“A little over six months.”

“Well, this is extremely delicious and I must say I’ve never had udon noodle cakes before, but it’s quickly becoming one of my favorites.”

“Thank you.” I smiled.

I sat and ate my dinner as the two of them talked business. I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t turned on by Alex’s business talk. I needed a smack upside the head.

Chapter 8

Alex

After finishing dinner and our business discussion, I escorted Greyson to the door, but not before he kissed Emerson on the cheek and thanked her for an enjoyable dinner. I didn’t like the way he’d been staring at her. When he left, I followed her into the kitchen and watched as she put away the rest of the dishes.

“So you studied cooking in Tuscany?”

“Yep,” she replied as she placed the plates in the cupboard.

“Why did you leave?”

“It was time to.”

“Would you care to elaborate on that?” I asked.

She turned and looked at me as I sat down at the island with my hands folded on the granite countertop.

“Nope.” She gave a small smile.

“Did you leave another broken heart behind?” I smirked.

“Maybe.” She turned and reached up in the cupboard to put away the glasses.

There was a piece of plastic sitting on the counter, so I grabbed it and threw it in the trashcan. When I opened the lid, I noticed several red rose petals in the garbage.

“What are those?” I asked as I pointed to them.

She walked over and looked down into the garbage.

“Looks like rose petals. Strange. I wonder where they came from.”

I cocked my head and glared at her. She knew damn well where they came from.

“Don’t lie to me, Emerson. I don’t like liars and I won’t tolerate being lied to.”

She rolled her eyes and put her hands up.

“Fine. You want the embarrassing truth? I thought your dinner guest was your girlfriend and I lit some candles and spread rose petals across the table to make the dinner more romantic. But when you walked in with Greyson, I freaked out and hurried and cleared the candles and the rose petals from the table. How would that have looked, having dinner with another man with candlelight and rose petals staring you in the face?”

I couldn’t help but laugh. “First of all, I don’t have a girlfriend and second of all, even if I did, she would have known something was wrong because I don’t do candlelight dinners or rose petals.”

Her left eye narrowed as she stared at me. “Why don’t you do candlelight dinners or rose petals?”

“I don’t know. Maybe I’m just not that romantic of a guy.”

She shrugged and turned away. Turning back around, she narrowed her eye again. “If you don’t have a girlfriend, who was that woman you were having lunch with the other day?”

“A casual friend whom I date on occasion.”

Her eyes still narrowing at me, she spoke, “Ah, a friends-with-benefits type of woman. I gotcha.”

“Friends with benefits?” I asked curiously.

“Yeah. You know. A person who you call a friend and have casual sex with. No strings, no commitments. Just sex, sex, and more sex when you want it.”

She needed to stop saying the word “sex” because my cock was twitching uncontrollably and starting to get hard. The way the word “sex” rolled off her tongue turned me on. All I could picture was her bent over the island with her beautiful ass in the air while my cock was thrusting in and out of her, and her begging me to go deeper and faster. Shit. I needed to stop.

“Then I guess I have a lot of friends with benefits.” I smiled.

“Good for you, Parker.” She winked.

“How about you? Do you have any friends with benefits around the world?”

“I tried, but they always wanted more. It gets annoying after a while.”

“I can relate,” I spoke. “Well, I’m off to bed. Sleep tight.”

“Breakfast will be on the table at 7:30 sharp. Don’t you dare be a minute late or you can consider breakfast over.”

I walked away, shaking my head with a small smile on my face. I found this woman more fascinating every day and I couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like to kiss her beautiful, plump lips.

****

Emerson

At precisely 7:25 a.m., Alex walked into the kitchen, yelling at someone on the phone.

“Fuck that. If those plans aren’t on my desk by the time I get into the office, you’re fired. Do you understand? This is a multi-million-dollar deal and I won’t lose it because you and your staff decided to play instead of doing your job. You’ll all find yourselves out of jobs and I can guarantee that you’ll never work in this state again. Am I making myself clear?” Click.

I placed his omelet on the plate as he walked into the dining room and took a seat.

“What a way to start your day. Good morning.”

“Don’t get smart with me, Emerson. I’m in no mood.”

Was he serious? How the hell was I getting smart with him? I wanted to throw the plate at him and watch the omelet slide down and stain his expensive, but sexy as fuck, designer suit. Instead, I nicely set it down in front of him.

“Are you eating?” he asked with an attitude.

“I already ate. Enjoy your omelet.” I walked out of the dining room and back into the kitchen to clean up.

“Emerson, I need more coffee,” he yelled from the other room.

I rolled my eyes and looked at Jenna, who had just arrived at the house. I took the carafe from the cupboard and filled it with the rest of the coffee from the pot. Walking into the dining room, I set it on the table.

“There. Now you can pour your own coffee without having to yell for me to get it for you.”

“You better watch that attitude of yours, Miss James.”

I took a bow in front of him. “I’m sorry, Your Majesty. It’ll never happen again.” I walked away and heard him mumble.

As I entered the kitchen, Jenna was laughing.

“I can’t believe you just did that. Nobody speaks to Mr. Parker that way.”

“Why is everyone so afraid of him?” I asked as I sipped on my coffee.

“Because he’s Alex Parker. That’s why.”

“He’s a human being just like everyone else, and if he chooses to live life like an asshole, then that’s his problem. Life’s too short to live like that.”

“Are you going to be the one to tell him that?” she asked with a smile.

“If I have to, then yes.”

“Good luck. It was nice knowing you.” She lightly touched my arm and walked away.

I was starting to feel suffocated in this house and I needed to get out and do things. I was used to keeping busy. Coming and going as I pleased, and without a vehicle here in California, it was impossible. Phillip couldn’t be at my beck and call whenever I needed to go somewhere, so I had to find a solution to my problem. I grabbed my phone from the counter and dialed Adam.

“Hello, Emerson. How are things going?”

“I’m suffocating here and I need to borrow your car while you’re gone.”

There was silence on the other end.

“Hello. Did you hear me? Can I please borrow your car?”

Again, a moment of silence and then a sigh. “I guess. But you better be careful with it.”

“Thank you, Adam, and I promise I will be. Is it at your house?”

“Yep. It’s in the garage. The keys are in the drawer to the left of the stove. The contractors are there, working, so you should be able to get in. I can’t stress enough about my car, Em. You better take good care of it.”

“I will.”

“How’s it going with Alex?”

“He’s a pompous, uptight, pain in the ass.”

He snickered. “Sounds like Alex. Are you behaving yourself?”

“Of course. I’m on my best behavior in front of His Majesty.”

“God, Em. That right there tells me things aren’t going so well.”

“You worry too much. Go back to work and thanks for the car. I love you!” Click.

I sent a text message to Phillip.