Wife Unwanted (Corrupt Vows #2)

Chapter 2

Thalia

I TOLD HIM I couldn’t do it. He was so confident I would be successful, but I wasn't and now I am back at my apartment. Alone. He wasn’t wrong about one thing, though. His son did want me. When Nolan Senior told me to seduce his son, I had laughed in his face. Carey Hawthorne hated me. He made it clear whenever I was in his company from the time we were kids until we became teenagers. When he was young, he bullied me and when he grew up; he ignored me. I was sure that Carey hated the sight of me until tonight. Tonight he was a different a man. A man who wanted me. That freaked me out. The Carey Hawthorne thought I was attractive. Attractive enough to seduce. To kiss.

Faced with such a realization, I couldn't seduce him back. It felt wrong. As much as I did not like Carey, he did not deserve to be misled. I shouldn't even have taken the deal. And when I couldn't handle the pressure, I skedaddled out of that party like a scared deer.

But what about the money? The little voice niggled at the back of my mind the entire time I got rid of the dress and got ready for bed. There were other ways to get money. More honest ways that didn't involve lying and deception. I was going to tell Nolan Senior he can look for another person to seduce his son and I will forget I ever talked to Carey Hawthorne. But the universe has a weird sense of humor.

One week later, I served Carey a drink. Table two wasn’t my usual, but since I needed every penny I could get my hands on, I opted to cover for a friend. His profile should have been recognizable to me, but because I was too tired, so I was shocked when he said, "Thalia?" as I placed down a scotch.

I thought of pretending not to know him, but that was dumb. I thought of simply running out of the bar. Even dumber. I flashed a weak smile. "Hi."

"I've been looking for you for seven days straight. You left me on read." He looked more handsome than he ought to. The white shirt and blue tie made him stand out in this mostly construction worker's bar. Table two was a half-circle booth in the corner of the bar and he sat at the center, his jacket discarded beside him.

"I didn't know you hung around these parts." My voiced betrayed all the emotion of being surprised like this.

"I didn't know I'd find you here. I would have sworn you said you worked on the office floor above mine."

"This is my second job," I lied.

"Funny, the people who worked there said they didn't recognize you."

"You caught me. What are you doing here?"

"I told you. I want to see you."

"Thalia!" my boss called from behind the bar, looking a somewhat aggravated as he gestured to a recently occupied table. "See? You've seen me," I said to Carey and left him to wait on table five.

I felt his gaze on me the entire time I worked. I did all I could to ignore him, but it was impossible. Even as the bar got busy and I worked my ass off the entire time, he kept his gaze on me. It was unnerving at first, but as the night progressed, somehow, it became a little comforting. And as the rush hour slowed down to basically a crawl, he was still there.

"You're done," my boss said as I was bringing in a tray of empty beer glasses.

"But I still have a few more tables that need to be served."

He shrugged, acting a little more casual than usual. "You've worked hard enough. Silvy can take over for you." He glanced at Carey and it clicked. "What did he offer you?" I asked. My boss' puffy face turned beet red. "Nothing." His quick answer wasn't convincing. "Go hang out with your friend. You need the rest." If I was na?ve, I would have been deceived by the care in his voice.

I turned my gaze to Carey’s table. He nursing his second drink of the night. He looked as though he's an innocent bystander minding his own business. When I turned back to my boss, he had already taken my tray and given it to Silvy. Silvy didn't look bothered that she's doing waitressing duties instead of bartending and she shooed me away as she went over to the other side of the counter. "If I were you, I wouldn't waste any more time of a patient man like him."

Carey raised his glass at me, and I marched over to him. "How much did you pay them?"

"Sit." He tapped on the bench. He looked casually sexy in a way that screamed danger. His tie was looser and a couple of buttons on his shirt were undone. My gaze wandered to that small v that showed a glimpse of skin and wondered what it would feel like to touch him. When I met his gaze again, his eyes flashed with carnal knowledge that made me ashamed of what I was feeling.

"How much did you pay them?"

"Whatever money you were going to make the rest of your shift, plus extra."

I rolled my eyes and slumped onto the bench without realizing what I was doing. "This is serious, you realize that? You're jeopardizing my job."

He flashed a smile and leaned forward. "I don't know," he said, gesturing to the bar, "your boss doesn't look bothered. But I'm simply wondering why you care so much about waitressing when you supposedly work at one of the top law firms in the city."

The low light of the bar concealed my heated cheeks. I'm not a good liar. I never expected that he would ask about my work or why I was there, so I came up with the first thing I could think of. "That party was the last time I expected to see you."

He cocked his eyebrows. "And here I was thinking you and I were connecting on a deeper level. Is my game really that bad?"

There was nothing wrong with his game at all. "I shouldn't have been there."

"It doesn't matter. I want to see you again."

He was close. So close that I could see the color of his eyes even under the dim lighting. They were deep pools of brown that almost looked black. His mouth was just as tempting as that night. And sometime during this little talk, he had placed his arm across the bench behind me, making it look like we were an intimate couple.

I shook my head. "You and I can't happen under any capacity."

"Why not?" He sounded like the thought was preposterous. As though the opposite was inevitable.

"Our stations in life. For one. I am a waitress. I never went to college like I said. That was another lie."

He bellowed with laughter. "You sound like a Victorian maid. Who said anything about long-term relationships or a relationship at all?" If my face wasn't redder, it deepened more. "I want you," he continued, more seriously now. “I want to know whether I was a fool to not do what I should have done all those years ago.”

My breath caught in my throat. It felt like he had moved that much closer to me and our lips were only an inch from kissing. "I've always wondered what it would be like."

"Wh-what do you mean?"

"You and I. It has always been a preoccupation of mine when I was a teenager."

"You hated me."

"My cock knew no difference."

This was brand new information. Carey had not only ignored me, but went out of his way to make sure I was miserable. Whenever his friends showed any interest in me, he would do or say something to dissuade them from asking me out. "Why are you saying this now?"

"Come on. Are you saying you've never felt anything for me? I know you hated me as much as I did you, but you must have wondered."

I did. Plenty of times, but I thought my feelings weren't reciprocated.

He took hold of my chin. "I know. I've thought about it a lot."

He leaned in closer and was about to kiss me until I pulled back and glanced at the bar. My boss was busy serving a customer. The rest of the bar wasn't paying attention to us, but it still felt wrong. Part of me wondered if Nolan Senior's people were around. Ready to report on my success or failure. I was being paranoid, yes, but with that man, one couldn't be too careful.

"Not here."

His eyes twinkled. "Your place or mine."

He's quick. The idea of Carey and I entwined in sheets not only lit a fire in my loins, but it also held a danger I have never felt before. No. I should resist. "I don't remember agreeing to have sex with you."

He flashed a wicked smile. "I think you already agreed a while ago."

"You must be insane if you think paying off my boss for my time is equivalent to me entering some sort of agreement with you."

"Oh, I am not talking about today. I'm talking about the party. You can't tell me you felt nothing for me that day and since then."

I inhaled sharply and his cologne wafted through my nostrils. It was as intoxicating as that night on the terrace. Reminding me of what I ran away from. "I haven't thought about you at all." My lie was obvious even to him. He chuckled and leaned back. I relaxed, but only a little as I watched him take a sip of his neglected drink.

"Is this my past coming back to haunt me?" He said.

Until his father came to me with his insane proposal, I hadn't thought of Carey in a while. Yes, he would pop into my mind from time to time, but he was never a preoccupation. Not as much as he was when we were young. I choked up most of his behavior towards me as one part trust fund kid behavior and two parts boredom. "Like I said, I've never thought of you."

His eyes narrowed, and he crossed his arms. "I felt something different from you the other night. I could have sworn you wanted to seduce me."

Was he onto his father's scheme? Should I tell him? But I had already decided I no longer want to go through with it. I should tell him, I thought, but before I could say anything he said, "I guess I shouldn't think too highly of myself."

"It's an easy assumption to make. I am pretty sure most women in that room were jealous of me when they saw you taking me to the terrace."

"And yet I cared for none of them except you." He reached out his hand and took mine in his. The move was so sudden I didn't have time to react or do anything else except acquiesce when he pulled me towards his side. "You can't tell me that I was the only one who felt the explosion when we kissed."

My heart pounded so hard against my chest I wondered if he could hear it. I should go. I should drop him gently or harshly, so he put the thought of him and me out of his head. But I couldn’t. As much as I wanted to run away from him, I wanted to run to him as well.

"I couldn't stop thinking about you." His gaze traveled from my eyes to my lips and rested there. "You might not be as obsessed as I am with you, but fuck if I haven't wondered how your body would feel, naked and soft against mine."

"Carey." My voice was throaty with excitement and sounded less like the plea to stop and more like a plea to continue the inevitable. A kiss. He took it as such and placed his lips on mine as though he were thirsty. As what he has been yearning for all this while is me. His scotch-tasting kiss drives me mad with the same desire he felt. Everything disappeared. The bar. The city. Until it's just him and I. My mind turned to mush and I all I wanted is Carey Hawthorne. It was as though he has unlocked a box within me full of feelings I didn't know I had. The kiss was wild. And when he pulled me against him and, as his hand went down to my lower back, something inside me nudged me back to reality. I push away from him. "Not here," I said.

"Your place or mine."

He asked because he knew. There was no way I was going to say no to him. I wanted him too much. He wanted me just as much. The desire between us was begging to be explored. And besides, would it hurt if I felt good just this once? Carey was promising a no strings attached one-night stand. We could be together for this one night and never again. I doubt he would seek me again after that. He's a love 'em and leave 'em type. And that was good enough for me.

"Yours."