"Well, they would keep you safe, but I would be jealous that they spend time with you." There he was, the guy she liked so much.

  "Still want to get a bodyguard?" she laughed.

  "If it keeps you safe," he said seriously. "But I believe you. If the need ever arises, I can always arrange for someone to keep you safe."

  "You don't need to worry about that nincompoop. He wouldn't hurt a fly…… He is mostly scared I will take a knife to him and make sure he can't reproduce." Lily flashed Cage a smile. With friends like these, Cage could rest assured. Slightly.

  Okay, that was enough about creepy men. Cage was getting more worried and she couldn't blame him for it. She had not been around when Keira was trying to get him, but she could imagine that she would have gone beserk trying to protect him.

  So, she had to change the topic.

  "Did you have a good time at Jared's?" she asked.

  "Yeah, I think we are progressing really well, and if there is a time we are all secure in our relationsh.i.p.s, we should have a group date or something. We live together, makes sense for everyone to know each other." Lily gave Katherine a wink.

  "Best friends forever!" Katherine shouted, startling Cage. "But you guys were having issues, right?" Cage turned and took out his phone, immersing himself into his messages so that he didn't eavesdrop.

  "Yeah, he was being a bit controlling. He might have to go home for a bit to take care of his parents and he wants me to go with him to meet his parents." She shrugged.

  "And you don't want to meet his parents?" Katherine asked. She was interested. They were at different points in their relationsh.i.p.s and they both had brought up the topic of meeting the parents.

  "You know how useless I am with parents." Lily was a strange being. She thought everyone hated her, but that was not the case. Lily's parents weren't the greatest of people. They had enough money to send her to an expensive school and let her be a photographer but they never really supported her emotionally. They were romantics who tried to keep their lives to themselves. Such people…… shouldn't have kids. If you don't want to put your effort into your child, don't have them.

  "That's not true," Katherine told her vehemently.

  "Yeah. I don't think I am ready for that yet. Who meets the parents so early. It feels like he is trying to tie me down or something." The words had been spoken and Lily's deepest thoughts had been revealed. Commitment issues ran through the veins of the three women that lived in the apartment. Lily was a serial dater, Angelina liked to hook up, and Katherine was once bitten, twice shy and wanted to do nothing with relationsh.i.p.s.

  Recently, they had been more stable and everything was falling into line. But this was when all their insecurities came back. Katherine needed to do her best to be happy in her relationship without thinking the worst of Cage. Lily needed to overcome all the sadness she felt like a child being ignored by her parents. She just wouldn't be happy with it because being tied down meant she would be vulnerable.

  But Katherine couldn't bring this up.

  "Everyone has their own pace. Did you talk it out with him?" she asked tentatively.

  "I did. I don't know if he fully understood how resistant I am to the idea, but I can make him understand slowly." Katherine squinted. She was actually glad Lily had not run for the hills. Had it been anyone else, Lily would probably have flipped her shit and abandoned sh.i.p.s. "I already have a dad, I don't need another one breathing down my neck," Lily sounded more bitter than irritated.

  "Sure." Talk about daddy issues. If she had to bet, she called Jared daddy in bed.

  'Okay, Katherine, stop assuming things about other people's lives. You know what happens when you do that.'

  Katherine didn't have much of a filter when it came to her friends.

  "Just call him 'daddy' once or twice and see if he stops doing it." It might have been a joke, but Lily took it seriously.

  "I could do that but he has a dirty mouth on him. He might be a teacher, but damn……" Lily shook her head and Katherine laughed. Even Cage was snickering on the side.

  "Sorry, I didn't mean to overhear……" he said, even though he didn't really sound apologetic. "If you want my perspective, being called a daddy is a compliment to most men unless they don't understand the gravity of that word."

  "How so?" Lily asked, growing curious. Even Katherine turned to him with a gleam of interest in her eyes.

  "The first person women love in their life and look up to as a model for a husband is their father…… usually," he started. "Then, they shape their daughter's views on life and what a man should be like. In that sense, it is a big role. You are basically either making your daughter an independent woman who doesn't need you or screwing up their view of life." He shrugged.

  "That got serious very quickly," Katherine said with a snort. "Too serious for something that is a kink." Lily rolled her eyes.

  "Well, calling someone daddy is a compliment because a majority of women like men who interact with babies. It makes their ovaries explode. In short, you flow like the Amazon river." Cage was bewildered for a moment.

  "Wait, so handling babies equals more s.e.x appeal?" he asked.

  "Yeah. Maybe it rekindles animalistic urges to reproduce in females or something." Lily waved it off.

  "Does that mean I need to cuddle with someone else's baby to make you think I am the s.e.xiest man alive?" Cage asked, turning to Katherine.

  "If you want to experiment, sure." She shrugged. "But you are already the hottest man on the planet. If you get any hotter, I fear I will be blinded and incinerate."