My stomach twisted as Cat carried on without a care in the world. I couldn’t tell her now and ruin that beautiful smile on her face. I had to keep pretending like everything was fine, no matter how delusional it was.
I made it through dinner and dessert, smiling and listening to Cat while pretending like nothing was wrong. But I was dying inside the whole time…not just out of fear of what would happen. But over the dread of knowing this would all be over soon.
No more of her glowing skin against mine, no more of her scent flooding my nostrils, and no more blissful moments of moving inside of her while we were both torn apart with intense pleasure.
I played it off, but I was starting to realize this was about more than just sex. I had really fallen deep for her. Would that make a difference to Mark? No way. How could it? If I had a daughter, I don’t care how much of an adult she was, I’d kill any friend of mine for even looking at her the wrong way. Mark had just seen me do way more than that.
“This was the perfect night,” Cat said as we were finally heading back to my place. “Thank you.”
“No need to thank me. You were the one who technically snagged the reservations.” I hesitated on the corner. “Hey, listen. I hate to do this, but I’m going to send you back home in my car. I’ll call you later.”
“You’re going somewhere without me…now?” she puzzled in surprise.
I nodded. “Yeah, sorry. I had a work thing come up.”
I shuffled her into the car before she had a chance to protest and went home alone to think.
14
Cat
My mind was occupied with thoughts of Jordan, and my teeth tugged at my bottom lip. I tried to shake him out of my thoughts. I was about to be a partner of a new business, soon, and I had not worked this hard through high school and college so that I could be obsessed with a boy.
But, then again Jordan wasn’t a boy. He was a man. A very handsome man at that. But, it didn’t change things in the slightest.
Even if all I could think about were his arms holding me, as he plunged into me. I shook my head, erasing those thoughts from my mind. Work. Just think about work, Cat. I let out a deep breath and brought my focus to the documents that were in front of me.
Usually, I did so well at blocking everything out and focusing on my work, but this thing between Jordan and me, it was expanding into something, quite like a relationship. And that thought should have shocked me, should have been forbidden, but it wasn’t. There were so many things that I’d learned and loved about him, so many more things that I wanted to find out.
I wanted to be in a relationship with Jordan Ashford. Saying it out loud should have made me cringe, but it didn’t. Instead, it brought a small smile to my face, as I tossed my hair over my shoulder. It was such a weird, yet pleasant, thought.
There would be obstacles, I knew. And the biggest one was going to be my father, but we were going to get through it. I knew that much. And I was excited to do so. Sex with Jordan was great, but I found myself longing for spending time with him that wasn’t strictly sexual.
I wondered if he felt the same. I knew that he liked the rendezvous that we did in various places around the office. And, I also knew that he liked to take me out places, like when we’d gone to the fair and out to drink the night before. He liked to show me off, and I was okay with that.
He didn’t think that this was a friends with benefits type of thing, did he? Because, I wasn’t that kind of girl. I mean, it seemed like I was, but I preferred not to be, especially where Jordan was involved.
Our little no-strings-attached thing had been fun up until this point, but at some point it was going to have to come to an end. Were we going to continue to see each other, or let it fizzle out and pretend that it had never happened?
I preferred the first choice. But, none of that was important. Jordan wasn’t even there for me to have the relationship talk with, anyways. Who knew where he had found himself wandering to.
He could be cheating. It was a thought that plagued my mind every single time I wasn’t with him. He was a catch, and he could have any other woman he wanted. But, I was a catch too. I wasn’t just something that he could walk all over if he wanted to. I was a very attractive woman. And he wasn’t the only one who could get any person he wanted. Men would bow down on their knees for me.
But the only man that I wanted to bow was Jordan.
My phone was vibrating against the desk so I picked it up and turned it to face me. Daddy flashed across the screen, and I, eagerly, answered it. He hardly ever called me when he knew that both of us were working, unless it was about work. But, I was always happy to get any call from him.
“Hi, daddy,” I answered, hearing the chaos that was in his background. Who knew what was happening at his office. He ran a pretty tidy show, but that secretary of his had to go. I didn’t know why he liked her so much, but, hey, that was his personal business, not mine. And I wasn’t going to go sticking my nose where it didn’t belong.
“Hi, baby,” he greeted me, his voice gruff and stricken with stress and frustration. “What does your
