“Why did you lie to me? I asked you a hundred times and you always said no. D’you know how that makes me feel?”

I sputtered. “What? I didn’t want to go because I thought you and Ben needed time alone. I just feel weird being the third wheel.”

Natalie opened her mouth but I changed tact with lightning speed. “I’ll be able to wire you rent money from abroad, so you don’t have to worry about that.”

“I know you’re really excited about this, but I don’t know. I hope nothing bad happens.”

I wished that she would give it a rest with the whole prostitution thing. “I’ve told you a thousand times, I’m not going to trade sexual favors for money.”

“I’m not talking about that. What if you legitimately fall in love with this guy? He’ll break your heart. You’re already smitten.”

Who cares? I’m making ten thousand dollars a month. “We have chemistry,” I shrugged. “I’m not going to avoid this amazing experience just because something bad might happen. I’ll probably never have this opportunity again.”

Natalie relented. “Well, I hope it’s worth it.”

The doorbell rang. “Who’s that?”

Flustered, she ran to answer the door. “Ben. We wanted to have dinner—” she opened the door. “Hi, honey!”

Ben’s voice boomed through the apartment, and I abandoned my packing with a sigh. A plastic smile on my face, I went to greet Natalie’s boyfriend.

“Hey, Ben. How’s life?”

“Good!”

Tall with Norwegian features like fair skin and blonde hair, Ben’s blue eyes sparked as he swept me into a hug.

“So, I heard that you’re dating a billionaire?”

He cackled as I glared at Natalie. “How’s the law firm?”

Lucky for me, he happily seized on the topic and talked about it for a while. Still filled with anxiety over the trip, I tried my best enjoy the rest of the night. Tomorrow, Luke’s driver would bring me to SFO. He also paid for my passport’s rush processing, and it arrived on Monday. Until a courier dropped off the one-way ticket from San Francisco International to Heathrow, it was hard to really believe I was leaving.

I’ve never been on a plane. It was going to be awesome.

After Ben left, I finished packing and double triple checked everything. Unsure about the length of the trip, I filled two suitcases and a backpack. I was ready to leave hours before the driver came to pick me up the next morning, and Natalie worked from home acting as anxious as I felt. She didn’t help matters by constantly fussing over me.

“Where’s your ticket? Did you pack your passport?”

I quadruple-checked my backpack. “They’re both here.” It was ten o’clock, the time Luke said he would pick me up. What if he had changed his mind?

“Did you pack Chapstick?”

My stomach lurched. Crap. “I don’t know.” I sprinted to the bathroom and skidded to a halt as I heard the doorbell ring.

Natalie bolted to the door and wrenched it open.

A pleasant, deep voice filled the room. “Hello, you must be Natalie. It’s a pleasure.”

I heard Luke’s voice down the hallway and jumped, feeling close to laughter. I rummaged through my drawer and seized a tiny tube, and then I walked towards them both, my heart hammering my ribs.

I could tell that Natalie was taken aback. She replied back a few seconds later than she should have. “Nice to meet you.”

He was looking hot, as usual. I had never seen him wear jeans, but he wore a fitted pair that showed off his long, muscled legs and a shirt that made me want to run my hands all over his body. He smiled at me over Natalie’s shoulder. “Ready to go?”

Mute, Natalie turned around with her face frozen in impolite shock.

He’s a dreamboat. I nodded at him.

He smiled at both of us, bemused by our mute voices. “Um, I’ll just get your bags.” He stepped in and grabbed one of the suitcases. Lifting it easily, he turned around to reveal a perfectly carved ass.

“God,” I moaned as I watched him load the suitcase in the car.

“You weren’t kidding,” she commented in a breathless, dreamy sigh as she watched Luke.

The driver took my suitcase from my hands and hurried down the steps to help Luke.

“I guess this is it,” I said as Natalie’s eyes misted over, and a lump formed in my throat in response. “If you cry, I’ll cry.”

She seized my neck painfully and pulled me into a fierce hug. “I’m not crying,” she said in a thick voice. “Call me when you get there, and be safe for God’s sake.”

Luke climbed back up the steps with the same smile. “She’ll be safe with me. It was nice meeting you, Natalie.”

I gently disengaged myself from Natalie’s death grip and shouldered my backpack. “I hope you have a good holiday. I’ll be back soon.”

I took Luke’s outstretched hand and descended the steps, turning back to smile and wave at Natalie’s panicked face. Once inside, I moved over the smooth leather interior for Luke.

Instead of the town car, Luke had arrived in a limousine. It looked wildly out of place in this shitty neighborhood. Across the street, a woman smoking in her plastic lawn chair stared at us, the cigarette burning in her fingertips. I shook my head and gazed at the interior. A dark glass partition separated the driver from us. There was a champagne bottle on ice in the limo, TV screens, and blinking yellow lights on the ceiling. This is so cool.

The ugly streets of Concord rolled by the long window. I couldn’t believe I was leaving it all behind. I looked around at Luke, whose arm was stretched over the leather. He was studying me quietly, perhaps regretting the whole thing. I couldn’t imagine a more unlikely couple.

“We should think of a backstory for ourselves. People are bound to ask.”

He looked at me thoughtfully. “Before we do that, I want to make something clear.” Any hint of humor dropped from his face. “This will never be anything more than a business relationship.”

“I know that.” I raised my eyebrow. Where was this coming from? Was my attraction to him that obvious? “What makes you think I would want to be with you?”

Now he looked like he had been punched in the gut.

Yeah, serves you right, you pompous jerk.

He quickly recovered and a smug grin flashed on his face. “Don’t you?”

Electricity shot up my spine; I was in dangerous territory. “Maybe I wouldn’t want to be talked down to all the time by your old boy network, boarding school buddies. Or your family.”