Allure by Michelle Betham Read Free Book Online Page B

Joey.
    ‘What happened, Kira? Last night. What happened?’
    ‘I don’t know,’ I whisper, taking another sip of wine. I want to down the bottle. I want to sink into oblivion and forget.
    ‘Oh, for Christ’s sake…’ Joey lets forth another dramatic sigh. He’s good at them. They’re a speciality of his. ‘Was he hot?’
    ‘Joey… Come on…’
    ‘Was he seriously hot? Would I like him?’
    My mouth twists up into a smirk, despite the confusion filling my head. ‘You’d love him. You’d want to ride his perfect arse for hours, believe me.’
    ‘But he prefers to ride yours.’ Another sigh, and I can’t help laughing.
    ‘Something happened, Joey.’
    The mood suddenly changes, because I need to talk about this. It’s making me crazy, and I need to work out what’s going on, before it drives me insane.
    ‘Like what?’
    I slide up onto the countertop, crossing my legs up underneath myself as I drain my glass of wine.
    ‘I know you’ve taken your calendar down, Kira. I heard you cancelling appointments. Does the agency know?’
    ‘I told them I’m not feeling too good.’
    ‘And? Are you feeling ill? Because you look fine to me.’
    I shake my head and refill my glass. ‘I’m not ill. I’m just confused.’
    ‘Happens to us all at some point, sweetheart.’
    I look down at my fingers gripping the stem of my glass, and all I can think about is Neal. I close my eyes and I see his face, his smile. I hear his voice, his laugh, the way he calls me “baby” as he fucks me…
    ‘Kira. Your phone’s ringing. You gonna get it? Or do you want me to answer it?’
    I push it towards him. I’m not in the mood to talk to the agency or turn any more clients away today. And Joey’s not a stranger to taking my calls. He likes doing it. Says it makes him feel like my pimp. Escorts don’t have pimps, of course, and he knows that, but he does know how to handle clients when I’m not in the mood. So he’s useful to have around at times like this.
    I watch as he puts the phone to his ear and walks over to the window.
    ‘Kira Blu’s phone… I’m sorry, she’s not taking calls at the moment… Sorry, who?’ He turns to face me. ‘Neal Cannon…? Well, Mr Cannon, like I said, she isn’t taking calls at the moment… No, she’s fine, but I suggest…’ He catches my eye, sees my expression change, and the look on his face says it all. He knows what happened last night. He knows why I shouldn’t take that call. But he also knows I’m going to. ‘Could you hold for just a second, please?’
    He presses the phone into his shoulder and stares at me with wide eyes, shaking his head as he walks towards me.
    ‘You should think about this, Kira.’
    Yeah, I should, but my thighs are aching to feel him between them again. Every promise I made myself when I walked away from him this morning, I’m breaking them. If he hadn’t called, I would have dealt with it. I would have done. I’d have dealt with it. But he called. And I’m going to him.
    ‘Just give me the phone, Joey.’
    He hands it over with yet another heavy sigh, but he stays within earshot, and that’s fine. Like I said, we have no secrets. We protect each other. Or we try to.
    ‘Neal?’
    ‘Kira… Look, I know… Are you free tonight? Only, I noticed you’ve taken your calendar down, and I thought…’
    ‘Yeah. I’m free.’ I throw Joey a look as he folds his arms and shakes his head again.
    ‘Can I see you?’
    ‘How many hours?’
    ‘Overnight, Kira. I need you to stay with me again. I need you to stay with me the whole time I’m here, baby, I will pay you whatever you want…’
    ‘I can’t do that.’
    He has no idea how much I want to. But I can’t. I can’t have him rent me out like some expensive plaything. I won’t let myself be that woman. Or have I already crossed that line?
    ‘I’ll stay the night, but I can’t be exclusively yours.’
    I could be. If I wanted to be. I just think I need to keep that small amount