Hating Him Wanting Him : A Contemporary Romance Collection

by Summer Brooks

  “Mr Cuthbert,” I said, trying to get him talking before he just completely kicked me out of the house. “I’m sorry to show up unannounced but I wanted to talk to you about…”

  “My daughter, Mia,” he said finishing my sentence. “Is she okay?”

  I quickly nodded, realizing that I’d probably just scared him. “Yes, yes she’s fine. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

  Mr Cuthbert let out a long deep breath and then squared his shoulders giving a nod to his butler who disappeared back into the room again. “You’ve grown a lot since I saw you last. To be quite honest with you, I didn’t actually think I would ever see you again. But you’ve spiked my curiosity so why don’t you come on into the study and I’ll fix you a drink.”

  “Thank you, sir,” I replied, following him back toward the study.

  When I walked in, I instantly recognized the smell of expensive cigars and brandy. To me, it was a bit early for that, but who was I to judge? I stood in the center of the room as he fixed us two drinks and glanced around at all the books that lined the shelves attached to all four walls. It was like a mini library.

  Mr Cuthbert walked back over to me and handed me the drink, tapping his glass to mine. “So, tell me, Evan Lagrange, what in the world has my daughter done that would bring you all the way out here to talk to me?”

  “She hasn’t done anything,” I replied. “The truth is a little bit extended if you don’t mind hearing the story.”

  He put out his arm, leading me to the couch. I sat down while he took a chair across from me. I immediately launched into the story, not really wanting to draw the whole situation out. He listened with patience and never made a nasty remark or off-putting facial expression. When I was done, he nodded his head and took a swig of his liquor.

  “How’s your father?” He asked, almost as if he didn’t hear anything that I just said.

  Thrown off a bit, I stuttered over my words. “Oh… He’s… My father’s just fine. Of course, he doesn’t know that I’m here and if he did, he probably wouldn’t be fine.”

  Mr Cuthbert chuckled and shook his head. “This drama that we went through 20 years ago is still hanging around, I guess.”

  He changed the subject, talking about the past, talking about when Mia and I were children, and launching into a couple of happy memories of my father from the past. At first, I thought I felt comfortable with him because he was relatively calm. But as the hours ticked by, I realized that Mr Cuthbert was a lot more like my father that I had remembered. I could tell deep down he was a really good guy.

  Mr. Cuthbert and my father were both men of old business. They started out their careers in a time where it was predominantly ruled by men, and rules and regulations weren’t as tight as they are now. They believed in profit, taking care of their employees, unless of course it interfered with profit, and little government influence. They had control over the first two, but the last one seemed to fluctuate up and down over the years. The man had some serious distorted views, the same distorted drive that pushed my father to do the things that he did throughout his career.

  When we were done talking about the past, he finally started talking about Mia and my feelings for her. “I’ll be honest. When I heard that Mia had been working for your company, I was livid. But as I watched her talk about her time in California, I could see it in her eyes that something else was going on. The truth is, I’m so tired of this rivalry. I know that you’re a hard-working man, with a kind disposition, and my daughter can be stubborn as hell sometimes.”

  With that, we began to laugh, and I pictured the stubbornness that plagued that beautiful woman on a daily basis. “I know this has to be strange for you. I was just a little boy when I last saw you and I didn’t mean for any of this to happen, but I guess you can’t pick how you feel about people. Well, I guess you can, but this one I have no choice over.”

  Mr. Cuthbert sat back in his chair crossing his legs. “Evan, it took a lot of courage for you to come here today. And not just because you haven’t seen me in decades or because your father and I had a battle over business, but because your father would lose his mind if he knew where you were right now. That alone shows me that you must have some really strong feelings for my daughter. I wish I could say that she felt the same, but she doesn’t talk to me about those kinds of things.”

  I was holding my breath at that point. Mia’s father was my last actual option. I knew that sitting on her front stoop was not going to help anything. If her father couldn’t make her listen to me, no one ever would be able to. “Does that mean you’ll help me?”

  Mr. Cuthbert rubbed his chin breathing deeply through his nose. “I’ll help you. It’s obvious that you care about my daughter deeply. I won’t tell her how to feel though, that’s up to her. But I will help you get her into position that will force her to confront the situation. In all honesty, tell her exactly what you told me. Tell her what happened, tell her how you feel, and then step back and let the chips fall where they may. My daughter is a beautiful person on the inside, but she also shuts down pretty hard when she gets hurt. I can only assume that’s the reason why she’s not currently allowing you to talk to her. Life is too short for me to continue to take history out on our future. I’ll make a couple phone calls.”

  I watched as he left the room, mentally fist pumping the air. I didn’t actually think it would work. Since it had, I was now facing the final stages of trying to get Mia back. If she didn’t listen to me this time, I was going to have to find some sort of way to let her go.

  24

  Mia

  “Thanks guys. Have a great weekend,” I said as I waved to my coworkers. I really was starting to enjoy having weekends off.

  Up until that point, I was so used to either working on projects that I wanted to get ahead on or studying for upcoming tests, I didn’t even know what to do with myself with two days off. The atmosphere at work was so fluent that I was constantly meeting or exceeding production goals. There was no need to work on the weekends. Our boss truly felt that in order to be the most productive and the most creative, we needed to have a life outside of work. I couldn’t believe that I actually agreed with him. I had always been the girl that thought if you weren’t always working or studying you weren’t doing enough. I hadn’t even realized that my mental health had taken a blow.

  When I got outside of my office, there was a car waiting for me. My father had texted me in the middle of the day requesting that I come over to his house after work. He wouldn’t tell me why, but he said that it was something important. For anyone else, that would send me into a panic but with my father it could simply be he had nobody else to talk about his triumphs and no one to pat him on the back. Either way, I hadn’t seen him in a while and I knew there was no way to get out of it.

  I sat back in the town car, looking out the window as we left the city and headed out into the country. I visited my mom a lot, but I rarely went to my father’s. He stayed in the country house, the one we used to go to on weekends to relax. My horses were kept there when I was a child, so I always loved to go there. After the divorce though, we moved the horses to a stable and eventually sold them when I lost interest. I realized that, yes, I loved my horses, but what I really loved about the stables was that my father would spend time with me. After he divorced my mom though, he became incredibly busy and there was no real time for it. Even when I visited him, it was always somewhere other than the country house.

  I let out a small sigh as we passed by the stables on the drive up to the house. It was the only place that hadn’t been taken care of on the property. Everything else was pristine, trimmed, and landscaped but the stables sat uncared for and overrun with weeds. I imagined the stables were a representation of my father’s conscience. He knew they were there, but they had sat untouched for so long that it was easy just to pass by and not do the work to clean them up.

  “Miss Mia,” Miss Beverly said as she opened the door to the house with a grin.

&nbs
p; Miss Beverly had been the head housekeeper for the estate for as long as I could remember. She had basically been like a nanny to me and I loved seeing her more than anybody else. I smiled and wrapped my arms around her. “Miss Beverly, it’s so good to see you. I don’t think you’ve aged a day since I was four years old.”

  She giggled and hugged me back. “It’s good to see you, girl. You look fantastic too. Just leave your bags right there by the door and I’ll hang your things up. I was excited when your father said you were coming to visit. I don’t know what he’s scheming in there, but you know your father is always up to something.”

  My forehead wrinkled and my eyes shifted from side to side as I walked behind her. Sure, my father was always up to something but it usually didn’t have anything to do with me. We walked to the double doors that led into the living room. Miss Beverly stopped before opening them. She looked nervous, which in turn made me feel nervous. “Now, whatever you feel about this, try to keep your calm. Your father meant well. “

  I lifted an eyebrow and shifted my gaze to the door. “You’re starting to scare me. Let’s get this over with.”

  She nodded and opened the door, stepping to the side and looking down. That wasn’t like Miss Beverly. She always held her head high, unless she knew something happened that might bring about a not so happy reaction. Gathering my courage, I charged through the door and into the large open living room. I squinted, the sun beating down on my face and blinding me for just a moment. When my eyes adjusted to the large windows cascading the evening light into the room, my legs stopped moving and my mouth fell open.

  Standing in the center of the room, with a nervous grin, was Evan. “What… What are you doing here? No. You know what? It doesn’t matter. This is an ambush.”

  I whirled around and headed straight back for the door. My nerves were flipping and flopping all over the place. I didn’t know if I was angry or just surprised, but my first reaction was to run. As I reached the doorway, my father stepped out in front of me, folding his arms across his chest. “Come on Mia, give him a chance to explain himself.”

  I scoffed and looked back and forth between the two of them. “Are you kidding me? You go by whatever he told you and expect me to stand here and listen to him? And all of this was because of the feud that two families decided to start when I was just a girl.”

  My father reached out and put his hand on my shoulder. “Mia, he told me everything. Even how he treated you, and his fears, but you have to remember he was a child of this mess as well. You don’t have to give anybody a chance to explain themselves, but let me just tell you from experience, you’ll go the rest of your life wondering what things could have been like if you had replaced that anger and hate for forgiveness. At least hear him out.”

  Gritting my teeth and letting out a long sigh I turned back to him and walked over, flopping down on the couch. My father waved his hand at us but I didn’t look. “I have a plane to catch. Try to work things out. I love you Mia and I’ll talk with you soon.”

  With that, the door shut behind me and I flinched at the sound of it. I kept my eyes focused on the floor, too afraid to look at Evan. I knew if I looked at him, all of my resolve would fail. “Well, I guess I don’t really have a choice. You came to my apartment but couldn’t talk to me, so here I am, trapped in my father’s living room.”

  Evan chuckled. “You’re not trapped. And dramatic is not the kind of girl that I came to know.” He walked up to me and knelt down, holding my hand in his even though I tried to pull away. I still kept my eyes focused on the floor, not ready to give in to the urge to look him in the face. “Oh Mia, I’m so sorry that I hurt you. The day that you left me in California was probably one of the worst days that I’ve ever had. And that day seems to have stretched out into weeks of agony. I think about you constantly. I haven’t spoken to my father since I returned and had a huge blow up in the office. You are right, I’ve lived under my father’s thumb for far too long.”

  I shifted my eyes straight toward him with anger. “We talked about all of this. We had made a connection, something that I’ve never felt before and I let you in even though it was dangerous. And then for me to stand there in the hallway and listen to you tell your father that I was nothing more than a pawn in your game, you made me so angry.”

  He nodded his head, his eyes shamed? toward my lap. “I know. I am not worthy of your forgiveness. But I’m going to ask for it anyway. It’s not to clear my conscience or seduce you back to work, it’s because in those few days together in California, coupled with meeting you in the bar that night, I fell in love with you.”

  My eyes darted suddenly toward him and my face eased a bit. He just told me he loved me. I didn’t even know what to say back to him and not because I lacked emotion but because in that moment, I realized I loved him too. “You don’t treat somebody you love like that.”

  He put my hand to his lips and kissed it gently. “I know that now. I let my fear take over everything. It’s not like we had the best role models for what to do when you fall in love with someone.”

  I chuckled through my anger and then met his eyes with mine. I wanted to stay angry so that I could protect myself, but I was drawn to him, I felt grounded when I was with him. I felt like anything in the world could be achieved by his side. There was no stopping it, I knew that if I left there in that moment, I would regret it for the rest of my life.

  With a deep sigh I put my hand on his cheek. “The truth is, I was in the same place as you. Only I didn’t have to answer to my father just yet. I’m not sure what I would’ve done in that situation. And I want to be so angry at you, but in reality… I love you too.”

  A smile pulled at his lips as he raised up on his knees and immediately pressed his lips to mine. A small whimper came from my throat and I wrapped my arms around him. Kissing him felt like home, like I did when I was just a girl riding horses at this very estate as the sun went down over the horizon. I found comfort and peace in his arms, and no matter how much I wanted to fight it and be stubborn, he was exactly where I needed to be.

  Standing up, he reached his hand down and helped me to my feet. No more words needed to be spoken. I glanced over toward the hallway to where my bedroom was located, separate from the rest of the house. My father had renovated it in hopes that as an adult I would come to stay with him. Until that point, I found it too difficult to be in that house, there had been too much pain. But in that moment, all the pain slid away and I felt nothing but love.

  I led him back to my bedroom and pulled the curtains closed on the large French doors leading to the gardens outside. He watched me as I carefully walked toward him unbuttoning my top and letting it drop from my shoulders. Immediately his lips met my neck I let out a deep breath, running my fingers down his taut hard skin. He picked me up and threw me down on the bed hovering over me as his hands ran up my stomach and over my breasts. My head tilted back and my eyes rolled, feeling the ecstasy of the moment.

  We were intertwined, moving on the same plane, his pleasure translating to me and mine to him. We undressed each other sensually, and he slowly climbed on top of me. Pointing my toes, I pulled my legs up to each side of his and gripped my thighs against his waist. His eyes were dark and needing and I kept mine locked on them. As he pressed inside of me, I lost my breath from both the pleasure and the intensity of our stare. It felt like I was locked there with him forever, but it was a good thing, a world that no one would want to leave.

  He pushed deep inside of me, groaning quietly as my lips trailed over his cheek. He had wrapped me in his arms I was as close to him as he could possibly get me. Slowly he sat up, holding me behind the back and pulling me with him until I was seated on top of him, the tips of our noses touching. We both paused a moment staring into each other’s eyes and then my hips began to move, grinding down on him, pulling him as far into me as I could get. His hands gripped my ass and squeezed tightly as my fingers dug into his shoulders and whimpers of passion panted from my ch
est.

  We moved in a rhythmic sequence, lost in our own world, pouring our love with every moment and every movement. My breath grew deeper and faster as my hips moved the same. He gripped the outside of my thighs and began to pull and push on me, mixing his motions with mine. I was full inside and ready to burst but went with our natural flow because I had no other control over anything.

  As my body reached the precipice of passion, I dug my fingernails into his back and took in a deep breath. He gripped me tightly to him and pushed me down hard onto his large stiff manhood. He groaned as I exploded, still swirling my hips against him. I could feel his fingertips pushing into my skin as he too released, taking both of us spiraling into orgasm.

  There were whispers of groans and moans coming from both of us but our eyes stayed locked on each other, our mouths hanging slightly open as our lips skimmed each other’s lips. As the pleasure came to a pulsing end, he slid his hands up the back of my neck and stared at me, his eyes now softened and meaningful.

  “Mia, I promise I’ll never hurt you again,” he whispered to me. “I love you more than anything else in the world.”

  I put one hand on his, my breath catching in my throat and my eyes watering. “I love you too Evan Lagrange and I’m pretty sure that’s never going to change.”

  Epilogue: Mia

  The crowd laughed and Evan rolled his eyes watching Conner stand at the front of the ballroom, dressed in his tuxedo, holding a flute of champagne in his right hand. “So, as you can see, from the very vivid pictures to my left, Evan has been a bit of a thrill seeker since he was… pretty much since he came out of the womb.”

  Conner flipped to the next picture on the slideshow showing Evan, no more than five years old, standing completely naked, doing some sort of dance on a large stage at his father’s house. Evan shook his head, laughing along with everyone else. Connor flipped the screen again. It was a close-up of Evan’s parents’ faces in the background. “As you can see, his mother enjoyed his sense of humor, while I’m pretty sure right here is where his father’s soul crumpled up inside of him.”