Because You Need Me (Falling for You, Book Two) Read Free Page B

get to see Penny again.
    It hadn’t even been a week since she’d roared into existence, and now I could barely remember what it was like before Penny. Had there been a life without her warm eyes filled with skepticism, suspicion, and hope? A life without her touch; something precious that wasn’t freely given, whether it was a kiss, a smile, or our knees brushing? A life without the consuming need to possess her body?
    I remembered the way she bit her lip when I sank my fingers inside her, the way she shuddered when she came. The memory of it was enough to make my cock pulse. I was completely enraptured by her. The way she fought the me she thought I was-that I thought I was-was the most confounding and exhilarating things I’d ever experienced. She wasn’t the first woman to try and get past the playboy exterior, but she was the first that made me want to be more. One night with her, one month with her, wouldn’t scratch this itch.
    I turned my attention back to Caitlyn, ignoring the angry lines that were focused on me. I wanted to bite off a warning, but the desire to snap at Caitlyn was fleeting. I knew that this wasn’t just business to her.
    “It’s okay if you’re worried about me, you know,” I winked, knowing she’d deny it.
    “You’re a grown man and more than capable of making your own decisions.” She dusted her hands with a sour look that told me she was attempting to wash her hands of the situation, but her voice wasn’t quite as steady as it would have been if she could care less. “I...I just know how important your career is to you, Xander.” She ejected from her seat and buttoned her blazer. She strode toward the door, holding it open expectantly. “I know what my job description isn't, but I also know that you didn't hire me because I look cute in a pencil skirt and would blow smoke up your ass.” She gave me the same hard-as-nails look that she gave my father when he thought she was going to bend to his will, because that's what everyone did. “I know this has to do with the young woman that came to the office a few days ago.” I opened my mouth to defend Penny, but Caitlyn wasn't taking any objections. “I wasn't always an old lady, you know. I remember what young love feels like.”
    The L word was the equivalent of nails raking across a chalkboard. It stabbed a hole through my fantasy; the beach we walked on hand and hand blurred, replaced with sand that felt like hot coals. It set fire to any joy or happiness that filled me when I thought of Penny. I remembered all too well how powerful that word was. How it made me weak. How it left me powerless.
    I locked my jaw, struggling to find the authority that usually came to me easily. “Love? I barely know this woman.”
    Caitlyn wasn't buying what I was selling. “Uh huh.” She gathered the documents, her fingers flying as she organized each piece, barely looking at the folder tabs. She moved with the effortless confidence of someone that knew exactly what she was doing. “I don't know this woman either, but I do know you. Women come and women go, and you carry on. Something tells me that if this women fell into the latter category and you never saw her again, you wouldn't just go about business as usual.”
    I gripped my pen tight, holding onto the last shreds of denial. “If you knew me, you'd know I wouldn't let anyone have that much power over me.” The twitch beneath my right eye gave me away. My father had the exact same tell, and he negated that statement. Even from his deathbed, he held sway over me.
    Memories of my childhood stacked one on top of the other. I heard his rumbling voice bark that if a public school education was good enough for him, it was good enough for me. When my mother went to him, recounting stories I'd told her about bullies that taunted me for living in the 'Addams Family' house, he’d just laughed. My family's wealth and my scrawny frame slapped a target on my forehead. He told her that it would