Cade....

Yet another dull and monotonously boring end-of-the-week drink with the guys from work. I think with simmering frustration to myself.

I also silently ask myself why on earth do I suffer these fools every single shitty week?

Every. Single. Friday.

They persist in licking my ass, only because of who I am.

Jesus, it irritates the hell out of me. They only want to be in my less than accommodating company because of the Lapley name that I have unfortunately been born with; stupidly believing that it gives them some kind of misguided status because they are in my very affluent company. Stupid, moronic bastards. They no more like me, than I do them.

"Another great day in court for the infamous Cade Lapley." A slick-haired schmuck says to me with an overly impressed grin spread all over his lick-ass face.

A zealous pat on my back from him, actually makes me inwardly cringe and curse, but I hide it well with a one-sided cocky grin. "The defence team knew it was game over when I brought out the new witness." I confidently state with a deep and emotionless voice, bringing my malt whisky up to my less than impressed lips.

"You should have seen their faces, Lapley. It was bloody priceless." Schmuck ass-licker smirks at me again, slapping his suited knee for overly dramatic effect.

Slowly placing my tumbler down onto the oak table, my eyes narrow onto the fool sat opposite of me. This prick is trying so very hard to act like he actually likes me, it brings an amused but brief smile to the corners of my mouth. "I'm just glad that girl decided to testify, otherwise that bastard would have been free to attack even more women." I solemnly state, casually leaning back into my luxurious leather chair that this high end bar provides for its punters.

"I don't know, it seemed like a pretty open and shut case to me?" Another lick-ass schmuck decides to add his non-important thoughts, adding it with a pensive frown as he picks up his own glass of whisky from off the table.

I warily grimace. "I'm not so sure it was, my client willingly went back to his flat with him. Which is why his defence team tried to use that against her, saying that she'd had consensual sex with him. However, my new witness blew that theory completely out of the water."

"She sure did." Yet another fool quickly pipes up with a wide and slimy grin smeared across his foolish face as he stands right beside me, having the audacity to now squeeze my strong shoulder with his fingers. "To celebrate you wiping the courtroom floor with his entire team, what can I get you to drink?" he asks, still wearing his unwavering slimy smile and his grovelling hand still resting on my shoulder.

I pointedly look up at him, giving him a warning glare that is telling him to promptly remove his bloody hand from where it still is. "Same again." I bluntly reply, watching the young apprentice do exactly what my warning glare had just told him to do before hurrying over to the bar to go and obediently get my whisky for me.

I am then left with all of the other fools from my office. The lick-assing has come to an abrupt end and I'm quietly relieved about that.

There's only so much of it that I can tolerate. So, I sit here, drinking the last of my current whisky to just watch the guys who are left in my sullen and silent company. One of the schmucks is now scrolling through his phone messages, looking just as bored as I am. Whilst the other, almost looks too nervous to be breathing the same air as me. Ordinarily, I will try and make polite but very short conversations, but today, I just can't be bothered.

I am tired and morosely bored.

Even my own inward amusement of just how insufferable most of my staff really are, doesn't keep my boredom threshold up this evening. How people treat me, sometimes wears irritatingly thin—and tonight is one such time.

It has always been the same. Even as a child, I quickly became aware of how the parents of many of the other children that I went to school with, would forcefully try to get their children to befriend me.

As a teenager, I was incredibly popular—just because I was Cade Lapley.

I never understood my popularity.

I only ever took from people, never giving anything back in return.

I took because I could and because it was expected of me.

I was Cade Lapley. I could do what the hell I wanted, when I wanted.

You could say, it has become part of my thoroughly selfish charm.

Money and status gives you power, and people are attracted to power.

Which is actually very inconvenient for me. I don't like people. I never have. I absolutely hate to socialise with those who only want to be seen with me because of my family name, and when I do, I am often rude and abrupt to those who choose to be in my company.

That is who I am.

That is the man I have become.

And yet these fools still want to drink with me.

Again, moronic bastards.

The ladies in particular, seem very partial to me. I guess the whole 'treat em' mean and keep em' keen' thing, really does have some element of truth to it. Women are almost chomping at the bit to get into my trousers and into my bed. Ever the obliging gentleman, I am always more than happy to participate in some 'no strings' sex with these women, just as long that is all that they expect from me.

I don't talk.

I don't kiss.

I don't cuddle.

I just screw.

I come. They come. That's it.

Nothing more and nothing less.

One night of screwing is all that I am willing to give of myself, because it's all I have ever known.

I don't get attached.

I don't connect.

I wouldn't even know how to.

Avoidant Attachment Disorder is its expensive and very formal term. A trait so kindly gifted to me from my rich bitch of a mother. I inherited her coldness and her ruthlessness. AAD makes me selfish, uncaring and devoid of functioning feelings. It's like I have this heartless built in defence mechanism—always be the one who does the hurting to prevent myself from getting hurt—it's a motto that I have always selfishly lived by.

I partake in empty and meaningless sex because I am empty and meaningless. It's a win/win situation for both parties involved—I get to climax and the ladies get to brag that they have slept with me. Women are merely a pawn in my quest for emotion-free sex.

I don't want to wine and dine them.

I don't want to know what their favourite colour is.

I don't want to hear all about their interests.

That would make them think that I was interested, and I'm not.

I'm not interested whatsoever and I certainly don't care about them.

They simply have something that my dick needs—a vagina.

Believe me when I say; there are only so many hand jobs that will sustain me through the week.

"Here's your whisky, my man." The slimy apprentice carefully hands me my drink with an infuriating little smile.

Honestly, I just wish he would wipe that bloody smirk from off his young and smarmy mouth, before I am tempted to do it for him. "Thanks." I say with obvious irritation.

"So, what are your plans this weekend?" smarmy mouth asks.

I sigh deeply, my growing irritation forces me to. I hate being asked such stupidly trivial questions, such nosey and probing questions. "I'm not entirely sure. I recently bought a new race horse, so I might go and see how he is doing." Comes my deliberately curt reply.

"Interesting." The impeccably dressed apprentice nods with such feigned interest.

I know he isn't interested in what I am doing this weekend, not even in the slightest. It just makes him feel more important somehow, if he can tell people that he does know what I am doing this weekend.

Is this really the kind of depressing conversations that people actually engage in?

Is it?

Really?

Picking up my freshly bought drink, I comfortably recline back into my leather chair.

I am done talking.

I am done being polite.

I just want to be left alone to have my scotch. Slowly browsing the room with my disinterested eyes, they soon fall upon a lone female who is sat right at the discreet end of the dimly lit bar. My narrowed stare rests on her with sudden intrigue. I've not seen this woman before in this bar, and believe me, I know all the women that frequent this bar. Although she is quietly keeping herself to herself, her presence has indeed been noticed. I find myself studying her from afar. I watch how her fingers from her left hand caress the long stem of her wine glass and how the fingers from her right, aimlessly rubs the circular rim of it. This quietly drinking stranger, looks like she has the weight of the entire world balancing on her very feminine little shoulders; the same and lovely shoulders that her long raven hair is glossily blanketing. She seems to be cocooned in her thoughts, and her only friend, is the glass that she holds so tightly within her hand.

I continue to watch her, waiting to see whether anyone is going to join her. Although, she doesn't actually look like she is waiting for someone to arrive. She just looks quietly lost. Like she is sadly waiting to be found.

Dragging my eyes away from her, I try not to give her another thought. Why should I even care about whether or not she is lost or found? So I carry on drinking my scotch and continue to ignore my grovelling staff all around me. But after ten minutes of discreet staring on my behalf, I decide to approach the mysterious beauty who has somehow managed to hold my attention for much longer than anyone has ever managed to before. For that reason alone, I need to meet this woman. "Don't wait for me. I have some business to attend to." I slowly stand tall, smoothing down my sharp suit before straightening my tie.

The young apprentice looks to where I most certainly still am, spotting the lonely figure sat beautifully at the end of the bar. His wicked grin silently congratulates me on spotting her first. "I bet you do." He crudely states before glancing across at the other two idiots who remain seated with him. "Gentlemen, let's watch the great Cade Lapley do what he does best."

I need to get away before I say or do something I might regret; possibly even both. I am done with these brown-nosed fools. I don't care about what they think I am just about to do. I only know that I want to speak to the woman who has staggeringly held my attention for the past fifteen minutes. A very real first for me. Another first, is I actually feel a little nervous approaching her. "May I sit here?" I politely ask, really wanting to get a good look at this woman.

Not even gracing me with a glance in my polite direction, she grumbles. "It's a free country, so I guess so."

It's not exactly the warm welcome that I usually get from women, but I sit beside her nevertheless. Despite my presence, she continues to wallow in her own self pity. Finding solace in the chilled Chardonnay that I just saw the barman pouring out for her. She quickly gulps it down, then catches the barman's attention yet again, holding up her empty wine glass, gesturing for a speedy refill.

I still say nothing, but I am thinking that this lady really is having a pity party all by herself. So, I chivalrously offer to pay for her next Chardonnay. "Would you be offended if I offered to buy you that drink?" For the first time, she properly looks at me, and when she does, I think my heart actually stopped beating for a number of seconds. She looks so beautifully sad, and it deeply affects me. Nothing deeply affects me, yet this stranger is doing just that—affecting me.

The sad stranger softly shrugs, gifting me with the smallest smile she can offer. "I'd be very grateful for that drink, but I warn you now, I am not very good company at the moment."

I find myself returning her small offer of a smile. "Then together, maybe we can be bad in good company?" I jokingly say, but my stare on her is anything but a joke.

That's when her grey eyes really engage with my green ones. She is quietly studying me, trying to work out what my true intentions are to be with her. "Maybe." Her open-ended reply suspends itself between us, tainted with just the tiniest bit of flirtation. I gesture for the barman to add her drink to my tab, with the sad beauty watching my every move. "Thanks." She quietly says, sliding her gaze away from me and back onto her glass that is now being swiftly re-filled. As she brings the rim of her glass up to her rosy lips, she smiles at me before taking a soft sip of her wine.

I like the fact that I have managed to get another smile from her. I imagine that when that alluring face of hers does a real, without a care in the world smile, that it simply would light up an entire room. And yet, she keeps her smiles all to herself. That makes me wonder why.

I also wonder why she sits here so meekly, soothing her sadness with only Chardonnay. I also wonder why such a woman is here at all, drinking all alone. This solemn creature doesn't exude confidence. In fact, she doesn't exude any confidence at all. And yet she has brought herself here, to drink away all that is bothering her. I can totally relate to that. I can also relate to her beauty. She has a silent beauty. A beauty that not even she herself is aware of. With those unusually striking grey eyes against her precious pearlescent skin, she literally has the hairs standing to attention all over my newly awakened body. I am usually confident and brash around all women, and usually, I don't even have to try to get them to be with me, but this woman is surprisingly different. I can't quite put my finger on what makes her so different to me, but I know that she is affecting me in a very different way to other women. That alone, fearfully entices me. Her unknowing enticement, makes me quietly nervous. "Would it be terribly rude of me to ask you why you are here and drinking all alone?" my tone is softly polite and inoffensive.

However, she immediately becomes tense and highly defensive to my softly asked question. "Listen, I thank you for the drink but I'm really not in the mood for being chatted up."

An impressed smirk traitorously forms across my face. This woman is certainly different from all the others. I inwardly think. "I apologise if I gave you the impression that I was trying to chat you up, which incidentally, I am not. I just figured you could do with a friendly face to talk to. It's a definite flaw in my very caring personality." There's a teasing edge to my reply, just enough to get her less than prickly attention.

Slowly turning her head, she suspiciously eyes me with a wary smirk. She knows I am teasing her and I also think she kind of liked my rather witty reply. She now looks sweetly apologetic. "I'm sorry, I did warn you that I'm not very good company at the moment."

Feeling like I am chipping away at some of her icy demeanour, I respond with just a little more of my charming wit. "Yes, you did. Not listening is yet another one of my many flaws." To which, she actually laughs. I watch how she throws her head back and sexily giggles at my jesting comment. I was absolutely right about how her real and natural smile would illuminate everything around her, because she really is illuminating everything around me.

"I would also add 'being persistent' to that long flaw list of yours, if I were you?" she sweetly teases me back, blinking her long lashes in my direction.

"Persistent...in what way?" I ask, looking positively saintly now.

"In every way." She amorously tells me with a curvaceous smile to her very lovely lips.

I lean in just a little closer, trying not to sound as smug as I really am feeling. "You have to admit, that since I have been sat here with you, you are in fact feeling a little better than before....am I right?"

Her grey eyes look deeply into mine, wide and curious. "Just a tiny bit." She finally admits with an even warmer smile.

"So my persistence has indeed paid off, has it not?" I push my charm just that little bit further, finding myself actually enjoying being in her company.

Again, she knowingly smiles. "Possibly." She isn't saying yes, but she certainly isn't saying no.

"So, for my chivalrously good deed, do I get the honour to now find out your name?" I ask her with a single raised brow, inwardly determined to know the name of this beguiling creature.

Seemingly far more relaxed, she takes another sip of her wine before answering. "It's Sophia." As she slowly places her Chardonnay back down on the bar, her hands embrace the roundness of her half-full glass; even they are things of beauty.

Offering my gentlemanly hand out to her, I confidently introduce myself. "Cade, very pleased to make your acquaintance." As soon as she reaches out and our hands gently grip around each other's, I feel a shooting heat from deep within my palm, that travels up my arm and out towards my whole body. That ignited heat has the very same awakening feeling that her very first glance in my direction had caused. A woman has never affected me in such a way, yet this woman somehow does. What she unknowingly does to me is both wonderful and troubling. She deeply excites me yet deeply unnerves me. "That's a beautiful name." I finally manage to find my reply from somewhere in my tightened throat. Shit, even her name is beautiful.

A rosy hue of the sweetest embarrassment, spreads prettily across her pale cheeks. "Thank you." Sophia graciously smiles sideways at me. "Cade, that's a very unusual name, isn't it?" She gently tilts her head at me with her question.

Lifting my shoulders, I shrug high. "Unfortunately, that flaw list of mine just seems to get longer and longer."

Her eyes dart up to mine, her gaze so very resolute. "Your name isn't a flaw, Cade is a uniquely nice name." she happily tells me.

The honest compliment that has just passed her sweet, sweet lips surprisingly makes me feel good. "In that case, may I tell you that Sophia is very befitting for a very beautiful lady?" My charm seems to feel so effortless with her. It just wants to roll straight off my tongue and fall right into her ladylike lap.

"You just did." She shyly murmurs, stroking the stem of her glass with her slender and now playful fingers.

The slight flush to Sophia's high cheeks is a clear indication that she is once again flattered by me. And I like that she is. "Now that we have all the pleasantries very much out of the way, do you want to talk about why you are really here?" As soon as she looks my way, I calmly hold her nervous gaze hostage.

Faltering with her reply, she is silently debating whether or not she should open up to me, but I really think that my witty charisma has started to win her over. "My boyfriend of two years has just suddenly called time on our relationship." She tells me it quickly, because saying it quickly will somehow lessen her obvious hurt.

Surprised to hear that any man would willingly choose to let Sophia go, I gently probe her for more information. "I see, did he say why?"

"Apparently, I am too bloody predictable. I'm just not exciting to be around anymore." Comes her seething but wounded reply.

"Seriously?" my tone suddenly rises, along with my disbelieving brows.

After needing a large gulp of her wine, she nods with the glass being held in just the one hand. "Yep, according to him, the need to settle down qualifies me as being someone who is completely boring."

I have to admit, ordinarily, I would absolutely agree with the guy...but where Sophia is concerned, I just don't. "I can see why you're upset." I thoughtfully tell her. And oddly, I really could. She is a beautiful girl who has just had her heart trampled all over. Her hurt isn't masked or pushed aside, she wears it for all to see because that's the honest soul that I believe her to be. And it's her honest soul that seems to have a gravitational pull on me.

Her vulnerable honesty starts to tumble out of her tightening throat. "I knew that we had been drifting apart, we have been for a while, but I kept ignoring it in the hope that it would get better." Seeing her lips tremble with her growing emotions, hits me like a sudden kick to my stomach. What I feel, unsettles me. I don't usually give a shit about anyone, yet here I am, giving a shit.

Anger starts growing from somewhere inside of me, but I keep it contained deep in my hardening gut. "There will come a day, Sophia, that he will regret letting you go." She looks right into my viridian eyes, her own now all glazed over with hopeless and glistening tears. We keep staring at each other, immersed in some kind of sweetly strange moment that is passing between us. Our engrossed spheres remain firmly locked on each other, unaware of all that is happening around us. Because right now, nothing else does matter. In this strangest of moments, only we matter. But as quick as the consuming moment arrived, it just as quickly departs. Because now, the way in which I am deeply looking at her, takes her slightly aback. She feels the exact same thing that I do. A static force that seems to connect us. An invisible spark that is on the verge of igniting. She feels it so much, she has to quickly look away. "I'm sorry, I never meant to make you feel uncomfortable." I start apologising, concerned that she will up and leave.

Stroking her glass again, she chooses to only look at that instead of me. "You haven't." she says with a lost-looking smile.

Sat closely beside one another, we suddenly become surrounded by a heavy silence, unsure of what exactly is exchanging between us. I can't seem to make head nor tail of it. I am unfamiliar with any of this. Sophia seems to strip away the top layers of my Lapley confidence, and that leaves me feeling a little unsure of myself.

I like this woman, but I don't like the uncertainty she causes within me. I am Cade bloody Lapley.

I don't do uncertainty.

I don't do insecurity.

And I certainly don't do vulnerability.

Without revealing too much of my bastardly self, I need to get back to doing things in the tried and tested Lapley way. It has never failed me before and I just feel more comfortable and in control when I am using it. And with Sophia, I need to take back my control.

It's all I know.

It's who I am.

"Your boyfriend is a fool, but his foolish loss is certainly to be my gain." The way in which I now address her is coated in sensual expectation and a deepening new need for her.

She is momentarily taken off guard by my flirtatious comment and the tiny adorable frown between her inquisitive grey eyes becomes incredibly distracting for me. "Meaning?" she curiously asks as she slowly crosses her legs on the stool that she's so beautifully sat on.

Keeping my voice sensuously steady, I turn more towards her in my seat. "Your being here tonight is down to your foolish boyfriend dumping you. But you know what? I am glad that you have ended up here, in this bar, with me. Because if you hadn't, I never would've had the pleasure of meeting you."

A fresh bloom of flattery quickly spreads across those glorious cheeks of hers, but she tries to remain calm in my far more forward company. "I thought you said you weren't trying to chat me up?"

A crooked grin quickly reaches my thoroughly cocky mouth. "I wasn't, but you've kind of grown on me."

She sweetly snorts with a disbelieving little laugh, softly shaking her head with it. "I really am flattered that I've grown on you, but I'm just not interested in getting involved with anyone right now."

I don't reply straight away, instead, my intrigued eyes keep on trying to sensually connect with her again. My wolffish stare keeps her so very still in her seat, compelling her to do nothing but stare back at me. She isn't able to ignore it and I don't think she even wants to. Her dilated pupils and the change in her breathing, demonstrate to me that I am reaching her, and the way she lowers her dark lashes with a subtle and coy smile, also show me that she is quietly enjoying the fact that I am now blatantly flirting with her. "Who needs to get involved, Sophia?" How her name so effortfully glides off my tongue is something else she just can't ignore.

Still, she tries to resist me. "Getting involved in any shape or form is something I don't need right now." The half-hearted words that come out of her mouth are being betrayed by what her beguiling eyes are telling me. Sophia is just as intrigued by me as I am by her. She is attracted to me, curious as to where this attraction will actually lead her.

I know I nearly have her. I nearly have Sophia completely drawn into my little game for two. All I need to do now, is to get her to willingly come and play. Leaning in so intimately close, I keep my voice low and desirously discreet. "I am attracted to you, Sophia. I happen to believe you are attracted to me." My blazing green eyes continue to penetrate her, staring into them in the most intense of ways. "This evening, I have made you laugh when you didn't think that was possible. Your boyfriend thinks you are boring, but I can assure you, Sophia...I find you anything but that." The more I say, the more I am reaching her. She is now awkwardly shifting on her bar stool, teasingly playing with her ear lobe.

Sophia blinks at me, still beautifully blushing. "What do you want me to say?"

I roguishly smile in her direction with a single brow knowingly rising. "Sleep with me tonight?" There, I have finally said it. I have finally brought her right into the sexy Lapley game for two.

Sophia stops playing with her ear lobe, stilling at my bold request. "I'm sorry?" she asks, now looking adorably embarrassed.

"You are feeling something, aren't you? That spark between us, you can feel it." I bring my knees to hers, reminding her of what it feels like when we just so happen to touch.

Refusing to let our ignitable touch linger, Sophia quickly reaches for her Chardonnay. "I'm not into one night stands." She bluntly tells me, taking a larger than usual sip of her wine.

I keep her firmly in my sights, keen to pull her back into my sexy game. "Don't think of it as a one night stand, think of it as two people spending a wonderful but short time together." My crooked grin is sexily natural; assuringly natural.

Dragging her unconvinced grey eyes away from me, Sophia has yet another larger than usual sip of her drink. "It's still not going to happen." She stubbornly states.

Bringing my own drink to my pouting lips, I now tease her just a tiny bit. "Sophia, I really am disappointed." As soon as I have her attention, my pout grows even sexier.

Trying not to smile, she softly shakes her head and rests her fingers on the glassy bottom of her glass. "I just can't."

I hear what she is saying, I just refuse to listen. "I honestly think we would have a great time together...there would be nothing boring about our one night together." I over enunciate boring, because I know she will react to it.

"I'm sure it wouldn't." she finally admits, shyly so.

Leaning forward and gently touching her elbow, I confidently move in closer to whisper in her ear. As soon as my hot breath is felt against her still neck, she reacts with nervous arousal. "I dare you, Sophia." The dare devilishly slips off my tongue, marinaded in such soft manipulation.

Moving back slightly, she turns her head to look at me. "You are daring me to sleep with you?" excitement briefly flits across her grey orbs but is soon gone with an incredulous blink.

I remain arrogantly composed. "Don't tell me you're not just a little bit tempted?" I hold her incredulous stare for one of my own.

Shaking her head with a disbelieving smirk, she quickly needs to answer me. "Listen, I've read Fifty Shades and you've got that whole Christian Grey thing going on."

My masculine laughter fills the flirtatious space between us. "I can assure you, Sophia...I'm no Christian Grey."

"So you're not into kinky shit?" she adorably asks with a nervous little swallow.

I smile, studying her intensely. "Do you want kinky shit?" I quietly ask, not even wanting to break our heady stare with a blink.

She is so very tempted. Kinky shit or not, she is thinking about my brazen offer, I can see it in her pensive eyes. Yet still, she chooses to fight against it. "I don't do that sort of thing." The way she nervously needs to look away from me to look down at the floor, is beyond cute.

I tenderly reach for her cheek, caressing it in the most softest of ways. Using only my fingertips, I want her to feel how much I want her. "Be with me tonight?" I just as softly ask. The electricity between us is something that neither one of us can deny. It's here. Charged and volatile. God, I really do want her. I want her more than any other woman I have ever met. And I know she wants me. Even if it's only because she is sticking up her two fingers to her shit of an ex boyfriend who thinks she is nothing but dull and boring. Something has been ignited between us. Something that is definitely not dull or boring. There is absolutely nothing boring about what we are about to do, if only she will agree to it.

"Where?" she surprisingly asks in barely a whisper, too afraid to ask it any louder for fear that someone might hear her sudden interest in my tempting offer.

"I have an apartment just around the corner."

Her temptation is growing within her, fighting to free its wild and spirited self. "How do I know whether I am going to be safe or not?"

Her question is one that I completely understand, one that I know I must answer correctly. Thinking to myself for the briefest of moments, I soon know what I must do. With a grin, I call over the barman. "You know me, don't you?"

The barman nods. "Yes Sir, I do."

"This beautiful lady is coming home with me tonight. Should anything bad happen to her, just remember that I was the last person you saw her with...okay?"

"Right, okay." The young barman dubiously replies.

With my grin cockily fixed in place, I confidently go on. "She is worried that she might be unsafe with me, you see?"

With that, Sophia suddenly grabs my arm. "What are you doing?" she is beyond embarrassed, blushing profusely with the widest of grey eyes firmly upon me.

My grin broadens. "I am trying to reassure you that you'll be absolutely safe with me."

Her cheeks quickly become an impressive shade of crimson. "Okay, I've got it...but you're kind of embarrassing me now." She whispers, adorably squirming upon her stool.

Needing to ensure her of her absolute safety, I address the dubious barman again. "There is CCTV too, isn't there?"

The barman nods hard. "Yes, of course."

Looking back at Sophia, I proudly tell her. "See? You will be perfectly safe with me."

"Okay...let's just go." Comes her hurried answer before anxiously downing the rest of her wine.

My boldness has indeed paid off. She has accepted my brazen dare off the back of her embarrassment and the hurting need to prove her ex boyfriend wrong. I am under no illusions here. Sophia has only agreed because she feels that this is something she must do. She is trying to be unpredictable and reckless. The attraction between us has just made her agreement come that little bit quicker than I had actually expected.

"I just need to go to the toilet." She says, gracefully getting down from off her stool.

"Okay, I will wait for you by the entrance." I charmingly reply, now also standing and smugly smiling across at the barman.

As I start walking back to my ass-licking staff, I still can't quite believe I have managed to get her to accept the dare. I know that any normal man would have just asked her outright to sleep with him, but I felt the need to turn it into a game. Game playing is how I live my life. Being a barrister is all about responsible game playing. It's how I interact with everyone. Socially or professionally, it's just how I do things. This is who I am. This is all I have ever known and although Sophia has stirred something deep inside of me that is completely unknown territory to me, my only way to cope with such feelings was to turn the tables and turn it into yet another game. It was the only way that I felt I still had control over the situation. And I needed to control it because I am feeling unknown things with her—unknown and exciting things. I think Sophia is feeling the very same unknown and exciting things. Maybe she's in that toilet right now, trying to make sense of what the hell is happening between us?

Absorbed in my own thoughts, I soon spot one of my employees coming towards me with a shit-eating smirk. "Cade Lapley scores once again."

The young apprentice congratulates me with a firm pat to my back, annoying me immensely. "I have not scored anything. I am merely ensuring that the lady gets home safely." With stern annoyance, I walk towards where my briefcase is and I grab it with the same amount of annoyance in my very tense hand. As I walk away from all my brown-nosed staff, I can't shake off how annoyed I still feel. I also can't shake off why I chose to lie about Sophia. I know full well that I am going to sleep with her, I just don't want all of those ass lickers to know that. I don't want them thinking of her that way. I don't want them thinking that she is just about to become yet another Lapley Lay.

"Ready?" She is soon in front of me, looking scared but trying to appear confident.

Relieved to see her, I warmly smile. "I thought you might have been in that toilet, trying to change your mind?"

"I was." Comes her honest reply.

My smile becomes warmer, wanting to take away all of her nerves. "I'm glad that you haven't."

She briefly smiles back at me, blushing just a little. "How far is your place from here?" she nervously glances outside, obviously wanting to get out of this bar as quickly as possible.

"Just a five minute walk." I reply, politely opening the door for her.

"Okay." She answers with a sudden shiver.

Her shivering is probably on account of her increasing nerves and the cool autumnal night air that has just greeted us, but noticing that she's not wearing a warm coat with her long-sleeved wool dress, I quickly take off my suit jacket. "You look cold." I say, chivalrously draping it over her shuddering small shoulders.

Sophia smiles at me, a genuinely sweet and grateful smile. "Thank you."

"No problem." I say, knowing that I'm feeling the unknown again—protective. Sophia's shivering makes me want to protect her. I want to keep the cold from her skin and kiss away the chill from her trembling lips. The heat inside of me, the heat that she has caused, I just want to use it to warm her up. I don't do protective, yet here I am, being protective. In the space of an hour, this woman has made me feel more than I have ever felt in my whole and unfeeling life.

How the hell has she done that?

***WELL, LOVELIES.... HOW ARE YOU LIKING THE NEW VERSION OF THIS CHAPTER?
WOULD YOU GO WITH CADE?

IS SOPHIA CRAZY?

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS SO FAR?***