Baby for Sugar Daddy: A Secret Baby Romance (Heartstring Dating Agency Book 6) by Lauren Wood (inspirational books TXT) 📗

was having a hard time keeping my libido in check around this grown version of Cat with all of her charms. I couldn’t help but want her, despite the suicidal nature of that desire. There were a million reasons not to. First, there was her dad, who was my business partner going on over ten years. He’d kill me if he saw the way I was looking at her, or if he knew the kinds of things I was thinking about her.

Then there was this jerk fiance of hers named Drew. Financial Analyst, psh. Everyone knew they were bad in bed. No wonder he put a ring on her. She was probably way out of his league and he knew he had to call dibs before she had a chance to realize that.

“So, I see no reason not to dive in head first with Heartstring,” she announced after we ordered our food. “Given their history, reputation, and numbers…It’s a low risk investment of our time and money. Our only challenge is to surpass the success Lucas and Jack built up, and then sell it off for at least double of what we’re buying it for…five or ten years down the road.”

“Five?” I questioned. “That’s ambitious.”

“But not impossible,” she grinned.

“No, in theory…not impossible,” I nodded, thinking it over. “But we would be on our own. Your father wouldn’t have much to offer beyond a little advice here and there. And of course his name on the whole thing paves the way for us.”

“I don’t know what my father has told you about me, but I’m a shark.” She leaned back in her chair, crossing her arms, a maiden of steel. “There’s no doubt in anyone’s mind about what I can accomplish once I have my first corporation under my belt. I just need it all to play out as proof. And from what I’ve grown up hearing about you…You’re no different. We’re kindred spirits. You know, most companies are lucky to get one big tycoon like us. Heartstring is getting two—three if you count my father.”

“Jack and Lucas hold their own,” I noted.

“Which is what got them to where they are…along with the other Meadows siblings. I have no doubt we’d assemble a forceful team of our own to back us up.”

God, there was something so sexy about talking business with her. In my sex life, I never shit where I eat. I didn’t touch women I worked with, and I prefered to keep the two separate. I had no idea that batting ideas and aspirations back and forth with a woman over dinner could give me such a rush. My cock was already twitching in my suit pants—struggling not to react to the sexual thrill I was getting from the combination of sex appeal and ambitious work drive all wrapped up in one delicious little package…which was so very much off-limits.

The time slipped away as we got lost in our talk about the big new deal—which we were both completely sold on. At some point, the conversation drifted from business to more casual things.

“You were there the year my father dressed as Santa and nearly caught his beard on fire on a cinnamon candle because he had too much scotch, right?” She laughed, sipping her third cocktail and swirling her fork through her half-eaten creme brulee.

“He was still crying out ‘ho ho ho!’ even as he was rushing to put it out,” I laughed at the memory of one of the infamous annual Whitaker family Christmas parties.

“And Mom!” she squealed, dabbing tears away from her eyes with her napkin. “Swatting his ass with a blanket to try and help!”

I blew out a big breath to try and regain myself from laughing so hard. “It’s easy to forget sometimes…that you were there for all of that.”

“I was invisible to you,” she smirked.

“You were fifteen,” I grumbled, tilting my glass in the air. I was almost bitterly resentful over just how not fifteen she was now.

She smiled back and swirled her own glass in the air before finishing off the last of it. The diamond ring on her hand sparkled in the light—hypnotizing me right along with her entrancing glare.

I knew that look in her eye, and it was trouble. If I were with any other woman over dinner and drinks, it would be game on. But with her I had to resist…no matter how hard it was.

The waiter came by with the check, which I was quick to grab up and pay.

“I can pay,” she offered, reaching to dig her wallet out of her purse.

“You’re a recent college grad,” I argued. “It’s my job to pay. And anyway—I’m making it a work expense. Our first official company dinner meeting.”

“I’m going to want to see our records of those expense charges,” she said coyly. “I don’t abide cocky male executives using the company’s bank account to woo women and buy them expensive dates all over town.”

“What makes you think I’d do something like that?”

She leaned back again with that graceful, yet aggressive air to her—like she was so certain about everything. Especially her hunches about me.

“I know men like you,” she replied. “I’ve been around you my whole life, remember? Not just you specifically…but all of my father’s arrogant business associates.”

“So, you think I’m cocky and arrogant? And a womanizer?” I huffed, acting flirtatiously wounded.

“Am I wrong?” she arched her brow.

I tilted my head and smirked. Thankfully, the waiter returned with the check for me to sign just in time. Anymore witty banter and I’d lose all resolve. It was like another round of foreplay to me, and I could see it obviously was for her too. Maybe she was good at playing those sorts of games and knowing when to quit before she was in too deep—but I couldn’t say the same for myself. Not with the way she had me feeling.

Cat didn’t stop shooting me those tempting glances the rest of the way out. She kept her seductive eyes trained