4. Kate
KATE
With a smile courtesy of Jake’s texts, I popped open my lipstick tube in the ladies’ room.
As I touched up the color, someone pushed hard on the door, and a gaggle of laughter followed as two women poured in. The bride and the maid of honor.
“You have to do this,” the bride said, in that insistent tone women took with their besties.
“But this is your weekend,” the maid of honor said, sounding apologetic.
“It’s our weekend, Sidney. We’re out of town. And you’re single.” The bride waved her phone around. “You need to have this hottie to get David the Douche out of your system.”
Yup. Called it. The bride wants to sprinkle sex magic on the maid of honor.
I capped the tube and tucked it into my purse. In the mirror, the bride caught my gaze, asking me, “Doesn’t Sidney need this absolutely divine man?”
Ah, the instant friendship afforded by the ladies’ room. “I’m going to need to see the goods before I answer that.”
“Of course. Look. Just look.” The bride shoved her phone at me, showcasing a picture of a man in a tailored suit. Chiseled jaw. Dark hair. Mesmerizing eyes.
“Why, yes,” I said, “I’ll take one of him too. Double serving. à la mode, please.” The guy was a ringer for Henry Cavill.
“You can have him,” the woman said excitedly, emphasis on can .
“Are you giving him away? Is he a party favor?” I asked with a laugh.
The bride laughed, too, and shook her head. “You can order Antony from Sin City Escorts.”
Everything clicked.
This was indeed the extra fun kind of girls’ weekend. The kind involving male escorts from the local firm that had made a name for itself in that department. “Good choice. Sin City has the hottest men in Vegas. And many are especially good at getting an ex out of your head.”
“See!” The bride practically jumped up and down, then she turned to me and gripped my arm. “Her ex was a dick. He cheated on her with literally everyone in Phoenix. I want her to use this weekend here in Vegas to forget him. Doesn’t she deserve this one?”
The bride thrust the phone at me again, showing off the hottie she wanted to order for Sidney.
Deserve.
That was a potent word.
Don’t you deserve a girls’ weekend?
Don’t you deserve something special?
Don’t you deserve this man?
That could work in some girls’ night out marketing.
Sidney sighed longingly as she stared at the image, hunger in her eyes. Then she shrugged happily. “Why not? Throw caution to the wind.”
That was one more thing you could lose in Vegas.
Worries.
“Toss that restraint out the door,” I said in the spirit of things. “Use a condom, give consent, and then have the time of your life.”
The bride grinned broadly. “See? She thinks you should do it.”
“Do it,” I said.
Once I left them to their adventures, my friends and I headed for Edge, our favorite club. A few minutes later, three men walked in, and my eyes arrowed right to one of them.
Tall, dark, and handsome Jake. Jake with the cocky grin and bedroom eyes, the hard body, and the just-right amount of confidence. Never too much. He was the Goldilocks of confidence.
My mind raced several steps ahead to a brand-new what-if .
What if he were an escort? What would it be like to order him up?
The man radiated not just sex appeal, but sexual intelligence.
Like he knew things. Deep, dark, dirty things.
Things I was damn curious about.
Like he knew the answers to all my what-ifs . . .
Except there were far too many complications to entertain those thoughts about Jake.
He was a friend, a business associate, and a white-hot distraction.
I hadn’t the time or space for the latter.
Even though I couldn’t shake the thoughts now that they’d begun.