insult off his back easily. “Your opinion doesn’t matter much to me right now.”
“Then why are you here?” She drained her champagne glass and watched, distractedly, as he refilled it.
“I told you already. Are you always so slow on the uptake?”
Irrational tears sprung to her eyes and she blinked fiercely to hide them. Jane had no illusions with regards to her intelligence. She knew she was no great shakes in the mental department. She’d never be as smart as Anita. Heck. She’d never be as smart as most of the women she knew. But she didn’t need some jackass she hardly knew pointing that out to her.
The pithy response she’d been formulating died on her lips. It had been a very long day. And it was her birthday. She looked down at her legs, dejectedly. Where the hell was Jenna? “I just want to be left alone.”
A muscle ticked in his jaw. Something he’d said had knocked her seriously off balance, and his curiosity was prodded into life. They had been swapping terse comments in what he saw as a kind of verbal foreplay. She evidently didn’t agree. “You have two champagne glasses here. I thought it would only be kind to warn the next unsuspecting man you’ve got booked.”
She shook her head. When she spoke, her voice was just a husky whisper. “I have had a truly horrendous day. I don’t even think there are words to describe how crap it’s been. This is the last thing I need. Please, if you’re even partly a decent human being, leave me alone.”
