A Man For The Night

“What’s wrong about it?”

“I’m not sure….”

“It’s the perfect solution to your problem. You go to your class reunion and feel good at the same time.”

“But it’s not a real feel-good feeling. It’s only pretend.”

“So what’s the alternative? Staying at home and feeling sorry for yourself and knowing that have-it-all Amber is out there thinking you didn’t have the guts to face her? She wins. Again. Especially if she calls you later to find out why you didn’t show up.”

“She would do that, too.”

“What pathetic excuse will you use? Not the truth, I’ll bet. You’ll lie. You’ll pretend. Better to pretend my way than your way. Give your pride a break.”

Josie gnawed at her bottom lip as she often did when she was thinking, or worrying. Kay wondered if Josie realized that by the time she stopped, her bottom lip always looked fuller and sexier than ever.

Undoubtedly not. From what Kay could gather, Josie was unaware of the extent of her sex appeal. She never dressed sexily, or used her looks to her advantage. Not in the two years Kay had known her, anyway.

Frankly, the girl seemed to be a bit uptight about sex. She rarely brought the subject up herself, and she had these hard-and-fast rules about her sexual behavior, such as her no-sex-till-the-third-date rule.

That was fine as a rule, and possibly sensible in this day and age. But it did smack of a lack of spontaneity in that area. Kay could never imagine Josie coming on to a guy on a first date, for instance. Not like she had with Colin. Still, she and Colin had fallen in love with each other at first sight. Maybe, if Josie ever fell in love like that, she’d be a different woman.

Still, till then, she needed to loosen up a bit.

Daring to hire a guy as her boyfriend for the night, even on a pretend basis, might be a good start.

Josie kept looking doubtful, however. And finding excuses. “If this Beau Grainger is so good-looking, he’d already be booked up for this Saturday night.”

“Maybe, but there are still plenty of other gorgeous guys on their books. Cora said she was able to go through their photo files on their computer data base and pick whatever one she liked the look of. Sounds kinda kinky, doesn’t it?” Kay added with a cheeky grin. “Pity their services don’t extend to sex, in a way.”

Kay realized immediately that was rather an unwise remark. It seemed Josie’s sense of humor did not extend to the subject of sex.

Some assertiveness was called for, if they were to get over this hurdle then get back to work.

“Go on,” Kay urged. “Call information and find out the agency’s number right now. Then call them and see if the gorgeous Mr. Grainger is free. If so, book him. If not, then arrange to go in and pick out another handsome hunk who is.”

When Josie just stood there, looking blank, Kay took out her own cell phone. Truly, no wonder the girl hadn’t found Mr. Right. She didn’t have enough get-up-and-go in that department. Odd, really. She had plenty of get-up-and-go in every other way.

“I’ll make the inquiries for you,” Kay offered.

It didn’t take her long to get through, or to find out that Beau Grainger had no bookings for the following Saturday night.

“He’s free,” she whispered to Josie. “What do you want to do?”

“Huh?” Josie blinked. She could hardly think. Kay’s comments about choosing a guy off a computer had triggered a fantasy in her head unlike any she’d ever had before. In it, she’d hired a man whose looks she’d fancied, not as an escort, but as a lover. For one night. To do everything she’d always wanted a man to do to her.

For the first time in Josie’s life, love didn’t enter into her fantasy world. Neither did caring or commitment. Physical pleasure was the name of the game, with her partner a perfect stranger, a tall dark-haired stranger, with sexy blue eyes, a Bondi Beach tan and more bedroom know-how than Casanova. He was older than her, of course. Sex was his profession and his client’s satisfaction was his first priority.

“Do you want to hire this Beau Grainger to take you to the reunion, or not?” Kay demanded impatiently.

Josie dragged her mind out of the flames of her fantasy and back into cold hard reality, which was her class reunion next Saturday night, plus whether she should hire, not some gigolo to make love with her every which way, but a handsome hunk to salve her pride.

Not showing up was not a good option. When Brenda had called her just last week to check final numbers for the caterer—Brenda was this year’s class reunion organizer and Amber’s devoted dog-slave at school—Josie had stupidly boasted she’d be coming with her boyfriend.

The only positive thing about this awful situation was that she hadn’t mentioned Angus’s name. Josie supposed she could get away with showing up with any presentable male, as long as he was prepared to pretend he was her boyfriend. Which this Beau Grainger was obviously willing to do, since he’d been happy enough to pretend to be an older woman’s boy-toy lover.

“Josie?” Kay prompted.

Josie squared her shoulders. “Here. Give me the phone,” she said, and held out her hand.

Kay grinned and handed it to her. “Go for it, girl!”

Josie rolled her eyes. It wasn’t a question of going for anything. It was a question of pride.

2

CALLUM MCCLOUD HAD MIXED FEELINGS every time he flew into Sydney. Coming home was a two-edged sword, his pleasure at seeing his kid brother again always tempered by a niggling concern over what Clay might have been up to since his last visit.

Not that there’d been any nasty surprises on his last few visits. The problem was Callum couldn’t forget what had been waiting for him the first couple of times he’d come home after taking on his present job three years back.

Frankly, he would never have accepted an overseas position if he’d imagined that as soon as his back was turned, his brother would leave university to try an acting career. At the time, Clay had already turned twenty-one and was well into his medical degree, seemingly happy and settled.

Callum had been aware that his younger brother had once harbored a secret ambition to be the next Australian male actor to take Hollywood by storm. But he’d thought the boy had grown out of that pie-in-the-sky dream.

Not so, apparently.

To give him some credit, Clay had stuck to his guns, insisting that being a doctor had been their mother’s ambition, not his, and he shouldn’t be held to a deathbed promise that Callum had made, not him.

“You’re my brother, Cal,” Clay had pointed out. “Not my father. Let me make my own mistakes in life. This is what I want to do, so butt out!”

Although believing Clay was making a major mistake, Callum had finally agreed to support his decision, though not to the extent of working his own butt off and paying for everything while Clay went around going for endless and probably futile auditions. Clay admitted he’d already tried for and been rejected by NIDA, which showed what the most highly regarded acting school in Australia thought of his acting ability.

“You can stay on in my house in Glebe, rent-free,” Callum had grudgingly offered. “The house my hard work bought and renovated, might I add. But you’ll have to find a part-time job to pay for your food and clothes.”

Which Clay had.

Callum had gone back overseas that first time, believing Clay was flipping hamburgers in a local fast-food restaurant, only to come home a few months later to find him working as a male model for a famous swimwear company.

Callum wasn’t a narrow-minded man, just a very male one. The thought of his brother walking up and down the catwalk in skin-tight briefs just didn’t sit well on him.

And he’d said so.

“But the money’s good, bro,” Clay countered. “And I’m not about to turn gay, if that’s what you’re worrying about. Trust me on that.”

Callum did trust him on that. He’d been finding scantily-clad girls in his brother’s bedroom since the boy hit puberty. That wasn’t the point. The point was Clay had promised to stay put at the hamburger job, but as soon as Callum’s back was turned, he was off doing something else, something which he obviously thought he had to keep secret from his brother. Why?

“I’ve read about the modeling world,” Callum had commented at the time. “It’s full of drugs.”

“No more than the university,” Clay shot back. “And I didn’t do drugs there. Stop being so paranoid.”