A Debt Paid

by Black, Joslyn

  It took a minute for him to come back from his daze to the present. He apologized for squishing her and kissed her once more before he pulled out. He moved to her side, drawing her into his arms. She still panted, trying hard to calm her breathing. He couldn’t help thinking that every time they came together it was better than the time before.

  Chapter 10 It was impossible for Calix to keep his hands of her; lying next to her, he slowly trailed his fingertips up and down her spine. They were relaxing peacefully in each other’s arms. Calix couldn’t help but think this, this softness, was what his life had been missing. He’d never had a relationship where he actually had real feelings for the woman he was with. Sure, he knew they fell in love with him often enough. And when it became obvious that they were head over heels, it would only be a matter of time till they wanted more, so he would cut them loose. He most

  definitely never waited for a woman. No, everything happened on his terms the way he wanted it to go when he wanted it to happen.

  It was different with Anya. When he first saw her, she’d been so young. She was stunning, even as a teenager. Legally an adult, yes, but still just a teen. Mature beyond her years, she also had more of a fierceness of spirit than he had ever seen in a woman. As time went by, he thought he would forget about her, that it was just an infatuation with her beauty. Every woman he had a relationship with after meeting Anya couldn’t fully satisfy him. He caught himself picturing her as he had sex with other women. He had even called out her name with one of them. It was then that he knew his infatuation with Anya wasn’t just a passing fancy and that he would have to have her.

  He didn’t want to break their peaceful silence, but time was passing, and he had plans for them today.

  “Anya.”

  “Mmmmmm.” “My assistant will be here soon with a change of clothes for me. I need to go to the office this morning, but I scheduled the afternoon off so we could meet with the wedding planner. Do you really not want to have a wedding?”

  That was the question of the day, wasn’t it? She wasn’t sure how she felt about it. However, her mother would surely want her to have a wedding. Honestly, she didn’t care about anyone else. Then she thought of Calix, did he really want one? She pulled back from him and raised up on one elbow.

  “Do you want a wedding?” Calix did want a wedding; he was a bit old fashion in that way. He wanted to celebrate and show everyone that he was the one marrying the beautiful Anya. But, he didn’t want to seem weak or emotional; he had already let her know too much about how much he wanted and needed her. Anya was his weakness, and she knew it. What if she used it against him?

  His uncle always said , ‘Never show emotion, emotion is a weakness, and people will always exploit any weakness you show.’

  “I don’t really care either way as long as we get married. I know my mother would want us to have a wedding along with the rest of my family. No one’s ever eloped in my family before. I also have a lot of business contacts. It’s always good to work business contacts when you can.”

  His face was the emotionless mask that it was yesterday after their incident. Why did he do that? How could he do that? It’s like he flipped a switch and shut down. But, that wasn’t the only thing that

  concerned her; it was his so called business contacts that worried her. She sat up fully, pulling her sheet to cover herself. They were about to have a real serious

  conversation. There were answers she needed to know. So, Anya steadied her voice as best she could.

  “Business contacts? What kind of business contacts?” Calix sat up fully as well. She was trying to hint at something, and he was sure he knew what it was, but he wanted her to come out and say it.

  “What do you mean what kind of business contacts?”

  Anya huffed. She needed to just come out and say it. “You know what I’m asking. Everyone talks about your business contacts. I need to know are you corrupt like my father?”

  “And, if I was, what would you do?” She looked him square in the eye, her face strong and taunt and as

  emotionless as she could make it, and her voice hard and cold. “I would take my mother and run. It’s one thing to be forced to marry and have children; it’s another to be condemned to marry a lowlife bastard like my father. I told you yesterday, I am not my mother.”

  Her fiancé sat there and stared at her for a minute, trying to assess her. She was serious. He thought for a minute on how much he should tell her. His uncle’s voice kept ringing in his ears. But, Calix never wanted to see her look at him this way again. He wanted them to have a good partnership.

  He grabbed the sheet clutched against her breasts and ripped it away from her. Her eyes narrowed as she contemplated his intentions. Gently pushing her down back onto her back, he climbed on top of her as he spread her legs to rest between them. Anya’s breathing sped up. Panic started to rise within her eyes. Did she think he would take her forcefully again? He would never do such a thing again; hatred for himself after he did that, filled him, but Anya was unaware of his feelings. He grabbed her hands and lifted them above her head. She turned her head to the side and closed her eyes, preparing for an onslaught that she didn’t know wouldn’t come.

  He leaned down and kissed her cheek, then whispered in her ear.

  “I’m not going to take you, love, not unless you want me to.” Nuzzling her neck with his nose, he kissed it gently. She opened her eyes and faced him. He looked into her stunned eyes, leaned down, and placed a soft kiss on her lips.

  “If you ran, I would find you. I would look everywhere and never stop until I did, but that’s not going to be necessary. I’m not scum like your father. I’m actually an honest businessman. My uncle, on the other hand, is not. He’s family, though, and, when my father died, he took care of my mother and me. He was my first investor; he helped me start up. But, I never worked for him. People always assumed I did, and I let them. It was good for business. As my uncle says, ‘It’s better to be feared than respected.’”

  Boldly she contradicted him. “Your uncle is wrong,” she said simply.

  It was Calix’s turn to be confused. “How so?” “If you are feared, you can never be loved. With fear, emotions are not real; with respect, people are doing so because you’ve earned it and deserve it.”

  He had never thought of it that way. He leaned down and kissed her again. When lifted his head, he smiled.

  “Not only beautiful but smart as well and not afraid to show spirit. I love that.”

  She wiggled her hands, and he let go of them. “Did you really think I would have hurt you?” His voice was surprisingly filled with hurt.

  Anya saw that he was trying to hide the emotion in his voice and eyes.

  Obviously, he didn’t like showing his emotions. And, she was not all together comfortable with her feelings toward him, but they had to start somewhere. Calix wasn’t like her father. He said so, but could she believe him? It was time to find out. She reached up and caressed his face.

  “So you don’t participate in anything illegal?” “No, but I don’t stop my uncle, so you might consider me guilty by

  association, but, like I said, he’s family.”

  “Calix, will you always be honest with me?”

  “Yes.” Anya couldn’t meet his eyes with this next question. “My mother is miserable in her marriage. My father cheats on her constantly and tries to hide it from the public more so than from my mother. He only cares for himself. Whatever love he had for my mother is gone. She’s just part of his act that he needs to win over the public. I don’t want that. Would you be faithful to me, and, if you couldn’t, would you have enough respect not to flaunt it in front of me?”

  He was actually happy about her question, because if she didn’t care at all for him, she wouldn’t care about him and other women. The question showed that there was some feeling there, whether she wanted to admit it was another thing. He didn’t want to show weakness, but, with Anya, he wanted nothing in between them. A
dmitting to himself she was an honest person, he believed she wouldn’t abuse her hold over him.

  “Anya,” he waited for her to look at him, “I would never break our vows. You are the only woman I want and have wanted for years. After the first time I saw you, you were the only one my body wanted. Not that I’m proud to say this, but I would picture you when I was with other women.”

  Her face pinched with dislike at his last admission. He smiled again at her obvious dislike for the knowledge.

  “I would always be faithful to you. Will you be faithful to me? You don’t love me; what if you came to care for someone else, could you still be faithful to me?”

  She considered him carefully. Was he trying to trick her into admitting that she did have some feeling for him?

  “You would be my husband; I would always be faithful. As long as you respected me, I would respect you.”

  “I think we’ve talked enough; time for us to respect each other.” She smiled at his playfulness, caressed his cheek again, and then pulled his head down for a real kiss.

  Chapter 11

  2 WEEKS LATER… Anya couldn’t believe how fast time had gone by. There was only a couple of weeks until their wedding. She was actually looking forward to it. True to his word, Calix had stayed every night for one week. They always slept naked, and he would pull her close and fall asleep with her wrapped in his embrace. Every day, whoever came home first would start dinner, and the other joined in the preparation once they arrived home. Each night, though, as they got ready for bed he would complain about how small her apartment was and how they couldn’t even fit in the bathtub together.

  So, on the second week, Anya had admitted defeat and moved into Calix’s penthouse. He was more than smug about getting her to move in before the wedding, but she let it slide because of all the sweet things he was doing for her. He had an obsession with her hair and would comb it for her each night. After he was finished, he would kiss his way from the top of her neck to the bottom of her shoulder.

  When she moved in, everything she wanted to keep either got integrated into his penthouse or was put in storage. Everything that was left had been donated to the Salvation Army.

  They’d had dinner with his mother last week. Maria was so ecstatic that Anya and Calix were getting married; she’d wanted Calix to settle down for a while. Over his thirty-nine years, Calix had never brought a woman home for her to meet. In Maria’s eyes, he should have been married with kids by now. She was only

  disappointed in the time frame. The wedding was so close, she didn’t have enough time to invite their family in Italy.

  Anya had fallen in love with Calix’s mom instantly. Maria was a happy women, who always had a smile on her face. She was maybe an inch shorter than Anya and a little plump but knew how to dress and looked very fashionable. Maria was honest, straightforward, sweet, and compassionate. She was younger than Anya’s parents; Anya figured Maria must have married young given Calix’s age.

  *** Maria and Anya’s mother Carol had met over dinner a couple of nights ago. They got along perfectly; they talked the whole way through dinner and dessert. With the exception of the night Anya had brought Calix to dinner, Anya hadn’t seen her mother sober and smiling like this in a while. She knew this trip to Italy was going to be great for her mother. Anya still didn’t know exactly what had changed her father’s mind. When the trip was brought up two weeks ago, he seemed very much against it. But, then he reversed his decision and was fine with her going.

  Anya and Calix met with the wedding planner, and, remarkably, they got eighty percent of the decisions done in one afternoon. The cake they chose was a strawberry and chocolate-checkered cake. How they got it that way, she didn’t know. The frosting was going to be a sweet soft buttercream decorated with edible pearls and flowers that matched the centerpieces. Their colors were white, grey, and purple, so she chose cabbage roses, lobelia,

  heliotrope, and paper white narcissus for the centerpieces and her bouquet. Anya went to the bridal boutique the weekend after meeting with the wedding planner. Calix had wanted her to go sooner, but she didn’t want to use any more vacation days. Carol and Maria accompanied her. After trying on seventeen dresses, she finally found one they all liked. It was a silk, strapless mermaid style dress with a beaded sweetheart neckline and a pleated drop waist. It was almost a perfect fit; she was just a little too short for it, so it needed to have the hem altered.

  Anya still didn’t know who was going to be her maid of honor. She didn’t have many close female friends aside from her childhood friend Nicole. But, since Nicole had moved, they only saw each other about once a year. One of her cousins was going to be a bridesmaid. Her maid of honor would wear a grey dress with a purple satin belt tied in a bow in the back, and her bridesmaid’s dress was the opposite color scheme. Both were strapless and form fitting, so she needed to pick her maid of honor fast. She didn’t want a large wedding or a large wedding party. Anya didn’t have many people she was going to invite; a few coworkers, her boss, and some of her family, but most of them weren’t on speaking terms with her parents, because of her father mainly. Most of the guests were coming from Calix’s invitations. His family was large, and he had to invite some of his uncle’s associates. They would be offended if they weren’t, and that was something you just did not do. Then, there were Calix’s own business associates to consider.

  The venue was to be at the Diamond Country Club in their grand ballroom. Calix had made the travel plans for their honeymoon. They were going to Fiji. He’d shown her pictures of the hotel they were to stay at, although hotel wasn’t an accurate description. It was a resort with private suites that were underwater.

  Wedding stuff aside, Anya’s

  relationship with Calix had only gotten better. The feelings she was trying not to acknowledge were getting stronger, but she didn’t want to put a name to them yet, though there was no denying what those feelings were.. Wanting to avoid the issue, Anya threw herself into her job. Work had always been her refuge. While some people dreaded ten hour days, she loved them. Being a paralegal to one of the most sought after attorneys in town kept her going nonstop. So, it said something that she actually missed him while she was at work and couldn’t wait to get home to have dinner with him each night.

  The two of them had become very domesticated during their two weeks together. Some people think that routines in relationships make them boring, but she didn’t feel that way. They agreed to take turns cooking although they always ended up making dinner together. They would eat while having some pretty entertaining conversations, and they got to know each other a little more each night. Though they had a maid service, Anya would always do some light cleaning around the penthouse. If Calix didn’t bring work home with him, he would just follow her around the penthouse talking and watching.

  Sometimes, he’d even help clean up sometimes. It was funny because Anya could tell it really wasn’t something he did often, then they would just relax together. Often they’d snuggle on the couch and watch TV or a movie. Anya was really surprised at some of his favorite shows. She thought for sure he’d be some type of CSI guy. But, no, this man liked watching old I Love Lucy reruns. Other times, they would just sit on the couch with her legs resting in his lap and quietly read and together. They had even started a chess game that, even after two weeks, wasn’t over.

  Anya found that day by day they just grew closer together. He would kiss her good morning, hello, and goodbye. They were unexpectedly very compatible. Every night, they made love, often more than once. Calix had a very large sexual appetite. When it came to Anya, he could never get enough of her; some nights he would even wake her up in the middle of the night.

  There was only a few things that worried Anya. Firstly, Calix’s Uncle Vito wanted to meet her before the wedding, and, really, what does one say when they’re about to meet future in laws that were mobbed up? Was he going to be the stereotypical mobster like in the movies? She had no idea. Secondly, she didn’
t want to quit her job. Calix had said he wouldn’t mind her working until she was pregnant. Then he wanted her to quit, because he didn’t want her in a high stress

  atmosphere, and he thought it would affect her pregnancy and the health of the baby. She really didn’t want to quit. Anya enjoyed her job, but she had done research about pregnancy, health, work, and miscarriages. She’d planned to use facts she found to prove that she still could work while pregnant. However, her searches mostly sided with Calix’s view; the first three months were the most crucial, and,

  typically, if you were going to miscarry it was most likely going to be in the first trimester. Standing too long on your feet could cause high blood pressure and premature labor, and stress was linked to miscarriages.

  Her period had been due yesterday. She didn’t know if she should say anything to Calix yet. She was only a day late. They’d had sex every night, and she wasn’t on birth control, but it could just be stress affecting her cycle. Maybe she should just get a test. Anya thought that Calix must have forgotten when she said her period was due, because he hadn’t mentioned it since that first day.

  She didn’t want to risk a

  miscarriage, and she had seen a few of her co-workers through the years during their pregnancies; they always seemed over worked, tired, and had a lot of back pain. She didn’t want that. If she was pregnant, she needed to at least put in a two-week notice before quitting. So, Anya thought that she would possibly get a test this evening. It was almost time to leave; she just needed to file away a few more depositions and she would be able to head to the store. Should she tell Calix before or after the test? She decided it was best to call before, because she would be late coming home since she had to stop by the pharmacy to get the test. When she was done filing, she sat down at her desk to call Calix.