Free The Boss's Daughter by Jasmine Haynes

them.”
    Jessica tipped her head back. In the moonlight falling through the window, her eyes gleamed. “It sounds like you’re trying to prove something.”
    He put a hand to her cheek. “I love you. I don’t have to prove anything. I just want it all behind us, a new beginning, a send-off to the old. And I want you as my wife. Forever.”
    She stared at him a long time, her gaze shifting from one eye to the other as if she’d see a different answer in each. Then finally she whispered, “I love you, Clay Blackwell. I’ll marry you. And I’ll go to Ruby’s wedding. Maybe Holt even possesses the ability to make her a better woman.”
    “I actually believe he does.” He kissed her, his heart overflowing. “I love what you did for me the other night.”
    She fluttered her eyelashes. “I didn’t do it for you. I did it for us .” She nuzzled him.
    His pulse leaped with anticipation. Yet even if she never did it again, he wouldn’t tire of her. He’d put his ring on her finger and never let her go. Well, only for an evening, after which she would come home to rock his world again and again.
     

Chapter Eight
     
     
    “What’s up with you?” Spence asked. “You’re off your game.”
    The restaurant was one of San Francisco’s five-star offerings, the food excellent, the prices extravagant. The customer had stepped out to take a call. He and Spence often double-teamed a potential customer. Though Spence was well versed in every aspect of their products, questions often arose that required Ward’s technical expertise. This lunch had been no exception. However, Spence had pegged it. Ward was off his game.
    “It’s her, isn’t it?” Spence held up his water glass, chinking the ice at the bottom to signal their waiter for a refill. They didn’t have cocktail lunches like in the old days.
    Ward didn’t want to talk about her. But Spence deserved some sort of explanation. “Yes, it’s her.”
    Spence let the waiter fill his water glass and move on before saying, “Just do her and get it over with.” Ah, such sage advice.
    Doing Cassandra wasn’t the problem. Obsession was the problem. His obsession. It had been growing logarithmically in the two nights since the Entrepreneurs Club. She texted him, telling him what she wanted him to do, and it was like the devil whispering in his ear. She called him late at night and moaned for him as she touched herself. She never let him stop thinking about her. Did that mean she was obsessed as well? He didn’t think so. He was just her current plaything.
    But he couldn’t stop.
    “Jesus, don’t tell me you think you’re in love after less than a week.”
    He hadn’t said a word. That was probably just as telling as blurting out everything.
    “I’m not in love.” It was lust. Or something. Not love. She wasn’t lovable. Hot, sexy, wild, spontaneous, gorgeous, smart, talented, kinky, insatiable, but not lovable. Men didn’t love her, they obsessed about her.
    “Haven’t you done her yet?”
    “That’s none of your business.”
    Spence wasn’t offended. “It’s my business when it affects my sales pitch.” He eyed Ward a long moment. “Are you all right? I’ve never seen you like this before.”
    Ward wondered what this was? Distracted, in his own head too much, slow to respond? Yeah, all of that.
    “Because she’s Holt’s daughter?” Spence queried.
    “No.” Because he had no control. Because the woman could get him to do anything she wanted, case in point, the date she’d planned for tomorrow night. Ward knew he’d go. He’d play the role she’d cast him in, a cuckold yet again. Yet this was so different from what his wife had done.
    He drew in a deep breath and clenched his teeth. Then he looked at Spence. “Has a woman ever led you around by your—” He stopped. Spence would get it.
    “Hell yeah.”
    Ward doubted it. Spencer Benedict was supremely confident. No woman would ever have brought him low. Hell, maybe when he was a still