“Almost 7:00 am.”
“Hmm. Five more minutes.”
“You know I would love to, but I have to get up. I’m meeting my father for breakfast this morning.”
“Ugh. Fine.” She rolls off me, and the loss of her body against me immediately makes me feel like I’m missing something. “Does he know about us yet?”
Brielle knows my father’s thoughts on relationships. It’s something we’ve talked about before. She knows that I’d stayed clear of telling him that I’m seeing someone because I know how he’ll react. Even more so when I tell him that she’s one of my employees. Just mentioningthat I had an interest in someone was enough to make him lecture me about staying away from relationships.
“Kind of.”
Brielle levels a perfectly arched brow at me.
“Okay, not really. He knows there is someone, but I haven’t told him about you. I will though. I promise. Just not today. He has some things he’s dealing with right now, and I don’t want to add to it.” I lean over and kiss her. Her soft, warm lips nearly pull me back to her.
My father just found out that Cynthia is getting remarried, again. His anti-relationship, anti-trust rhetoric is at an all-time high. It’s something we’ve shared in the past, but things are different now. If I tell him about Brielle, he’ll warn me away, as always. I love my father, I respect him, but if he says one wrong thing about Brielle, I don’t think it’ll go well. So instead, I’m staying silent on this, just a little while longer.
“And you know that I have that dinner tonight, right?” I ask, changing the subject.
“A real event this time? Not some made-up excuse to keep me away?” She smirks, calling me out on my bullshit from last week.
I lean down again to capture her lips. I can’t get enough of her. “Yes, a real event. I’m not letting you get away again. I’ve learned I’m not strong enough for it.”
“Good boy,” she croons. Just for that, I nip at her lip. I pull myself away before I fall right back into that bed and bury my cock inside of her.
“My mother set me up with a date for this,” I remind her.
“I know. Giana, right?”
“Yes. We’ve gone out before. I told you that, right?”
“You did.” Brielle nods. I can’t read her face, but I know this is probably awkward for her. Honestly, it is for me, too. To leave Briellein my bed and have another woman on my arm tonight doesn’t sit well in my gut. I don’t want her to be upset.
“You’re sure you’re okay with this?” I ask her again.
It isn’t just my father that I’ve been keeping this relationship from. I also haven’t mentioned anything to my mother.
I know her. She’d set up a dinner to meet Brielle. She’d pressure me to make it official, asking about the future and how many kids she wants. We’re in too precarious of a position to put that kind of pressure on ourselves, so I’ve stayed quiet.
“Of course.” She smiles at me.
I should be glad that Brielle is fine with me taking a date to an event. I’ve never wanted to be tied down to someone before, to have to be accountable to someone else for my actions. It’s why I’ve always agreed with my father that relationships weren’t for me. He was afraid of what it would do to my business. But me? I just liked the freedom of being on the market.
Instead, a feeling of discomfort spreads through me. Anxiety that she’s not as deep in this as I am.
I smile back at her before heading to the shower, an unsettled feeling roiling in my stomach.
The line to the valet seems to be taking an eternity to get through. The silence in the car is stifling.
We finally get to the front. The doorman opens the car door for Giana as I step out and hand the valet my keys and a twenty-dollar bill.
“You seem tense tonight, well, more tense than usual.” Giana rubs her hand up and down my arm, and I pull away quickly.
“Yes. I’m fine. These events are the bane of my existence, specifically political ones like tonight.”
The industry functions are hard enough to handle, but I understand the value of them and what good networking can do. Tonight’s affair is a fucking joke. A money-grabbing, campaign event meant to build favors that can be played and traded to manipulate the system to get your way.
I’ve never been one who enjoyed the politics of industry, and the more I see the inner working of lobbyists and regulations, the more I despise it.
