I wouldn’t lie, I was quite proud of my body. I didn’t go around preening or anything but when I looked at myself in the mirror I thought yeah, nice. Especially if it would help me get Michael’s attention. I hated going to school with my ass and my breasts because the boys were constantly catcalling me and making remarks, as if I was some kind of… piece of meat, ugh. I would wear long pants and long-sleeved shirts at school whenever I could to try and minimize comments.
But for Michael - I was glad of my curves. I wanted to show them off, I wanted him to notice, to look at me with dark, hungry eyes, to get his mouth and hands on them.
I got a dress just for the occasion. White, so that I would look nice and stand out, but tight, really hugging my curves, with a daring leg slit up my thigh and a single, diagonal gauzy shoulder strap that went across my body and wrapped around my waist. It took me forever to find it, to know that it was the right one. And then my hair—oh man, that had taken me hours. My makeup I tried to keep minimal, focusing mostly on my eyes, adding a touch of silver glitter.
Everyone was giving me compliments at the party. “You look beautiful, Stephanie,” was what I got from my relatives, and, “smokin’ look, Stevie!” from my friends.
Personally, I had always preferred Stevie to my full name. Stephanie was sort of reserved for family.
I was just making the rounds, saying hi to everyone, thanking my aunts and uncles and all for their lovely graduation gifts, and trying to keep an eye on Michael without being too obvious about it, when Brooke finally showed up.
“Where have you been?” I whispered, hugging her quickly. “This is your party too!”
“Jake and I got distracted,” Brooke replied, laughing and wiggling her eyebrows so I had no doubt what distracted meant.
Jake was our high school’s quarterback. Brooke was totally into him and he was totally into her, which I suppose made up for the fact that—
“Hey, if it isn’t the woman of the hour!”
My older brother Andy came up, hugging Brooke hello. He was four years older than Brooke and I were, in his senior year UC Berkeley. He was also a massive flirt which was probably why Brooke hadn’t realized Andy had a massive crush on her.
“Your sister graduated too,” Brooke pointed out.
“Ah, yeah, but we all knew that was going to happen. It was a little touch and go with you for a while.” Andy winked at her. “I’m shocked I tell you, shocked that you earned a diploma.”
“Very funny,” Brooke replied, rolling her eyes.
I had to work hard with Brooke to help her pass some of her classes, but I had faith that college would be easier. In college you didn’t have to take a bunch of random math and science classes if they weren’t in your major, and those were Brooke’s weakest points. I’d always been good at numbers, and I loved chemistry once I realized how important it could be to cooking.
“Oh, Jake!” Brooke waved him over.
I grabbed Andy by the arm and asked him to take a selfie with me. I felt bad for him, and I was only glad about Jake because of how happy he made Brooke. My poor brother was pining away for years and Brooke had no idea—and I knew how that felt. It sucked.
But hopefully, for me at least, tonight would change all of that.
After my selfie with my brother, I spotted Michael over by the food table. Okay, this was as good of a chance as any. I’d said hi to everyone, done my duty. Now I could set my plan into motion.
I could practically feel his fingers thrusting inside me already and I shivered as I walked up to him. “Hey, Michael,” I said, giving him my sultriest smile.
Michael kissed me on the cheek and my whole body got warm. “Congratulations,” he told me. “I know you’ve probably heard this from everyone else but graduating is an achievement. You should be proud of yourself.”
“Are you proud of me?” I asked. I wanted to tell him there were so many other ways he could be proud of me - for keeping quiet, for sucking his cock - and that I could keep being a good girl, just for him.
Or a naughty girl, if he wanted.
Michael just grinned at me. God he was handsome. He could’ve had his own cooking show on TV if he’d wanted, with rugged good looks like that. Then his eyes slid over to right over my shoulder, and I smelled - ah, my dad’s distinctive Old Spice cologne.
Call it a result of enjoying cooking, but I was really good at telling who was who by their smell. Not to mention, my mom had never been able to get across to my dad the truth that he wears too much of that damn cologne.
“Robert!” Michael grinned at my father. I could feel my own smile fading, just a little. “You must be so proud of her.”
Well, fuck, I couldn’t very well flirt with Michael - or anyone - in front of my dad. I made an excuse and slipped away, but I kept an eye on Michael all throughout the rest of the party.
When he slipped into his office, I knew I had my chance.
I walked up, putting an extra little sway into my hips to help get myself into the mood. I was fond of these heels, and I thought they looked great with the dress, silver to match my eye shadow.
I got right to the door of his office - thankfully it was in a small hallway where the bathrooms were, so nobody could really see me - and was just about to open it, my hand on the doorknob and everything, when I heard what he was saying.
Oh man. That sounded rough.
“I don’t even care, okay? I don’t care. You can have whatever you want. I just want this over with.”
Okay, I knew it was wrong, but I pressed my ear to the door. I wanted to know what was going on, if Michael was okay.
I heard him sigh. He sounded just… wrecked. Exhausted. “Just keep your damn hands off the restaurant. That’s the only place I’m standing firm.”
There was a pause as the person on the other end of the line spoke. Then Michael said, with so much bitterness in his voice it didn’t even sound like him, “well, what else could I possibly want to hold onto? I poured my love into this restaurant and it stayed true to me, unlike you. I suppose I should be thanking you for showing me what a lie love is.”
The person on the other end started to say something, but Michael cut them off. “You don’t get to say that. Not when you spent months fucking my employee behind my back. My fucking protégé, I mean, Jesus Christ, you just had to pick the person I trusted most besides you, it’s the ultimate sick joke, you know that, right?”
Michael sighed, and I realized who he must have been talking to: his ex-wife. Virginia.
Fuck.
Well, I couldn’t go in there and seduce him now. Not when he was hurting like this. It would be, well… he wouldn’t be in the right headspace and honestly, I’d feel almost like I was taking advantage of him. He must be vulnerable in that state of mind, and I didn’t want him to fuck me because he was bitter and upset. I wanted him to be with me because he actually saw me as someone he could be with. Someone whom he was genuinely attracted to, someone he could fucking have feelings for just the way I had feelings for him.
But I couldn’t just leave him alone in there to argue with that woman.
I took a deep breath and knocked on the door.
There was a pause on the other side, and then I heard Michael saying, “I’ll call you back.”
A moment later the door was opened and Michael was staring down at me.
He looked so tired. It was horribly unfair - why should his wife get to run off with some pretty boy and strip Michael dry when he’d been doing all this hard work with the restaurant all these years?
“Everything all right, Stevie?” he asked.
Shit. I needed to think of a reason for knocking on his door and comforting you after I heard you arguing with your ex-wife is probably not going to cut it.
“…I was wondering… since it’s a special occasion and all… could we have a bottle of champagne?” I gave him my most winning smile.
Michael laughed in a startled kind of way. “Last I checked, people graduated high scho
ol at age eighteen, not age twenty-one.”
God, the low gravel of his voice was just - the hottest thing ever. I dared to take a small step closer and look up at him through my lashes. “I won’t tell if you won’t.”
Michael shook his head. “No way, your parents would kill me.” He put his arm around my shoulders. “And don’t you give me one of those pretty pouts, either, it’s not going to work.”
Pretty. He thought it was pretty when I pouted. It felt like my entire chest lit up in response.
“C’mon, I think it’s time we cut the cake,” he said, and led me back to the main room - still with his arm around my shoulders.
The warmth of him pressed against my side, the weight of his arm, the firm muscles I could feel against me - I thought all about it later that night as I was lying in bed. Oh, God, yes, I imagined him picking me up and lifting me against the wall easily, making me whimper and moan for him, telling me to spread my legs for him…
But I couldn’t just waltz in and seduce him like I’d originally planned. No. Michael still saw me as too young, as a child, and he was still dealing with the loss of his ex.
Well, that was fine. I could be patient.
I didn’t know the whole story about his wife, but I did know from the phone call I’d overheard that she’d been with Michael’s protégé. I’d met him a few times—Theo Simmons, almost ten years younger than Michael, early thirties, handsome, tattooed. You know, the works.
With the man he’d been training gone, Michael would need a new protégé, wouldn’t he? Someone who could be relied on, someone he could come to trust and care for.
But of course, that protégé would need to have gotten through culinary school - and how convenient, that’s what I would be doing.
Once I was a professional with training, once a couple of years had passed, after there’d been some time apart where he hadn’t seen me… Michael would come to see me as an adult. As someone he could care for, and someone he could be attracted to. Not a child, not anymore.
I was going to go after what I wanted, and I wasn’t going to give up.
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Sugar Daddy (Forever Daddies Book 4) Page 21
