They finished up with Brad wrapping Sophia up in his arms and holding her body close to him as they continued to cool down. She felt his heavy breathing on the back of her neck. It was comforting and sweet.
She found herself thinking of how many times she had imagined making love to Brad Thorpe.
When Sophia woke up the next morning Brad was gone.
In his place on the other side of the bed was a dark rose and the contract that he had offered her.
Was this his way of buying her off?
Did he mean what he said? Did he really love her?
Sophia found herself feeling more confused than she ever had about who Brad Thorpe really was.
Who was Brad Thorpe?
*****
TO BE CONTINUED...
Twisted Games
~Bonus Story~
A Dark Billionaire Romance
Book Two
* * *
Sophia looked at the contract in her hand. She had been studying it for several minutes, as if she was trying to make sense of it all. She had just awakened from the most intense, erotic, and confusing night of her life. There were a million questions running through her mind right then. The roar in her head was so loud that it was starting to give her a headache of massive proportions.
Where did Brad go? Why had he left before she woke up? What time had he gone?
Sophia rolled over and checked her clock; it was almost six-thirty. This was rather late for her to still be in bed. She had always been an early riser. It was a pattern she had cultivated since she was a teenager and had decided to take control of her health and well-being. She also enjoyed starting every morning with a jog. At first she could only run one mile, and ended up huffing and puffing like she was about to die. But eventually it had gotten easier and now she could not really consider herself to be alert and ready to face the day until she had finished her five mile run.
Sophia rolled out of bed, placed the dark rose that Brad left for her in water and picked out her workout clothes. She had amassed a sweet collection of workout gear that she felt accentuated her assets and made her look cute. It had always been enough to make a few heads turn when she was out and about. Even though she welcomed the attention from men who could not stop looking at her chest, it somehow made her feel like a sideshow attraction and it just reminded her that she was a fetish. She knew that was a horrible way to feel about herself, and she had always tried to dismiss that thought, but it was easier said than done.
That was one of the reasons she found herself so drawn to Brad. Especially after last night. The way he looked at her, his eyes full of lust and the way his body seemed to yearn for her, so full of passion and depravity. It was like an animal overtook him and he could not help himself. There was something dark and disturbing about Brad and even though every fiber of her being was telling her to stay away from this man who might be a total psycho, she was addicted to the rush that she felt when she was with him. It was like the most potent drug and the highest high that she ever could have imagined. She just needed to be with him.
But did he feel the same way? Was there any way that a man like Brad Thorpe could change? She didn’t think so, but her heart and her body would not let her walk away. She had to try.
As her feet hit the pavement on her usual jogging route she was unable to get that man out of her head. He had the most amazing body and the most intensely beautiful eyes she had ever seen. His eyes were the perfect metaphor for who Brad was. They appeared to be beautiful and captivating, but there was a disturbing darkness behind them and an animosity that occasionally revealed itself and was terrifying. But just as she started to get scared the beauty and the sweetness were back.
That was Brad Thorpe in a nutshell. Everything about him was intriguing and yet repulsive at the same time. Sophia thought about the games that Brad loved to play and the way he did it all with a smile on his face. It made you wonder if he enjoyed messing with people, or if he just loved to play so badly that he didn’t care who it affected. Was he even aware that he hurt other people with these games? Sophia just wasn’t sure and she didn’t know if she would ever be close enough to him to find out. The man was so hard to read and so hard to pin down.
Was that part of his appeal? It should have been part of the distaste that she felt when she thought about him sometimes. Sophia had never felt an emotional rollercoaster like the one she was experiencing right now and it was ripping her into pieces.
Her feet pounded the pavement harder and harder as she broke out of the jog into a full sprint. She felt like she was trying to outrun her feelings. She had to get away from that place or it was going to swallow her whole, but she knew that she could not run forever and that eventually the feelings would be right there with her again.
She just had to get herself together and face the fears head on. That was all there was to it. She had never been the type to run from anything and she wasn’t about to start now.
But this was just so intense because love was involved.
Love? Where had that word come from?
Sophia reached the end of her jog as she thought about the words that had just popped into her head. Did she love Brad? No… she couldn’t. She hardly knew the man and she sure as hell couldn’t make a snap decision like that so quickly.
Why had that word popped into her head? That was the most frightening thing she’d thought all morning. While running as hard as she could to get away from the mixed feelings she was having about Brad Thorpe, she had somehow ended up having the worst feeling she could have imagined.
There was no way that she could love this man. She certainly loved parts of the way that he made her feel, but she despised many others. There was something about the back and forth of feelings that was mesmerizing her and causing her to come to crazy conclusions. That was all that had happened. Sophia knew that she did not love Brad Thorpe.
But he had said he loved her.
What was that about? Was he just messing with her? Was it just another one of his games? He did not answer her when she called him out on that, and she somehow forgot everything when he began to make love to her. His touch was magnetic and she was powerless to resist it. What was she going to do?
Sophia knew that it was going to be a long day.
She wondered if Brad would contact her. Would he call or text? Or should she contact him?
No. He had left her without so much as a real word, although the rose had been a romantic gesture, she supposed. But it was wrong to just up and leave after such a romantic and passionate evening. Maybe it was a guy thing? She had been with a few men in her life though, and she could not remember any of them leaving the next day.
Maybe that was just Brad’s thing. It was possible that it didn’t really mean anything. She wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt, even though he had repeatedly demonstrated that he in no way deserved it. He probably just had some work to do and decided to leave early to go home and change and then get to work.
He would contact her when he felt like it and when he had time. Why was she allowing herself to get so worked up over this? Probably because Brad had almost given her twenty heart attacks in the short amount of time she had known him. But he had also given her the biggest and most amazing climax she had ever had. Just thinking about the sex they’d shared made her go weak in the knees.
Sophia felt that she was being silly. She had to realize that there were things in the world she could not change, and while that went against every part of her control freak nature she had to grow up and stop dwelling on every little thing.
She could do this.
*****
“What a pig!”
Sophia almost choked on her diet coke as Carrie blurted out the insult. The two of them were having lunch at their usual Chinese spot that was just around the corner from Sophia’s office and she was just finishing up the story about how Brad and she had made sweet love only to have him perform a disappearing act in the middle of the night. Ca
rrie was being very understanding.
“He is such a pig. I hate it when guys do that!” Carrie said.
“Wait—how many guys have done that to you?” Sophia asked.
“I’d rather not say; it’s a sensitive subject,” Carrie said feigning hurt feelings and modesty.
Sophia could not hold back the laughter. Any time she was with her best friend she began to instantly feel better about anything that was bothering her. No matter how much pain and frustration she was experiencing she knew that her friend Carrie was experiencing more and was laughing it all off all the way. She had this amazing ability to make everything in life seem simple and funny, even though she really didn’t mean to at times. Sophia wished that she could be that way; it would have been so simple to just shrug off everything and just take control.
“So, you don’t think I’m being too hard on him here?” Sophia asked.
“Of course not; I’d never speak to a guy again if he didn’t even say goodbye after we’d had amazing sex,” Carrie said before taking a sip of her tea. “The sex was that amazing?”
“Oh, I thought my whole body was going to burst when I came. I can’t stop thinking about it.”
“Uh oh. That is his secret.”
“What secret?” Sophia asked.
“He is a bad boy and from what you’ve described to me about him he is as bad as they come. But they always leave you coming back for more because the sex is so addicting,” Carrie said.
Sophia hated to admit that Carrie was totally right, but she was only half right. The sex was addicting but so was the excitement and thrills of what the hell Brad might or might not do next. She had no idea where she stood with him or if she would stand anywhere with him. Was she a potential girlfriend? A playmate? Sophia had never had a man tie her head in knots like this.
“I know it,” Sophia said. She didn’t feel like getting too involved in a conversation about her emotions. Even with Carrie she was kind of guarded when it came to her feelings on things. Sophia had always been crazy private that way, and she did not see herself changing this pattern any time soon. In that way she supposed that she and Brad were a lot alike.
“Well, you just have to wait,” Carrie said.
“I know. That is the thing that is killing me. I just don’t know what to expect,” Sophia said.
“Maybe you should not expect anything. I guarantee you that he is not.”
“You’re right, but why is it so much harder for me to do that?”
“Because Brad is a player; he does this crap all the time I’m assuming,” Carrie said.
Sophia felt the wind being pulled from her sails. “I know you’re right. Could I be falling for that stupid bad boy stuff? I thought after college a girl was supposed to be way past that.”
“Yea, but sometimes you can get sucked right back into it with the right guy,” Carrie said. “Happens to me all the time still.”
“I’m not sure I would brag about that,” Sophia joked.
“I wear it as a badge of honor. You see I’m different because I am aware of the bad boy game, and it totally confuses these guys because I don’t become obsessive or develop real feelings for them. I’ve actually broken several bad boys this way.”
“What do you mean?” Sophia was very intrigued by this.
Carrie leaned closer. “I basically reverse the game on them because I have divorced myself from my emotions in this thing. This totally messes with their psyche because they start to wonder why a girl is not all crazy over them and texting them five hundred times. They actually text me back to explain themselves sometimes and I pretend that I’ve already forgotten who they are. Then a few weeks later they start to text me and call me out of the blue. It is crazy!” Carrie was getting very excited about it.
“Girl, that is insane. You should write a book or something. We need to get you on Dr. Phil fast!” Sophia laughed.
“I know, right!”
Sophia gave Carrie a high five. She had no idea if Carrie was even remotely telling the truth about any of this but it was a fun little fantasy.
“I haven’t heard from Brad all day; you sure I shouldn’t just say hey? Maybe he thinks I’m not ready for anything and he is giving me space? Maybe he is just waiting to see what I’ll do?”
Carrie looked at Sophia with condescending eyes. “Sweetie, you know that is a crock. If he wants you he will call you or at least text you. Don’t play his games.”
“But aren’t I playing a game of my own by not texting him because of that reason? I’m not doing what feels right to me.”
“You are overthinking this too much,” Carrie said. “I say give it a day or so and then text him something about work. That way you aren’t checking up on him, but you are texting him about a legit thing.”
Sophia thought a moment. “That is not a bad idea.”
“I do have my moments.”
“Yes, you do,” Sophia said. “I just have to stand my ground and try to get back in the swing of things.”
****
Sophia spent the rest of the day working diligently in the office. She was finalizing a few deals with some designers and also working on some of her own designs for the clothing line. It was all coming together so fast and it was turning out better than she had initially thought. At first she was a bit skeptical about working with some of the designers that The Wrecking Crew had recommended to her because she had wanted to have the final say in most of the designs and wanted to do most of them herself, but she could see how it was way more work than she was going to be able to handle.
The Wrecking Crew had put together a plan to branch out from simple business attire for larger women to an entire line which included casual wear, sportswear, and even lingerie. It was all moving way beyond what Sophia had ever envisioned and she had been scared and hesitant at first, but it was all starting to come together in a beautiful way now.
Sophia was dead tired when five o’clock rolled around and even though she wanted to keep going she knew that she was going to take a break soon. Everything had been so busy that it felt like she’d just crammed three days of work into one, but she appreciated the busy day because it let her forget about her problems, especially Brad Thorpe. She had hardly thought about him or the fact that she had not heard a peep from him all day.
When the office began to clear out she found herself alone and winding down. The wave of exhaustion hit her all at once and she could hardly stomach the idea of waddling downstairs and getting on a cab only to march into another elevator and ride it to her own floor and her own apartment.
And she was now alone with her thoughts. Since her lunch with Carrie, which always picked up her spirits, she had managed to keep the name Brad Thorpe out of her mind. Using her mental energies to focus on work and all of the excitement that went with that had led to quite a productive afternoon, even if it had drained her of every last ounce of energy.
But now she was alone with nothing else to really occupy her mind. It was going to be a long night.
Her phone’s vibrating woke her up at six the next morning. Sophia groaned aloud as she struggled to roll out of her blankets and pick up the phone before it went to voicemail. She was not sure exactly what time it was but the sun was barely illuminating her bedroom through the closed blinds on her window, so it had to be pretty damn early. This meant it was most likely work related.
She threw her hands out madly, grasped her phone with her finger tips and yanked the phone towards her face where it landed on the bed as she continued to climb out of the prison of blankets she was trapped in.
The phone stopped ringing. Her screen read that she had a missed call and a few seconds later it dinged to let her know that she now had a voice mail.
The voicemail was from The Wrecking Crew. They wanted to have an impromptu eight o’clock meeting to put the final touches on the first leg of the marketing schedule for her new clothing line launch. She groaned at the thought of having to be that “on” that early, but she tr
ied to reassure herself how great it would be for her future.
But she might see Brad there.
The excitement began to creep up over her whole body until she was wide awake and wishing that time would move more quickly. She tried to calm herself down and make sure that she kept her cool with it all, but the more she thought about the idea that Brad might be there, the more she felt like a flustered school girl. She hated that he made her feel this way. She had always prided herself on being a strong, independent woman and she had always laughed at women who got hung up over some guy who may or may not even care that they were alive.
But now she was starting to feel like one of them. Sophia tried to put her mind on something else as she got dressed and went for her morning jog. She would have to cut it a bit short since she was going to this impromptu meeting, but she would not feel right if she didn’t get some sweating done.
After the jog she took a quick shower and fixed herself a healthy breakfast which consisted two hardboiled eggs and a packet of oatmeal. While she ate her mind kept drifting back to Brad and the meeting and she started to realize that she was actually feeling pretty nervous. Was she just nervous about the meeting or was she nervous about seeing Brad again? She wasn’t sure. It was probably a bit of both but she hated to admit to herself it was probably mostly Brad.
What had this man done to her? He had hijacked her mind and her emotions. It was very much like being put under a spell that she just couldn’t break. It was the most bizarre thing she had ever experienced and she found a part of her loved every minute of it.
It was a bit sick and twisted. She knew this and she knew it was too alien to her normal thought pattern, that she was completely confused by it all. Even after her eye opening lunch with Carrie she felt like she still could not shake the hold this man had over her.
Before she knew it the time had come to leave and head to the meeting. She took a deep breath and headed out the door wishing to God that the meeting was not today.
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