And suddenly, I realize just “seeing” this woman again, isn’t going to be enough.
She pulls away from me, flopping back on the bed, a contented and satisfied smile on her face. I need a minute to gather my thoughts, so I lean over her and give her a quick kiss to the lips, telling her, “I’m gonna run downstairs for some water. Do you need anything?”
“Water would be great, thank you.”
I grab my boxer briefs from the floor and head into the bathroom. Once I dispose of the condom, I pull them on before walking out the door and down the stairs to the kitchen. I grab two water bottles from the fridge, opening mine and chugging half of it. I need a minute to gather my thoughts about how I want to broach the subject of us, and then when I convince myself I have a plan, I grab her bottle from the counter and head back out. I’m almost to the stairway when I hear a light knock on the front door.
Who in the hell could that be?
The only people who drop by unannounced are my brothers and my mom. Without really thinking about it, since my head is someplace else, I walk over and swing open the front door without looking through the peephole first. Samantha stands in my doorway, eyes wide, her gaze sweeping over me from head to toe, and that’s when I realize I’ve answered the door in my underwear. I’m stunned into awkward silence for a second, not from my lack of attire, but more from the fact Nora’s boss is at my front door while Nora is naked upstairs in my bed. “What are you doing here?”
“Well, that’s a heck of a way to greet someone.” She doesn’t say it with malice, more with amusement. I, however, am not amused. I need to get rid of her as soon as possible.
“I’m sorry. I’m just surprised to see you here. That’s all. Um, why exactly are you here?” She walks through the front door, without invitation, and steps into my entryway. “I’m sorry to just drop by, but I picked up the documents from Tyler earlier and I was going over them. I noticed you had missed a couple of signatures. I called Nora to bring them to you, but she didn’t answer and I don’t know where she is, so I just thought I would bring them by myself on the way back to the hotel. I hope you don’t mind. I’m sorry if I’ve…interrupted your evening.”
Shit. I’ve got to get her out of here. “Oh, not at all. Here, let me sign those for you really quickly so you—”
“Cade, did you get lost on the way to the kitchen, or what?”
Of course, Nora picks that exact moment to bound down the stairs wearing nothing but my T-shirt and a smile on her face.
Chapter Sixteen
Nora
Fuck, fuck, fuckity fuck.
I’m a deer caught in the headlights right now. I’m standing midway down the staircase, wearing nothing but a long T-shirt—sans underwear—when I register there are two sets of eyes watching me, instead of just the one I was expecting. Cade is standing in his entryway. In only his underwear. With my boss. There is no way I can play this off as anything other than what it is.
The look of shock on Samantha’s face says it all, but it’s a full minute of awkward silence before she finally speaks. “This explains why I couldn’t find you tonight.”
“Samantha, I am so sorry. I never meant—”
She holds up a hand to interrupt me. “Save it. I just need to know how long this has been going on.”
I tug at the hem of Cade’s shirt, pulling it further down over my legs so I don’t feel so exposed. I can’t even look her in the eyes. “The night we got here. I met Cade at his bar when I was supposed to meet you for drinks.”
She lets out a deep sigh, and holds up her hand to stop me when I start to talk again, shaking her head. I feel like a child in trouble. “We’ll talk about this tomorrow.” She sets her briefcase on the foyer table and takes out a pen and a stack of documents, flipping through the pages until she finds the ones she’s looking for. “Sign these two lines right here,” she says to Cade as he takes the pen and signs where she indicated. When he’s done, she puts the papers back into the briefcase and opens the front door. She turns and reaches her hand out to Cade, which he awkwardly shakes. “Thank you, Mr. Wesley. We’ll be in touch with your attorney if we need anything else.” She gives me a look of disappointment rather than anger as she walks out the door, shutting it softly behind her.
Cade turns and looks at me, and I meet his eyes briefly before turning and walking up the stairs. When I get there, I scramble to get dressed as quickly as possible. By the time he comes back in the room, I’m pulling on my sandals.
“You’re leaving?”
Cade is standing in the doorway, watching me get ready. I don’t want to go, but the embarrassment of being caught by my boss convinced me it was my only option. I nod, what’s sure to be a sad, pitiful look on my face. I can feel the tears welling up and the last thing I want to do is cry in front of him. He strolls over and sits next to me on the end of the bed.
“I’m sorry. I never meant for any of this to happen. I should have listened to you, that night on the beach. You told me it was a bad idea and I didn’t believe you. I didn’t let you believe it.”
“No,” I immediately respond. “This is not your fault. It was my choice and I don’t regret it. Please don’t try to take the blame for this.” Now fully dressed, I stand up to leave, but Cade wraps his hand around mine and pulls me back down next to him.
“I know we said this was just for while you were here but promise me something. Promise me you’ll text me and let me know what happens with your boss.”
I stand up, leaning over him. Taking his face in my hands, I kiss him deeply, lingering on his lips for as long as I can. I can’t promise him anything, so I don’t even try. Pulling away and looking into his eyes, I stand in front of him while he’s still on the bed. “Goodbye Cade Wesley. I’ll never forget you.”
He doesn’t move from the bed as I walk out of the room. I linger downstairs, hoping he’ll run down and declare his love for me, or at the very least, his desire for me to stay, but he never does, which is for the best. It’s silly to think he’d do that after only one week. I softly close the door behind me as I walk out, making the long walk of shame back to my hotel. When I finally get there, I don’t even bother to undress. I pack my shit haphazardly into my suitcase and crawl into bed. At first, I don’t know if the tears are for the trouble I’m in with my boss or if they’re for the loss I feel when I think about Cade, but as I cry myself to sleep I know one thing is true—this is definitely not how I expected my last night in Florida to go.
***
The ride to the airport is a short, quiet one. Samantha hasn’t said much yet about last night but I know it’s coming. She called me early in the morning and said her secretary had changed our flight, so instead of leaving after lunch we had to be at the airport at by nine a.m. for a ten-thirty departure.
During my sleepless night, I realized I shouldn’t have left things the way I did with Cade. I was going to slip out of my hotel room to see him this morning, to apologize for last night, but I never got the chance. Like a teenager on lockdown, Samantha hasn’t left my side all morning, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence either. She waits until we’re in mid-flight before she finally broaches the subject of Cade.
“I don’t think you realize what a difficult position you’re putting me in.”
“I know. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to make this difficult for everyone involved. That’s the last thing I wanted.” I fidget with my hands as we talk. I’m nervous, and she notices it easily.
“Look, I’m not mad about it. You should know though, I’m required to report it to my superiors. One thing they don’t tolerate is being kept in the dark. I’m trying to make partner, and if they find out about it, and that I knew and didn’t report it, my chances of that happening go right out the window. I’ve worked too hard to let it slip away.” She looks torn. I can tell she hates that she has no choice but to do this. We’ve been friends for a long time, but I would never ask her to jeopardize her career for me. Ultimately, she’s my boss
, and she has to do things in the best interest of both herself and the firm.
Still, the repercussions scare me and I need to ask, “What’s going to happen to me?”
She sighs, and I get the immediate feeling my outlook might be worse than I thought it would be. “I’ll talk to them and see what I can do. The fact is, you signed the code of ethics documents when you started here, so you should have known this was against policy. Sleeping with a client is a definite no-no. In all honesty, it’s a terminable offense.”
My eyes go wide with her words. “Terminable? You mean they could fire me? But he’s not even our client.”
“I know he’s not ours but the firm lumps opposing clients in that category too. They don’t want any involvement between anybody so they can avoid lawsuits and drama.” She looks at me with sad eyes. “The rules were outlined in the handbook—the one you were required to sign before employment.” She sighs. “Like I said, I’ll see what I can do. It’s a distinct possibility they’ll want to let you go, and if it’s the route they choose, I’ll see if I can get them to let you resign. You’ve never been disciplined before so I might be able to convince them to let you do that. Then I’d be able to give you a professional reference and not just a personal one.”
I lean back in my seat, resting my head on the back and close my eyes. I could lose my job over this. That wasn’t something I even considered. At the most, I figured a suspension without pay, but certainly I didn’t think they’d fire me. Even though I know now what looms over me, I still can’t bring myself to regret anything that’s happened. Cade is a memory I don’t want to forget.
When the plane lands, Samantha tells me to go ahead and go home, to consider it my ‘unofficial’ suspension until she can tell the other partners about what happened. She’s optimistic that, with my work history and good record, they might be more willing to let me resign, but it’s not a guarantee. I still hold out a little hope that they’ll just suspend me or something less severe, but it’s a long shot.
The shuttle drops me off in front of my apartment, and I decide to grab a quick lunch from the deli below and take it upstairs. Being home should feel like a relief, but it only fills me with sadness. Despite my best efforts to put him out of my mind, Cade is front and center. I take out my phone, turning it back on, and contemplate texting him when it finally boots back up. When I sit back down with my salad I hear a few notifications go off on my phone, and my heart perks up at the thought it could be Cade checking on me.
My hopes are quickly dashed when I realize there are no messages from Cade, and that it’s CB. Disappointment that it’s him is a strange feeling for me, but after spending almost a week with Cade, I just don’t have the desire to chat with him anymore. Now that I know what it’s like—what it can be like—to have an amazing man in my life, I don’t want to settle for anything else than the real deal. I don’t even bother to open the application and see his message. I just hold the icon down until the uninstall option pops up, and move it over the folder, not even hesitating as I drop it in.
I notice my gallery icon, and my finger hovers over it for a few seconds before I finally make the decision to tap it and open my camera roll. The very first picture is the one Cade took of us on the beach during the sunset. His blue eyes gleam, full of happiness and the smile on his face matches mine. I would give anything right now to hear his voice, touch his lips, hold him next to me. It doesn’t take long for the tears to start flowing.
I miss him.
Now I have no Cade, possibly no job, and absolutely no idea what I’m going to do without the two.
Chapter Seventeen
Cade
Four days.
It’s been four days since she left, and I have yet to hear from her. I’m beginning to think I won’t. I can’t even count the times I’ve picked up my stupid phone and thought about sending her a text, just to check on her. Then one day turned into two, and two into four, and now I’m not sure what to do.
My head tells me to move on, to forget about her. My heart? That’s a different story. Somewhere along the way, this fling turned into something more, at least for me. I thought I got the same vibe from Nora, but since I haven’t heard from her, I guess maybe I was wrong.
I should have made a better effort before she left. I realized it that night she went back to her hotel, so the next morning I got up early and headed over there, intent on telling her everything I had been thinking about. Only, when I got there, I found out she had already checked out. The concierge said a car had already come to take her to the airport. I had missed my chance.
So, I decided I needed to move on, stop fussing over my phone waiting for her text or call, and get on with my life. I even spent Friday night hanging out with all the boys, celebrating their impending success. The record executives loved the demo album Seven’s Edge turned in, and is booking them on their next tour. They leave in two weeks, and in true rock star fashion, they threw a huge going away party—liquor and women as far as the eye could see. I partook in too much of one and not enough of the other. I tried not to think about Nora while I was there, but when every girl that hit on me wasn’t her, I buried myself in another shot glass. I woke up in my bed alone, with no clue how I got there. Sloan later told me he took pity on me and brought me home, but not without me giving him an earful of everything that happened with Nora. It didn’t take me long to remember why in the hell I never drink that much, and an even shorter amount of time for me to vow never to do it again.
Since girls and liquor didn’t help get her off my mind, I decided it would be best to throw myself into my work. Not only do I have to find a replacement for the band, I still have plenty to do getting everything set up for my builders to start on the Austin property. Which is what I was doing all morning before I got a call from Sloan asking me to come down to his office. I hope it has nothing to do with the party or my subsequent confessions. I’m really not in the mood to listen to a big-brother lecture right now.
His secretary says he’s expecting me, and Sophie waves me on through when I walk into the office. When I get to the end of the hall I knock on his door, and Sloan tells me to come in. Surprisingly, Mr. Zimmer is sitting with him on the sofas. I ignore the fact that the last time I was in this room I had Nora pinned to the wall, pounding my cock into her repeatedly.
Yep, I’m not thinking about it at all.
“Mr. Zimmer, what a surprise. I didn’t expect you to still be in town.” He shakes my outreached hand and I take a seat with them on the sofa.
Zimmer just chuckles. “What? And leave sunny Miami without hitting the beach and checking out some young, hot college bikinis?” He laughs as Sloan and I awkwardly join in. The man is easily pushing seventy. He takes on a more serious tone. “Seriously though, I thought I would bring over some things for Sloan to look at. Just some papers and such for the other properties you were interested in. That way you can get a head start on your potential locations. I see big things in your future, son.”
The excitement over my potential success is hard to contain. “Well, thank you Sir. I can’t tell you how happy it makes me that you’ve decided to do business with me.”
“It’s my pleasure. You know, you remind me a lot of myself when I was your age. A real work horse. Always on the lookout for the next big thing that could further cushion my future. But I have to say, my deal with you comes with a little bit of advice. I’ve been there. I’ve seen what ‘all work and no play’ can do to a man. I know what it’s like to have everything you think you want, but at the end of the day, have no one to share it with.”
Where in the fuck is this conversation going?
I’m really confused right now as to what is going on. One minute we’re talking about future businesses and now, I think we’re talking about my love life. Glancing over at Sloan, he gives me the same perplexed look I’m giving him, but I notice he won’t meet my eyes. He knows damn well where this conversation is headed.
“Do you have some
one to share all this with, Cade?” I get the feeling he’s going to try to set me up with someone. That’s going to be an awkward conversation if he does, so I do my best to nip that conversation in the bud before it starts.
“Um, no. Not right now, but I’m not really looking for anyone to get serious with. I’m gonna be too busy with the expansion to get into a relationship.” My mind drifts to Nora before the next words come out of my mouth. “But that doesn’t mean I won’t try if the right girl comes along.” I sit back, feeling defeated. It’s a complete lie. I’m damned sure the right girl did come along, and I let her slip right through my fingers.
“Could Ms. Jensen have been that ‘right’ girl?”
What the actual fuck?
I know my eyes go wide when he says it. Mr. Zimmer doesn’t give me a chance to respond before he continues. “I was talking with your brother while we were waiting for you. He tells me you and Ms. Jensen spent some time together the last few days.” I cut a glare over to my brother, hoping it conveys all the rage I currently feel for him right now. The fucker won’t even look at me, so my anger is lost on him. Zimmer continues, watching the non-verbal exchange between my brother and me. “Relax, he didn’t tell me anything I hadn’t already figured out for myself. I could see the attraction between you the minute I walked into the conference room on the first day. Besides,” he looks over to my traitorous brother, “Sloan and I happened to walk by his office yesterday while you and Ms. Jensen were…spending time together.”
I don’t really know how to respond to that. There’s no denying what happened between us, especially if they heard us fucking against the wall. Still, I won’t confirm or deny what he’s saying. He studies me for a minute before he tells me, “You know, I called my lawyer’s office back in Dallas and asked to speak with Ms. Jensen this morning. The secretary told me she was no longer working my case and then transferred me to another legal assistant.”
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