41. The Return
41 THE RETURN
Daphne
“Daphne, sweetheart, are you awake?”
I shifted, pushing myself to see my mother’s concerned face, “I wasn’t, no.”
“Well, we’ve had dinner. Would you like any leftovers?”
“No,” I answered. “I’m not hungry.”
“Sweetheart, you must eat.”
I remained too overwhelmed to eat—worried about Chandler’s mess and my board presentation on Monday. I wanted comfort and quiet, but Mother forced me to eat three times since I came home.
“Well, you should go to bed upstairs.”
“I know,” I said. “But I just want to spend a little more time here.”
“Alright,” Mum sighed.
She left me on my father’s office couch. I retreated here when I reached home. It was late. And yet, I couldn’t leave. If my father was alive, I would have run to him. He would have hugged me tight and said it would be fine soon. But right now, he couldn’t. So, I came to this place as it reminded me of him—down to the feel, smell, and look. This was where he did his best thinking. We climbed all over, crawled on the floor, and never bothered him. Because for Dad, there was no way we could. As Mum said, he had patience for us he lacked with others.
I rolled onto my side again, focused on Dad’s Tiffany desk lamp. He always kept it on, which annoyed Mum to no end. I stood, turned it on, and returned to my spot on the couch. Shortly after, there was a knock. Dora peeked her head in.
“Dora, I just want to rest,” I insisted.
“I brought you a brownie. I made them,” Dora said, sweetly. “If you gotta eat, why not a brownie?”
“I’m good, thanks,” I said.
She sat it on the side table. “Well, it’s here. And you should eat.”
I groaned. “You’re sweet, but I’m fine.”
Dora disappeared and I looked at the brownie longingly. That did sound good. And she frosted it. It was sweet of her to make my favorite dessert. Fine, what the hell!
I dug in, enjoying its chocolate chunks and delicious, fudgy texture. Dahlia was the chef, but Dora was a close second when it came to cooking.
There was another knock.
Mouth full of brownie, I shouted, “Dora, leave me alone! I’m eating your fucking brownie. Just leave me be!”
“Uh, Daph, it’s me,” Cal said.
I tried to choke my brownie down and pull myself together. Why was he here ? He hadn’t even texted first!
“Uh… go away?” I winced. “I am a disaster and… I don’t know what to say.”
“Daph, I doubt that is true. On your worst day, you’re still wonderful,” Cal said. “And you don’t have to know what to say. I don’t either except I am so sorry.”
I sighed, took a deep breath, and set the brownie down.
“Come in, but you’re about to regret ever bothering with me.”
Cal entered the study slowly. “I sincerely doubt any of that is true, baby.”
I wanted to believe him. He’d seen me bruised, battered, and covered in dirt, but I hadn’t showered or brushed my hair. My face was puffy from tears. I was a disaster.
He pulled the door closed. “I’m so relieved you’re alright.”
“I am alive,” I said. “I am not sure I’d say I was alright.”
“Can I sit?” Cal asked.
I shrugged. He sat on the sofa—a safe distance from me. I worried the space signaled something sinister.
“I love you,” Cal said. “And… you’re beautiful… so please don’t say you’re a mess.”
“I am a definite mess.”
“Well, you’re my beautiful, definite mess.”
His.
I squeezed his hand and turned to his gaze, his big brown eyes melting me. “I am sorry you had to clean up my PR disaster, Cal. I feel awful.”
“Oh, baby, please don’t. What happened was awful. It was abuse. If they cannot see it, then I don’t need to care about them.”
“The DNC, though? What is the plan, Cal. You want to go above that?”
“I’d like to run for senate?—”
“Cal, I don’t want?—”
He gripped my knee and cut me off. “Daphne, I don’t care about that right now. I want you more. I asked myself what I’d regret most. I asked myself over and over and every time you won out. Because, as Chloe reminded me, I want everything with you, and I need to tell you. It’s too soon. It’s too fast and probably frightening for both of us, but I want to have a life with you.”
I fell silent and tears rolled.
“Daphne, my place is so lonely without you. I missed you every day. And… I just want you near me. Always. Because you make me happy and because you deserve to be treated like a queen for once in your fucking life.”
I swallowed hard, unsure what to say. I’d been here before, but maybe the movie ended differently this time?
* * *
Cal
Daphne stared—almost through me—speechless. I laid it all bare, telling her exactly what I wanted. I told her what I needed. I couldn’t stop myself. Emotions ran over and I couldn’t hold back. What I wanted with Daphne was a lifetime. I already missed too much, so if I could have her in my life, I wanted it more than anything.
“Cal, I… I couldn’t...”
Her words drifted and I sank. I dropped her gaze, fighting my own tears.
“No, stop!” She scooted close.
I met her gaze. Her eyes were filled with soft tears, not sad. She wasn’t saying no.
“I just meant you shouldn’t give up on your dreams all because of me, Cal. If my past is too much, I wouldn’t want to ask you to do that.”
I wiped her tears, then held her face. “Daphne, I love you. You have waited decades to put yourself first. You’ve always played second fiddle because of the men who stood in your way. I’ve had a lifetime to reach this place. I’ll take the heat so you can shine.”
Tears ran her adorable cheeks. “But what if you resent me?”
“I won’t. I couldn’t. Baby, this is a blip. In ten years, we’ll look back and shake our heads. We’ll probably still be salty about it, but it won’t matter. You’ll have turned the company around and be riding high.”
“And you? What will you do? Do you really plan to peak here?”
I cried and laughed all at once. “I’m the mayor of a world-class city, Daphne. I’ll fucking survive. Unless that isn’t good enough for you?”
“You are plenty good enough,” Daphne took my face in her hands.
She leaned in, kissing me sweetly. I tasted her tears and breathed her in. Daphne was my everything. This was where I belonged.
She pulled away, staring a moment before asking, “You really think we will just shrug about this disaster in ten years?”
“I suspect we will be preoccupied with raising children, busy with work, and enjoying life to giving a flying fuck what Chandler did.”
“You’d have children with someone like me?”
“Daphne, I could only be so lucky.”
“After everything. You must have been horrified?—”
“I was. But the way I learned the news... it was… jarring,” I admitted.
“But you still want to love me? You aren’t embarrassed?—”
“The video disturbed me,” I said.
Daphne looked away, tears falling on her arm.
“Daph, it wasn’t because of what you did in an intimate moment with a partner who betrayed your trust. It was because you looked so out of it. He’d hurt you. Chloe said he coerced you. He?—”
“Stop,” Daphne cut me off. “Don’t say it. I don’t want to talk about it. But he did. And I’m ashamed?—”
“Don’t be. You did nothing wrong, baby. Nothing. You loved and trusted a man who promised before all of us—me included—that he would honor and protect you. He didn’t. You have such love in you for your family that you’d give up on a dream and throw yourself under a bus. But if you do, I’ll never forgive myself—or you—for it.”
“I won’t,” she said. “Davey threatened to fire me if I’m not at work on Monday.”
“Well, then I guess you should go?”
“Yeah, I should,” Daphne agreed.
“So, are we… are we good?” I clarified.
“If you are willing to take the hit, yes.”
“I will take any and all hits if it means I get to wake up next to you tomorrow.”
“Cal, I… I don’t know.”
“I’ve been without you for days. And we ended on a bad note the day you got the news. Please? I need you, Daphne.”
“And I need to be here for everyone else right now,” Daphne said.
“Am I prohibited from staying the night?” I nuzzled my nose to hers, then kissed her slowly.
Daphne remained hesitant. “I… I don’t know. You really want to commingle our ridiculous families?”
I chuckled. “Chloe was quick to point out that she couldn’t wait to see Mom do the mental gymnastics of falling in love with grandchildren she had to share with Lady Danna Delphine. Honestly, it sounds like a great time.”
Daphne snickered. “It will be a growth experience for them both.”
“I think it would work out okay.”
Daphne’s gaze telegraphed enough. She slowly leaned in, pulling my shirt and kissing me. It started sweetly and calmly, then turned into a deep, sexy, hungry kiss. I needed to run my fingers through her hair, but it was tied back. I yanked her hair tie and undid her mass of hair, curls flowing into my palm.
While lacing fingers tighter, I gently pulled her roots. She moaned into my mouth and pulled herself closer. Before I knew what to think, Daphne straddled my lap. Pulling back, I stared deep into her green eyes. Her nostrils flared and her ragged breaths could be seen well beyond the neck of her tank top as her shoulders rose and fell. Feverishly, she kissed me again. I wanted more. I wanted to watch her ride me. I wanted no time to pass until that became reality. I had to pull back.
* * *
Daphne
“Let’s stop,” Cal pulled away from my kiss.
“What?” I panted. “Don’t you… I thought this went along with the whole declaration of wanting everything with me.”
“Daph, not here. Look around,” Cal said. “I want to do this—to have all of you—but not here right now on this very couch.
I crashed back to the surface. He was right. I was on his lap in my father’s study. Maybe dead men didn’t matter. Maybe it wasn’t a matter of superstition, but Cal and I had a wholesome, honest attachment to this place. He was right. We should take the party elsewhere.
“My room, then?” I winced. “It sounds awful.”
Cal brushed my hair behind my ear. “Why?”
I pressed my forehead to his. “Because, baby, it’s just weird .”
“Not this weird.”
“I need to buy a house. I swear I will the minute?—”
“Shh,” Cal whispered. “You’ll move into my place, or we’ll buy a house. Either way, we will figure it out.”
“Can the mayor have a live-in girlfriend?”
“Is the mayor fighting every urge he has to behave himself at this very moment, Daphne? Yes.”
I snickered. “Okay, to my room, then.”
We climbed the former servant stairs and slipped into my bedroom. I locked the door to ensure some sort of safety. At least Mum wouldn’t walk in, and it wouldn’t scar her. Cal climbed on the bed as I tossed my clothes. By now, he’d already discarded his pants and shirt.
“I don’t have any condoms, and I don’t care,” I admitted. “If you don’t care.”
“And if something goes wrong, will you care?”
“I dunno. Do you want our tawdry love child all over the front of the Daily Tribune ?” I settled into bed.
“Our love child would be anything but tawdry, baby. It would be magnificent. Your eyes?—”
“And your chin? I’d take it,” I giggled.
Cal kissed me again, slowly lowering his hand to caress my breast. He kissed down my torso, sucking my other nipple. I moaned loudly, throwing my head against the pillow. My hips lifted towards him. As he continued to suck my nipple like it was his entire fucking job, he slid his right hand between my legs and slowly, delicately brushed his pointer finger over my pussy until I let out a glorious growl.
“More, please,” I begged.
“More?” He slid two fingers inside, making my legs quake.
“I’ve… missed… this,” I panted.
“Good girl. Are you going to cum for me?” Cal kissed my neck.
“My name isn’t… good girl,” I moaned louder. “Please.”
“Okay, princess. Are you going to cum for me?”
“Yes… oh God… yes!”
His fingers picked up speed, sending me into overdrive. I felt myself head over the edge, into heaven.
“Don’t fucking stop, Cal. Don’t stop,” I commanded.
Cal continued until I reached my climax. I tried not to scream, certain I frightened my mother and sister, but I couldn’t help it. After days without him and with no assurance it would work, here he was. Cal Markham was mine . No matter what, he was with me. And right now, he wanted to be everything to me. It was the best feeling.