The Scandal

The Scandal THE ESCORT BOOK TWO KRISTEN JAYE KRISTEN JAYE All rights reserved. This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please do so through your retailer’s “lend” function. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return it and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. To obtain permission to excerpt portions of the text, please contact the author at [email protected] Jaye, Kristen. The Scandal, (The Escort, #2) Copyright 2023 Originally published in 2016 as “Wrapped Around My Finger” by Kristen Strassel Cover Design by Dee J. Holmes of Bad Unicorn Design Contents Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Also by Kristen Jaye Chapter One Leah “What The Fuck?” Everyone in the room turned to stare at me, like dropping an f-bomb was the most explosive thing that had happened in the last few minutes. Their faces contorted as my vision started to tunnel. Hot wine soaked into my socks. Beth Barnes had brought Jagger as her date to the Christmas party?! I knew better than that. Beth hired Jagger to come with her to the party. This was the job that had kept him from spending Christmas with me. I couldn’t move, couldn’t tear my gaze away from Jagger. He looked as horrified as I felt. “You know Jagger, Leah.” Beth sauntered over to him, putting her hands on his arm. He shook away from her, gaze locked on mine like he was trying to send me a silent message. We didn’t quite have the mind meld thing down yet. She grabbed him, harder this time. “Anybody who pays enough money can spend time with him.” “What are you talking about?” Shelley asked. “Isn’t that the guy Leah brought to the reunion?” “Don’t act like you weren’t in on this the whole time,” I growled. But then it occurred to me...had Jagger known who’d hired him? My heart sank. “Leah did bring him to the reunion.” Beth shared a knowing smile with Shelley. Rich situated between me and Jagger, clouding the small circle that hadn’t completely blacked out of my vision. “What the hell is going on?” He glared at me, like this was my fault. “What’s this guy doing in my house?” The last time Rich and Jagger were this close, I had to stop Jagger from punching Rich. It didn’t matter what I said, no lie would change the fact that Beth was paying Jagger to be here right now. She’d chosen the most perfect instrument in the ongoing ballad of my humiliation. No. Not this time. These people had already taken enough from me. I wouldn’t let them have Jagger. He was the only thing I could see clearly—his hazel eyes were dark, lips pressed together. He’d pulled away from Beth again, but he hadn’t taken his gaze off me. “Let me explain,” Beth said loudly, to reclaim her audience, in case they’d gotten tired of another outburst between Leah and Rich. We mostly played nice in front of company. Mostly. Until all the dirty laundry came out in the divorce. Beth headed toward the living room. I didn’t dare turn around. The silence spoke for the audience that had assembled behind me. “I got to the reunion early and saw this beautiful man alone at the bar. He was asking the bartender a ton of questions. I figured I could help him out, if you know what I mean. He told me that he was meeting his date, and he wasn’t familiar with the area. But he gave me his card. I guess in case things didn’t work out with his date.” Beth’s smile spread slowly across her face, twisting the knife in my gut with amazing precision. Evil like this didn’t just happen. It was cultivated and refined until it became a deadly poison. “Imagine my surprise when his date turned out to be Leah! But...something wasn’t right about it. She wasn’t his type. A guy like this would have a skinny little model on his arm, especially since he claims to be a photographer. I checked out his website, and it’s full of pictures of junk. So I kept digging, and my search brought me to this forum where women were talking about the men they hired to have sex with them. “Can you imagine? I didn’t even know you could do such a thing! I mean, how disgusting. Leah wouldn’t do something like that, right? But there couldn’t have been two people named Jagger Holiday. Anyway, I asked in the forum and they gave me the information for his agency. I needed a referral, and wouldn’t you know it, giving Leah’s name did the trick.” She shrugged and turned to me like I was the only person in the room. “And here we are. Merry Christmas!” “What the hell is she talking about?” my dad asked. I wanted to crawl into a hole and disappear. Shelley’s mouth formed an exaggerated O, and she looked between me and Beth. “Are you saying that Leah brought a male prostitute to our reunion?” “Pretty much.” Beth laughed. It was so fucking staged. She was in on the fix all along. That was why Rich asked me here. Not to see his dying mother, but to humiliate me in front of everyone I knew. If Jagger knew what he’d been hired for... No. He was so much better than these people. “What hell is wrong with you,