“What?” My eyes zeroed in on her, heart suddenly beating faster than hummingbird wings. “You told your mom?”
“No! God no.” Kat shook her head and chuckled. “So, she paid me a surprise visit after my show last week and my chair mate told her all about me dating an older man. Mom of course demanded to know.”
“You didn’t tell her?” I took a bite of my sandwich to distract myself from the conversation. We both knew that Jillian would find out eventually but given the fact that we’d only just started talking, I thought it better that we just keep things on the down-low for a while. See where things went.
“No, I didn’t tell her a thing. The only thing she knows is that the man I’m seeing is younger than her. But now I’m watching over my shoulder everywhere I go. She’s just about annoying enough to have me followed to see where I’m going and who I’m with.” Kat rolled her eyes and took another bite. She seemed to relax into a comfortable position with me. I liked that.
“Good, good, well we need to keep it that way I think. For now.” It was good to see Katherine enjoying her meal. For whatever reason, seeing her displeasure at the dish I had ordered for her bothered me. This content version of her made me feel better, like I was doing something right finally.
“So, you’re embarrassed by me?” She didn’t ask it in an accusing way, more in a playful way. As if she were picking on me for being so old or something. I nodded.
“Yeah, that’s it. You’re such an embarrassment. A lawyer dating a musician, it’s about as realistic as a donkey and a goat.”
Katherine laughed so hard she snorted, and I waited for the soda to start coming out her nose. “Yeah, well if you weren’t so old, you’d be able to get a woman your age. By now they’re all in retirement homes.”
I laughed with her. “I get it… No, Kat. I am not embarrassed of you. I just think for both of our reputations, we should just not make anything official unless we believe there is something here.”
Katherine’s expression sobered and her eyes widened. “Are you serious?”
At first, I thought maybe I had offended her, hurt her because I had questioned whether we were even going to amount to anything. It would be something a gold digger would be offended at, not that I was testing her on purpose, but the thought occurred to me while I was thinking of how to respond.
“Yeah, I mean. Is this just sex and lunch? That’s what we have here? Or do you think there is more?” I took a bite of my sandwich, and she crumpled up the wax paper wrapping hers came in and tossed it in the bin with the other trash.
“I don’t know what this is, Victor.” Her voice was calm, and her expression touched me—the sincerity in her eyes. “What I know is that I lost you 10 years ago, and when I found you, I realized what I had been missing. And I know that sounds really weird because I was only 15 at the time, but I’m so glad I found you.”
She rose and strolled to the bookshelves that lined the far wall of my office. I pondered what she had said as I finished my lunch, watching her hand glide over the first edition collection I had displayed. She seemed so mesmerized by the collection I didn’t want to interrupt her. So, I wiped my face, threw my trash in the bin and silently joined her in studying the books. It had been a while since I had just admired my collection.
“I didn’t know you loved books.” She turned to me, leaning back against the bookshelf.
“I do. I’ve loved them since I was a kid. Got my first copy of The Great Gatsby when I was 21, and I’ve been collecting ever since.” Though it wasn’t a first edition, my copy still remained on the shelf next to my favorites. A homage paid to my father who always encouraged me to read.
“So much I don’t know about you, yet so familiar I feel like I have known you forever, just not in the way I always wanted to.”
The way she left herself open, head craned to look up at me, I couldn’t resist. I moved closer, hooking a hand around her waist. I leaned my elbow on the bookshelf and pressed my lips to hers. She accepted my advance, draping an arm over my shoulder to pull me deeper. When I pulled away, she whimpered.
“Not in my office, okay?” My voice but a whisper, I leaned down to capture her lips again. I wanted her, and I could tell she’d do anything I wanted, but with Ivy just on the other side of the door, likely eavesdropping as it was, I didn’t want to take the risk.
“But I’d let you be really, really bad to me.” She fiddled with my tie, loosening it a little as she nipped at my lip with her teeth. It took everything I had in me to resist her, because God I wanted to bend her over and fuck her right there.
“Kat, I can’t. Ivy is literally on the other side of that door.” I tried to pull away, but her magnetism had me locked in place. Her hand gently rubbing my cock through my slacks didn’t hurt either. I could feel myself getting hard.
“So, we can’t tell anyone what this is because we don’t know what it is?”
“Yes.”
“And we can’t have sex in your office because your nosy secretary—”
“Personal assistant.”
“—a personal assistant might hear.” She pouted, and pulled my tie, forcing my lips against hers again. “What can we even do then?” I kissed her deeply, my hand finding its way to her breast, where I gently squeezed, which only made my dick harder.
“Kat, fuck I want you, but I can’t do this at work.”
“Fine, but I want you to admit that this is something. That it’s not just sex and lunch. That you feel it too.” Her sober eyes, bored into mine.
Did I feel it too? Was that the pull I felt when she got near me? That I needed to make sure she was taken care of? Happy? Was that why I had gotten so defensive of her with Ivy, or why I stopped her from just leaving my house that night? Did I feel something for her? So soon?
“Say it, Victor. Say you feel what I feel. If you don’t feel anything, I will just walk away. We don’t have to take this risk.” Her eyes pleaded with me to say something, but I didn’t know what to say. I felt it; I just didn’t know what “it” was. So, I nodded, because it was all I could manage.