Page 14 of Enemies, Lovers & A Valentine's Baby

I blame myself for not seeing this coming. We’ve been doing this for a little over a month now. This seems to be the usual timeline. Of course, she would expect me to say that I loved her too.

But I can’t, because I don’t.

“Katrina…” I start, dragging a hand across my tired eyes.

“What? Huh? What is it, Cole?” she says stiffly, instantly pulling away from my body and sitting up.

I sigh, knowing what’s coming next. If it weren’t for the pleasures they gave me, I would avoid women completely. Moments like this always make me wonder if even this pleasure is worth dealing with the stress that comes with keeping them in your life. There never seems to be a real benefit.

“Katrina, why are you doing this? You know what my response is going to be,” I say, sitting up too.

The sheets pool around her waist, leaving her full, honey hued breasts with their rosy-brown nipples completely exposed to my gaze. Once again, I’m reminded of why I had to have her from the second I laid eyes on her a month ago.

She has a body that looks like it was sculpted by the gods. One that had even a man like me hooked. For a while.

I’d been invited by a business associate to the launch of his summer fashion collection. She was the new hot Spanish model walking his runway. He’d had her dressed in a dramatic two-piece swimsuit that left nothing to the imagination.

I knew I had to have her the second her eyes met mine while she walked down that runway. But it was purely lust. It would never be anything else, and that’s what she forgot.

“I’m not a man who falls in love, Katrina. You know this about me. I told you right from the moment we met. I wanted you in my bed, but that would be all I’d ever be able to offer you. You knew that when you came to me,” I say sternly.

Her eyes start to tear, as have the eyes of every other woman I’ve been in this situation with over the years. Somehow, they always convince themselves that they can change me, and when they don’t, they try to manipulate me with their tears.

Just like Lydia did all those years ago.

I was the one who’d been cheated on. I was the one who’d been lied to and deceived for months. I was the one who was about to raise a child who wasn’t mine, just because the woman I loved was a greedy whore who gave it up for money.

I was the one who had everything stolen from me, yet she was the one crying.

Lydia was a lesson. A painful one, but a lesson nonetheless. After her, I finally came to understand how women worked. She was the code to deciphering all of them.

I’d been so blind and stupid, believing that love was what they wanted, when really, all they wanted was money.

Those backstabbing creatures would do anything for it.

Once I came to understand this, life got simpler for me. Never again would I try to make a woman mine. She’d only be mine for as long as I was inside her.

“What is wrong with you, Cole? Why are you so fucked up in the head? Huh?” Katrina yells, proceeding to cuss me out in Spanish.

“So much for love,” I mutter underneath my breath, dragging myself out of the bed.

It’s obvious that neither of us is going to get any sleep now. I might as well head back to the office. There’s too much to do for me to be here arguing with a woman.

I can see her eyes greedily rake over my body. I know the effect my 6’3”, muscular physique has on them. Even though I’ve lost all interest in sex, my erection is still jutting out large and hard.

She licks her lips. “Okay, okay, I’m sorry for raising my voice at you, mi amor,” she begs frantically now. “I really do love you, mi amor. Please let me—”

I pick up my pants that had previously been discarded on the floor.

“You don’t love me, Katrina. You love the idea of me,” I explain while I button my shirt. “You love having a rich, powerful man at your disposal. A man that commands respect. One who can give you everything you want, and more. You can hang off his arm at events and feel superior to all the other women in the room. What’s to say that when someone richer and more powerful comes along, you won’t spread your legs for them the first chance you get? I mean, you did it for me the first night we met.” I shrug, unable to wipe the smirk off my lips at the dark expression on her face. “I mean, we’re both adults here. Would you really have wanted me, if I was just one of the servers at the fashion show?” I ask.

She glares at me, anger turning her face red. Her mouth opens and closes several times, but no words come out of it.

“Yeah. That’s what I thought, Katrina.”

Her eyes throw daggers at me as I make my way to the door, but she’s completely quiet, processing everything quietly. Deep down, she knows as well as I do that this is the last time she’ll ever get me in bed again.

“You know you’re an asshole, right?” she says calmly.

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