Short Stories - Romance

Trading Hearts - A Mix-Up At Midnight #1 - The Stranger In The Bed

Hangovers were a pain!

Someone should have probably told me that. Not that I would have listened anyway. Because whatever had left me drowning myself in the hard stuff last night was something of an emergency. For my heart. Not that it had helped. Sure, the alcohol had got my head so scrambled to the point of fooling my heart, giving it a temporal sense of happiness, but that was all. The damn thing was already up and running achingly fast, forcing me to face my bitter reality.

I quickly rolled over in my bed, afraid that I would see them, hear them again. My best friend and the love of my life, making hot passionate love like hungry beasts in my car. They hadn't even bothered that it was my car. How little had I mattered to them?

"Ouch!" My little escape plan from that ended up causing me even more pain as my head bumped into something hard, sending a sharp jolt of agony through me. "God!" I groaned, reaching out to adjust my pillow, surprised that it felt so unforgiving.

"If you keep doing that, I won't be held accountable for my actions." The sexiest sound tickled my ears as warm strong hands pulled me in, making everything all better.

Jack? Because he'd been the only one I'd dreamed of waking up to for the last two and half years we'd been together, I snuggled into him, his presence making me realize that it had all been a dream. If he was in my bed, then he was still mine.

"Last night was nothing but a big bad dream." I smiled to myself as I snuggled in even more, loving the feel of his warm skin on mine. Wait, skin? As in warm naked skin? Was I naked? The feel of a warm hand caressing my naked back said so and sent me panicking. Oh God! I froze, eyes tightly shut as if that would keep the reality of it from sinking in.

"Tell me we didn't." I probably sounded ridiculous at the moment because, well, I loved Jack. We'd been pretty serious for a while and this was natural between two people in love, right? Wrong. Because even if Jack was the love of my life, I was not ready to go this far. At least not yet. I was the old-fashioned, wait-till-our-wedding-night kind of girl. Among other things. And he knew that and he'd been okay about it. So what the hell happened? "Jack, did we- we didn't do the deed, right? Please tell me we didn't." I whispered, hoping, praying that his answer would be a big fat 'of course not.'"

"No can't do, sweetheart." I didn't know what did it between the dreaded answer and the cocky way it was handed to me, but whatever it was, it sent me jerking back and staring up at my boyfriend...or who I thought was my boyfriend.

"Wait, you are not Jack?!" Head screeching to a halt, I blinked at the stranger who still held on to me like waking up with a strange girl in his arms was the most normal thing.

"Right." He appeared amused at the situation. With the pounding in my head, though, I did not have the mental capacity to get annoyed at that. I needed to get down to whatever this was, despite my growing panic.

"And this is not my room?"

"Right again?" Which meant that last night was not some big bad dream either. Everything had happened as it did. Jack had cheated on me...I'd drunk myself to oblivion and spent a night with a total stranger?

"Oh God!" I finally flew out of the bed, thankful when he let me go. I was, however, not so thankful when my feet landed on the carpeted floor and almost gave out. "What the hell?" Leaning on a nearby couch, the bedcover I'd sensibly grabbed from the bed shielding me, I mentally took stock of my body. Every limb was still attached to me, thankfully and except for the heavy pounding in my head, only my legs seemed to be unwilling to work...and then there was a soreness, between my legs. It could have been anything, but somehow I knew. Even when I remembered little to nothing about last night, I knew. He was my first...

"You! What did you do?!" Temper flaring at having been taken advantage of by the stranger in the bed, because that was the only plausible reason, I glared, hating how the person remained unbothered even by my grave accusation.

"Nothing you didn't ask and pay for, sweetheart."

"Wait, pay you?" He was an escort? I blinked so fast, my mind struggling to process his words.

"Handsomely, if I might add, but that was not even the best part." The stupid jerk smirked and leaned back on the bed's headboard looking totally satisfied. Where escorts meant to do that? I mean, did they also find satisfaction with their clients? Client... I paled when I realized that that was what I'd been to him. A cheap client looking for pleasure. The truth of that punched me in the gut and sent me sinking into the couch.

"There's more where that came from too." Oblivious of my growing panic and shame, the jerk stupidly invited me. The light bedsheet that barely covered him fell to the side, leaving him exposed and me staring wide-eyed at the sinful display. "I'm still yours for next two hours...oh, make that two hours and thirty five minutes." I was forever mortified by that. And who the hell went to bed wearing such an expensive watch?

"Not interested." Realizing that there was no one else to blame but me...and the alcohol, I shot to my feet. Against my legs' protests, I stumbled in search of my clothes. I needed to get out of here.

"Are you sure? Because your friend paid me enough to make all your fantasies come true all night last night. This morning too." He drawled out, but that was not what froze me in my quest to find my damn clothes that were nowhere to be seen.

"My friend, paid you?"

"Tall, slender brunette with the most enticing eyes."

"Victoria?" I only knew of one person fitting that description. But she wouldn't- Of course, she would! My best friend's moans and how she'd dug her nails into Jack's back last night slapped me in the face and stabbed my heart anew.

"Said you'd finally dumped the cheating boyfriend and were out celebrating, ready to leave your prudish days behind- Oh holy crap!" While I squeezed at the sharp pain in my chest brought on by all the betrayal, the stranger seemed to realize something and pulled at the sheets, his face suddenly draining of all its colour.

"Damn it!" He cursed, eyes fixed on the red staining the sheets. "You are- you were- oh man!" Running his hand over his face, he gave me a look. One that just made me feel worse. "I didn't know- I swear- if I had known I would have- damn it!" All his playfulness gone, he jumped off the bed, giving me a full view of him that he didn't seem to care about at the moment.

"Can we talk about this, I mean we should talk about this, right?"

"Wrong." My voice shook even as I avoided that look of pity. This was my mistake and I would be the only one dealing with it. Beginning with my walk of shame out of this establishment. With no time to search for my own clothes, I grabbed a coat. Didn't care that it was his, I just needed something to cover up with. Once done, I headed straight for the door.

"Wait, damn it-" A hand reached for mine.

"Victoria paid you right?" I asked through gritted teeth, snatching back my hand.

"Well yes, but that's not the poi-"

"Then I owe you nothing." I stepped out of the room, glad when I came face to face with an empty hall way. My legs trembled, forcing me to lean back on the closed door as tears streamed down my face. "What a fool."

"I need you to find someone." The loud bark on the other side of the door jolted me out of my sadness. The stranger's voice was no longer playful or gentle, but commanding. "I wouldn't be asking if I knew her now would I?" He growled. "Fine. I can describe her to you."

With the first of his words that were too damn accurate, I shot to my feet and practically ran out of there. I had no intentions of humiliating myself even more by seeing the escort again.