of the bathroom after a long night of sex with Carter. Sex in the kitchen. Sex in the living room. Sex in the bedroom. Followed by sleeping hard in his arms. It was a night I would love to repeat over and over again till the end of time.
I can’t though. Today, it has to stop.
I walk into the kitchen to make coffee and a piece of toast, but I quickly change my plans when I see Carter standing in the kitchen with a large grin on his face. I just need to get out of here as fast as possible and grab breakfast on the way.
I walk around the island to grab my briefcase before heading out, but Carter blocks my way.
“Really? This is your genius plan—block my path out of here so that I have to talk to you?”
He smirks and pulls out the barstool at the counter. “My plan is to feed you a real breakfast while I convince you that this can work.”
I glance over at the plate. The smells hit my nostrils all at once. Pancakes, bacon, and eggs. I’ve never eaten so much food for breakfast at one time. But he went all out.
I sigh as I take a seat and begin to dig into the food that Carter prepared for me.
“How is it?”
“Delicious,” I say, annoyed that he can cook so well. It’s just pancakes, I remind myself. But they are the best pancakes I’ve ever had.
“Good.”
I shovel another bite into my mouth. “So, your plan is to cook delicious food for me so that I’ll forget about everything else and do everything you want?”
He shrugs.
“It’s working,” I say with a sigh.
He grins as he takes his fork and tries to get a bite off my plate. I stab his hand with my fork.
“Ow.”
“This is mine.”
He laughs and leans back. “Fine. But you’re mine.”
I almost choke on the food in my mouth. I swallow quickly and take a drink of coffee to wash down the rest.
“I’m not your anything, Carter. I’m your coworker; that’s it.”
“A coworker who has had sex with me how many times now?” he says with his grin that makes me want to do anything for him.
“We can’t keep doing this.”
“Why not?” He folds his arms across his chest.
“Because of Lily.”
“You do realize that what Lily and I have is fake. It’s not real. We are just acting to save her career, which was your idea.”
“I know. But we can’t because, if we got caught together, it would ruin Lily’s career.”
“We won’t get caught. Trust me.”
I don’t answer. I just keep eating my pancakes.
“What are your other problems with us?”
I push the pancake around with my fork, trying to avoid talking about this.
“I know you like me. The sex is amazing. We could be incredible together. Just give us a shot.”
“As I told you before, I don’t trust you not to hurt me. We haven’t even gone on a real date. All we’ve done is have sex or fight. You can’t build a relationship on that.”
He grins, leaning on the counter over my food. “Go out with me tonight.”
I shake my head. “We can’t. If we got caught—”
“If anyone saw us together, we would just play it off as two consultants on Lily’s team, discussing our plan over dinner, nothing more.”
I search his eyes, trying to find the asshole that I know is in there somewhere.
“Give me one chance. Go out with me on one date. If you still think us being together is a bad idea, then I’ll leave you alone. But, if you enjoy yourself, then we can talk about a plan for us to continue dating. Do we have a deal?”
I try to think about what the cons are to agreeing to such a deal. But I can’t, not when he’s smiling at me with such hope. I want to go out with him. I want to go out on a date with this fun man. I want to go out with the man who could change my whole world.
“Okay. Just one date.”
“You shouldn’t walk in with me,” I hiss to Carter as we walk into the building where Lily’s office is.
“Why not?” Carter says, grabbing my hand.
I pull my hand out of his. “Because we can’t look like a couple.”
He laughs. “You think anyone is paying attention to us? They are all wrapped up in their own lives; they won’t notice two people they don’t even know.”