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Did she love him? I wondered, or did she simply love the money? A lot of people would get used to the money. A lot of people would also do anything for a big fat paycheck. Money ran the world; it certainly ran this country.
There was nothing inherently wrong with money itself; it was nice to spend and not have to worry about going negative in your bank account, I’d be the first to admit. Going on a shopping spree with Creed had been more fun than I’d thought it would be.
But, that said, I did not understand the people who lied and cheated and stole, all to get more money for themselves. The people who would do anything to increase their riches; the selfish pricks of society. I wasn’t saying Hailee was one of them, but it did make me wonder if her persistence was about Creed or more about the money she no longer had coming in.
I didn’t know how to view that woman or her actions. I’d only met her twice. She had some balls though, to try to seduce me into letting her come up with me. I bet if I told Creed about that part, he’d get pissed.
It took Creed just over an hour to get back with the food, and we sat together in the kitchen, side by side, eating in silence. He wore a dark gray suit, no tie with it. His stubble-lined jaw looked as though he’d trimmed it earlier.
He looked good. Of course he looked good. Creed always did. It was effortless for him.
Creed was the one who broke the silence first, “How is it?”
I blinked. “What?” My mouth was full, the word barely got out, and when I met his dark-eyed stare, I realized he was asking about the food. Ah, right. I worked to swallow what was in my mouth, saying, “It’s good.”
It was a pressed Italian sandwich with deep-fried homemade fries. Definitely not the healthiest option out there, but it really was delicious. I assumed they took so long fulfilling orders because everything they did was homemade instead of out of a bag from the freezer. Even the bread was said to be cooked in house, early every day, before they opened up to the public.
“Good,” Creed said.
“How was your meeting?”
Now it was his turn to say, “What?”
“Work. You said you had to go in for a meeting,” I reminded him, watching as he slowly nodded. I trusted him; I didn’t think he’d do anything fishy. I didn’t think he’d go behind my back and lie to me about something. Still… the expression on his face made me wonder if there was something about his work he wasn’t telling me.
“Oh, it was…” Creed shook his head, his mouth thinning into a line. “Just the boss reminding everyone about certain requirements of accepting job listings.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means if you accept a job listing, you’re not allowed to refuse it after. If you do… you run the risk of being fired.” Creed paused, his jaw grinding as he got a far-off look on his face. “And being fired from the firm is always, let’s just say,messy.”
Ah. I guess I understood why refusing a job after already accepting it would look terrible on the company, why it would get you fired. If you didn’t want the job to begin with, you shouldn’t have accepted it. But then, I didn’t work with him, so I didn’t know the ins and outs of the place. Heck, I wasn’t even sure what the company was called. Creed was very secretive about it, but I supposed that was because it was all about security.
Creed brought me out of my wandering thoughts to ask, “How was your day? I heard from the front desk that someone was trying to get in to see me today.” He didn’t sound too thrilled about it.
“Yeah, Hailee was here when I got back from class,” I told him. “It looked like she’d been yelling at the guard at the front for a while. But he was unfazed, which was pretty impressive. She… I think she wants to try to get back with you, or redo the arrangement you had before.” Just saying it aloud made my tongue feel swollen, like I didn’t want to say it.
The look Creed gave me then was one of annoyance. Not at me, but at Hailee. He frowned and shook his head once, saying, “She let me have a week or so of peace, but then she started calling me at least five times a day. I thought blocking her number would be the end of it, but apparently I was wrong.”
So she had contacted him before, and he’d never told me. “Why didn’t you tell me she was trying to get in touch with you?”
“She’s none of your concern. She’s none of mine now, either. What we had was not a relationship—and she knows that. Why she has it in her head that things will go back to the way they were before, I don’t know, but they’re not.”
Creed got up, moving to stand beside me, his tall frame towering over my sitting figure. His arms caged me in against the island. “You’re the only one for me,” he told me, his husky voice a whisper, his breath hot on my face. “You and only you, Taylor. You don’t have to worry about her or anyone else, I promise you. You’re the only one I want.”
The more Creed said, the more I melted against him. Turning away from my food, I tilted my head back and met his lips with mine, tasting both his dinner and the truth of his words. Any time I felt his mouth on mine, any doubts lingering in me faded instantly.
When he pulled his mouth off mine, moving to start cleaning up his takeout container, I said, “I don’t think she’ll give up any time soon. I think she’s going to keep trying to come in. She, uh… let’s just say she’s willing to do anything to get inside and see you again.”
That got Creed to pause in what he was doing, chocolate eyes on me. “What does that mean?”
“She tried to come in with me, said we could… find other ways to entertain ourselves if you weren’t home.” I kept the part about him joining us to myself; besides, I figured he could put two and two together on that one himself.
Creed didn’t act shocked. And, for some reason, he didn’t get all growly and jealous, like he did when another guy was in the picture. He simply rolled his eyes and resumed cleaning up. “That does sound like something she would do.” Once his trash was thrown out and he was washing his hands, his back straightened and he slowly turned around to face me. “Although… perhaps she does need a lesson. I don’t want her bothering us forever. She needs a lesson that’ll stick with her for a long time.”
I had zero ideas what he meant by that, but I had the feeling his lesson wouldn’t be something a teacher would do in class with kids… “What are you planning?” I had to ask, mostly because Creed adopted an almost sly expression.
He came over to me, wove his hand through my hair and pulled my head back. “Trust me, Taylor, I think you’ll enjoy the lesson, too.” He finished the statement with another kiss—this one deep and hard.
