Free Betrayed by Trust by Hailey Hogan Page A

didn’t plan on standing him up.
    Blake spent about an hour at home preparing for his date with Caitlyn. He glided through traffic in his sleek Jaguar. Holding a small bouquet of red roses, he knocked on Caitlyn’s front door. He waited and waited. No one answered. Feeling dejected, he turned to walk away.
    “I almost let you stay out here,” Caitlyn said, as she pulled the door open.
    Her floral scent escaped out the door and attacked his senses before he heard her voice. He turned around. She stood fully dressed in an emerald green knee length dress that accented her hips. His eyes glided from her hips to her face. Her dimples hypnotized him for a few seconds.  “These are for you,” Blake said, as he handed her the roses.
    Caitlyn sniffed them. “Thanks. Come on in.” She pushed the door open.
    Blake walked past Caitlyn into her apartment. Silence loomed between them. Caitlyn exited the living room. Blake, feeling awkward, took a seat on her elegant sofa.  While waiting on her to return, he picked up a women’s magazine off her coffee table and flipped through it.
    “I never would have thought the manly Mr. Banks read women magazines,” Caitlyn teased. She sat on the other end of the couch.
    “You got jokes.” He laughed and placed the magazine back on the table with the rest of the magazines.
    “I owe you an apology.”
    He blinked his eyes a few times. “Don’t wake me up if I’m dreaming.”
    “I did plan to stand you up tonight, but realized I can’t keep avoiding you if we are to pull off this charade.”
    “My ego thanks you.”
    She shook her head. “Men and their egos.”
    “I admit I don’t like rejection.”
    She stood up. “Dear, you’re not getting everything you want from me, so you might as well get used to it.”
    Two hours later, they were enjoying each other’s company over a meal of enchiladas and burritos after attending a Mothers Against Drunk Driving charity event. After watching the videos at the event, he needed something to cheer him up. Blake felt himself mesmerized with Caitlyn. Her laughter was contagious.
    “You should laugh more,” he stated.
    “Keep me smiling,” she teased.
    “I have plenty of ways to do that, so test me.” He took a bite out of his burrito. Some of the juices fell on his shirt.
    Before he could react, Caitlyn had dipped her napkin in her water and attempted to remove the stain.  He hated to tell her it would only make it worse. Her being in such close proximity made his heart skip a beat.
    “You’re such a big baby,” she commented.
    “You bring it out of me.”
    “Looks like you’ll be taking this to the cleaners, because I can’t get the stain out.”
    “Thanks for trying.”
    “No problem.” She scooted her chair back.
    “I wanted to discuss our engagement party. He reached into his pocket and unfolded a sheet of paper and handed it to her.”
    She reviewed it.  “The Anatole. That’s a nice place to have it.”
    “Joan needs your list of people by tomorrow if you can have it.”
    “I can do that. There’s only a few people I want to invite.”
    “I have something else for you too.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out an envelope. “This is yours.”
    Caitlyn opened up the envelope. She held up the platinum credit card with her name written on the front of it. “What’s my limit?”
    “There’s no limit.”
    “Get out of here. Now you know better than telling a woman she has no limit on a credit card.” She winked.
    “I trust you won’t go overboard.”
    “But you don’t know that.”
    “You’re always within budget on your projects.”
    “That’s business. You’re talking about me having access to anything I want without having to worry about a limit.” She closed her eyes and opened them back up. “This is better than an orgasm.” She shivered.
    “If I would have known I would get this type of reaction, I would have given you a card last week.”
    Caitlyn placed the card back in the envelope