Mine to Steal (Mine to Love) (28 page)

“I
was enjoying the part of playing your boyfriend and think I might
really
like you,” I say, letting my eyes stay fixed on her so she can see the truth behind them.

“I think I might like you, too,” she admits.

“But what about Brad?”

“He’s in Chicago.”

“Yeah, but you’re still together.”

She nods, but
it’s as if the words are a revelation that disappoints her. She steps into my space and places her palms against my chest but doesn’t look at me for a few beats. My hands are resting at the small of her back itching to hold tight. When she finally looks up to me, I drop my lips to hers.

The kiss starts out slow and sweet but turns desperate in a flash. I can’t get enough of her
, and I think she feels the same. She moans into my mouth, and I grip her body close to mine.

“I can’t do this again, Faith.” I say between kisses as I pull her arms from my neck. I grip her hands so she can’t get away and look at her as she keeps her eyes off of mine.

“Do what again?” she mutters.

I sit down on the bench and
turn to her, our fingers reaching to each other as I tell her about Emogen. I had no intentions of having anything but friendship with Faith, maybe some flirting, but the kiss - every one of them - changes everything. She doesn’t have the same commitment with Brad that Em had with Ryan, but I don’t do love triangles. At least not anymore.

“So, I can’t ‘
date
’ someone who has this arrangement you have. It works for you? That’s great.”

“But it doesn’t work for me
,” she argues.

“Well, until you decide what type of relationship you have with him, all I can be is your friend.”

She turns her head to avoid looking at me, but my eyes remain locked on her until hers settle on our fingers. She slowly tears hers hand from mine, and I want to tighten my grip so she can’t leave, but I let her go. I have to.

“Then I guess we’ll be friends
,” she whispers with her hands in her lap.

“The moment
it changes,” I reach my hand out and tuck a strand of hair behind her ear before pulling it away, “you better let me know.”

I have no idea when or if she’ll end things with Brad, but for my own stability, this is how it has to be. But there is not a doubt in my mind I want this woman like I’ve never wanted anyone else. And if she doesn’t end things soon, I might be inclined to help her make
the decision sooner rather than later.

“Trey, you have two messages from Cavette
, and he doesn’t sound happy,” Hattie informs me the moment I step into the office.

Once I have set everything down, I look at her confused as to why I don’t have any emails about it
. “Voicemail?”

“No, he’s called twice in the last twenty minutes
.” She follows me into the office and waits for me to sit down. “He has concerns about the marketing campaign you sent him.”

“Shit,” I mutter under my breath. “Alright, thank
s Hattie. I’ll give him a call to get the details.”

As my computer is loading, I try to remember what we came up with and what issues he might have with them. I dial his number and wait for him to answer.

“Cal, how are you doing this morning?”

“I’ve looked over these plans since you sent them t
o me. At first I thought maybe I was too easily impressed, but I had Grayson check them out as well. I have to admit, I love it.”

What?

“Hattie told me you have some issues?”

“I sure do. I want three more. I would like to cover a few more departments
, and I’d like to launch them all around the same time.”

“Yes, sir. We’ll get right on that.”

“Who’s we?”

“Actually, Faith had some ideas so we worked them into the ones I had
already created.”

“What did I tell ya? I knew I’d have the two best people working together on this.”

“Thank you. I’ll let her know. When do you need the extra designs?”

“I’d like to have them ready with the others so they’re ready to go as soon as possible.”

He ends the phone call as he always does, abruptly. Like a complete tool, I throw a fist into the air, relieved Cavette liked what we worked on. It would have been nice to have him get back to me sooner, but I’ll take it.

It’s only fair he put me through the
ringer; I should repay the gesture to Faith. If I call, she’d be able to tell in my tone that I am lying, so I grab my phone and type a message to her.

Me: Heard from Cal. We need to talk

Faith: Calling now.

Me: In a meeting. Come by tonight?

Faith: OK. I’ll go to the office when I leave here.

Me: My place. I’ll text the address.
Don’t worry, Jett won’t be there.

Faith: Okay

I’m surprised how easily she agrees to it, but now I need to let Jett know what’s going on. He listened to me complain about how slow Cavette is about providing feedback, but he’s also seen the mockups and thought they looked great.

He’s finishing up a phone call when I walk in and from
his professional tone, I can tell it’s a client. I’m surprised at how well he’s doing. The clients he’s handling have been happy with his initiative and response to any issues that arise, which I’m relieved to hear. His office is situated only three doors away from mine, so I don’t have to listen to the crap that comes out of his mouth.

When he hangs up the phone, he looks at
me and does the single head nod, silently asking me what’s going on.

“
Cavette called a few minutes ago; he loved it.”

Jett leans forward to give me a high-five, and for once, I’m more than willing to reciprocate. He sits back and laughs
. “What did I tell ya? You were worried for nothing. Did you tell Faith yet?” He’s been trying to use her name, and every time he does, it seems as if it pains him to do it.

“Not yet. Listen, you’re not coming home tonight,” I tell him. “Go stay with Cheyenne or whatever you gotta do. Alright?”

“What’s going on?”

“Faith is coming by tonight. We have some things to work on
, and I don’t want to do it here.”

“Hell yeah,” he claps with a huge smile. “That’s what I’m talking about. You need to get laid. How many days do I need to stay away?”

“That’s not it,” I argue. “She’s with someone,” I remind him, for the hundredth time.

“Well, it didn’t look like it last week when you two were all over each other at the bar.”

I don’t bother to argue with him, because he saw the same thing I did. Hell, he doesn’t know what happened after the movie the other day because I have kept that one to myself. I’d be lying if I tried to say I didn’t constantly think about what that kiss does to me, or what I hoped it could lead to. But I wasn’t lying when I told her I’m not going there.

“I need you to not come home tonight, okay?”

“Yeah, no problem,” he says when I stand up to leave the office. “For what it’s worth, I think you two would actually work.”

There’s no point in acknowledging his last statement, because he will manage to turn my words to mean something completely different from
what is intended.

Hattie is standing at the front desk in the lobby as I pass through on the way back to my office talking to one of the other ladies about her engagement when I interrupt.

“Hattie, when you’re done here, could you come to my office for a minute. No rush.”

“What’s up, Boss?”

Shaking my head at her with a smile, she follows me into my office and I offer her a seat. “I’m meeting with Faith Young tonight, and I need to have everything for Cave ready when I leave today. I need the mockups, the client information, campaign status, and his notes on the original presentation. Can you have everything together for me by four?”

“Not a problem,” she says as she stands up to get started. “Don’t forget you have a meeting with Palm Industries at two. I’ll have all of this put together before then, in case the meeting runs long, so I can take notes.”

“Thanks, Hattie. That’ll be great.” Hattie leaves, and I’m grateful to have her. I was lying earlier when I told Faith I was in a meeting, but since Hattie’s reminded me about the Palm meeting, I feel a little less shady.

* * *

Jett was still at the office when I left, so I told him to stay and lock up once the building was empty. The meeting with Palm ran almost two hours, so I’m glad Hattie got the Cave information together before. Their group left after four, and it leaves me with thirty minutes to get back to my place and straighten up before Faith gets here.

She hasn’t been to my place since we slept together, although I’m not sure she remembers much about the apartment - or that night.
But the few details I do remember are potential trouble because I want her so much and knowing I can’t have her makes it all the harder.

Since my brother hasn’t listened to my constant yelling about
picking his shit up, I grab all of it and toss the pile into his room and shut the door. The kitchen isn’t too bad since we’ve gone out to dinner almost every night, but I rinse the few cups and plates out and toss them into the dishwasher.

I know Faith likes tacos, pizza
, and bacon, but beyond that, I’m not sure what to order for dinner. I pull out my phone and check around for places that will deliver and find an Italian restaurant that seems to be popular. I order three different entrees, because I figure she’ll like at least one of them.

My phone shows it’s almost five, so I head into my room
. I make quick time changing into jeans before I put on some deodorant and pulling a t-shirt on. No sense in sitting around here all formal when I can relax. I walk out in time to hear a faint knock at the door.

I know it’s her.

There’s no need to check the peephole, but I do, because I want to be able to look at her without her noticing. Faith is standing on the other side of the door in a tight-fitting brown skirt with a white shirt and she looks sexy.

“Trey, I can see you,” she says as she places her hand on her hip.

“No you can’t,” I answer when I open the door. “I thought I was more suave than that.”

“You were, until now when you fell for it
.” She gives me a devious grin as she pushes past me into my small apartment.

The door shuts behind her
, and I struggle to keep my poker face upon seeing her. It’s working because her smile fades when she sees the serious scowl I’m wearing.

“Can I get you something to drink?” I ask,
stopping by the kitchen as we walk into the living room.

“I’m good,” she sighs as she takes a seat, eyeing me warily. “I’ve been waiting all day to know the details. What did Cal say?”

I grab two beers from the fridge and hold one out to her, but she shakes her head. I should feel bad that I’m having this much fun, but she’s making it too easy.

She is sitting up straight, waiting for the details
, and I start shaking my head. “Yeah, so Cal called this morning. Twice, before I got to work.” The beer hisses as I twist the cap off and take a sip. “Three.”

“Three what? He has a problem with three of the ads?”

“No,” I shake my head and start laughing. “He wants three more in addition to what we gave him. He loved everything.”

She blinks as she takes in the words I’ve
disclosed and turns an angry glare on me.
Misjudged that.

“You had me worried sick,” she half yells
, half grunts through clenched teeth. “Wait. You said ‘we.’ You told him we worked together?”

“I told you I would,” I remind her of our conversation when we worked at the office.

“Yeah, but it would have been easy for you to take the credit,” she remarks as if it’s normal.

“I suppose, but I don’t work that way.”

She leans to the coffee table and opens the beer she turned down a minute ago. “Well I’ll be damned! We did it.”

There’s another knock and I’m certain it’s the takeout I ordered. “Do you like Italian?”

“Yeah?”

“Are you asking me or are you telling me?” I close the door once I’ve paid the delivery guy and set everything out on the counter. “I wasn’t sure what you liked, so I got lasagna, spaghetti
, and chicken alfredo. Take your pick.”

“I can only have one?”
She laughs, joining me at the counter.

All three meals are open on the counter so I grab two plates and set one in front of her
. “Take whatever you want. There’s more than enough.”

Faith makes no qualms about getting a little bit of everything. None of them go together, but she doesn’t care, and
it’s sexy as hell.

As we eat, I tell her about the conversation with Cavette and what new designs he wants. I tell her I have everything with me, because he wants everything together so it can go with the other campaigns. We finish our meal, enjoying each other’s company, and neither of us
mentions the kiss. But hell if I can’t stop thinking about it.