Chapter 7
SEVEN
Maxim
“Hey.” Dimitri comes into the office at my place, holding a scotch on the rocks out to me. I shake my head, but he blows out a long breath and shakes the glass in front of me, making the ice clink against the sides. “Take it, asshole, or I’m going to feel guilty for drinking your liquor on my own. And don’t think I won’t, because this is a fucking hobby for me and I’m jealous right now. Did you even know that cellar was down there? I need a drink, you need a drink, and we’re going to take advantage of Castori’s generosity in giving you this house. And you’re going to watch Bride of Dracula or something. Take your mind off it. If you don’t relax, you’re going to have a heart attack. You also have to sleep sometime, you know.”
He stopped by today to check on me because I haven’t answered any of his texts or calls in the four days since that night. We’d been tossing around some business ideas since I got out and I know he’s trying to help but right now, I can’t concentrate on anything but her.
“Just tell me again what he said. Exactly what he said.” I’m wearing a rut in the floor where I’ve paced back and forth like a caged animal in front of the window.
Grudgingly, I take the glass and bring the amber liquid to my lips, taking a long draw but tasting nothing.
Nothing except Seleme.
Fuck. I fucked up hard.
I pushed her. It was too much too soon.
Now she’s gone. Her father came through the door like a Spanish bull, ready to kill me.
I tried to calm him.
To explain.
But the fury in his eyes was matched by the fury in his fists. Seleme jumped off of me as I shielded her from whatever her father was bringing, pushing her behind me and holding him off by putting my jaw in the line of his fist.
It only took one hit, but that was enough to make me see stars. Saying he must eat his Wheaties every morning is an understatement. He’s fucking Popeye, eating twenty cans of steroid-infused spinach.
I thought he separated my head from my neck, but when Seleme screamed and told him to stop, by some miracle he did. Because I didn’t want to hit him, but I would have. I would have fought him, even if it killed me, to protect her.
Instead, I raised my hands in a gesture of surrender as Seleme put herself between us and then left when she asked me to. I didn’t want to. I wanted to stay as long as it took for me to explain to him it was more than sex.
I wanted him to somehow understand the truth of the situation. But how was I going to get him to understand what I felt?
All he saw was some guy who just met his family a few hours ago, with his naked daughter ready to take ten inches of thick cock.
Not what a father wants to see. Ever.
I get it. I’d kill me, too, if I were him.
Fuck.
And that’s the other thing. The loss I felt, not being able to finish what we started, is more than just some lusty coitus interruptus.
When I lined my cock up with her sweet pussy, when I thought about my cum spreading deep inside her, a seed was planted in my brain, and it has been pushing me toward madness ever since.
I need her to have my baby.
I need to know a piece of me is growing inside her.
Fuck.
It makes zero sense. Until four nights ago I was a virgin, for Christ’s sake. I’ve certainly never wanted to be a father before. I've even actively thought about when the time came and I finally did find someone, how to be sure it didn’t happen.
But with Seleme?
It’s my new obsession.
But how am I going to fix this? Her father will never let me back in that house or anywhere near his daughter, and they’ve got the place locked up like Alcatraz.
I’ve tried, believe me.
I buzzed the gate, even tried to climb over it, but the goddamn iron is electrified. I get that a father wants to protect his family, but this feels like they’ve been under some ominous threat before.
But that’s not the hardest part.
It’s Seleme. I went too fast.
I fucking bit her, hard enough to nearly break the skin.
Who the fuck does that?
After her father burst in, I took the hit, she begged me to go. The tears in her eyes, I refused but she pleaded and pushed me out the door. I don’t want to bring more pain to her life, so I left and even as I walked the long drive down I was planning how to come back.
How to win her back but as of yet, I’ve not come up with what will work but I’m not giving up.
All I can do is pace in my office, where the view across to her house is clearest, hoping to get a glimpse of her. But for the last four nights, all the curtains are pulled. There’s been nothing, even with my binoculars and I want to smash the windows and tear down the fucking walls.
I’m losing my mind.
The only movement I’ve seen over there is the black Bentley leaving in the morning around eight, then returning between five and six o’clock. I don’t know if she’s in that car or not, but if I don’t get a look at her very soon, I may just dig a tunnel from my property under their fence to get to her and make sure she’s safe.
Because last time I saw her, she looked scared. And I fucking hated that.
I can’t stop playing it all over and over in my mind.
She came. Hard. Several times. For that I have no regrets. But I should have had more control. I shouldn’t have burst into her room like a madman.
My mind is numb. I can't sleep. I can’t eat. She hasn't run by the house at night — I know because I stand outside waiting. I’m empty. I don’t know if my blood even still runs through my veins.
Dimitri takes a seat across from my desk as I glare at him, waiting for him to speak.
“Hey, I called him. You know, just good business after seeing him at the party. I thought maybe I could foster the firm throwing more work my way. You guarding his daughter and all. I didn’t fucking know you got kicked out the first night for…” His voice trails off as he folds his hands over his gut. “I vouched for you, man. All he said was if you were the type of individual I would vouch for, neither he nor anyone at his firm would be contacting me for any future business.”
“I’m sorry.” I groan. “Didn’t mean to kick you in the balls on this one, man.”
Dimitri shrugs. “It’s okay. I’m just sorry you finally find this elusive snowflake you’ve been searching for your entire life, and it ends in an epic cock block from her father. Sucks to be you, man.”
“Yep.” I take another draw from the glass, letting the ice cool my lips. “It’s not over.”
Dimitri raises his eyebrows. “What are you going to do?”
I swallow the lump that’s been lodged in my throat for four days. “I don’t know, but I’m done standing around like a pussy.”
“Whatever I can do to help, you know I will. I know this isn’t how you wanted to re-start your life. You got the shit end of that rap, sure, but things were just starting to go your way. You save the life of a fellow inmate on the inside, and it somehow turns out he’s the son of a mob boss who’s so grateful he gives you this place?” He waves his hands at the ceiling. “Serendipity. Nobody can touch you; you’ve got a bank account full of cash, then you bump into the one woman in this world who makes you sit up and take notice. That’s karma repaying a debt. Then this happens? Not fair, brother.”
“Life isn’t fair. You get what you fight for, and I’m far from done fighting.”
“Okay, then. So, what’s the plan?”
I look at my friend, and what I need to do is suddenly clear.
“I need you to do something for me, and don’t ask any questions. Can you do that?”
Dimitri shakes his head and grimaces. “You’re about to get me in deep shit, aren’t you?”
I clench my jaw. “I said, no questions.”
He throws his hands up. “Okay. I got you. No questions. What do you need me to do?”