Page 61 of Level With Me
Blake took a step away from me, which felt like something tearing off of me.
Several of the women tittered and for the briefest, unhinged moment, I thought they were tittering at us. But of course it was only Jude, smiling and shaking hands.
“You guys okay?” Jude asked when he reached us, genuine concern on his face.
“Fine,” I said, plastering on a smile. I hoped I hadn’t answered too quickly or too loud. “Big day ahead of us.”
Jude studied me a moment longer, then lifted a chin at Blake in greeting. “Hey man.”
Blake smiled. “Hi,” he said, his face a mask.
Thankfully, after a moment, a grin spread across my brother’s face. “Alright, you need keys to one of our carts, right?”
“Please,” I said, letting out a breath. I didn’t look Blake’s way, but I felt his heat radiating; my body responding to it with fire. I knew the only thing that would help would be to stay far away from Blake. But it was too late for that now.
Jude kept grinning, like a happy puppy dog, oblivious. “I didn’t bring the keys,” he said. “Thought I’d walk with you guys down to the club.”
My stomach churned, but it was good. I needed time to get my head on straight.
One last attempt to keep whatever was happening from happening.
I glanced over at Blake, but he was already turned for the door, his hands carefully shoved into the pockets of his slacks.
14
BLAKE
In only a moment,everything had changed.
No, that was a lie. When I met Cassandra, everything changed. But at that moment? That precious, perfect moment where I’d taken her hand, and she didn’t let go? That was the culmination of all of that. An ache ran through my veins, lighting me up like fire. I concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other.
This was not good. I could stop this still, I knew.
But I knew she wanted me too. I saw her shiver when I’d stroked her palm.
I knew this was bad, what I was doing. I was playing with fire, a fire that could easily destroy every part of our lives. But I didn’t care about anything else. I didn’t care about my life; I didn’t even care about our business, or my business partner.
I only cared about Cassandra.
That was the worst part. That was selfish of me. I wasn’t thinking straight. But she’d consumed me.
These past weeks with Cassandra, I’d felt like I’d been allowed a glimpse into what other people got to have. What it was like to be truly alive.
And it had scared the shit out of me. Being around Cass was exhilarating and terrifying. I woke up with her on my mind, and nothing felt right until I got to her office and she’d look up at me with that smile.
That fucking smile; every time I saw it, something tore up inside of me.
Lila and Brynn had been looking at me like my head wasn’t on straight. After hearing me joke around with a potential client, telling them Harrington was ‘pretty good’, they’d both asked me if I’d been drinking. Or had lost my mind.
The truth was, I hadn’t touched alcohol since that night at the staff dinner. I would again, I was sure. For now though, I wanted to be present for this review.
For Cassandra.
But in the past week leading up to the end of our time in the office, the shadow had come back. I knew our time was dwindling, that soon we’d be on the other side of this review and everything—even Cassandra—would be a memory.
A painful, beautiful, heart-wrenching memory.
And even memories could be lost. I knew that better than anyone.
