Page 34 of Daddy's Temptation

“Jesus, get that shit out of here.”

Roland laughs. “I figured if I had to see that shit, it was only fair that you did too.”

I shake my head, laughing for the first time in what feels like weeks. Leave it to my idiot friend and his sick sense of humor to pull me out of my mood. “You’re a dickhead.”

“You’re smiling, so I’d say my special brand of therapy worked damn well.” He looks awful proud for a man I’m about to throttle. “So what are you going to do?”

“First, I’m going to fire my agent. Then I’m going to buy the Riverside before Brock’s daddy has the chance.”

Roland’s eyes narrow. “That sounds rather rational of you…”

“What can I say, I’m a rational kind of guy.” I shrug.

Roland throws his head back and laughs. “I don’t think your staff would agree with you on that one. You’ve been barking at them like a junkyard pit bull all week.”

He’s not wrong, but now that I have someone worthy of my wrath, I feel less inclined to snap and everyone else. Now that I have a deserving target to channel my anger towards, I feel in control.

“Get out. I’ve got a realtor to fire.”

“You’re welcome. No need to thank me. I love being scarred for life in the pursuit of the truth. I’m so glad I could help,” Roland says sarcastically.

“Thanks, drama queen.”

As soon as Roland leaves, I’m on the phone dialing my agent’s number.

20

Candace

It’sfunny how I’m happier than I’ve been in years being unemployed instead of chasing the American dream. That’s not exactly true. I was chasing my parent’s approval. The career choice was to impress them, not to make me happy.

I’ve been an idiot. I really can’t say that enough.

For years I encouraged Sugar to chase her dreams and to not care about what her mother thought about her choices while all the time, I was doing the exact opposite myself. Not anymore. I’m taking my own advice. From now on, I’m chasing dreams and doing exactly what I want to do with my life.

Now when I wake up every morning it’s with hope, not the soul-crushing dread of going to Sloan International and dealing with my sleazy ex-boss. The only thing I have to worry about is which pair of leggings I want to wear and what show I want to binge-watch on Netflix next. I’m lucky enough that I got a hefty trust fund from my parents when I turned eighteen and I’ve banked most of my salary since starting at Sloan International that money isn’t a concern. I can take all the time I want to figure out my next steps.

Just as I’m taking my first sip of coffee, there’s a knock at my door. Andre has dropped by a few times and knocked—okay, pounded—on my door, hollering for me to let him in. It broke my heart to ignore him, but that’s one part of my life that I’m not ready to unpack. My heart is still a big gaping wound in my chest, and until I’ve glued it back together, I can’t trust myself to not fall right back into his strong arms.

Every cell in my body yearns for him. I’ve given it a lot of thought over the last weeks, and despite his indiscretion, I still want him. It makes me feel as pathetic as I’ve always thought my mother is for turning a blind eye to my dad’s affairs. One minute I’m ready to run to his side and beg him to love me; the next, I’m angry that he hurt me so much and never want to see him again.

So, I do neither. I stay locked in my happy-ish bubble. I know it can’t last forever. I’ll have to be an adult and confront him… just not yet.

There’s another knock. I ignore it and take another drink of coffee. If I ignore him long enough, he goes away. My eyes widen when I hear the distinctive scrape of a key in the lock. I ridiculously look around the room for a place to hide.

“Candace?”

I let out the breath I didn’t realize I was holding at the sound of Sugar’s voice. I’m surprised she’s here. She’s been ignoring me since she found out about Andre and our falling out. At first, she was just offended that I kept our relationship a secret, but it quickly turned into anger when I stubbornly refused to talk to him. She told me how upset he is and how childish I’m being.

She might think I’m being childish, but I call it self-preservation.

“In here,” I call from the kitchen.

Sugar walks in waving a bag from our favorite donut shop. “I come in peace.”

I roll my eyes. “You’re the one upset with me, not the other way around.”

She winces. “I’m sorry. I just… gah. You’re so stubborn sometimes! I just want my two best friends to be happy, is that so wrong?”