I grabbed her wrist lightly before she could retreat to her room, and cupped her face with my free hand. She tried to look down at the floor. “I know we just met, but there’s nothing to be embarrassed about. You have a perfect body, Andi.”

Her gaze met mine under hooded lids. “But that’s the thing, we just met.”

“You’ve never slept with one of your clients or had a one-night stand?” Her cognac eyes widened and I had my answer before she spoke. I took a step forward and brushed a strand of her hair out of her eyes. “Listen, gorgeous, I’ve been on plenty of dates with women and when I tell you that you have nothing to be ashamed of, I mean it. You’re fucking perfect. So what if I caught a glimpse of you naked? I hope it’s not the last time.” I cracked a smile, hoping she’d follow my lead. She did and I breathed a sigh of relief. How in the world this shy chick went on dates for a living was beyond me.

“Are you wishing for naked Thursdays?” She laughed.

“Are you referring to the TV show Friends?”

She smirked and stepped out of my grasp. I watched as she walked toward the doorway of her room.

“You really are after my heart, gorgeous.” I clenched my hands over my heart as if I were having a heart attack and backing up toward the kitchen.

She laughed, shaking her head as she closed herself in her room without another word.

I waited as long as I could for Andi to be ready for her date before I had to leave for mine. Not gonna lie, I wanted to see her dressed up. She walked down the hall in a simple dark blue dress and I immediately regretted my decision to wait. I was jealous. Now I knew without a doubt I’d be thinking of her while I was on my date—which was a bad thing.

“Damn!” I said, dragging out the word. “What would you say if I was the one who bought you for the night?”

Her eyes lit up. “Did you?”

“I wish, gorgeous, I fucking wish. Whoever this guy is, he is one lucky motherfucker.”

“I wouldn’t make you pay for it.” She grabbed her purse.

“Is that right?” I motioned for her to follow me to the garage so I could walk her out.

“I guess we’ll see.”

“We will. Oh, and Andi?” She turned to look at me. “Don’t think about me too much on your date.”

She laughed and got into her car. I noticed she always laughed and avoided me when I made references that probably made her uncomfortable. I still thought she was guarding something …

Maybe even hiding something.

Chapter Nine

Andi

“D on’t think of me too much on your date.”

Did Paul tell me that so I would think about him? Did he tell me that to keep my mind off of the fact that I was nervous as hell? Was he flirting? So many things were going through my mind as I drove to my date.

In the last forty-eighty hours, I’d been in more compromising positions with Paul than I had been in with any other man in the last twelve years. The crazy thing was that I wasn’t uncomfortable. I wasn’t even running for the hills when his hands were on my ass in the hallway earlier as I stood dripping wet. I couldn’t believe that I’d forgotten my clothes in my room or even my robe. I wasn’t used to sharing a place with anyone and my mind was on the fact that I had a date tonight.

My date for the night was a dinner at Javier’s in the Aria hotel. I had yet to be to the strip, but the little I saw in the bumper to bumper traffic as I made my way to the hotel made me never want to go down there again. It was insane. It was almost better to get out and walk if I could, but I’d gotten a tip from Leah to valet park once I’d made it to the hotel. She assured me that all valet parking in Vegas was free, you’d just had to tip them when they got your car at the end.

After I valet parked and found my way to the restaurant, I took a deep breath and tried not to think about what I was actually doing. It reminded me of my seventeenth birthday. The circumstances were different, of course, but there was still a lot that was similar.

I was going on a date.

I was going on a date with a stranger.

And I was getting paid.

I needed to snap out of it. Be Andi, not Joss. I was undercover and no longer seventeen. I wasn’t a scared little girl anymore. If anything were to happen, I had training to protect me now. I would fight back.

I took a deep breath and walked into the dimly lit restaurant and up to the hostess stand. After telling her who I was meeting, she walked me to the table and my date stood as I approached.

“Andi,” he greeted, kissing me on the cheek.

“Preston.” I returned the kiss on his cheek.

Taking a long look at my date for the night, I decided this wouldn’t be too bad. He was dressed in a pair of dark brown slacks and a black, long-sleeved shirt that hid what I imagined was a rock hard body. He had his sleeves rolled up a quarter of the way up his arms. Why was that so damn sexy? His blond hair was wrapped up into a man bun, and he had a strong jaw and beautiful blue eyes with a smile that gave off the impression—or maybe a warning—that he knew how to have a good time.

Taking my hand and guiding me to our booth he gave my body a once over with his eyes and smiled. “You, darlin’, are absolutely gorgeous.”

Gorgeous.

Flashes of Paul’s smile danced across my mind. “Don’t think of me too much on your date.”

This was going to be a long night.

Doing my best to stay in character, I gave him what I hoped was a confident smile.

The night went on without a hitch. He was smart, sweet, and his smile didn’t lie—he was a shit load of fun to be around. After dinner, Preston wanted to go dancing at Haze, the nightclub inside Aria. We stood in line for a few minutes, then once we got in, we went straight to the bar. He ordered a round of drinks, and I took in the atmosphere of the club as I waited for him to make his move.

I watched as people let loose all around me: grinding on each other, kissing, laughing, taking shots—living a carefree life. I wondered what it would be like to let go and simply be. I’d never had that—ever.

Not wanting to ruin the good time I was having, and not wanting to fuck up my first date, I put a smile on face and turned my head back to Preston only to find him staring at me with that smile. He held a hand out to me. “Let’s go, beautiful, I wanna show my date off.”

Preston dragged me to the center of the dance floor and put an arm around my lower back, pulling me close. The first thing that hit my senses was the way he smelled, and I couldn’t help but feel disappointed. Don’t get me wrong, Preston smelled amazing, but his scent wasn’t the one I craved.

“Don’t think of me too much on your date.”

Once again dragging my attention back to the man I was dancing with, I could feel the bass of the music through the soles of my feet vibrating all the way up to the top of my head. Between the beat of the music, the alcohol coursing through me, and the hard body I was dancing up against, I could feel my nerves starting to unwind. I was starting to let go for once, wanting to have what everyone around me had.

Turning in Preston’s arms, I put my back to his front, and we started moving again. As soon as I closed my eyes, a pair of deep chocolate ones appeared in the forefront of my mind. When a pair of hands started making their way down my arms and grabbed my hips, it was no longer Preston I was dancing with—it was Paul. Throwing all inhibitions out the window, my hips started to really move with the music.

I was abruptly brought out of my fantasy by a pair of lips coming down to my ear with a deep baritone voice that I knew didn’t belong to the man I was dancing with in my head. “Come up to my room with me.”