"She invited her friends." His jaw tightens. "She wanted them here so she could show off my view." He gestures out the expansive windows.
"I want to go." I stare at the floor. I need to go. I need to process everything that's just happened.
"You're not leaving." He leans forward suddenly to run his hand down my cheek. "I can't believe you're in my apartment."
I feel an instant ache flow through me at the first hint of his touch. I can't still want him. He's Cassandra's boyfriend. I need my job. I don't need him. I have to keep telling myself that.
"I need to leave." My tone is insistent and firm but I know he can see through it.
"It's my birthday." His finger runs slowly over my jaw. "A kiss, Jessica. One kiss for my birthday."
"No." I pull back causing his hand to drop. "We're not doing that anymore."
"Why not?" His eyes open fully and bore into me. "Fucking you is all I want."
"You fucked her." I wince when I say the words. Oh god. He fucked her. He touched her the same way he did me. He licked her. He made her scream his name when she came with him inside of her.
"I screwed her twice months ago." He pulls forward so his breath courses against my ear. "I've never really fucked her."
"There's no difference." I take a heavy step back. I have to gain distance. I can't be close to him.
"I screwed her against the wall in her office one night and then again in the back of a limo when she dragged me to an event. Both times almost fully clothed. Both times just my dick inside of her. Briefly. I didn't even come the second time."
"Shut up." I cringe from the vulgarity of the words, from the confession. "Stop talking about her." I don’t want to think about the two of them together. I can't imagine her feeling anything from his body.
He leans forward again, running the pad of his thumb across my lips. "I never fucked her mouth. I never wanted to be in her the way I want to be in you."
I recoil at the touch. I can't have this conversation with him. Cassandra has taken care of me. She's given me an opportunity when no one else would. "Don't say that."
"Don't say what." He surges forward grabbing my waist, pulling me into him. "That all I think about every minute of the day is fucking you? That I'm addicted to the taste of you? That I get hard instantly when I think about sliding my cock into your tight little body?"
"You dated her. You brought her here." I gesture to the room around us. This is the place he said he'd never bring a woman he fucked. "She had keys."
"I gave her those keys so she could sit and wait for the plumber on a Saturday when I was visiting my sister in Boston."
He has an answer for everything. It can't be that simple. Cassandra couldn't have misinterpreted their relationship that much, could she?
"I ended it weeks ago, Jessica." His hand slides across my hip. "I told her it was over, she wouldn't accept it. She wanted a temporary break instead. I gave her that to give her time to adjust."
"I can't face her." I pull my gaze down to my palm. "I can't believe I was sleeping with her boyfriend."
"Jessica." His finger brushes against my chin, tilting it up. "I didn't want her. I've never wanted her the way I want you."
"I have to go." I try and twist his body so I'm closer to the door but he's unrelenting in his stance.
"No." His lips glide over my forehead. "I'm not letting you go."
"I don’t want this anymore," I say the words with purpose. I need them to sound genuine. "I can't see you again."
"You're a horrible liar." His hand slides up my hip to the front of the chef's jacket.
"I'm not lying." I swat his hand away. "I'm leaving."
He spins me around so effortlessly that I don’t have time to react before my back is against the door. "Kiss me, Jessica. A kiss for my birthday."
&n
bsp; I lean into the heavy wood of the door. I stare at his lips, watching his skillful tongue course over them, wetting them in anticipation.