Upon my returning with his coffee, Caine halted me again by wrapping his hand around my wrist as I placed his coffee on his desk. He seemed troubled.
“Is everything okay, Lexie?” His fingers tightened their grip.
“Everything is fine.” I shrugged and gently pried my hand from his hold.
“You would tell me otherwise?”
“Of course.” At that bald-faced lie I walked out, but I could feel Caine watching me the whole time.
By the time I got back to my desk, I exhaled, letting go of all the air I’d been holding in in his presence.
It was pretty easy to avoid Caine after that, because he was busy with a couple of conference calls. I was buried with work, which took my mind off how I was feeling. Part of me felt more in control being distant with Caine, but there was another part of me that wished my period would fuck off so I could return to my more rational, easygoing self. I had to keep reminding myself that as far as Caine was concerned this was just sex, and I’d agreed with him. Just sex meant emotional distance and I needed to get used to that.
For at least an hour I wasn’t really thinking about the state of things between me and Caine, but that all changed when Security called up to announce a Darcy Hale had arrived hoping to catch a moment with my boss. I had never heard of her, but when I checked in with Caine he recognized the name and told me to let her up.
When the tall, elegant blonde sashayed down the corridor toward me, it took everything within me not to narrow my eyes in suspicion. Everything about her was sophisticated, from her wide-tailored dove gray trousers and cream silk camisole, to the stylish black Gucci sunglasses sitting perched on top of her head. Her blond hair was pulled back sleekly in a high-fashion ponytail that accentuated her sharp bone structure.
She looked like a model.
I had every suspicion she was a model.
She gave me a cool smile as she approached my desk. “Darcy Hale for Caine Carraway.”
“Of course.” I gave her a strained smile and felt my gut tighten unpleasantly. “One moment.” After I called through to Caine I relayed to her that he would be just a few moments.
“That’s fine.” She shrugged elegantly. “I was just passing by and thought I’d pop in, so I would have understood if he couldn’t see me.” She gave me a sly smile. “Looks like I made an impression, however.”
I wanted to yank on her ponytail like a five-year-old. “And you met Mr. Carraway …?”
“On Friday at an art gala. My father is president of an investment company that sits proudly under the Carraway Holdings banner.” She smiled and this time it was surprisingly wolfish. “We had quite the meeting of minds.”
And what the hell did that mean?
Caine came out of his office to welcome Darcy inside with a gentlemanly suaveness I did not like. I looked away, catching sight of him gazing in my direction a few moments before he closed the door behind him and Darcy.
I fumed at my computer screen.
Hadn’t he said before he left for that damn gala that we were exclusive?
What the hell was going on? And what exactly did he get up to with that feline woman who was barely even a woman? She looked about eighteen!
To my relief Darcy left the building only ten minutes later. I was not relieved, however, by the fact that she looked far too pleased with herself for my liking when she did so. She’d only turned the corner at the top of the corridor, disappearing from my sight, when Caine called me into his office.
Somehow I managed to remain perfectly serene. “Yes?” I asked, stopping in the doorway.
Caine’s face instantly clouded over. “For God’s sake come into the office.”
I wanted to snap something back at him but decided he didn’t deserve any kind of passion from me if he was messing around with Blondie behind my back. I took a few steps into his office.
“Shut the door and come here.”
I did as he said, but for some reason this made him even madder.
“What’s wrong with you?” he snapped.
I frowned. “Nothing is wrong with me.”
“Bullshit.” He stood up abruptly, rounding his desk. I braced as he came toward me. “You’ve been cold with me all morning.”
“I’m tired, that’s all.”
He leaned into me and hissed, “More bullshit.”
“Stop saying bullshit,” I growled.
Light flared in his eyes. “There she is.”
“What? You’re trying to goad me into reacting to you now? Are you bored?”
“I’m pissed.” He curled his arm around my waist and hauled me up against him, ignoring my attempts to pull away. “You’re acting strange and I want to know why.”
I ceased my struggling and looked him directly in the eyes. “I’m fine.”
His lips pressed together as he gazed at me for a few seconds. His gaze was searching, as though he could find whatever answers he needed if he just looked hard enough. “I would say it was about Darcy Hale, but you were acting distant before she even got here.”
“She did say you two had, and I quote, a meeting of minds on Friday.” I cocked my head to the side. “That must have been some meeting for her to drag her skinny ass all the way up here to see you.”
Caine stopped scowling to smirk in a really arrogant way that annoyed me enough to restart my attempts to get out of his arms. He easily fought my struggles and won. “I gave her my time because of who her father is. I can’t outright insult her. But trust me, her skinny ass does nothing for me. Neither does her narcissism. Anyway”—his hands slid down my back to my less than skinny ass—“I’m far too distracted getting my fill of you.”
Are you sure about that? That wasn’t quite so clear on Sunday morning.
My doubt must have registered on my face, because Caine pressed a kiss to my jaw before brushing his mouth across my ear. “In fact, I’m in the mood for a little appetizer.” He pressed lazy, sweet kisses down my throat and then up again until he reached my other ear. “I want you naked right now and I want my mouth on you.” He leaned back to read my face. His eyes were ablaze with hunger. “Do you want my mouth on you?”
I so, so wanted his mouth on me.
“We can’t. I got my period yesterday.”
To my surprise Caine let his disappointment show. He squeezed my waist. “That’s a shame. But I guess we’ll have something to look forward to in …?”
“The end of the week.” I tried to extricate myself from his embrace, but Caine wasn’t having it.
He stopped me, giving me a gentle shake. “Are you going to tell me what’s going on with you? I don’t like this.” His voice had lowered dangerously.
What? Was I supposed to be afraid? “Seriously? Mr. Distant doesn’t like distance?”
His arms instantly dropped and he stepped back. “Are you playing games with me?”
“No.” I sighed and threw my hands up in the air. “I don’t know what I’m doing. I came in this morning, took one look at you, and decided it would do me a world of good to put a little bit of distance between us because …”
He frowned, edging closer again. “Because?”
“Because …” Just say it. Be honest. Or at least somewhat honest. “I don’t know where I am with you. You can’t have it both ways, Caine. You can’t be distant with me, sneak out because sex got a little intense, ignore me, and then get pissed at me when I react in turn.”
He looked away. “This is just sex, Lexie,” he said through clenched teeth.
“I know that.” Boy, did I know that. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t react the way we want to, be who we are … I feel like you’re constantly pushing and pulling because you’re uncomfortable with how things go down between us sometimes.” I stepped toward him tentatively. “I just want you to be you. No pressure. And I’ll be me. I feel like you’re trying so hard to prove that this is just sex that it’s making this even more complicated. I want to uncomplicate it.”
“How?”