Page 64 of The Daddy’s Girl

Unless…he really wants to drive a wedge between us. He’s so afraid of being alone with me again because of the way I acted that night that he’s pushing Jacob toward me.

Why the heck did I ask him to kiss me?

I reach the main level of the club, hoping and praying that they have restricted their presence to this floor where things are tame and fully clothed. Far less open fucking up here, which is to mean none.

By some grace of God, I spot Olivia and Matis at the bar. She’s standing so close to him that they look like one person, and he’s smiling. It’s that fake, flirtatious, charming smile.

When I reach the bottom of the stairs, Jacob steps in front of me with a look of nervous terror on his face that is actually pretty cute.

“You’re here,” he says as if I’m a raft in the middle of an endless ocean.

“The question is…why are you?” I ask, trying to infuse humor into my tone.

“Matis invited us. I sort of thought you knew.”

“I didn’t, but that’s okay,” I reply with a big fake smile.

Matis’s kind gray eyes find me across the bar, mid-laugh with his date. I catch a flinch of something like regret before he turns back toward her.

What is he doing?

“Want a drink?” Jacob asks innocently, as if I don’t own the fucking place.

Okay, I’m clearly mad. Pissed even. Fuming and completely unable to just brush it off and move on.

“I’d love one. Can you just…give me one moment?” Putting a finger up toward Jacob, I know I’m completely blowing it with him, but I don’t care. I have some things to get off my chest. What? I don’t even know.

With fury and frustration in my eyes, I march over to Matis.

“Bonsoir, Amelia,” he says in his bullshit, charming accent.

Stupid, sexy accent.

“Can I talk to you for a second? Upstairs.”

His brows shoot upward. Then he glances cautiously at Olivia. “Sure. Would you excuse me a moment?”

She nods with a shrug before shooting me a tense glare as if she thinks he somehow belongs to her and I’m stealing him away. She doesn’t even know him.

I know everything about him.

Stomping my way up the stairs, I feel Matis behind me, and I don’t stop until we are in my office at the end. Once he walks inside, I slam the door behind him.

“What on earth are you doing?” I bark at him before the latch even catches.

He spins on me in bewilderment. “What are you talking about?”

“You just invited my date to the club without talking to me about it first?” My hands are perched on my hips, and my blood pressure is spiking, growing hot in my veins.

“I thought you’d be pleasantly surprised,” he replies with his hands up.

“Surprised?” A thousand thoughts and a million feelings brew up inside me like a tornado, and so many of them are things I am not brave enough to say.

“Don’t you like Jacob?”

I answer only with one heavy breath after another. Then I spin on Matis and pace away from him in anger. “Of course I do.”

The words that come out of his mouth next only fuel my panic and fear. No matter how soft and sympathetic they are spoken.