Page 15 of Delicious

Is that why I’m here? Is that the only reason?

Securing the one thing left for our family with the temptation and offering of my body?

I didn’t expect the other feelings to be sidetracking my plan. The way he looks at me and shows the softness beneath his hard veneer is tugging at my heart.

Sounds like you need a Daddy.

The words he said to me in his office come back in a fever. I have to follow through on my offering, whether or not I still believe it’s only for the cause, and whatever happens, I can never tell him my intention was to seduce him and use my assets to influence him into giving me what I want.

The ball of conflict twists in my belly as Erik stands there, hands in his pockets, staring at me like he can see what I’m thinking.

In a burst of nervous energy, I strip off my denim skirt and t-shirt, then bolt around the edge of the pool to the deep end on a running start, and leap.

“Last one in is a rotten egg!” I shout as I curl into a ball, hands clasping around my bent knees as I hit the surface of the water in my best childlike cannonball. My flesh smacks against the cool water as it swallows me into the shimmering depths.

It’s been years since I’ve been swimming. A hotel in Traverse City where I stayed with Jess on our skydiving outing.

I have that same feeling now. Like I’m weightless, and nothing exists besides me and the bubbles that surround me, and the way Erik reminds me of what it would be like to have a father that makes you the center of his world.

I squeeze my eyes shut as I release my legs, kicking and stretching my arms toward the surface, opening my eyes just as I break through the water into the warm air of the natatorium with a gasp.

“What the hell are you doing?” Erik’s voice echoes in the tall ceiling as I bob in the water, laying out, so I’m floating on my back, before treading water and turning to see him swimming my way with a cinch of anger in his brow.

“A cannonball?” I answer as I realize he’s standing in the center of the pool where his feet still touch the bottom, only his shoulders and head above the water.

And he’s fully dressed.

“Don’t ever do that.”

“Do what?” I churn my arms and legs, keeping myself bobbing above the water, my swimming skills coming back to me like riding a bike.

“Jump like that again, and you’ll be over my knee. Daddy will not allow you to put yourself in danger.”

All of the air is sucked out of the world.

Our eyes are connected, and I feel them reaching down into my soul.

There’s fury in his eyes. Veins stand out on his forehead, while thick tendons push through the flesh on his neck.

He’s terrified.

All my feminine parts clench in unison.

“Come here.”

Something inside me tells me I should swim away from the angry man that’s part of the group that is set to destroy part of my family legacy.

But, instead, my legs are kicking, my arms swinging as I swim toward him, stopping just short of where he’s standing. “You come to me,” I challenge, a hint of defiance lacing the words.

I’ve never complied with a man’s order in my life. But I have a sense, with this man, I should do just that. Still, old habits are hard to break, and offering him my body was one thing, but I can see in his eyes he wants more.

“Andrea…” He says it so softly I almost miss it. The tension shows in his jaw and his shoulders, broad as they are in his soaking wet suit. I can still see the hardness of the muscle underneath.

His demeanor changes. There’s still some fear in his eyes, but now they are softened by something else… For one disquieting moment, his confidence wavers as his hand rises from under the water, outstretched between us.

“Take my hand. Come here.”

I tilt my head, kicking in a fury under the cool surface of the water, the chlorine stinging my eyes, making my skin feel dry.

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