Chapter 9
The office doorbell rings. I open it and find myself face to face with Veronica. I’m irritated the moment I see her. What the hell is this woman doing here? She’s come to torment me, to ruin my peace.
“What are you doing here, Veronica?”
“Whoa! Relax, I came to see you.” She pushes past me through the door and sits in the chair facing the desk. “I stopped by your house, and they told me you weren’t there, so I decided to come here. I remembered this is your favorite office.”
“And what do you want, anyway?” I ask sarcastically.
“Lorenzo, you do love playing dumb. I want you, that’s all.” She crosses her legs, exposing her thigh through a slit in her dress.
“I don’t want you anymore, Veronica,” I say firmly.
“Baby, don’t you remember how good we were together in bed?”
She gets up from the chair and leans toward me across the desk, putting her breasts on full display right in front of my eyes.
“What happened to your lover?” I look away from her cleavage.
“I don’t have a lover. I never did. We broke up and I met someone else, but I couldn’t get you out of my head.”
“Too bad. I’ve moved on.”
She goes back to the chair and fidgets, running her fingers over the exposed skin above her bust.
Suddenly she grabs her purse and stands up, giving me a look of disdain.
“I need to go, but I’ll be back soon so we can have a proper talk.” She stares into my eyes.
“I’d rather you didn’t,” I respond.
“By the way,” she continues, “your garden looks lovely, and I even saw your gardener giving that girl Lola a gorgeous orchid.” She smiles. “I think there’s something going on between them. They’re going to make a cute couple.”
She leaves, and rage washes over me. How the hell did that bastard give Lola a flower? Does she actually want that piece of shit?
I decide to go home now. I lock up the office and leave. Fifteen minutes later, I’m home.
I race up the stairs like I’m rushing to save someone’s life. The rage I feel just imagining Lola in another man’s arms makes me lose my mind completely.
I push Lola’s bedroom door open and barge in without knocking. She’s startled to see me. She’s kneeling in a corner, tending to a small orchid pot, her hands adjusting the soil around the plant.
She looks at me with a furrowed brow, squinting.
“What the hell? Have you lost your mind?”
“So it’s true? That piece of shit gave you this flower pot?”
“I don’t understand. How do you know about that?”
“Damn it, Lola, is this for real? Do you want that guy? I’m like a dog licking the ground you walk on, and you’re giving some gardener a chance? Is that really what you want?”
She stands up and faces me.
“Stop it. First of all, I don’t know what you’re talking about. I didn’t ask you for anything—everything you do for me is because you want to. Second, what’s the problem with Mike? He’s a gardener and you called him a piece of shit. And me? What am I, Lorenzo?”
I walk over to her and grab her arm.
“You’re not like him. You can be whatever you want. You can own all of this. You just have to accept being mine.” I release her suddenly, and Lola looks at me, a little startled.
“I’m not going to be yours, Lorenzo...” she says, but her eyes and her body tell me something else. When I touch her, her body doesn’t react like someone who doesn’t want me. I lean in close to her face, almost kiss her, and she doesn’t push me away.
“And whose are you going to be? His? That nobody who doesn’t have a pot to piss in?”
“Yeah, at least he doesn’t need to buy someone to be his.”
I let her go, irritated, punch the wall, and knock over the flower pot, sending it flying. She glares at me, furious.
“Get out of here. Get out of my room. Look what you did! You’re pathetic.”
“You’re the pathetic one, damn it. You’re defying me, rejecting me, like I’m nothing. And I’m going to throw that son of a bitch out on the street.”
“You are nothing to me. Get out of here. And if you do that, I’ll never forgive you, and I’ll go with him anyway.”
“I’m leaving, or else I’m going to lose it with you. But this conversation isn’t over.”
I leave, furious, and head to my room. I take a deep breath as I strip off my clothes. I need a cold shower. This girl is driving me crazy. I want her more than anything, and the more she rejects me, the more I want her. I can’t hide it anymore.
I scowl, thinking about how sassy she is, how bold, how hot as hell. I really want to tame this woman. But every day it gets harder.
I take a shower, remembering how she defended that damn gardener. But I don’t know what to think anymore—whether she actually wants him or was just defending him from me.
When I step outside the house, I run right into Lola heading to the orchid house with the broken pot and flower. I follow her and watch her hand the pot and flower to Mike. She leaves soon after, and I walk up to him.
“Mike, can I ask why the hell you're giving flowers to Lola?”
“Sorry, Don, I didn't know that wasn't allowed. She told me the white and purple orchid reminded her of her mother. I just wanted to do something nice—no ulterior motives.”
“What? Are you serious? Shit. Then plant another one, a really beautiful one, and give it to her again.”
“Alright.”
“And don't tell her I told you to.”
“Okay.”
I head back to the house and lock myself in the office until dinnertime. I've got the rest of the afternoon to get my head straight, because today this girl threw me completely off balance.