Page 31 of Billionaire Hunt

Part II

Chapter 7

I had agreed to meet Erik for a run. It had become our Monday routine. And it normally led to us ripping each other’s clothes off and having sex in the shower. I was thinking that I was due for a bikini wax when someone smacked me on the butt.

“Ouch!”

“Sorry, I couldn’t help myself.”

“Whatever, that’s a lie. You have plenty of self-control.”

“Not when it comes to you,” he said teasingly. Something about his tone gave me pause. He sounded sincere.

And as I looked up at him, he looked back at me. Our eyes connected and the usual heat between us was replaced by something else.

I looked away first, not knowing how to react, not knowing what to say. I had to be careful, something about our relationship was changing and I didn’t know how I felt about that. We had been seeing each other for a couple of months now. He hadn’t mentioned his surrogate again and something about the way he avoided the subject completely made me too wary of what his response would be if I asked about it.

Even though I was working for him, I felt we spent an inordinate amount of time together. It was my fault really. I always needed his opinion on something in the house. And he always stopped whatever he was doing to answer me.

We sort of drifted into a routine that felt suspiciously like dating, but I wasn’t going to define our relationship if he wasn’t interested in doing the same. So I played it cool and pretended that I was okay with the way things were going, even though I kind of wasn’t. I think I was falling for Erik, whether I liked it or not. And all of me wondered if Erik maybe felt the same way.

“Shall we?” he asked.

A creature of habit, he set the pace as usual and I easily stayed with him. I was so lost in thought that I didn’t see the puddle in front of me and instead of leaping over it, I stepped right into it, slightly off balance.

I flew forward and hit the ground. My knees took most of the brunt of my fall and before I could even contemplate the pain, Erik was there lifting me up.

“Are you okay? Why were you trying to beat up the ground?”

I smiled despite the pain I was in. “Shut up and just help me to the car.”

He wound an arm around my waist and gently guided me to the car. I was limping along when suddenly he picked me up as if I weighed close to nothing.

I instantly tensed up. “Put me down.”

“No.”

I started squirming, pushing at his arms.

“Put me down before you drop me,” I said, still trying to get free. I was a little self-conscious about my weight and I didn’t really want anyone knowing that I had bones of steel...at least that’s what I told the doctor every time I stepped on the scale.

“The only way I’ll drop you is if you keep squirming.”

“Well, I’m going to keep squirming until you put me down.”

“Fine,” he said, sounding frustrated.

He found the nearest park bench and deposited me on it. My butt hit the bench with a thud and I looked up at him full glare.

“Don’t look at me like that. You need to learn to accept help every now and then.”

“I didn’t need any help. I was happily limping along.”

“Limping is the operative word there. I was worried that you were doing further damage.”

“The only way I would have been damaged is if you dropped me any harder on my butt,” I said rubbing it. “I’m probably going to have a bruise tomorrow.”

“Here, let me rub it. Sorry for dropping you so hard.” He moved to rub my butt and I hit at his hand.