This is the second part of a series entitled "Impersonating Brianne". It picks up a couple of days after the last chapter ended. If you haven't read the first part, I recommend that you do so. Enjoy!
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Marissa's heart was pounding. Her stomach fluttered. She fidgeted nervously. And it wasn't because of turbulence or flight anxiety.
Alan was next to her, snoring softly. She watched him sleeping. His face was free of worry and stress. He looked so peaceful. So handsome.
She held his hand, enjoying the warmth of his touch.
Still, she could not reconcile the feelings within her, struggling for control. Their trip was almost over.
A single thought raced through her mind.
What am I going to do?
*********************
The next two days in Las Vegas passed quickly.
Wednesday morning, Alan woke up and went back to his seminars. Marissa took the rental car and ran some errands. After a quickie and then lunch, the two were in the exhibition hall, closing a sixty-five thousand dollar deal on some equipment for the restaurant's kitchen. Afterwards, he went back to his meetings, and she went back to the blackjack tables.
The conference had a banquet that night. The pair ate and danced in their own little world, oblivious to everyone around them. After all, their business was done, and they found they were enjoying each other's company more and more.
The last day of the conference began on Thursday morning. While Alan went to the closing sessions, Marissa took the car out again for some final business. After the conference was over, Alan drove her around town and they did touristy things. The visited the shops a Caesars Palace, the Star Trek Experience at the Las Vegas Hilton and went downtown to see Fremont Street.
All the while, they held hands, walked arm in arm and acted like lovers, not like a call girl and her client.
Marissa liked Alan, and she felt that he liked her, too. She was dreading the end of the week because it would force them to address their relationship, something neither of them seemed eager to do.
After their talk about Brianne on Tuesday night, Alan was much more outgoing and even more engaging than he was before. It was as if a giant weight had been lifted from his shoulders.
At first, Marissa felt threatened by Brianne. She didn't like that feeling. To her, it meant that Alan had gotten to her, and that was unsettling. He stirred feelings within her, feelings that she never had the luxury of acknowledging in her line of work.
Marissa had been a call girl for the last few years. Trading her body for money, she didn't allow herself the luxury of emotional investment or personal attachment.
She wasn't in the business because she was a drug addict or had no where else to turn. For her, it was all about the money. Marissa had a college degree, but never found a job that paid as well as working for Laurie. Even after taking the madam's share off the top, Alan was paying her more per day that she had ever made in a week working a regular 9 to 5 job.
And all it had cost was her self-respect.
Something happened that night, as she and Alan talked about his late wife. It started at the beginning of the week, when she got the feeling that he wasn't going to be like her other clients. It seems strange, but there was a certain amount of comfort in her sex life. Not because it was pleasurable, but because it was regular and there were no expectations.
Men had sex with her. She got paid. It was cut and dry. There was no middle ground. No relationship beyond a simple business transaction.
Not with Alan, though.
The more he talked about Brianne, though, the more uncomfortable Marissa felt. Alan was opening up to her. Although she was scared of the way she responded, she felt like she was getting close to him. She realised just how lonely her life was. Not that she had a bad life, but she realised just how much she was missing out on. All for the sake of a few dollars.
Marissa also found herself talking to Alan more. She didn't acknowledge it then, but she was investing herself in him and in their relationship. She was also setting herself up. Both of them knew that initially their relationship was on a timer, but she could never have imagined that she would have to make a heartbreaking decision a week later.
As Alan talked about Brianne, Marissa's feelings changed from jealously and insecurity to warmth. She liked that he recalled little things about her, like what she liked to drink with meals or where she had gone on vacation with her parents when she was little. Marissa liked that he treasured memories. She liked that Alan could tell her what he and Brianne had for dinner on the night they saw Siegfried and Roy when they had come to Las Vegas to be married. She liked that he wasn't afraid of commitment or falling in love.
Now if she could only get past her own aversion to commitments and attachments.
She knew Brianne wasn't going to show up one day and take Alan back. Marissa thought Alan liked her as much as she liked him, once she could admit that to herself. What she didn't know was if she was willing to let him get through the barriers she had spent a lifetime putting up around herself.
Her feelings came to a head early Friday morning.
On Thursday, after driving downtown and making a few dollars off the blackjack tables at the Golden Nugget, she and Alan stopped to see the water show at the Bellagio on Thursday night.
With soft romantic music playing through strategically-placed speakers, she leaned back into Alan's arms. He held her tenderly. Neither said a word. His embrace was comforting. Secure.
Even amidst the crowd gathered to see the show, she felt like they were alone. She was losing herself to his charm. Afterwards, she drew out a pocked-sized digital camera and had a passerby take a picture of them together, with the lights and water sprays of the Bellagio behind them.
This was something Alan and Brianne had not done on their previous trip to Las Vegas; the Bellagio hadn't been built then. Along with some of the other pictures she had taken throughout the day, these were the first of
their
memories together.
They went back to their room at the Luxor and made love under the moonlight that shone through the windows.
When she awoke, the sun was coming up. Alan must have gotten up in the middle of the night because the curtains were closed. His naked body was spooned up against hers. His arm was around her. She could feel his shallow breath on the back of her neck.
Realising where she was, she seemed to be fully awake instantly. Her heart started to pound.
She wanted to sit up, but instead tried to calm herself. A couple of deep breaths later, her pulse was down and she no longer had the urge to get up and leave her lover.
Instead she rolled Alan on to his back. He started snoring softly.
Her hand ran along his jawbone and down his neck.
"What have you done to me, Alan?" Marissa whispered.
She watched his chest rise and fall.
"I can't stand sleeping with someone touching me, but when you hold me, I never want you to let me go." Her voice was soft.
This was the first time they had woken up together. All week, Alan had to get up early and be in meetings and seminars first thing in the morning while she slept in. With the conference over, she had him all to herself.
She reached down between her legs and felt the warm semen that was slowly leaking out of her, left over from the night before. Alan had convinced her to break one of her call girl rules: Never let a john cum in anything other than a condom.
Just the feeling of the slippery fluid gave her chills. The memories of the orgasms she had with Alan made her toes tingle.
"Why do you have to be such a nice guy?" Marissa said quietly, even knowing that Alan wouldn't respond. "Why couldn't you be just another jackass client? I wouldn't feel bad about taking your money then."
And I wouldn't have to break your heart
. The words were on her lips but she couldn't bring herself to say them aloud, even if Alan couldn't hear her.
Or my own
.
Alan stirred slightly and she hurriedly brushed the tears out of her eyes. She leaned over and kissed him. A sleepy smile was on his lips.
She gently kissed her way down his body, giving Alan the kind of good morning greeting every guy likes.
A short time later, the two were in the shower, each washing the other's body. They playfully groped and tickled each other under the warm water.
"So what's the plan tonight?" Marissa asked.
Although his smile was sincere, his laugh was a little hollow. There was a distant look in his eye. This would have been his anniversary and Marissa couldn't blame him for being a little distracted.
"It's a surprise." He slapped her gently across the backside.
"Don't start that if you're not going to finish it," she warned him with a sly wink.
"Marissa," he started. There was a look in his eyes that made her shiver with anticipated pleasure. "If I were ten years younger, you would be begging me for mercy."
