Page 4 of One More Kiss

Another jolt caused his body to shudder, as if I’d physically struck him. Challenging him was not something I did. Ever. But there was too much uncertainty whirling around inside me. Too much doubt about what I meant to him. About our future together.

There would be no escaping him whether we were a couple or not. We were two sides of the same coin when it came to the hotel, forever linked, regardless of our personal feelings for each other. Which made his insistence that we keep this thing between us hidden that much more confusing.

Our grandfathers would have been clinking their highball glasses together in the afterlife if we were to get married. It was what they had always hoped for when they’d started their own families. Part of me suspected that was why Grandpa Howie had been pleased when I was born, why he’d shown me what little affection he was capable of, when everyone else got only his harshness. My father had been hoping for a son, but Howard Royal and Gus Phoenix had supposedly thrown a huge party to celebrate the advent of my birth—but more the fact that I was a girl.

I couldn’t help wondering how pleased the two old men would have been that I was pregnant with the Royal-Phoenix heir.

But the real question was, how would Nash Phoenix react to that news?

A frown tugged at his brows as he carefully pulled out of me. We both sucked in a pained breath at our separation. “Are you upset with me?”

Before I could answer, the phone on his desk rang. Without waiting for my response, Nash stuffed himself back into his slacks and flipped on the speaker with a barked, “What?”

“You have a breakfast meeting with Joseph in thirty minutes,” Heath reminded him.

Rolling my eyes, I slid off the desk. A combination of our fluids was already streaming out of me. It didn’t surprise me that I hadn’t lasted more than five minutes before I’d let him fuck me.

Walking into his private bathroom, I cleaned myself up and righted my clothes. My panties were in shreds, but I stuffed them into my skirt pocket. When I stepped out, it was to find Nash shrugging on his suit jacket. “I need a shower before I have to deal with your father.”

“Have fun with that.” I picked up my phone, to-do list, and access key.

He wrapped his arms around me from behind, his mouth brushing tenderly over my neck. “We could take a nap together when I’m done.”

His offer was surprising but too tempting to pass up. I was so tired. A few hours of sleep wrapped around him sounded like heaven to me. “Your suite or mine?”

Turning me to face him, he dropped a quick kiss on my lips. “I’ll meet you in your bed in an hour.”

Beaming, I hugged him. Maybe it was just pregnancy hormones making me sensitive to the unknowns in our relationship.

And maybe I was desperate for any sign that I meant more to him than a secret fucktoy.

Ugh! I squished the taunting voice back into the shadowed part of my mind where it belonged. All we needed was to talk, which I promised myself we would do after our nap.

“One hour,” I agreed. That would give me time to deal with a few things before I turned the celebrity poker tournament over to another assistant manager. “Don’t be late.”

* * *

He was late.

Two hours after I’d left Nash’s office, he still hadn’t joined me in bed. I tossed back my covers. Getting up too fast was a mistake, but the little black spots around my vision only lasted a few seconds before I was steady on my feet again.

Angrily, I went into my closet and grabbed the first dress I touched. Slipping it on over the bra and panty set I’d changed into after my shower when I’d come back to my rooms, I grabbed my phone and stomped toward my father’s suite.

His was more of a villa-style than mine, which had a sitting room, a small library, my bedroom, a walk-in closet, and a bathroom. Having a kitchen was a waste of space since I typically ate with my family.

Family?

My father was all I had now, and our relationship was…chilly at best. I loved him, but he and I had never been very close. He’d divorced my mother when I was six, and I hadn’t seen her since. Nicole was hard to stomach on a good day, but I tolerated her for my dad’s sake.

Using my key, I let myself into the apartment, going straight for the formal dining room where I expected Joseph Royal to be if he was having a business breakfast with Nash. He’d never been much of a father. So, more often than not, I refered to him by his given name whenever I thought about him.

As I neared, I heard Nicole’s voice, and I slowed my steps.

“I didn’t hear you complaining when I was on my knees for you, Nash.”

I stopped completely, feet away from the dining room entrance. I couldn’t have heard her correctly. There was no way my stepmother had just said she…

“Putting my cock in your mouth was the only way to get you to shut the fuck up.” Nash’s words barely penetrated my mind as a wave of jealousy smacked me in the face. My nails bit into my palms, my eyes clenched shut, a hundred moments running through my mind on repeat.

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