Page 8 of Sexy Bad Escort

“That’sa good point,” I tell him.

“It is?”His eyebrows shoot up into his scruffy, dirty-blond hair.

“No. Notjumping into the sack with you.” I pull up a fresh documentonmy phone. “But whatare you willing to do for your clients? And not willing? Where’sthe line for Rent-A-Danny? What can our clients expect?”

“Can’twe leave the business until dinner?”He flutters his fingers against the steering wheelas though waving the idea away. “I really want to know what youthink is so complicated.”

“Fine.”I exhale, putting myphone down. Like a puppy with a bone, he just can’t drop thesubject no matter how hard I try. “I don’t like guys who wantthings from me.”

“Likewhat?”

“Likeanything.” I shrug. “I have this ability to attract guyswho think I should be littleMiss Suzie Homemaker, or they want me to meet their mother. Theydecide I’m a keeper, but all I want is to have fun. I have othergoals.”

“Isn’tthat what I’m offering?”He frowns at me as he pulls into the circle drive in front of myhotel. “Fun. I don’t want you to meet my mother.”

“No.” Ismile. He doesn’t. And he’s almost still a kid himself, at leastmentally. The last thing I need isa boy man developing a crush on me. “But you knowmy mother, and that’s worse.”

“You’renot interested because I know your mother?”

“It’spart of it.” We climb out of the car, and he takes my suitcase outof the trunk. “Have you not noticed of late that she has certainexpectations for her children?”

“Babies.Lots of grandbabies.” He nods.“Erin and Garrett are happily obliging her.”

“So arePaynt and Chloe. And James and Myra. But it’s easier for them.There was no pressure on them to find the rightgirl to settle downwith. Only on the grandbabies part. For me, well, once she knowsI’m home, she’ll be calling nonstop to organize dates with herplumber’s son or her doctor’s grandson. She thinks I need somethingdifferent from what I want in my life, and I don’t want todisappoint her. If I made the mistake of... you know, she’d findout and we’d never hear the end of it. And that would make any funwe might have complicated.”

“I getit,” he says, and I think heactually does.

“So wecan agree?” I takemysuitcase from him. “Let’s concentrate on buildingRent-A-Danny.”

“Absolutely.”

“Pick me up atseven?” I ask as he walks around the car to go.

“I’ll behere.” He taps his fingers on the roof. “And I’ll think about whatyou were saying about what our customers can expect from ourservice.”

“Great.”

Heclimbs into the car and pulls out of the driveway as I drag mysuitcase through the hotel doors.

CHAPTER THREE

DANNY

“I know we’re supposed to meet to work outthe details, but I have a job for you.”

That’s the greeting I receive when I meetRonnie in the lobby of her hotel. Her hair is pulled back into asmooth ponytail, and she’s wearing jean shorts and thisoff-the-shoulder white top. With the pale gloss on her lips and thedistinct lack of heavy makeup, she’s probably going to get cardedwhen she orders wine with dinner.

Although dinner is, apparently, not with me.A shame, actually, because I was looking forward to getting to knowher more than I was eating a quality meal on someone else’sdime.

“You sure?” I say. I’ve been thinking aboutour conversation since I dropped her off earlier this afternoon.Not the work aspect of it—I couldn’t care less if we ever figureout those details. They’ll iron themselves out over time. No, Ican’t stop thinking abouther, what she said, what shedidn’t say.

Her worry over what her family thinks of heris surprising. First, they adore everything about her, with thesmall exception of her residence in New York. Like every Midwesternfamily, they’d rather she live closer to the nest. But other thanthat, she can do no wrong. She’s the only girl in a family of boys,she’s successful, smart, gorgeous, witty—hell, she’s damn nearperfect.

And she’s insecure over her perception ofwhat they think.

I get it, to a degree. I used to care whatmy parents thought, but it was too exhausting because in my case, Iwasn’t perfect. Far from it, in fact. And no matter how much my dadtried to coach me, I was never, ever going to be like him. Since herefused to give up trying, I gave up caring instead. Works well forall of us.

But Ronnie, she doesn’t have that problem.So why doesn’t she want them to know she’s home?

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