Free Escorting The Billionaire #2 (The Escort Collection) by Leigh James Page A

to spend a whole week with your family.” I was dreading that now more than ever.
    “We’re getting a villa on the edge of the resort,” James said, “so everyone can leave us the fuck alone.”
    “Do you promise?” I asked.
    “I’ll promise you anything, Audrey.”
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    W e went to Trinity Church for the rehearsal. James was wearing a light-grey suit with a lavender tie, and I was wearing a pale lavender dress. “You look stunning, and we match. It’s perfect,” James said. He held my hand as we walked through the church doors.
    “It is perfect,” I agreed. I’d seen his tie and picked out my dress right afterward; we looked as together as I felt like we were. We walked into the main chamber of the church, and the beauty of it took my breath away. Sunlight streamed through the stained-glass windows, and the ceiling soared high above us. It was fit for a fairy-tale wedding. I could imagine Evie coming down the aisle in a pouffy princess dress, her pale face behind a veil.
    Thinking about it made me sad.
    James leaned down and kissed me on the cheek. I looked up at him, flustered. Being in the church with him like this was making me feel an uneasy longing, followed closely by dread. “What?” he asked, watching my face.
    “This is just stunning,” I said, turning away from him. “I’ve never been in here.”
    “It’s something, isn’t it?” Celia Preston asked, coming toward us. She eyed us suspiciously, taking in our clasped hands and coordinating outfits. “You two are looking very… matchy,” she said, and she didn’t sound pleased. Celia was wearing another Chanel suit, this one black-and-white checkered. Her face looked as if it had de-puffed nicely.
    “Mother,” James said icily, giving her a slight bow.
    “Hi, Mrs. Preston,” I said in what I hoped was a casual, friendly way. I was trying to balance out James’s formal coldness. After what he’d told me, I didn’t blame him for how he felt about her. But now more than ever, I needed to step up my performance. He’d helped me, and I wanted to help him. I needed to make this easier for him. “You look so pretty.”
    “My swelling from the filler went down, just as expected,” she said.
    “I have to go up front,” James said to me, nodding toward Todd and the rest of the wedding party. “Will you be okay?”
    “I’m fine,” I said. I smiled at his mother bravely. “Your mother and I can watch.”
    “Great,” James said, giving his mother a warning look. “This shouldn’t take too long. I hope.”
    “James—it’s your brother’s night. Let it take as long as it needs to,” Celia said. She motioned for me to follow her to a pew closer to the front, and I obeyed. Of course I obeyed—Iwasn’t about to argue with her. I sat down next to her, careful not to get too close.
    “So,” she said, arranging her skirt and turning her unnaturally smooth face to me. “James seems more enraged with me than usual. I assume you told him about our conversation about grandchildren at tea.”
    That, and he told me you made his high-school girlfriend cry so hard she hydroplaned her car into a guardrail and died.
    “I might have mentioned it to him,” I said carefully. “But I had no idea how upset he would get.”
    “Did he talk to you about the trust?”
    I did not care for Celia Preston, but I did admire her ability to be direct. I didn’t want to tell her the truth, but I didn’t see a way out. “He did,” I admitted.
    She sighed and sat back a little. “He’s never understood my perspective—he takes moral offense to it. But that is limited thinking on his part. What James doesn’t understand is that having a family requires an enormous sense of duty. One must put one’s family before oneself. You have to protect it. Your family is all you’ve got in life, Audrey.”
    She gave me a quick look. “Oh—sorry dear, I forgot that all your family’s dead.”
    “No, you didn’t,” I said.
    She gave me a terse smile.