Burning Desire

Chapter 19

I awoke to the sound of voices downstairs. At first, I tried to ignore the noise and go back to sleep, but I couldn't. The fan was on in the corner of the room, but its' white noise wasn't enough to drown out the chatter. The blinds were open and sunlight was flooding the room. I pulled the covers over my head, but the material was too thin to offer any escape. After tossing and turning and several blinks, I finally opened my eyes all the way and surveyed my surroundings.

I was disappointed to find the other side of the bed empty. A mess of wrinkled sheets laid where Jesse had been sleeping. The corners of the fitted sheet had been pulled off of the mattress in the intensity of our fucking and the bed was an absolute disaster. The duvet and two pillows had been tossed to the floor alongside the trail of our clothing.

I was still naked from the previous night's steamy activities, wrapped up like a burrito in Jesse's smooth satin sheets. The bed was so warm and comfy, I had to force myself to get up. It was Saturday, so I didn't have to worry about work, and I would've loved to have stayed in bed with Jesse all day, but I was going to have to head back home at some point. I remembered that the girls and I were supposed to get together later in the day.

I slid out of bed and shivered when my feet touched the cold wood. Jesse's button-up was lying nearby on the floor and I quickly slipped it on on my way to the bathroom.

Once I reached the hallway, the mouthwatering aroma of coffee and breakfast cooking hit me and my stomach started to grumble. While I freshened up, I could hear Jesse in the midst of a conversation with a woman on speaker phone. They sounded frustrated with one another and I couldn't help eavesdropping out of curiosity.

"I'm giving you a chance just this once, Mr. Reese. There are many highly recommended and higher qualified options we could've chosen," the woman said sternly. "You know what a huge opportunity this is for your father's business. Do not screw it up."

Jesse raked his fingers through his hair, leaning against the island where his phone sat. I walked into the kitchen as he was concluding the call.

"You have my word, Janet," he assured her. "Mr. Jeffries will be very pleased with the turnout. And please don't hesitate to call my personal cell, should you have any more concerns."

"Don't think I won't," Janet said.

Her words were followed by three low beeps signaling she'd hung up.

"Everything alright?" I asked, leaning in the doorway.

Jesse groaned and turned his attention back to the skillet he was making an omelet in. "I think – I hope – so. We're catering a big, fancy event next week and the guy in charge of making sure everything's perfect isn't so sure I'm capable of doing a perfect job, apparently."

I shook my head. "That's ridiculous. You did an amazing job catering Erica's wedding!"

"A wedding is completely different from a corporate event with the press, Kate." He turned to me and sighed deeply. He looked exhausted with dark circles under his eyes. "If this doesn't go one-hundred-percent smoothly, it could mean a huge loss of business for us. This is a huge account for us and my dad's trusting me to do a good job."

It sounded to me like Jesse was overthinking the situation and putting unnecessary stress on himself. I was sure he could pull off catering some extravagant event. While yes, he was right that catering a wedding and catering a corporate event were vastly different, I couldn't help taking into account how well he'd handled providing dinner to a few hundred of Erica's guests. If he could do that, I doubted he'd have any trouble feeding a thousand corporate executives and media gurus.