J

ust as I imagined, I didn’t see him for the rest of the afternoon, and even though I had already predicted it, I still couldn’t shake the feeling that I had done something to tick him off. Eventually, I went home, consumed by thoughts of our raunchy stint in his office as I stepped into the foyer.

It took me a bit of time to realize there were voices coming out of the sitting room. Normally I would never eavesdrop, but when I heard Cruz’s name being mentioned, I couldn’t help being drawn to the people having the conversation.

Before I could tiptoe closer, the voices became louder, as if they were talking and walking at the same time.

Frozen in my spot, I saw Margaret emerge from the room with a distraught looking Ivy. All sorts of emotions washed over me with guilt claiming the very top spot.

“Oh, Serena, you’re back,” Margery greeted me with a beaming smile before directing her gaze towards the woman next to her. “Ivy’s here to check on me. Isn’t that sweet of her?”

“It is,” I commented politely. “Hello, Ivy.”

“Serena,” she quipped back with a strained smile, teary-eyed. “It’s lovely to see you again. I’m sure you’ve heard about Cruz and the broken engagement. I’m trying to get used to my new life, but it’s been such a hardship.”

“I—I’m really sorry to hear that.” I was stammering like the guilty idiot I was. If she only knew the reason Cruz had left her, she wouldn’t even dare talk to me, let alone look at me without disdain.

She tried to compose herself with another shaky smile. “I ought to go. It was pleasant to see you again, Margery,” she said before nodding towards me. “You, too, Serena.” She bid us both good-byes as we watched her leave.

Once she was gone, Margery touched her chest and released a sigh. “I sure do hope my son stops carousing or whatever it is that he’s up to and marries that poor woman. She’s beside herself. I never imagined Cruz would do such a thing. He has always been so gallant, a man who was true to his word. Let’s pray that this could quite possibly be just an awful case of cold feet.”

Guilt ate at me, and I couldn’t stand it, so I excused myself to go to my room and unwind before dinner.

My mood took a nosedive from then on. I was battling between desire and doing the right thing. Even if I stopped this liaison with Cruz, it didn’t guarantee he would mend his relationship with Ivy. Cruz was unpredictable. He and God were the only ones who truly knew what went on in that beautiful head of his. Besides, since I was already addicted to Cruz and his sexual prowess, it would be tough to separate from him right after it had begun. It was shameless, and yet there was no turning back from what had transpired between us. I was stuck with it until we decide to go our separate ways.

At dinner, it was a pleasant surprise to finally see Archer’s presence. He seemed a bit more off than usual, but it was palpable to anyone with eyes that he was still somewhat hungover and maybe a little drunk. Although I was concerned for him, this was his normal, hard-partying ways, and I doubted anyone could stop him except himself.

Margery, of course, fawned over her youngest and made sure he got everything he wanted, which wasn’t much. Apart from iced water and cappuccino, Archer didn’t have any desire to eat.

I could easily see the difference between how Margery treated Archer compared to Cruz. With the oldest, she was straightforward and didn’t fawn over him like she was with Archer. She still treated him like he was a baby in dire need of cooing and wooing. While Archer played and partied the night and day away, Cruz was busy running their business, making sure everything was going smoothly. It was crazy, but I suddenly realized I felt protective of Cruz. It must have been hard to see your own mother show more love towards your other sibling. My parents had never displayed favoritism between Grace and me, and I would forever be grateful for that. I could only imagine the insecurity and whatever else that could root from that.

After dinner, Archer tried to cajole me into go swimming with him. Seeing the state that he was in, though, I declined. It would have been fun, but after how Saturday had unfolded, I didn’t want to put myself in a situation where Archer would perceive my acceptance to something more than what it was. Besides, I wanted to indulge myself in a long, hot bath after today. I was sore in places I hadn’t even known existed.

Sex with Aaron was vanilla compared to the kind I was getting from Cruz. I got what everyone was saying now, so thank goodness for Cruz.

The next day at work, I waited for Cruz’s return from an emergency meeting out of town, but it took longer than expected, so it was a letdown that I didn’t get to see him. I was so looking forward to seeing how he was after yesterday, even though the parting was a little strained for my liking.

The same thing happened the next day. He got caught up with contracts in Scotland and would be staying overnight. To say I was having major Cruz withdrawals was an understatement.

When Friday rolled in, I was in high spirits, knowing full well he was going to be in the office. I had made sure to check his calendar. Given that he would be spending a lot of time in calls and meetings, he would be on the same floor as me, and that pleased me to no end.

Though guilt still weighed heavily on me, I had learned to cope by telling myself there were certain things in life that were out of my control. Cruz had pushed me and only came to me after he had broken things off with her. I just needed to learn how to deal with it.

While my conscience suffered, it didn’t negate the fact that I still managed to dress as he had requested. It was a cream-colored, A-line dress that went just above the knee, formal and demure enough to be worn in the office.

My upbeat mood lasted until right before everyone took their lunch when I witnessed a stunning redhead enter his office. She wore all white, impeccably dressed and alluringly sexy. My bitch radar was on high alert. From then on, my eyes were practically glued to the clock on my desktop, counting down the time. The unnamed woman was there for over an hour.

What did they have to talk about? I worried as I watched the time tick away. Each passing second was like a nail into my coffin. The comparison might be on the extreme, but it was how I felt, and damn him for making me go through such crushing jealousy.

It seemed like I had waited forever for her to emerge from Cruz’s office. When she came out, there was a victorious smile pasted on her face as she strutted down the hallway, readying to leave through the elevators. I couldn’t stop staring at her while feeling my heart slam hard against my chest, clearly troubled.

If I didn’t see him right at that moment, I would very well lose it. If he was busy doing something, he had better spare me a minute or two, or I would do something I might end up regretting.

My mind was dead set on interrogating him, never mind the fact that I didn’t have the authority or the right to do such a thing. I couldn’t care less. Jealousy was a rotten thing, and it was eating me stupid. There was no better explanation than that.

Swiping my sweaty palms on the sides of my dress, I briskly strode towards his office. What I planned to do the moment I saw Cruz … Well, that was yet to be determined.

It was rude not to knock, but I couldn’t control myself from exploding, so I just barged in there like a damn lieutenant, meaning to bark for some immediate answers. When I got in there, however, I was greeted with the sight of him in the bathroom with the door barely cracked open while he thoroughly washed his hands.

For what insane reason did he have to do that? He didn’t have sex, did he? He might have felt the need to simply clean them like normal people would, but if he did have sex… Then there was that fucking stupid smile that woman had on her face that insinuated she’d had the yummiest cake for dessert… Fuck! Cruz wouldn’t, or would he?

On the verge of serious outburst, I marched across the room and into the bathroom, unceremoniously pushing the door open, surprising the bejesus out of him.

“Please don’t tell me you fucked that woman here, in this office, while I was working nearby!” My eyes wildly flashed at him, sending daggers, hell, and all of its deadly accouterments as I held nothing back in my tone.

After biding his time by washing his hands, he took another lengthy moment to dry them off while he avoided my furious glare.

“You sound as if you’re jealous, Serena. Try to be careful, my sweet, or I might take it as if you want to be my girlfriend.”

“Did you or didn’t you?” I was a loose cannon, and there was no stopping me. “Because, if you did …” My heart began to ache so badly I had to pause for a second. “Because, if you had sex with her, then I don’t want anyone’s sloppy seconds. I’d rather fuck someone else.”

Swiftly, in a whirlwind of motions, I found myself staring into the mirror with my navel against the sink while Cruz was behind me with both of his hands planted on each of my sides, grabbing the edge of the sink.

“Do you remember what you said to me, Serena?”

I could not.

“Let me remind you …” he supplied with blatant disappointment. “You told me that you wanted sex and nothing else, so why in the bloody Hell are you acting like a shrieking banshee?”

Red hair. The strut. And the shit-eating-grin. Yes, I was definitely seeing red. Every. Fucking. Where.

“Do you want someone else, Cruz?” I asked, past caring about anything else but this damn question and his answer.

He bristled after realizing I wasn’t going to drop the subject until I got what I had come for. “Why are you so bent on getting an answer?”

He was answering my question with a question, a total douchebag move.

“I’m not going to ask you again, and if you choose not to answer me, then I’ll just walk away from you and all this bullshit.”

I gave him a few minutes to break the deafening sound of silence before I carefully exhaled then yanked the door open so I could exit the bathroom. Then I felt his hands pull me towards him, which made me lose grip of the handle and inadvertently slam the door shut.

Much to my chagrin, he situated me just like before—with us both facing the mirror while he was right behind me, looming like a dark cloud about to pour a mighty storm.

“Did you really come here to interrogate me … or for this?” he grunted in my ear as his hand cupped my breast before squeezing it hard.

My body immediately shivered from the pain and pleasure it brought me. Regardless, my anger hadn’t subsided. I wasn’t willing to give this up without a fight.

“Stop touching me!” I protested with conviction. “I don’t want your filthy hands on me after you’ve had that bitch all over you!” I was trying to use my body weight to push against him so he would free me, but he was so strong my effort was to no avail.

All my protest and whimpering didn’t waver his determination. My body weakened against his as I felt him place his hand on my ass before it snaked past my thigh and between my legs, slightly parting them then hastily pushing my thong aside and unsuspectingly sticking his finger in my pussy, which made me moan and groan at the same time.

“Do you want another man in here, Serena?” he growled low and hungrily before he brushed his teeth against the side of my ear. “Do you yearn for another man’s cock in this tight fucking cunt?”

Sweet as sin …

I should be mad as hell, and I was, but I was also turned on beyond measure. For some sick, twisted reason, this display of possession made me ache deeply for him.

“Look at me, damn you! Bloody look at me!” he hissed, and I lifted my eyes to the mirror and met his steely gaze. “Tell me what you want.”

I shook my head, unwilling to bend to his will. Maybe it was more about me being too ashamed to admit his power over my mind and body.

“You’re not going to tell me, are you?” he asserted before he daringly stuck his tongue out and ran the tip of it along my shoulder blade, running it up my neck before it reached my earlobe where he playfully sucked. “Since you’re depriving me of the answer, my sweet Serena, I’ll simply give you the courtesy of showing you.”

His relentless finger was joined by another, mercilessly fucking me, which made me buck forward as the intensity built inside of me.

I gripped the sink handles, holding on for my dear life, heavily panting and out of my mind from the pleasure of my rapidly building orgasm. I almost screamed when I unexpectedly felt his rigid cock plunge into me when I least expected it.

“This is what you came in here for. This is what got you so hellishly bent,” he bellowed, and I was beyond saving myself.