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I had not anticipated our reunion to take place under these circumstances. Hell, I hadn’t expected to see her again at all. That night, we’d only exchanged first names, no other details. Leaving my business card on the pillow before I left had been a last-minute decision.
“You like her, don’t you?” I feel Hannah’s gaze on the side of my face.
“What are we in, middle school?” I retort. Hannah, seven years my junior, always has a way of getting information out of me. It’s a character flaw that she was gifted with at birth. She’s intuitive and her meddlesomeness knows no bounds.
“I can tell. Even when she was questioning your morals, labeling you a cheater who pays women for sex, you had a look on your face.”
“What look?” I know what look she’s talking about. I felt it, too. But denial is best where Hannah is concerned. She’s like a dog with a bone, and once she gets hold of an idea, it’s hard for her to let it go.
“It’s the same look you get when you close a deal. I’m not exactly sure what it is. Relief? Satisfaction?Happiness?”
I shake my head. “There was no look. I was surprised to see her, that’s all.”
“I have to admit if I woke up after a night with a guy and there was cash on the bedside table, I might have jumped to conclusions, too.”
“Would you also disregard the card he left you with his phone number on it?”
“Again, in my blind rage, a note on the pillow might be overlooked. Clearly, it was in Sophie’s case.”
“It doesn’t matter now.” There’s the fact that during our lunch I discovered Sophie is twenty-two. Twenty fucking two. In Vegas, I knew she was young, but I had no idea she had recently graduated college. I just turned thirty-five. The idea of me and Sophie together is as ridiculous as Sophie thinking I was trying to pay her for sex.
She’d been right when she claimed that if I was in fact paying her for sex, I had significantly underpaid. Memories of that night with Sophie have been playing on a loop in my mind every day since.
When I fuck my hand in the shower, I think about her thighs spread wide, legs dangling over the edge of the dining table in my suite, the sweet taste of her on my tongue and my name falling from her lips when she came on my mouth. How Sophie liked it a little bit rough. My hands fisting in her hair, my teeth grazing her sensitive skin. How we covered most of the surfaces of the room, tongues licking and fingers exploring, before I pinned her to the bed and slid into her tight, wet heat. My balls ache thinking about how incredible she felt. How I kept her up most of the night, not wanting our time together to end.
It was sex between two strangers, yet it didn’t feel like we were fucking for the first time. It felt honest and raw, like there was nothing holding either of us back from taking what we needed from each other. My desire to give it to her hard and fast was met with her need to take everything I could give her.
When I walked out of my hotel room hours later to catch a red-eye flight, I knew nothing about the beautiful woman with golden hair, other than her name and the scent she left on my skin, yet I hated leaving her.
“You’re not going to let a little thing like false accusations stand in your way of pursuing something with Sophie, are you?” She pauses for a beat. “Oh, I guess she can’t be your date for the wedding if she’s working at it. Is that why you’re so pissy? You’re afraid you’re going to get relegated to the singles table?”
“You’re obnoxious.” I ignore her jab.
“You love me,” she says with confidence. “Thanks for coming with me, by the way. It would have been a lot more boring with Mom and Dad.”
Our parents are vacationing in the south of France right now. Ever since my dad retired from Premier Real Estate Group a year ago, our mom has kept him busy traveling all over the world. Hannah thinks they’re gone too much, but my mom says the only thing that will slow down her travel bug is the arrival of grandchildren. She looked pointedly at me when she said it, I don’t know why. Hannah’s the one who is engaged and therefore most likely to create offspring sometime within the next decade.
“I’d say it was my pleasure, but you were at the same lunch I was, and we both know it was awkward as fuck. I’ll let James take it from here.”
“Boring. While I love James and think he should be involved in the wedding planning process, I also think we should schedule a few more meetings with you and Sophie. The hourly rate would be worth seeing the sparks fly between you two.”
“That won’t be necessary. I’ll manage my personal life from here.”
“So, you’re going to see her again?” she asks.
“Hannah, the woman did not seem pleased at all to see me.”
“I think amongst the shock and horror, there was some fondness for you.”
I roll my eyes. “Thanks.”
“At least send her some flowers. A nice bouquet from Tiger Lily’s should do the trick.”
She’s right. It would be a nice gesture. “I’ll have Jeannie send an arrangement.”
“No, you’ll pick it out yourself.” My sister is the queen of social etiquette. “Stefan, would you drop Hunter off at Tiger Lily’s on Seventy-second?”
“Sure thing, Miss Cartwright.”
