by Erin Osborne
“I see. I’m surprised they gave you a day off. Are you pulling your weight?” he asks as if this is my fault.
In a way it is my fault. I killed the guy and wasn’t about to let Sal or anyone else take responsibility for that. If I were back home, I’d accept responsibility for it too. That’s why I stepped forward and made sure the assholes knew I was the only one responsible for his death. It was a knee jerk reaction and one I can’t take back.
“I’m pulling my weight,” I assure him, knowing I’m telling him the truth of the matter.
“How are things going with the girl? Have you seduced her yet?” he questions as I quickly take the phone off of speaker and leave the room.
Too bad I didn’t turn to look at the bed. I didn’t see the look on her face of complete and utter defeat. Instead, I walked into the hallway to lay into my father.
“I’m not going to seduce her as part of your grand plan. I told you that in the beginning and my stance on that hasn’t changed. If someone told you how to run your life, you’d kill them. I’m not going to follow the same path as you. I’m a better man than that. So, you can give up your plan. If anything happens between Imogen and me, it’s because we want it to. Not because you ordered me to seduce her into something more than what you’d ever ask of my brothers or do yourself. If you’re done, I’m done with this conversation and talking to you altogether,” I tell him, pulling the phone from my ear and hanging up.
Taking a minute to collect myself, I breathe in and out through my nose. My father pisses me off on a good day. Today he just went too far by his cutting remarks and the assumption I’d just fall in line with what he wants me to do. Lachlan and Hunter may still believe in him, but I don’t. I haven’t for a very long time.
Finally, I turn and head back in the bedroom. Imogen isn’t in bed where I left her. The bathroom door is shut, and I hear the shower running. She must have gotten awake and decided it was time to clean up. Maybe we’ll go out and sit by the pool for a little bit. Talk some more and simply be together.
Sitting on the bed, I wait for her to come out. As I look around the room, I take in Imogen’s bags packed and sitting just inside the closet. I sit up straighter to take a look around. None of her things are left around the room. Her hair tie is missing from the stand next to her side of the bed, the brush isn’t on the dresser, and her discarded clothes are missing from the floor where they’ve been resting since moving in here and talking.
As I’m taking in everything, Imogen opens the bathroom door to steam billowing out behind her and filling the bedroom. She stops drying her hair with the towel and looks at me, tears instantly spilling back over her lashes and rolling down her face. This is the first time I’ve seen a mask in place as she looks at me.
“What’s going on?” I question her, not hiding the pain filling my voice.
“What do you mean?” she counters, a tremble in her own.
“Why are your things packed? And why are you crying?” I ask her, needing to know exactly where her head’s at right now.
“I heard your dad and you on the phone,” she states, keeping it simple and to the point.
“What exactly did you hear?” I demand, standing up and walking closer to her.
With every step I take toward her, Imogen moves farther away from me. At least until she corners herself in the corner of the bathroom.
“I heard him asking you if you had seduced me yet. You quickly left the room after that. So, I guess I’m nothing more than another notch on your bedpost. Only this time you were ordered to seduce me instead of you wanting to do it for yourself,” she says, not looking me in the face. “I think I’m going to move back into my own room. It’s best for the both of us. Now, you don’t have to look at me and think I’m going to cling to you and I won’t have to see your face. A face I trusted and put all of my faith into. This is on me, not you because I’m the fool who believed in you.”
Imogen doesn’t give me a chance to say anything in response. Instead, she picks up her bags, places a gentle kiss on my cheek, and leaves the room. I watch her walk away; her head bowed as the quiet splash of her tears hit the floor. I’m not sure exactly where her head is other than thinking I betrayed her. I would never betray her but she didn’t give me a chance to explain that to her. Now, I have to figure out how to let her know the truth of the situation and hope she’ll forgive me for messing things up so early on.
Chapter Eighteen
Imogen
IT’S BEEN JUST over a week since I heard Flynn’s dad ask him if he had seduced me yet. To say my entire world crumbled and my heart shattered into a million pieces is an understatement. I truly believed he was a different guy than what he makes out to be when he’s working or just wants everyone to know. It turns out, he’s worse than what I ever imagined. I’d never do to anyone what he did to me.
About the only good thing to come out of the situation is I’m no longer a virgin. That’s one less thing I have to worry about in my life. Like I said, it was never anything I was holding out hope of losing to the man of my dreams or on my wedding night. Flynn just proved to me real love doesn’t exist and there is no man out there for each of us. Some of us are destined to be alone for life. I’m one of those people.
Rubbing a hand over my stomach, I may be one of those people. There’s a really good chance Flynn and I created a baby when we were together. It was more than once and none of those times included us using a condom. By the time either one of us thought of it, it was too damn late. I won’t ever regret a baby if we made one. There is nothing to regret about creating a life and raising it to be a good, kind, caring man or woman. I’ll give that to my baby. Every single day of my life.
I won’t ever keep this baby away from Flynn. He’ll make a good father and teach him or her all the things I can’t. I’m not one of those women who would ever use a child to get something out of Flynn or hold our child over his head. That’s not who I am. Not to mention the only thing it’s going to accomplish is hurting our child. I’ll never do that to someone I love because that’s not love.
For the past week, I haven’t seen Flynn. I haven’t even left my room. Rosa tries to get me to open up and talk to her when she brings in my meals. Even though I’ve told her she doesn’t need to do that. I don’t expect her to wait on me hand and foot. She doesn’t listen. Just insists on feeding me. This also means the only time I’m out in the sun is when I sit out on the balcony. It’s not the same as sitting out by the pool though. I miss it. But, I don’t want to see Flynn or hear anything he has to say to me right now. Eventually that may change, but everything is too fresh in my mind and heart.
As I go to make my way out to the balcony, there’s a knock on my door. It doesn’t sound the same as Rosa’s light tap. My heart races and the breath gets stuck in my chest. Flynn hasn’t come up here since I left the room he moved into and I don’t know why he’d change now. It’s just proven how little he cares about me. If what his dad said on the phone wasn’t true, he’d be here by my side and be trying to work things out between us. Not hiding away the same as I’ve been doing.
“Come in,” I call out after longer than I should have waited.
Instead of Flynn or Rosa, Tommaso sticks his head in the door. He gives me a smile and nods to ask if he can come in the room. Nodding back in response, I turn to continue walking out to the patio. It’s different if we’re on the patio. I don’t want to be alone in my room with him. No one gets that from me except for Flynn. If things were different that is.
“What can I do for you?” I ask Tommaso as we sit down at the table.
“I just wanted to check in and see how you were doing. Flynn is looking like shit and not doing very good at all. He wants to come talk to you, but is worried about you letting him in. What happened?” he questions me, concern on his face.
“I had sex with him. More than once. Only to find out his father ordered him to seduce me. As Flynn was telling me one thing, he had someone else filling hi
s head and I’m nothing more than just another notch on his bedpost. I shouldn’t be hurt or surprised, but I am,” I tell him honestly.
“Are you sure you heard the entire conversation? That you read between the lines?” he questions me, raising an eyebrow as he looks at me.
“What do you mean?” I ask him, not understanding what he’s getting at.
“Look, I’ve talked to each of you separately. I’ve also seen the way you look at one another. And, Flynn’s head hasn’t been in the game for a long time. He’s always thinkin’ about you. That’s why he was shot. He didn’t want anyone else to take responsibility for a mistake he made. I think he wanted to prove to himself he could be a good, decent man. For you,” he informs me as I gasp at his last words. “Now, I know what his dad told him just after he took you as nothin’ more than collateral from your father. And I know he’s been adamant about not doin’ that since the second the words came out of his asshole father’s mouth. Whatever is going on between the two of you has nothin’ to do with some fucked up plan his father is tryin’ to force on him. I can promise you that.”
Tommaso watches on as I take in his words. As I process what he’s giving me. A piece of Flynn he hasn’t been able to give me himself. I’m not sure what’s holding him back or why he doesn’t want to come clean about the situation himself. Or if he sent Tommaso up here to talk to me first. Maybe I’ll never know the answers to that. Now, I have to decide if I’m willing to give him a chance to explain what’s going on.
“Most expressive eyes ever,” Tommaso mutters almost under his breath. “Flynn told me I’d be able to see everything in your eyes. See, when we went in the day he got shot, Flynn told me to take care of you. He made me promise to take care of you, make you happy, and ensure you get everything you’d ever want. That’s how much he cares about you and wants you taken care of. He’d do anythin’ to make you happy. And he didn’t send me up here to talk to you. I did that on my own because you’re both miserable and I want to see you happy. You both deserve to be happy. Can you give him a chance to explain things to you?”
“I don’t know, Tommaso. Do you honestly think anything between Flynn and I can work? Or even last? Our worlds are completely different,” I question him, needing to know his answer.
“I think if anyone can make it in this world, no matter how different the two of you are, you and Flynn will be the ones to outlast us all. You’ll get your happily ever after and Flynn will give you the world. If you let him. It’s goin’ to be an adjustment for both of you. You’ll have to work together and figure out how to make your relationship work. There are things he won’t be able to tell and you’ll have to trust in him enough to let him tell you what you can and give in to him when he can’t. It will only ever be about business; nothin’ other than business. Is that somethin’ you can do, Imogen?” he asks me, giving me even more to think about.
We sit in silence for several minutes, each of us lost in our own head. I’m pondering everything Tommaso just gave to me. He laid out a lot of information in a short amount of time. Now, I need to figure out what to do with it. I can either let this shit go between Flynn and I, only talking to him when it concerns our child. If there happens to be a child. Or, I can give him the benefit of the doubt, open myself up to him, and see if this can be everything Tommaso thinks it can be. For once, I’d really like to see if I can get my happily ever after.
Instead of trying to talk to me more, Tommaso gets up, places a kiss on the top of my head, and leaves me sitting out on the balcony alone. I sit out and look off into the sun as it begins to set. Other than the blinding light, I don’t register anything else around me. Not the cool breeze as the sun sinks down over the horizon, the birds flying away, squirrels playing around in the yard below, or the sound of the waves as they gently crash into the side of the pool.
I’m scared out of my stupor when someone appears next to me. Looking up, I see Flynn standing there with two plates of food in his hands. Rosa is standing behind him with our drinks. It’s the first time I’ve seen him in a week and he looks horrible. There’s more just the stubble of hair on his face, his hair hasn’t been brushed, and I’m pretty sure she’s still wearing the same clothes he was in the last time I saw him. I did this to him. To us.
“Stop, angel,” Flynn says, sitting down across from me after setting our plates down.
“I did this,” I tell him, not checking the tears as they flow down my face.
“No, we did this. I should have told you about my father’s plan from the very beginning. You have to know I told him no the second the words first passed his lips and that hasn’t changed. I have been with you because that’s what I wanted. Not because of an order I wasn’t going to follow from the very beginning,” he tells me.
Rosa disappears from the room leaving us all alone. Looking at my plate of food, I see my favorite foods. Flynn is staring at me when I look up at him, that sexy smirk on his face. I laugh at the situation we now find ourselves in. An awkward situation where I don’t know what to say to him. This is not ever where I wanted us to be. I don’t want to be that woman who doesn’t know what to say to a man I’m in a relationship with. However, I don’t even know what Flynn and I are.
“What’s so funny?” Flynn asks me.
“Us. We are so awkward and I don’t like it. I just don’t know where to go or what to do now,” I tell him honestly.
“Now, I tell you what happened with my father and how I want you to be in my life forever,” he answers as if it’s as simple as that.
As we eat dinner on the balcony, Flynn tells me about the conversation with his father the night he took me from the restaurant. How his father demanded he seduce me so he could marry me and further trap me by getting me pregnant. I’m astonished that his father demanded all of this from him. In front of his brothers. All because he wanted a leg up in business or something. I’m not even sure what Flynn’s father hoped to gain by demanding he marry me. It’s not as if my family has money or anything of value. From what I understand, my father isn’t in the black and owes money to more than just Flynn.
While he wraps up what he’s telling me, I notice he doesn’t have his sling on. I catalog every single detail of his body and appearance. It’s not like I’m looking any better. I haven’t showered or done more than toss my hair up in a messy bun. My clothes are just as rumpled and messed up as his are. Together we’re a hot mess. However, I’m not going to push him away. I’ll be telling him what I feel and how I want things to be moving forward.
“Thank you, Flynn. For telling me all that,” I tell him, reaching out to hold his hand in the middle of the table. “I believe you. Now, we have to decide where we go from here. What are we doing, Flynn?”
“We’re together. You want or need to put a label on it, then we’re in a relationship. If not, then we’re together and going to see exactly where this takes us. I’m in this for the long haul. Are you?” he questions me right back.
“Yes, I am. We just need to work on things,” I tell him. “Especially our communication. I shouldn’t have just walked away from you. I should have stayed and made sure you could give me your side of the story. And there still is the possibility of a pregnancy.”
“I know. We’ll figure out what’s going on and go from there,” he assures me, squeezing my hand just a little tighter. “Honestly, I’m not going to complain one single second if you are pregnant. I’m going to be happy as fuck and hope for a little girl who looks just like you.”
“I want a little boy who looks like you, has a heart like his father, and protects the ones he loves with everything in him. I’m just not sure I’m ready to share you with anyone else just yet. We’re still getting to know one another,” I tell him how I feel about things. “I will be happy if I am pregnant. It would just be nice to have some time alone with you. To get to know you and figure out where our relationship stands before adding a baby into the mix.”
“I get what you mean. We’ll spend the next ni
ne months getting to know one another and when we add our child into the mix, we’ll be the perfect combination of good cop, bad cop. Because if our little one is anything like me, they will be a hellion. And I’ll have to make sure my gun collection is stocked up and ready to go for any little girls we have,” he says, making me feel better about things.
I almost feel as if Flynn is ready to try this for real. Not that he didn’t before, I honestly believe he was ready. I’m just not sure I was. The separation after us being together sexually was possibly a good thing. It showed me what I truly want from Flynn.
“Where do you see us going, Flynn?” I question him, wanting to know if we’re on the same page.
“That’s easy. I see us getting married one day and having a houseful of babies. I see Hunter and Lach being a major part of our lives and my father continuing to be absent. That’s what he’s good at after all. Unless he has some asinine order he wants one of us to follow. I also see things changing when we get back home,” he tells me. “While we’re out here talking, I need to let you know the reason we’re here. My dad didn’t want you to talk to someone and let them know what’s been going on. He thought coming here would get you away from the cops and anyone else who would bring heat to our doorstep. I won’t ever keep anything from you again, Imogen.”
“I figured there was a reason for the trip. It’s no surprise really. I’d probably be doing the same thing if I were you. However, I wouldn’t have gone to the cops, Flynn. I was angry and upset, but I’ve never been one to go to the cops about anything,” I assure him.
Flynn and I finish our dinner while talking about our lives before all of this happened. I tell him about losing my mom and hating her for a while because she begged and pleaded with me not to come home. She didn’t want me to see her in her final days and remember her that way. I still don’t understand it because all I wanted was those seconds, minutes, and hours with her. Instead, I was in school and my father left her alone most of the time. Part of me used to believe he simply couldn’t handle her being so sick. Now, I think he just didn’t want to be there for her. He was selfish and refused to be in the same room with her for longer than it took for the obligatory check-in.