Nightfall had come and after taking a shower and tying my hair up into a loose bun, Jude helped me zip my dress up.

He turned me around to face him before I could go for my heels by the door. “This upcoming weekend,” he started, his eyes a little more serious. “I want you to come to the gala.”

“You mean the gala where your entire family and Michaela will be?” I scoffed, pulling away gently and going for my heels. “Yeah, I was thinking about that. After what I heard, I think I should pass this year.”

I was flattered he’d asked me to come again, but it was going to be tough pretending we had nothing going on this time around. At least last year, we were only fantasizing about screwing each other. Now that we actually were, it was going to be a little trickier to keep our hands to ourselves or get through the night without anyone noticing how intimate we actually were.

“I’m not even taking her as my date, Jenna,” he stated.

I looked up after putting one of my heels on. “But she wants you to take her.”

He shrugged. “Doesn’t mean I have to or that I will.”

“So, you’re really going to go single again?” I asked, shoving a hand on my waist.

“No. We’re going together,” he said with a small smile. “You and I.”

“Together?” I frowned as I slid into my other heel. “How? I mean—I’m flattered, but they’d never accept that, Jude.”

“You’re my secretary, Jenna. You’ll be coming as just that—my secretary, just like you did last year. There will be people I need to connect with there. My family will think you’re there to assist me.”

“And Michaela?” I inquired, cocking a brow.

He walked my way, his sweat pants sitting low on his hips. My eyes fell to the cuts in his abdomen, venturing over the happy trail that I knew led to a grand package.

“Michaela can fuck off,” he mumbled. I laughed. I had no idea why that statement caused me so much delight.

“You know how she is. She’s just—ugh.” I exhaled. “She could see us walking in together and then she’ll be all over you and I hate watching it, Jude. I hate knowing that she has the upper hand.”

He studied my face. “Do you really think she has the upper hand, babe?” He gripped my shoulders and squeezed them lightly. “I don’t book hotels every week to spend them with Michaela. I’m with you. My time with her is…forced and ridiculous. My time with you is…desired and enjoyable.”

I rolled my eyes but smiled a little. “Why can’t you just tell them that you don’t want to marry her?”

He pulled his hands away, creating an absence that I wasn’t exactly comfortable with. He made his way to the wide window, staring ahead at the beach. The waves were a little rougher now, the wind blowing strong. It was a little darker out. The sun had mostly set. Much like the mood.

“Jude?” I called, taking a slight step forward.

Shoving his fingers through his hair, he let out an exasperated sigh. “My family isn’t that understanding, Jenna. You know that. You’ve met them.” Yeah, I had met them several times and they were not pleasant people—well more so his mother and sister, Janelle, than his father. They had Jude on this pedestal and expected nothing but greatness from him. He was the main breadwinner now since his dad had retired after a car accident that caused him to break his hip, so all the pressure was on him.

Fortunately, Jude was a great businessman. He knew the ins and outs and the ups and downs. His only flaw? He loved sex and women. He was a playboy and sometimes an arrogant jackass, which is why it surprised me he was religiously meeting me on Sundays.

A part of me wanted to believe that he just liked being around me—that I was his escape from everyday life and even his family. But I knew the truth.

Sex. It was just sex.

“You don’t know this, but we weren’t born into this industry,” he continued. “My father hardly had two pennies to rub together before he finally got Clement Architecture up and running. My mother was a waitress for a midnight diner. We were dirt poor before getting to this level, so I can understand their demands. They don’t want to see it fall. They will do anything to keep this business afloat—to keep me on top and have it running. Unfortunately, that means arranged marriages to daughters of wealthy men, just to meet the quota for the next ten years. That means having a child with said wealthy daughter, just to continue the Clement legacy.”

The mention of a child made my chest cave in. “A child?” I whispered, but my voice cracked, betraying me.

Jude glanced over his shoulder. “I’m working on something so that marrying her is no longer a requirement.”

“But even if you don’t marry her, they’ll never accept you being with anyone else, Jude,” I murmured.

He turned to face me. “They can’t tell me who to be around, Jenna. They can nag and demand, but they don’t own me. At the end of the day, I’m the one signing the contracts and walking into that office every single morning to keep the business up and running while they run around spending money and pretending they’re still a part of what I do. I appreciate what they’ve done and all they’ve sacrificed, but I’m a grown man. Until I can reach a position where my family feels secure and like they don’t have to rely on me marrying Michaela, this is how it has to be between us.”

“Hiding. Lying. Sneaking around,” I said, trying to keep my bottom lip from trembling.

“I don’t want it to be this way, Jenna,” he said softly, meeting up to me. “Trust me, I don’t. I want to take you places. I want to go on dumb dates at cheap bars and drink cheap tequila like what you experienced Friday. I’m working something out. I swear.”

“See, that’s where I’m confused. All of what you say you want to do is so misleading. You say not to take this seriously, but then you say things like that. Taking me on dates. Spending more time with me. You want to do all of that, but you say I shouldn’t expect more from you. It’s confusing, Jude.”

He groaned and turned his back to me, like he knew he couldn’t win that debate.

“If you want to do all of that with me, why won’t you kiss me?” I asked, leaning into him. “I know you feel more for me, Jude. I know this isn’t just about sex anymore. We have a connection, a strong one. I feel it every time I’m with you.”

He turned around again and watched my mouth.

He held my shoulders. “My mother always taught me to only kiss a woman I know I love. To kiss when it feels right.”

“Right,” I mumbled. “And you don’t love me. You’ll never love me—or any woman for that matter because you’re Jude Clement.” I jerked away, going for my jacket and bag.

“Jenna, what have I told you?” He caught my arm before I could slide the strap of my purse over my shoulder. “When this started, you said you wouldn’t get upset about the kissing—that you understood and weren’t expecting anything more from me. I feel like I’m in fucking middle school having to constantly break this down to you.”

“I know what I said, that’s why I’m leaving, so I don’t sit around here like some mope, expecting my boss to kiss me.” I peeled his hand away and slid the strap of my bag over my shoulder. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Mr. Clement.”

He called my name but I was out of the door before he could come after me again. I wasn’t going to let him use his body to dig himself out of this one.

When I got in my car, I couldn’t fight the dread that filled my veins. Carrie was so right about me. About this whole arrangement. It wasn’t just for fun anymore. It’d become much more.

Having to pull away was going to kill me, but I knew if this was all that I was getting out of it—leaving the hotel feeling like I hadn’t gotten enough of his heart and soul—then it was best to rip the Band-Aid right off and end it.

I couldn’t sit around and wait for him to break my heart. That’s what was going to happen if I didn’t terminate this before he did.