Chapter 3
Sutton
Miles turned toward me. “That’s not…”
I covered my mouth. “Oh my God.”
He traced Jagger’s line of sight. There was no mistaking it—he was staring right back at me. “Holy shit…”
If it were possible, the man was even more breathtaking than I remembered.
Slightly tousled, inky-black hair fell almost to his shoulders.
It gave a rugged, effortless vibe that contrasted starkly with the bespoke three-piece suit he had on this evening.
He flashed a very slight, cat-that-got-the-canary smile before breaking our gaze to speak to Edmund, who had walked over to greet him.
I hadn’t yet picked my jaw up off the floor when the two of them walked straight toward us.
Holy crap. Holy crap. Holy crap! What the hell was I supposed to do?
I considered feigning sickness and making a run for it, but unfortunately their strides were too long, and before I could come up with an exit plan, they were upon us.
“Jagger…” Edmund motioned to our group. “You’ve met Chloe and Colette, and Colette’s fiancé, Brendan.”
The adonis nodded. “Good to see you.”
Colette smiled. “Thank you for arranging for our group to use the private room tonight, Mr. Langston.”
“Not a problem at all.”
The men turned their attention to me, and I felt all the color drain from my face. “And this is Sutton,” Edmund said. “The stepdaughter I told you about. She starts the internship program at Apex on Monday.”
Jagger’s gaze slid over my face, snagging on my lips for an extra heartbeat. He put out his hand. “Very nice to meet you.”
Okay, so this is how we’re going to play it—last night never happened. My hand shook as I raised it to meet his, and I had to clear my throat to get words out. “Nice to meet you, too, Mr. Langston.”
His eyes gleamed. “Jagger, please.”
My stepsister’s brows pinched ever so slightly. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who noticed he hadn’t told her to call him by his first name.
I managed to push out another smile and nod, but my insides were doing somersaults.
My body had the same intense awareness of being near him as it did last night at the bar.
It was a lot to handle—especially standing in front of my family.
I glanced around for a reason to excuse myself—something, anything.
Not finding one, I figured leaving the room completely was even better.
I looked at Chloe. “Would you be able to point me to the ladies’ room, please? ”
She motioned behind me. “Straight out the doors and to your right.”
“Excuse me,” I said to no one in particular, but I definitely avoided eye contact with Edmund’s boss.
In the bathroom, I splashed some water on my face and looked in the mirror.
How the hell is this happening? There were something like eight-million people in New York City.
And yet I’d signed up for an app—a random app that I had no business signing up for—and got matched with my stepfather’s boss?
My heart raced as I realized Jagger Langston was more than that.
He was also the CEO of the company where I was about to spend the summer as an intern…
Oh God.
I actually felt queasy.
A loud chime from my phone startled me, though I was holding it in my own damn hand.
Miles: Are you okay? Do you want me to come to the ladies’ room? Better yet, I can send Mr. Langston, and he can bend you over the sink…
This is no time for jokes, Miles! Before I could respond, a second text came in.
Miles: I can feign sickness and tell Mia you’re going to take me back to the apartment.
While the offer was absolutely tempting, I was going to have to suck it up and deal with this disaster.
I could handle it. I could handle anything—I was here handling my stepsister marrying my ex, wasn’t I?
Well…sort of. Though on the bright side, that calamity no longer felt like a big deal compared to this new hot mess. I typed back to Miles.
Sutton: No, but thank you. I’m just going to take another minute to get my head screwed on straight and then I’ll be back.
Miles: OK. Text me if you need me.
I shut my eyes, took a few deep, cleansing breaths, and gave myself a last-minute pep talk.
You can do this. Hell, he’s probably gone already.
After all, the CEO of a Fortune 500 company wasn’t about to hang out at the rehearsal dinner for the daughter of one of his employees on a Friday night.
I was certain he had a million other things to do.
Like meet women on that app.
And have sex.
Hot, sweaty, kinky sex.
A pang of unexpected jealousy hit me. Ugh… My heart started racing again, only this time for a different reason. I needed to get a grip. So I forced my eyes shut a second time and took a few more cleansing breaths while I talked myself into believing he was gone already.
Only, when I swung open the door of the ladies’ room, Jagger Langston was absolutely not gone. In fact, he was standing in the hall, waiting for me.
“May I have a word, please?” he asked.
I thumbed behind me. “Is going back into the ladies’ room and crawling out the window no longer an option?”
His lip twitched as he reached for my elbow. “Definitely not.”
Jagger guided me down a dimly lit hall in the opposite direction of the rehearsal dinner. He opened a door marked emergency exit, and we were suddenly outside, in a small courtyard. God, why didn’t I crawl through the bathroom window when I had a chance?
“I take it from the look on your face when I walked in that you had no idea who I was when we met last night?”
“No! Of course not! It’s bad enough that I signed up for some weird app. I had no clue you were also Edmund’s boss.”
His gaze slid over my face. “You shouldn’t knock someone’s sexual proclivities until you’ve tried them.”
I shook my head, attempting to backtrack. “I didn’t mean weird. I meant… I don’t know—not a normal app.”
Jagger arched a brow. His voice held a hint of amusement. “Not normal? Is that supposed to be better?”
I was screwing this all up. But how the hell was I supposed to think with this man so close? He had such a powerful presence that it made me feel unsettled…unmoored. I have no idea what possessed me, but I blurted out, “Does my stepfather know?”
“Know what?”
“About your…proclivities?”
A smile graced his handsome face. “I don’t make a habit of discussing my sex life with the people who work for me.” His eyes dropped to my lips and returned to meet mine with a gleam. “Although, I believe you work for me now, so I suppose I can make an exception when warranted.”
An exception? Was he…suggesting we discuss his sex life? A slight breeze blew, wafting his cologne to my nose. Great, he smells amazing too.
“Look.” I shook my head, attempting to clear it. “I had no idea who you were when I agreed to meet you, and I’m not going to say anything to Edmund, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
“I wasn’t worried about it.”
“Then why did you follow me to the ladies’ room?”
“I wanted to know who the man you’re with is.”
“Man? You mean Miles?”
He nodded. “Is he your boyfriend?”
“Miles is gay.”
“So just friends then?”
“Well, I’m not a man, so of course. But why do you want to know?”
We stared at each other. I tried to figure out what was going through his head, but he wasn’t an easy man to read. Ignoring my question, he held his hand out and gestured to the door. “You should be getting back. Someone might come looking for you.”
Why was it that everything that came out of this man’s mouth was the last thing I expected?
When I didn’t immediately head to the door, he put a hand on my lower back and guided me to walk.
Electricity shot through me, and I looked at Jagger to see if he felt the same thing. If he did, he was better at hiding it.
He opened the door, and two steps into the hallway, Miles turned the corner at the other end.
The three of us continued to walk until we met in the middle.
I stopped, but Jagger kept going, passing without a word.
Miles and I both turned and watched as he stopped at the hostess station and then kept right on going out the front door of the restaurant.
My friend turned back to me. “What the hell was that about?”
I shook my head. “I have no damn clue.”
***
Saturday morning, I was already in the living room when Miles walked out. He stretched his hands over his head.
“Morning, cookie.”
“Good morning. How’d you sleep?”
“Like a baby with visions of sugar-Doms dancing in my head.”
I chuckled and gestured to the kitchen. “There’s coffee in the pot.”
Miles poured his caffeine fix and looked out the window. He grinned. “It’s raining on their wedding day.”
“They say that’s good luck.”
“Only to make the brides with frizzy hair feel better.” He tilted his mug to me. “You want a refill?”
“No, thanks. I’ve already had two cups. Any more will make me jittery. Or should I say even more jittery.”
Miles sat down on the chair across from me and slurped his coffee. “Do you think the Daddy Dom is going to be at the wedding?”
“I thought you were calling him Dungeon King last night?”
“I’m still trying on names. Haven’t found the perfect fit yet. But I’m thinking it should have an alliterative twist.” He sipped from his mug. “So he has to be invited, right?”
That question had kept me up for hours. “A few months ago, when Mom mentioned there were going to be three hundred and fifty people at the wedding, I asked who the heck they all were because our family isn’t very big, and neither is her husband’s.
She said Edmund has a lot of business associates.
So I think there’s a very good possibility his boss might be one of them. ”
“Have you done a deep dive on him yet?”
“What would make you think that?”
Miles shrugged. “You’ve done it on everyone else you’ve gone out with.”
“But I’m not going out with Jagger.”
Miles grinned. “What did you find out?”
I rolled my eyes and turned my laptop to face him. “He was in the military.”
“Reall-y?” He got up from the chair and sat next to me on the couch. “Did you find any pictures of him in uniform?”
“No, but one of the articles mentioned he was a troubled youth, whatever that means.”
Miles tucked his feet under his ass. “Hot and a bad boy. Me likey. Tell me more.”
“Well, he’s thirty-two, went to state college—not some Ivy League school—and he did his bachelor’s degree in thirty months, rather than taking the full four years.”
“An overachiever, just like you.”
“Overachiever? It took me six years to get my four-year degree.”
“But only because you took a little break. You’re brilliant and gorgeous. He’s brilliant and gorgeous. Sounds like a match made in heaven, if you ask me. You should tell him you graduated high school at sixteen and got a perfect SAT score. That’ll impress a fellow member of MENSA.”
“I’m not a member of MENSA.”
He sipped his coffee. “But you could be.”
I shook my head. “Anyway, he sold his first company at twenty-four for fifty-million dollars while he was still in school, yet he stayed and finished his degree. He’d started late since he was in the military for four years.”
“God, why would anyone do that? Who needs college with fifty mill in the bank?”
It’s funny. I obviously didn’t know the man, yet the fact that he finished what he started seemed to fit. He exuded determination. That thought—and the way he’d looked at me last night when we were outside—made my skin prickle, in a good way.
“I guess he just wanted to finish what he’d started.”
Miles smirked. “Oh, that man can finish. Trust me.”
I chuckled.
“I’m dying to know what he’s into. I checked out that app after you told me your story, and it could really be anything. Do you think he’s into BDSM? Or just has some kink or fetish? Or maybe he likes to be watched.” Miles licked his lips. “I could help him out there.”
I shut my laptop. “Well, I doubt we’ll ever find out, so you’re just going to have to make up fantasies in your head.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure of that. I felt something between that man and you.”
“I think your imagination is getting the best of you. Again.” I stood. “What do you want for breakfast?”
Miles finished off his coffee and popped up from the couch like a spring was attached to his ass. “Mimosas!”
“I meant food.”
“Your stepsister is marrying your ex in a few hours. I think alcohol for breakfast is what’s on the menu.”
He had a point. “Okay. But I need some food, too. You know how giggly I get when I’m drunk and nervous. I cannot burst out in laughter during the ceremony.”
Famous last words…