Chapter 13
She came down five minutes later looking none too pleased. That makes two of us. “Why do you still have so many pictures of him?” I don’t think I meant to say that or maybe not in those exact words.
“Excuse me?” I gave her a look because she heard exactly what the fuck I said. She made a huffing sound and flounced back against the seat.
“Answer me.”
“I don’t see how that’s any of your business.”
“I’m making it my business.”
“Listen, just because you paid…”
I hit the button to roll up the partition window between us and Stanley the driver and turned to her furiously. My hand wrapped around her throat and pushed her back against the seat.
“Don’t go there, don’t fucking go there. One has nothing to do with the other.”
“Let go.” I stared into her eyes as she clawed at my hand and only when I saw the tears in her eyes did I come to my senses and release her.
I sat back in the seat and looked out the tinted window trying to calm down. I watched out the side of my eye as a tear fell down her cheek.
“Come ‘ere.” I pulled her across the seat and onto my lap. She tried fighting me of course. “Stop crying come on.” I wiped her face with my fingers and kissed her cheek.
She wasn’t talking and her body was stiff as a board. I wrapped my arms around her so she wouldn’t get away from me and whispered in her ear.
“I know you’re mad but I still want to know. Are you still in love with him?” I held my breath painfully as I awaited her answer.
“What do you want me to say? I don’t understand why you’re acting like this, like you have the right to say anything about my life.”
“Because I do damn you. I told you not to play games with me. I know you know how I feel about you, I see it in your eyes every time I look at you; you know. Now answer my question.”
She folded her arms, which seemed to be her favorite defiant pose. “I don’t have to answer to you.” I’m going to wring her fucking neck.
“I’ll take that as a yes. You’re gonna have to rethink some shit because I’m not sharing you with him.” I felt pressure in my head and chest and wanted to scream.
“What are you talking about; have you lost your mind?”
“Maybe, but since you want to play like you don’t know let me spell it out for you. I want you, I’m going to have you, but I’ll be damned if you’re going to have another man on your mind while I’m fucking you.”
I flung her off my lap and she straightened up and reached for the door handle. “Get your hand away from there and don’t make me madder than I already am. The damn car’s moving through traffic where the fuck are you going?”
When she still didn’t move her hand quick enough I pulled it away and kept it in mine. “Stop fighting, you won’t win.” I held her hand tighter as she ignored me for the last ten minutes of the ride back to the hospital.
Once Stanley let us out she tried making a run for it but I caught up to her easily enough and took her hand again. “Don’t make a scene think about Amber.”
That stopped her futile struggling and I led her into the building and up in the elevator. She pulled her happy mask on before we cleared the door where Gavin was sitting on the chair reading to Amber who was dressed and ready.
“Get the bags Gavin.” There wasn’t much to get, just an overnight bag with her stuff since her mom and I had already taken her loot to their apartment.
I picked her up from the bed and she wrapped her arms around my neck. Gia gave me the stink eye because she knew there was no way to escape me now.
Gavin who had no idea what was going on followed us out of the room and down to the car. I placed Amber in the middle of the seat before getting in while Stanley seated her mother.
She put on a good act all the way home for her daughter who was excited to be driving in a chauffeur driven car and was full of questions.
I answered her questions while keeping my eye on her mother who refused to look at me. “I might be a minute.” I warned Stanley after lifting the baby in my arms while her mom grabbed her bag.
She looked like she wanted to say something after she unlocked the outer door but I just raised my brow at her before looking at Amber in a silent warning for her to behave.
We walked up three flights of stairs and I wondered how she was going to deal with this shit and for how long.
“How long has the elevator been out?”
“A couple of weeks I guess.”
“What about the landlord, has anyone contacted him about fixing it?”
“Of course we did and he keeps telling us the same thing, soon.” She opened the door to the apartment and let us in, barely keeping herself from slamming it shut.
She was doing a good job of hiding her anger from her daughter but she wasn’t fooling me one bit. I saw those damn pictures again and my hackles rose.
“Which room is hers?” I followed her down the hallway to the room she’d gone into earlier. It was like stepping into another world.
No one could doubt her love and devotion to her child after seeing this. It was like every little girl’s fantasy. A fairy wonderland.
The rest of the apartment though neat was nowhere near as put together as this room. I put Amber down on the bed and took her shoes off.
“You sleepy baby?”
“Read me a story uncle Evan.” She pointed to a line of books on a shelf on the wall.
“Which one sweetheart?” Gia was pissed and she spat fire at me with her eyes as I moved to get the book that had been chosen.
I sat on the bed with Amber’s little head on my leg and read to her until her little chest rose and fell with the easy breathing of sleep.
I put her head on her pillow and pulled the covers up over her before going to find her mother who’d disappeared.
She was in the kitchen at the stove. I leaned against the doorjamb and watched her. “I know you know I’m here. Amber’s asleep you can let me have it now.”
“Let you have what? I have nothing more to say on the subject.”
“That’s not gonna work. What have you told Amber about him?”
“Seriously, what is it with you? You act like my marriage was an affront to you or something. Every time you talk about him there’s this underlying thing in your voice that I just don’t get.”
I knew she was right, but how could I explain it to her when I didn’t understand it myself? I just knew that the thought of her with someone else made me feel cheated.
“How about we start over? I’ll try to rephrase my question and you’ll give me an honest answer and we’ll go from there.”
“Why do I need to answer anything? This is making me very uncomfortable. I appreciate what you did for my daughter, but I don’t think it gives you the right to pry into my life.”
“I told you not to do that, leave that shit out of it. What you’re implying is sick. Try putting yourself in my position. Wouldn’t you want to know?”
“First, there’s no reason for you to know, it’s not like we’re in a relationship or anything like that. And second, I’m sure you’ve had relationships before, do you tell each new person everything about the last one?”
“That’s different, I never loved any of them enough to marry them and I never trusted anyone enough to have them bear my child.”
“Look, I’m not comfortable talking to you about this.” She tried leaving the room and I blocked her with a hand across the door.
“Do you ever talk about it, or do you prefer to hold onto the memories and live inside your head? Because I gotta tell you, that’s not gonna work for me.”
“I’m still not sure why you think I should care…” I pulled her into my chest and kissed her, this time I held her jaw. “If you bite me I’ll bite you back this time.”
I held her hands together behind her back, pressing her tits into my chest as I ravished her mouth.
When she sopped fighting me I softened the pressure of my lips on hers and teased her with my tongue. She tried keeping me out.
“Open. I said open Giavanna.” I had to tug on her hair to get her to obey me, but once I did I drew her tongue into my mouth and rubbed my chest against hers as I pressed my growing cock between the heat of her thighs.
“Why are you doing this?” I’d released her lips so we could both breathe.
“I told you, I want you. I wanted you since the moment I bumped into you at the coffee shop.”
“The fact that you turned out to be my new architect only convinced me that we were meant to meet, and the more I see you, the more I know there’s something there.”
“My problem is with your past. Are you over it, or are you just going through the motions? The thought of sharing you with even his memory makes me want to kill.”
“Do you know how insane that sounds? Are you saying that I’m supposed to forget the memory of the father of my child?”