If I could go back in time and see myself in the present, I would kick my own ass from my own bed and drag me by the balls back to my office. I ended up cancelling half of my appointments today so I could go home earlier.

Pussy won over business. Again. Imagine that?

That pussy was in the kitchen right now, preparing my dinner.

Since she came to Camelot, all the house staff were temporarily not allowed in the main house after 5 PM. I wanted total privacy with Cressida at night.

I took a shower and followed her in the kitchen on the second floor. She was standing in front of the cook top, stirring something in the pan. She was wearing one of my shirts, the hem almost touching her knees. From the back, she looked good enough to eat with her long tresses piled on top of her head with little strands falling down her neck.

Hot damn, I’d never get tired seeing her in my clothes. It was as if she was wearing me and it was so damn sexy.

He greeted me with a big smile. “It’s almost ready. I’ve prepared our table at the deck.”

I walked to stand beside her and looked at what she was cooking. Some meat in some sauce that smelled so delicious my mouth watered. “What is it?”

“Surprise. A recipe of my mother’s. This is my father’s favorite.”

That was a bait. I ignored it. I didn’t want to talk about her father or her family for that matter. Suffice it to say that I was stalling Armand’s trial, a stupid, stupid move that would cost me big, I knew.

“You need help?” I asked her.

“You can choose the wine.”

“Okay.”

I entered the cellar right beside the kitchen. It was stocked with a lot of vintage from my European travels. I chose a bottle of Louis Roederer Cristal Brut. I came back and showed it to her. “Will this go with that?”

“Perfect.” She smiled at me, pretty as a fucking cotton candy and I had to stop myself from grabbing her and nailing her ass on top of the kitchen island.

Jesus!

She made me feel like a fucking king.

I had enough house staff at my beck and call but I’d never allowed them to serve me to this extent. Not even my butler did all these things for me.

Every night since we first slept together, she’d cooked my food, prepared the table with candles and flowers to boot, served my plate and poured wine on my glass. She’d sat down with me at dinner, looking all delicious and sweet.

Tonight, I knew by the impish smile on her face she had something cooked up for me later in the bedroom. The little minx was inventive in bed. For a newly initiated virgin, at least.

I dove into my plate.

She was really good at this. I couldn’t distinguish what kind of meat it was, but whatever it was, my palate melted in utter delight. I’d get fat in no time if she continued feeding me stuff like this.

“Like it?” she asked expectantly.

I groaned in appreciation. Man, this is life. Delicious food. Vintage wine. Hot pussy. “It’s very good.”

She lit up like the candles in front of us. She was giving me that look again. She’d been looking at me like that lately, like I was some kind of a hero. Like I was someone good, and fuck me, it was making my insides feel funny. I was not a good man. Far from it.

“What meat is this?”

“It’s venison.”

I paused from chewing. “Deer meat?”

“Uh-huh. This recipe is my Dad’s favorite. Mom cooks this for him every time he’s having a really bad day. Never fails to cheer him up.”

“Your father is a lucky man to have your mother then.”

“Yes, he is. They’ve been married for thirty years now. They had me late.”

I nodded. “Thirty years. Wow. That’s a feat.”

“Yes. My parents believe in true love.”

I coughed, almost choking on the food in my mouth. She stood up and poured me water in a glass. “Here.”

She patted my back as I washed my throat with water. I hoped she’d drop the fucking subject now. Man, was I wrong.

She went back to her seat and prattled on. “My mom didn’t think she’d ever have a child as she married my dad in her mid-thirties but they were blessed with me after praying hard for a baby. Isn’t it romantic?”

Shut up. “Uh-huh.”

“Did you know that I was born with my umbilical cord tied around my neck?”

“Do tell.”

“Yeah. They thought I was dead when I came out. I didn’t make a sound. I was already bluish. The doctor quickly removed the cord, and as soon as my neck was free, I screamed the delivery room down.”

I smiled. “That’s a nice story. I, on the other hand, was born premature. I stayed in the incubator for four months.”

She looked concerned. “Oh. Were you alright? I hope you didn’t suffer any congenital condition while growing up?”

“As you can see, I’m still alive.”

“Yeah, thank God!” she agreed with a smile, her eyes roaming all over me like a caress.

I started to scoop more of her recipe into my plate but she took the serving spoon from my hand and did it for me. I wanted to protest but she didn’t seem to notice she was making me look like a fucking invalid.

“Don’t you ever want to get married?”

I should tell her to shut her trap and mind her own plate. Here she was with her little intimate talks again. “No.”

“Why?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, you work so hard, and you have all this fortune. Why do you work so hard if you don’t have a family to leave it with someday? Aren’t you concerned of your legacy?”

It was actually a question that I’d been asking myself for sometime now, and it pissed me off that she was asking me THIS particular question. She was so fucking nosey. She thought we were close now and she could ask me these questions? Her pussy and my cock were super close, yeah.

“I don’t believe in marriage.”

“Is it because of what happened to your parents?”

Her eyes turned soft. Oh-huh, there was that sympathetic look. I didn’t know what Karin told her about the Landis family’s skeletons in the closet. Women were such a sucker for drama.

“No.”

“Then what?”

I didn’t have to engage in this conversation anymore, but something in me decided to be honest with her.

“My buddy, Eric, split with his first wife a few years ago. The bitch took half of Eric’s hard-earned fortune because the stupid fuck believed in true fucking love the sucker didn’t draw a prenup.”

She winced. “Oh. That’s tough.”

“Yeah. Talk about blind faith, huh? Even Jesus got betrayed by his disciple and a woman is far from a disciple. I’d never commit that stupid mistake.”

She looked insulted. “You based your entire perspective on marriage on one woman?”

“As you might already know from my grandmother, I have two great examples of failed marriages in the family. My grandfather was a horndog and loved to spend more money than he could make on his mistresses. Good thing Karin was a Whitney and a genius in numbers and the Landis fortune got replenished over time. My mother was a junkie but my father saw her as a damsel in need of saving so he married her, the fool. They had me, then she killed herself. Now my father is happier playing golf with his mistresses than expanding the Landis fortune, but Joshua Junior was wise enough to protect the Landis interests by not remarrying after my mother died. So you see, marriage does not thrive in the Landis family.”

“It does in mine.”

“Congratulations, but it’s not for me. But if by some cosmic fuck up in the universe I do decide to get married, it must be a business deal. It must have an airtight contract attached to it, and it must protect my interests first and foremost. Otherwise, no fucking deal.”

She shook her head. “Good Lord, you are something. You’ll make a good case study.”

“For what?”

“How women have totally taken over the world.”

“What…?”

“Look at you, The Conqueror of Wall Street, so afraid of women!” she crowed.

I shook my head. I couldn’t help but be amused, and she may have a fucking point. Of course, I would never admit it to her face. Damn, she’s quite intuitive. I’d never met anybody who could talk to me like this, and hold her own. Armand had good genes.

“But the real reason I don’t what to get married is…”

“What?”

Don’t. Oh man, don’t.

“I don’t believe a woman could actually love me without my billions.”

She stopped eating and stared at me. “For real?”

“Yeah. It’s hard to discern if a woman is with me because she loves me as myself, or she’s in love with the idea of the life she envisions with me.”

“What’s so bad about loving the life she envisions with you? It’s part of who you are.”

“What is?”

“Being a Landis. Your family is one of the most prominent and respected in this country. You can’t blame anyone for giving you big points for that. Any self-respecting woman would aspire for a classy, decent family she can belong to. There are a lot of ways love can grow, you know? It cannot be defined by a single standard alone. Especially by a single man’s standards.”

Whoa! What the fuck…? Am I speaking to a twenty-year-old?

“Let me tell you something, Cressida. I know many wealthy people with names that can be traced back to the nobility or even royalty but have zero class or decency. My family is a perfect example of that, but the public doesn’t know that, of course. To the rest of the world, the Landis name is golden, thanks to my grandmother who’s the only true golden soul in our sordid family tree. The rest is shit, including me. So, there you go. The classy and decent life a woman envisions with me is not there. It’s an illusion.”

“But you’re stereotyping women! It’s not right!”

The passion in her eyes was making me hard. Our little talks were fast evolving. The little brat had more going between her pretty eyes than most thirty-year-old women I knew.

Fool. What are you thinking?!

“Am I? Well, kindly enlighten this misogynistic jerk.”

“I don’t know about men, but women fall for men they admire and respect.”

“Are you speaking from experience?”

“A bit. Yeah.”

Why did that rankle? Who was this man she’d fallen for? “Go on.”

“Admiration starts when we see a man’s capabilities. His big potential. His visionary perspectives. His chivalrous qualities.”

I snorted. “Ah. Prince Charming.”

She wagged her finger at me. “Don’t scoff at our Prince Charming. He stars is every woman’s dream. I mean ALL. No woman is immune to Prince Charming.”

I rolled my eyes. Jesus. Should I be hearing this?

“When those qualities are already manifested, like if he’s already successful in his chosen career or doing all these altruistic causes to give back, our admiration triples. Love can easily grow from that kind of admiration and respect. It’s not a man’s bank account or fame or whatever that draws us to him. It’s the totality of his personality. His character. That he’s a winner. A survivor. A Warrior. A knight. A hero. That’s a very easy man to love.”

Her eyes were glowing as she was saying these. Glowing at ME. I felt that funny feeling happening in my chest again.

Kill it.

“If you put it that way, then what a relief.”

“Huh?”

“I won’t be afraid anymore that you’ll fall for me, what with all the great sex we’ve been having.”

She looked confused.

“I’m not someone you can admire or respect, Cressida. I’m not going to be your knight and save you from your current predicaments. I’m not going to be the warrior who’d fight the grand jury for your father’s freedom. Least of all, I’m not going to be the hero who’d give up his reputation at Wall Street so he can be with you in the land of happy ever after. I’m just a businessman who wants his money back.”

She looked like I’d hit her with my fists. But the pain in her eyes shook me harder. I inflicted the blows but I felt like it ricocheted. This conversation! How in hell did it get to this?

“As for legacy. Everything goes to charity when I die. Is that legacy enough?” I said to end the subject.

She nodded repeatedly. “Yes, it’s legacy enough,” she said softly.

She bowed her head and stared at her plate.

Fuck. Don’t fucking cry now.

She sighed, shaking her head. “Your grandmother did tell me you can be so unbearable.”

I shrugged. “Did I answer your question?”

She nodded and looked at me again, her eyes no longer pained but earnest. “But you must know, Josh…You’re so worthy of love even without your fortune…or the Landis name.”

Okay, she was going for the bullshit now. A bullshit I strangely wanted to believe for a few moments.

“Purely hypothetical. I was born this way. No woman has ever met me without the Landis fortune attached to me.”

“You give yourself too little credit.”

“On the contrary, I put a very high premium on myself.”

“You know what I mean. I believe there’s more to you than what the Wall Street Journal is saying.”

Say that again after I’d taken over your father’s company.

“You really believe that?”

She nodded, her eyes swimming with unshed tears that I was afraid they’d fall any minute and I’d be tied into little knots again right in front of her.

“Like I said, all hypothetical. I base my judgments on verified facts, never on assumptions.”

“What about gut feel?”

“Your gut feel is wrong.”

“I always trust my gut feel. It’s never wrong.”

“Trust me, this time, it’s wrong.”

There was a stupid part of me that wanted to argue, that her gut feel was right about me, that somehow there was still a part of me that was redeemable.

She smiled. “More?” she gestured at my plate.

I shook my head. “I’m good.”

She licked her lower lip. “What about dessert?”

It felt like a whiplash, this sudden change in her demeanor. But I was relieved we were off the disturbing subject of marriage.

“You have something new from Xtube?”

She grinned naughtily and disappeared under the table.

I felt her hands on my thighs.

I raised my face to the heavens, wondering for the nth time what I’d gotten myself into.

Her lips closed around my cock and I could no longer think.

I could only feel.