Then she moved back, only inches, her hand went from his waist and she did something that surprised him yet again.
She lifted her hand and used her thumb to wipe her lip gloss gently from his mouth, the whole time she watched her thumb’s movements.
It surprised him because it was not something a woman did to a man she’d only just met. It was also not something a woman did for a man she did not like.
It was something a man’s woman did for him.
Before Cash could react, she was walking away, swinging her coat on as she went, yanking her hair out of the collar with a casual movement of her arm.
He watched her hair tumble down her back as she walked out the door.
Yes, Cash thought as he reached for his own coat, she’ll do.
Chapter Two
Abby’s Reason
“Are you nuts?” Jenny shrieked after Abby told her the unusual turn of events that occurred at the pub an hour before. Abby watched as her friend shook her head forcefully before shouting, “I didn’t sign up for this!”
Abby pulled her bare heels up to the edge of the couch she was sitting on and wrapped her arms around her jeans-clad legs (she’d changed out of her Ice Queen outfit upon arriving home). The whole while she did this, she kept her eyes on her irate best friend.
Jenny was probably right, she was nuts.
She had to be.
What was she thinking, agreeing to have sex with someone for money?
It wasn’t nuts, it was insane.
However, there was the not-so-insignificant fact that she was going to be two hundred thousand pounds richer.
Two hundred thousand pounds.
She still couldn’t believe it and when she thought of it she wondered what on earth Cash Fraser was thinking.
Cash Fraser, the man, the legend.
He’d become known to the human populace just over a year ago when someone leaked that he was the real man behind the story of a box-office topping action movie about a brilliant industrial spy ring breaker (who even knew there was such a job in real life) that all the big multinationals turned to and paid millions upon millions of pounds (so they could save billions) when they had a problem.
It was then that the dangerous, thrill-seeking, gorgeous Cash Fraser was uncovered.
Once he was exposed the media went nuts.
This was mainly because he looked like a movie star but also because he acted like a dangerous action man.
Uncommonly tall, dark and handsome, standing at six foot four (and she discovered this afternoon that was tall) with a lean, muscled, broad-shouldered body and a thick head of so-dark-brown-it-was-nearly-black, almost-but-not-quite curly hair he wore in a way that was far too long for any other man but looked messy and sexy on him. He had the most unbelievable black eyes she’d ever seen. They were liquid black, their colour shocking in its depth and intensity.
And he had a way about him that translated in print when some journalist described it (and she’d witnessed it firsthand) and in pictures when the paparazzi captured it. This was probably due to the fact that he was not the kind of man who wanted people to write about him and take photos of him and print them in papers and he made that pretty clear in a variety of dangerous, action man ways.
This behaviour only threw fuel on the fire.
For instance, a couple of times he made it clear by ripping a camera out of some photographer’s hands and destroying it (and, on one occasion, giving the photographer a broken nose).
He’d had some trouble with that, something about which he also didn’t care.
He had enough money to pay fines and attorneys and buy new cameras. His job, due to its rarity and danger, paid well. At least it did in the movie and if the way he dressed (the navy suit with the deep lilac, expertly-tailored shirt and expensive tie he wore that afternoon was lush) and the easy way he could spend a couple hundred thousand pounds on a pre-paid girlfriend proved this as fact.
There were probably some women out there (maybe not just some, maybe scores, maybe thousands) who’d pay Cash Fraser that amount of money for just one smile directed at them (Abby had already had two, she’d counted, and they were good).
And, Abby figured, these women would no doubt pay a whole lot more to have a shot at servicing him in his bed.
The very idea of Cash Fraser paying them wouldn’t even be considered.
And she had to face it, the bottom line was, Abby needed the money.
Further, she no longer had anything to lose. Jenny knew that. Everyone knew that. Even her neighbour, nosy, crazy, maddening “keep your cat out of my garden” Mrs. Truman knew that.
Yes, Abigail Butler had a lot to gain from this deal – two hundred thousand pounds to be exact.
At least this was what she preferred to focus on, not the fact that she’d just become a very highly paid prostitute even if it was to a good-looking, wealthy, industrial spy ring breaker who had an action movie based on his life.
Abby pushed these thoughts aside and said softly, “Jenny, calm down.”
Jenny’s dark brown eyes grew wide.
“Calm? You want me to be calm?” she asked then yelled, “You just agreed to sleep with a man for money!”
Abby let her legs go and stood, taking a quick step across her living room to get close to her friend. “Be quiet!” she snapped. “Pete’s here!”
“I don’t care!” Jenny snapped back but thankfully quieter this time. “Since you’ve apparently lost your ever-loving mind, I’m considering this a one-woman intervention. If Pete wants to join in all the better!”
Abby had known Jenny since they met as roommates their freshman year at university twenty years ago. Over the decades, even when there were sometimes thousands of miles between them, they’d stayed very, very close.
Regardless of her auburn hair, Jennifer Kane was usually pretty mellow and laid back.
Unless she was inebriated or angry, then she was pretty crazy and very loud.
Like, for instance, now.
Abby tried to use logic. “Tell me what’s changed since Kieran went to James and offered my um…” Abby hesitated then forged on, “services.”
“Well,” Jenny started, her voice dripping with sarcasm, “when I overheard James talking to Cash Fraser at that party and came up with my wild scheme to pretend you were a high-class, very discreet escort after thinking about my stubborn, silly, stupid best friend not letting me and Kieran help her, even though we can, even though we don’t mind, even though we both love her like crazy and we want to help, I thought my brilliantly stupid idea may be a good way for you to earn some quick money to get you out of a pickle. At the time I talked you and Kieran into the idea, and Kieran into approaching James, which I’ll remind you he really didn’t want to do, as in really –”