Page 42 of Cakewalk
I couldn’t believe such a beautiful creature was before me, like a wild stallion I’d coaxed into letting me pet him. I lowered down to his abs, to the trail that led to his cock. I held it briefly, this time with no intent beyond tending to it, before I moved around to his back and scrubbed him further, all just a pretense to memorize the curves and crevices of his muscles as if I’d never see them again.
The water started running a bit cold, and he turned to me. “We should finish up.”
I rinsed first, then stepped out as he finished, drying myself thoroughly in a soft towel. I padded back into the living room and searched for my clothes, finding them strewn about in the oddest of places. After finding my shirt on a lampshade, I slipped my clothes on quickly, then grabbed his, bringing them back to him in the bathroom where he was drying off.
“Maybe this isn’t so casual,” he mused as he took his clothes from me. “Or is it just me?”
I watched him put on his briefs, and he was halfway through putting on his pants when I said, “It’s not just you.”
He kept his eyes down as he zipped up and buttoned his pants. “Maybe you shouldn’t keep working for me then.”
“Why not?”
“There’s no reason you can’t just be a consultant. I’d be one of your clients, but you can take on more. Do your own thing, run your own firm. Then you’d no longer have to worry about anyone judging you for dating your boss.”
“So we’re dating? Officially?”Please say yes.
“If that’s what you want to call this. I’m just as clueless as you are, Jade. All my relationships before you were just flings, even the last one that I thought was something else. But I don’t want this to be that. Not if you feel the same way I do.”
I crossed my arms and looked away.Shit. Last time I fell hard for anybody, it made me see good in my ex that was never really there. But something told me this wasn’t the same. I had learned from my last experience, and Griffin had been upfront with me from the start. He even let me see the damn bookkeeping and tax returns.
“If you break my heart,” I started, “I’ll figuratively raze you and your enterprise to the ground. And I’ll have a lot of backup on my side with pitchforks and torches.”
“I don’t plan on hurting you. And you already know what the foreseeable difficulties are going to be. You’re fully informed of all my baggage, so it’s up to you.”
“Okay.” I let out a deep breath, realizing I had been holding it in as he replied to my threat.
“Just…” Griffin paused. “I’m not proposing to you or anything. Thisisjust dating, and we’re still getting to know each other, and who knows—it could all fall apart over something stupid. Maybe it turns out we hate each other’s favorite bands, or maybe one of us snores, or maybe—”
“I know. We’re just graduating from friends-with-benefits to dating. It’s still tentative. I’m just saying that, however it shakes out, don’t screw me over.”
“I wouldn’t in a million years. I’d be a damned fool.”
I smiled. There was nothing but earnestness behind his eyes. And really, all that anger I had at the idea of getting screwed over again, like with my last cheating ex, was nothing compared to how mad I was at all the people who had screwed Griffin over. A disinterested mother, a downright evil father, not a friend among them who sent him so much as a letter in jail. And I had yet to see any good reason for anyone to have treated him that way.
Maybe he was different five years ago, but he was something new now. Someone I’d defend tooth and nail.
We spent the rest of the evening just sitting on the sofa, drinking another beer or two, and talking about me working for myself. He told me he’d hook me up with his remote assistant to set up all the forms and filings to get my own consultant business going. It’d be a simple thing at first, just a sole proprietorship, with me acting as a contractor to whomever I wanted to work for. Then it could grow from there.
He’d be my first client, and though he didn’t have the best reputation yet, his business was once under the fold of a Fortune 500 corporation, so that’d look pretty damn good on any reference. I’d have to prove myself, of course. I’d have to help him overcome the various obstacles to completing the oceanfront development, but after that, I’d have a pretty good track record and could expand from there.
We’d be two independent businesses, and anything we got up to in our free time would be well outside of any criticisms about him taking advantage of his position, or anything like that. My biggest worry now was the association his name carried due to him sharing it with his father, and the fall Griffin was forced to take.
But I had plans for that.
Chapter 16
Griffin
Jade did things to me.She made me forget all the cynicism I had carefully cultivated during my years of solitude. I had told myself back then that though I was partially to blame for the superficiality of my past relationships, I’d be careful in the future. I’d put in the effort, but the trust would have to be hard-earned. That was what I had told myself.
But Jade had my trust before I knew it. The same way she defended the town, the same way she defended her sister and even her ex-friend, she defended me. Once I had her convinced, she had become my biggest advocate, and I’d be damned if I ever did anything to make her regret it.
By the following Friday, Ariana had Jade’s business all set up officially, with a payroll, business account at the local bank, retirement account, and everything else she might need. Maybe a bit overkill at this stage, but Ariana was a wizard at the types of things that put me straight to sleep.
Jade ditched the rental car, getting a loan for her own company car. I wasn’t surprised it was yet another generic sedan, this time of the Toyota variety. She even gave me a dozen business cards one day, just in case I wanted to recommend her to anyone. I had run out of them as soon as I made a trip back to Atlanta to sort out a few things with a few of my construction clients.
Things were slow-moving on many fronts—any real cooperation from the town utilities and local supplies vendors was to be earned at tonight’s town hall meeting—but I’d broken ground on the new construction of the road leading into the development, at least.
