by Emma Vikes
I wasn’t sure if Milo’s argument won because Violet remained quiet for a moment when he said that. She looked up at me and then something flashed in her eyes. Hope. A part of her still hoped for things to be normal that she knew and I nodded my head at her, flashing her a small smile to encourage her. “Do you promise I won’t be bored?”
Milo nodded his head, a slow smile forming on his handsome face. I bit my lip, trying to stop my own at the sight of his smile. He hadn’t really smiled much when I first met him but he really should more often. It was the smile that could tug at a million girls’ heartstrings. “I promise, sweet.”
Violet stood up and then reached for my hand, leading me quietly upstairs but I still caught sight of Milo sighing in relief, his head bowed and a small, gentle smile was still on his face. I began doubting him 2 days ago but it seemed as if he was really trying, in ways he knew how and in his own terms and even if I wasn’t exactly on board with that idea, he had been Vi’s father longer than I’d been in her life so he must know what he was doing.
I got Violet ready in half an hour, in a pretty lavender dress that made her look and feel like a princess. I had fun doing her hair- god, I missed being a hairdresser- and ended up braiding her hair into a beautiful crown on top of her head. She looked beautiful and I could just imagine when she’ll be all grown up and getting ready for prom. I really wish I get to see her too.
“Wow.”
We both turned around and Milo stood, in a crisp black ensemble. I fought the urge to gasp at the sight of him. Although Milo always made sure he looked sharp for work, this was on a different level. Underneath his fitted suit jacket was a black dress shirt accompanied with a slim black tie. His black hair was brushed back, his eyes bright and clear under the harsh bright light of the fluorescent. He looked like every leading man I’d read in my pocket books since I was seventeen come to life.
“I better make sure that no one steals my date tonight,” Milo said with a wink at Violet but I swear I was the one who was ready to faint at the sight of it.
The alarm in my mind instantly went off and the kiss flashed back in my head, so did all the dreams that I kept having of him. I was developing a crush on my boss and this wasn’t the kind of thing that I wanted to deal with at the moment. But it was so hard not to swoon at him when he looked as dashing and sexy at the same time.
Damn it, Megan!
“Megan?”
My eyes widened and I stared straight back into Milo’s. “Yes?”
“We’re leaving now. Make sure you keep the door locked. I have my key with me so if you fall asleep Vi and I can still come in. You enjoy your night off.”
I nodded my head and then followed the two of them to the door, giving Violet a big hug and patting her head as I watched her Dad opened the passenger door for her and then got on his side, driving away without even a honk goodbye. When I closed the door, I immediately locked it and ordered from McDonalds, picked up my book and got to where I left off before Violet asked me a question about the puppy and before I got completely sidetracked.
His upper teeth sank on his lower lip as he stared at me up and down, blue eyes assessing every inch of skin exposed to him. The corners of his lips twitched into a sardonic smile and I shivered at the sight. The devil was seductive in his own right, sexy as hell and when he walked closer to me and tore what remains of my clothes I had with his bare hands, he didn’t hesitate to kiss the newly exposed skin, biting and nibbling on them to leave his mark.
“The devil’s mark,” he murmured in my ear, sending another wave of shiver down my body. Even his whispered voice turned me on, “now you’re mine and can never be anyone else’s.”
The doorbell rang and I gasped, dropping the book on my lap and groaning. Why must people keep on interrupting me on this part? It was the food that I ordered and I handed the guy my cash and ate my burger and continued to read the book. There was always something about books that trapped me in it and I couldn’t take myself out of it. The words were alluring and couple it with my imaginative mind...
His lips were pressed against my skin, hot heated kisses on every inch that he could touch. My hands were wounded on his thick block locks, weaving the strands and tugging whenever he bit me to leave a mark. A hand traveled downwards, cupping my pussy. He brought his hand back to his lips, licking the dripping fingers. He grinned. “You’re so so wet for me, Megan.”
I groaned when he sat up, pulling me harshly off the couch and then pushing me against the wooden coffee table. He spread my legs apart and licked between my fold and I arched my back, pushing my vagina more on his face, wanting his tongue to fuck me senseless. “Uh, uh, patience, dear.”
“Milo, please...”
He moved up, his tongue licking from my folds and all over my body until he reached my lips, crashing it against mine in a heated kiss that was filled with tongue battling and teeth clashing against each other’s. I could feel his dick positioned on my entrance. “Just fuck me, please. Milo, please!”
The last word was a gasp because he forcefully jammed his dick inside of me, the entire length filling me without warning. “Yes, baby, take it all in. Take everything in.”
He thrusted against me without relent and I was moaning like crazy beneath him, pulling his body closer to me and his mouth was all over my breast, kissing and nibbling on my nipple, teeth grazing against the sensitive bud. One free hand was rubbing mercilessly against my clit, stimulating the climax quicker.
On top of me, he groaned and pushed harder, making me gasp and scream his name when I finally came...
The crash of the door startled me and made me jump on the couch. Relief coursed through me when I realized that it was all a dream and I didn’t scream Milo’s name or anything. I sat up straight on the couch, collecting myself together because I was sweating even when it was actually a cool night. I tied my hair into a higher bun and suddenly Violet ran past me, rushing upstairs and slamming her bedroom door.
“Violet! We need to talk!” Milo’s voice boomed around the house, startling me even more. His face was red with anger and he roughly removed his jacket, throwing it on the floor and following Violet upstairs, knocking incessantly on her door.
For a moment, I hesitated on following Milo upstairs. Whatever was going on, it was between the two of them. But my hesitation also stemmed from the dream I just had of Milo. How could I face him when I was practically moaning and writhing in the pleasure he brought to me in my dream? The vividness of it didn’t help either. The banging continued so I picked up his jacket, folded it and set it on the couch, took a deep breath and then followed him upstairs. “What’s going on, Milo?”
Red-faced with anger, he turned to look at me, his gray eyes blazing. “She pushed the chairman’s son in the pond at the restaurant.”
“I didn’t do it on purpose! He was lying!” Violet screamed inside her bedroom. “You just don’t want to believe me!”
Milo continued pounding on the door and I took his fist in mine, stopping him from doing so. I gave him a look and his eyes were still blazing with fury and irritation but he stepped outside. I knocked softly on Violet’s door and called her name. For a few seconds, there was silence but then as I pressed my ear against the door, I finally hear it unlocked.
I opened the door softly and then peered inside. Violet was sitting by her bed, knees brought close to her chest and face tear-stricken. My heart broke at the sight of her. I’d never seen such sadness in her bright blue eyes. She crawled to my lap and wrapped her arms around me as I rubbed her back, tucking her close to me in a cocooning embrace.
“He wouldn’t stop teasing me that I didn’t have a Mom,” Violet whispered and I could feel her tears drenching my top. “He wouldn’t stop, Megan. He told me that my Mom probably died because she didn’t want to be with me. He said that even my Dad was ignoring me. He was being mean, Megan!”
Pulling away slightly so I could look into her blue eyes, I placed a hand under her chin. “It doesn’t mat
ter what he says, Vi. When my Mom died, kids at my school used to say that I was an orphan because my Dad was always too busy to attend any meetings and games and recitals. But I knew the truth. He was working for me and my siblings and I get to see him at home and during the weekends. Sometimes you have to see the good things so bad things would stop messing with you.”
I stayed with Violet a little bit and manage to convince her to change into her pyjamas. I tucked her in her bed and stayed by her side, running my hand through her hair until she fell asleep hugging me tight. I slipped out of her room when I heard her lightly snoring and headed downstairs to my room. I was certain that Milo was in his room but was surprised when I heard something being put down on the wooden table, jumping in surprise.
Milo was seated on the couch, his shirt opened at the top, tie loose around him, his hair messed up and bottles of beer littered on the table. I didn’t count them but I had a feeling he drank more than he should. “She’s asleep?”
His sentence was still coherent. “Yes, Milo.”
A part of me wanted to start an argument at him because the last time we talked about this, he told me he wasn’t sure if he still knew how to handle the ropes of being a Dad but he said he had it covered and I believed him because he was a real parent and I was just a 25-year old who tried her best to help her younger siblings maneuver through life even when she barely could.
Milo slammed the bottle of beer on the table, almost breaking it apart. “She’s impossible, Megan. The ride home, I kept asking her...I kept asking her why she pushed Bran but she wouldn’t tell me!”
“Were you yelling?”
My question seemed to take him off-guard and he looked at me with furrowed eyebrows. “Does it matter if I was? I’m her Dad and I was asking her a question. She should’ve answered, Megan. She’s only seven years old, too young to rebel!”
Milo was full-on ranting right now and I could hear the exasperation so clear in his voice and tone and the anger that he wasn’t sure where he was meant to direct. “She’s making this whole thing harder than it’s meant to!”
I pursed my lips and sat beside him.. I wanted to yell at him for being such a dim-witted father but knew that it wasn’t going to get us anywhere. His relationship with his own daughter was on the rocks and the last thing I wanted was to make him feel bad when I’d already gone that road the first time. “No ever parent ever knows how to really deal with their child but they try their best. Being present during meal times and on weekends but locking yourself in your office isn’t trying Milo. Neither is reprimanding her by yelling at her when you want to get the full story out will never give you what you want. You have to adjust your pacing.”
“I suck at this.”
“Then you try not to suck. One small step at a time, Milo.”
There was a moment of silence that lapsed between the two of us and I realized that the conversation just ended. I was about to leave when I felt his hand on my wrist, pulling at me. I turned to look at him. His gray eyes were bright despite the dim light in the living room. “Don’t talk to me in that way again.”
My eyebrows furrowed. “Why? I was only trying help.”
“Because you’re making me want to kiss you,” his voice was low and almost a whisper when he said it but I heard his words perfectly clear, “and I’m trying really hard not to.”
Chapter 8
Milo
I woke up with a pounding headache.
Groaning, I sat up slowly and the blanket that was draped over me fell on the carpeted floor. It took me a moment to register where I was. Rubbing my eyes, I looked around for my phone. It was 6 AM in the morning and I fell asleep in the living room. Judging from the pounding headache, it was clear that I drank myself to sleep last night.
With another groan, I turned to the side and was about to stand up when I noticed the glass of water on the coffee table, sitting beside a pain killer. There was a flask set beside them and I opened it and took a sniff. I scrunched my nose, unsure of what was inside and opted for drinking the pain killer and the water.
“It’s a hangover remedy.”
Looking up, Megan stood by the bathroom door. Her hair was wrapped in a towel but she was already dressed in denim shorts and a white hoodie, her used clothes in her hands. “I think medicine will do the trick.”
Megan shrugged and went in her room and then came back and moved over to where the windows were and then pulled the curtains open. I groaned when the living room was filled with bright sunlight; it was blinding. “Fuck.”
Behind me, I heard her giggle. “Just drink it. You’ll get used to the taste. My Dad made that for me when I suffered my first hangover. He told me that listening to me complain about how bad it tasted was better than holding my hair while I vomited in the toilet.”
When I wasn’t making any move, I heard her groan and then grab the flask on the coffee table, unscrewing it for me and then handing it to me. I looked up at her. Her green eyes were filled with concern. “Just drink it up, Milo. Don’t be a wuss.”
My eyebrows shot up in surprise with what she said. She always addressed me with polite respect but then again, this was the second time that she’d seen me drink myself to oblivion. But the casualness in her actions and tone, it made me think long and hard about what happened last night before I blacked out while she started vacuuming the living room for any dust.
Megan was still busy cleaning the living room when there wasn’t even a speck of dust around. All I could do was stare at her while she concentrated on wiping the shelves and the few pictures I’d allowed her to display around the living room. To be honest, the house still looked bare and inhabited but I could see the efforts Megan put to make it look at least homey.
“No parent ever knows how to really deal with their child but they try their best. Being present during meal times and on weekends but locking yourself in your office isn’t trying Milo. Neither is reprimanding her by yelling at her when you want to get the full story out will never give you what you want. You have to adjust your pacing.”
“I suck at this.”
“Then you try not to suck. One small step at a time, Milo.”
I wasn’t sure if she made me the hangover cure because of our conversation last night. As far as I could remember it, she sounded earnest with her advice. It was unsolicited like her previous one was but the former had done the trick to snap me out of my selfish pity-party. But then again, it wasn’t as if I made a better effort after. And after the fight with Violet last night, I was certain that Vi would even be more distant with me than she already was.
“Violet usually wakes up early and we’ve made an agreement that we make a weekly meal plan. I usually make sure that I have every ingredient for every meal and sometimes we do order take-out but I have a feeling that she’d really want to help me with making the lunch she initially planned. So I need to run to the grocery...”
Megan was standing in front of me by now and I was in the middle of drinking the concoction she made. It tasted bad. I shook my head and looked at her, cringing. “Wait, wait. What are you trying to say?”
She looked dumbfounded for a moment. To be honest, last night, I thought that if she saw me drinking she would’ve yelled at me the way she passionately argued with me that first time but was surprised that she took a different approach. She got so heated the first time and even when it did bother me, a part of me thought how hot she looked...
Damn it, Milo. Now’s not the time for your thoughts to wander in that direction.
“What I’m trying to say is that there’s a list in the kitchen of what breakfast Violet would like for today and you’re going to make it for her,” Megan paused for a moment, her green eyes flickering to mine. In the morning sunshine, for some reason, it looked lighter and almost yellow, like sunlight, “and I hope you use this moment to apologize to her, Milo. She was a wrecked last night because the person who was meant to believe her no matter what the world said, was the same person wanting her
to admit a mistake she didn’t commit.”
She said it in a calm way but the impact was severe and Megan knew that her words blew me the way it was meant to. She smiled and shrugged, heading back to her room and retrieving her wallet. “Megan.”
She was nearly at the door when I called her name. I stood up and walked the short distance that separated the two of us. Megan looked at me directly in the eyes but something flickered in her eyes and she took one subtle step away from me and closer to the door as if my presence made her want to run. “I don’t think I’m the person that Violet wants to see when she wakes up.”
Megan tilted her head to the side, her platinum blonde hair falling on her face as she did so. “I think so too, Milo. But you’re her father. She’s only seven and not even in her teen rebellious years. My Dad used to tell me that the best thing a parent could ever do was create a bond with their child before the dark ages come and they start shutting you out. You have some time, Milo. Fix it now before you never could.”
She walked out the door and all I could do was stare dubiously at the wooden door. Megan was right and I hated how she seemed to be doing a better job at knowing the basics of Parenting 101 when I was the parent between the two of us. Her father did one hell of a job raising her.
I went to the kitchen and it was only now that I noticed there was a whiteboard on the wall beside the fridge and written in it were meal plans. Since today was Saturday, I checked out what Megan had written as per Violet requested. Breakfast burritos. I had experienced in the kitchen because whenever Mom had to work overtime, I was left with making dinner for my brothers and I. Julian was my assistant. For a rockstar, the guy had a soft heart for the kitchen and even when he was on tour, he would still somehow find some time to make a YouTube video of him cooking. Since he was already famous, his channel skyrocketed. Everybody loved a musician who was also a whiz in the kitchen.
I finished making breakfast for three and Violet wasn’t awake yet. I wanted to go to her room and wake her up but had a feeling that she wouldn’t react well to me if I did so. All there was left to do was wait until she woke up. I made myself a cup of coffee and headed to the backyard, staring at the vast expanse of luscious green grass that I had to hire gardeners to tend twice a week since Megan said that she was good with everything but gardening. It was then that I spotted the black soccer ball that I bought Violet when she was five when I had her fall in love with the sport. It was then that an idea popped in my head and I pulled out my phone, calling Verna for a favor.