“Daniel,” she started.

He locked eyes with her. “What?”

She shook her head slowly. No, she couldn’t tell him the truth. “Nothing. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Good night.”

When she reached the flat and opened the door, Holly was waiting for her.

“And? Is he going to cancel?” she got down to the most important question immediately.

Sabrina shook her head. “No, he’s picking me up tomorrow morning to go to the wine country for the weekend.”

“Are you okay with that?” Holly asked softly.

“I think you should stock up on ice cream, because when he leaves and goes back to his normal life in New York, I’m going to need comfort food. A lot of comfort food. Holly, I’m so screwed.”

Her friend instantly wrapped her arms around her and took her into a tight bear hug. “Is he that bad?”

Sabrina sobbed uncontrollably into her friend’s shoulder. “No. He’s that good,” she wailed.

Holly gently stroked her hair. “Oh, sweetie, just try to enjoy the time you have with him, and maybe it’ll all turn out all right.”

***

Daniel had debated whether to spend the evening with Sabrina, but he didn’t want to push her. He needed to tread carefully from now on. He had to make her trust him, and this would be a slow process.

Instantly dragging her back into bed with him wouldn’t work, as much as he wanted to do just that. That’s why he’d suggested to her that she would be the one to initiate sex. Maybe it would give her the safety net she needed. And he was willing to keep up his end of the bargain, as hard as it was for him.

He had to work on a slow seduction without her even noticing what he was doing. Holly was right, Sabrina could be easily scared away if she found out too early that her whole charade had already been discovered. She felt safe now, pretending to be somebody else, but how would she react when she knew her cover was blown? The only way to make her safe after that was to replace her cover with trust.

Daniel sat across from Tim during dinner at a small neighborhood restaurant.

“Let me get this straight. You want to romance an escort?” Tim grinned from one ear to the other.

“As I’ve already told you, she’s not a real escort,” he pointedly corrected his friend.

“Semantics. Nevertheless, she slept with you for money.” Tim was clearly having fun needling him and would continue as long as he could get away with it.

“She didn’t take the money, her friend did.”

“So she slept with you because …? Help me out here, Danny.”

He frowned. “What? You think I can’t attract a woman without shelling out money? Maybe she found me attractive. Is that so far fetched?” Tim was pushing all his buttons, and he knew it.

“Calm down. I’m just messing with you. Of course she found you attractive. Hell, I find you attractive.” Tim’s voice was a little too loud for the small restaurant, and several heads turned into their direction.

Daniel rolled his eyes, and Tim just chuckled. “Relax. This is San Francisco. Nobody cares.”

“Easy for you to say, you’re a Californian. I’m from New York, remember?”

“How could I forget? Maybe you should move out here. Life’s much more relaxed. I bet even you wouldn’t be that uptight here.”

“I’m not uptight,” Daniel barked indignantly. Maybe just a little uptight.

“Of course, you are. But I think the San Francisco air is having a good effect on you already. Barely in town for a few days, and here you are, dating an escort. Now if that’s not liberating, I don’t know what.” Tim sipped from his wine.

“Would you stop calling her an escort. Her name is Sabrina.”

“How are you going to introduce her to Mamma and Dad?” Tim liked referring to Daniel’s parents as if they were his own.

Daniel’s mouth dropped open.

“Don’t look at me like you haven’t thought this through. I know you too well.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Daniel gave him a frustrated stare.

“When did you last take a couple of days off to go out of town on a vacation?”

Daniel opened his mouth, but Tim stopped him.

“Don’t answer that, ‘cause I know the answer. You can’t remember when. Funny. During the entire time you dated Audrey you didn’t spend one lazy weekend with her anywhere. Yet suddenly, you’re taking a weekend off to take the hot little Sabrina up into the wine country without a business meeting in sight. So why would that be? Go ahead, you can answer that.”