November

chapter 1

A/N: First chapter contains some mild violence and the whole book has some sensitive themes, but there aren't many explicit scenes so I hope everyone gives it a try. I'm way too excited about this story and it was supposed to be my Christmas-y/ winter-y story, but I'm too lazy to edit the chapters I have already written, so 2014 it is.

Please take the time to vote and comment if you like it :D

-valia xx

November had been pacing up and down the dim street lit only by the weak glow of the streetlamps for the past fifteen minutes, but nothing had happened. She did it both because she was feeling impatient and less than thrilled to be waiting there in the night and because it was pretty cold.

In fact, this was the coldest November she could recall. She was lucky tonight wasn't snowing like it had over the last few days, because even though the snowflakes were too delicate and thin to settle and coat the ground, they were adequate to make everything slippery and even colder than usual.

It was getting late, the few people that were still in the streets now starting to walk faster, not wanting to be outside in the cold any longer. Those people were returning to their warm, dry houses from work, where their family and a good meal would be waiting for them. They didn't even spare a second glance towards the girl dressed in a coat too thin for this bitter weather, and yet enough to do its job: cover what she was wearing underneath.

November didn't really blame those people for their ignorance. She probably wouldn't care about others if she was one of them as well, and feeling spiteful and angry with the whole world all the time would not do her any good. Especially when she had to focus on the task at hand.

Which is kind of difficult, since I'm fucking freezing over here, she thought dryly to herself  as she rubbed her hands together and blew into them in an attempt to keep warm.

At least she hadn't reached this point yet where she would lose her self-sarcasm, she thought wryly.

November kept walking up and down the street without ever leaving the corner where the sign with the street's name was placed. This was the spot where she would meet him- never knowing who that him was until she saw him that night for the first, and most likely last time- and she was really starting to wish he would hurry.

The next time she passed from the sign she stopped her pacing and stood beneath a streetlamp with its faint light dousing her. November saw that there were no more people in the street save for the occasional pedestrian, and there was only one person, a tall man dressed in a trench coat that stood exactly at the corner of the street, looking as if he was waiting for someone.

Taking that as a cue, November strode briskly towards him after allowing herself only one quick breath to pull herself together before she slipped on her confident mask.

Up close he was taller than she had thought,  body well-built and silk dark blond hair falling to his forehead, and his clothes, from his long trench coat to his cashmere scarf screamed how rich he was. His face was also attractive, but when November stopped before him and he assessed her with a quirked eyebrow and lopsided smirk, she thought that there was something predatory behind his polished appearance that unsettled her.

But wasn't that how almost all of the men that hired her to be their escort for the night were?

Pushing down her disgust for the man before her, November came and stood daringly close to him. Her tone was low and seductive and so well-practised that no one would have guessed how forced it really was. "I suppose you are Mr. Greyson?"

"And your name is?" the man asked her, the smirk never leaving his face. He tapped her chin with a gloved finger and made her turn her gaze towards him.