After a day of fundraising lunches, coffee socials, and networking cocktails, she had the driver take them back to the estate. Grant tried to kiss her, but she slapped his hand away in the car, and he sulked the entire way back.
She dropped Grant off at his house and stayed for a bit to chat with Stefan, then she left promptly at seven to go back to her grandmother’s house. They watched British comedies that Kate had seen a thousand times. She drank tea with no sugar and then went to bed early. She lay there wondering if Grant would come to her. He didn’t.
Chapter 28
Grant
He didn’t know why Kate was so upset. She was giving him the cold shoulder all day. He kept thinking about how it felt to slip inside the warm velvety softness between her legs. He looked out through the trees, imagining he could see the light in her window. He wanted to go back over there and fuck her just so he could stop obsessing over her body and the scent of her hair.
“Absolutely not,” he told himself. She was clearly angry at him for some reason. He didn’t think it was because of the sexy surprise, but then maybe it had freaked her out that he was able to sneak into her house. She had seemed to enjoy it, though. He was hard just thinking about it.
He forced himself to take a cold shower. He didn’t know what she was so upset about. She clearly wasn’t going to lose her job. Grant was sure that if he told his father he wanted to date Kate and have her continue working for him, he would be… well, maybe not fine, but he would probably let Grant do it anyway just to keep him happy.
Just to win against your birth mother.
Grant tried to ignore the thought. He didn’t really know much about Walter. He was always busy, jetting off to Europe or Asia. Maybe Luigi, his birth mother’s friend from the woods, was right and Walter would fire Kate just to be spiteful. He wished it could simply go back to the way things were between him and Kate. The time they spent together these days was tense and uncomfortable.
The next morning, he put on a weight vest and forced himself to take a brutal run through the property. Then he lifted weights for half an hour and went to eat breakfast.
Kate was in the butler’s pantry as he came in through a side door. He was sweaty and bare chested, his blood was still hot in his veins, and he watched her like a predator as she huddled in the corner of the room.
“What do you want, Grant?”
He stalked toward her. “You know what I want.”
“No,” she told him. “That’s it. I mean it. We’re done. If you sneak into my room again, I’m calling the cops.”
“You say that.” He smirked. “But you don’t mean it.”
“Yes, I do.” She didn’t return his smile. “I can’t—” She looked frustrated and not in a sexual way, just fed up. She continued, “I keep making these terrible decisions.”
“I’m a terrible decision?” he asked her, feeling suddenly angry.
“Yes,” she said. “I never should have slept with you. It was unprofessional, and it will never happen again.”
“So this is the ‘We should just be friends’ talk?” he demanded.
“No, this is the ‘I don’t sleep with my boss’ talk.”
He glared at her. “You can’t keep leading me on.”
“I didn’t,” she hissed. “You started this. You started all of this.”
He pressed against her. “You were a willing participant. Very. Willing.”
She pushed away from him. He watched her go then went to soak in an ice bath. He tried to calm down. His father wanted to have lunch that day.
“He’ll probably cancel,” Grant told himself. “He’s always busy.”
But his father had actually cleared his schedule that day. After making the long drive into the city, the driver deposited Grant at an upscale restaurant. He went to the second floor of the skyscraper where the restaurant was located.
“Grant,” his father said as the hostess led him to a private room. “Thank you for making the trip down to the city.”
“Thank you for inviting me,” Grant said stiffly.
“How are you settling in?”
“Well enough, I suppose.”
