Beauty and the Billionaire

That might make me feel a bit better. Knox will be next door, the security is good in my building, and I have an alarm.

Faith: Maybe. I’m going to study most of the weekend. I have a new project. I want to get a jump start on it.

Me: All right. I love you.

Faith: Love you too.

I stare at my texts. They feel awkward, but I can’t put my finger on it. I’m usually so good at reading her moods, but right now I’m at a loss. I toss my phone across my desk. I need to sit down and talk to her. Tell her I fucked up.

Tiffany knocks on my open door. “Your three o’clock is here.” I nod. At least I have everything straight here at work and with my classes. I was expecting to be overwhelmed with it all.

For the first time in my life, it’s my relationship with Faith that is unsteady. It scares the hell out of me. Without her, all of this is pointless.

7

FAITH

“You okay?” Whitney asks, walking into our room and dropping her bag down. She spent the weekend at Knox’s. They tried to get me to come over and have dinner or something, but I wasn’t feeling it. They need their alone time too. I know when I’m at Ace’s I want all of his attention. At this point I think I’m going through withdrawal.

“I’m great.” I sit up, putting my shoes on. I know Knox is going to pop up here soon. At the moment I don’t think I can watch them be all lovey dovey. Things are so weird between Ace and me right now.

Ace tried to get me to stay at his place a few more times, but the reality is it only makes me miss him more. It’s a reminder that I should be living with him. I’m starting to get pissed about it, but I know how Ace can be. He respects our parents, and I get that. They’ve done so much for us. I hate all this time apart. I’m not used to it. You would think I wouldn’t feel lonely since I live with three other girls, but everyone has their own things to do.

“Are you going somewhere?”

“Yeah, I’m meeting Jason at the Perk.” It’s a small café where the college kids go to study together or catch up. “We’re going to go over our project for Cognitive Psychology.” She gives me a look. Okay, maybe I agreed to partner up with Jason to poke at Ace a bit. I know it’s immature, but I’m still a little upset that he was so casual about his assistant answering his phone.

“You hate group projects.”

“Yep.” When it comes to schoolwork, I can be a bit obsessive. I’m used to things being done a certain way. Which is my way.

I don’t like to let anything sit for any time frame. I want to do it immediately. Oftentimes when I’m in a group project I power through and do most of it myself. It’s not even my partner's fault. I bring it upon myself.

In fact, I’m kind of hoping he’s not going to be mad at me. The project isn't even due for another week. It was something I could focus on and not worry about what’s happening between Ace and me.

I grab my bag before heading out to the coffee shop. My mind as always drifts to Ace. He’s been holding back from me. The next morning after he spanked me it was as though a switch flipped. None of that man I’d seen the night before was there. I even tried to provoke him. It’s a terrible thing to do, but I wanted to see if I could draw it out of him.

He opened a box I hadn’t even realized existed. Now all these hidden desires have come tumbling out. Then he’d gone and put the stupid lid back on. I even loved that stupid nickname Kitten he gave me. I’m sure that when I get grumpy I look like a little kitten to him. He’s twice my size. But the name and the dominant man have vanished.

I don’t understand why he’s hiding part of himself from me. I chew on my bottom lip, trying to make sense of it all. The only reason I can come up with is that it scares him or at the very least he thinks it's going to scare me. If there is one thing Ace will always do it’s protect me above all else. How long has he had these thoughts in his mind? How many times has he had to tuck them away?

Ace has always been sweet and gentle to me. We never really fight either. I don’t know if it’s because we’ve known each other for so long or that we typically feel the same way about things.