Free Damaged Goods by Lauren Gallagher Page A

pleasure was
    all mine.”

    40
    Lauren Gallagher

    Chapter Six

    At precisely the agreed-upon time, Sabian strode into the agreed-upon
    restaurant in a slate gray three-piece suit, and I nearly dropped my wineglass.
    Crisp white shirt, cranberry tie with matching pocket square, and he"d finished the
    whole ensemble with glossy black shoes and perfectly styled hair. My God, he
    looked like he"d stepped right out of a GQ ad.
    He caught my eye and acknowledged me with a nod before weaving his way
    through the tables and waitstaff. He certainly fit in with the scenery. This was a
    five-star restaurant with a house string quartet playing softly in a corner while
    couples danced on a small dance floor. It was filet mignon and the finest wines, the
    kind of place where someone dressed like Sabian looked right at home. It was
    expensive as hell and way over-the-top, but since I was already spending five
    hundred dollars for several hours of his company, what was another hundred or two
    for good food and wine?
    When he reached our table, I stood and he kissed my cheek.
    “Wine?” I asked as we took our seats.
    “Please.”
    I poured him some from the bottle I"d already opened. While I"d waited for him,
    my nerves and I had shared a glass, and it hadn"t done a hell of a lot of good. The
    “what the hell am I doing?” and “why the hell am I here?” still repeated loud and
    clear in the back of my mind.
    And the truth was, sitting here sipping wine across a silver and china-set table
    from Sabian, I didn"t have an answer. I had no clue what the hell I was doing or
    why the hell I was here. Okay, I was desperate for some dinner-table conversation
    that wasn"t just a game of mutual manipulation to convince the other we both
    wanted to proceed to the next step, whether that was sex or another date. I was
    here because I loved dates but hated dating.
    It had nothing at all to do with curiosity about this total stranger with whom
    I"d shared three of the hottest sexual encounters of my life. It wasn"t even remotely
    related to any kind of delusion that I could get to know him or that there was any
    point in doing so.
    Even if I had been curious about him for a while, and now that he wasn"t
    expected to “perform” for the time being, maybe I could indulge that curiosity.
    I set my glass down and ran my fingertip up and down the stem. “So, am I
    allowed to ask you personal questions?”

    Damaged Goods

    41

    “You"re paying for this.” A hint of a grin curled the corner of his mouth,
    making me shiver at the memory of what those lips were capable of. “You can ask
    me whatever you want. I can"t promise an answer to everything, but you"re welcome
    to ask.”
    “I guess I"m just curious about your…” I paused. “Line of work.”
    The grin didn"t falter. “You know what I do.”
    “Well, true. But I guess I don"t know much about…the business. You know,
    what it"s like to be an escort.”
    Picking up his glass, he said, “What do you want to know?”
    “Is Sabian your real name?”
    “No.” The single word wasn"t terse or sharp, but just firm enough to let me
    know it was the only answer I"d get to that question.
    “So, um,” I said, thinking quickly, “the company you work for. How many of
    you are there?”
    “Just the guys you see on the site,” he said. “Eight of us total right now, plus
    the two girls who run the place.”
    “The madams?” I asked with a cautious smile.
    He chuckled. “They hate it when we call them that.”
    “I get the feeling you call them that anyway?”
    With a devilish wink, he said, “Oh, you"d better believe it.”
    “I"m curious, do—” I paused. “You really don"t mind talking about what you do,
    do you?” I glanced around the restaurant. “Out in public, I mean?”
    “Not at all. You"re footing the bill, so anything you want to talk about is fair
    game.” His glance followed the same trajectory mine had. “With some discretion, of
    course.”
    “Of course.”