“I won’t fuck it up.” He deepens the kiss for a moment and hugs me for a longer moment. I’ve missed his body against mine. “Date night tonight?”
“Not tonight,” I answer, glancing towards Mr. Conti’s office. I swear I just saw his blinds twitch out of the corner of my eye. He’s probably waiting for a safe moment to tell me to get back to work. “Thursday?”
“Why not tomorrow?”
“I’ve got plans then too.” I push him away from me.
He frowns, unhappy that I’m not dropping everything for him. “Doing what?”
“Dinner with a friend,” I reply, omitting the fact it’s Mr. C’s mother and father I’m dining with. “But I am taking a week off so I’ll have so much time to bug you.”
“You don’t bug me,” he answers, pulling me in for another kiss. “I miss you.”
“I missed you too. I want to hear all about your trip.”
“You will, when you make time for me,” he jests and walks away backwards, still smiling. “I love you, Rose Sinclair.”
My cheeks flush when he yells that last part. I duck behind my desk, muttering curses at him.
“He is so sweet,” Miranda comments as she passes, eyeing him hungrily like she does Mr. C.
She always seems to appear behind me at the most inopportune moments.
I open the lid of the box on my desk after scoffing a few of the chocolates and laugh when I reveal the contents. It’s a really large T-shirt with Pax’s face on it. In bold above and below his goofy smiling face it says,
“TAKEN
BY THIS STUD”
“That’s disturbing,” Mr. C says, poking his head around the door.
I hug the T-shirt to my chest. “It’s amazing.”
“Disturbing,” he repeats and nods for me to follow.
My excitement has me counting to six and tapping my feet as I go. He throws a pencil at me; I catch it and smile smugly. “Nice try.”
He throws an eraser this time and it bounces off my forehead.
Ugh.
He just thinks he’s so hilarious.
Wait and see, Mr. Conti. Wait and see.
Chapter Seventeen
He’s my friend.
“Are you ready?” I whisper to Maria. I picked her up from school thirty minutes ago with a plan of action in place.
“I am so ready,” she whispers back, her gorgeous face set with determination.
“Good.”
I push open the door and Maria announces in her usual cute and hyperactive way, “DADDY!”
He looks up from the folders on his desk, I check to make sure they’re nothing important as he hugs his daughter and smiles at me, mouthing a thank you for bringing her.
I almost feel bad for the reason why I brought her before soccer practice.
“Maria, why don’t you show Daddy the gift we got him?” I place her sparkly purple bag on the floor and we both crouch either side of it.
“You got me a gift?” he asks excitedly though it’s exaggerated for his daughter. He doesn’t normally speak like this.
“We did,” I reply and his smile falters when he sees mine. “NOW!”
We both spring up, landing on our feet and pointing two cans each of silly string at the man behind his desk.
“Don’t. You. Dare.”
“GET HIM!” I yell with a laugh and we press the nozzles, shooting green, pink, orange, and yellow sticky string at him. The strands fly with a hiss through the air, hitting his hair, his face, his shoulders, his chest, some lands on his desk. Oh, this is going to be messy.
He covers his face with his hands until he’s standing and then starts to chase his daughter around his office. There is silly string everywhere. I kind of like it though.
I get his back as she screams and scrambles under the table, the spry little thing that she is.
“You are so dead,” he says to me, pointing at me but I just spray it at his finger.
He lunges for my laughing form, a huge smile on his face so I twist to keep the cans away from him but my strength is no match. Arms come around me, trapping me to his chest as I squirm for freedom, but he turns one of the cans and gets me right in the face, all over my glasses and hair. Just like on Christmas.
Maria charges, ready to defend my honor when Mr. C hurries, “There’s twenty dollars in it if you switch teams!”
“WHAT?” I shriek and give Maria a pleading look as her father holds my arms behind me.
She shrugs her shoulders. “Sorry, Rose… it’s twenty bucks.”
I hold my breath when she shoots me directly in the face, much to the joy of her asshole father. Managing to wriggle my arms free, I turn and hide my face in his chest, clinging to his string-covered shirt for dear life.
“I’m out,” Maria sighs, shaking the empty cans.
Mine ran out seconds after Ezra used them against me. Thank God.
We stand there panting, bodies humming from the high of the fight.
I lean back and remove my glasses, using the bottom of Mr. Conti’s shirt to clean them. My knuckles graze the bare skin of his solid abdomen and heat shoots up my arm. I gulp and focus on cleaning them with minimal touching. While I’m doing so, he tips my head back with the side of his finger under my chin and forces me to focus on his face. He’s blurry but I can make out the outline of his features for the most part. I see his lips open at the same time as mine.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you without your glasses,” he murmurs and the hand that tipped my head back curls around my cheek and ear. I shiver when his thumb strokes away a piece of string and his minty, sweet breath hits my lips. We’re so close. Our bodies are flush with each other.
I can feel his heart beating in tandem with mine. His heat, his smell, the way he’s gazing into my unfocused eyes…
It’s like a drug. I feel high. I’ve never felt like this before.
“Daddy, I can’t get it out of my hair,” Maria calls from the bathroom, startling us both and breaking the moment.
I move away from him after putting my glasses back on and assist his daughter in the bathroom.
“Don’t worry, sweetheart,” I say, looking at the state of us both in the mirror. “It’ll wash out.”
“I can’t go to soccer practice like this,” she whines, frowning at herself, making her nostrils flare comically. “They’ll all laugh at me.”
“Probably,” I reply and groan when she digs her elbow into my ribs. It doesn’t hurt, it just makes me choke.
“Come on,” Mr. C calls and then knocks on the door. “Let’s go get us all cleaned up and kick some Bentley school soccer baby butts.”
“YEEEESSSSSS!” Maria cheers, arms in the air.
“You coming?” he asks me politely. “You can take a shower.” When I hesitate, he quickly adds, “The house is empty. It’ll just be us.”
I know there was no hidden meaning to his words, but I can’t help feeling it anyway. In my groin and down my thighs. Basically, all over my body.
“I shouldn’t,” I mutter, looking him up and down one last time. It’s so easy to get lost in a man when he’s as handsome as Mr. C. But I’m not about to put myself in a situation with him where I might make a fool of myself or either of us might…
I’m not even going to think about it.
“Can I meet you there?” I ask softly, turning back the way I came.
“You’re going?” Maria cries.
“I won’t be long.” I leave before either of them can stop me, putting as much distance between me and them as possible.
“What the fuck?” Pax hisses, grabbing me as I exit and pulling me towards the elevators. My arm aches where he’s squeezing it. “Do you really think it’s okay that you’re running around in another man’s office screaming and laughing like that?”
I blink, surprised by the vehemence in his tone. I thought we were okay. He sulked and said it was weird when he found out I’d spent Christmas with Ezra’s family, but accepted that it’s not like he
offered for me to go with him. “You’re hurting me.”
“Sorry,” he mumbles and releases my arm. “I’m just saying that this isn’t okay. You’re mine, right? I’m yours?”
“We don’t own each other.”
“No, but you already spend enough time with your fucking boss.”
“Our boss,” I correct, keeping my voice low.
“You should have come to see me.”
I gape at him. “I’ve been with you all week. You sound like a jealous idiot.”
“And you sound like you’re fucking Mr. Conti. Everybody says it and now they’re definitely going to say it after that.”
“Listen to what you just said. We were in there with a ten-year-old girl… his daughter… shooting silly string. Are you trying to say I’d have sex with my boss in front of his daughter?”
“No, but they don’t know she’s in there!”
“Lower your voice,” I command, glaring at him. I point to myself. “Do I look like I’ve had sex with anybody? And if I was having an affair, I’d probably be going with them to his house to shower, instead I’m going to my house to shower.” Then I shake my head. “I can’t believe I’m even having to explain myself. This is my job. Maria is special to me. The Contis are my friends, sorta. Why do we keep having this conversation? I’ve done nothing to earn your distrust.”
I walk away before he can say anything else, leaving him seething with madness. I press the button for the elevator and step inside.
He joins me and pushes me into the wall. “I don’t like it,” he breathes, kissing my lips, keeping his foot in the elevator door so they don’t close. “But I’ll try not to give you hell about it. I know I’ve been driving us both crazy with it lately, it’s just, the thought of you with anybody else sends me wild. I’ve never felt like this before. I hate it.” Pulling more string from my hair after kissing me again he smiles and shakes his head. “You look ridiculous.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t come to see you first,” I whisper, and I mean it. I would have probably been perturbed too if he came to the office on his day off and didn’t bother to stop and say hello. “I’m new to this relationship stuff, you’ll have to bear with me.”
“I’ll definitely bare with you later,” he jests, flashing his eyes at me.
The clearing of a throat has us both straightening up. It’s Mr. Conti and Maria. Maria is grinning from ear to ear, Mr. Conti is scowling like he has smelled something bad.
“Sorry, boss.” Pax smirks, kissing my unresponsive lips once more. “Have you seen her? I can’t get enough of her.”
Laughing bashfully, I shove him out of the doors and Mr. C and Maria step inside.
“Is that your boyfriend?” Maria asks. “I didn’t know you had a boyfriend.”
“We’ve only been dating a little while,” I reply, giving Mr. Conti the side eye because he still looks annoyed. “I’m sorry, sir… I know you don’t like public displays at work but he’s really… persuasive.”
I thought he’d laugh and roll his eyes but he just silently seethes and I don’t understand why.
I’ve said sorry, although this is probably the fourth time he’s caught us making out where we’re not supposed to.
“Am I forgiven?” I ask softly, reaching for the cuff of his jacket and giving it a little tug.
When the doors open, he doesn’t look at me as he bites out, “Don’t let it happen again, or next time it’ll be your job.”
My heart stops and my hands start trembling.
“See you soon,” Maria calls when he pulls her out of the elevator, reminding me that I still have to meet with them soon despite the fact he’s a complete ass.
Although I suppose he’s just treating me how he’d treat any other employee. I must respect that. Just because we’re friendly doesn’t mean he can be lax.
I watch him walk away with Maria skipping along beside him.
At soccer practice less than two hours later I sit at the end of the bleachers furthest away from him. He smiles and cheers his daughter on, and I wonder why I bothered coming at all, but then I remember how upset Maria would be if I didn’t show up.
I’m too nice. But I guess I’m just clinging on to a family that I never had. Maria represents a childhood for me that I always wanted and never got. I’m living vicariously through her all the while trying to make hers a little more memorable too.
Pax: Where are you?
Rose: Maria’s soccer practice.
Pax: What time will you be home?
“Tell him late, we’re getting pizza and ice cream.”
I startle, almost jumping out of my seat because I have no idea when he appeared next to me. “I’m not coming for pizza and ice cream.”
He smiles at me and I notice the eyes of the parents around us gauging our interactions. I shuffle to the left, putting a foot of distance between us. His smile doesn’t fade so I know he’s not offended. “Do I smell?”
“Yes,” I lie… well… a kind of lie. If he asks me how he smells I won’t be able to say bad.
Chuckling he leans in. “What do I smell of?”
“Stop it, people are looking,” I hiss, giving him a wide-eyed “back off” look.
He scans the people around us and then shrugs. “So?”
“So most of these people know your wife directly.”
“Again… So? Are we doing something wrong?”
Are we? “No… I just don’t want to give them any ammunition.”
He claps when everybody else claps but he’s not watching the game anymore than I am, so he has no idea what he’s clapping for.
I look back at my phone and reply to Pax.
Rose: I don’t know.
Pax: Is he there? Are you with him right now?
“A little paranoid, isn’t he?”
I turn my phone away. “Don’t read my text messages.”
“Don’t open them beside me then.”
I gape at him. “You’re so rude.”
He smiles like the cat that got the cream but only until his next question when he looks concerned, wary almost. “How are things going with Pax? You’ve been a bit… forlorn since you got back together a few weeks ago.”
“I feel like… if I talk about it with you it’ll betray him.”
“I’m guessing I’m the catalyst then?”
I nod, peering up at him. “We’re friends, right?”
“Of course.”
“So, you promise me you won’t say anything? You’ll just listen and offer me advice or something?”
His smile is kind and warm and everything I love about him. Like, not love. “Of course.”
My fingers tap against my knee. “He thinks we’re you know and… well… it’s making him paranoid,” I admit.
“What exactly is, you know?”
I want to flick him on the nose. “You know what it is.”
“Not sure I do.” His smile is just getting bigger and more mischievous by the second. Sometimes I find it hard to believe he’s almost thirty-eight. He certainly doesn’t act it. “You’ll have to tell me.”
“You’re an ass,” I grumble, looking ahead again. “You know what I mean…”
“Eating sandwiches?”
I discreetly pinch his outer thigh; he yelps and lifts his leg a bit to get me to stop.
Unfortunately, he doesn’t stop. “Baking cakes?” And then he leans into my ear and whispers softly, “Thinking of the number six?”
A chill runs down my spine and my eyes ping wide open. My breath shoots into my lungs with a sharp inhale that makes me feel dizzy.
I can’t tear my eyes away from his and his smile just stays in place.
The referee blows his whistle, breaking the connection.
He was definitely flirting with me then… or he’s just being banter rude or something, because… fuck.
Mr. Conti breaks the silence but I still can’t breathe. “Want me to have a word?”
“NO!” I blurt grabbing his arm. “Pl
ease don’t.”
He looks down at where my hand is gripping him and nods to the crowd. “That’s going to give them something to talk about.”
I release him immediately and he just smiles that smug, happy smile again. Is he happy that my relationship has become hell on earth? Or is he just really enjoying, tormenting me?
Wiping his hands on his thighs, he says quietly, “Okay, as far as I’m concerned, I know nothing. So, tell me about it. What’s going on?”
When I’m satisfied that he’s not about to spill my secrets I continue with a slight sneer. “He keeps telling me I have to quit my job or he’s going to leave me.”
He tenses by my side and I keep my eyes on the field, waving at Maria when she looks my way. “That’s not okay.”
“No, you’re right, it isn’t, but I’ve been considering it just to keep the peace.” Before he can argue I look at him, eyes filling with tears. “But then all I can think of is five months from now when I’m working with another man and he’s upset about him too. Am I expected to keep changing my life to fit his paranoid narrative?”
“Absolutely not. Don’t give in to him. Break up with him. That’s…” He shakes his head, looking at me like I’m crazy. “No. You’re not leaving me because some guy told you to.”
Not leaving him?
“Like you can talk,” I jest, nudging his shoulder with mine, somehow, we have shifted closer together again, like magnets. Unaware magnets. Unaware magnets with touching thighs. My God why am I burning? “If I was any prettier you never would have hired me.”
His eyes scan my face, an incredulous look on his. “You have no idea how beautiful you are, do you?”
My breath catches in my throat.
He just said that.
“Now I know you’re pulling my dick,” I reply, taking his words for what they were, banter and nothing else. I imagined the heated look in his eyes and the earnestness in his tone.
I go back to my phone.
Pax: Is he there?
Becoming His Mistress Page 13