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“Cookies need to be baked,” she said, smiling up at me, and I couldn’t help but wonder if that was what I looked like to my dad. Why wasn’t I enough for him?
“Let’s do it.”
I grabbed the tray Belle and Hope had put the cookies on and moved to the oven. I may have had burned cookies when I was a kid, but I was determined Belle would never have them.
* * *
CADE
I sat behind my desk in my office and looked out of the window onto the track and field. Aria had been out there for forty minutes, and I hadn’t been able to stop staring as she tried to better her times with each additional lap she ran.
It was Wednesday, which meant Reagan wasn’t here because she had a doctor’s appointment. I knew I should have been out there with Aria, but that would mean we were alone, and hearing Willow’s warning on a constant loop in my brain meant I couldn’t risk going out there. All it would take was for Willow to walk out on the track like she had last week, and it would all be over.
Each day that passed since the cookout was even more suffocating than the last. I’d kept my side of the bargain by not talking to Aria, but Willow didn’t think it was enough to warn me only once. Every single time we spoke, she reminded me exactly what she held in the palm of her hands, and she wasn’t shy about telling me what she would do if I wasn’t adhering to her demands.
A knock on my office door had my head swinging toward it. The handle turned, the door creaked open, and then my stomach dropped when Willow’s face appeared. My jaw locked as she stepped inside, closing the door behind her. I should have known she’d come and check on me for a second time today.
“Hey, handsome,” she purred, sauntering toward me.
“Hey.” I stared down at the papers on my desk, pretending to read them. Her hand landed on them, stopping me from having an excuse not to look at her.
“I thought I’d come and check in on you.” She pushed up onto the edge of my desk and crossed her legs. I knew what she was doing, but it would never work. She’d tried everything possible to get me to touch her over the last few days, but I’d refused each and every time. “Today is track practice, right?”
“Yeah,” I ground out, my gaze flicking over to the window and catching sight of Aria cooling down in the middle of the field. “I had some…paperwork to do, so I stayed in here.”
“Hmmm.” Willow’s finger trailed up my arm and to my shoulder. “Sounds boring.” She leaned forward and whispered, “I can think of much more exciting things to do at this desk.”
My nostrils flared at the memories of what I’d already done on this desk with Aria. I’d spread her over this desk and touched her in ways she’d never been touched before. Mine was the first hand to graze over her nipples, the first finger inside her…it was me who had claimed her as mine, and now she—
“You like the thought of that?” Willow asked, her voice even lower. I glanced up at her, realizing she was looking down at my lap and the obvious outline of my erection showing through my sweats. She had no idea it was for the seventeen-year-old who had me twisted up in ways you could only imagine.
“Willow,” I ground out. “Not here.”
“Why?” She moved closer to me and opened her legs, giving me a clear view of her black panties underneath her skirt. “You know you want me, Cade. Stop resisting and let yourself take it.”
“I don’t—”
Three sharp knocks rapped at my office door, and then it opened. “I’ve finished my—oh.” Aria’s eyes widened, her gaze tracking over me and then where Willow sat. “I…I finished practice. I thought I’d let you know.”
The room was silent until Willow jumped down off my desk and walked toward Aria. “You can go now.” She gripped the door in her hand, staring down at Aria. I moved my attention away from her, knowing I couldn’t look at her from this close and not say anything to her.
“I…okay.” I kept my gaze focused on the windows as Willow slammed the door shut. The click of her heels was muted on the carpet as she moved back toward me.
“I have work to finish, Willow.”
“But—”
I sighed and turned to face her, needing her out of my space as quickly as possible. “The sooner I finish it, the sooner I can leave and then call you.” Her eyes narrowed. “Maybe we can get some dinner later?”
“I don’t know.” She shrugged, acting indifferent, but it was all an act. Everything was with her.
“I’ll pick you up at seven then?” I asked, lowering my voice.
“Fine.” She sighed and exited my office, and I finally was able to take a breath. Whenever I was around her, she sucked the life out of the room and made me feel like I was a piece of meat for her to play with—a game. She didn’t care about the feelings she was hurting with what she was doing. All she cared about was getting what she wanted, no matter the cost.
I slammed my fist down onto my desk, causing papers to fly across it and my laptop to shake. I wasn’t sure how much more of this I could take before I surrendered and either gave her what she wanted or told her to fuck off and put up with the consequences. The latter wasn’t an option, I knew that, but it didn’t hurt to entertain the thought of it.
My laptop pinged with a new email, and I groaned. I really did have paperwork I needed to finish. At least that wasn’t a lie. I clicked open the email and drummed my fingers on the desk as I waited for it to load. The building was so quiet you could hear a pin drop, and as I started to read the email, I heard a door closing which meant Aria was leaving. I stood, and as soon as I finished reading the email, I raced out of my office.
