Page 39 of The Revenge Plan

“I didn’t know there was a place like this? Do you frequent here a lot?”

“No. But the hotel belongs to a friend. He lets me share his privileges every once in a while.”

My stomach sank as a wave of jealousy hit me, “So you bring women here quite often,” I tried to sound as nonchalant as I could. He looked at me like I had said something offensive.

“No. I come here mostly with business associates and I want some privacy. Or to woo them. You’re the first woman I’ve brought here.”

“Why am I here, by the way?”

“Because I have something to discuss with you.”

“A business thing?” What else could it be? He did say he brought his business partners here.

“No.” His voice was low and raspy. His eyes were heavy lidded and were boring into me. A server came before he could say more. We ordered our food. And he went away, leaving us alone again.

“I wanted to discuss something with you. Something personal.”

I took a sharp intake of breath, “What do you mean?”

“I mean that you and I have something between us that needs to be addressed.”

I didn’t respond, but I knew what he was talking about. I had felt the attraction to him throughout the match and his response to me. “You mean the over possessive nature you were displaying today?”

“Over possessive?”

He seemed genuinely concerned. I put him at ease. “In a normal sense, no. But you were acting less like the aloof Caiden I’m used to. It was odd, that’s all. But if it was all for show, then I totally understand.”

I looked up at him. His eyes were heavy with desire, “It wasn’t.”

My heart skipped a beat.

The server chose that moment to come back again with appetizers. The service here was awfully fast. He put the plates down and went back again.

“You can’t deny what’s between us. And we also need to talk about what happened last night.”

“Now you want to talk about last night?”

“I have to admit I was still a little overwhelmed by what happened.” Overwhelmed? I was the one who had an orgasm in his mouth. “I didn’t sleep the entire night,” he said, “I kept wanting to go to your room and rip your blankets open.”

His confession stunned me to silence. I had thought he was unaffected, and here he was admitting that he had trouble sleeping. It was almost unbelievable. “But you said you were only doing it to prove a point.”

“That was a lie.” He sounded frank. I was feeling more and more breathless as the conversation went on, “By morning, I thought I had a handle on my feelings. I was ready to go on as usual. Then we went to the Polo Match. And then I saw you talking to that, Norse god.”

“Norse god?” I laughed, “You mean Jerry?” I guess he did look like Thor. He had Scandinavian features that he heavily capitalized. I put Jerry out of my mind and thought about what he was saying. He was admitting that his move to come to us and put his hand around my waist was because he was… jealous of Jerry? No.

“I was jealous of him okay,” it was as if he had heard my thoughts, “I was jealous.”

“He’s a friend.”

“I know. I couldn’t help myself, regardless.” Watching him grapple with his feelings in real time was fascinating to watch. But it didn’t wash away the thought that he was struggling with them because he thought he shouldn’t have them. That’s what was bothering him. Somehow that made it worse than him having none.

???

The dinner was the first event between us that was going well. Caiden was more open than before, a little tense, but calm. He had a passion for food that I hadn’t known about before, and it was mesmerizing to watch him talk about it.

“When did you get into the culinary arts?”

“In college. I had to work part time at a hotel to cover college expenses,” as he spoke, he cut up his meat into equally sized tiny pieces, “I started as a busboy and ended up working as a line chef. The head chef in my kitchen thought I should get proper training. I had potential, he said.”

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