2. Theodore
Chapter Two
THEODORE
I have my guys look into River’s life once she leaves. Surly is beneath me, but I don’t like any drama being brought to my door, especially where business is involved. I vet my employees and ensure they are clean. River has flown under the radar just like I want her and all my employees to do while working for me. Yet, she felt confident bringing the issue to me. I don’t know if it’s genius on her part or stupid.
How would she know that I don’t like unknown variables and would look into it. I also don’t like bullying the helpless just to make yourself stronger. River doesn’t seem like the kind who’s thoughtless enough to tangle with a wannabe crime boss so that can’t be it. Sitting back, I rub my chin as I think of all the angles. She’s pretty. Maybe he wants to claim her and she’s resisting? No, I’d hope he’d have more finesse than attempted kidnapping, yet men who think they’re powerful rarely use their brains.
No. 7 Sujet filters in, breaking my concentration. I’ve snatched up the remote control and turned off the radio without realizing that a frown mars my face. I used to love everything to do with Helena’s passion, but I’ve found myself growing weary of it. Still, Swan Lake is supposed to remind me of the first time I saw the love of my life. Helena is just as beautiful and graceful as ever. Nothing has changed. That is the problem. Three years of being deterred from starting a family, followed by an additional three years of trying intermittently. We’d stop trying the moment she got a big role or was too stressed. It should not be this hard.
This month, she’s returning to the role that made her famous and has applied a singular focus to that. Checking the time, I grab my phone for my nightly call.
“Hello, Mrs. Kelly,” I greet her once she answers.
“Can’t chat now, Theodore,” she responds, bypassing the greeting that used to send her into giggles.
When we first married, Helena couldn’t get enough of me calling her Mrs. Kelly. Now, she brushes it off without thought.
“Why? You’re usually out of practice by now.”
She uses the huff she reserves for minor inconveniences. “Yes, well, not tonight. I have much to do before the performance.”
Sitting back, I squeeze the bridge of my nose. “I hope not dancing. You’re going to stress yourself and your body out.”
“Get off my back about making your baby,” she says in a tone that takes me aback.
I pause and look at the phone. “No, I was showing concern about the welfare of my wife. What do you mean ‘my baby?’ It would be our baby.” We’ve been having similar tiffs like this lately. I say something and she assumes it is baby related. “Never mind, enjoy your night.”
I hang up before we find ourselves fighting again. Everything is bliss until we get to the subject of babies; a topic that I have not initiated lately, but still end up arguing about. I run my fingers through my hair, tugging at the strands in frustration. My forty-second birthday is fast approaching, and I’d expected to be gushing about my baby going to at least pre-kindergarten by now, only I’m still at square one. That would be an easier pill to swallow if Helena and I were at least starving for the other’s attention. Even with all my different businesses, I feel like she’s the distracted one. Closing my eyes for a bit, I do the breathing exercises I’ve mastered over the years to keep me from losing my shit.
My phone rings, but I don’t open my eyes to study the display. I can tell who it is by the ringtone. A hint of a smile curves my lips as I answer.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah? Is that how you greet your only fucking friend?”
“You’ve run off the others,” I joke.
“Because I’m the only fucking ally you need.” He tries to sound light, but he’s less than half joking.
Andrea Tesio is the technical head of the local crime family. He’s everything Surly is aspiring to be. Hell, I’m an aspiration for Surly and I didn’t stay in the life. His dad, my godfather, was arrested on a federal technicality, but nothing happens in Labrama without him knowing. My past with his present makes me untouchable, because no one wants to be the one to cross the unspoken leader of this city.
“Are you going to opening night?” he asks, jumping into business.
I scrub a hand over my chin. While I've loved supporting my wife, I’m starting to feel like that support is one-sided. She hasn’t been to the grand opening of any of my ventures, saying that the Kelly Family have earned enough money for me to live off my inheritance and be a man of the arts. I enjoy a good symphony, opera, or ballet, but they’re not my passions. Even though I dabble in the arts, I do not live there like she does.
“I doubt it. I’m really busy. Business is picking up at Illicitus, and I want to make sure it all runs smoothly. You should go, though. She’s a beautiful Odette.” I say it with a smile because I mean the last part.
“Uh huh.” His hum tells me he’s not buying my shit but won’t force me to speak of it. “What’s this I hear about Surly? Do I need to fuck up his establishment and kill his gangster fantasies?”
I chuckle and shake my head. Andrea has been trained to sit at the throne, but he’s bloodthirsty and is constantly searching for a reason to pick up his brass knuckles.
“It’s nothing I can’t handle. He has some sort of issue with my bartender.”
“River? That sexy little bronze black girl with dark eyes, big hair, and the body that she needs to serve to me instead of the drinks?”
I shift in my chair at the thought of her working behind the bar with nothing but that bow tie she held up.
“I guess. She ran in here and hid under my desk. Three of Surly’s men showed up seconds later.”
“Under your desk? Were you still sitting at it, because…”
“Focus, Andrea. They’re after her for a reason. I’m trying to figure it out, but it’ll just be faster to ask her after work. Get this, I gave her the key to the penthouse upstairs and she said being a mistress is against her religion. Why the fuck would she think that?”
Andrea doesn’t laugh like I expect him to. Instead, he answers, “A lot of men in your position have them.”
“It doesn’t make it right.”
“So if a wealthy woman at least ten years older than you handed you a key to her place, you wouldn’t have the same concern?”
“If she just saw me running for my life, no.”
“I’m just gonna say it. I think you like River more than you know and that’s why you gave her your key.”
I shake my head, not believing the bullshit coming out of Andrea’s mouth. “No. It was to buy time since I don’t want anyone dying on my watch.”
“So you would have given Shay your key?”
He’s talking about the hostess who has a nice body but he has often said “looks like a wet rat.”
“No, because she has expressed interest in fucking me. She wouldn’t behave. I’d give it to Donnovan if he was in trouble,” I say to sound neutral since I'm not into men.
“Yeah, okay. So everyone except River and Donnovan can die?”
“No, they are privileged enough to lay low in the penthouse, the rest I’d make arrangements for until I find out if it’s their fault.”
Andrea eases off the subject, not because I’m getting annoyed, but because he knows I’m not lying when I say I care about my employees.
“Okay, and you don’t plan on being around if she drops the soap?”
“No! I love Helena,” I answer with a sigh.
“I know, it’s just you used to sigh her name. Now you say it with a sigh.”
“It’s just a rough patch. We keep having the baby argument.”
“Don’t shoot me, but have you considered that deep down she doesn’t want one.”
Another sigh passes my lips before I can stop it. “I considered it briefly, but I cannot dwell on that notion. It’d mean she has lied and continues to lie to me almost daily while ignoring my greatest desire and the one and only thing I’ve asked of her.”
“Right, I didn’t mean to upset you.” Sentences like that are the closest Andrea gets to actual apologies.
“No need. It’s best to have people in your corner to shoot the truth straight, so I appreciate it.”
“Good. I know you love her with everything, but I don’t want her wasting your fucking time either. Just in case I’m mad on your behalf, so fuck opening night.”
I shake my head with a chuckle. “I gotta go, asshole.”
He hangs up with a laugh because that is as close as I get to showing gratitude. We may be seen as two grouchy assholes to the rest of the world, but we understand each other perfectly. The conversation still sits with me like a scent that’s hard to shake.
Is Helena lying to me?
Standing, I get on the elevator to go to the penthouse. I need some quiet time, and River should be on shift for a few hours. Once the doors slide open, I still feel a sense of pride when I look at the shiny floors and strategically placed lighting. It’s one of the things I bought independently of my family’s wealth. I’m not ashamed that I was born wealthy, nor does my family lord it over my head, but I still felt a need to make my own way.
I had some of the prospects lined up and just started getting everything into motion once I’d proposed to Helena. Now, I have several businesses throughout the city that are all different from each other. I wanted to focus on separate streams of income.
Illicitus, however, is my baby, because I wanted to create a gentleman's club type environment without having tits in your face every five minutes. It’s a private place with invitation-only membership where people like Andrea can talk business freely. As a movie fan, I’d like to think of it as kind of like the Continental. I considered women as well, but there aren’t enough women in the business around here for me to make that accommodation yet. I continue to run numbers and stay on top of it. Everything I do for them is legal. If they’re discussing something illegal, it’s not my business.
River’s key will take her through the front, but my elevator drops me just outside of the master suite. Kicking off my shoes, I lie across the bed and drape my arm over my face. I feel like a wheel spinning in mud, working hard and getting nowhere.
I must have fallen asleep because the touch of a soft hand on my leg awakens me. The caress starts just below my knee and travels higher. River? My dick hardens at the thought as the hand continues up my thigh to my hip. I don’t move or alert my guest to the fact that I’m awake because I need to see what’s going on and where it’s going. My shirt must have come untucked in my sleep, because I feel the graze of nails just above my belt. My excited cock conjures up flashes of River wearing nothing but the bowtie sliding up my body as she feels me, skin to skin. In my head, there’s enough light in the room for her to see my erection beginning to tent my pants.
She’d lick her plush lips with the desire to wrap them around me. Her hand on my abdomen trails up under my shirt to graze my naked skin. There is no way she went from saying this isn’t something she’d want to being the aggressor. A sweet scent fills my nostrils and confirms that Helena is the one touching me. Most of me knew that to be the most plausible case, but that small part that dared to dream is let down.
Disappointment washes over me, then the guilt from that disappointment slams into my chest, forcing my eyes to squeeze together tightly. Helena coos as her hand wraps around my dick, squeezing it through my slacks before she starts to open my pants.
“I know what you need,” she whispers, but I’m starting to believe that’s not true.
The words don’t escape, though, because she shifts her hot body down my now exposed erection, causing me to moan and my eyes to fly open. I’m more sensitive than I’ve been in a long time. Images of Helena and River collide until reality wins. Helena is as beautiful as ever with her dress pulled down to display her pert tits, but I don’t feel the same rush I used to feel when I was inside of her. The lack of excitement has nothing to do with the amount of time we’ve been together and everything to do with her possibly duplicitous behavior. My unwavering trust is eroding like rocks that are constantly rubbed by the water, slow but permanent. Grabbing her hips, I thrust up into her; hard, making her ride me at a bruising pace. She takes it as anger from our disagreement since we’ve had angry sex before, but it’s anger with myself for allowing the fantasy of another woman to slip into my head. It’s also anger with her for putting space between us.
My feelings oscillate between guilt and frustration until I’ve fucked us both into orgasms. She falls on top of me, breathing hard to steady her breath. Our chests are touching, and I realize she must have unbuttoned my shirt when I checked out. I used to live for these moments, lying heart to heart after making love. This is the moment where I’d lace our fingers together and kiss each one of hers as I tell her how much I love her. I’d pull her close while telling her that I was the luckiest man in the world to have her for my wife. Today, nothing as sweet forms on my lips, nor do I feel like cuddling. Turning to my side, I deposit her on the bed and sit up to start to clean myself up.
“Theo,” she whines and tries to pull me back down. “I’m sorry. I was stressed earlier.”
I’m standing with my hands on my hips when Helena cups my cheeks, forcing me to look her in the eyes in the low light. I know what she’s doing. I told her how much I loved our eye contact and some shit about being able to get lost in her eyes. It’s not going to work today.
I snatch my face out of her hold just as we’re bathed in light from the hallway. River stands in the doorway, her hair looking like a dark halo while her face is comically stuck in shock.
“Get the hell out!” Helena shrieks, making River jump.
“W-wrong room. Sorry!” she apologizes and scurries off.
“Down the hall to the left!” I call out, letting her know where to find the guest room.
“Who in the hell is that?” Helena questions, accusation dripping in her tone.
“Don’t you fucking dare. I’ve devoted my life to you over seven years ago and haven’t looked back. I want you to have my children.”
“It was only a matter of time before we got back there –”
Shaking my head, I walk away before she can finish her thought. I am tired of her deflections to make me feel like something is wrong with me because she has yet to keep her part of our deal for forever. Slamming the bathroom door, I turn on the shower, strip, and step under the spray, not caring that the water isn’t to my desired temperature yet. The coolness of the water calms me enough to not want to cuss her out. We need a mediator because we’ve lost touch with how to communicate.
I’m halfway done with my shower, lost in trying to figure out what to do, when she comes in, naked. Helena slips to her knees, but I pull her up because I’ve caught on to what she does. She pisses me off, then uses her body to distract me. This time, I’m the one grabbing her face, forcing her to look me in the eyes.
“Tell me the fucking truth. Do you want out? Staying means you’re having my children. If you don’t want to be a mother, you need to tell me now.”
It’ll hurt like hell to know that she’s lied to me, but at least I wouldn’t be wasting any more time.
“Of course I do,” she says, her eyes full of tears. I’m stuck in the middle of wanting to believe her and thinking she’s a stone-cold liar.
“Then why do you keep putting it off? Why aren’t we parents?”
“I don’t know.” It’s a lie, and I can tell. I turn and move to the opposite side of the shower to use the other head.
“Okay,” I concede, for now.
We’ll get to the bottom of it, hopefully once I have a clear head. Now, the irrational side of me says it’s time to dig into my wife’s privacy to find the answers I seek.