Kenzie
I’d been groggy as hell when I woke up, and my limbs were sore, too. The rest I managed to get did nothing to erase what I had done with Jonas Courtland. As I rolled over in bed and slapped at my phone to turn off the alarm, I wasn’t sure whether I regretted what had happened between us or not. The longer I laid there, the more I did. I was supposed to fuck with his head, not actually fall into his bed.
“What have I done?” I bemoaned.
“Hopefully what I think that you did,” Reece said when she emerged from the bathroom. I hadn’t even realized she was up, and wondering if I had managed to oversleep, I scrambled upright in a panic.
“Oh my God. What time is it?” I was freaking out, thinking I’d end up like those other chefs the first day of competition. They were late, and subsequently canned.
“Don’t worry,” she told me as she sat down on the edge of my bed. “I couldn’t sleep. All I keep thinking about was yesterday.”
“Me too,” I responded.
“Good.” She seemed relieved, and I didn’t know why until she continued. “Being in the bottom three sucked monkey balls. We have to do better today.”
Okay. So, we were not talking about not forgetting the same thing. She was actually thinking about the competition, while I was still in some blissful type of post-orgasmic haze. “Yeah, that too.”
“Too?” Reece asked, and I realized where I had erred. “Just where did you go last night?”
I tried to play it off. “I went to use one of the saunas downstairs.”
“And...”
“And, what? I found one, stayed inside of it longer than I should have and came back upstairs.”
“Bullshit,” she spat out, but not in anger. “You’re lying.”
“I’m not lying. I did go upstairs, just not to this room initially.”
Reece clapped her hands together once. “Does this mean what I think it does?”
I fell back against my pillows. “I slept with Jonas. God, what have I done?”
Reece climbed into bed with me and pulled me into her arms. “You might’ve saved our asses. I was thinking we needed to come up with some killer recipes for a bunch of different things and pray that any could be used in whatever today’s challenge ended up being, but now—”
“Now, nothing,” I said. “I didn’t sleep with him for any unfair competitive advantage. If I had, I would be no better than he was back in high school. I might’ve been playing a game with him, but not that type.
“I didn’t mean it like that,” she clarified. “Inquiring minds have to know, though.”
“Know what?” This was a prime example of why I didn’t confide too much about my sex life to anyone, including my only friend in the world.
“You know,” she responded, then gave me a nudge. “How was he in bed? The same? Better? Or worse than you remember?”
Oh! I supposed I could talk about that. It wasn’t as if my crimson cheeks didn’t say enough already. “He was even better than I remembered. And, he was right about his tongue.”
I then let out a sigh. There was likely a good damn reason why he was so good when it came to having sex, and that was practice. I was sure he had a harem of women in every city he went to. He’d never hurt for a date back then and now that he was a billionaire, I doubted he had any problems now either. Besides being sexy as hell, he was flirtatious, enigmatic, and very confident, so much so that his arrogance became part of his charm. How I had wanted to wipe that smirk off of his face. I had tried, but ultimately, I believed I failed because if I knew him, he was likely lying in bed, grinning as he thought about how easily I allowed him to seduce me again.
“I really don’t think we have anything to worry about, but if you’re still unsure, let’s get our ducks in a row before we go downstairs.”
“Can I at least shower?” I asked her, and when she let me go, I wriggled out of bed. I grimaced once or twice at the soreness, and when I made it to the bathroom, I almost hated to wash his fingerprints off of me. I turned to the sides and could see where he’d gripped my hips while fucking me. It hadn’t felt so rough at the time, but seeing as I bore evidence of it now, I knew that he was.
When I turned on the water, I was still surprised at how hot it got so quickly. I shook my head and stepped under the spray. I expelled a few breaths, then leaned back against the cooler wall of tile, my thoughts immediately returning to the night before. I’d never be able to erase those memories from my mind, and that made me scowl. Of all damn men to give the time of day to, why oh why had I allowed it to be him.
My hands moved to my breasts and I squeezed them much like he had, but my touch lacked his finesse. They physically ached, as did the area between my legs. My core clenched, and as much as I was reminded of him fucking me, I knew I had a few more days to endure. Unfortunately, that was exactly how many of them I had left before this competition was over. My thoughts then turned to something Reece had said, and while she pretended I had misinterpreted her, I suspected I had hit the nail right on the head. She thought my sleeping with him would at least keep us in the competition longer. After all, he seemed to be settled in here and I hadn’t seen any other woman taking a walk of shame out of here, so he had to be alone.
I could fuck him every night until the end, but if he chose someone else over me after that... I didn’t even want to think about it. I needed this contract even more than the others did. Most of them worked in area restaurants, while I catered out of my studio apartment and scrimped and scratched for every cent I could, just to make ends meet. The clothes and confidence I tried to wear since arriving here was nothing more than a façade encouraged by my bestie. I wasn’t this promiscuous dick-tease, and I certainly didn’t even have my ducks in a row. Hell, most of them had taken off, and I was left with a wounded one and possibly a few pigeons.
Jonas had this impression I was all put together, but it was the farthest thing from the truth. He didn’t know how fucked up I was in the head. As it was, I took a cocktail of medicine, and without it, I was likely to go off the rails and hurt myself, if not someone else. In spite of it, I accepted my condition and tried my best to live a normal life, but the fear that gripped me about losing control was never far from my mind.
Trust was taboo for me after what Jonas did to me. I let out a sarcastic laugh. He had become as successful as I always knew he would, and if things had been different and I’d been more to him than some toy, then maybe we might’ve ended up together after all. If we had, though, I would be the one lying in bed at four a.m. each night, unable to reach him. He’d be off at clubs and parties with other women on his arms, and I’d be at home with the same hole in my chest that I left that roof with. It’d always end up that way unless one of us did something to alter fate.
Could I set things straight with him now so that everything would be out on the table? I wanted to, and knowing what I had to do, I grabbed the soap and began to wash myself. I needed him to know that last night had just been two adults acting on impulse and not some calculated move by me to further my stock. If I won the contract, I needed to know I had done it on my own, and not because he liked the way I deep throated his cock.
His taste was so addictive, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to touch him more. I want him. God help me, but I do. I buried my face in my hands, and when the water ran cold, I turned it off, then got out of the shower. I needed to talk to Jonas before the competition advances. It was the only way I’d be able to even concentrate today.