Aspen
FOR THE FIRST time in what felt like basically ever, my life seemed weirdly… Settled.
My mom was doing well. I’d been checking in with her almost every day, at least through text. Winter break was rapidly approaching, and I’d be spending the whole three weeks with her, something she was very happy about.
In terms of the situation I had going on with Caelyx…
I had nothing to complain about. That didn’t stop me from making up complaints here and there, of course.
I had to keep him on his toes, just in case.
But he was used to me, and didn’t seem to mind when I was in a bad mood.
In any case, being around him generally fixed my bad moods.
Not that I would have ever admitted that out loud.
We weren’t exactly dating, but we weren’t exactly just hooking up either.
It was unlabeled and unrestricted, which felt casual and free but also oddly grounding.
I’d never had that with anyone, someone acting as my anchor to center me and keep me from floating away to drown in a sea of my own worries.
It’d been two weeks since that first time he’d spent the night in my dorm, and he’d only become more…
Caelyx-like since then. Was there a word for someone who was annoying, but didn’t actually make me feel annoyed?
We texted nonstop, and constantly found excuses to be in each others’ presence, even if it was just to silently study together in the same room for a few hours.
He was more clingy and affectionate than ever, something I never thought I’d be into until him.
Basically everything about him was something I never thought I’d be into until him.
And it didn’t hurt that he was shamelessly addicted to taking my dick at every possible opportunity. I’d created a slutty, needy bottom monster, but I had absolutely no regrets about that.
Everything important in my life felt calm and settled and placid, like the surface of an empty lake. So when a text from Faulkner Vane came through on my phone, plunging through that still surface to send stress and ripples throughout it, I could only stare and heave out a deep sigh.
He’d given me a street corner to meet him on, and told me to be there in an hour and a half so we could have dinner and a nice talk.
A twinge of anxiety curled up in my stomach, because I’d have to lie about where I was if Caelyx asked to see me.
And what if he randomly decided to follow me or something?
What the fuck would he think if he saw me socializing with his dad, of all people?
I felt relief wash over me as I remembered that for once, Caelyx was scheduled to work a shift at the café when I wasn’t.
I’d offered to drive him anyway, but he told me he didn’t mind the walk, so I’d planned on staying in and studying.
Apparently, that wasn’t going to happen, but at least Caelyx wouldn’t catch me going behind his back.
The barb of guilt, sharp and sticky, panged to life in my guts again and I groaned, flopping down onto my pillow.
I wasn’t used to doing things I had to feel guilty for.
And anyway, it wasn’t my fault some overly assertive billionaire was holding a metaphorical gun to my head and forcing me to have dinner with him. Some overly assertive billionaire whose son I happened to be fucking. Frequently, and with great relish.
I sent him back a thumbs up to confirm I’d be there, and set my phone face down on the bed. So much for focusing on the nuanced complexities of business process management.
I FELT LIKE a low rent prostitute waiting at the street corner for Faulkner Vane to pick me up. I didn’t know if blackmail dinners had a dress code, so I’d just worn jeans and a hoodie. It was starting to get pretty cold, but it hadn’t snowed yet.
When a limousine pulled up next to me, one of the back windows rolling down to reveal a smug, handsome face, I had to suppress a grimace.
“Good evening, Aspen,” Faulkner greeted me as a uniformed driver hurried around the car to let me in. I slid into the large open space in the back, eyeing him wryly.
“Very tasteful,” I commented sarcastically, glancing around at the premium leather seating and wet bar situated in the center of the space. “Subtle.”
“And what about me has led you to believe I would value subtlety in any form?” He wondered politely.
He had a point there. He didn’t have a subtle bone in his body, and certainly hadn’t passed any on to Caelyx either.
I didn’t bother answering his rhetorical question, but I listened intently as he yammered on about his day, weaving recent anecdotes about his work into the conversation.
Like we were two good buddies just out for a meal together, not two people who barely knew each other, one of whom was there under duress.
We drove about 20 minutes from the tiny town of Byron Bay before the limo came to a stop and we were let out in front of a nice restaurant. I was glad we’d driven a bit, since I definitely didn’t want to be seen by anyone I knew.
Once we were seated and had our drink orders taken, I waited for him to lace his fingers together like a Bond villain and start interrogating me or whatever he planned on doing, but he didn’t. He seemed totally at ease, but I knew he had to have asked me here for something.
“So tell me how things have been going for you,” he requested.
“Shouldn’t you know all that already?” I asked. “Haven’t you been watching me?”
He tilted his head, and gave me that oddly affectionate look again.
Something about his expression clicked two puzzle pieces together in my brain.
He liked me because I didn’t kiss his ass and treat him like a king, just because he was rich and important.
Or at least, if he didn’t like me, he was intrigued by me.
Maybe that’s what had intrigued Caelyx about me, too.
“I’ve been watching,” he confirmed. “But not as closely as you might think.”
“Maybe keep some of that distance,” I suggested, thinking about how his son and I had gotten each other off in a public parking lot.
Then again, I knew he wasn’t literally watching us.
He’d have some lackeys spying from a distance or something, probably.
Still, he probably didn’t want those kinds of details even just relayed to him, I imagined.
“We’ll see,” he said lightly. “For now, I don’t see a reason to pry.”
“I guess you and I have different definitions for what’s considered prying,” I said, and he chuckled, taking a sip from the short tumbler of top shelf bourbon he’d ordered. I glanced down at it, and then quickly away. I hated being around people who were drinking alcohol.
Like he could read my mind, he tapped his fingers on the polished wood of the table, giving me a serious look.
“Not everyone’s desire to have a drink stems from a place of addiction,” he reminded me. “There’s no need to fret.”
“I don’t want to talk about that,” I answered flatly. Discussing my mom’s alcohol dependency with an entitled billionaire who could only look down on her was the last thing I’d ever do.
“That’s fine,” he acknowledged. “Though I’ll say I am grateful for your obvious disgust. If it weren’t for that, I’m not entirely convinced that Caelyx would have dropped that particular method of coping quite so easily.”
He was giving me way too much credit again, but I only stared. I didn’t want to talk about it, and I wasn’t going to.
“I’m sure you’ve noticed this, but he lacks quite a bit of self control, and tends to be impulsive.”
“Yeah. I noticed,” I said, fiddling with the straw in my drink. I didn’t like talking smack about Caelyx when he wasn’t around to hear it. I only liked insulting him to his face so he could give me puppy dog eyes and pout until I gave in and praised him for something else.
When the waitress with the sleek ponytail came up and asked if we were ready to get food, Faulkner urged me to order something.
“Don’t worry about the cost of anything,” he said, because I’d balked at the price of basically everything on the menu.
I’d never had lobster, so I didn’t know if I even liked it, and I knew I didn’t want anything weird like snails or whatever.
I ordered the short rib ravioli with the wild mushroom demi-glace, because I recognized almost every word in that listing.
The waitress seemed to find our exchange cute, and chuckled a bit when I finally decided.
“Is this your son?” She asked Faulkner, once she’d turned to him.
“Son-in-law,” he corrected her lightly, causing me to choke on the mouthful of soda I’d just sucked up.
“Are you alright?” She asked, watching in alarm as I coughed to clear out the liquid from my lungs.
“He’s fine,” Faulkner assured her quickly, before ordering some expensive steak. Once she’d retreated from our table and I could breathe again, he gave me another serious expression. “Future son-in-law,” he tacked on, like that clarification made the statement any less psychotic.
“You’re insane,” I responded, but at least now I knew where the hell Caelyx had inherited his audacity from.
“We’ll see,” he said again. “I can tell that he’s rubbing off on you.”
Wishing that expression didn’t sound quite so weirdly sexual, I frowned.
The idea that this guy I barely knew would have even the slightest inkling of what was going on with his son and I behind closed doors made me want to squirm in my chair.
And not just the sex stuff either. Caelyx was ridiculously good at making me forget myself and do embarrassing shit like cuddling.
When he slept over, he liked to throw a whole arm over me and snuggle into my chest like the world’s most perverted teddy bear.
“What do you mean by that?”
“He was smitten. Now you’re smitten.”
My brows furrowed together as I flicked my gaze off to the side.
“I’m not smitten. We’re hanging out. That’s all.”