by Lila Fox
“Yes.” I nodded.
“And what have you been doing there?”
“Um…” I cleared my throat. “I’m an assistant actually. To an artist.”
He sighed. “Oh, Rosaline.” His tone was disappointed. “You threw everything away to be someone’s assistant?”
I knew he didn’t want me to answer, but I did anyway. “As opposed to what, Dad? Being Daniel Bennett’s wife?”
“Watch your tone with me, Rosaline Reed.” His voice was sharp and harsh. The sweet, caring father was gone in an instant, and in his place was the man I had always known.
He softened his tone again. “You had so much potential.”
“Yes, I did,” I agreed. “ But you were never going to let me live up to it.”
“That’s nonsense.” He dismissed me. “I orchestrated a good life for you. Better than the one you would have gotten had I never picked you up from that dump your mother left you in.”
I fucking hated it when he brought up my mother. “Don’t bring her into this. She didn’t leave me anywhere, she died.”
My father’s hand tightened slightly around my wrist, not enough to bruise but enough to show dominance. This was new. “I’ll do what I goddamn please in my own house.”
I was getting impatient, we weren’t heading towards any sort of breakthrough here, only more fighting and anger. I snatched my hand away from his grasp. “Why did you want me to come back here, Dad?”
“It’s time for you to grow up, Rosaline.”
“I’m not sure what you mean.”
“Of course you do. It’s time to come home. I’m done letting you galavant across the country. No daughter of mine is going to spend her life as someone’s fucking secretary.”
“Well I guess it’s good that I’m not a fucking secretary then.” I was getting fed up.
He pointed a finger at me, his face suddenly puffy and red. “You watch your mouth when you speak to me.”
I stood up from the bed. “I’m not leaving Miami. I don’t care what you want. I’ve made a life there. I have a job and an apartment and a loving boyfriend and friends. I’m not leaving all that to come back here and be miserable with you and Daniel fucking Bennett.”
My father yelled from his spot on the bed. “You will do what I goddamn tell you to do!”
“Or what?” I screamed back.
He said nothing as he looked at me with widened eyes. I had never spoken to him that way before, I’d barely ever uttered a word against him. I had been weak. Afraid to stand up for myself, afraid of what might happen to me if he decided he didn’t want to put up with me anymore. I had been afraid of everything. That little girl who had been taken from the one bedroom apartment she shared with her loving mother had been thrust into an unfamiliar world with unfamiliar people and instead of facing it head-on, she chose to hide away.
I was ashamed of myself for letting him push me around for so long. I hated that I never took the time or the effort to demand to be treated fairly and to take what I wanted for myself.
I was tired of seeking his approval and telling myself I was doing the opposite I was tired of searching for love in a man who didn’t know how to give it. I made a life for myself, it was messy and new and ridiculous, but it was mine. Dex, my apartment, Nora and Cam, and all of the friends and memories still waiting to be made. I loved all of it, more than I had ever loved anything and I sure as hell wasn’t going to let Christopher Reed take it away from me.
My voice was calm when I spoke again. “I’m going to go back downstairs and finish my meal with my boyfriend and Valerie. First thing in the morning we’re leaving and I’m not coming back.” I narrowed my eyes at him, daring him to speak again. “I’m not going to marry Daniel; I’m not going to be anyone’s fucking trophy wife.”
I stared at him straight on, holding his angry gaze. “You’ve controlled my entire life with no thought to how I felt about it and I let you because I wanted you to love me. But I’m done seeking your approval. I have a life that I’m finally proud of any it may not be much but I did it without your help.” I smiled a bit. “I don’t know whether you love me or not and I don’t know if I’ll ever stop wishing you knew how to show it, but I’m done letting you walk all over me.” I cleared my throat and squared my shoulders. “And I won’t be coming back here until you learn to respect me. But I won’t hold my breath because I’m not confident you actually know what that word means.”
With one last huff I made my way back downstairs, the weight on my chest finally beginning to lift.
20
Dex
I wasn’t exactly sure what happened between Rosie and her father but she returned from his room happier and more relaxed than I had ever seen her. Her smile was as bright and glittering as her eyes.
As soon as she returned to the dining room, she interrupted the slightly awkward conversation I was having with Valerie with a deep kiss. Her little hands tugging a bit at my hair before she pulled away with a grin.
“What happened in there?”
From her happy expression I could only assume she and her father had reconciled. Maybe he apologized.
“Nothing.” She chuckled, reaching down to pick a room temperature green bean off of my plate, popping it into her mouth. “Dad and I just came to an agreement, that’s all.”
Valerie spoke up from across the table before I could. “What kind of agreement?”
“He’s going to stay the fuck out of my life until he learns how to properly treat me.”
Valerie’s perfectly painted mouth gaped open. “He agreed to that?”
Rosie shrugged. “I didn’t give him much of a choice.” She reached out to grab my hand. “Now, if you’ll excuse us, Dex and I are very tired. We’ve had a long day,” she said with a giggle as she dragged me from the dining room and into her bed.
I was woken up early the next morning by a soft knock on Rosie’s bedroom door. Looking down at the woman in my arms I made sure she was undisturbed before getting up to see who it was. Melissa, the young housekeeper, greeted me with a tentative smile.
“Hi, Mr. Dex.” She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “I’m sorry to bother you so early, but Mr. Reed is requesting your presence.”
I figured it would come to this. He was too weak to come to dinner and I knew I wouldn’t be leaving the Reed estate without hashing things out with him man-to-man. No matter how satisfied Rosie felt with the outcome of their conversation.
I nodded. “Sure, just give me a second to put something on.” There was no way I was going to face that asshole in just my boxer briefs.
Melissa led me up another flight of stairs and into a large room. The smell of sickness in the air making me turn my nose up slightly. The man I assumed was Rosie’s father stared over at me from his place on the bed. His pinstriped pajamas were perfectly pressed and his hair, the same shade as hers, was combed neatly on his head.
“Mr. Quinn, I presume?” The man spoke with the cadence of someone who was much more important than he looked in that moment.
I walked forward to shake his hand, tightening my grip a bit in his cold grasp. “Yes sir.”
“And what are you to my daughter?”
There was no way I was telling him I was her boss, and while the term boyfriend felt juvenile in comparison to my feelings for her, I had no other option. “I’m her boyfriend.”
Mr. Reed frowned. “What do you do, Mr. Quinn?”
I briefly wondered how long his questioning would last.
“I’m an artist. A painter, actually.”
He said nothing for a few moments, choosing instead to size me up with his steel blue gaze before letting out a humorless bark of laughter. “My daughter is accustomed to a certain way of life, Mr. Quinn. Are you telling me you can provide her with that on an artist’s salary.”
“Rosie doesn’t need me to provide her with anything. She’s perfectly capable of taking care of herself.” I hardened my gaze.
Mr. Reed snorted a
s if he didn’t believe me, I continued. “That woman showed up to Miami with $100 to her name and still somehow managed to survive, no thanks to you.”
“That may be, but Rosaline would have never had to leave home had she done what she was supposed to.” He sat up higher in the bed. “That girl has always had trouble seeing the bigger picture.”
I was getting angrier by the second. He knew nothing about Rosie. His own goddamned daughter was a complete mystery to him.
“With all due respect, sir, I think you’re full of shit.”
“Excuse me!” His offense was almost comical.
“You don’t know your daughter at all. The only person who has trouble seeing what’s right in front of them, is you.”
The man in front of me stopped, his breathing deepening a bit. I knew he was calculating his next move. Trying desperately to get me to see Rosie and I were no good together. Hoping my exit from her life would cart her back into his. He was pathetic.
“She has a fiancé, you know.” He folded his hands in his lap. “One who, I’m sure, wouldn’t care much to see her running after some lousy, two-bit wannabe-“
I was finished with this conversation.
“You’re a sorry son of a bitch.” I shook my head. “I’m beginning to think you’re just too goddamned stupid to get it.” I stalked closer to him, my face a mask of rage. “There’s nothing that can tear me from that woman. Not some piece of shit ex and definitely not your flimsy attempts at dominance. She’s the only one who has the power to keep me away from her.”
He smirked. “Oh, we’ll see about that.”
I leaned down towards him, forcing him to stare into my eyes. “We sure will. Especially if you even think about contacting her again with anything less than reverence and apologies on those lips of yours. We’ll see what this lousy, two-bit wannabe will do to protect the woman he loves.”
I straightened up just as Melissa returned to the room with a tray of food.
“You think about what I said, Mr. Reed.” I made for the door. “Have a speedy recovery, now.”
Rosie and I left the Reed estate with little fanfare and no goodbyes. As we made the trek home, I couldn’t help but be grateful for that son of a bitch father of hers. I wanted to kill him for his cowardice and mistreatment of her, but I was grateful it had brought her to me.
Rosaline Reed, in all her glory, was the best person I had ever known. She came into my life, burning bright and hot, filling me with more passion than I had ever felt, giving me things I didn’t know I needed.
She had helped me find inspiration and true purpose and while I knew she still felt lost, slightly adrift in a world where she wasn’t quite sure where she fit, I knew I would always be there. To help her and support her with everything I had.
Rosie changed me, from the very first time she showed up to my warehouse, her eyes full of determination. I wasn’t sure I truly believed in destiny, but as fucking sappy as it sounded, I knew she and I had been fated to find each other.
I reached over and grasped one of her hands. “I love you, Rosaline.”
She smiled over at me, her hair whipping in the wind as we drove along the California coast. “I know.” She kissed the back of my hand. “I love you too, Mr. Quinn.”
6 Months later
Rosie
“Will you be still!” I pinched Nora’s arm as she shifted from side to side next to me.
“I can’t help it, this is so exciting!”
The Miami Museum of Contemporary Art had contacted Dex about putting one of his paintings on display not long after we got back from California. The bastard refused to tell me what piece they chose, stating that he wanted it to be a surprise. I had no idea what he was up to, but I was proud as hell of him.
MMCA was one of the most prestigious art museums in the country and the fact that one of Dex’s pieces had been chosen seemed almost surreal. He was in the studio for countless hours perfecting it, shooing me away or making me promise not to sneak any peeks from my perch in the office.
I agreed, of course, and while it had been hard as hell not to look when I was left alone in the studio, I refrained somehow. Waiting eagerly for the day when I could lay eyes on the thing he had been working so hard on.
“Some champagne for the two most beautiful ladies in the room.” Cam returned to our sides, carrying two flute glasses filled with bubbly.
“I don’t know.” I chuckled. “She’s pretty hot.” I pointed over to a large sculpture of a naked woman standing a few feet away from us.
“Not as hot as my Nora though.” He wrapped his arms around Nora’s trim waist for a second before she pushed him off.
“Ugh!” She rolled her eyes. “Don’t be obnoxious, Cameron.”
“Don’t be such a snob, baby girl.”
I smiled as the two of them exchanged sly grins. They had barely spent a night apart since the first time I caught him at Nora’s apartment. Their banter was as legendary as their fights, but they seemed to suit each other well. I couldn’t have been happier for them. Plus, I had so much fun rubbing their relationship in Dex’s face.
“That smile on your face better be because you’re thinking of me.” My boyfriend’s deep voice startled me out of my thoughts.
“I was actually reminiscing about the good time my lover, James, and I had last night,” I replied, looking him up and down and thinking about how delicious he looked in his tuxedo. “Before you interrupted me, of course.”
Dex flicked my nose before leaning close. “You’re pushing it, kid. Don’t go too far and wind up on my bad side.”
I gave him a peck on the lips. “You know I love your bad side, baby.”
He chuckled, wrapping an arm around my waist before the museum curator took the podium in front of the painting.
“It gives me great pleasure to have you all here for the unveiling of Dexter Quinn’s newest painting.” The audience clapped. “The piece will be housed here at the Miami Museum of Contemporary Art for the indefinite future.” Another round of applause before the curator cleared his throat again. “I present to you…” He motioned towards the assistant, signaling him to remove the white cloth. “Rose in Bloom.”
My eyes watered immediately as I laid eyes on the painting; it was the one Dex had shown me all those months ago. The not-so abstract portrait of me covered in beautiful colors and half hidden by brushstrokes. It was still the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, next to Dex of course.
“I can’t believe you did this,” I whispered over to him. “I can’t believe you did this for me.”
“This is the least of what I would do for you, sweetheart. This is the least of what you deserve.”
I had gone from being a nameless Miami newcomer, begging for a chance at a new start, and desperate to forget where I came from to being immortalized in a beautiful museum, surrounded by other works of amazing art.
I wasn’t done growing yet, I knew that. I still had things to figure out and plans to make. I wasn’t sure if I would ever be finished growing. All I knew was that I was happy. For the first time in my life, I was unabashedly, deliriously happy. Not just with my life, but with myself as well.
Being with Dex Quinn opened my eyes to what life could be: full of love and all the passion in the world. He could deny it all he wanted but he had changed me. From the first moment I laid eyes on him, I was changed. And while I knew the road ahead of me was long and filled with unknowns, I knew I had him. Forever by my side. Immortalized in the very beat of my heart.
About the Author
Lila Fox is the alter ego of a twenty-something weirdo. She lives in a big city, works way too much, and eats a lot of gelato.
When she isn’t writing smut or thinking about writing smut, she can easily be found trying (and failing) to find the perfect man via Tinder or watching way too much television.
Contact and/or stalk her at the following places
@lilafoxwrites
[email protected]
Lila Fox, Painted Red
