Opening the bedroom door, I can’t help myself from looking back. After spending hours together, wrapped up in each other’s body, she’s passed out cold. I should feel ashamed for what’s happened between us, but I don’t. It’s been coming since the moment I laid eyes on her, and I can’t make myself feel guilty for something that doesn’t feel wrong.
What I do feel guilty about, however, is sneaking off without a word. I feel like a criminal in my own home, but I have to go, and I don’t have the heart to wake her up. Not when she looks so peaceful. Tomorrow, we’ll talk. This wedding? It can’t happen. I won’t let it.
What I feel for her means more than this farce of a marriage my father and her mother are entering into. We’ll tell them the truth, tell them everything, and they’ll see. My father will put me, his son, ahead of himself for once. In my heart, I know it’s a stretch. My father has never done an unselfish thing in his life, but I have to believe that this time will be different.
Crossing the hallway in total silence, I carefully turn the doorknob and push open the door to my bedroom...and freeze.
There, sitting on my bed, with his head hanging down on his shoulders and his hands clasped between his knees, is my father. He’s still dressed in the suit and tie he left for work in this morning, his dark hair slicked back off his forehead, and the smell of his Ralph Lauren cologne permeating the air.
At the sound of me entering the room, he lifts his head and the predatory look in his stark blue eyes causes my voice to lodge in my throat.
“You’ll end this now, and that’s the last I’ll hear of it.” He waits for me to nod my head before he pushes to his full height. Crossing the room, he pauses in front of me, staring me straight in the eyes with an eerie silence. At eighteen, I’m as tall as he is, for all intents and purposes a grown man, but the intensity in his eyes makes me shrink back.
A satisfied smile curls one side of his mouth up, and finally, without a word spoken, he moves around me and out the door. I exhale a shuddering breath, my legs trembling as I force myself to walk over to my bed, seating myself on blankets that still harbor my father’s body heat.
What the hell am I going to do?
“Are you okay? Do you need to sit down?” Vista’s hand waves in front of my face, breaking me out of my thoughts.
“I’m fine,” I croak. Jesus, I sound like I’ve been crying or some shit.
Her brows pull together in a frown and she tilts her head to the side, studying me. “Where did you go just now?”
Shaking my head clear, I force a smile onto my face and search my mind for something to distract her. “Nowhere, princess. I’ve been here the whole time.” My legs feel shaky, so I walk back into the living room and drop down on the couch.
“So, I’m assuming sex is off the table now?” I ask, striving to lighten the mood and create a distraction.
“Completely.” Cautiously, Vista joins me, seating herself in a chair opposite me.
I tip my head in acknowledgement. “For now, I’ll agree to disagree with you on that subject. In the meantime, you’re going to be servicing me,” I continue, relishing the sound of her aggravated growl. “So, we need to get you better acquainted with my work schedule.”
“That’s the second time you’ve used that word,” she muses as she relaxes back into the chair and curls her legs beneath her.
The position makes her appear small, fragile. It makes me want to go to her, pick her up, and carry her to my bed, caveman style. It takes all my self-control to curb the urge she inspires in me. “What, work?” I ask. Firing up my tablet, I pull up my schedule and shift it so she can see.
Leaning forward, she squints as she reads it over. “Yeah, I didn’t think it was part of your vernacular.”
Standing, she trades the chair for the couch, scooting closer to me so that her face is inches from mine as she looks over my shoulder and studies the screen more closely. She has an amazing profile. Long, black eyelashes fan out from her wide eyes, there’s a slight bump on the bridge of her downturned nose, leading to her full, rose petal lips and a stubborn little chin.
She’s gorgeous.
“I’m full of surprises, princess,” I say, hearing the dark rumble of my own voice. Her expressive eyes flicker up to mine, and I feel the heat of that look straight down to my cock. Before I grab her up and indulge in my fantasies, I turn back to the tablet and the schedule still showing on the screen.
“I’ll send this to your email so you have a copy of it. I can’t be your babysitter, so make sure you study it.”
She glares up at me—a reaction I’m waiting for. It stirs the desire in me even more and, still, I restrain myself. She thinks she’s done with me, but she’s only denying the inevitable. Growing up, I always got what I wanted. In that sense, I am my father’s son, and what I want now is her. All I have to do is bide my time and eventually, she’ll come.
In more ways than one.
14
Heads covered in varying shades of silver turn our way as Vista and I walk into the conference room on the tenth floor of my father’s firm, Black Investments. It’s an agency of sorts that specializes in forming marketing campaigns with a focus on athletics.
Naturally, my father recruited me early, before I’d even entered high school. He’s a natural when it comes to speaking, and he can sell just about anything. With him at the helm, I’ve made millions. I wonder how he’ll react when I tell him I’m severing our contract and branching out on my own.
Thankfully, my father hasn’t arrived yet. All eyes are on us, and I can just imagine what they’re thinking. They know who Vista is, and I’m sure we make quite the picture walking in here together, her body aligned with mine, my hand pressing possessively against the small of her back, me whispering in her ear. I don’t care a lick about what the old buzzards waiting for him think. They don’t cut my checks and soon, I’ll never have to look at their shriveled faces again.
“Wait for me over there.” My hand on her back, I press a kiss to Vista’s temple then send her on her way, directing her to a seat in the corner of the room, away from the main table where I’m about to get down to business.
Picking the chair at the far end of the table, positioned opposite the one my father will assume, I release the zipper on my leather riding jacket and sit. “Gentlemen,” I greet them. “How’s business?”
The only answer I get is a few faint smiles, and then total silence consumes the room. These men only answer to one thing, and that’s power. Anywhere else in the world, I hold that power, but in the face of David Black, I’m no more than the gum on the bottom of their shoe.
Glancing over my shoulder, I catch Vista’s eye and give her wink. Her cheeks flush a pretty pink that makes me smile. I hate being in this place, but having her here makes it somewhat tolerable. At least now I have a stunning view to look at.
Some fifteen minutes later, the door flies open and my father steps in. His black pinstriped suit and matching tie lay perfectly on his fit frame, and when he ambles across the room, the air of superiority precedes him.
David Black’s eyes meet mine as he draws back his chair and pauses a moment to take me in. Every person in here besides me is dressed in expensive tailored suits with their hair combed back and their noses stuck in the air. I, on the other hand, am in my usual fair: jeans, t-shirt, Doc Martens, and my leather jacket. They drove here in their luxury cars and I on my motorcycle. We’re worlds apart in all aspects. My father doesn’t have to speak the words for me to know how disappointed he is in me. By now, he should expect it. I’ve never pretended to fit the mold.