CHAPTER EIGHT — CONNER
I dismounted my horse, Lucky, and tossed the reigns to Ian, my stable boy. Usually, I would take care of Lucky myself, but I had something more pressing to handle. With my phone in my hand and an annoying pain in my cock, I exited the stables and started walking toward the main building of my resort.
Asking Chloe to send me texts relaying her orgasms had been the most idiotic idea I had ever had. In only five days, she had gotten way too good in the art of sexting, and I was reaching my breaking point. With every message, I relived our time at the woods, and the simple memory of how tight and wet she had been for me was enough to make me wild with the need to make her mine.
Still, there was a part of me that felt an extreme weight of guilt, and for that reason I was holding back and keeping as much physical distance between us as humanly possible. However, after reading about her adventures with the shower head this morning and how she had called my name as she came, that bullshit was coming to an end.
We were consenting adults, and though I knew it was wrong, and she deserved better, I could now see no other option but to walk into her office, strip her naked, bend her over the desk and finally make her mine.
Like a man on a mission, I entered the reception area and made a beeline toward her open door.
“I’m done with these texts,” I said in a sharp, heated tone as I barged into her office.
Chloe’s eyes widened, and her face grew a little pale as she looked at me.
“Sorry, but I didn’t know where you were, and I had to run those numbers by you ASAP.”
My brows pulled together in confusion, and I opened my mouth to ask what the hell she was talking about. However, before a word came out, a throaty laugh I knew all too well filled the room and made the blood in my veins run cold.
Forcing a smile, I turned to the right and saw the scruffy face of my best friend. Shifting my position to hide my obvious boner, I tried to keep my voice casual as I asked, “What the hell are you doing here, Alex?”
He nodded toward Chloe with one of those silly fatherly smiles. “Came to talk to my little girl and I feel old. Just yesterday she was playing with dolls, and now she’s here, runnin’ your empire.”
My little girl, those words echoed in my mind, bringing me to reality and making me wonder what the fuck I was doing. Although I was perfectly aware that Chloe was Alex’s daughter, it took the look on Alex’s face and those three damned words for the seriousness of my betrayal to sink in. I felt like pure scum.
Alex had always been by my side. He had helped me turn the shitty piece of land my father left me into what it was today, stood by my side as my best man at my wedding and then, when I needed a friend the most, he stood by me at Quinn’s funeral. Hell, the guy helped me raise my son. He was my brother, my best friend, and one of a very small number of people in the world I actually cared about.
Like an asshole, I fingered his only daughter under a tree like a fucking high schooler.
You’re such a fucking DICK Conner.
Guilt and the self-loathing ripped through me, but I tried to keep my confident and carefree face in place as to not alert Alex. “She’s doing a good job at it, too. You should be proud.”
“And I am,” he assured me as he got up from the chair. “Of both of you, actually.”
His words were like a kick in the nuts, but I just chuckled and raised a brow as I would in any other situation.
“You, proud of me? That’s a first.”
Alex laughed and clasped his hand on my shoulder. “Yeah, it is. But Bumblebee tells me you’re a decent boss—a shock considering you’re a raging dick—and that makes me proud.”
Chloe reprimanded her father, but I just laughed—uncomfortably—and playfully showed him my middle finger. This kind of teasing banter was our normal, after all, and right now, I desperately needed all to appear normal.
Once the laughs settled, Alex sighed and looked at me with a thoughtful expression. “On a serious note, I was just telling Chloe that I’m leaving tonight for a business trip. I’ll be gone about a month negotiating some covers and the purchase of a new stallion. She’ll be alone at the house, which I don’t like, but I told her that if she needs anything she can count on you—not as a boss, but as a friend.”
I took a deep breath through my nose and stole a quick glance at Chloe. She had a wicked smirk on her pink, glossy lips that just moments ago, would have made my cock nearly explode but now filled me with nothing but dread.
Considering I couldn’t deny my friend’s request without raising suspicions, I widened my smile and nodded. “Of course, Chloe knows I’m always here for her.”
“That I do,” she muttered in a voice that was somewhere between playful and provocative.
Instantly, my eyes narrowed and drifted to her with a warning which she just ignored. I ran a hand through my hair and thanked God when Alex spoke again in a voice that proved he was completely oblivious to the situation.
“Good, then. I’ll leave you two to your business.” With that, Alex said goodbye to both of us, kissed his daughter on the forehead, and left the room.
As soon as he was completely out of sight and we were alone, Chloe leaned against the edge of her desk and looked at me with those hungry, glimmering green eyes. “So, you’re done with the texts, hmm? Does that mean I passed the written exams and can move on to the practical lessons?”
My body quickly responded to her words, as it usually did, but this time, I was determined to shut it down. With a blunt shake of my head, I replied, “No, it doesn’t.”
Chloe’s eyes widened Bambi style at my words proving, once more, how incredibly fucking adorable she was. “Did I do something wrong?”
I wanted to say yes. I wanted to break her and whatever it was we had so she would never even consider coming close to me again, but I couldn’t. For the first time since Quinn’s passing I cared about a woman’s feelings.
With a long breath to control my temper, I took a step in her direction and gently touched her cheek. “You didn’t do anything wrong, but whatever this was between us, it’s over. I’m begging you to find a nice boy your own age, because I’m out.”
Confusion filled Chloe’s eyes, but I didn’t stick around to see it turn into hurt. I couldn’t. Despite what my actions said, I cared about her way too much. The only thing to do was to turn around and leave the room feeling like the piece of shit I was.