You've Got Male novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: Her Date

Kellen plays her old friend before 180 guests, and she takes a second room; at dawn he refunds her fee and Lyle texts that they are coming up.

Lyle looked at the man's hand on mine, and his smile did not move.

"Cassidy," he said. "Introduce us."

I had no plan.

What I had was a stranger's warm hand and a hundred and eighty guests down the hall.

"This is Kellen," I said. "He crewed the committee boat at the Barnwell Cup for years."

"Six years," Kellen said, and shook my husband's hand.

"Your wife was always the one handing sandwiches to the kids on the dock."

His grip on Lyle's hand went white at the knuckles for one second, then loosened.

I noticed it, and I did not understand it.

"What a surprise," Lyle said. "Cassidy never mentioned you."

"I wasn't invited," Kellen said easily. "I was in the bar."

"She found me, and I told her I'd be a bad guest and a good dancer."

Lyle laughed, because there were people watching.

"Then by all means," he said. "Dance with my wife."

Kellen walked me into the ballroom.

The band slid into a slow song.

His hand settled on my waist, light and steady, and the room blurred at the edges.

"Breathe," he murmured against my hair. "Your husband is smiling at us like he's counting."

"He is."

"Good. Let him count."

"You don't have to do this for nine hundred dollars," I said.

"I know exactly what I have to do for nine hundred dollars."

He turned me under his arm.

He moved well, with the loose ease of a man who had spent his life on a deck.

I felt every inch of where his palm rested on my back.

It was nothing like Lyle's hand.

Lyle's hand had been a pose.

Across the floor, Francine sat at the head table with her pearls and her cane.

She watched us over a champagne flute.

She raised the glass slightly, and I knew a warning when I saw one.

When the song ended, Lyle appeared at my elbow.

"Cassidy, darling." His voice was syrup. "It's getting late. Shall we go up?"

The honeymoon suite was on the ninth floor.

The folder was on the nightstand, I was sure of it, with the pen beside it.

"I have the toasts to sit through," I said. "My father's friends are about to cry."

"Go on up and wait for me."

He studied me.

For a second, I saw the real face behind the wedding one.

Then he kissed my cheek and went.

I stood on the dance floor in my gown, shaking.

"You okay?" Kellen asked, close behind me.

"I need a room," I said. "Not that one."

"You don't have a back-up room?"

"My aunt was supposed to stay tonight and she cancelled. It's booked under Barnwell."

"Then we find it," he said.

He walked me out through the service hall and past the elevators, one hand loose at my back.

Room 412 was at the end of a quiet corridor.

The key card clicked, and the door swung open on a plain white bed.

I turned to thank him.

He was standing very close.

Up close his eyes were the green of river water in October.

He had a small dimple in his left cheek that he was trying to keep from showing.

"You hired me for the evening," I said. My voice came out lower than I meant. "The evening isn't over."

"No," he said.

"You could come in."

He looked at my mouth.

I watched him look.

Then he stepped back half a pace and put his hands in his pockets.

"You've been married a few hours," he said. "You're angry and you're frightened."

"I'd be a lot of things if I walked through that door," he said. "I won't be that one."

"You think I don't know what I want?"

"I think you know exactly what you want," he said. "I think it's a great deal."

"I think it should be given freely, on a day when his mother isn't counting your steps," he said.

I should have been furious.

Instead I laughed, a small, startled, relieved laugh.

"I'm not sure how to feel about being turned down by a man I paid."

"Feel nothing. Sleep."

"Is that part of the job?"

"No," he said. "That part's free."

He tipped an imaginary hat, and walked away down the corridor.

At the corner he turned back and looked at me for a long time.

I locked the door, and slid the chain across, and lay down in my gown.

I did not sleep.

At dawn my phone lit up on the pillow.

The first message was from Harbor Lights Companions.

"A refund of $900.00 has been issued to your card at the companion's request. Thank you for your business."

The second was from a number I did not know.

"Don't worry about the money. Call me about Monday. K."

The third was from my husband.

"Mother found the room number. We're coming up."

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