Unofficial

1. Chapter One

Chapter One

J essica Massey walks up the front steps of her boyfriend's condo and smiles at the red brick building. She loves just about everything historical, and his building was constructed nearly two hundred years ago and converted into housing. As an architect, she appreciates the craftsmanship and style more than the average person. She's been told more than once by people that she focuses too much on the little details of buildings, but she thinks they're crazy not to appreciate the work that went into creating something so gorgeous.

Even though she loves the old details, she still appreciates the modernized interior and sleek appliances along statement walls. As much as she finds the history interesting and feels the need to preserve it, she also knows working with wood-burning stoves and ice boxes isn’t as efficient as it once was in this modern age. Real hardwood floors span across all units, and the kitchens have been adorned with state-of-the-art appliances and high- end finishes complete with granite countertops. It’s absolutely gorgeous inside and out.

Connected to the condo is an amenities building that serves as an enticing extra for the pricey homes, and it consists of a moderately-sized gym, spa, pool with a jacuzzi, juice bar, and small convenience store. When she first saw Kade Finely's home, she was amazed at how easily it felt like a penthouse versus a condominium, and the extras made it feel much more luxurious. If she didn't already own her own home, she'd consider buying one of the condos still for sale. Who can beat a free gym with a juice bar?

She and Kade have been dating for the past five months, and when he called to cancel their date because he has the flu, she needed to stop by and bring him some homemade chicken soup. The same soup her father made her every time she was sick before he died. She swears it has healing properties, and she hopes the splash of love she threw into this batch helps make him feel better. And hopefully he sees the love she has but hasn't verbalized just yet. It still feels too early to tell him she's fallen head over heels in love with him.

Rather than ring the bell to avoid possibly waking him, she bends down and flips over the welcome mat. Taped to the very middle is his spare key, which he had to use one night when they were out drinking and left his keys in his pickup. At the bar. Across town.

The moment she steps into the entryway, she feels something isn't right. She'd expected dry heaving, maybe vomiting, or snoring as he rested. What she never expected to hear was panting. As she steps closer to the kitchen, her suspicions are confirmed: The pants aren't from someone ill. She hears two sets of pants, and neither appears to have any type of sickness.

Her entire body freezes as she steps into the entrance of the kitchen to see Kade's bare ass thrusting into a busty platinum blonde like a jackhammer while her hand reaches up and holds onto the cabinet for dear life.

"Oh, yes!" she cries out.

Her breasts, at least two cups larger than Jess’s, flop around, and her panting turns into moaning. Her eyes look up to the ceiling, and Jess sees the familiar look of a woman about to find her climax. With Jess's boyfriend.

"Yeah, baby," Kade grunts and continues to move his hips quickly, his hand gripping her hips.

Walk away, Jess. Walk the hell away.

As much as she wants to move and run as fast and far as she can, she can’t move either of her feet. Or blink. They're having sex on the counter where she's set the countless breakfasts she's made after spending the night. And now it seems dirty. Too dirty for the most important meal of the day.

And she and Kade have never had sex in the kitchen. She's not opposed, but he never seemed interested in taking it outside of the bedroom. Now, though, she can't help but wonder why he wanted to with the busty blonde and not her. Why is this girl kitchen-sex material while Jess is only bedroom-sex material?

Behind the woman's bare bottom sits the coffee pot Jess taught him to use properly when he'd given her a cup of tar the morning after she spent their first night together at his place. Next to it, all the coffee syrups, toppings, and the ground coffee and coffee pods reside in the homes she made for them in containers that weren’t too girly for a man’s kitchen.

Why is this your focus? He's screwing the hell out of this woman on the counter... who cares that you arranged the coffee accessories?

It's like watching a car accident, and she can't take her eyes away even though she wants to reach into the drawer to her right, find a spoon, and gouge them out in this very particular moment. Being blind seems like it would be easier to deal with than this situation right now.

The woman looks familiar. Very familiar. Why does Jess know her?

BAM! Jess's stomach drops when it hits her. This woman showed up on his phone the other night when Kade ignored a call. Like any normal person would do, Jess asks who she was, and he said her name was Lena. His cousin. Apparently, he has a very different relationship with his cousins than she does with hers.

Lena's eyes open and lock with Jess, who knows she stands there like an idiot holding a glass container of soup in her hand. Even with Kade covering most of her body, she can tell the woman has killer curves. Curves Jess wishes she had.

"Oh my God!" Lena cries and covers herself with her hands.

"That's it," Kade mutters and doesn't seem any wiser to Jess's presence.

"Stop it!" she screams and points to Jess. "Who is that?"

He whips his head around, and Jess's eyes shift from Lena’s to lock with his. For a second. Then she looks back at Lena. The woman's attractive in a way Jess can appreciate, and she has some modesty as she struggles to cover herself before hopping off the counter to find the discarded clothes.

"Jess?" Kade asks. "What are you doing here?"

Holding up the container, she feels stupid. So freaking stupid. "I, uh... I brought you soup. You know, because you said you had to cancel our plans because you had the flu."

"You have a girlfriend?" Lena exclaims and comes back into view with most of her clothes on.

Seriously, is she a freaking swimsuit model or something? Her body looks just as good clothed as naked.

"He never told me he had a girlfriend. Jess, is it? I swear, I'm not a homewrecker."

"You're Lena, right?"

"Yes, I swear, I didn't know."

Jess nods and swallows, her entire body becoming numb. "I believe you."

"He never mentioned you. How could you not mention the fact you have a girlfriend?" Lena screams.

"Aren't you... Aren't you his cousin?"

Her eyes widen and stare at her. "What?"

"When you called the other night, I was with him. He told me your name was Lena and that you were his cousin. Oh, God, I think I'm going to be sick."

On top of the whole sickening scene, she feels oddly offended she knows about Lena, but Lena doesn’t know about her. How long have the two of them been together? Is Jess the other woman? Can someone be the other woman when she's the one not related to either of them?

"I am not his cousin. You told her I'm your cousin? You told your girlfriend I'm your COUSIN?" Lena screams.

Kade grabs a pot from the stove and covers himself, seemingly realizing for the first time he stands in the kitchen naked. "I may have fibbed about who you were, yes."

As ridiculous as he looks with a pot covering his junk, Jess can't help but appreciate his body. Even though he just stood in the kitchen banging another woman, he looks good. Damn him. Why the hell does he have to look good wearing a pot she cooked him dinner in three nights ago? Can't God just smite him and give him a beer belly and take away a decent amount of the luscious chestnut hair on his head? That would be great. Just a bolt of lightning and Boom! No more sexiness.

"You cheated on your girlfriend with me!" Lena cries. She seems very much stuck on the fact he had a girlfriend and didn't tell her.

"Technically, I didn't cheat. She's not my girlfriend."

The words feel like a roundhouse kick to the face. Like Chuck Norris appeared out of nowhere. What kills her is how he managed to make the words cut deeper than watching him screw Lena on the counter. She makes a mental note to dissect this later. "I'm not?"

"I mean, we're seeing each other, but we never had the talk ."

"The talk?"

"That we were exclusive. We were just dating."

Lena's jaw drops wider than Jess's as she points a red fingernail in Jess's direction. At least one of them can move. "I don't think you told her you weren't exclusive and dating other people based on the shock and horror on her face. And you told her you were sick to cancel plans just because you wanted to screw me?"

"Lena-"

"She brought you soup!" Her hands shake as she runs them through her pretty blonde hair. Hair that makes Jess’s own blonde hair look dull in comparison. "You are a pig. You hear me, Kade? A pig! Jess, I'm so sorry. I would never... If I knew..."

"Based on what I saw, I guess I can't really blame him. You're kind of an upgrade. For some reason, I'm still stuck on the fact he screwed you on the counter I set breakfast on for him in the mornings, but he's never once tried to take me anywhere in this room. It's stupid and completely irrational, and the image won't go away anytime soon."

Her eyes widen. "You make him breakfast?"

"And dinner a few times," she says, finally setting the glass container on the counter. The heat from the liquid inside finally permeated the numbness and burned her skin. It's a welcome distraction for a nanosecond. "I suppose he's not completely wrong. We never discussed being exclusive, but the past five months seemed pretty serious. At least they did to me."

Lena takes a step back. "He's been stringing you along for five months?"

The woman sounds on the verge of hysterics, and Jess knows she should be angry. Angrier than Lena, at least. She should throw something or hit him or scream and shout. "I guess so."

"I wasn't stringing you along!" Kade says, finally finding his voice. "This isn't the time or place to have this conversation."

"Yeah, you're covering your junk with a pot," Lena says. "You look ridiculous."

"This is a little out of control right now."

Jess nods her head, her stomach finally catching up to the situation and threatening to push the lunch she ate back up. "I should probably go."

"No, I should go."

"No, I think you should stay. You're the one he wanted here tonight, not me. I'm the one he canceled on and isn't officially dating."

"Please don't hate me," Lena says, her brown eyes filling with tears. "I feel terrible."

Why is she the one crying? "How long have you two been seeing each other?"

"This is our third date," she says, a few tears spilling down her high cheekbones. "We met at a bar a few weeks ago."

"O'Reilly's?"

Her curtain bangs stick to her wet cheeks, and she nods her head. Jess finds herself annoyed at how pretty the woman still looks crying. Jess ugly cries, and this supermodel looks like she just popped off the screen of a rom-com movie.

"Seems to be a pickup spot for him," Jess says and pushes her annoyance of the woman who had no idea Jess existed out of her mind. "That's where he and I met. He took me back to his place on our third date, too."

Kade sighs. "I met her one of the nights you were working late. But since we weren't a couple, it wasn’t a big deal. I thought we were both dating."

"Yeah, I was dating. I was dating you ," Jess says. "How many others are you seeing?"

"Jess-"

"No, I think I'd like to hear this one, too," Lena says.

Looking at the ground, he shakes his head. "I'm not dating the entire city."

"You're quite the wordsmith, aren't you. As far as we're aware, you're not into guys, so you can't date the entire city. Only the female population," Jess says, glad her snarky side decided to come out to play.

She should be crying. Sobbing and falling to her knees at the betrayal, but she's not. Lena's taken half the role Jess should be playing, and it seems redundant to follow suit now. Besides, Lena has many assets Jess doesn't currently have, so why show off how ugly she can cry next to the should-be movie star?

"I’m not dating a lot of women," Kade says.

"How many?" Lena asks, her tears gone.

After a long pause, he seems to understand the situation. Neither woman is willing to give up, and he's standing naked with a pot covering his modesty. "A couple?"

"Besides us?" Jess asks. "Or including us?"

"Does it matter?"

"I guess not," she says. "I'd take my soup back with me, but I don't know that I'd be able to eat it and keep it down. You can have it. I made it for you, so I guess I'll just be going."

Lena grabs the rest of her things in a huff. "Me, too."

"Come on," Kade says, readjusting the pot as he takes a few steps towards them. "No one's going to stay?"

"You are," Lena says with a sinister smile. "Have fun playing with yourself. Oh, and lose my number because the moment I'm in my car, I'm blocking yours."

"You can just call one of the other couple of women you're dating to help you out," Jess says and walks to the door.

Kade follows them as they walk outside, his body hiding behind the large door. "Lena! Jess! Come back here!"

He called out for Lena before her. That tells Jess everything she needs to know, and she hurries to her Benz before she says or does something she regrets. Like actually stay.