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But Leard talks over her. “I won’t be requiring your services any longer, Miss Beauchamp.” Without so much as a nod of acknowledgment, he turns and leaves, taking his drink with him.
Catherine watches after him, her face a mask of confusion. “I wonder what that was about.”
“Fear.”
Her eyes are sad when she turns back to me, and I can’t help but wonder if she’s sad to lose the money or the client. “What do you mean?”
“It’s one thing to hire an escort who nobody knows. Then she’s just a beautiful woman on your arm. A symbol. A trophy. But the moment he realized we were acquainted the rules of the game changed. It only takes one whisper, onerumor, to ruin a career. Leard’s relies on politics, which is all optics. And he’s not stupid.”
“You…” Hurt flashes across her face. “You sabotaged me?”
“What?” Alarmed, I turn to face her, my movements abrupt. “No.”
I think about if I knew how Leard would react if he found out that Catherine and I were acquainted beforethe bar. “Maybe,” I admit. But it was unconscious, a habit of my career. An inadvertent interrogation. “I didn’t mean to. I’m sorry.”
Her emerald eyes focus on my face. “It’s a little late for that, don’t you think?”
She spins around, the skirt of her dress swirling against my legs as she turns and walks away, the skin of her back impossibly flawless under the soft glow of the fairy lights. “Fuck.”
It takes me three seconds to watch her, another one to decide what to do. Before I can change my mind, I go after her.
Chapter 13
Catherine
“Catherine!” Aiden calls after me.But I don’t listen. I keep walking, my steps confident in my spiked stilettos.
“Excuse me,” I mumble as I skirt around a group of five on my way to the elevator.
Even at my run-walk pace, I am no match for him. I know this. But that doesn’t stop me from trying. Instincts ingrained from thousands of years of women playing prey to men drive me forward. Even though I trust the man chasing after me not to physically harm me, there is an irrational tendril of fear snaking its way around my spine.
I get all the way to the elevator and press the button to the lobby before he catches me. He slips in as the doors begin to close. While I’m a little out of breath and glistening under a sheen of sweat, he doesn’t even have a hair out of place.
“You just cost me eightthousanddollars and a potential Repeat client!” I whirl around to face him, furious with him. Furious with myself. There were many excuses I could have made, many lies I could have told to cover up the fact that Aiden and I knew each other. But I didn’t. And, as much as I’m mad at him, I’m livid with myself because Iwantedto see what he would say.
“I’m sorry.”
This time, his quiet tone doesn’t calm me. It is gasoline to an open flame. “Sorry! Sorry!” I throw myhands in the air and whirl again, turning my back on him. “Sorry isn’t going to pay my rent, Aiden.”
I know I’m being a brat. But there is a raw panic in me that is hard to stifle. All I can do is repeat the mantra:He’s a cop, in my head over and over again.
He’s a cop.
He’s a cop.
He’s a cop.
He is silent the rest of the way down and I do not turn to face him again. I stand completely still and stare at the doors, feigning indifference as I try to brainwash myself into believing that he’s like the rest of them. But it’s all a lie. My skin crawls with an awareness that I have never experienced before. My blood hums in my veins, heating me everywhere. Nerves, alive—electric—dance in my stomach.
Sexual attraction has never been like this for me before. Usually, it is me who is seeking, me who is casting aside the barriers and coaxing the flame to burn. Now…just standing in a confined space with this man has an inferno blazing through me. It rages uncontrollably, heating my skin to the point where I feel that I need to run just to escape it.
When the elevator doors open, spitting us out into the lobby, I exit, my steps quick and sure as I hurry to get away. He follows behind me, staying close as I exit the hotel. “Catherine.”
“What?” I spin around to face him, my eyes blazing, heart racing. His bewildered look just irritates me more. Taking two steps towards him, I close the space between us and glare up at him, “Whatdo you want, Aiden?” I give him a little shove, forcing him a step back.
There’s a pause where all he does is look at my face. Then he reaches for me, his movements slow, almost trans-like.
I don’t move back. I stare at him in shock as both of his palms gently cup my face. Instinctively, I raise my hands, gripping his wrists as I tilt my head to look up at him. I think I’m going to push him away, but I don’t. I hold him to me.
