by Lauren Wood
My shower was short. I’d considered jerking off before deciding against it. It wouldn’t be anything like the real thing. Clara made my hand feel as if it was absolutely worthless. It didn’t feel as good as she did. The thought of her made me hard again, and I sighed and pumped myself a few times. I could already tell that I wasn’t going to come from my own ministrations, though. I’d just have to be patient until I was able to have her again.
Once I finished with my shower, I left the hot water running, knowing that Clara was going to get in after me. When I stepped into the bedroom, Clara was fully naked, and I looked after her and swallowed. What was this woman trying to do to me? Kill me? How was I to be expected to keep my hands to myself when I was looking at the very definition of beautiful?
I took a step towards her, and she took a large step backwards. “Don’t even think about it, Klaus!” She exclaimed, a wide grin on her face. I narrowed my eyes on her. Did she think that this was some kind of game?
“How do you expect me not to touch you when you look like that?”
“Try harder.” She slipped into the bathroom and closed the door. I heard the lock click and let out a sigh. This woman was going to be the death of me, I could tell.
I got changed into comfortable clothes. Boxers and sweatpants. I decided to go without a t- shirt because I had a feeling that Clara would be able to appreciate that. A grin came over my face, and I made up my mind to cook her breakfast.
Usually, I wasn’t a cook. It took more work and effort than I was willing to give, but for Clara, I would do anything, no matter what it was. Besides, it seemed simple enough, and if I couldn’t figure it out then there were these things called tutorials that I could look up. Had I ever cooked for myself before? The more I thought about it, the more that I realized I hadn’t. It was a bit sad to be reminded of how much of a spoiled rich kid I really was. I was going to have to do better. For Clara.
I moved downstairs. Everything was clean, and I’d have to keep reminding myself to keep it like that. I’d told the housekeepers around the house to take the week off, and they’d still get paid. I wanted to make sure that I was able to spend some alone time with Clara without having the interruptions of anything.
When I looked in the fridge, there was an abundance of food. I grabbed some bacon and eggs and then got some pancake mix from the pantry. It all seemed fairly easy enough. I greased up a pan and placed it on my stove before throwing a few pieces of bacon inside of it. It didn’t take long for the smell of bacon to fill the air. I kept it on medium heat, just in case. This was my first time, after all, and I didn’t want to burn it.
Once that was settled, I grabbed a bowl and poured some pancake mix inside before adding a bit of water. I mixed it up until I heard someone knocking on my door.
My first thoughts were that it was Quinn and Ezra. My older brother had made it clear that he owed me several unannounced visits, and I knew that he was right. It made me regret all of the times that I’d come over to his house without sending him so much of a message first. But I was a little brother. I was supposed to do things like that.
If it wasn’t them, then I didn’t know who it was. I wasn’t planning on anything today, considering I just wanted to spend time with Clara, but things didn’t always go as planned. That was something that I’d learned. Besides, I didn’t have the best memory. Maybe I had made plans and just completely forgot about them.
The knocking grew insistent, and I turned the stove even lower so that the bacon wouldn’t burn before walking over to the door. I opened it, and my eyes widened when I saw the face behind the door. It was Antonio. I could just about feel my heart stop beating as I looked into his eyes.
I would have preferred anyone else behind this door rather than my best friend. This was bad. Everything with Clara was going so well that we’d forgotten the reason we couldn’t be together in the first place. Her father. And frankly, Antonio had been the farthest thing from my mind. This wasn’t good.
“Antonio,” I greeted him, plastering a smile on my face and attempting to push back the shock that I was feeling. If I did anything wrong, it would look like I was guilty, and I didn’t want him getting those kinds of ideas. “What are you doing here?” I didn’t want him to feel unwelcome. “You should’ve sent me a text. I might not have been here.”
Antonio laughed. “Why do you have a lady friend over?”
My heart stopped. This was bad. I remembered that I didn’t have a shirt on, and if I wasn’t careful he was going to know exactly what was going on. After all, he wasn’t an idiot. I had to play this very carefully.
“Yes,” I told him. “I do have a lady friend over.”
He smirked. “Anyone good?”
“Maybe.”
“I’m guessing that daughter of mine is out with some of her friends or that boyfriend of hers?”
Could I really lie straight to his face and not feel guilty about it? I didn’t know if I could do that. “Yeah,” I said and smiled although it was far from genuine. “She went out with friends. I think her and Brendan just broke up, actually. It’s supposed to be a girl’s drama day out or something like that.” Stick to the truth. The closer that I stayed to the truth, the better.
“Damn,” Antonio sighed. “I actually liked him. Well, I’m sure she’ll find someone better. I just want her to be happy.”
That was the same thing that I wanted. “That’s understandable.” I held up a finger. “Give me one second.” I went to the kitchen and picked up my phone. Clara could not come down here, or all hell would break loose. I needed for her to stay upstairs and keep her face hidden. I knew that Antonio would want to see her, but my plan was to take him out, and he’d see her when we got back. He wouldn’t think anything of it, and our relationship would stay hidden for a little bit longer.
At some point, Antonio would have to be told the truth. But he was a father, and I wanted to prove to him that she was different before he knew the truth. He was my best friend, so he knew how I was, and there was no way that he would let me be with his daughter if he thought I was still some international playboy.
My intentions were good, but I knew actions spoke louder than words.
Your dad is here. Do not come downstairs.
As soon as I sent the message, I felt Antonio put a hand on my shoulder. I put my phone in my pocket while Antonio looked around. “Don’t tell me that this girl has got you cooking breakfast?” He laughed. “She seems like she might be a special one.”
“She is.” If only he knew. I wished that I could tell him. I told him everything, but some things were better kept to yourself.
I thought that everything was going to work out, that we were in the clear until I heard someone coming down from the stairs. Immediately, my heart began to beat at a pace that wasn’t normal. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and looked down at it. My message had been sent, but she must not have looked at her phone. This wasn’t good.
“Oh, so, it looks like I get to meet the lucky lady, huh?” I could feel the excitement radiating off of Antonio, and I let out a deep breath. I knew that I was about to lose my best friend, and there wasn’t anything that I could do about it. Anything that I said now would just look like I was trying to cover up the truth.
“Okay, so I decided that maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if we got a bit dirty, after all.” Clara started speaking while still in the hallway.
Antonio’s eyebrows furrowed, and I could tell that he was beginning to put the pieces together. It sounded like his daughter, but it could have been a coincidence, right? I could tell that he wanted to give me the benefit of the doubt, but he shouldn’t.
This was his worst fear.
“I took a shower, but what would it hurt if we took another one together? Also, the bacon smells good, how did you…” Clara stopped talking as she walked into the kitchen.
She was in nothing but one of my shirts. If nobody else had been around, I probably wouldn’t have been able to control myself. I w
ould have forced her against the counter and taken her, apologizing later if she was still sore. She was so delectable, yet such a tease that it wasn’t fair. But there was nothing that I could do now, for myself or for her.
Clara’s eyes widened, and her cheeks turned pink. To say that she was embarrassed was an understatement. “Daddy,” Clara greeted him and bit harshly into her bottom lip. She was always daddy’s little girl, but what was she going to do when she realized that she wasn’t who he’d raised? “This isn’t what it looks like.” She was trying to cover for me. He wouldn’t forgive me like he would forgive her. I already knew that, in his mind, it would be all my fault, and he wasn’t necessarily wrong.
I had gone after her. Everything was my fault, and I was willing to take responsibility for that.
“It is what it looks like,” I told him openly. “Clara and I slept together. But it meant more to me than just someone to share a bed with. Antonio, your daughter is special to me, and I think that I’m falling in lov…”
My words were cut off as Antonio’s fist connected with my jaw, making me stagger back.
“Daddy!” Clara screamed, but I put a hand up. His punch was entirely warranted.
I stood up slowly. I knew that I was going to have a black eye, but it was a fair price to pay for what I had done.
“Don’t you dare say you love her!” He snapped. “This isn’t love. And you, of all people, don’t know the first fucking thing about love.”
His words stung, and all I wanted to do was prove him wrong. But now wasn’t the time or the place. Antonio had never been physically violent with anyone before, as far as I knew, but desperate times called for desperate measures. I was prepared for any punishments he doled out as long as I got to stay with Clara.
“You have to believe me when I say that she’s different,” I pleaded with him.
“Well, I don’t! You.” His attention turned to his daughter. “I didn’t raise you to be a smart woman for you not to use your brain. You know his reputation, you know what he does to women, and you jump into bed with him? Brendan was perfect for you, but you traded safety for danger? And when he cheats on you, then what? You know what being with him means, yet you’re stupid enough to do it anyway.”
Clara’s eyes were watering, and she looked like she was about to stop crying because of her dad’s words. I wanted to step in, to say something, but what he’d said was true. And he wasn’t saying it to hurt her. He was saying it to protect her.
“And you.” Antonio’s eyes were back on me. “You were supposed to be my best friend. I trusted you to look after my daughter, and what did you do? You slept with her. You had no right, and you’re lucky that I only punched you once. There’s a reason that you’re all alone. Because you don’t deserve to have good things happen to you.”
Antonio looked disappointed and hurt, and I understood why. We were probably the two people that he trusted most in the world, and we’d hurt him the most. I didn’t say anything because I felt like whatever I said would be held against me and taken the wrong way. He needed to be allowed to calm down.
“I’m taking Clara back home with me.”
“Daddy!” She protested.
“Shut up!” he demanded and sent her a fierce look. Then he was looking at me again. “As far as I’m concerned, we are finished. I never want to see you again, and I dare you to ever come close to Clara again. We’re through.”
13
Clara
My head was pounding, but that didn’t make me stop or turn down the music that I was listening to. I’d learned from a young age that whenever I was heartbroken about something, music helped. There was a song about everything, and I’d always been able to find one that matched how I felt about any situation.
And this had to be the worst one yet.
My dad had constantly tried to talk to me over the course of the past month, but truth be told, I wasn’t willing to listen. He’d taken me away from the one thing that I actually felt sure about, threatening me with my education if I didn’t obey his rules.
In a way, my father was like Brendan. He wanted me to be perfect, and if I wasn’t then he felt the need to punish me.
Maybe I was sad about the wrong thing. After all, I’d just broken up with my boyfriend of two years a little over a month ago. And how did I get over that? By jumping into the bed of another man.
But I didn’t regret any of it. With Brendan, I’d always been left to wonder what I was doing wrong because something about our relationship always seemed stressed, off. Now, I knew it was simply because I’d been with the wrong person this entire time.
And now that I’d found the right person, I wasn’t even allowed to be with him.
I thought about how tense my relationship was with my father now. He didn’t say it, and he didn’t have to for me to know his thoughts. He was disappointed in me, in what I had done. He’d thought that I was better than that.
But the truth was that I would never do better than true love.
All I wanted was to see Klaus, but there was no way for me to do that. He hadn’t answered any of my text messages or my phone calls, and I could only imagine what else Daddy had said to him. It wasn’t fair because it wasn’t just his fault. He hadn’t convinced me to do it or pressured me. I had been with him for the simple reason that I wanted to. How I felt about him was genuine.
And now it seemed like he wanted nothing to do with me. I scared myself into thinking that this was his plan all along, that he’d always wanted my dad to find out because it was the easiest way that he could let me down gently. And it almost seemed like a ploy he would pull, but I also knew better.
He’d been about to tell my father that he loved me. I truly believed that he did, and maybe it was the respect for my father that kept him from messaging me back. Whatever it was, I wished he would just say something, to me, anything. That would at least make me feel a tiny bit better.
When we were together, Klaus and I spent a majority of our time arguing in a way that Brendan and I never had before. But it didn’t make our relationship any less valuable. It didn’t make our feelings any less intense. We were passionate, and we fought. But the best part about us and our relationship was how we made up. And the thought that I might never be able to do that again was one that broke my heart.
It wasn’t fair, but then again, what in life was? I’d been dealt a bad deck of cards, and there was nothing that I could do about that.
My phone started ringing, and I could feel the hope rise inside of me while I looked at it. Maybe, just maybe, it was Klaus. Maybe, he was finally deciding that it was worth the risk, that he wanted to be with me as much as I wanted to be with him. But my face was full of disappointment when I realized that it was Shae, instead.
She’d been calling me nonstop for the last month, ever since I’d come home. But I wasn’t answering because I didn’t want to talk to her and hear her judgement or disappointment, however she decided to feel about the situation. So, I’d completely shut her out. And she hadn’t just been calling. She’d been texting me nonstop, calling me endlessly. She’d even tried to come over a few times, but my father wouldn’t let her in, respecting my wishes for privacy, thankfully.
But she was insistent, and I knew that she was worried. Of course, she knew that I wasn’t dead or injured. My father had told her that much, but she didn’t know what was going on. As far as she was concerned, I could be upset at her, and what would stop her from thinking that? I hadn’t even tried to relieve any stressful feelings she might be having.
I was being so selfish, and that was so unlike me. I supposed that I had Klaus to thank for that. He was changing me more than I realized, and just like he’d come into my life, he was gone.
I answered. “Hello.”
“Clara, what the actual fuck! I’ve been calling you nonstop for the last month, and you didn’t bother answering any of my text messages and calls. What’s up with that? When did I become so unimportant to you? If you wanted
to say that we weren’t friends anymore then you should have said so. I even called Brendan, and he said y’all had broken up. You didn’t even bother to tell me, what the fuck? What is going on with you, Clara? Tell me. I am still your friend, right?”
Like usual, Shae was being overdramatic once again. But this time, I couldn’t be upset with her. After all, I had been the one to shut her out the last month, and if the roles were reversed, I probably would have acted the same. I sighed. “Did Brendan tell you why we broke up?” I asked her, wondering what she would say.
Brendan may not have been the greatest for me, but he wasn’t a scumbag. He wasn’t the kind of person who spread rumors and tried to make a bad situation worse. But then again, who was to say really? I didn’t know that side of him. He could be vengeful, and I wouldn’t have a clue.
“No, he didn’t,” she admitted. “Does it have something to do with Klaus?”
“Yes,” I told her, truthfully. “Klaus and I slept together.”
“Oh my god!” Shae exclaimed. “You had sex for the first time, and you didn’t bother to tell me?”
That was like her, to make it about herself. “It wasn’t exactly like I had the opportunity.”
“What was it like?” She asked.
“Don’t act like you’ve never had sex before.”
“Yeah, but I’ve never had sex with Klaus before. I mean, have you seen him?”
“It was really good.”
“Oooh. I just can’t believe you’re the kind of girl for a one-night stand. I mean you dumped Brendan for him.”
“Well, we did it once before I dumped Brendan.”
“You cheating slut!” she exclaimed.
I rolled my eyes. “Shut up.”
“I’m just saying,” she commented.“By the way, did you guys use a condom?”
Realization began to dawn on me, as I thought about her question. It was a simple enough question, but it made my world stop spinning for a second. Did we use a condom? I thought hard, trying to think of an answer. But the more I remembered, the more I realized that there was a lack of a condom being used. He hadn’t pulled out any plastic, and I hadn’t asked for him to, either.