Read No Strings Attached (The Escort #1) Online
Authors: Kristen Strassel
No Strings Attached (The Escort #1) (19 page)
The clock Was Ticking
. Less than ninety days. Five million dollars. One winner. My dad had concocted the reality show from hell. But there was no camera crew, no confessional and no actual competition. Just me vs. Bret.
There was no way I was letting him get that money. He’d blow it all on his stupid band, drugs, and sleazy sex. I wanted to use it to save animals. I was never one to whine about life not being fair, but this was an excellent example of just that.
“Did you know about this before Mom read the will?” I asked. Bret had stayed home tonight, probably too shell-shocked to go anywhere after that bombshell. Unless he was in on the fix the whole time. I’d joined him on the back deck.
“No. How would I have known about it? The lawyer had the will until today.” Bret curled his lip in disgust. We were polishing off the rest of the rum punch and probably shouldn’t be talking about this tonight. Or ever. It was ridiculous and we were letting it have power over us.
“Maybe Dad told you.” I wasn’t backing down from my conspiracy theory. “You’ve been awfully nice to me lately. And…” The way he’d touched me when he put the sunscreen on, I shivered just thinking about it. I caught myself before I said that out loud.
“And what? I’ve been nice to you because we’ve been going through some serious shit lately and I thought maybe we could be adults and put everything in our past behind us. Not because I was trying to scam Dad’s money out of you.” Bret scoffed, shaking his head. “But if that’s not what you want, fine with me. No love lost here, Gem. And you can kiss that money goodbye. I’ll wipe my ass with it before I let you have it.”
I couldn’t see Bret anymore. There was just a black hole in the middle of my red hot rage. “How can I just magically forget everything you’ve done to me? Like ‘poof!’ it doesn’t exist anymore?”
“Like what?”
“Let’s see. You fucked every one of my girlfriends and then they’d come crying after they figured out you were using them…” He’d string them long enough that they’d think he actually cared about them. Every time. The impact hurt like hell when they fell out of the clouds with no warning. I knew it because they landed on me.
“Not my problem they were easy.” The black hole shrugged. “Maybe you needed friends that respected themselves.”
That comment wasn’t easy to ignore. “Any time any guy was interested in me, you’d suddenly become their BFF and they’d never talk to me again. I didn’t even have a boyfriend until college.” And then I tore a page out of Bret’s book, making up for lost time in a hurry. What can I say, I learned from the best. I just needed fresh meat.
He leaned forward, smirking. “Did you ever consider maybe they were using you to get to me? That they never wanted you in the first place?”
Oh, I was going to kill him. “So you’re gay now?”
“I don’t limit myself, Gem.”
I scoffed. “That’s for sure.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Don’t tell him about the videos.
“Nothing.” I took a deep breath and tried to calm down. “Listen, I need that money, Bret. I’m over two hundred thousand dollars in debt to NYU and I can’t get a job doing anything more than scooping up dog shit until I go to grad school which is completely out of the question right now.”
“I need it too,” Bret said, completely straight faced. “I’m an artist.”
“You’re an asshole.” He actually had the nerve to laugh. “I had to go to the food pantry before I left New York. Do you know how that feels?”
“Yeah. Actually I do.”
“Bullshit, rock star.” He’d been on tour for the better part of two years. He was really going to try to go toe to toe with me on this? No way.
“This tour is all for publicity. Do you know how expensive it is to go on a tour on another continent? The band gets paid last. After the crew, the record label, and the fucking accountants. If we get paid at all. There are days I don’t fucking eat.”
“Don’t liquid diets count?”
Bret grinned. “At least I own my choices. We’ve all got to do what we need to do to get shit done.” His gaze fell back to its regularly scheduled programming, my cleavage. “Are those real?”
He did not just ask me that. “What?”
“Your tits.” Oh yes, he did.
“Really? That’s all you can think about right now?” So typical Bret to ask me if I’ve had breast implants in the middle of a knock-down drag out argument. “And you haven’t stopped looking at them since you got here.”
He shrugged. “You’ve got great tits.”
“Of course they’re real. I don’t have any money to modify my body parts. And what’s wrong with you? You’re my stepbrother. I can’t believe you fucking said that.” If he only knew how I thought about him, he’d make my life a living hell.
“Like I said before, all it means is that my dad married your mom. I never considered you my sister.”
“Tell me about it.” I had to walk away from him. I didn’t want him to know how much that hurt me. I couldn’t have him in any capacity. And even worse that I wanted him any way I could have him. I leaned against the railing and watched the filter bubble in the pool.
Bret followed me. No surprise, since he had no regard for boundaries. Or decency. Or anything else civilized people did. “I don’t know what you do with your money,” he said softly.
I turned around to face him. I only came up to his shoulders. His T-shirt strained against his chest, and the heat radiating from his body in the hot night left dew on my skin. I lifted my chin. “How are we going to do this? We could split it down the middle. Fuck the lawyers. It’s the only thing that makes any sense.”
“That’s no fun.” Bret shook his head. “And if Dad wanted that, he would’ve written it in the will that way. He wanted this for a reason.”
“Fine. Whatever. You’re flat broke, I’m flat broke. What do you propose?”
“Exactly what Dad would want us to do. We’re going to work for it. Whoever needs it more gets the money. But whoever wins gets it because they proved they deserved it.”
Fuck. It was like Dad was here, saying those words. It was exactly what he’d want. I’d always respected his work ethic and it made me strive to be better. No matter what the sacrifice. If I wanted it that bad, I’d get it. But this was insane. “You’ve got to be kidding me. How are we going to do that?”
“Let me untie your dress.” That tone was back, the low one that vibrated deep in my body.
“What did you just say to me?” Holy shit. All my nerves instantly went into overdrive, my skin tingled like fireworks breaking in low clouds. There was no fucking way we could actually do this. No matter what Bret thought about our relationship, we
were
related. Sure, it was just by marriage, but we called the same man Dad. I looked up at him, gearing up to tell him exactly where to go, but I couldn’t say a word when I saw the look in his eyes. Heavy-lidded with lust, steely and determined, I knew one thing: Bret was willing to work for what he wanted, too.
I understood why perfectly sane females turned into complete bimbos in his presence. Bret Starling was going to be the death of me.
Bret took a half a step closer. He knew he had me. “You say you’ve got the real deal going on under there? I want to see them.”
“You’re disgusting.”
“And you’re pretty hot when you’re disgusted.” He grinned. “Show me yours and I’ll show you mine.”
I rolled my eyes. “I’ve seen your nipples a thousand times.” All I could think about was sucking on those silver rings. Damn it. There was no winning this argument.
“That’s not what I’m talking about.” He looked down, his tongue playing with the inside of his bottom lip. The electricity danced in his eyes like a heartbeat.
“I’ve seen that, too. You’ve got your shit all over the internet,” I scoffed, calling his bluff. It was the perfect chance to own up to watching those videos and keep the ball in my court. “Shouldn’t you leak a sex tape if you want to get famous and make money? Isn’t that how it’s done? You don’t make any money on Tumblr, dumb ass.”
Bret stepped even closer to me. “What did you think?” he asked, his voice husky.
This close to him I could hardly breathe. He looked down at me, lips parted, waiting for my answer. He managed to completely unravel me without actually doing anything. Besides pissing me off. “I couldn’t stop watching you,” I whispered.
And there went my balls, rolling away from me, along with my self-control and any shred of decency. Right into the gutter where they belonged.
He leaned in. I tried to prepare myself mentally for the kiss. This was insane. Something was about to happen that was going to change everything.
Other Books by Kristen Strassel
The Spotlight Series
Secondhand Heart
The Trouble With Bree
Too Many Reasons
The Night Songs Collection
Because the Night
Night Moves
We Own the Night
Silent Night
The Night Songs Collection 1-3 Box Set
Cirque Macabre
The Fire Dancer
Colorado Shifters
Lion and the Doe
Doe and the Hunter
Cougar and the Lion
Doe and the Pride
I’ve always said that it takes a small village to birth a book baby, and it’s still true. Thanks to Tammy for unwittingly giving me the idea for this story. Funny what can happen when you talk about a good looking guy! Autumn, Karen, and Julie for assuring me it was a good idea once I actually started talking about it out loud. Autumn and Julie again plus Shannon for helping me make Leah and Jagger ready for prime time. Candice and Eva for being my perpetual early reader squad without me having to even ask. The Pack for being my sanity when sanity was not to be found. All of you who signed up to help spread the word…bloggers, readers…I love you guys!
Kristen shares a birthday with Steven Tyler and Diana Ross. She spends each day striving to be half as fabulous as they are. She’s worn many hats, none as flattering as her cowboy hat: banker, retail manager, fledgling web designer, world’s worst cocktail waitress, panty slinger, now makeup artist and aspiring author. She loves sunshine, live music, the middle of nowhere, and finding new things to put in her house.
