Page 64 of Escorted

“Ander didn’tgo?”

Lori wiped astream of perspiration from the back of her neck and steeled herself with theknowledge that she only had fifteen more minutes to go. “No. Be kind of hard tokeep my penname a secret if he—” She cut off her words briefly to suck in a fewdeep breaths. “If he came with me.”

“True.” Sabrina’slong brown ponytail swung with her motion. She was in better shape than Lori anddidn’t have to work quite as hard for her requisite cardio time at the gym theyboth belonged to. “And the rest of the trip was fun?”

“Yeah.”

“You didn’tstay in the hotel room the whole weekend having sex, did you?”

“Sabrina!” Loritried to scowl at her grinning cousin but she had to focus too much on keepingup her pace. “We did a lot of sightseeing and stuff.”

“What kind ofstuff?”

“Don't becrass. We saw a lot of the historical sights and an art museum. He’s reallysmart about art. And he knows a ton about military history.”

“Really? Was hea history major or something?”

Lori shrugged.“Don’t know.” After a pause to catch her breath again, she continued, “I thinkmaybe his dad pushed military history. Named him after Alexander the Great andeverything.” She sneered as she thought about the nameless man she absolutelydespised.

“Huh.Interesting.” Sabrina darted a strangely intent look over at Lori. “Have youheard from him since you got back?”

“What do youmean? We have an engagement scheduled this weekend.”

“That’s stillon?”

Lori was soconfused by the direction of the questions that she slowed down her speedunconsciously. “Why wouldn’t it be? What are you getting at?”

Sabrina gaveher a sheepish look. “I had a talk with Belinda Forsythe a couple of days ago.She’s the one who first gave me Ander’s name, remember?”

“Ye—yeah,” Lorireplied, feeling a flutter of nerves develop in her belly despite her physicalfatigue.

“Do you want tohear what she said?”

Lori understoodwhy Sabrina asked. It was remarkably sensitive of her cousin to check with herto make sure she wanted to hear details about another woman’s experiences with Ander.

The truth was Lorididn’t want to hear about it. She didn’t like to think about Ander withhis other clients. In the beginning, she hadn’t felt strange about hisprofessional promiscuity, but lately the idea of him with so many other womenmade her feel kind of sick. She supposed it was inevitable. As she got to knowhim better, thought of him more as a person, it would be harder to accept theways in which he let himself be used. But Lori was fighting the instinct tofeel disgusted by the thought of him in bed with anyone else and was trying toignore the visuals.

It didn’talways work. Sometimes she had random flashes, visualizing Ander having sexwith Sarah Jacoby or other nameless, faceless women. She immediately stifledthe images whenever they popped in her head, but it was happening more and moreoften.

She reallyshouldn’t feed her growing fixation. She should tell Sabrina no and change thesubject. But she heard herself saying, “What did she say?”

“She said Anderwas retiring.”

Lori felt asharp kick in her gut. “What?”

“That’s whatBelinda told me. That he was retiring. He wasn’t making new appointments.”

For a moment, Lori’svision blurred over and she felt a sudden burst of angsty momentum, her legsand arms abruptly moving fast and hard on the elliptical. But it only took hera minute to figure out a sensible solution to the bewildering scenario.

The tensioneased in her chest as she explained, “He’s cutting back on clients.”

Sabrina’smanicured eyebrows drew together. “Belinda said he was retiring.”

With a shrug, Loriexplained, “He probably wanted to let her down easy, and that was his excusefor refusing her appointments.”

“And what ishis criteria for keeping some clients and letting others go?” Sabrina frownedas if she remained unconvinced.

“Who knows?Maybe he’s keeping the ones he gets the most money from. Or the ones thataren’t as much work.”

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