Chapter 36
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
CHARLIE
Once Athena finished, I set her down on the bed and stood to fog the glass room walls. I enjoyed when people watched us, and it seemed like Athena did, too, but I wanted to give her proper aftercare, which I hadn’t done much of lately. It didn’t need to be on display for everyone.
After I lay on the bed, Athena crawled into my lap and curled up into me. I gently drew my fingers through her hair and kissed her forehead, rocking us back and forth slightly. Her breathing evened out, and she quickly was fast asleep in my arms.
“I love you,” I whispered into Athie’s red hair.
I lay back against the headrest and smiled to myself, unable to wait to bring her home and eat that cheesecake with her as she finished pouring her candles. Butterflies fluttered in my stomach, and I couldn’t believe that this was my life.
When I had grown up around Derek and my father … all they wanted from women was sex.
It felt nice to look forward to something else, something more intimate.
Had I outgrown that stage already? Dad and Derek were still in it. Yet, somehow, I wanted nothing to do with sex with strangers anymore. I wanted one woman, and I would be spending my life with her forever.
Coming home to Athena. Having a family with Athena. Growing old with Athena.
I couldn’t imagine myself with anyone else, and I didn’t want to even think about either of us with someone else. But based on what Hector and Steven had told me earlier, other people would rather stick their nose in everyone else’s business.
“I’m tired,” Athena murmured in her sleep.
“Sleep, my love,” I said, placing her down on the mattress and pulling up the blankets.
Once I cleaned up, I’d bring her home, but I didn’t want to leave this place a mess for Michelle and the cleaners to tidy up. So, I pulled on my clothes, walked to the door, and turned off the light so she could get some sleep.
After stepping out, I locked the door and slipped the key into my pocket. Radiant was safe, but I didn’t trust just anyone here. I couldn’t leave Athena alone in one of these rooms with the door unlocked.
I headed to the back hallway, but had to walk through the main room first.
“Poor performance in there,” someone said behind me.
I turned my head and stared at my father, who sat at the bar, drawing his finger around the rim of his glass with his eyes focused on mine, a smirk within them. I pressed my lips together and tried not to let him get to me.
“What are you doing here?” I asked nonchalantly.
But what the fuck is he doing here? In Pittsburgh, out of all the places he could be in the fucking world?! Not New York City or LA or Europe. Here in Pittsburgh, in the freezing fucking cold, all to what? See me?
“Why haven’t you answered any of my texts or calls?” he asked.
“I’ve been busy.”
“Busy getting married?”
“Busy traveling for work,” I said, wanting to keep Athena out of this as much as I could.
Dad was here for a reason, and I really hoped that reason wasn’t her. He definitely knew about her, and he’d probably already had one of his assistants write up an entire file on her. She didn’t fit the Easton name or family. Not to my parents’ standards.
“Athena …” Dad said. “Is that her name?”
I gritted my teeth. “What do you want?”
Dad called to Abdul, who had been listening, but not looked over yet. Abdul peered at me, then at my father, who nodded to the bottle of whiskey behind him.
“Get my son one. He needs it.”
“Actually, I’m going home right now.”
“You’re really going to wake your wife, all because you don’t want to talk to me?” He took another sip and shook his head in disappointment. “I thought I’d taught you better than that, son. Women need their beauty sleep.”
God, I fucking hate him.
He gestured to the seat beside him. “Sit down.”
After blowing a breath through my nose, I nodded to Abdul for my regular and sat down in the stool next to my father, not sparing him a second glance. “I’ll tell you what I told Derek. One more party, and then I’m done with this family.”
Dad chuckled. “Is that so?”
Abdul slid my drink across the bar, and I nodded. “Yes.”
“What’re you going to do about your expenses? Your little business?” he asked.
“Why do you care?” I hissed. It’s not like you ever have before.
“You think your wife wants to be poor? Not when all her friends are with billionaires.”
I bit my tongue. How the fuck does he know so much about her already? Besides, Athena wasn’t like Mom, nor was she like any of the girls that Derek brought home to meet them.
“Athena doesn’t care about that,” I said.
“Sure.”
I grabbed the glass tightly. “She doesn’t.”
“She sure seemed happy when I took care of their bill at brunch today,” he said.
My nostrils flared, and I snapped my gaze over at him. “What?”
His lips curled into a smirk. “You heard me.”
Athena and the girls had seen him at brunch today? She hadn’t told me that. Usually, she came bouncing back into the apartment after someone complimented her or paid for her coffee. To pay for an entire brunch and for her not to say anything …
Maybe she had forgotten.
“We’re not going to be living in poverty,” I said. “You don’t know what poverty is.”
“Maybe not, but love”—the word came out in a chuckle—“if that’s what this is, can only go so far.”
I gulped down my drink in two more sips to ease the fury building inside me right now. He was trying to get under my skin, and he was succeeding. I fucking hated the mind games that he had been playing with me since I had been a child.
“She’s a cute girl,” Dad said. “Blushing and everything in the restroom.”
He’s lying. He’s fucking lying.
“What were you doing in the restroom with her?” I asked, seething.
After another chuckle, he set his glass down on the counter, squeezed my shoulder, and walked right out of the room without another word.