His Best Mistake (Shillings Agency 6)

Daisy cocked her head. “What happened?”

“Huh?” he asked distractedly.

“What’s wrong? Your smile just went away all of a sudden.”

There she went, being all observant and shit. Must be the cop inside her. The reminder of what she was, what she did, wasn’t necessary. Neither was the stab of pain in his chest as he relived the moment he found out he would be raising his daughter alone. He shook off that feeling of sadness, of utter loneliness. He had a feeling that after this it would be even worse.

Smiling, he held a hand out to her, offering to help her to her feet. “Nothing’s wrong, but I want to take a bath in that big Jacuzzi tub with you.”

“A bath?” She lifted a brow, eyeing his hand. “You’re not leaving yet?”

“Is the sun up?” he asked, keeping his tone even.

She glanced over her shoulder at the closed curtains. “No…”

“Then I’m not fucking going. Bath in the Jacuzzi. You in, or not?”

“Oh, I’m in.” Smiling, she slid her hand into his. “I’m so in.”

Yeah. So was he.

That was the problem.

Chapter Nine

One week.

Seven days.

One hundred and sixty-eight hours.

Ten thousand and eighty minutes.

No matter how she said it, or how she looked at it, it had been a week since she fell asleep naked in Marks’s arms, and a week since she woke up in bed alone, again. A week since the last time he kissed her and whispered sweet words in her ear.

There was no warm inspirational note from him that time.

It bothered her that it mattered so much.

In all reality, she was surprised that she was still thinking about him so frigging much. She barely knew the guy. They’d had some amazing sex, sure, but that was it. They had nothing in common besides the fact that neither of them wanted to be with the other. And yet, she couldn’t stop thinking about him. And she…she…missed him. Ugh.

She’d tried throwing herself into her work to stop from thinking about him all the time, but since she was stuck behind a desk, that hadn’t been much of a distraction.

If anything, it only made it worse.

Lauren sat beside her at the bar, sliding a cosmo her way. “Here you go.”

“That’s not a Diet Coke,” she said, catching it automatically.

“I know. You seemed stressed, so I got this instead.” Lauren gestured to the matching drink in front of her. “I didn’t have cupcakes to offer you, so I settled for the next best thing.”

She would have preferred the cupcakes.

Daisy closed her hands around the stem of the glass, frowning down at the pink drink. After watching her father drown himself in alcohol after losing her mother, she wasn’t exactly a big drinker. That night with Mark had been an anomaly, her being in a bar and all. And it had been a hotel bar, not even a real one. Staring down at the pink, frothy drink, all she could think about was Mark that night. His laugh. His mouth on hers. His fingers brushing over her skin.

This wasn’t fair.

None of this was fair.