Chapter 5

5

B rock set the mixer tap to high and waited until steam bellowed from the cubicle before stepping into the shower. He didn’t want to wash Jayda’s floral scent off his skin but taking a shower was the only thing he could think of to excuse taking too long in the bathroom.

He couldn’t go back out there, not right now. He’d already wasted five minutes calling himself a variety of names from ‘fuckwit’ to ‘dickhead’ while staring at his reflection in the mirror, then another two splashing water on his face. It hadn’t been enough so he jumped in the shower, hoping that the powerful stream of water on his head, his neck, his back, would ease some of the tension.

It didn’t, and as he tilted his face up to the water and scrubbed his face, he knew all the showers in the world while procrastinating before confronting Jayda wouldn’t change anything.

She’d rocked his world all over again.

And he wanted a repeat. Fuck, he could happily screw her all night if she let him. But it was more than that and he knew it.

He’d had plenty of sex since finishing uni. Success and money meant he had no shortage of women warming his bed over the last six years. And there’d been no complaints so his prowess had grown alongside his bank balance.

But what had happened out there with Jayda…it was messing with his head. Foreplay wasn’t usually that much fun. He’d get the girl wound up, they’d satisfy each other, then he’d leave. He never brought women into his apartment, preferring the option to go when he wanted rather than having to kick someone out. He might be a heartless bastard but he drew the line at tacky.

Yet foreplay with Jayda had been something else. They’d laughed and teased each other, verbally sparring in a way that turned him on even more. Intelligence got him off as much as a hot bod, and what a bod. He’d loved her curves in uni and she was hotter now: her firm ass, rounded hips, and those spectacular breasts with pale brown nipples that could poke his eye out. Magnificent.

Predictably, his cock hardened and he switched the temperature to cold, clenching his jaw at the sudden burst of chill before switching off the mixer completely and reaching for the towel on the heated rack next to the shower. He couldn’t head back to the bedroom with a stiff dick. Not when they had to have a discussion.

Discussion. What a crock. He had to tell her the truth. That this had been fun but he didn’t date and he sure as hell didn’t screw a client. But Jayda wasn’t just any client and he’d never done this before, mix business with pleasure. Jayda had this hold over him, always had.

What would she think if he told her that he’d lusted after her for four long years at uni? That he’d been hard every time she’d sat next to him so he’d learned to wait outside the lecture theatre until she’d entered and chosen a seat, then he’d choose one in front of her so he wouldn’t have to see her and torture himself with wanting her? That he’d deliberately treated her with disdain so she wouldn’t see how badly he wanted her and how it messed with his head?

Lucky he’d had a high IQ otherwise he wouldn’t have passed a single semester and his grades would’ve resembled his hopes with her: a big fat fail.

He’d never thought someone like her—popular and extroverted— would return his interest, until graduation night, but even then he hadn’t been a complete fool. He’d been convenient and she’d only turned to him because she’d been distraught after discovering that douchebag Deon had seduced her on a bet, his mates saying they’d give him five hundred bucks to ‘bang the virgin fat chick’.

He’d seen red when she’d told him that and had wanted to punch the prick so badly. But he’d seen how much she needed a shoulder to cry on; then later, his comforting had turned to something else and their passion had been redirected.

Not that it mattered. He’d had his revenge on that prick another way. Having killer IT skills made for some interesting online revenge. He doubted Jayda knew what he’d done to that loser but he didn’t need her thanks. He’d screwed with that jerk’s online social media profiles to the extent he’d had to shut them down and he hoped that the resultant ridicule from his peers had made that asshole understand how bad Jayda had felt when she’d heard his mates do the same to her.

He would’ve done anything to protect her back then. Which was why when she’d run from him that night he’d let her and hadn’t looked her up since.

This time, she’d come searching for him, so technically it didn’t count as him doing the wrong thing and allowing her to get too close. But he’d known the moment he’d brought her into his home he was being sucked back into a vortex he’d be powerless to resist.

Yeah, she’d had that much of a hold on him back then and she hadn’t known it.

So what the hell happened now?

He should ask her to leave. It was the right thing to do. He’d never get involved on any level beyond physical. He couldn’t do that, not to her. She deserved a hell of a lot more than he could ever give her.

As for the bombshell that she hadn’t been with any guy since him…he couldn’t begin to comprehend how that was possible. A woman as beautiful, as confident, as bubbly as her would have guys drooling.

So why hadn’t she had sex with any of them?

His head ached thinking about her rationale and his conundrum, and he pressed his fingers against his temples. It didn’t help and he sucked in a deep breath, tucked the towel around his waist, and opened the bathroom door.

To find she’d gone.