Page 58 of The Rules of Dating a Younger Man
I was, but it wasn’t anything found on a menu. “I want…you.”
Brayden stopped in place. “Come again?”
I threw my arms around his neck. “I want you, Brayden.”
“Are you sure?”
I smiled. “I’m positive. The only thing I want for my birthday is to spend the night with you, Brayden Foster.”
“Well then…” He grabbed my hand and dragged me through the lobby. “Let’s go, woman. Chop, chop.”
I laughed. “How about I take a quick shower, and after I’ll meet you down here? We can grab a quick bite in the hotel restaurant and maybe bring a bottle of wine back to my room when we’re done?”
“That sounds like a birthday gift for me.”
“How does an hour sound?”
“Like fifty-nine minutes too long. But okay.”
My body hummed as I took a shower and got ready. Now that I’d made the decision to sleep with Brayden, it couldn’t happen fast enough. I almost texted him and suggested we skip dinner, but the way I was feeling, he was going to need his energy.
Anxious, I headed down to the lobby a few minutes before we were supposed to meet. When the elevator doors slid open at ground level, I stepped off but stopped when I caught sight of a woman standing with her luggage.
My brows furrowed. “Caitlin?”
She threw her arms up. “Surprise!”
I hugged her. “Oh my God. What are you doing here?”
“We’ve spent every one of our birthdays together since I was a kid. I didn’t want to break tradition. Besides, when we texted yesterday, you said youngblood wasn’t going to be around for your birthday. So I thought I’d take you out.”
“Oh.” I forced a smile, not wanting to hurt her feelings and tell her Brayden had changed his plans and I’d very much been looking forward to our private night together. “Thank you.”
A few seconds later, the other elevator car dinged. Brayden stepped out looking freshly showered and shaved. He smiled when he saw me and walked over.
Caitlin turned, and her eyes grew wide. “Brady?”
“Kate?”
Maybe I was in denial, but I didn’t immediately understand what was going on. I stood there confused while my stepdaughter swamped Brayden in a big hug.
“It’s been forever. How are you, Brady?”
I looked at Brayden, still lost. “Brady?”
Caitlin stepped back. “Alex, remember the guy I went out with for a while in college who was supposed to go skiing with us over Christmas break? You and Dad had a big fight over it because he still wanted to treat me like I was twelve and insisted that if a boy was coming on the trip, we’d have to stay in separate rooms? But then Dad wound up having to cover someone at work so we never went.”
I blinked a few times. “I…I think so.”
She pointed to Brayden. “Well, this is him. Brady and I went out during my junior year of college.”
CHAPTER 13
Brayden
The room felt like it was swaying. Kate…was Alex’s stepdaughter, Caitlin? The Kate I’d dated for a few months in college. The Kate who was so sweet I didn’t know how to break her heart when I began to lose interest, so I’d just distanced myself until she ended things. That Kate. The Kate who deserved better than the immature guy I’d been back then. The Kate who was from fucking Connecticut and used to talk about her beautiful, young stepmom she looked up to. That Kate.
Fuck!