“Maybe he should just get over it,” I snap, pissing her off.
She walks away from me, and I spend the rest of the day and night by myself, being forced to think about my life. Nick’s office makes a great hideaway, and the bar inside is a bonus. By the end of the night, I feel much better, and I don’t give a fuck about anyone. Not good timing for Cat to walk in on me. “What the fuck do you want?”
“Why do you do this to yourself? You can’t handle your issues without alcohol?” she says before continuing on and on about some shit about me needing to learn how to deal with my issues properly.
“You know what? Shut up.” I stand up, somewhat wobbly, but I manage to get stable enough to look down at her. “I care about you. That doesn’t happen to me very often, so yeah, I needed a fucking drink to sort it out in my head. I needed a fucking drink to understand why the hell I am so fucked up over one woman? What the hell is it about her that makes me so crazy that I’m sitting here cursing myself for letting you walk away from me with that asshole without telling you that I am sorry. That I do trust you, or I want to trust you, but I don’t know how. I … I, fuck, Cat. I can’t get you out of my damn head, and it pisses me off because if I lose you, I don’t think I could handle that.” I shake my head and leave her to go to bed. I strip naked, crawl under the covers, and begin to fall asleep when I feel someone crawl in next to me, naked and just as vulnerable as I feel.
“Don’t move. Just take my hand and go to sleep. I’m not going to leave you, Eli, no matter what dumb ass shit you do,” Cat says, letting me rest my spinning head against her breasts while she runs her fingers through my hair.
Chapter 24
Nick
Grandfather seems pleased with me today for handling some tense negotiations on my own, so he never bothers to question me past my duties of the day. Galena is blissfully excited about sneaking out with her boy toy of the day, so neither of them think anything of allowing me to continue on without questioning me. I go through my same routine as the day before and end up going back to her house. She seems to purposely make herself available to me, standing outside and staring off into the distance without a care in the world. She is either brave or stupid; I don’t know which. She has to know my grandfather wants her dead, and maybe, because of that, she is using me to prevent it. Yes, I bet she is. I should have known better. I should have never come to see her. Once the sun goes down, she disappears into the house, and I follow. It is quiet inside, except for the footsteps upstairs. My curiosity gets the better of me, so I follow them cautiously. I catch sight of her disappearing into her room, and I quickly move towards it. I open the door and slip in, instantly meeting her eyes. She lounges calmly on a chaise as if she was waiting for me to come in.
“Why are you following me?” she asks.
“I want to know how to remove this curse you put on me.” She laughs. “Why is that funny?”
“I don’t know what it is your grandfather has told you about me, but I have no power at all. I certainly cannot put any curse on you or anyone else. That is ridiculous actually,” she says with a soft laugh before picking up a book and reading with little concern about me being in her room.
“It is not ridiculous! I have seen it done,” I snap at her.
“No you haven’t.”
“I have to.”
“Really? When?”
“You are really annoying,” I say, and she shrugs. “If there is no curse, then why did I get so sick? If it is not you then it must be that other one I have seen you with.” She laughs and shakes her head. I want to grab her neck and … She looks up from her book and smiles as she turns another page. I … I swear. I gaze over her as one of her legs slides down the other and she tilts her head slightly to one side, allowing her hair to fall back over her shoulder and against her face. My head begins to become dizzy. I shake off my daze and refocus. Kill her. I want to kill her, but something is fighting me. “Stop that!” I say through my teeth.
“Stop what?” she asks with an annoyed expression.
“You know what. That movement you are doing. It is making me confused.” She stands up and walks towards me, shaking her head as she looks deep into my eyes. I step back, watching her move towards me with a confident sway in her hips.
She nears me and brushes her fingers against the corner of my lips. “You really shouldn’t drool. It gives your desires away, Nick,” she says.
Full of anger and disgust for her, I push her up against the wall. “I don’t like you. I wish I had never met you. Now, tell me what you want in order to get this curse, or whatever it is you have done to me, to go away so I can forget everything about you.”
“Mommy, Brayden is sick again!” The small one yells, walking into the room. His eyes focus on me, and I step back, watching him carefully.
“There are other people here? Who is Brayden?” I ask.
“Our son, our second born son,” she says. I squint my eyes at her. “Nicky is our first born son, and Brayden is the second,” she continues, taking the small one by the hand.
“It’s okay Mommy, Daddy won’t hurt us,” the small one named “Nicky” says as Kayla keeps him to the other side of her as if she is protecting him from me. She is powerful. She must be if she believes she can prevent me from killing such a small person. She takes a breath and leaves the room, allowing me to follow them.
The moment we walk into the room, an even smaller child stands up, sees me, and instantly begins crying and holding out his hands to me. I have never seen a child so small before. I step away from him, wondering why he is reaching for me. He cries harder for me as if he knows me and continues to reach for me. I reach out to him to see what he will do, but he does nothing more than grab my hand and try to pull me closer. Before I know it, he is on me and breathing roughly against me. His little hand grips my coat tight as he buries his face into my neck. I look down at him as he looks up at me with the biggest and brightest eyes I have ever seen. My mind suddenly sets adrift, and my emotions become even more confused.
“Are you trying to hurt him?” Kayla asks.
My head becomes dizzy again and spirals as I sit in an oddly oversized chair, trying to breathe. Why such a small person needs such a large chair I have no idea. I look up at Kayla and scowl at her. “What are you doing to me? You are weakening me again.” I look down as the child begins to whimper. I want to silence him, but his innocent eyes take hold of me, and I suddenly feel as if I have no power to silence him or anyone else. He lays his head on my shoulder and breathes with a sniffle, grabbing a tiny fist full of my shirt. I let out a single long breath as Kayla gasps abruptly. I quickly look her way, but she sits on the other side of the room, away from me. The other small one works his way into the chair and sits near my side. I don’t understand what is happening to me, or why or how she is doing it, but I feel powerless. I become so relaxed and peaceful that, after some time, my own eyes start to become heavy, and I have to fight myself from falling asleep several times before I give in and do just that.
I am not sure how long I was asleep, but when I feel a tug at my arm, I jump and see Kayla as she tries to take the smallest one from my arms. “I only want to take Brayden and put him in his bed.”
“No, don’t come near me. I will do it. Where did the other one go?”
“I already took Nicky to bed. He was sound asleep, too.”
“I wasn’t asleep,” I say, putting the child down into his bed and backing away as Kayla repositions him and covers him up.
“His fever is gone,” she says with tears in her eyes.
“Why are you crying?” I ask her.
“Because there is something about you always helps him feel better. Every time he gets sick, he wants you, and every time, you make him feel better,” she says, confusing me. Every time? What is she talking about? An image suddenly appears in my head of me holding the feverish child at a different time. I paced the room, trying to calm him back to sleep and feeling concerned for his health. The onl
y thing that would make him smile was a ceramic giraffe with a missing ear. I pause, looking over him and the room before going towards the closet and opening it to find the one-eared giraffe inside.
“Oh, that’s broken. We try not to let him have that unless he is … wait, how did you know that was in there?” My dizzying thoughts make me crazy, and I race out of the room with Kayla following after me. “Nick, where are you going? I thought you wanted to talk to me?”
“No, I didn’t want to talk about anything,” I say.
“Well I do.” She takes hold of my hand and pulls me back into her room.” I step back, but she steps into me and places her lips on mine, sending my head spinning out of control. Removing my shirt, she embraces me and warms my body in ways I never thought possible. Frustrated, I grab her and hold her back, only to look down into her tempting eyes. “You don’t want me, Nick?” she asks, and I slowly release my grip. She begins releasing her clothes and moving in a motion that captivates me into following her every move. Kayla eases into the bed, calling me to her. Like a fool, I go, pressing my rock hard cock inside of her. Every movement into her causes me to want more. I squeeze her breasts against my face, and she squeezes her legs tighter around me. I hold her close to me, enjoying her moans and caresses of my head. Kayla pushes me back and out of her. I don’t understand, but when she sits down on my erection and begins moving her hips against me, I don’t bother to ask. “Do you like this Nick?” She grips my hair and holds my head back to look at me with a smile. “Do you like this Nick?”
“Yes, I do,” I say, gripping her thighs, lifting her up, and pushing her back up against the wall, thrusting my erection deep inside her with a growl. Her eyes roll up into her head, and I smile, touching her neck with my lips. “Do you like this Kayla? Because I really like this too.” She looks up at me and kisses me hard and deep, and my head just spirals into an ecstasy that I can’t control anymore. I don’t want to let go of her. I don’t want her to stop kissing me. She is my drug that I can’t get enough of. She feels up the wall and back down again, fisting my hair and squeezing her legs tighter around me, moaning and calling out to me with a whimper until she fully comes on my dick. “You liked that, huh?” I ask, proud of myself. As she looks up at me, a smile comes across her face. “I thought you might,” I whisper before thrusting my erection into her until I come, hard and strong. I feel relaxed, and I allow her to pull me into bed with her and caress her warm body. The moment is nice. Kissing, tenderly touching, and teasing each other is fun and surprisingly familiar. “We have done this before,” I whisper to myself, but she hears me.
“What?” she asks.
“I feel like I have done this with you before,” I say, dismissing the notion.
Kayla promptly sits up and looks down at me with wide eyes, “Do you remember me?”
“I don’t know what you are talking about. I just have these images, like déjà vu or something. That happens.” She shakes her head at me. “Yes it does!”
“No, you’re remembering. You’re remembering me and your family, and you’re realizing your grandfather has been lying to you. The giraffe, you remembered using it to make Brayden feel better. You always used that giraffe to make him happy. You couldn’t stand to hear him cry.” I shake my head, but she places her lips on me again, and I fall back with even more images circling in my head. “Do you remember me working in your club? Do you remember rescuing me from those men who attacked me at the restaurant I worked at? Or when I told you I was pregnant with Nicky?” The more she talks, the more the images become clear, but it doesn’t make sense to me.
“Stop Kayla! I don’t understand why you are doing this to me.”
“I am not doing anything to you, Nick. He is, Savage, your grandfather, he is trying to poison you against your family so he can kill us and have you all to himself. To help him become stronger and more powerful. He is using you.” I get up, holding my head only to end up falling back to the ground. “Nick!” Kayla rushes to my side and looks over me with concern, but I don’t trust her concern.
“You are trying to kill me. Don’t deny it. Get away from me.” I force myself up again and fall backwards into the bed, smashing my face into one of the pillows in an effort to block the images rushing through my head. “Stop! Why are you doing this to me?” My mind continues to spin more and more until nothing.
I wake up to the small one hovering over me and holding my hand. “What are you doing?” I snap.
“Waiting for you to wake up,” he says, sitting back away from me. “You are okay now. Don’t worry, I helped you. I will go tell Mommy you are awake now.” He sits up and wraps his arms around my neck. “I am so glad you are coming home, Daddy. I have so much to tell you.” He jumps down off the bed and runs out of the room.
Not long after he leaves, Kayla walks back into the room. I quickly get up and find my clothes. “Are you leaving?”
“Yes, I should have never come over here,” I say, avoiding looking at her.
“Why? It is your home, you did build it. You had it designed after a house you saw in a magazine once when you were a child. You thought the family looked so happy that lived there that it must be a magical home. You asked your dad if you could live there, and he told you one day you could and bought the magazine for you to keep. He said he wanted you to stay focused on your future, on the happy future that was ahead of you. This is your home, Nick. Why shouldn’t you be here?” I look around the room as objects start to take on new meaning and familiarity. I shake off the notions and continue to dress and head for the door. Kayla grabs my arm, and instinctively, I grab her throat, leaving her little to room to breathe, but again, she stops me somehow. I cringe, dropping my hands and fisting them before racing out of the house and towards home. My head spins and spins, and my hearts speeds so much so that I have to stop my car and get out to gain some air. I feel like she is choking the life out of me, and I can’t figure out why. Why? Why do I desire to be near her so much, to touch her, to feel her skin against mine? Why do I yearn to simply inhale the breath she breathes? Why do I believe her to be mine and I hers when she is supposed to be my enemy?
Chapter 25
Nick
After some powerful negotiations between my grandfather and Mayor Powell, we find out he is eager to make some money on the side and is more than willing to give up some valuable city land for our needs. Grandfather sends me to handle the final details of the deal because he believes I have a better face for the cameras and the media won’t be in such an uproar with me shaking hands with the mayor as they would be with him. He is probably correct, but it isn’t something I am in the mood to deal with especially when Powell asks to meet me before the announcement to the media.
Powell’s smug look when I first walk into our secret meeting place is not appreciated, and I am already starting the meeting off in a bad mood. Powell immediately begins discussing our arrangement to make sure he is clear and then tries to renegotiate our deal. He asks for more from us. It is all that I can do to contain my rage as I realize this fuck thinks he can change the deal on us at the last minute?
“What did you say?” I ask him.
“I said I think I am taking a huge risk making this deal with your family, and I believe I am owed more for taking that risk.”
“You want more money after we already had an agreement? I made this deal myself. I know what’s at stake. But now, at the last second when we have few options left, you want to change the terms of our agreement?
He sticks his chest out and glances towards each of his guards before nodding. “I demand to be paid what I want or else I will make you regret it,” he boldly says to me.
Ro makes a gasping sound. “Oh, you should not have said that,” he says, shaking his head next to me.
“I have every right to ask for more, and as I see it … you have no choice.” Powell breathes in proudly, and Ro takes a huge step back from me while I move towards Powell with my eyes swirling.
I reach ou
t and grab hold of him, and he meets my swirling eyes with his suddenly fearful wide eyes. His guards make a move towards me, but Delin blocks every effort they make towards their boss. “I don’t like being told I don’t have a choice. Nor do I like anyone demanding me to do anything,” I snarl at him. “Do you understand me?” He nods excessively. “Good, now make sure you stick to the original deal … or else I won’t be happy, and you don’t want me to be unhappy. I promise.”
“I understand. I do. I will do exactly as we planned. I will even take a little less money if that would make you happy?”
I let go of him and step back, adjusting my sleeves back into place. “That sounds good, I suppose.”
Powell’s phone beeps suddenly. He takes it out and reads the obvious text he received. “You know what? I can even offer you something more.” He nods towards me. “You are going to love this,” he says. “I had a conversation with your grandfather about a certain person, and so I took the initiative and invited her to a meeting to discuss the same deal I am with you.”
“You made the same deal with someone else?” I bark at him.
He holds both of his hands up at me, “Oh wait, wait. I wasn’t going to follow through with it. I only wanted to do the favor your grandfather asked for. He said he would pay richly if I did this for him, true right?”
“If my grandfather promised you something, then I assure you, he will reward you like he said,” I say, wondering what the favor was.
“Good,” he sighs before typing on his phone. “My men are forcing her guards to stay outside so you can watch me kill her. You can report back to your grandfather that I did just as he asked.” He laughs as I look up and see Kayla escorted in and obviously completely unaware of why she is really here. “Bring her over here,” Powell demands as men jump on her and drag her, kicking and screaming, to him. “Your grandfather told me how much trouble she has caused you, and how badly you want to make her suffer for it, so you are going to enjoy this.”
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