Chapter 14
Next day…
“You’re not going, end of discussion,” Ries told Stephanie from across the breakfast table.
“I need to go back to my apartment…”
“Whatever you need, give me a list and someone will procure it for you.”
“I don’t want someone to ‘procure’ it for me, I want my own stuff,” she told him, trying hard not to lose her patience.
The day before neither she nor Ries had felt good enough to be in public. But today, she desperately needed some of her own clothing. She couldn’t continue wearing his shirts and rolled up sleep pants.
“Fine, I will go and get whatever you need,” he told her, taking a sip of his coffee and eyeing her over the rim of the cup.
Stephanie took a calming breath before asking, “You can leave the apartment but I can’t?”
“I will have adequate protection and I’m used to being careful,” he countered back.
Stephanie turned away, not sure she was able to keep the hurt from showing on her face.
Does he not trust that I’m able to take care of myself? Or is he just trying to find a way to keep me from leaving?
She steeled her spine and then faced him again, “I want to go with you.”
“No. I need to know that you’re safe and that means you need to stay here.” Ries’ gaze was cold as she argued with him.
“If you will be safe, then I will be safe if I’m with you…”
“Out of the question.”
Stephanie bit her lip as her temper flared. Gone was the Ries who’d been so caring and loving before breakfast. In his place was a cold and impersonal man who did not seem to hear what she was saying.
“Why don’t you go back upstairs and take a hot bath?” Ries suggested, tossing his napkin down and rising from the table. “I have some business to take care of and will stop by your apartment and get your things. Where are your keys?”
Stephanie watched him, seething inside, but having no idea of how to convince him that she should be the one going to get her things. His suggestion that she go take a bath was just another way for him to get rid of her.
She left the room, doubts plaguing her mind and her joy of being with Ries fading with each step. She reached the bedroom she’d been sharing with Ries and finally gave free rein to the anger over his highhandedness.
Ries hadn’t even tried to accommodate her desire to retrieve her own belongings. He’d told her he couldn’t imagine living without her, and yet, he’d just taken great steps to distance himself from her.
She huffed out an angry breath and headed for the shower, stripping off her clothing as she went. She stood beneath the hot water moments later, her shoulders tense.
She washed her hair, forced to use Ries’ shampoo and conditioner because she didn’t have her own. She tried to remain upset over smelling like him but found it hard to do.
She exited the shower, combed out her hair and then entered the bedroom, standing there in a towel as she tried to figure out what she was supposed to wear. She finally grabbed another of Ries’ shirts from the closet and then retreated to the bed and flipped through the television channels.
Ries came looking for her twenty minutes later. Stephanie hoped he was going to apologize and invite her to go with him, but instead he gave her a stare she couldn’t interpret and then retrieved something from his dresser and left the room with a terse, “I’ll see you for supper. Stay inside.”
Stephanie stared after him, fighting the urge to scream in her frustration.
Over the next few days, Stephanie only grew more frustrated with Ries and his behavior. Each morning they started as friends, but the minute she talked about leaving the apartment and venturing out into town, he shot her down and demanded she remain inside.
Each morning after breakfast, Ries and Chris left to take care of business.
Stephanie had come close to begging him to take her with him but she’d noticed that when she didn’t immediately acquiesce to his wishes, he grew cold and distant with her.
After the first morning he’d refused to let her leave the apartment, she’d tried to sneak out after he and Chris had left.
She was quickly made aware that he’d not left her unprotected; he’d been prepared for her to try and thwart his attempts to keep her safe.
He’d left Carlos in charge of her protection.
Stephanie was furious when Carlos met her at the exit of the elevator, refusing to allow her to get off and going so far as to escort her back up to the penthouse. He’d told her she needed to remain upstairs until further notice.
There was something about Carlos that just seemed off to her, but Chris and Ries were comfortable with his ability to protect her, so any complaints she might have made would have fallen on deaf ears. Stephanie refused to fight with Carlos in a battle she knew she couldn’t win.
Instead, she merely waited for Ries to come back home.
On the fourth day of her confinement, Ries declared that he was staying in for the day. The closeness they’d experienced right after the shootout seemed to have mellowed somewhat.
Stephanie settled in the living room with a book, once again amazed at how the rich seemed to take so many things for granted
She was reading in a large overstuffed chair, her feet shoved in her fluffy slippers and her hair haphazardly pulled up on top of her head while Ries was sitting in front of his computer, going over something he obviously didn’t want to include her in.
Chris was standing over his shoulder and every once in a while, they pointed to something on the screen but their words were low and she assumed they didn’t want her to know what they were doing.
Carlos entered shortly before the evening meal, skirting around her and heading for the other two men.
“Was there something you needed?” she asked.
“Dinner will be served soon. I thought Ries might want a drink before then.”
Stephanie nodded her head and then waved him toward the door, “That’s a great idea. I’ll get it for him. You can go back to your security duties.”
Carlos looked like he wanted to fight her but he tightened his lips and turned around to leave the room. Stephanie watched him go and took her seat. When Chris and Ries looked up moments later, Ries frowned at the door.
“Who was that? Carlos?”
“He was going to fix you a pre-dinner drink. I told him I would. What do you want?” Stephanie told him, including Chris in her invitation.
Chris gave her a tight smile and then whispered something to Ries before leaving the room on silent feet. Ries came toward her, his expression tightening with what she assumed was displeasure.
“You shouldn’t have sent Carlos away.”
“He’s a nuisance.”
“He’s here to keep you safe.”
“And just how many of your women has he protected?” Stephanie challenged him.
Ries arched a brow at her statement. “My women?”
“Your brother seemed to think I must be one of them,” she threw Damon ’s comment out there. “You know, I’ve been wondering since that day, just how many women have you had? A dozen? Thirty? Fifty?”
Ries shook his head incredulously, “Those other women meant nothing to me. I don’t even remember their names.”
Stephanie pursed her lips as she digested his words. Ries was a playboy, of that she’d been aware. She’d seen him in action at the bar, beautiful women throwing themselves at his feet and clinging to his arms. Stephanie couldn’t help but compare herself to them, and she found herself lacking.
Maybe I’m just one of his women he hasn’t figured out how to get rid of yet.
“You don’t believe me?” Ries asked. “I swear to you, not one of them meant anything to me.”
Instead of feeling relieved or satisfied with Ries’ answer, Stephanie found herself wondering what she meant to him. How many of those other women had thought they mattered to him? How many had been wrong?
It never once occurred to her that the bevy of women who sought Ries’ company, had only done so in an attempt to gain Damon’s attention and access to the family fortune.
Ries was charming and good looking, but that would only carry one so far. It was his wealth most women were hoping to tap into. Stephanie realized Ries knew this, and still allowed himself to be used by these women.
“I don’t want to hear about your women,” Stephanie told him when he continued to explain about how none of them meant anything other than a momentary good time. “I don’t want to be one of them.”
“I’ve already told you that I don’t see you that way,” Ries told her, his eyes hardening and his voice going colder.
“Yeah, well, actions speak louder than words,” she flung back at him, hurt over his treatment of her the last several days surfacing.
Ries stared at her and then shook his head, “I don’t even know why I’m trying to justify my actions to someone like you.”
Stephanie’s ire grew. “Someone like me?”
“Oh, come on Stephanie. What does a woman from such a low-income background know about the women who throw themselves at me? They aren’t anything like you. They know what it’s like to have extreme wealth and power, and they simply are trying to ensure they never lack for either.”
His words were hurtful and Stephanie lashed out in response, “I may not know what it’s like to have a bank account that never ends or how it feels to command the kind of power where I snap my fingers and everyone jumps to do my bidding.
But I understand the way the world works.
I understand how men’s minds work. I’ve handled my share of shallow, spoiled and narcissistic men who only saw me as a conquest. I’ve come out on my feet. I’ve survived.”
I’ve had my share of spoiled men. I know how to handle them.
The words rang hollow in Ries’ ears. Was he only one in her long line of conquests?
Ries stared at her, his feelings about her confused as he tried to combine her words suggesting she knew how to “handle” men – and presumably dispose of them - with the innocent woman he’d come to care for over the last several days.
“I would have never guessed,” he murmured, almost to himself.
“What?” she asked him.
“That you could be so hypocritical. You want to hold me accountable for the women I’ve played with in the past – the past, mind you, and yet you’ve just admitted to having used your share of men to get whatever you needed.”
“I’ve used no one,” she argued, facing him and shaking her head at him in disbelief. “I don’t know what you heard but I never said I was using people, men in particular. I don’t use people. Ever. I do what is necessary to keep myself going…”
“Is that what you’re doing now? Surviving? Am I a means to an end?”
Stephanie’s eyes glittered with unshed tears and she made a sound that was part hurt and frustration. “Believe whatever you will. I’m not a manipulator or so shallow as to believe I’m worth anyone’s special consideration.”
She turned and left. Ries stared at her shadow, wondering if he was being used or if he’d made a monumental mistake and lost the best thing to ever happen to him. Fear that he was being manipulated led to an inevitable conclusion: that Stephanie would end up resenting him.
Chris stuck his head into the room and asked, “Everything okay?”
Ries shook his head and stalked to the window, looking down on the people milling around on the sidewalks below. “No, everything isn’t okay.”
“Anything I can do to help?” Chris asked.
“Catch this guy and let me get back to living a normal life,” Ries told him. “I want my life back.”
Chris nodded, leaving Ries alone with his thoughts.
Something had changed between him and Stephanie. And Ries was stumped on how to fix things between them.