Hungry Mountain Man

by Charlize Starr

  “I know why you did it. But I thought you didn’t want me anymore either. Fedor, I wanted you from the moment I walked into your study,” she said laughing, unable to contain her happiness any longer.

  “Are you crazy? How could I possibly not want you anymore?” he said and slid his hand down the front of her robe. Sylvia squealed and was laughing again, till his hand reached her breasts and she couldn’t laugh anymore. He was going to be inside her again.

  Chapter Sixteen - Fedor

  Will knocked on the door of his house, storming in without prior warning.

  “Pyotr! I want to speak to your Boss!” He heard Will’s voice out in the front. Pyotr was probably holding him back.

  Sylvia was lying on the couch in his office, her head was propped up by a cushion and she was reading a magazine held up above her face. She dropped it to the floor and turned her face to look at him. Fedor hung up the phone at the same time.

  “That’s dad. Does he know I’m here?” Sylvia asked, shifting her body to sit up. She had gotten much bigger now, she was in her sixth month. Will hadn’t contacted his daughter in nearly seven months and had still not solved the problem with his rivaling gangs in New York.

  “Someone might have tipped him off,” Fedor said, adjusting the tie at his neck. They had spent the past months in his holiday home in Puerto Rico and Sylvia had had a smooth pregnancy. They had taken the time to get to know each other.

  Now that they were back in Chicago, it was time for him to start winding down his businesses, setting up trust funds and charities. He had made his decision, this life as he knew it was over. It was the beginning of a new phase of his life. He was going to give all this up and move permanently to Puerto Rico with Sylvia and baby. She was bursting with ideas of what to do with all the money he had laundered away to Swiss banks. It was time to give back to the community. It was time to retire.

  “Honey?” Sylvia had walked over to his desk and now stood behind him, placing her hands on his shoulders. She was in a tight black lycra dress, and her belly bulged out where his child was. Fedor smiled and placed a hand on her abdomen, he could feel his son kicking. He looked up at Sylvia, at the face of the woman who had made all this possible, who had inspired him to have a new life, and he was thankful. Nothing and nobody was going to keep them apart, especially not her father, no matter how close as friends they once were.

  “I’ll do the talking. I owe him an explanation,” Fedor said, patting her hand on his shoulder and then standing up.

  “I want to be here when you talk to him. I don’t want him accusing you of anything,” Sylvia said and accepted a kiss on the cheek from him. He touched her nose with his forefinger and smiled.

  “Let him in, Pyotr,” Fedor yelled and the doors burst open. Will Stern was standing at the door to his office and couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

  “Welcome to our home, father. It’s lovely to see you after so long,” Sylvia said and walked towards him with open arms.

  Will hesitated, then opened his arms and hugged his daughter.

  *****

  THE END

  Daddy's Bossy Friend

  Description

  Daddy says I’m in danger.

  So he’s shipped me off to Alaska.

  With his best friend. My bodyguard. My protector.

  But what daddy doesn’t know is that his best friend and I have a past.

  I saved myself for him.

  And now I want him to take what belongs to him.

  He’s bossy, he’s demanding and he’ll teach me.

  We’re all alone in the woods.

  No one can find out we’re here.

  It’ll be our secret.

  Or we’ll end up dead.

  But what happens in the woods doesn’t stay in the woods.

  Chapter 1 – Virginia

  I had a stack of books, mostly on the history of the slave trade in North Africa, which I had carried with me to the campus coffee shop. Casey and I had just got out of Professor Simmons’ sociology class, and she had dragged me here.

  “Aren’t you going to return them to the library?” Casey asked as we sat down at our usual table by the large windows. I knew why Casey liked to sit there; it gave her the perfect vantage point to spy on all the “cute” guys she was drooling over. Personally, I couldn’t care less.

  “Yeah, once I’m done reading them,” I remarked and deposited the books in a pile on the floor by my feet. There wasn’t enough space for them on the table.

  “I thought these books were just for the essay we submitted today,” Casey asked and shook her head like she was disappointed in me.

  “But I’m not done reading them!” I said with a laugh and she rolled her eyes.

  “You’re too intense, Virginia. You need to relax! We’re in college, look around you!” she exclaimed and took a dainty sip of her coffee, conscious of not letting her lipstick rub onto the edge of the coffee mug.

  “I know, we’re in college . . . here for the education, remember?” I said, still laughing. This wasn’t the first time that Casey and I were having a conversation like this. This wasn’t the first time that she was telling me to get a life, by which she meant a love life.

  “Anyway, can we talk about something other than the slave trade in North Africa for a moment? I think I have a headache coming on from the last lecture,” Casey said and I sat back in my chair and nodded my head. In these situations, it was best to just go with Casey’s flow.

  “So, I have to tell you what Nathan did yesterday,” she began. I vaguely remembered this new guy she was dating; she’d told me about him on our last coffee date but I usually tended to zone out when she droned on about her boyfriends for too long.

  “Did you catch him with Suzie Chapman again?” I asked, who was Casey’s archrival. Casey rolled her eyes and made a claw shape with her right hand.

  “I’ll pluck her eyeballs out the next time she throws herself at my boyfriend!” she squealed and we both laughed, even though I knew that my friend was totally capable of doing that.

  “No, he actually turned up right on time for our date. Can you believe that? After six dates, he finally made it on time. Virginia . . . he may be the one!” she squealed with joy this time and I laughed and smiled and nodded my head. I’d heard it before. Every guy who was even remotely sweet to Casey automatically turned into the guy of her dreams.

  I gulped at that thought. What about the man of my dreams? I couldn’t even remember the last time I’d seen him. Was it at my parents’ Christmas party the previous year? I could feel my muscles stiffening at the thought of Carl.

  Casey must have noticed the sudden change in my demeanor because she leaned towards me over the table.

  “Have you thought about what I said the last time, Virginia? You need to put yourself out there; you need to get into dating. College isn’t all about burying your nose in books and churning out the perfect essays!” Casey lectured and I looked away from her and shook my head.

  “That’s just not me, Casey, I don’t date,” I said and when I looked back at her, she had her eyebrows arched.

  “So, you’re just going to sit around, waiting for the one to turn up?” she asked, and I knew she was laughing at me in her head. The truth was that the one had turned up, he’d been a part of my life since I was a little kid. He’d kissed me on my eighteenth birthday when he got too drunk and didn’t know what he was doing and since then, he’d avoided me. He stopped visiting our house. I couldn’t even be sure if he remembered the kiss . . . chances were that he didn’t. After the kiss, Carl had acted like nothing had happened. It was a short kiss, but he was gentle and masculine, unlike the other two awkward kisses I had shared with the guys from my high school. Kissing Carl was different – it was a fantasy come true and within a few moments it was over, and now sometimes I wondered if it had even happened.

  “Yes, I’d rather just wait for the right man than date every guy who comes my way,” I said to Casey and she shook her
head in disappointment again.

  “Such a hopeless romantic, you are,” she said, almost to herself, like she couldn’t even believe that she was friends with me.

  “I can’t change who I am, Casey,” I argued. It was the truth, I couldn’t change who I had feelings for. Even if that man was out of my reach and probably didn’t even remember that I existed. I couldn’t stop feeling for him what I truly felt.

  “Yeah, you’re right. Sorry that I keep bringing this up, we can stop talking about it now,” Casey said with a wave of her hand. Even though I hadn’t confided in her about my feelings for Carl or what had happened with him on my eighteenth birthday, I had a feeling that she knew something was up – that my love life wasn’t as simple as I made it out to be.

  “Okay, good. So tell me more about Nathan. Six dates huh?” I smiled widely at her and picked up my mug of coffee.

  Casey flipped her long golden hair back over her shoulders and settled down in the chair to start talking again. My friend clearly had a very active love life, and I was happy to just sit and listen.

  ***

  My parents and I always had dinner together. It was a family tradition that my mom had introduced since I was a little girl and no matter how busy dad was, he always made sure to join us for this meal.

  Dad was a busy man. He was the captain of a biker club, and even though I didn’t know much about the businesses he was involved in, I knew that he didn’t exactly belong in our neighborhood. We lived in an ordinary suburban neighborhood with white picket fences and golden retrievers in the yards.

  My parents were an unlikely couple as well. Dad was a gruff biker who rode noisy Harleys and parked them in our driveway. Mom was a petite blond who played bridge with her friends.

  I’d always been amazed by their love story, of how they had met at the hotel lobby where mom used to work and she had instantly fallen in love with this “bad boy” with tattoos, and dad had swept her off her feet.

  So, mom always knew the life that dad was involved in and she had been supportive and nonjudgmental of his choices. She loved him for them in fact, but she had also made him promise that he would try his very best to keep that life away from me. She didn’t want the family to be affected by his business and dad had done a pretty good job of that.

  I had led a relatively normal life: got good grades, had normal friends and always ate dinner with my family. To me, my dad was a hero. He was tougher than all the other dads I knew and he had instilled in me good values of courage and standing up for what was right. I was grateful for my parents. No matter how much other people might have judged my dad’s lifestyle, I didn’t. I knew what he was made up of and I was proud of him for it.

  We were sitting around the dinner table now, eating in relative silence. It was usually dad who did all the talking, but tonight he was quiet.

  “How were your classes today, honey?” mom asked, breaking the silence and I looked up at them and smiled. Just like dad, I had some things on my mind. Ever since my conversation with Casey, I couldn’t get Carl out of my mind. Now, sitting at the table with my parents, I was guilty of thinking about him in front of them.

  “Good, Mom. I submitted my essay on the slave trade in North Africa,” I replied, averting my eyes from them. It had been two years since that fateful kiss on my eighteenth birthday, two years since I had a conversation with Carl. Even though he had pretended like nothing had happened, what was the explanation for his absence from our lives?

  My dad and Carl were best friends, I knew they met often and spoke even more often. Carl had just made it a point to never visit the house anymore just so that he could avoid me.

  “And Mike, how was your day?” mom was the one trying to rally the conversation. Dad cleared his throat before he answered.

  “Fine, fine, everything is fine Abby,” he said, in a low grumbling voice and I knew instantly that something wasn’t fine. Dad was always cheerful at dinner. Because he was so busy during the day, and rarely ever had time to spend with his family, meal times were precious to him.

  “No, actually, everything is not all fine. We’ve been receiving threats,” Dad said and his spoon clanked against the plate when he dropped it. I flinched and looked up at him. Dad’s eyes were bloodshot and he was gritting his teeth. Mom was staring at him, too, and she had a worried expression on her face.

  “Threats? What kind of threats? Threats to your life?” Mom asked, and her voice had turned screechy. My mother was a dainty delicate woman, and I knew that my dad did his best to keep her shielded from everything that went on in his life at the biker club. So, for him to admit that there was something dangerous going on in his life meant that it had to be something very serious.

  “No, not threats to my life . . . forget it Abby, forget I said anything,” Dad growled and he threw me a quick look before toying with the food on his plate.

  “What’s going on, Dad?” I asked, peering at him.

  “Now, Virginia, you stay out of this honey. If dad doesn’t want to talk about it, let him be,” Mom said turning to me. She had always desperately tried to shield me from dad’s lifestyle, but I had always been curious.

  I had known that there was an element of danger involved in his business, and I didn’t think that some knowledge about it could really hurt.

  “But Dad should be allowed to discuss it with his family. Who else is he going to talk about it with?” I argued with her.

  I could see Dad clenching his fists like he was trying to control his rage.

  “He can talk to me, honey, you don’t need to know,” Mom argued in a soft voice and Dad banged his fists on the table. Mom and I both fell silent at that. I had never seen Dad react like this. I was fully aware of the violence he was capable of – his work required him to be like that – but he had never behaved like this in front of us. Something was seriously wrong.

  “Your mom is right, mouse, please just forget about it. Forget I said anything, baby,” dad said and started chewing his food angrily.

  I couldn’t argue with him. I glared at him though, trying to persuade him to spill the beans, but Dad wasn’t about to budge.

  So, the three of us went back to eating our meal in silence.

  Chapter 2 – Carl

  I was in the middle of my morning meeting with the team when Mike walked into my office. He stood at the door and our eyes met and instantly I knew that something was up.

  “Okay, that’s it, folks. Back to work,” I said to my team, which was made up of big muscular men who I had trained in the art of security. I ran a high profile security firm and provided clients with the best-trained bodyguards that money could buy. Every morning, we met as a group to discuss strategies and plans and how best to tackle tricky situations.

  Mike waited until all the men in my team had trickled out of the room before he approached my desk.

  “Mike,” I tipped my head at my best friend, who breathed in deeply and crossed his arms over his wide chest. We had been friends since high school. We ran with the same crowd, had gotten ourselves in the same trouble until we both chose two different businesses to get involved in. Mike was the head of a biker club, while I was the head of a security firm. In a lot of ways, our work wasn’t very much different from the other.

  “Hey, man, I didn’t mean to interrupt your meeting. I just needed to talk to you,” Mike said, and then I watched him turn around and go shut the door of my office.

  “What’s up, Mike?” I asked, and when he came back to stand in front of me, I could see that his eyes were bloodshot and he looked nervous about something. I could always tell the difference when Mike was hungover or when there was something bothering him. This morning, my friend wasn’t hungover.

  “Someone’s been threatening Virginia,” Mike said. At the mention of his daughter’s name, I felt my spine stiffen and I had to resist the urge to look away from my friend. I still hadn’t gotten over the guilt that wrecked me every day. The guilt of kissing my best friend’s daughter. No matter
how drunk I was, it was not an excuse and I knew that if Mike ever found out, he would never forgive me for it.

  “What do you mean by that?” I asked, following his every movement with my eyes as Mike started pacing the room.

  “I mean that we’ve been receiving death threats, phone calls, packages, messages. Someone wants to get to Virginia and I have to start taking it seriously now,” Mike said and ran a hand through his thinning hair.

  “Do you know who it is?” I asked. I could see that my friend was upset, and of course, he had every right to be. Virginia was the most precious part of his life.

  “I would have done something about it by now if I knew!” he thundered and I saw the rage in his eyes. He rushed towards me apologetically and shook his head.

  “Sorry, Carl, I’m sorry. As you can see, I’m fucking losing my mind!” he growled and clutched his head with both hands.

  “Okay, Mike, you need to calm down. Tell me what I can do to help. Do you have any leads I can chase?” I asked, trying to catch his roaming gaze.

  “There is something you can do for me, Carl. You are my most trusted friend. I can’t trust anyone else with this; we’re talking about my daughter’s life!” Mike sounded like a madman as he spoke. I could see that he was losing his mind with worry.

  “Yes, okay. Tell me, Mike, what can I do?” I said and I watched as he slipped his hand into the pocket of his leather jacket and extracted two tickets which looked like they were for flights. I had my brows crossed as I stared at him.

  “I want you to take her, and disappear for a few days. Just a week, give me some time to figure this shit out,” he said and stuck the tickets out towards me. I felt like someone had knocked the wind right out of my lungs. Mike wanted me to take his daughter, Virginia, the girl I had kissed on her eighteenth birthday and had tried so hard to avoid since then, and spend a week with her?