15. A Plan
Chapter fifteen
A Plan
Lei
Lying on the bed with Moni's body wrapped around mine, I tried to steady my breathing and calm my racing heart. Although being the Mountain Master of the East required me to constantly deal with stressful situations, this upcoming challenge had me on edge.
Today. . .I meet her sisters. Will it go well? Or will it all go wrong?
That last thought alone made my heart skip a beat.
I turned my head to face her. “What should I do?”
“Just be yourself, Lei.” She raised her hand to my face. “They’ll love you.”
“Easy for you to say. You’re not the one meeting the Mountain Mistress’s sisters.”
She traced her finger along my jawline. “Be yourself. It’ll be a simple meet. Step up to them and say hello.”
“Do I shake their hands?”
She chuckled. “Lei, I promise you it is not that serious.”
“What do they like?”
“Why?”
“I want to have something to say to them. Unless you just want me to tell them about how I fucked you today.”
“Not funny.” She hit my back.
“What are their likes and dislikes?”
“Oh, God.”
“Help me out.” I lifted up and she left my back. I rolled over and gathered her in my arms. “Tell me more about each one, so I know what I’m getting into today.”
Yawning, she rested her head against my chest and closed her eyes. “Jo will be the hardest to win over. Just know that it will take a month or two at least. She’ll be quiet a lot around you. While she won’t be disrespectful in any way, she will always size you up, when you come around.”
“Okay. I’m fine with sizing up.”
“Jo thinks that she is the family protector, even though I’m the oldest.”
“Interesting, what does she like?”
“You’re not going to be able to bribe her.”
“We’ll see about that. I happen to possess a lot of resources to do just that.”
“Alright then.” She chuckled again. “Jo likes comics, exotic sports cars, and short chicks with really big asses.”
“Don’t we all?” I laughed and made a note to tell Chen this list. Somehow, we would have to speed up Jo’s trust process from one-to-two months to one-to-two days. “And your other sisters?”
Moni snickered. “Chloe is the next in line and she’ll be a little easier to be friends with.”
“Why?”
“She’s a typical teenager, trying to figure out how to be grown, yet completely dependent.”
“Okay.”
“Chloe loves to shop, talk on the phone, and it’s all about the boys right now probably because. . .”
I raised my eyebrow. “Because what?”
She sighed. “Because our father wasn’t there. Maybe she’s needed more male attention because of it. I don’t know. I’m not a psychologist.”
“Would brotherly love heal that?”
“Well. . .” She blinked. “It could, if Jo lets you near her.”
I chuckled again, already liking this Jo a lot. “And what about your youngest sister.”
“We call her T.T. It’s short for Tiny Treasure and she may be much harder to win over, but I don’t really know. This will be the first time I bring a boyfriend around her.”
I frowned. “I’m not your boyfriend. I’m your Mountain Master.”
“Lei. . .you know what I’m trying to say.”
“I just want it to be clear that what we have embarked on is not a simple relationship.”
“I know what we are.”
“Are you sure about that?”
“Very sure, crazy man.”
“Good.” I placed a kiss on her forehead. “Tell me about T.T.”
“She’s smart, probably smarter than me and you. Name anyone and she could beat them in a brain quiz.” Moni stiffened against me. “Her math teacher wanted me to put her in this private school for the talented and gifted but. . .”
“What?”
“It was on the other side of town and my car was untrustworthy. Keep in mind that I couldn’t even be on time with the rent, there was no way I could take care of that school’s tuition.”
“We have two gifted and talented schools here in the East.”
“I’ll have to check them out.”
“We’ll check them out together .”
Her body softened. “Okay, but you don’t have to come.”
“We’re together now so that means that you’ll help me rule the East and I’ll help you with your sisters.”
“Well. . .I don’t need the help.”
I smirked. “You do.”
She sighed. “Yeah. . .maybe I do.”
“What does T.T. like?”
“She gets uber obsessed with things when they grab her interest like. . .I don’t know how to explain it. It’s a little unnatural. I mean. . .me and my sisters don’t get like that so I never know how to deal with it. But T.T. picks a topic and then gets intense and highly focused on it.”
“Give me an example.”
“She’ll stay up all night, writing notes, drawing diagrams, and just talking about it on and on and on like. . .she just will not let it go.”
I closed my eyes and breathed Moni in. “She sounds like Dima a little bit. He used to be that way when we were kids. Obsessed with these little toy gangster soldiers. I think he still collects them.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.” I savored the warmth of her. “Dima is super smart too.”
“I’ll have to meet him.”
I snapped my eyes open. “No time soon.”
She quirked her brows. “Why not?”
“I’m a bit possessive of you.”
“A bit?” She chuckled. “A lot.”
I frowned and closed my eyes. “We’ll see if I take you to the North one day.”
“I have a helicopter. I can take myself.”
“You don’t leave the East unless I know and approve.”
“You’re so funny.”
But I’m not joking.
I kept that to myself, not wanting to argue in this loving intimate moment.
However, if she did take that helicopter out of the East without my knowing, the pilot and anyone else involved would be in a lot of pain for the rest of that month.
Moni could never be too far from me and any location out of the East was too fucking far.
Oblivious to my obsession of her, she continued, “Anyway, currently T.T. is obsessed with the Crownsville Bandit and his treasure.”
Yawning, I got more comfortable, pressing my soft, tired cock against her leg. “You mean her treasure.”
“What?”
“Her. The Crownsville Bandit was a tall Black woman.”
“What?!” She moved a little.
I opened my eyes and looked down at her.
She stared at me in shock. “What do you mean the bandit was a woman?”
“This is a secret fact in the West.”
“But it’s not in the museum.”
“They don’t like all of the treasure hunters coming around and lurking so some facts are distorted, but this is common knowledge.”
“T.T. is going to pass out from this information. We will need a mattress behind her when you tell her.”
I smirked. “Then, we will have one placed there because I’ll have tons of things to share.”
“Yeah?”
I nodded. “I’ve even talked to the Crownsville Bandit several times.”
She gave me a suspicious look. “How could you? The bandit is dead.”
“Dead but not resting in peace. Now she’s a ghost haunting Dream Lake. She wears this sort of cowboy hat and is always telling me to dig for wooden daggers. The bandit calls them keys.”
Moni shook her head. “I-I don’t even know. . .where to begin with what you just said.”
I shrugged. “It’s annoying. I always dig up the odd-shaped dagger just so she’ll leave me alone. Plus, her little army of ghosts are always with her. I never know what she can do.”
“Hold up. Lei, what are you talking about?”
“There are ghosts around the Jones Family mansion and when I was there at night—which happens to be when the ghosts like to come out—the bandit would come to me.”
“Duck said you used to stalk Chanel.”
I scowled. “Then, I’ll be having a talk with Duck—”
“Lei, you were really out there at night. . .stalking Chanel?”
“I would just be there making sure she was okay.”
“For how long?”
“All night.”
Moni widened her eyes. “Did she know?”
“Yes.”
“And. . .that was just. . .what occurred?”
“Yes.” Embarrassment filled me.
Months ago, I would have found this explanation of standing outside of Chanel’s mansion entirely normal. Now, I knew it was odd. Because in the end, she hadn’t loved me at all.
How long did she simply let me stand out there in the cold, looking longingly up at her window?
Hundreds of days.
I’d thought this was love.
Everybody clearly thought I was an idiot, but I didn’t care.
Now. . .as I gazed into Moni’s eyes, I didn’t want her to think badly of me.
“Lei. . .” She blinked again. “I don’t understand.”
Discomfort came. “That was the past—”
“But how long did you do this? A few days?”
I swallowed. “A few years.”
“What the fuck?”
Something odd flashed in her gaze and I didn’t know if it was jealousy, disgust, or shock.
I shifted against her. “Let’s change the subject.”
“I don’t think we can. You just mentioned ghosts and stalking, I feel like one of those topics should be thoroughly unpacked.”
“You’re right, but. . .”
“What?”
“Talking about my past is not something I want to do. Not now. Not here with you, after that perfect moment. Not when everything right now is so. . .amazing. I just want to focus on us and our future.”
Now it was her turn to shift uncomfortably. Sighing, she looked away, obviously processing my words.
There was this quietness that hung between us and I hated it.
“I’m sorry, Moni. Never mind. . .ask what you want and I’ll answer.”
“No.” She turned back to me. “I don’t know if I want to hear it.”
“Why not?”
“It might make me jealous.”
“There’s nothing for you to be jealous about.”
“Lei, you sat outside of her bedroom window. Right?”
“It doesn’t matter anymore—”
“You were absolutely in love with her—”
“I didn’t know love until you.” I seared her with my gaze. “I thought I wanted Chanel, but after you. . .I realized that I knew nothing about real love then. And I’m telling you. . .what we have. . .it is everything and more. It is. . .my oxygen now. It is why. . .”
“What?”
“It is why during the tea ceremony. . .I didn’t want to kill my father. I spent a few minutes thinking that I might not. If not for him, I wouldn’t have met you. . .and for that reason alone, I thought about forgiving him for murdering Romeo and Chanel.”
She pursed her lips.
“Because my life was nothing before you . Nothing. Just darkness. Needing. Hoping in a hopeless situation. Fucking stalking and being dragged along so I could be used. Standing out in the cold and wishing someone would love me. Emptiness.” I shook my head. “There’s nothing to be jealous of. That was my past . You are my present. My future. My everything.”
Moni’s eyes watered.
“Tell me what I have to do to make sure you understand that. What do you need from me?”
“I’ve got it.”
I landed a soft kiss on her forehead. “Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“Anytime you worry about my so-called feelings for Chanel, tell me. I’ll put that to rest.”
Her voice was a soft whisper. “Okay.”
“It’s just you and me, Moni. No one else. It’s just us ruling the East, conquering the world and taking care of your sisters.”
Tears left her eyes.
I brushed them away with the pad of my thumb and licked them.
Sniffling, she chuckled. “What are you doing?”
“You don’t know by now that I want to possess every bit of you?”
“I’m learning.” Emotion laced her voice. “I love you, Lei.”
I held her gaze. “I love you more.”
She was so fucking beautiful, even in uncertainty, her dark brown eyes wide and radiant. But beneath that beauty, there was a strength that grounded her. It was that inner resilience that had drawn me to her in the first place.
She rested her head back against my chest. “Well, at least we know one thing.”
“What’s that?”
“You’ll easily win T.T. over with your Crownsville Bandit information.”
“I can do more than that. I’ll give her all those stupid wooden daggers the bandit made me dig up.”
“Oh God.” Moni yawned and closed her eyes. “She’ll be your best friend forever after that.”
“Good.”
That’s what I want.
After a while, silence came and I wondered what Moni was thinking, because plans of our future were littering my mind.
More quiet minutes passed and soon, Moni's soft breath against my chest turned steady.
It sounded like she had drifted off to sleep.
I felt the rise and fall of her chest in sync with my own breathing.
I curved my lips into a smile.
I didn’t do a bad job. She owned me with that ass, but. . .I owned her too. My cock put her to sleep.
Happy with myself, I closed my eyes and tried to get in a little nap too.
But my mind wouldn't rest.
The cookout was soon and I would be meeting her sisters. Everything had to be perfect. I needed to make sure that Moni would always be by my side.
I thought about all the things that she had told me and an idea came.
I know what I need to do.
Slowly, carefully, I began to shift, doing my best to not wake Moni.
When I lay her tenderly onto her back, her fingers clung to my shoulders for a moment, but then relaxed, as she began to sink deeper into sleep.
All mine.
Slowly, I slipped out of bed, pulled on my pants, and quietly left the room.
To my surprise, four guards stood outside my door. Surely, they had heard quite a lot of our lovemaking earlier.
I quietly shut the door and called one of them over. “Where’s Chen?”
“He’s swimming with the others.”
“Too bad.” I headed down the stairs. “He’s got a lot to do before the cookout.”