I wake up warm and feeling like I’m lying on a cloud. This is the most comfortable mattress I have ever been on in my entire life, and I need to figure out what it is so I can get one for my own bed. I have money for things like that now.
I open my eyes, the light bright and causing an instant headache.
Fuck.
Hangover.
I groan, turning over to give the light my back and close my eyes, hoping to go back to sleep.
Harmon has a meeting today, which is the reason we came here in the first place, and I’m sure he will wake me up when I need to be woken up. He won’t let me oversleep. Though, he doesn’t need me at the meeting. He just wanted to bring me along to… I don’t know, really.
I can’t help but hope that it’s because he needed me here with him. That he’s learned to rely on me, maybe want me aroundmore often. That’s how I feel about him. I look forward to seeing him and when I’m not with him, I think about him. I wonder what he’s doing, and if he’s thinking about me too. So maybe he asked me here because he didn’t want to be without me…
I’m slightly sore, and I smile to myself as I recall last night, clear as day.
His growly voice. The way his fingers dug into my skin. Him sucking my fingers clean. Fucking me until he came.
Fuck, it was so hot…
There is a soft knock on the door, and I lift my head to look that way. Harmon is standing in the doorway, already showered and fully dressed.
“Is it possible for you to be hotter than you were yesterday? Because you are.”
He doesn’t smile, and that has my stomach dropping.
“You’re awake,” he says, very business-like.
“Yep. I’m awake.” I glance at the clock. 8:43. Good. I still have plenty of time to get ready since the meeting isn’t until eleven and it’s in this hotel’s conference room on the second floor. “Let me guess,” I say, pushing myself up to sit. It’s better I do this rather than hear it from him first. It’ll hurt less. “You regret last night and it can’t happen again. Right?”
He studies me, his gaze sharp, then says, “Wrong.”
“Wrong?” I blurt, shocked over his response.
This is how it goes. It’s not what I want, but it is what I expected.
What we did last night wasnotsupposed to happen, and though I am completely fine with it, obviously he’s not.
Though… maybe he is. Maybe I’m wrong about him,
Harmon shakes his head, walking into the room. He sits on the edge of the bed.
“I didn’t come in here to tell you that I regret it. Saying that would be a lie. I don’t regret it, and I’d love nothing more than to do it again—among many other things.”
“Jesus,” I whisper, running my hand through my hair.
“But I do need to say that we have to be careful, and I need to make sure that you can handle this.”
“Oh, I can handle it all right.”
“I mean emotionally, Cassius. I don’t do relationships, and this is… messy.”
“I’ll be fine. Trust me. All good.”
He watches me, his gaze dipping from my eyes to my lips then back up.
He sighs, turning his attention to the floor, then says, “Since the first moment I saw you, I wanted you. More than just as my slave. I knew going in that you were a temptation I shouldn’t dangle in front of me, but here we are.”
“From the very first day?”