First and most important thing is that you think of her as your girlfriend and not a provider.

It cam work if you are both coming from the same placee mentally.  Much like any relationship.

I have had this experience.  Know that any relationship will have it's ups and downs, in this one, plan to multiply all of it by 10.  If you can handle that, it can be great.

when we're together, there's absolutely no clock-watching; I've been seeing her several months now and each time I'm still paying her an-hour rate even though we could be spending many hours together.

It started after our first session. The next day she called and let me know that I was awesome and "that was something special". She told me a lot of personal information about herself on our second date, her family, previous job, past relationships etc. In return, though I don't normally do that with providers, I felt like she was a friend and was more than willing to share some of my personal info with her. Also she's had this choking fetish in bed which she'd ask me to do it on her because she trusted me.

Initially, she would call me often like twice a week to chit-chat and find out how my day had been going and so forth. You know, like friends.

Do you call that "GF" or Provider-GF (since I'm still paying her)?