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“Why won’t you answer the question?”
“Because once I do, it’ll have a label, and then it’ll get complicated…and you didn’t want complicated, right?”
My father would never like Axel. Would never accept him as a suitable choice. And then he would judge my character for jeopardizing work for good dick.
“But if I had to put a label on it…” He sat with his forearms resting on his thighs, massaging his big knuckles with his large fingers. “I’d say you’re my lady.”
I hadn’t been convinced that my father was spying on either one of us. He wouldn’t invade my privacy and break the trust we had between us. But after the weekend passed and I showed up for work, he was in a much better mood than he’d been in for a long time.
And my date had just happened on Saturday.
“Hey, sweetheart.” He kissed me on the cheek before he sat across from me. It was the middle of the day, so he asked if I wanted to have lunch with him in his dining room. Most of the time, he worked through his lunch or went out to meet associates, but his docket seemed to be open today.
“Hey.”
His butler immediately brought our salads, lightly mixed with tarragon sauce to moisten the leaves. It had cherry tomatoes, grapefruit, and grilled prawns on top. A basket of freshly baked bread was served with it.
My father never ate much when he was around me, always sticking to a healthy diet to keep a trim waistline. I knew he started every morning with a good workout in his private gym, running a couple miles before he lifted weights. His dedication showed. He looked ten years younger than he was, so it was understandable when people assumed we were dating rather than father and daughter.
“How are you?” he asked after he finished his bite.
“Fine. Nothing too interesting going on in my life…” Except sleeping with a man who had served two years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit…and worked with my father on a daily basis.
“Are you seeing anyone?”
I didn’t want to believe Axel was right, that my father would do something heinous like that, but the question made me suspicious. “Why do you ask?”
If he was lying, he was the best liar I’d ever seen. He acted completely natural, kept his eyes locked on mine as he answered. “Ryan has been gone a while. Thought you might be ready to jump back in.” He took another bite of his salad, sitting perfectly straight at the table, one forearm resting against the corner of the table.
“I had a date on Saturday.”
“How’d that go?”
It was also suspicious because he didn’t ask me about my dating life often. He seemed to stay out of it as much as possible. I just assumed it made him uncomfortable. “Eh…” My fork tossed everything around and mixed it together, my eyes down.
“That bad, huh?”
“It’s hard to find a good man, you know?” My eyes stayed down because Axel popped into my mind, that handsome smirk that sent a rush down my spine. Whenever he smiled like that, it reached his eyes, a beautiful spark in that blue gaze. He was affectionate and warm, treated me like a lady. Maybe I was an idiot for believing he was innocent, but the man I knew wouldn’t do any of those things.
“I wouldn’t know,” he said with a slight chuckle. “But I know what you mean.”
I lifted my gaze and chewed my bite. “What about you?”
“What about me?”
“You aren’t seeing anyone?”
His answer was immediate. “No. I told you I’m not interested in that.”
“Maybe you would be interested if you found the right person.”
“Do I strike you as lonely?” he asked.
“No. I just…think it can be a beautiful thing.”
“How would you know?” He stabbed his fork into a prawn.
“I…” Axel and I hadn’t even eaten out together at a restaurant. Never been on a date. We spent our time locked behind doors having a secret affair. “I guess I don’t.”
