Page 53 of Play for Power (Central Sparks #3)

Jessie smiles at me through narrowed, knowing eyes as he hides his own chuckle, and I give him a look to keep his trap shut. Dude sees more than he lets on, and I may have been ordering black coffee from his café ever since I learned of Rosie’s order.

“Mom said she’s happy to have all of us, there will of course be more than enough food. Your dad and Viv can come, too, if they aren’t busy.”

I wave him off. “I’ll pop in and see Dad, but I’ll come alone, I don’t know that I need to bring the Debbie Downers to the Karvelas household.

” Noah grunts agreement, already aware of what my dad is like, and that his wife’s melancholy can be an added weight to my father’s already pessimistic outlook on life. Two peas in a pod they are.

“How’s the Chicago office?” Ethan asks, directed at Noah, and I’m grateful. I’d been meaning to talk to Noah more about the transition to the new office, but he’s been so busy back and forth between the two I didn’t want to add to his plate. I may also have been distracted of late…

“Great. Getting through some interviews, the construction crew has been great, everything is on track. Just need to work out if I can actually get Addy to move out there, make it home base. But I think we might be here a while yet. I still need to keep this office afloat. I can’t be in two places at once.

” I duck my head at his explanation, feeling a slight sting that he hasn’t offered and mentioned me holding down the fort for him.

I know this place is his baby, I know he hasn’t always been the best at delegating, but I thought I had been proving myself.

The sales as a whole were on a 10 percent increase in the last month since he’s been predominantly in Chicago.

I had made a couple of transition notes on staff that could be relocated to help with the training in the new location if he needed that, depending on the hires he could find.

I even got Ava to give me a list of her designer connections in Chicago so we could reach out to them.

Noah had weekly performance reports and sales budgets that were the best they’d been since we opened.

It only pointed to the fact I needed to work that much harder, or maybe it was time Noah and I had a conversation about my future at the company.

The conversation moved on and became mostly about what everyone else was up to, but I tuned out and plotted internally, trying to find a way to slip out of the secret zone and enter my exclusive era with Rosie.

But I know she is skittish—she clenched up so tight when I had embraced her in the bath, it felt like she was in flight or fight mode.

I haven’t approached a hug since then, haven’t pushed her on her no-sleepover rule, and I guess we are both ignoring the way I’d lost my head at her after she dismissed me for the hundredth time.

Perhaps I really was getting sick of being a dirty little secret.

Knowing that I would be seeing Rosie for the long weekend in Chicago made the rest of the week drag like you wouldn’t believe.

Most of the work for Andersen Schulz and Meyers was wrapped up, just some final billing and other housekeeping things, but that was officially with the admin and design teams. Which meant I had no more excuses to turn up to their office.

No reason to just wander in and entice my little Rosebud into some midday shenanigans.

Which is fine, her playful texts are enough to get me through the day in anticipation of our nighttime games.

And if I thought I was ravenous, Rosie is borderline insatiable.

We have practically come together in explosive chemistry every night this week.

There was one night, though, when I brought up that we’d both be in Chicago for the holiday weekend, and she shut down the conversation so fast it shocked me silent.

A quick, Addy and Noah will be around, so we don’t exist. And then her lips wrapped around my cock and sucked like her life depended on it.

I could barely remember my own name let alone remember to press her about the conversation.

But now, it’s Thursday night and I’m on the plane to my dad’s. I’m kicking myself for not having bigger balls and forcing some sort of conversation about what we’re doing.

I am just going with it, seeing what happens, hoping that my stupid brain and my lust-sick cock aren’t going to prove my brain right; that I’m not worth the effort.

The little voice in my head, screaming not to bother, to leave Rosie be.

Get this fucking out of my system or find someone else to take away the sting, because there is no way in hell Rosie Garcia is calling off her nonexclusive deal for me .

Yeah, my cock isn’t getting the message, neither is that insistent pain in my chest. I put my headphones in, load up the Renaissance album, and hit Shuffle.

I try to picture Rosie sitting at her desk working, listening to this album, but I end up just picturing her in all her spicy lingerie and dancing for me.

The sounds of the pilot announcing our arrival, the seat belt signs going on, and the flight attendants scoping for rubbish, pull me from my thoughts.

I barely pay attention to anything on the disembarking.

I take my overhead luggage and head straight for the taxi bay.

On my way out the doors, though, I see a hint of familiar dark curls and nearly snap my neck to get a second glance.

Sure enough, standing in front of a man in a dark suit holding a sign that reads Rosita Garcia in front of a blacked-out Rolls-Royce is the object of my never-ending distractions.

I jog the final distance between us before the man with the sign takes her luggage and I reach forward and grab it.

“Rosebud. Fancy seeing you here,” I tease as I round in front of her and pull the luggage from the man’s hand. He is polite enough to give us some privacy but hovers, waiting for Rosie’s instruction, I assume.

“If it isn’t the sex pest himself.” She lazily turns her head in my direction and I drink her in.

Her hair is tied up in a bun that I assume is meant to look messy and haphazard, but each curl that falls down her face is deliberate, and the way it sits, I know she spent time on that look.

With comfy-looking denim cutoffs that hug her figure perfectly and a white tank that clings to her skin with a mouthwatering display of cleavage, I try to make quick work of my appreciation for her as I finally land back on her eyes.

“Even in casual you are delicious.” I’m sure she can see the heat blazing from my eyes. Luckily I managed to get my public boners under control a long time ago or other things would also be very obvious.

Rosie rolls her eyes, faking indifference, but I catch the little smirk of her lips and the way her eyes gleam with appreciation as she pretends to check over her nails.

“Flattery isn’t getting you anywhere this weekend, cabrón. So give it up now.” She smiles menacingly.

“You going to be able to keep your hands off me this weekend then?” I tease back, stepping into her space.

I note the quick look she glides over my form.

I, too, have dressed for the occasion. With the heat of the summer, I’m in a loosely buttoned, short-sleeve linen button-down and navy chinos.

The heat is a little thick, but I know I’m seeing my dad today, and despite my attempts to act like I don’t care what he thinks anymore, I dressed up a little anyhow.

Perhaps this time he will see the clean-cut, sophisticated life I live and stop doubting and judging every single move I make.

“You’re forgetting that it is you who is obsessed with me ,” she emphasizes with a condescending pat on my chest before sidestepping me and heading for her car.

“How about we ride together?” Because I’m not ready for her to leave my personal space. She’s right, of course. I am obsessed with her. But she doesn’t need to know how true that statement is. Not just yet.

“No.” Rosie sighs simply.

She gestures something to her driver and then he’s reaching for her bag. I tug it away from him and he just frowns, looking back at Rosie.

“Caleb.” She narrows her eyes at me.

“If you want your bag, you’ll have to come get it.”

“What are you doing?” she asks, stepping back out of the car, taking frigid steps toward me as I back away from her, her bag in my hand and rolling beside me.

She approaches like I’m a skittish animal about to escape with something valuable.

“This is not fun, Caleb,” she hisses at me, her brows creasing in frustration, and it only makes me smile wider.

I love getting under her skin, especially when it is so damn easy to do.

“How about you come check out my hotel room with me. You can collect your hostage case from there.” I give her a daring glance, my lips curling with silent invitation.

She stands up straight, her hip jutting out as her arms cross over her chest in a pose I’ve trademark stamped as Rosie’s.

She scowls, or rather, she tries to, but it’s just an adorable pout.

It’s funny how, after all this time, her ferociousness doesn’t scare me away as much as it used to.

Instead, it’s just another thing that makes me ache for her when she isn’t around.

“I don’t think so, hotshot. Now give me my things. I am meant to be checking in and then meeting Addison.” She gestures with gimme it grabby hands at the case, her sexy scowl still firmly in place, and I bite down on my chuckle, taking a step back every time she moves closer.

She takes two steps forward, I take another two back, and when she finally huffs an annoyed breath, stomping her feet like the drama queen she is, I laugh. My stomach stirs as I watch her smile struggle to break through, like she can’t help but also laugh.

She throws her hands up on a grunt. “You are so annoying.”

“You love it.” I wink at her, but she rolls her eyes.

“Well, I have a car, so you may as well use it too. Get in and give me the address.”

I fight the very real need to fist-pump in triumph at winning the little game I was playing with her, and then again when she smiled at me, even if she did roll her eyes too.

“Where are you staying?” She huffs, still pretending to hate my presence—though I know she secretly loves it—as the driver loads up our luggage and we pile into the car.

“The Seraphine,” I reply, pulling out my phone to check my booking details. I glance up at her and this time it’s real anger glaring back at me. “What?” I raise my hands in defense.

“Is this a joke?” Confused, I open my booking details to confirm the name and, yeah, it’s definitely correct. I twist the phone around to show her.

“Why do you insist on following me around like this.” She throws her head back against the seat.

“First of all, let’s not pretend like you aren’t excited about the possibility of sneaky sex around our friends.

I know exactly what gets you off, and the threat of being caught is one.

” She tilts her head in my direction, glare still in place, but I catch the twist of her lips as she tries to hide her reaction.

“Secondly, I don’t see the problem. I stay at the Seraphine every time I come to Chicago. ”

“I thought your dad lived here.” She sighs, sitting up straighter.

“He does,” I explain, smiling at her impatient hand gesture for me to get to the point.

“I don’t like to stay with him though. He and his wife are…

a lot.” I fiddle with my phone, not all that open to going down the problematic family line.

Sure, Rosie has told me a lot about her family, but I don’t know that I’m ready to go down that path yet.

I feel quite raw and open when Rosie and I get heated, when it’s just the two of us.

I need something that holds a barrier between us.

This thing, whatever it is between us, is uncharted territory for me.

I have no idea how to go about it, I don’t even know how to stop it or slow it down.

I do know that I’m setting myself up for something painful, fully aware that if I don’t keep some kind of barrier between us, Rosie Garcia could destroy me.

“Why is it a problem where I stay anyway?” I ask, hoping she changes the topic.

“You’re really going to sit there and act like you don’t know.

” Her posture oozes attitude. I raise a questioning brow, letting her know I have absolutely no idea what has got her in such a fit about where I’m staying.

“Ugh. My family owns the hotel, cabrón. I’m also staying there.

” She frowns deeper when my smile splits my face.

“Why are you looking at me like that.” She falls back against the door, trying hard to get away from me, and though I know it’s part of her mask, pretending like she can’t stand me, it’s starting to sting.

“Just awfully convenient for us to both be under the same roof for a weekend, don’t you think?

Addy and Noah won’t even know.” I can feel the heat coursing through my body as I picture all the filthy things we can get up to this weekend, and then it changes to warmth, because the idea of just spending time with Rosie this weekend, is another level of pleasing.

“Mmmm.” She narrows her eyes at me before I see an idea light up her face. “Maybe, if you’re a good boy this weekend, we might have some fun after all.” She bites her lip playfully as I watch her eyes scan my entire body.

The rest of the drive from the airport to the hotel is filled with a tense silence.

Or maybe that was in my head, maybe I was creating a tension where there was none?

But she was right there next to me, and I wanted to tell her a million things.

That or just strip her naked and have my filthy way with her.

I really didn’t know how to be around her as the indifferent playboy anymore.

It was either have all of her pressed up against me and screaming my name, or it was baring my soul to her.

When we started this… thing between us, I had no intention of getting attached, had no need to brag, wasn’t even a little interested in being public about the fact we’re sleeping together, but this last month—the last couple of weeks especially—has made the pretend looks of annoyance and disgust she throws my way burn.

What I’d give for her to openly gaze at me with affection. To come to me, to want me and need me.

Somehow, just sex isn’t cutting it anymore.