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

to me as I pulled out her chair and led her out of the restaurant. I called my car around, but stopped just before getting in.

“The car can take you home to your fiance,” I announced regretfully.

“You’re not leaving the strip?” she hesitated.

“No, I’m going to hit the gym on the way home.”

“Get in. I don’t mind dropping you off first,” she commanded.

I let out a sigh. “No, really. It’s okay. It’s a nice night. I think I’m going to walk. It’s not far and it’ll be a good warm-up.”

She wrinkled her face and stared me up and down. “You’re in a suit,” she scoffed before turning to look off at the clouds in the distance. “And it looks like it’s going to rain.”

I shook my head and flashed a smile. “Goodnight, Cat.”

“Suit yourself,” she answered before climbing into the back of the car.

I stood on the sidewalk as she drove off, and clicked my tongue—thinking to myself what a shame it all was. I couldn’t remember the last time a woman had me so riled up, so of course it just had to come from a woman I could never possibly have. Not because she was out of my league. That’s what made it sting so bad. The two of us were rare birds and in a league of our own.

No, I couldn’t have Cat for much worse reasons than that. I let out another sigh and started off down the sidewalk. I didn’t mind the walk—even in my leather shoes. But of course it had to start pouring rain when I was two blocks from the gym. I ran inside and immediately went to my locker where I kept an extra bag and changes of clothes for random, unfortunate circumstances such as these.

After drying off and getting changed, I went to the bench press and started trying to blow off all the steam and pent up tension. With every lift of the weights, I puffed out a gush of air and reminded myself why I had to get my urges under control.

It wasn’t just her fiance or her father that were big red flashing lights telling me to pump the breaks. I needed this deal to go through. I wasn’t in financial distress by any means, but I also hadn’t accomplished everything I had hoped to by this point in my career. If I was going to live up to Mark Whitaker’s standards and teachings—I needed us to purchase Heartstring without anything putting the deal in jeopardy.

4

Cat

I was reeling the whole way back to my apartment, laid out in the backseat of the car. My skin was on fire from all those touches and glances from Jordan Ashford. My teenage lust for him was still just as capable of consuming me as it had been all those years before. I had thought I’d be more immune to it now—but apparently not.

It was more than just how good he looked. There was a chemistry that sparked between us that made my stomach flutter with butterflies like I was fifteen all over again. Only this time around, my Dad hadn’t been watching us, stifling all of my true thoughts and desires.

The closer we got back to my place, the harder I worked to get myself under control. I couldn’t go back to Drew while my mind was still being ruled by Jordan…my mind and my libido, at that.

I sucked in deep breaths…inhale, exhale. Pulled out my mirror and put on some lip gloss, fanning myself to try and get rid of the obvious blush that had spread across my cheeks and chest. Even after trying to fix myself up and lingering in the door of the car to calm down, I struggled to force myself out onto the sidewalk and into the lobby.

Thankfully, the elevator provided one final buffer to push all of those wicked, dirty thoughts down. But that did nothing to erase the awkward smile on my face when I walked in.

“Hey, babe,” Drew called out casually from the kitchen as he ate takeout and read stock updates on his phone, leaning against the kitchen counter.

“Heeeeyyyy!” I called right back, sounding way too eager.

I winced, knowing I had blown it.

His face wrinkled as he shot me a strange grin. “What’s gotten into you?”

“It’s raining outside,” I blurted. Maybe my flustered state could pass as me just being cold. Even though I really had the opposite problem. I was blazing with heat from my core out to every limb, right down to the tips of my fingers.

“You poor thing,” he offered. He went into the hallway closet and pulled out a towel to wrap me in. “You must be freezing.”

“I just…I need a hot bath, I think.” That’s it. That was the solution. Another quick escape. One where I could be naked and alone with my thoughts.

“I ordered your favorite,” he pointed towards the extra boxes on the table.

“Oh, thanks, but I already ate.”

“I thought you had lunch after your meeting today,” he questioned. “Did you have a dinner meeting I didn’t know about?”

“Uh…it turned into a dinner meeting,” I stammered. “You know how my dad gets when he starts rambling on about an exciting new deal.”

His face melted in understanding, because he really did know how my dad was. Which only made me feel more guilty.

All the more reason to quickly slink off into the bathroom, shutting and locking the door behind me. Drew was all too happy to be free to go back to his stocks and financial news updates.

I was feeling somewhat better a couple of hours later—once I was freshly bathed, relaxed, cuddled up in bed in my sweats. I flipped through a book that had been on my nightstand for weeks, even though I could barely take my mind off work long enough to focus on actually reading. Of course that night it was somewhat of a relief to have something else fighting for my mental energy.

Drew was flipping through a book of