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~ Damian ~
“Did you get laid?” Untroubled, Ivan lounges back against the side of the wide hot tub, long arms stretched out on either side. “Because if you didn’t after my genius strategy, there’s no hope for you.”
I level him with a scathing look from across the gurgling water. “If by genius you mean the dumbass idea of sending a groupie of prostitutes after me-”
“Exotic dancers,” he corrects promptly.
“-then you’re even more stupid than you look.”
“What?” A dripping hand gestures before dropping, our private conversation resounding in the humid, tastefully tiled room. “That was brilliant. Everyone wants what others want, even if she didn’t think she wanted it in the first place. When she realizes you’re a hot commodity among her specie, she’s bound to want a piece of you.”
“You are more stupid than you look.”
“I gather that to mean you didn’t get laid.”
Dismissing his persistent stupidity, I let my head fall back. Potent jets surge at my abused muscles, frothing and whirling around us, lulling my lids to lower. After an hour and a half of being beaten by the latest workout equipment at I.So.Metrics, fifteen minutes soaking in the warm pool does wonders.
“Cara is different,” I say without opening my eyes. “She’s not like the women you’re used to. Not even a little. And need I remind you I’m not after getting laid?”
“Every man is after getting laid. Besides, how else will the mini Damians get to work?”
“If she won’t agree to that method, there are other ways,” I murmur despite my reluctance. It was the original plan, but that was at the prospect of another woman. With Cara... maybe I am as sick as Ivan.
I want to be her first.
There’s a snort. “Right. All this, and you won’t even get some decent play out of it. What’s the point?”
“She’s agreed to have dinner with me.” That just blurted out of me. I don’t care that Ivan thinks I’m some unevolved chump. I just have this urge to share the ecstatic news with someone.
“Really?” Now there’s surprise. “When?”
For some reason, he thinks I’m gullible. “None of your business.”
“C’mon, D. You don’t worry a thing when I’m on the job. I got you.”
Straightening, I meet his must’ve-been-held-back-a-few-grades smirk. “You got me in trouble with your last idiotic plan, that’s what you got me.”
“I got you a hot dinner date,” he corrects, oozing arrogance and a mental pat on the back. “You couldn’t have done it without me.”
“I got me a hot dinner date. You got hot air between your ears. And I fired those exotic dancers of yours, so you can just forget it.”
He looks appalled. “You’re going to forfeit the lap dances? That’s just wasteful. You need to work out that sperm-cannon regularly just like you would any other muscle for tiptop results, my friend.”
It got a great workout last night with my hand and Cara’s name repeating on my lips-twice-but my cousin and I aren’t that close.
The thud of the heavy wooden door intervenes with my eyeroll. Colin strolls in with a black and silver logoed towel around his hips.
He flashes navy swim trunks as he releases the terrycloth and sets it aside. “Sorry I’m late.” Water swishes as he lowers into the foam. “Got caught up discussing business with Eli and Scott.”
The elite health spa is owned by the three men. With Colin out of the country so often, it’s no wonder he was stuck.
“Where’s Paige?”
He slants me a get-real look. “You think I’m going to have her in a tub with two other half naked men? She’s on her way to meet her brother for lunch near the theater.”
“It’s a big tub,” Ivan puts in helpfully with that stupid grin and an added brow-wiggle on the side. “I can easily be fully naked.”
I only shake my head at my cousin’s death wish. “I’m surprised you let her out of your sight,” I comment to distract Colin from his mental search for a secret burial for Ivan. “It must be the holiday spirit.”
“Rudy’s with her,” he says of his driver. “Speaking of holiday spirit, Paige wants to have some people over to celebrate. She loves Christmas and wants to get together with friends and family. We weren’t here last year, so we’re making up for it.”
“Christmas isn’t for another three weeks. Doesn’t matter.” Ivan waves that aside. “If we’re talking lewd elves in nothing but short skirts held up by slim suspenders, count me in.”
Colin stares at him. “Isn’t that sewer you live in stifling?”
“It’s ventilated.”
“You said friends and family.” Once again, I’m compelled to interrupt Colin’s glare. “Will Cara be there?”
That gets his attention. “Are you still obsessing over her?”
“Obsessing is a str-”
“Obsessing.” Ivan confirms with a nod for emphasis. “Baby mama won’t give him the time of day, but there you have it.”
Aghast, Colin’s alarmed eyes might go splashing. “You knocked her up?”
Not yet, but give me a few months...
“Whoa.” I hold up a hand. “No one’s knocked up. You know better than to believe Ivan the Inflator.”
“He’s working on it,” the instigator loud-whispers.
“Ivan.”
As usual, my warning goes right over his head.
“Yup,” he continues casually. “Had me dragged her to Montauk and everything.” Ivan leans in conspiratorially. “Let me tell you, she was not into that whole tie-me-up-and-spank-me-Big-Daddy shit. A shame, really.”
Colin is gaping at me like he did Ivan a few minutes ago. “You didn’t,” he whispers in horror and shock. When I only stare back at him, he skims a wet hand down his face. “You did. Fuck, Delevan. What were you thinking?”
“Everything’s fine,” I assure him. “We’re working things out.”
“They’re having dinner together,” Ivan pipes in. “Won’t tell me when though.”
“Shut-up, Ivan.”
This time Ivan shrugs at my threatening kill-glower.
“Look, man, if Paige thinks you’re messing with her friend, after she’s done with you, we’ll be calling you Deanna. Even I wouldn’t be able to hold her back.”
Ivan frowns. “What happened to bros before ho-“
Colin whips to him so fast water sloshes out. “You finish that sentence and I swear you’ll breathe chlorine.”
Ivan throws up his palms. “I was going to say hotties, but whatever.”
“There’s no need for concern.” My exhale jostles out. “Like I said, Cara and I are fine. Yes, we’re having dinner. I might even escort her to your party, if she’ll allow me.”
Disbelief and disgust twist Ivan’s face. “You mean like a date? She won’t give you a piece, yet you want to date her? Dinner and a party.” He shakes his head, utterly appalled. “Now I know you’ve gone and lost your damn mind. There’s a reason why they’re called hormones. Sound it out, man: whore-moans. You need a girl that moans, not one that leaves you alone.”
Colin and I both ignore him and decide to switch the topic to business.
~~~~~
THERE ARE MANY REASONS why I don’t think much of my so-called father, not the least of which is him regularly sending his thought-delayed cronies to snoop on me under the guise of fatherly duty. I might not have a lot of personal experience, but I would think a caring father would make the trek himself, not have a man show up at my place without warning.
Like the bozo waiting in the building lobby right now, casually messing with his phone as I step out of the elevator. I can spot one of Alan Delevan’s vile underlings anywhere.
It’s the hair. Slicked back with so much unnatural products that it’s a contaminate to the city. The standard issued dark suit adds to the Secret Service appearance, though there’s nothing secretive about their service.
“Mr. Delevan.” Slick nods at me, pocketing his phone when I make to breeze by. “The senator would like to see you.”
“He’s not my senator.” I don’t pause my strides. “I didn’t vote for him.”
“Your father has asked me to bring you to him.”
At my determined, purposeful approach, the doorman quickly pulls open the glass door.
“You must be mistaken. Alan Delevan is vacationing in Mykonos. Good evening, Casey,” I say as I roll right by the doorman to the tune of thumping steps hurrying after me.
“Good evening, Mr. Delevan.” Always with an easy smile, it falters with uncertainty when the young doorman catches sight of Slick chasing after me.
“He returned early.” The admission comes from several paces behind me as I advance on the idling car at the curb. “To see you.”
I knew that. Not the part about him wanting a few words with me, but that he was back. I’m sure Alan knew I knew that. The way he keeps tabs on me, I’d be an idiot not to be doing the same with my father.
Pete eyes the man at my heels as he holds the rear passenger door open.
“Then he should’ve been the one here.” I flick open my suit button beneath my open coat as I slide into the car.
Settling in, I let Pete slap a deterring hand on Slick’s shoulder when he looked ready to hop in the car with me.
“This isn’t a taxi,” my driver announces in his calm, low voice, a direct contradiction to the hard, meaningful grip. “I’m going to need you to step back.”
Slick is smart enough not to attempt to get closer. “Mr. Delevan, the senator would like to discuss an important matter with you.”
“Tell Alan he has a phone. Use it. Pete.”
At his name, my driver shuts out the paid, dancing ass. Within seconds, he’s behind the wheel of the roomy sedan. “They get younger and younger,” he observes as he straps in. “This one looked barely old enough to scratch his balls.”
“Just as well. He’d have to retrieve them from the senator.”
Pete snickers before pulling into traffic. “Lo informed me Miss Elle isn’t quite ready yet, but he’ll make sure she’ll be when we arrive.”
Lo-or Lorenzo-is my sister’s bodyguard and driver. The only time he’s allowed to step back from his demanding duties is when she’s with me, his employer. Not that Elle wants the arrangement or makes things easy for the poor guy. Sometimes I think I don’t pay the diligent man enough to put up with Elle’s deliberate and juvenile attempts to sabotage her own needed protection.
“She’s still mad at me about Finland.”
Pete doesn’t comment on that.
I didn’t tell her the cancer came back, or that I would be gone for over a year for treatment and recovery until I was already head-deep into it. I got my ass handed to me by chemo, and the last thing I needed was my nineteen-year-old sister worrying and agonizing over me. Eighteen months was a long time. Truth was, I could’ve returned earlier, had the all-clear from my doctors months before. I had my reasons for staying overseas longer than needed.
Once a week, I take my sister out to dinner, Finland notwithstanding. It’s been our tradition since I was eighteen and she was five. That didn’t change when she became an adult, having the time of her life at university.
I wonder if Elle would like Cara.
The outrageous thought came out of left field. They wouldn’t have a reason to meet, I remind myself, much less get to know one another. If Cara agrees to our arrangement, she would provide me with a child, nothing more.
But shouldn’t my sister meet the mother of my child, even if it’s in name only?
I want to be a father with no strings attached to the mother, yet I’m restless with turmoil. There’s more I want from Cara, and the lines between what I thought I wanted and what I’m after now are beginning to sprout fuzz.
Dinner on Wednesday was delightful, relaxing yet rousing. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t tear my eyes from her. I played it cool, snapped my go-get-her fervor to a controllable level. I said some ridiculous things that actually made her laugh, but inside I was dying to know all of her. Only she held back. It could’ve been she was nervous. It’s disgusting to admit even to myself that I certainly was. When was the last time that happened with a woman?
Other than with girls at fifteen, that would be never.
The lab results yielded all positive, optimistic results. Cara is perfectly healthy. There’s no reason to believe she wouldn’t be able to conceive. I didn’t disclose that tidbit to her, not wanting to discuss business when we were sharing an intimate evening.
Would Cara want to meet Elle? I imagine she would be nervous, thinking she’s not normal. That’s absurd. What the hell is normal anyway? She seems perfectly fine to me. More than fine.
I’m giving her space. Well, giving her and me space. I thought having the official thumbs-up from Dr. Stanley and the lab would only accelerate the arrangement, but to my shock, I’m the one dragging.
Cara has to figure out what she wants from life and from me, and I need time to ponder the same.
“Pete.” I wait for him to glance up in the rearview mirror, discreetly clearing my throat. “How did you get Lauren to go out with you?”
If my driver is surprised at the personal question about his wife, he doesn’t show it. His gaze returns to traffic before he says conversationally, “I didn’t. She told me to take her out. I did.”
That gets a small smile out of me. “So, she asked you out.”
“Kinda. Lauren always knew what she wanted and didn’t let anyone tell her otherwise. She wore me down, she did. Came after me like an avalanche,” he reminisces fondly. “Then after eight months, told me which ring she wanted and where to get it. It’ll be seventeen years in May.”
“Were you not convinced you were interested?”
“Oh, no. I was definitely into her, but I wasn’t sure it would work out.”
Curious, I ask, “Why not?”
“She’s a force of nature, my Lauren, but I was no prize. Never fucked around on her or anything-she’d saw off my dangling parts, if you get my meaning-but I was no saint.”
“So how did she change your mind?”
He takes a second to make a right before answering. “Persistence.” A pause as he considers. “Her genuineness, now that you ask. She meant what she said, and she did what she meant. Still does. I knew she was the real deal not only because she didn’t give up, but because her intentions were pure and open, despite knowing exactly how fucked up I was.”
Persistence. Not space.
At a stoplight, I watch through the window a woman leisurely pushing a stroller out of a department store, pointing things out to a kid that can’t be more than four years old tottering next to her. The kid must find something funny, because all of a sudden he splits into a wide grin. I can almost hear his warm giggles from inside the car.
What’s so funny? I would ask.
Daddy.
Daddy is funny? I’d make a face.
Daddy is silly.
Then I’d go on a tickle attack until he’s snorting with giddy laughter.
My chest tightens with fierce yearning. I want the make-believe scenario. Want it like I’ve wanted nothing else in my life.
I want it with Cara.
Pure and open intentions. How would that work with me and her?