First Date (The Hollywood Dating Agency Book 1) Page 6

  “I’m going to come!”

  He thrust one last time as she toppled over the brink with him, their bodies tumbling into ecstasy together.

  She couldn’t help it. The tears came on full pelt now. She was aware how embarrassing it was to cry after sex and she didn’t care, all she felt was relief. Relief and a glowing contentment. Their bodies were still meshed together. He was still inside. He pulled out and wiped her tears away with his finger.

  “What’s wrong?” His voice was full of concern.

  “I’ve never been so happy in my whole life. Thank you!”

  She kissed him then, a lazy kiss full of joy and of shared experience.

  They lay there for the longest time, entwined in each other’s arms before deciding to take another dip in the ocean.

  The sun had completely gone from the sky and so they were illuminated only by the moonlight, turning their bodies a pale blue against the inky ocean.

  Now that she was finally free of the crippling secret that had consumed her for more than a decade, she revelled in touching Richard’s body, not afraid anymore of what it might lead to. She wrapped her legs around him as the warm waves lapped around them. Neither had bothered to put bathing suits on, it seemed pointless in the dark night. They were secluded and even if a night time ambler happened across them, she didn’t even care. So what if someone saw her breasts?

  Damn, how much the last few hours had changed her. She had never felt so carefree in all her life.

  She wrapped her arms around him, kissing him. He was holding her entire weight, using the buoyancy of the water to help him.

  She could feel his cock, once more erect and pushing against her. She pulled her hand down and guided him to the right place, before easing herself onto him.

  His eyes went wide. “You are getting rather forward now!” He smiled at her.

  “Shut up and fuck me,” she replied before kissing him deeply.

  Their lovemaking a second time was more leisurely and fun, with none of the fear and pain. It was also cut short by a wave sweeping Richard off his feet, the pair of them falling under the water. They came up laughing.

  They swam back to the beach where they finished what they had started.

  Afterwards they laid together soaking up the sun.

  Juliette had never felt so open and womanly and so utterly wanton in her whole life. She couldn’t help the grin that spread across her face as she laid next to Richard, her fingers entwined with his.

  She closed her eyes, wondering about all the missed opportunities. If she’d had known how amazing it was, she’d have done this a whole lot sooner and yet, she didn’t want to worry about the might have beens, because without them, she wouldn’t be here now, laying on a beach with the most beautiful man by her side. Jake had sure done a number on her all those years ago and yet she found herself mentally thanking him, for everything that had happened so far in her life had brought her to this point, and this point was exactly where she wanted to be.

  The hours on the beach, turned into days of making love and frolicking in the sea. They finally left the beach house, three days later than planned and only because she felt too guilty leaving Jean alone in the library.

  Driving back to LA was torture. The memories of the last few days were indelibly marked on her brain, and yet driving into the noise and smog of her home town felt like she was leaving some wonderful part of herself behind.

  “We have to do that again!” she said as he dropped her off at her house.

  “The cabin is always there. We can go back up whenever you want.”

  He walked her to the door – finally able to do this gentlemanly gesture and kissed her chastely on the cheek.

  “Don’t think that you are going to get away with that,” she said laughing and pulling him into an embrace filled with passion.

  Richard

  What was matter with him? He was a constant walking hard on these days. It was like being seventeen again, but without being able to bunk off school. He’d missed so much work, that he was putting in double shifts to make up for it. It actually worked out for the best because a prospective client was impressed with his dedication and decided to choose him over a competitor. Good job, he’d not been around a week ago.

  He thought back to the beach house and the time he’d spent there. His brain seemed to automatically tune into the same thought, playing over and over in his mind. He’d not seen Juliette for a nearly a week and it was killing him, but they had already made plans to spend the weekend back up at the cabin. He’d talked to her every night on his phone, sometimes for hours. He couldn’t get enough of listening to her voice, hearing what she had been up to.

  The day after they’d returned from the cabin he’d looked up the Hollywood Dating Agency. He felt a great need to thank them for all that they had done for him. It was exceptionally difficult to find. He’d scoured the internet and even called 411 to track it down to no avail. He was just about to call Tony to ask him, when he found a webpage with the initials HDA written in a plain font in shadowed white with a white background and an address underneath. That was it. No pictures, no information.

  After work, he bought a bunch of flowers and went to the address. It was a non-descript tower block in the classier part of town.

  A very attractive receptionist wouldn’t allow him in to see the owner without an appointment, so he left the flowers with her to pass on as a thank you. They joined all the other vases of flowers that filled the office. She thrust a white card into his hand. It was the same as the web page. White on white. He absentmindedly put it in his pocket so not to offend, but he knew he wouldn’t be needing it. His dating days were over for good, at least with anyone but Juliette.

  When Tony called asking to meet him at Maxim’s on Friday lunch time, he couldn’t very well say no. After all, it was because of Tony, he now felt he had a reason to live again.

  Tony was waiting for him outside as usual as he pulled up in his car. This time there were no pretty ladies for him to ogle.

  “Ricardo, my man! Where have you been?”

  “I’ll tell you inside!”

  Marnie thrust a couple of beers in their direction as they took their regular seats at the bar.

  “So how did it go? She was a very pretty girl,” said Marnie, breaking her own rules and resting her elbows on the polished counter to join in the gossip.

  “What girl?” asked Tony before widening his eyes. “You don’t mean the woman from the dating agency?”

  “Tony,” replied Richard. “You are a god and a true friend! Thank you!” He kissed his friend on both cheeks, Italian style, causing Tony to almost drop his beer.

  “It went well then?” laughed Marnie.

  “I’ve got one for you too!” Richard leaned forward and pulled Marnie towards him, kissing her on both her cheeks as well, and adding one on the lips for good measure.

  Her cheeks flamed which amused Richard no end. He’d never seen Marnie embarrassed before.

  She took hold of her cloth and found an imaginary bit of dirt to clean up at the other end of the bar, to hide her tomato coloured face.

  “Don’t tell me you got laid?”

  “A gentleman never kisses and tells,” replied Richard with a grin on his face.

  “You sly dog you! The agency gave me a discount because there was a no sex clause.”

  “And yet you didn’t think to tell me this before my date?”

  “I didn’t want to spoil your dinner,” replied Tony

  Richard laughed. That was typical Tony.

  “You are so thoughtful!”

  He shouted his order of two burgers and fries over to Marnie and pulled out his wallet to pay. The card from the LA Dating Agency fell out. He’d completely forgotten about it until now.

  He fingered the corner, almost ready to throw it away, when his gaze landed on Tony.

  Tony had never been short on women. For some odd reason, they flocked to him, like moths to a flame and yet he
was a lonely man. In all the years Rick had known him, he’d never had a relationship that lasted longer than it took to eat dinner.

  Sacha had performed a miracle for him, could she possibly do the same for Tony?

  The cost didn’t matter. A thousand dollars was nothing to him.

  “So tell me about this gorgeous woman,” grinned Tony.

  “Just a second,” replied Rick, getting up from the bar, taking his phone out of his pocket. “I have a quick call to make.”

  Outside of Maxim’s he held out the card and dialled the number carefully.

  He recognised the honeyed tones of the receptionist he’d met earlier.

  “Good afternoon. Hollywood Dating Agency, How may I assist you?”

  Try Orion

  Orion sneak peek by Skye Sirena and J.A.Armitage

  Chapter one

  Orion

  “Fuck me harder Orion baby.” She had the face of an angel and the mouth of a sailor. It was a great combination for her profession but a god-awful one for a woman in the company of a lord.

  Unfortunately, her particular brand of profanity usually had the opposite effect of what she was trying to achieve. Thoughts of lines of paying lovers came into my mind and I stopped what I was doing and rolled away from her, feeling mildly revolted.

  I picked up the pack of cigarettes, left on the cheap bedside cabinet and pulled two out, handing one to her. Smoking – another vice a lady shouldn’t have, nor a lord for that matter.

  “I’m sorry Orion.” She pouted, but with her it was real, not like all those duck faces the Hearts made when anyone with a camera was near. That’s why she was my go to girl from After Dark. She was the only Club that worked there although with her badly dyed blonde hair and fake tits, you’d never know it. The only things giving her away were the pointed tips of her ears and her diminutive size, both traits of my kind.

  After Dark was the most exclusive, most discrete and quite frankly most disgustingly expensive brothel in Cerce, probably in the whole of Vanatus.

  Of course, no one called it a brothel. It was referred to as a gentlemen’s club but essentially, the men paid an exorbitant amount to enter and the women would do whatever you wanted as long as you had the bank balance to make it worth it.

  And I could afford it. I’d only been there once. I’d only needed to. I’d met Ember there that first night and one night with her had been enough to convince me to rent a small house in Cerce for her. I paid her a handsome sum of money to keep her away from After Dark. She was discrete, stunningly beautiful in an artificial way and pretended I was the only man she slept with. I pretended the same thing but when she opened that mouth of hers and let rip with over the top sex noises, it never failed to remind me of exactly what she was.

  Our arrangement was pretty much perfect for the both of us. As the nephew of the King of Clubs, I couldn’t be seen with a prostitute, but on the other hand I didn’t want the commitment of a girlfriend. Ember had been living in After Dark with the other girls and had no independence. Getting her a house seemed like the ideal solution. I came to visit whenever I pleased and she was always ready and willing to accept me.

  I took a drag of the cigarette and looked over at her. She was very pleasing on the eye. Her rosy cheeks and deep pink lips were worthy of any Heart but, like all the other women of Cerce, she tried too hard.

  “I have an appointment with the king this afternoon so I can’t stay much longer,” I said dismissively, flicking ash onto the wooden floor.

  “Don’t do that, you’ll ruin the floor,” she admonished me, passing me a cup to flick my ash into.

  This was another reason I liked her. She didn’t give a flying fuck who my uncle was. I had a line of debutants who wet their panties every time I mentioned my royal connections, waiting for me back in The Clublands. I couldn’t stand them, a bunch of pathetic, drippy, social climbers who would only go down on you if you promised them a ring and a title.

  “You know, you should probably meet my family.” Both of us knew I didn’t mean it.

  “Like that’s ever going to happen.” She inhaled deeply then blew out the smoke seductively through the smallest gap between her lips. Just that tiny gesture had me hard again. Being with her was singularly the most thrilling and the most frustrating thing I’d ever had to bear.

  “I want you to meet them.” I lied “We’ve been doing this for eleven months now and it’s a bloody miracle that no one’s seen us. I’m running out of excuses to come to Cerce to see you.”

  “You are being ridiculous. What do you really think we can do about this? You’re a lord and I’m a whore. We are almost a bad cliché.”

  “Don’t call yourself that!”

  “Why not? That’s what I am.” She was also the most truthful person I’d ever met. Painfully so. It didn’t bother her either. That title. Whore. She used it enough, not bothering to sugarcoat it. There was no ‘lady of the night’ with her. She called herself a whore and argued with anyone who tried to tell her otherwise. Well, she argued with me anyway.

  “Eliza. You’ve not slept with anyone but me for nearly a year. How does that make you a whore?”

  “You are paying for this house, for the clothes I wear and for the food I eat and I’m sleeping with you. I would say that’s the classic definition of a whore.”

  “It’s also the classic definition of a housewife,” I countered which just made her laugh and made me cringe. What was going on with me today?

  “I don’t think your parents will see it that way.”

  “Well they don’t know you like I do.”

  “And thank fuck for that!” she said rolling her smooth naked body onto mine. “I promise to be more ladylike this time.”

  Who was I to resist?

  “Ah, Orion, So glad you could come,” my aunt, the Queen of Clubs kissed both of my cheeks as I stepped into the royal castle.

  As if I’d been given any choice in the matter!

  “The king is waiting to see you. You know where his study is!”

  “I don’t suppose you know what this is about do you?” I asked, warily.

  “Not a clue but what with things the way they are and war looming on the horizon, I’m afraid he’s run out of children to recruit to help with things.”

  If he planned to tell me I had to join his army, I was out of there. I thanked the Queen and made my way to the King’s study.

  “Come in,” he yelled gruffly, followed by a huge cough. I opened the door to find plumes of smoke floating around the room.

  “Ah Orion my boy. So glad you could come! Take a seat, take a seat, you don’t mind if I smoke do you?”

  “Smoke away,” I replied, knowing him well enough to know that he couldn’t go longer than three minutes without his pipe in his mouth.

  “So, the thing is, I’ve asked Juniper to go on a mission for me. There is trouble brewing in the Spadelands and I don’t like the look of it. They are gearing up for war against the Hearts and of course we are right in the bloody middle. It’s not good, not good at all. The idiot Hearts do what they bally well please and I already nearly lost one daughter to them so I can’t send anyone there.”

  My uncle had a tendency to rabbit on unless you stopped him. I had no idea what he was talking about but I didn’t have the time to sit and listen to him waffle until he got to the point. The smoke was making my eyes water enough as it was.

  “How can I be of service uncle?” I interrupted, not even attempting to keep the boredom from my voice. With any luck it was a quick and simple job.

  “I don’t want Juniper to go alone, you see. It’s a very important mission and I know you two are pretty close so I thought you could go with him, be his wingman so to speak.”

  Wingman? He was hardly describing a night of picking up girls in a bar. Diffusing situations in a country gearing up for war. And the bloody Spades at that. Um no thanks! Fuck that shit. They were all animals, quite literally.

  “Uncle, I hardly think…”

/>   “It’s already booked. Two tickets on the Urbis Express leaving this evening. I’ve also booked you both into the best hotel in Notston Now don’t you worry. I don’t expect you to actually do anything. You just need to be there for moral support.”

  He began to cough and wave his hands around to dispel the cloud of smoke he was disappearing behind.

  My gut reaction was to say hell no, but the thought of a week’s all expenses holiday did have merits. Ok, it was in the Spadelands but if I could wing it, maybe I could take Ember with me. A week away from my mother with Ember, holed up in a posh hotel room might not be so bad after all.

  “Can I bring a..er..girlfriend?”

  “You’ve found yourself a nice filly have you? Good for you my lad. Yes, I’ll get Heather to sort out the extra ticket. You’ll be leaving at seven on the dot and I’ll get Juniper to meet you at the station.”

  “Thanks uncle.” I grinned as I left the castle. On the way to Montague Hall, my ancestral home, I called Ember. Cell phones were extremely rare in the Clublands and only the richest could afford them.

  “Ember, it’s me. Pack your bags, we are going on a trip.”

  “I’m afraid Ember is with a client at the moment. Can I ask who this is?” an unmistakably deep and rich voice boomed out at me from the phone. I recognised it immediately. It was Madame Blanchard, the madam at After Dark. Bloody Ember! She’d promised me that I was her only client. Ok, I hadn’t really believed her but it was still a punch in the gut to have it confirmed. Monsatsu, I was angry. I’d agreed to go on a week-long trip and now it looked like I was going to be stuck in a hotel room on my own while Juniper met a load of boring Spade dignitaries.

  “Fuck!” I said aloud, irritation plain in my voice.

  “That’s just the service we provide.”I could almost hear her smile on the other end of the phone. “Am I to assume this is Lord Orion Club?”

  “Yes, I need her. Can you get her away from her john?”

  “I’m afraid you know as well as I do that I can’t interrupt a session. That is not After Dark’s way.”

  Fuck Fuck Fuckity Fuck!