Kept by Him(26)

against Daniel only moments ago, surrounded by him and cashmere, and she had never, ever, wanted

anything like this.

Even her assistant, Kristy, who’d only admired him from afar, had been gushing for minutes about

Daniel’s body, his face, how hot he was. And she hadn’t gotten to feel his erection. Hadn’t had to

listen to him tell her that it was for her. She had not had his fingers inside her, his mouth behind the

stage, melting into hers.

Envying her proximity to him, Monica watched her assistant as she went to refill his cup. She saw

how she pressed her breast into his shoulder as she poured his coffee, and Monica’s insides suddenly

froze.

A surprising sensation snared her in a deathlike grip, tightening around her stomach as Kristy’s

breast remained there, lightly brushing against his shoulder. She bent her head in an unmistakably

seductive move and asked if he liked the coffee today, and Monica boiled in silent anger. Daniel

didn’t move, but his eyes flicked up to Monica. He smiled mischievously at her.

Seething, Monica pulled her eyes free and stared at her own steaming coffee. She didn’t know what

Daniel answered, but she heard the rumble of his voice say something in response.

Jealousy spun round and round inside her. Jealousy which, although thoroughly confusing, was also

totally unfounded. He was her friend. They weren’t monogamous. He might, and could, have tons of

other fuck buddies at the moment. They were friends. Friends. With a temporary arrangement.

That was the logical explanation, she kept telling herself.

But the illogical was the sticky, icky, awful roiling sensation taking hold of her. The fact that she

was sleeping with him made her feel incredibly, strangely proprietary, and suddenly Kristy could have

been her father’s stewardess pressing her breasts into his hands during a flight, and Daniel could’ve

been her father letting her, and Monica could have been her mother … slowly dying when she found

out what else had happened next.

Her eyes blurred, unexpectedly, at that memory.

They had been so happy as a family. Her father would raise her in the air and she would be an

“airplane.” Her mother would teach her to bake every Saturday because a woman had to be a

“complete” package and know a little of everything. They had called each other dear and my love and

honey, and they had called Monica their baby. Then they had started calling each other bitch, asshole,

and whore, and Monica had stopped getting hugs and kisses from them for months before their end.

She had been so careful not to let anything like this come inside her.

And now she sat here, in her very own boardroom of the very company she had dedicated the last

decade to; here she was struggling to push out all the emotions she had stupidly let in by asking Daniel

Lexington to sleep with her.

Why, oh, why, had she sought Daniel out?

She’d thought it would solve her problems with Roland and help her unearth her strange lack of

affection for her romantic partners. She’d thought she would begin a healthy relationship with her own

body, not believing that a woman who could have made such a success with Davenport’s could have

such a lousy private life to begin with.

Except her body was rebelling against her logic, and now it craved more.

It craved everything from a man who could easily have other “special friends” at the moment. He

was Daniel Lexington, and he would never belong to a woman, even when he was sleeping with her.

He would be as untamable as a storm, and Monica would be stupid to step deeper into the eye of it.

These were the sorts of feelings that made people do stupid things. Like fire your prized assistant.

Commit infidelity and murder. Take your own precious life and leave your daughter behind like she

meant nothing.

Her mind drifted to Roland.

He was her shield against all of these memories that hurt her, all these passionate feelings that went

up so mighty and high, there was no choice but to suffer when they came plummeting back down.

Roland was safe and gentle. He didn’t get accosted by groupies hounding him when he went out, who

launched at him and kissed him like his mouth was public property.

Exhaling thinly as she searched for calm, she avoided Daniel’s gaze and focused on the love of her

life—Davenport’s—until the meeting was adjourned.

She said good-bye to everyone with a “See you next week,” then walked to him. “Can I talk to you

privately?”

He followed her to her office and shut the door as she went to her desk, where she braced herself

slightly before she spun to face him. “You seem to find it funny that my assistant puts her breasts all

over you,” she said.