Escorting the Billionaire by Leigh James
(Escorting the Billionaire #1)
Publication date: April 30th 2015
Genres: New Adult, Romance
Synopsis:
Love don’t cost a thing…except everything.
When billionaire mogul James Preston hires an escort as a date for his brother’s wedding, he knows he’s taking a risk. One thing he won’t be taking? The escort’s clothes off. He just wants a date—not a girlfriend. Not a relationship. No strings. No ties. No games. No sex. He has his reasons. He lost someone he loved, and isn’t interested in trying again. Too many opportunities for mistakes or worse, heartbreak.
Audrey Reynolds became a high-end escort to keep her brother in his expensive group home. James Preston is the client of her dreams—he’s offering to pay her more money for two weeks than she’s ever made before. But James is…difficult. He’s gorgeous, troubled and all too human for Audrey’s business-like tastes. Determined to complete her assignment and collect the money, Audrey tries to play by James’s rules. But before she knows what’s happening, he’s rewriting the contract.
When Audrey ends up in James’s bed, he realizes that she’s everything he’s wanted…and everything he’s been running from.
This is PART ONE of the Escorting the Billionaire New Adult romance trilogy. It is novella-length (30,000 words) and has a wicked cliffhanger.
Excerpt
All I wanted was a date for my stupid asshole brother’s wedding.
Not a girlfriend. Not a relationship. A date.
No strings. No ties. No games.
No sex.
So when I called Elena at the escort service, I was very clear.
“I want someone beautiful. Who can function at high-society events,” I said. “She needs to be able to use her silverware properly and to be discreet. I can’t have someone who gets drunk and falls down in public. Also, no one who looks cheap. I don’t want a lot of makeup and big, fake boobs.”
“I don’t have any cheap-looking girls, Mr. Preston,” Elena said. “Unless the client is into that. Then I have plenty.” She laughed.
I waited for her to finish. “I need her to be available for two weeks. I have cocktail parties, lunches, brunches, the rehearsal dinner, then the wedding. And then for some ungodly reason, my brother wants us all to go on his honeymoon to the Caribbean with him. It’s going to be the wedding from hell.”
I sighed and rubbed my temples; two weeks with my family was going to be bad enough. And now I was going to have to babysit a hooker the whole time.
But it was better than going alone. I hoped.
“She’ll need a passport. And a drug test. I don’t want any users.” I winced, remembering the last time I’d hired an escort. It had been over ten years ago, but I still clearly remembered waking up and finding her in the bathroom, shooting up in between her toes.
I went on a penicillin and no-whore diet after that.
“All my girls are drug tested,” Elena said smoothly, “and they all have passports. They have to travel frequently. It’s not a problem.” She paused for a beat. “Speaking of tests, you’re going to have to be screened for STDs. I’ll need those results emailed to me before we make the final arrangements.”
“I’m not planning on actually sleeping with her—” I said.
“Excuse me?” Elena asked.
“I don’t want to sleep with her,” I insisted. “I need her as a buffer from my family.”
“Whatever you like,” Elena said sweetly. “But she will be young and gorgeous. And completely at your disposal.”
I exhaled and stalked around my living room, my footsteps bouncing off the hardwood floors. I was dressed in a suit and ready for work. I looked out at the sun rising over Los Angeles, the light flooding my house. I didn’t want to leave here. I had everything I needed, including my favorite leather couch and an enormous flatscreen television, and nothing I didn’t, including a prostitute and my family.
I didn’t argue with the madam. Still, I had no plans to sleep with the girl I was hiring—I wanted to keep her at arm’s length, just like everyone else. I didn’t want any messy emotional entanglements. I just needed a fake relationship to keep my family at bay. No more questions about why I was alone, no more wondering or whispers. The whispers that I was gay. Or worse, that I was lonely.
The truth was that I preferred to be alone, left to my own devices. And it was nobody’s damn business.
AUTHOR BIO:
Leigh James writes contemporary romance with a healthy dose of action and adventure. In addition to writing, endlessly re-watching "Pitch Perfect" and scouring the house for leftover Halloween candy to eat, Leigh is a wife and mother of three.
She is a magna cum laude graduate of the University of New Hampshire's Journalism program and earned her J.D. from Suffolk University School of Law in Boston.
She lives with her husband and children in New Hampshire.
Join my mailing list at www.leighjamesbooks.com.
She is a magna cum laude graduate of the University of New Hampshire's Journalism program and earned her J.D. from Suffolk University School of Law in Boston.
She lives with her husband and children in New Hampshire.
Join my mailing list at www.leighjamesbooks.com.
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