Sugar Daddy

“Without my knowledge.”

“Yep. I do things like that.”

She sighed. “I better go and get dressed.”

“No need to on my account. Please, take a seat, and we can talk.”

“We’ve got nothing to talk about.”

“Actually, I think we’ve got a lot to talk about. More than you want to admit.” He began to fry up some bacon, and his stomach growled in that moment.

“Look, I was a little taken aback by the woman in the background. I’m sorry, and it won’t happen again.”

“You know, I like that you’re a little jealous.”

“I’m not.”

“And you’re a liar, too.”

She gritted her teeth, taking a seat at the kitchen counter, the only one available.

Removing his jacket, he released his tie and continued to work.

“I’m not in love with you,” she said.

“Now that stung.” He glanced over at her, and he didn’t like how determined she seemed not to have any feelings for him.

This was your own agreement. The fucking without the feeling.

Either way, he believed she was trying not to have feelings for him, even though she did.

He could work with that. No matter what Elizabeth said, she had feelings for him. He wasn’t stupid. A woman who hung up the phone and then created this distance was a woman protecting her heart, and he had no intention whatsoever of crushing it.

“I happen to care about you a great deal, Elizabeth. I enjoy the time we spend together, and you’re the first woman in my life that has ever made me feel that way. In fact, the very thought of another man touching you, or having anything to do with you, fills me with a deep-seated rage. That Billy guy you’ve spoken about, world’s biggest asshole, and I know you can do so much better. You can have me.” He tapped his chest and smiled.

There was a hint of a smile on her lips.

Plating their food, he pulled the second chair that he’d purchased when she’d been sick, and sat opposite her.

When he handed her a slice of buttered bread, she took it. “Thank you.”

“I missed you while I was away.”

“I … you don’t want love, Daniel. I’m not saying that I’ve miraculously fallen for you in the past few months, but you’ve got to understand that it’s not hard to do. I … don’t want to get my heart broken, okay? I just … I want to get through college, pay my debts, and make a new life. You can’t keep breaking your rules.”

“Didn’t you know? Rules were made to be broken.”

“Please don’t make a joke out of this or say something that seems to appease everything and everyone. I’m not trying to be a bitch here. You pay me for sex. We have a lot of sex, and I need to remember that. I can’t keep forgetting that you’re my sugar daddy in all of this.”

He watched her. From the death grip she had on her fork, she really was struggling to deal with their relationship, and Daniel couldn’t blame her.

Not once had he given her any reason to believe that there was going to be more between them, and he couldn’t do it.

Women didn’t work for him, not in the long term. He found more often than not, he got bored. Normally, he was bored with a woman within a couple of months.

That time frame had already come and gone with Elizabeth, but he didn’t want to give her false hope, nor did he want to let her go.

The thought of another man touching her filled him with jealousy so dark it was like a crushing blow in the pit of his stomach.

“I like breaking the rules. I follow the law, and I’ve watched people who have absolutely no regard for it come and go. They abuse it, and in this, we can bend to suit our needs. I don’t just enjoy sex with you, Elizabeth. It’s not like when you’re on your monthly cycle I don’t see you. I like coming to the coffee shop, watching you study, helping you answer stupid questions that your professors think show intellect but for me, make them total assholes. I don’t want us to stop what we’re doing. I enjoy your company, and stop bringing up the damn arrangement. You’re not a whore, not to me, you’re not.” He reached out, taking hold of her hand. “I want to be your friend just as much as I love fucking your brains out.”

Elizabeth burst out laughing. “Wow, that was so sweet, and then you added that at the end.”

“I’m a dirty lawyer.” He winked at her.

“You never made the same agreement as I did,” she said.

“Which one?”

“The … erm … other men part.”

“I’ve seen what happens when there’s more than two people in a relationship. There’s no interest for me to see or be with another woman. On that, you have my word. If there ever is another woman, I promise you, you’ll be the first to know, but I will not cheat. I couldn’t do it, not even when I was a punk ass kid and a little know-it-all.”