When Candace returns to my office for our noon lunch appointment, she looks uncomfortable—although that’s not completely surprising considering what we’ve been going through the past few days.

But she seems to be on the verge of asking something she’s not sure how to ask.

I watch her work through her inner conflicts through her body language—still so goddamned familiar—and I witness the moment she steels herself to follow through.

She turns to me.

“I have changed my mind, sir. You offered me an advance for outstanding debts and I’d like to take you up on that.”

She looks embarrassed, unable to look me in the eye.

Part of me is momentarily horrified she might have actually planned all of this—that she has been the master seducer, placing herself in my path in order to get to my money.

I’ve dated way too many women hoping to do the same, most of whom aren’t savvy or subtle about their intent, even though I usually make my stance very clear—they won’t make out with a red cent. Sure, they’ll get to stay in nice hotel rooms and eat expensive dinners, perhaps even enjoy a trip to a Pacific island, but they get nothing that can be re-invested. 

A good time is worth paying for, sure, but no pussy is worth paying for directly.

I’m usually the player—not the played—although I realize Candace is an exception. I wouldn’t mind being played by her; in fact, I’d do anything for her, even now. My only fear is having her play with my heart again.

“How much do you need and when?”

She’s really nervous now, evidenced by the fiddling of her hem skirt.

The amount she states makes my eyebrows raise.

“Okay, you need to tell me more, Candace.”

“Please don’t make me. I promised I wouldn’t.”

I say nothing, processing everything she’s given me so far—awake and asleep.

I’m quite certain she’s being hit up for cash by some lowlife her ex-husband got involved with.

It’s been a while since being involved in that world, but I haven’t exactly left it behind.

Born in a trailer park, surrounded by hustlers for the first half of my life, I got used to the social underbelly quickly, and on my way to the top of the financial food chain, I took a number of detours, scenic routes.

Candace might have no idea what she’s really dealing with, but whoever’s shaking her up for money doesn’t know who they’re dealing with either.

Unfortunately for them, they mess with Candace, they mess with me.

I just need to track down which outfit she got stuck with. I can use my old connections from there.

“You really expect me to hand over a huge advance without you telling me more?”

“Absolutely, sir. As my boss, it is not for you to know why. Now, will you help me or not? Sir?”

I suppress a smile. “I will. But I ask one thing in return. Well, perhaps two.”

She looks at me expectantly, blinking with exaggerated doe eyes.

“That you at least consider telling me more—perhaps later tonight at dinner—as Jaxson, not your boss.”

She tries and fails to fight off a small smile as she nods curtly.

Our lunchtime is delayed by about ten minutes, but the details of the advance terms are quickly worked out and we go on our merry way.

* * *

Once again, Melody is out to lunch when we return, so Candace is stuck in my office for a bit.

I arranged to have her workspace set up, so she can now head over to her desk in the corner and familiarize herself with the computer until Melody returns to train her further.

But I’m having trouble concentrating as she predicted I might, and an object starts burning one of my pockets.

I’d dug through storage the day Candace and I first ran into each other again, later that evening. I found what I was looking for—something I felt compelled to show Candace that I’d kept, but it felt sort of silly.

I’ve been debating whether or not to bring it out since, and if so, when.

I can’t predict her reaction—surprise, surely, but pleasant surprise? Mortified surprise?

As she sits there looking flustered, vulnerability and openness taking over her face and body as it had last night, the compulsion to share my treasure wins.

“Look what I still have,” I say with a small grin, keeping my face as neutral as possible while I watch hers for a reaction as I whip the item out of my pocket and hold it up.

She stares at the object, her mouth falling open slightly.

I can’t read her reaction beyond the surprise, but her face quickly tightens and her eyes narrow, her brows coming together.

I’m not sure what I was hoping for, but I know this isn’t the response I wanted at all.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” she says, startling me with her venom.

I have no answer for her.

We had gotten matching promise rings, a precursor to the engagement ring I had planned to buy her at some point, and the wedding rings we were sure we’d exchange someday.

I just wanted to show her I still had it, that the item meant something to me—enough to make me keep it after all this time and everything we’ve gone through since the day it was no longer supposed to matter.

I had thrown away so many things that reminded me of her after accepting she was gone for good, but the silver promise ring, scratched and plain, I kept. I never bothered to examine why.

“Look, I get it!” she says with a careless shrug. “You’re punishing me. You’re reminding me in all these ways of what we had, what we dreamed of just to torture me for what I did to you. The stewardess outfit, the bathroom decor, and now this! All a part of your plan to mess with my head. And you know what? I fell for it.”

Her eyes slowly fill with tears, causing a sharp tug in my chest.

“You don’t actually like me,” she says. “You got me into bed and want to keep things casual, fine. But do you have to be so cruel? Do you have to rub it in even now?”

“You threw me away, Candace! Like I was nothing!”

“Well, I’m more than sorry, so congratulations—you got what you wanted: me on my knees, calling you ‘sir,’ submitting to you fully before…”

Her voice chokes off and I run to her to hold her but she slaps my arm and pushes me away.

“I’m truly sorry, okay? You have no idea how sorry I am, and it’s not just because things worked out so poorly with Charles. It’s because I missed all these years with you, wasted so much of my life not being with you. God, Jaxson, after all this time, I still…!”

She brings her hands to her face and I seize the opportunity to wrap her in my arms and hold her firmly against me.

She doesn’t bother pushing me away this time.

I soothe her, holding the back of her head with one palm, the other rubbing her back as she cries against my chest.

“I was only showing you it was important to me,” I say gently. “That you’re still important to me, Candace. What happened between us last night, it meant something. I wasn’t just using you or punishing you; I wanted you desperately, craved being closer to you… as I do right now.”

I’m sure she felt my cock growing as I spoke.

I couldn’t stop it—her soft curves pressed against my hard planes reminded me of when we held a similar position, but completely in the nude.

My cock has a great memory, and it knows that the warm home it recently rediscovered is quite near.

I lead Candace to my desk, plopping her round butt down on it after clearing a space for her.

I don’t bother with foreplay this time—I let my hard dick out then pull her panties aside, shoving my stiff cock into her slick, snug hole without further warning.

She sucks in a breath then keeps on taking hard, deep breaths as I rock into her, her legs wrapped around me as I push my cock in and out of tight, wet pussy.

I slide my palms under her ass and drill her harder, my dick insatiable when it comes to the grip of her inner walls.

If she thinks for one second I’ll let her find a way to walk away from us again...

My balls draw up and I feel a familiar shift inside her—we’re both about to come.

I pound her faster and my vision dims as I reach climax, her pussy clamping down on my throbbing cock just before it starts shooting my seed inside her.

Ah, shit.

A light bulb goes off as I realize what I’ve done. Again.

I’ve never been so careless.

I hadn’t even thought about...

“Jaxson, this reminds me,” Candace begins breathlessly, her drenched pussy still pulsing against my swollen cock. “I’m not on the pill, you know. I probably need to take the morning after or something to make sure… you know. Today.”

I want to tell her not to, and if I’m reading her face correctly, I think she wants me to say it too.

But before I can say anything, the door suddenly opens and we’re both scrambling to cover ourselves, although not before Melody gets an eyeful of my bare ass.

“Oops,” she says as she closes the door quickly behind her.

I only know it’s Melody because it’s what Candace whispered, her eyes widened in horror as she tried and failed to pull her legs together since I was still standing between them, trapping her where she is.

Melody saw enough to gather what had just happened, and Candace looks incredibly embarrassed.

“Oh, no,” she says. “Not in a new place... I just got this job!”

“What, you think she’ll tell everyone what she saw?”

“Most likely,” she says with a confident nod.

“I’ll talk to her. She knows better than to discuss my affairs—business or personal—with anyone, and this falls under that rule. She has been privy to privileged info for a while and knows to keep her mouth shut. But like I said, I’ll talk to her and make sure.”

“The sooner the better,” Candace says as she finally maneuvers herself away from me, swinging her legs over and hopping off the desk.

She adjusts her skirt before heading to my bathroom to sort herself out, giving me time to think.

Melody’s interruption quickly fades from my mind, and questions about what to do about Candace and me remain, including concerns about her womb.

We need to discuss the implications of our risky encounters.

Beyond that, I finally come to my senses and realize it’s a terrible idea to have Candace posted up in my office, just a few measly feet away where I could easily stalk over and pull her up from her chair, clear her desk, and fuck her until I blow my load inside her again and again.

There’s no way I’d get work done like before—her tantalizing presence so nearby would torture me until I finally drop everything and take her in her corner, against the wall, on the goddamned floor.

I don’t think I could get used to her being here; after all this time without her, I’d want to take her every single day.

And we’ve already been caught once; I don’t want to embarrass her further.

Reluctantly, I arrange for her to be out of sight, soothing myself with the thought that I can arrange to see her in the evenings.

Plus, I know where she lives and I have a key to her residence—which I don’t plan to use without permission now that she has settled in.

And I most certainly have eyes on her so she can’t disappear again.