But is it wrong for me to want to know everything about my boyfriend? Well, all the important stuff anyway. Like maybe what he does for a living? I don’t think so. And all this secrecy is only serving to up my frustration.
Gio eyes me, mischief dancing behind his hazel eyes.
“What?” I ask, chuckling when he doesn’t look away.
He doesn’t immediately respond, instead switches off the TV, gathering up his wallet. Only when he’s halfway to the interior garage door does he pause and turn to look over at me, inclining his head. “Let’s go. Been cooped up here long enough.”
“Where are we going?” I ask, snatching up my purse from a stool at the breakfast bar and following him out to the garage and over to the blacked-out SUV.
“You’ll see.” He smirks.
Pulling my lip between my teeth, I glance toward the door to the house wondering why one of his best friends is making the effort to spend time with me while he couldn’t be less interested. Then I decide to stop thinking. Braxton has been in non-stop meetings, barely acknowledging my presence, so what if I was tired of hanging around his house all day by myself. I needed fresh air, and I trust Gio.
Close to thirty minutes later, Gio miraculously manages to find a parking spot right outside of the CN Tower. I still have no idea what we’re doing, but I follow him inside the tall building. Only once he’s paid for our ticket and we’re stepping off the elevator does he turn his megawatt smile on me.
“Ever done the EdgeWalk?”
“Have I ever done the walk around the outside of the tower with only a harness to protect me?” I ask, eyebrow raised in a ‘what do you think’ way and crossing my arms under my chest.
He grins. “Yeah.”
I shake my head, hoping he’s not suggesting what I think he is. “That would be a no, Gio.”
His grin grows and my stomach falls.
No.
I drop my arms, backing away. “No. Nope. No way. Not going to happen.”
“Come on, Klara. Live a little. I won’t let anything happen to you. Promise.”
“Gio, me and heights don’t have a great relationship.” I shrug, looking over at the diminishing line of people waiting for their turn at the EdgeWalk.
Gio smirks, raising an eyebrow as he glances behind him at the line and slowly starts backing away from me, arms raised in surrender. “Alright, I get it. I’ll come find you when I’m done,” he says, then turns around and proceeds to get in line behind the last couple of people.
I take in the growing crowd around me and curse. The bastard knows I hate large crowds from our numerous talks over the last couple weeks. So, it’s no coincidence that he didn’t put up a bigger fight to get me to go with him. Asshole knew that I’ll have to decide between staying inside while the crowd slowly grows around me from tourists, or join him on the walk where our group is limited to six.
I sigh, and make my way toward Gio, where he’s getting into an orangey-red jumpsuit.
“Okay. Okay. I’m coming.”
***
“How are you doing?” Gio asks from behind me, and I have to fight the reaction to glance back at him. Because looking back would mean that I would have even more of an urge to look down. We’re over one thousand feet up right now, and looking down is not high on my list of things to do at this moment.
And then, like our guide can sense my unease, he instructs us one by one to step forward and put our toes by the edge and look down.
I’m sorry, look down? Is he mad?
Because Gio is last in line, he gets to go first, and I swear the man has no fear because he just does it with no reservation, and he lets go of the rope tethering us to the line above us. Fuck that shit. When Gio steps back to the middle of the landing, it’s my turn. My toes don’t come close to the edge because fuck, that’s a long way down, and even though the rope attached to us is said to be able to hold about three-hundred pounds, I still don’t quite trust it.
I breathe a little easier when I step back to the middle, and the others in front of me have their turn. But then I watch in horror when our guide has us turn around and slowly back toward the edge and lean over it!
Yup, lean over it! Is everyone in this city crazy?
Our guide must given up on me when I barely lean back because for the rest of the twenty or thirty minutes we’re up here, he doesn’t call on me to try his crazy stunt moves. Gio laughs behind me, and I’ve never wanted to punch someone’s balls as much as I just want to sock him one.
Fifteen minutes into the walk and I’m slowly starting to relax. I still refuse to look down or lean over the edge but I have to admit that the skyline from up here is beautiful. My body jerks slightly to the right—toward the edge—and panic starts setting in, then Gio’s hands wrap around my waist bringing me closer to the building and holding me steady.
“You okay?”
It’s windy enough up here that if he wasn’t so close I wouldn’t’ve been able to hear him. I nod trying to swallow past my suddenly dry throat and trying to trample down the panic that arose. Gio stays close behind me for the rest of the walk, and I’m slightly thankful, and slightly fearful.
I know I didn’t slip, and I definitely didn’t trip over my own feet. No, it almost felt like I was pushed. I mentally give myself a shake and shut that thought down. There’s no way Gio would’ve pushed me. We’re strapped into a harness that’s hooked to a steel line above us. He should know that I’m not going anywhere unless he magically got my harness unhooked. And Braxton would kill him. But he did manage to catch me fast, which means he must have been right behind me when I tripped.
For heaven’s sake, Klara. Being so high up is screwing with your head. Gio did not just try to push you over the edge.
I want to collapse in a relieved pile on the floor when we re-enter the building and start unhooking the rope and getting out of our harnesses.
BRAXTON IS FUMING when we arrive back at the house and calls Gio into his office. Alessandro walks by Gio, clasping a hand on his shoulder and shakes his head.
Well, that can’t be good.
“Have a good time, baby girl?” Alessandro grabs an apple from the fruit bowl on the breakfast bar and tosses it up in the air before effortlessly catching it in one hand.
I shrug. “It was fun, I guess. Not a fan of heights, but it was okay.”
He nods, eyeing me as he bites into the green fruit. “Didn’t think to let us know where ya were going?” he asks behind a mouth full.
I twist off the cap to my water and level him with a glare. “It was last minute. Plus, I didn’t think Braxton would mind. You know, seeing as how he’s been doing nothing but taking meetings all day every day since I’ve been here.”
Alessandro doesn’t respond while he finishes the apple and tosses the core in the garbage. “He’ll always want to know where you are, baby girl. Your safety is important to him.”
“My safety?” I cross my arms under my chest and lean a hip into the counter. “I was with Gio. I think I was plenty safe, Alex.” My eyes narrow, noticing the fact that Alessandro refuses to make eye contact with me and keeps running a hand over his bald head. “What exactly does he do, Alex? What exactly do all of you do? And don’t give me that finance bullshit.”
His lips twitch like he’s trying not to smile at my outburst then he curses. That damn hand running over his head again. Finally, he drags his grey eyes up to my face his mouth opening and closing like he’s trying to find the right words to say.
“Klara. My office,” Braxton bellows from behind me and I jump.
Alessandro smirks, picking up another apple from the bowl. “Give him hell, baby girl,” he says before turning and exiting through the garage door.
When I walk into his office, Gio is nowhere to be found. I frown in confusion, certain that I hadn’t seen him slip out while Alessandro and I were talking in the kitchen. Braxton lowers himself into the massive black leather office chair behind his desk, steepling his fingers in front of h
im and leaning his elbows on the desk. His dark eyes boring into mine.
Lord, give me the strength to deal with this man. I silently pray as I take the chair across from him and automatically shift in my seat under his watchful gaze.
“Should’ve told me where you were going, Klara. Don’t like not knowing where you are.”
I sit up straighter, pulling my shoulders back, and force myself to look him in the eyes. “Am I your hostage, Braxton?”
That seems to take him by surprise. His eyebrows shoot up to his hairline, his posture going stiff, then he quickly corrects it. The laid-back CEO-type reemerging. “What kind of question is that, Mia Bella?”
“Am I being held here against my will, Braxton?” I repeat my previous question.
He leans back in his chair, crossing an ankle over a knee. His long fingers playing with a pen on his desk. “You know you’re not.”
I nod, still refusing to let my eyes wonder away from his face. “Then, if I’m free to go as I please I see nothing wrong with what I did. I was feeling cooped up in your house. Ignored while you took meeting after meeting, and Gio sensed it. He got me out of the house for a couple hours and I’m thankful for it. Something my boyfriend should be wanting to do not one of his friends.”
He props his other elbow on the armrest of the chair, running a thumb over his bottom lip making my thighs squeeze together.
“Look, Braxton.” I sigh, looking out the huge window and over the city. “If you’re going to be in meetings all day while I’m here and only spending time with me to get laid, then I’d rather not come over anymore. I’m not some sex object you can use whenever the mood strikes and then forget about when something more important comes along. I don’t even know what you do for a living, Brax.”
“It’s my job, Klara. It doesn’t take a break, and neither can I.”
I deflate a little at his statement, not missing that he still didn’t answer my question about what his job is. I nod, refusing to move my gaze from the scenery out the window.
Am I wrong to be hung up on something like not knowing what his job is? I don’t think I am. I think that him refusing to answer my question actually says a lot. It’s fucking job. It shouldn’t be this hard for him to tell me what he does. And if he can so easily hide it then what else is he hiding. I refuse to keep pursuing a relationship with someone who doesn’t show even a sliver of guilt for hiding something from me, and I’m so fucking tired of this back and forth shit. A relationship is about give and take, and so far it’s been Braxton taking and demanding with no give.
“I’ll get out of your way then,” I say in a voice that sounds a little too defeated, and force myself to stand from the chair.
“It’s late. Stay the night. I’ll get Pete to drive you back in the morning.”
***
I probably should’ve just left, but I couldn’t bring myself to pack my bag and sneak out while he was working. So here I am. Propped up against the headboard of our bed, in the only pajamas I brought, with a book that I’m not paying attention to. I think I’ve read the same few lines over and over again. My eyes take in the words, but my brain is on the other side of the house in Braxton’s office.
“What time is your class at the gym tomorrow?” Braxton asks, undoing his tie as he walks into our bedroom.
Dammit, I have to stop thinking of it as our bedroom. It’s his house. His bedroom.
“Not ‘til late. Why?”
He unbuttons the first few buttons of his dress shirt, sitting on the bed next to me while I bookmark the page I’m reading.
“I want you to meet me for lunch tomorrow.” The light from the bedside table is just bright enough to bask him in a soft glow. He looks almost angelic like this. The top few buttons of his shirt undone, his sleeves rolled up revealing toned forearms, his usual slicked back hair looking disheveled from the countless times he’s run a hand through the dark locks. But Braxton is anything but angelic. “At my office,” he adds when I don’t respond to his invitation.
My mouth drops open, throat dry, sure that I misheard him.
“I thought you were going to be in meetings all day tomorrow, too?”
He leans his elbows on his knees, looking slightly over his shoulder at me. His eyes roam down the top half of my body not covered by the sheet. Absentmindedly my tongue runs over my bottom lip and I watch as Braxton eyes it. Heat blazing to life behind his gaze. He reaches for my book, placing it on the bedside table before crawling up my body, leaning his elbows on either side of my head.
“I will be. That’s exactly why you need to have lunch with me. Make me look forward to something while I’m sitting through boring meetings.”
“Braxton.” I run my palms down his chest, savoring the feel of hard skin beneath them. “I don’t want to distract you. I’ll just go home, and you can call me when you feel like opening up to me.”
“You were right, Mia Bella.” He nuzzles the crook of my neck, kissing just under my ear. “It wasn’t fair of me to bring you here with the intention of spending time with you, only to ignore you. I’m sorry.”
His fingers start roaming my body and I’m lost in all things De Luca when his lips rejoin the action. Braxton pushes my panties to the side, unzips his pants, and my legs wrap around his waist as he pushes into me.
We’re still fully clothed, but I don’t care, because I’m where I need to be. In his arms.
“THIS IS YOUR office?” I ask, my jaw hitting the floor as I take in the spacious room.
Floor to ceiling windows take up the entire right side and the far wall lending to an incredible view of the city. A large mahogany desk on the far side. A wet bar decorates the left side next to a door which I’m assuming is either a bathroom or a really huge closet.
Braxton chuckles, leaning against his closed office door, hands casually stuffed into the pockets of his dress pants and an easy smile pulling at his lips. “It is.”
I feel like such an idiot pushing him to tell me the truth about what he does when he has been truthful this whole time. He does actually work in finance. Investing specifically. The building his office is housed in is the tallest on the block. Luca Enterprises spanning the top of the building.
Braxton had met me down in the lobby when it was time for our lunch date, filling me in that he had already made reservations and we were about to be late.
Reservations turned out to be at a cute little Greek restaurant not too far from his building. He laughed when I confessed that Greek food was my favourite, and if I had to pick one food to eat for the rest of my life, it would probably be that. He sat grinning at me when I divulged that my love of the culture’s food fed into my desire to one day to travel to Greece and explore all the islands. Starting with Santorini, because hello, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. He mostly choked on his water when I told him that it was my favorite movie and for the sole purpose that part of it was set on the Greek island.
I found out that Greek food is also his favorite, and that he has already been to Greece, but loved it so much he wouldn’t mind going back one day. And no, his love of the islands did not stem from his love of the food, and he has not seen that particular movie yet, which I plan to rectify soon.
His love of the islands actually stemmed from the insane amount of traveling he did as a child. Whenever his dad was bogged down with endless meetings and phone calls, his mom would pack him and his sister up and the three of the them would travel somewhere new together for a couple weeks before returning home. I guess workaholics ran in their family.
It worries me that Braxton may be following in his father’s footsteps. His dad died at age fifty from a sudden heart attack. The man worked twelve-hour days, seven days a week. Never took a vacation in his life, except for when he got married, and the day Braxton was born. If this thing between us continues to grow then I’m not okay with waking up one morning to realize that Braxton died from a heart attack, just like his father because he was overworked. No amount of work is as import
ant as his life.
After lunch, we grab a couple coffees and drink them as we walk aimlessly around the downtown streets. He tells me more about his parents and his upbringing, although, I get the feeling that he is holding back a lot from me, too. And I tell him more about my family, and about Adrienne and our friendship. I was pretty much on my own since both my parents died in a car accident just after I graduated high school. They were on one of their weekly date nights when a drunk driver on their phone drove through a red light and hit them at full speed. The only relief was that they died on impact. Well, I don’t look at it as a relief, but that’s what the doctor at the hospital had said, and I guess it was better than them being in pain, but there was no relief to losing both my parents on the same night.
Soon after that I moved in with Adrienne. She helped me dig my way out of the dark hell I found myself in after their deaths, and the rest, they say, is history. Other than a couple years I did in an exchange program that sent me to Colorado, it’s been Dri and I ever since the death of my parents. I wouldn’t trade my friendship with Dri for anything. She’s my rock, my best friend, and sometimes a pain in my ass, but I love her. Shortly after I met Adrienne, Rick came into the picture, and the three of us have been inseparable. The three musketeers.
Braxton told me more about what he does for a living. He’s a private lender of sorts, and he helps people invest their money where they could get a better return than if they went to a bank. Numbers aren’t my thing, so I just smiled and nodded whenever he would go into depth explaining about investments and returns. Eventually he laughed, slipped his hand into mine, and changed the subject while we continued our walk back to his office.
When I asked about the guys, he just shrugged and said that he and Antonio grew up together. They were practically brothers. He met Alessandro—Alex—in high school. Alex was the new kid in school with the weird accent so Braxton took him in essentially, and they’ve been best friends ever since. I was surprised to know that he only met Gio in recent years but that they clicked when Braxton’s cousin, Dante, introduced them at the club. Which I also found out was owned by Dante and not Braxton, but he still got all the perks because family was family and they took care of their own.
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