As she read through some of the information that she had found, it all quickly made sense! Daniel seemed to be known at some high end casinos as a high roller. That was really odd considering that the two of them had never gone near a casino during the time they were together. She spent time perusing some of the larger articles on him and spotted a picture that showed Daniel at the blackjack table with a man standing just behind him.
That man was Marcus.
What did this mean? Do Marcus and Daniel know each other?
Catherine searched for any information on Marcus but couldn’t seem to find anything. Could Marcus have targeted her because of Daniel? She had been curious as to how he had even known her and now, she was seeing just how irresponsible she had been with her actions the previous night. That only partly took away some of the fun but it would never erase the full beauty of that night. Marcus was gorgeous, romantic and a very skilled lover. He had treated her with respect and care. Nothing was going to ruin that in her mind.
Now, though, she knew that she must be more careful in the future. She had simply been too upset and depressed to be on guard. Well, she was fine. Marcus had done nothing to harm her. In fact, just the opposite was true. No man had ever made her feel so cherished. She would always remember that about him no matter what happened from this point.
As she sat mulling all of this over, her cell phone rang. Quickly and excitedly she snatched it up from the coffee table, hoping that it was Marcus.
“Hello?” she asked breathlessly.
“Hey Cat, it’s me.”
“Daniel?” she said incredulously. “What on earth do you want?”
“I just wanted to talk to you,” Daniel replied. “How are you doing?”
“I’m just perfect,” she replied tartly. “In spite of how you treated me, I managed to have an absolutely perfect Valentine’s Day.”
“I’m glad to hear that,” he said. “I never meant to hurt you, Cat.”
“Yes, you’ve made that quite evident by lying to me all that time and then breaking up with me mere days before Valentine’s Day. No, you never meant to hurt me at all.
The sarcasm was evident in her voice and was not lost on Daniel.
“Seriously, Cat,” he said almost begging. “I did care about you and I still do. I was an idiot to let you go. Can we please talk?”
“I have nothing to say to you, Daniel. However, I am a little curious as to why you never told me that you were such a celebrity at the casinos. Why would you hide that from me?”
“That’s one of the things that I want to talk about, Cat,” he said. “But I need to do this in person. Please let me come over.”
Even though Catherine didn’t want to ever lay eyes on Daniel again, she needed to find answers. Daniel just might be the one to supply her with those answers, particularly about Marcus. So after a long silence, she sighed.
“Ok, Daniel,” she said. “You can come over for a little while. But it’s just to talk.”
“Absolutely,” Daniel said hopefully. “I promise. We’ll just talk.”
But Catherine had already disconnected the call. In spite of the fact that she was ready to send Daniel packing, she couldn’t help but give into a bit of vanity. She went into her bedroom and put on a pair of jeans and purple V-neck sweater that showed her cleavage off to the best advantage. Daniel always loved her full breasts and she wanted to make him suffer a little.
He must have been right around the corner because she had no sooner changed clothes than her doorbell was ringing. Looking through the peephole, she saw Daniel standing outside of her door. He looked nervous.
Good, she thought. I want him to be nervous.
She let him wait a couple of minutes before opening the door. When she did, she stood there and simply looked at him for several long seconds.
“Daniel,” she finally said.
“Hey, Cat,” he said. “You look great.”
As he spoke, his eyes ran over her and came back briefly to her cleavage. That did make her smile slightly because she knew what he was thinking.
“You might as well come in,” she said, stepping to the side.
“Thanks for seeing me,” he said humbly as he walked into the apartment.
She closed the door and walked back into the living room. Her cocoa was replaced by a glass of red wine but she didn’t offer him anything. Instead, she sat down on the couch and looked at him.
“Now, what do you want to talk to me about?” she said.
“Um, do you mind if I sit down?” he asked.
Wordlessly, she gestured to an easy chair across from her. He looked a bit disappointed but took the chair.
“You know what,” Catherine said suddenly. “I’ve changed my mind. There are some questions that I want answers to so I’ll do the talking.”
“Whatever you want, Cat,” he said.
Part III
The next night, Catherine’s doorbell rang at 7PM right on the dot. Marcus was nothing if not punctual. Checking her look one more time in the mirror, she walked down her hallway to the door. She knew that she looked hot in her black floor-length dress that was slit up to the middle of her thigh on one side. The neckline was a deep V that displayed her remarkable breasts in a seductive manner. The material clung to her luscious rounded ass as she swayed in her heels.
Putting a welcoming smile on her face, Catherine opened the door.
“Marcus!” she said enthusiastically. “I’m so glad you made it!”
“I’ve been looking forward to it,” he said as he gave her his sexy sideways smile.
“Please come in,” she said as she stepped back for him to enter. “Let me take your coat.”
“You look incredible,” he said as he handed her his overcoat. “You know, we could have gone out. You didn’t have to go to a lot of trouble for me.”
“Oh don’t be silly! It was no trouble at all! Besides, I wanted us to be able to have a chat without any risk of being interrupted.”
“Ok,” Marcus said hesitantly. “What do we need to chat about?”
“Oh, I’ll get to that. Would you like some wine?”
“Sure, thanks.”
Leading him into the living room, she poured a glass of wine for them both from the bottle she had chilling on the coffee table.
“I had a very interesting chat with Daniel yesterday, Marcus. You do know who Daniel is, don’t you?”
“Should I?”
Smiling, Catherine sipped her wine before replying.
“I’ll give you a second to think about it,” she said.
Slowly,