by C. M. Steele
“Okay. I know this is may be out of line, but you’ve got to know that you’re handsome. As a mother, I can tell it’s your scars that bother you even after all these years, but there will be someone who won’t even notice them. You’ve got qualities I hope my boys develop when they get to your age. Remember, the person in the mirror is your harshest critic.”
“Thanks, Kim. I needed that. I hope Jason and Jamie become the men you want them to be.” She nodded and left my office. I appreciated her sympathy. She was a mother, but she didn’t have that matronly appearance. Most wouldn’t know she was already forty-five and had two teenagers. She had helped me stay strong throughout the years.
I left the office with the file on my laptop and her photo in my jacket pocket. I sat in the back of my car as my driver got on the road. My office and home were only about a mile apart so the drive was a short one, but it seemed to take forever. I took out the photo of Elena and stared at her bright green eyes. I wondered if she would be as kind as she looked in this picture. I ran my thumb across the photo caressing her face as though it was really her.
My driver pulled up to my building and I tucked it away. When I got out of the car, I got a freaking shock. There she was; she was talking to a man in a suit in front of a condo building on the opposite side of the street. Jealousy struck me head on. I was ready to punch the guy in the face. Crossing the street, I forgot that she was related to the man that ruined everything for me. That shit was rarely a thought in my head anymore. I wanted her and seeing her even speaking to another man sent my ass into a tailspin of rage. She was mine, and she needed to learn that shit.
“Elena,” I called out gruffly. She turned, wide-eyed and in shock. Yep, I could tell she wasn’t expecting to see me. With the angry look on my face, I bet she thought I was mad about our past. When actually I was mad that she was chatting happily with some other guy. Then I noticed who she was talking to—Michael Cole. He lived in the building they were standing in front of. He was a socialite who was a player with the ladies. I hated him; well, I did now. Before, I didn’t even care to say anything to anyone let alone fight over a woman. But there was no way I was going to let him get his hands on what belonged to me, and as far as I was concerned she did.
She needed to give me a chance. After what her father did to my family, I’d expect her to grovel and do anything to make it right. Not that it was cool because the accident wasn’t her fault, but I wasn’t above using the past to get her in my bed.
“Mr. Price.” She said it evenly, as though she didn’t really want to speak to me but was attempting to be polite.
“Hello, Dexter. I see you met my beautiful neighbor,” Cole said looking at her like she was someone he planned to have grace his bed. That was out of the question.
“You live here?” I hadn’t looked at the file. Hell, I only focused on the face on the DMV picture, not her address. In fact, I enlarged the image and cropped out the information. I had that in the report anyway.
“Yes, I do.” She looked between the two of us giving us a nod, then tried to make an exit. “Now, if you’ll both excuse me, I need to go check on my dog.”
“Actually, I was wondering if you’d have dinner with me tonight,” Cole asked, giving her that crooked smile that had bitches dropping their panties. I wanted to rip his heart out like he was doing to me. I looked at her and knew that not even her being who she was would change my mind. I wanted her, and I wanted to keep her.
"No," I answered for her because fuck if I was going to let another dick get close to her again. Little Miss Flawless was mine.
"Excuse me? I can answer for myself, thank you very much,” she scoffed.
I took a deep breath before I got angry. "I know you can, but I'm saving you the trouble of pissing me off.”
“You’re not the boss of me just because I…” I placed my finger on her lips. Something happened when I did that. Her lips made my finger tingle, but I had to ignore that. She was about to bring up the past in front of someone. That wasn’t something I wanted to chat about in front of others, especially this asshole.
“Don’t speak about that in public, Elena,” I whispered with a warning look.
“So, is he in charge of your choices?” Cole asked her for confirmation, even though I gave the motherfucker a deadly look to leave her the fuck alone.
She rolled her eyes and shook her head. “No, but he and I do need to have a discussion. So I’ll see you around, Michael.”
“No, you won’t. Trust me, Cole. You don’t want to cross me on this.” That was the only warning I was going to give him. I could dismantle his whole life if he fucked with me.
“Okay. If that’s the lay of the land, I understand.” He chuckled with the nod. Cole walked away and climbed into the waiting car the valet brought for him.
“Come on,” I demanded, grabbing her hand. She yanked back, stopping my movement but not breaking free. Despite her resistance, I could still feel the electricity pass through us.
“I told you I have to check on my dog.” Oh, that was it; I thought she was going to give me shit about bossing her around. I was the boss. She’d get that through her pretty little head soon. I was ready to give her the world. The only thing I was keeping was the control.
“Okay, let’s go check on it.” I didn’t care for pets after losing my parents. It wasn’t that I hadn’t wanted a pet growing up because I did. I loved dogs when I was little, but my mom refused to have a smelly, hairy animal in the house. A dog would give me those puppy eyes and win my heart. Then, what happened when it died? I didn’t want to lose my heart again. I couldn’t have one.
“Don’t you worry about losing it?” I knew she lost out too, so I wondered how she could want an animal that would die before she did.
“Losing what?” she asked as we got into the lobby. I still hadn’t let go of her hand, but it was like she didn’t even notice or care. I used it to my advantage and ran my thumb against her wrist which made her shiver and brought a smile to my face.
“The dog. What if it dies?”
“I’ll be sad, but it’s better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all.” The elevator opened and two people got off forcing us to move to the side for a moment. I took in her words but couldn’t agree.
“I frankly don’t believe that.” We entered the empty elevator and I could feel the tension between us increase, not knowing if that was a good thing or not. My body was aching for her and my heart was racing.
Elena looked me right in the eyes with a straight face and said, “I’ve lost a lot too, Mr. Price.” She could tell that I was seriously disturbed by the phrase.
“It’s Dexter.” I wanted her to drop the formality. There was no need for that between us. As far as I was concerned, we were going to live happily ever after. I may have finally lost my mind. In fact, I knew I had lost all rationalization the moment I saw her in the park.
“Okay, Dexter. My mother left my father before the accident. She left us high and dry for another man and from what I have learned…started another family.” I could tell there was pain hidden in the past. Her mother was a total bitch. My mother wasn’t loving like she could have been, but she hadn’t abandoned me.
“Damn, Elena, I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay, Dexter. It was a very long time ago and I had lost them before I could even remember them.”
“I don’t want to talk about this right now. Let’s get your dog.” She only lived on the sixth floor so we were there before we could say another word.
“I thought that was what you wanted.” She turned as we stepped out of the elevator.
“What I want is something I shouldn’t,” I grunted out.
“What could that be, Dexter?” Her face expressed true interest.
“You,” I admitted.
“What? Are you trying to claim me as retribution?” she asked in suspicion. I knew she would think that because I was willing to use the past to my favor if I could. It was wrong, but I
was addicted from the start. There was no turning back for me.
“I wanted you from the moment I saw you. Being who you are actually caused me to pause…for like a minute.”
“I don’t know what to say.” Elena ducked her head nervously then she unlocked the door and this little, fluffy dog came running up to her. Must be a puppy.
“What kind of dog is it?” It was a cute, little one.
“It’s a husky. He’s only ten weeks. Soon he’s going to be big.”
“Good. He’ll be there to protect you when I’m working.”
“Do you want to go for a walk, Bruno?” she asked the tiny hairball who wagged his tail wildly. I gave the dog a look because I understood his need. I wanted her to walk with me everywhere. She grabbed his leash and some small trash bags, then we headed out.
“So what do you do for a living?” I wanted to know everything about her without having to look at a file.
She blushed. “Nothing at the moment. I hope to get a degree in social work.”
“But you live here? Please don’t tell me you’ve got a sugar daddy paying for your expenses.” I grumbled. I’d kill a motherfucker if that were the case.
She looked at me and laughed. “God, no. I have a trust fund that was set up for me when I was little. I just got access to it two months ago when I turned eighteen.”
She was only eighteen; I’d completely forgotten how young she was. She needed someone to look after her finances. Not that it mattered after we were married, but I didn’t want to see her get taken advantage of by people. “Wow. Do you need someone to manage it for you? I know plenty of people that work for me that could keep it safe.”
“No, thank you. I have enough for a lifetime. I won’t be spending it like crazy.”
“No, but this place is expensive.”
“Yes, and paid off without a mortgage. Besides, it’s not your business.” Damn it, I pissed her off but she ticked me off to start.
“I beg to differ.”
She arched her brow at me. “Well, so do I. Just because of…” I couldn’t take her bringing it up. It wasn’t that I held it against her, but I was fucking scarred because of it. Hell, I’d been so physically and emotionally damaged that I’d never had a girlfriend.
She took off toward the door but before she could open it, I pinned her to its wood frame and kissed her. Our lips crashed hard as they met for our first kiss. It softened as she melted into my arms. Her body felt so perfect against mine, clinging so intensely I had to pull back because I couldn’t just fuck her here like this. I wanted her in my bed, in silky things willingly waiting for me.
I backed up to look at her and she was so damned perfect. I wanted to tell her that she was everything to me even if I didn’t know much more than how beautiful she was. She made my heart and head spin out of control.
Her eyes looked up into my mine with a panged expression. “I’m sorry, but I can’t,” she murmured as I removed my arms from the door.
“What do you mean?” I needed to know the truth. Was I too scary to look at? “Do the scars bother you?”
“No, they don’t. We all have scars.”
“None as prominent as mine.” She looked away with a sad air about her. She had some of her own? I didn’t see the report so it might have been in there. “Oh, no. What happened to you?”
“You don’t know?” Her brows knitted like I was supposed to know what happened to her.
“No, I didn’t do any research on you yet.” I knew I had just slipped that I was going to run a full report on her. I already had it, but I didn’t want her to know that.
“I’m going to let that go because you’re wealthy and I’m sure that’s just protective protocol, but it’s odd that you don’t know.” She took a deep breath. “I was in the car with my father that day. I was injured and hospitalized.”
“What? It didn’t say that in the accident records at all.” I was shocked.
“Are you calling me a liar?” Oh shit. I didn’t think of it that way.
“No. It’s just…I didn’t even know he had a daughter, so how could I know that you were in the car?”
“Well, he did and I was. I’m here and my scars are as brutal as yours. So if you were looking for a flawless beauty, you’ve come knocking on the wrong door,” she said defensively.
“To me you’re flawless. I haven’t found one thing I’d want to change—scars or not.” I bent down and kissed her again. I wanted her to know I meant what I said. Instead of pulling back, I pressed deeper into her fusing our chests together. I was about to lift her into my arms and carry her to the nearest soft surface when I felt something wet on my leg and knew it was too low to be the pre-come I felt leaking onto my boxers. I pulled away from her to look at the piss-head who had just soaked my pants.
Elena covered her mouth with her hand in shock, then gasped, “Oh, my god, I’m so sorry.”
“It’s fine,” I grumbled, involuntarily snarling at the dog.
“Do you usually grumble when you're angry?” She looked up at me with beautiful doe eyes and a kissable grin.
“I guess. I don’t evaluate my facial expressions when I’m pissed off, or rather pissed on.”
She let out a little bit of a giggle. “It’s just it’s really cute,” she sighed.
She thought I was cute; something I did was cute? Okay. I’ll take it. I felt like a king and all she said was my scowl was cute. Damn. I was so fucking hard I couldn’t even think straight. “Listen, little thing, please stop with the sweet shit.”
“Why? Because you’re Mr. Big, Hard, and Tough and no gooey nonsense for you?” she challenged, turning to finally leave the condo.
I wrapped my arms around her, pressing my cock against her ass letting her feel how hard I was. “No. Because, he’s big and hard. And you’re making it tough to walk.”
“Oopsie.” She blushed then left me standing in the doorway with a clearly visible erection. I grumbled, closed the door, adjusted my cock, and chased after her. I turned back quickly and thought I saw something out the corner of my eye, but it must have just been my imagination.
Chapter 3
We took a very short walk for Bruno to finish taking care of his needs before heading back to my place for dinner. During that time, I learned how Dexter spent his free time; although, I could tell from just looking at him. He spent two hours a day at the gym. Who the hell spent two hours working out? I got too bored with more than a twenty-minute jog. Working out suited him well; I wanted to moan out loud every time his firm jaw flexed.
He made a point of holding my hand the entire time we were outside, rubbing and caressing it. He looked sternly at any guy that passed by us. It was like he was trying to tell everyone around that I belonged to him. Not that we had a relationship; we’d only officially met the other day. I may have kept a picture of him in my phone, but he didn’t need to know that. He was steamrolling me into something I wasn’t sure would work out. After all, our lives were changed by what my father did.
I started to cook a meal for us when he came up behind me wrapping his arms around my waist and kissing my neck. I melted into his embrace like we’d been doing this all our lives. I never thought that the moment I met him I would lose my heart. I’d thought of him sexually for a long time now, but it was more than that. Dexter’s persona captivated me as much as his looks. Quite possibly, he had to be the most handsome man in the world.
“This feels so right, Elena. I hope you feel it too.” I heard the worry in his voice. The vulnerability was clear and needed to be addressed, so I gave him some reassurance.
I pressed back into his erection that covered the length of my ass and lower back trying not to think about what that thing could do to my little girly bits. “You know I can feel it.” I was blushing because it was the boldest thing I’d ever said to a man.
I swallowed hard when his hands gripped my waist tighter, his cock digging deeper against my skin. My head tilted back in response and gave him access to my nec
k which he didn’t hesitate to claim. I felt the bruising pressure of his tongue and lips marking my flesh. I knew why he was doing it too. It was just like when we were walking. He wanted everyone that saw me to know I was taken, and I so was. Everything, from the way he looks at me, says my name like an oath, his touch and kisses sent me into a spiral of mushy gushy mess. I wanted to stay like this forever, but I knew that we would never work. He had family that I was certain would hate me.
“Good. Now next time you see Michael Cole, he’ll know you belong to me because you do. Nothing is going to change that.” It sounded like a warning, but he had no idea that I wanted him so much that it didn’t matter. Chain me to you, I thought pleadingly. The way he made me feel was so special that I wanted to let him take my virginity tonight. I blushed again just thinking about it.
Trying to get some semblance of sanity back, I informed him, “Um…dinner’s ready.”
“I want dessert, but I’m going to wait until it’s served.” What a gentleman. I licked my lips while preparing our meals all the while thinking he was getting dessert sooner than he thought.
“Waiting only makes it better.” I turned to him after putting the meat and steamed veggies on our plates.
“Honey, anything that tastes of you will be satisfying.” He smiled at me before taking our plates to the table. I watched him walk away with his broad shoulders and tight round bottom. I never thought a man’s ass was biteable, but I felt like sinking my teeth into those juicy buns. Man, I was going to wear my lips out if I kept licking and biting them. Taking my eyes from his ass, I followed him into the other room shaking my head.
We sat down and started eating. The moment the steak hit his mouth, he moaned. I wanted to come on the spot.
“Elena, damn, you can cook,” he praised, looking at me like I was a treasure.
“Thanks. My foster parents didn’t have that much money for ordering out and stuff like that so when I was old enough, I was taught to cook.” I blushed again making my pale face almost as bright as my hair.
“I wished I’d known about you. I would have at least set you up comfortably. No matter what your father did, it wasn’t your fault.” So he doesn’t know about the trust then. Huh? I found all of this strange. Who set up the fund?
