Jenay wanted to ask him why would he be so mortified, since he really didn’t know her like that, but she already knew why. It was the same reason she was so glad to see him. But she had to ask him anyway. “Why were you so mortified?” she asked him.
Charles hesitated. Jenay thought he was thinking about how to respond, but he wasn’t. He already knew the answer. “Because it was you,” he said. “Because in my eyes, you’re different too, Jenay. You’re a very special lady.”
Jenay wanted to smile, but a question was on her tongue. So she asked it. “What about you?” she asked. “How do you normally spend your Friday nights?”
“When I’m not working you mean?”
“Yes.”
Charles hesitated. “I’ll usually go out.” He hesitated again. “Or invite someone in.”
Jenay’s heart began to pound. “A female?”
Charles nodded. “Yes.”
“The same female, or various ones?”
Charles didn’t want to respond to that. So he didn’t.
But his silence spoke volumes to Jenay. She stood up.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, surprised by her sudden movement. He stood up too.
“Nothing’s wrong. I just know I’d better get some rest. I’ve got to be to work at six in the morning.”
“Six? Capani’s opens at six?”
“No, not the restaurant. I help out a friend on the weekends. He owns a small catering company. He’s doing a party tomorrow afternoon.”
This concerned Charles. “My goodness, Jenay. Do you get any rest?”
“It’s not every weekend. And the weekends when he needs my help, yes, I get rest. Like I need to do now.”
Charles knew what it meant. She was politely asking him to leave. His honesty had blown it. He had all but told her he was seeing other women. Numerous other women. She wasn’t interested in being yet another one. But it did feel strange to Charles, being turned down. It was a first for him in many, many years.
“I’d better leave you to it then,” he said, as they began to walk toward the door. When they arrived at the door, he turned back around.
“My interest in you isn’t only sexual, Jenay,” he felt a need to say.
Jenay studied him. “What is it then?”
Charles couldn’t answer that either. “I don’t know,” he said.
“And neither do I,” she responded. “So what good would come of it?”
He knew it was true. He hadn’t even intended to look her up today. Why was he there now? What was it about her that had him even there?
“Good night, Jenay,” he said, leaned over, and kissed her sweetly on the lips.
Jenay leaned into his kiss, and very much wanted more, but she couldn’t allow it. He wasn’t in town for her, he was in town handling his business and happened to run into her. She wasn’t about to get it twisted.
“Good night, Charlie,” she said, and opened the door to facilitate his exit.
CHAPTER NINE
One Week Later
Brent Sinatra hurried into the family home just as his younger brother, Tony, was coming out of the library.
“Where’s Dad?” Brent asked.
“Funny thing,” Tony said, a book in his hand. “Many people, I daresay most, usually says hello when they enter a home.”
“Anthony!”
“He’s upstairs,” Tony quickly responded. “Gosh! You’re getting just like him!”
But Brent was already heading up, taking the stairs three at a time. When he entered the master bedroom, and saw his father standing at the peninsular inside his room-sized, walk-in closet, he hurried to him.
“How could you do it, Dad?”
Charles was buttoning his dress shirt. He looked at his oldest child, the child, now twenty-two, that he fathered when he was seventeen years old. Of all of his four sons, he had hoped Brent would want to follow in his footsteps. Of all of his four sons, Brent was the one who least wanted to follow in his footsteps. “Good morning,” Charles said. He was as calm as his oldest son was animated.
“How could you say no, Dad?”
Charles looked at Brent with a cold gaze Brent knew all too well. Come to me right, his father used to tell them when they were children, or don’t come to me at all. Brent settled down. “Good morning,” he said.
“When did you get in town?” Charles asked.
“I just got here.”
“You have one semester left before graduation. Don’t blow it.”
“I won’t.”
“Don’t drop out like your brother Tony did. Talking about he’s going to Africa. He’s going to be a missionary. All of that money I spent on his education, and he wants to do something that doesn’t even require a degree! I didn’t get to go to college when I was his age. And he thinks I’m going to let him throw it all away? He’ll be back in school next term.”
Why was he telling Brent that? Brent already knew all of that. “I’m not dropping out, Dad,” he said. “Kerstin called and told me what happened. Her father’s very distraught.”
“Oh yeah? And how is that my problem?”
“You won’t give him the loan. He was counting on that loan, Dad!”
“The bank won’t give him the loan.”
“And like everything else around here,” Brent reminded his father, “you own the bank.”
“I own one of the banks in town, that is correct. But if my bank, if Jericho Mutual turned him down, he should try the two other banks in town. I’m not the only show in town.”
“But you’re the only show with the capital for his kind of investment. He even asked me if he should apply, and I told him sure. I was certain you wouldn’t turn him down. Not Kerstin’s father! I plan to marry Kerstin someday. Her father is going to be my father-in-law. Do you know how embarrassing that is?”
Charles grabbed a tie from a rack of ties and began putting it on. “You should have stayed out of it, son,” he said.
“How was I to know you’d turn him down? And don’t tell me you didn’t see the application. Mr. Hopson wanted a loan to open a major department store. It would have had to reach your desk!”
“Watch your tone,” Charles warned his son.
“But it’s wrong, Dad. Kerstin’s upset, her father and his business partners are upset. You could have approved his loan. You could have given the man a chance to make his dream come true. But that would have been too much like decent, wouldn’t it? Too much like showing compassion for people. And you wonder why everybody in this town hate your guts. They hate you because they know exactly what kind of ruthless man you are!”
Charles grabbed his son by the catch of his shirt and jacked him up against the wall. His face had that hard edge Brent knew so well. “Who do you think you’re talking to? You’re going to make me give that man my money? Is that what you thought you were going to come here to do? He may be your girlfriend’s father, and you may love him to death. But I don’t share such sentiment toward the man. I did my homework. He didn’t want a loan from my bank because I’m your father and he wanted to throw some business my way. Are you kidding me? He came to me because he already has a loan with Farmers’ Merchant Bank, and he already has a loan with Maine Federal! And both of those loans are damn-near in default! And you expect me to fork over a quarter million dollars to a man like that?”
Charles calmed back down. “And you’re right,” he continued. “Everybody knows exactly how I am, including Kerstin’s father. He knew exactly how I was when he walked into my bank asking for that loan.”
Charles released his son’s shirt. “Get the fuck out of my face,” he said as he released him. “He wanted charity, why did he come to me? Do I look like a fucking charity?” He looked angrily at his son. “Well do I?”
Brent was breathing heavily. One day he was going to rise up against his father. He had the personality for it. But that day wasn’t going to be this day. “No, sir,” he said.
Charles stared at his oldest son. He hate
d to lose his temper with any of his boys, but when they came to him with that stupid stuff, what did they expect him to do? Applaud them? Agree with them?
“Stay out of it, son,” he ordered. “This is between Freddy Hopson and me. If your girlfriend blames you for my actions, she wasn’t worth having to begin with. Life’s too short to waste your time on fools. Dump her and find yourself a real woman. Life’s too short to settle for anything less.”
But Brent was still seething. “It’s always about money with you,” he said. “Isn’t it?”
“Money?”
“That’s why you took Russ Ferraway’s land. And Joe Mason’s. Isn’t it? It’s the talk of the town. Even when he tried to catch up all of those late payments, you wouldn’t let him.”
“He knew what time it was. He knew that note had already come due. He could have sold that Mercedes and tried to catch up that note. But he didn’t. And what did I just tell you? That’s my business. Stay out of my business.”
“But what if he raises the money now, and pays the back payments?”
“It’s done, Brenton. We called in the note. Joe Mason either pays the full amount, or nothing at all.”
“And you take over his property,” Brent said, as if his father was committing a crime. “Land you don’t even need.”
But the subject was closed as far as Charles was concerned. “Find yourself a woman of substance, Brent,” he said. “Life’s too short.”
Brent looked at his father with an anger he could barely contain. “You don’t care, do you? You don’t care that everybody in this town hates you?”
“Everybody in this town fears me,” Charles said. “There’s a difference.”
Brent was shaking his head. “No, sir,” he said. “No, it’s not. There’s no difference at all. And then for a man like you to tell me to dump Kerstin and find myself a woman of substance? Yeah, right. Find yourself a heart, Pop. Find yourself a heart!”
Brent said this, and then angrily left his father’s bedroom just as Tony was walking in. Brent, in fact, brushed against Tony as he walked past him so fast, that Tony tilted sideways. Tony looked across the room at his father. Conventional wisdom was that his father was the asshole of assholes in Jericho County. But unlike the county, Tony never bought it. Tony knew better than that. “You okay, Pop?” he asked as he walked toward him.
Charles grabbed his tie pin, and slipped it onto his tie. His oldest boy just told him he had no heart. He had no heart, he said. “I’m fine,” he replied.
“Don’t listen to Brent,” Tony said as he turned his father toward him, and began to straighten his tie. He knew his father was still reeling. He knew his father hated that his oldest son felt that way about him. “Brent’s always blowing smoke. He says you have no heart,” Tony said as he placed his hand on his father’s chest. “But if you have no heart, then why is it hammering?”
Charles placed his hand on top of his son’s hand. To the world, Tony was known for his beauty and his wit. Just a gorgeous boy from birth, and with the funniest tongue. But he was so much more to Charles. He was smart, and sharp, and he understood his old man better than any child Charles had. But that didn’t mean they were close.
Charles moved past his son, walked out of the closet, and headed for the nightstand beside his bed.
Tony was disappointed. He wanted to connect better with his father. But his father had to want it too. Yet every time the opportunity rose up, his father clamped it back down. He followed him out of the closet, looking at the open suitcase on the bed. “I thought you didn’t have to be in New York until tomorrow,” he said. “You’re headed there now?”
Charles began putting on his Rolex. He had decided to go a day early to New York, just for the change of pace. Nothing more elaborate than that. But then he looked at that Rolex again, at not just the time, but the date. June 5th. It had been a possibility for the past week, but every time he thought about it, he dismissed it. What good would come of it, she had asked. And it was a question he still couldn’t answer. But he made up his mind right here and right now. “Boston,” he said to Tony. “I’m going to Boston first.”
“Boston? Why Boston? Another investment opportunity?”
“Something like that,” replied Charles.
Tony knew when his father was shutting him out. He was so accustomed to it that it was as clear to him as if his father had sounded a cymbal. “Well alrighty then,” he said. “I’ll leave you to it.” And he left.
As soon as he did, Charles stopped all movement, took in a deep breath, and then exhaled. He was going to Boston, not to attend some drab meeting, but to look up Jenay again. Ever since he met her at Donnie’s reception, and saw her again a week ago, he’d been thinking about her. Even dreamed about her yet again! Not just that face, and those lips, and that brown body that sizzled against his skin. He dreamed about her. About her laughter, and her almost slue-feet, and the way he nearly died when he thought harm had come to her.
He wasn’t a sentimental man. He wasn’t a man who believed in love at first sight on any level. He had women that pleasured him whenever he needed that kind of release, and all it would take was a phone call to get it. But he wanted to see Jenay again. He wanted to feel that alive, electric way she made him feel when he was around her. He was going to see her again. His mind was made up.
And he knew it was complicated. He knew this sudden need to see her might very well have less to do with her, and more to do with excising his own inner demons. Maybe it was as simple and as complex as Brent’s harsh summation about how he had no heart. Maybe, coming from his beloved son, it was too harsh a theory to bear. Maybe it was a theory he suddenly had this great need to disprove.
CHAPTER TEN
Jenay was finally ready. Her hair, her makeup, the white pencil dress she wore that fit her like a second skin. She was ready for this graduation with an excitement she never thought, just a year ago, she’d be able to muster.
But when she grabbed her clutch and her keys and hurried out the front door of her small rented house, she came face-to-face with what she was definitely not ready for: Charles.
“Charlie!” she said with shock on her face.
Charles was walking toward her front door. He had his suit coat off, and dark shades on, as the sun was out in force. And he was smiling as he came. “There’s that intern!”
“What are you doing here?”
“What do you think? It’s your graduation. How could I miss a major thing like that?”
She smiled greatly. And when he made it up to her door, a door she hadn’t even closed yet, she allowed him to pull her into his arms.
They held each other, not like two timid lovers, but like lovers from way back. Charles’s eyes were tightly shut as he held her. She smelled so sweet, and felt so fragile and warm in his arms. This was what he had wanted all along. To feel her again. To be with her again. He had been apprehensive during his entire three-hour drive to Boston. More than once he had contemplated not even stopping through, but driving on to New York. On with his life. But right now, seeing her beautiful face again, and feeling her in his arms again, made him certain. He had made the absolute right decision.
Jenay, too, was overjoyed to see him again. She had really missed him. And when they stopped embracing, and his bright green eyes looked into her soft gray eyes, she realized just how much. The heat turned right back up, as if it had never been extinguished.
Charles was in heat too, by just the awesome sight of her. He looked down at her lips, her golden brown lips, and then back up, into her eyes. “How much time do we have?” he asked her.
Having sex with some man a mere hours before her graduation seemed almost foreign to her, as if it was the kind of behavior some other girl would do. But the thought of having sex with Charlie mere hours before her graduation seemed completely familiar to her, as if it was the kind of behavior she couldn’t wait to do. “Plenty of time,” she said. “I was leaving early. How much time do you need?”
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br /> He was already backing her back up into her home. “Give me thirty,” he said hoarsely as he closed the door behind them.
“Thirty what?” she asked, equally hoarsely, as he turned her around and rammed her back against the door.
“Thirty hours,” he said, and slammed his mouth onto hers.
They kissed for what seemed like hours. They kissed as he lifted her arms up and intertwined her fingers with his. They kissed as he rubbed his penis against that area of her dress that hid her vagina. And then he was unzipping her. And she was unbuttoning and unzipping him as she removed her arms from her sleeveless dress.
Charles lifted her bra and began to suck her breasts as she unbuckled him. He began to bite her nipples and suck her even harder as she unzipped him. She could see the outline of his erection before it sprung free. And when it did sprang free, and she touched it, she wanted her mouth to feel what her pussy already had.
She moved her breasts away from Charles’s mouth and knelt down. Her unzipped dress dropped along her waist. But all she could think about was pleasuring him. She wanted to make him feel the way he made her feel. She put her tongue on his thick tip, and began licking.
Charles splayed his hands on the door and spread his legs eagle-style. It didn’t take long for him to lean his head back, close his eyes, and feel her sweet tongue in a way that caused him to tremble. She was no sex maven. He’d been with the kind of super-experienced women who would put her oral to shame. But the feeling wasn’t in any fancy technique she was using. She was licking him and taking him in full, inch-by-loving-inch, and wasn’t using any tricks of the trade at all. But her tongue was licking him. And her mouth was circling him. She was the difference. It was her, rather than her experience and techniques and tricks, that put all others to shame.
But when she started getting too good, and it started feeling too wonderful, he pulled his dick out of her mouth. He didn’t come all this way to go over that cliff alone. He stood her up, and then lifted her into his arms. He wanted to carry her to her bedroom, but he couldn’t make it that far. He made it to her sofa, where he sat her on the edge, slung her dress and panties completely off, and opened her up.
Big Daddy Sinatra: There Was a Ruthless Man (The Sinatras of Jericho County Book 1) Page 8
