Winter

by Michelle Love

  “It was late.” I take my seat and square my shoulders. “She and I had a consulting deal and I’m holding her to her word.”

  “No, you aren’t,” he says and squares his shoulders too. “She’s not going to be involved in this thing we have going on, any longer.”

  “Tonight, I wanted you two to come out to my estate. I wanted you to spend the night,” I tell him as he shakes his head.

  “No, that will not be happening.”

  “I’m having my lawyer meet us out there. He’s from Sebastien, where my home is located. That’s why I set it up out there. It’s necessary, Damien.”

  “I know you want her. Okay? I know this. And I’m no fool. You think just because I am going to Mars and she isn’t that I should have no problem letting her go. Well, I do have a problem with it.”

  “Look, I’m going to Mars too and I get your point. You want a companion while you’re here. The thing is, Gia’s smart. She can really be a help to the future of space travel. Let her use her brain, Damien. That’s all I’m asking.”

  “You want to fuck her!” he shouts.

  I stop and think about what the hell to say to that. It’s true, after all.

  “She’s very committed to you,” is all I can come up with.

  “I can’t trust you to be professional with her,” he says and gives me a look that tells me, I might not win this battle.

  “I will. I promised her that. I want to see her use that talented brain of hers. I swear that I want that more than anything else from her.” I look straight into his eyes, so he knows I’m telling him the truth.

  “I tell you what, Ryker, we will go out to your place for the night. If I can see you treat her professionally, I will reconsider letting her consult for you. If you flirt at all, I will not allow her to work with you.”

  Standing up as his words have pissed me off, I say, “Allow her? You don’t own her!”

  “I pretty much do. Can you act professional or not?”

  “I can and will. We will all ride out to my place together. I’ve hired a limo for the trip,” I tell him and watch his eyes glow.

  “You best have your own woman, Ryker. Mine is no longer an option.”

  “Don’t worry about me. Now, would you like to go and see the prototype that was tested?”

  He gets up and follows me out. I have to admit, I’ve never felt more tested than he’s making me feel. And I pretty much hate it!

  GIA

  The car ride out to Ryker’s is deathly quiet. I sit next to Damien while Ryker sits across from us and looks everywhere but at me. “So, you said you have guests at your home, Ryker?” I ask as he’s been way too quiet with me.

  “Yes,” is his one word response.

  I knew Damien was going to tell him that I couldn’t take the consulting job, as we fought like cats and dogs over that last night when he caught me coming into our suite. But I didn’t know he’d be this mad at me over that.

  “Are they nice people?” I ask, just to get him to talk to me more.

  “I hope so,” he says. “I don’t know them.”

  “Then why did you invite them?” I ask as he’s very nervous and acting so oddly.

  “I have my reasons,” he says then opens the mini fridge and pulls out a beer. “Beer, buddy?” He holds one out to Damien, who shakes his head.

  Ryker close the fridge without offering me a thing. “I’d like one, Ryker,” I tell him.

  He looks at Damien, instead of me but he doesn’t say a word. Damien nods and Ryker hands a beer to him and he hands it to me. I take it and get the feeling Damien told Ryker some shit about leaving me alone.

  Sitting back, and taking a long drink of the beer as I look out the window at the sun setting, I wonder if I like that he did that or hate it.

  It’s bad enough he refused to let me take the job but now he’s gone and made Ryker afraid to speak to me. So, I push it further and keep talking to Ryker. “Were you mad when Damien told you I couldn’t work for you?”

  “Hell no!” he says, way too fast.

  “Really?” I ask as I know he had to be. “I told him you’d be mad.”

  “Nope. He’s the boss, Gia. He’s your boss.” He takes a long drink and I know it’s to keep him from saying what he really feels.

  I look at him and keep looking at him and find there’s no way he’ll look at me. Then I find Damien’s hand on my leg. “Leave him alone, Gia.”

  I shut my mouth and want to knock the shit out of them both. “This is stupid,” I say then down my beer. “Can I have another, Ryker?”

  “If Damien says you can,” he tells me as he finishes his too and holds out his hand for my empty bottle. “I’ll throw that away for you.”

  I lean forward and hand him the empty bottle and graze his fingers as I do. “Can I have another, Damien?”

  “No,” he says and I sit back with a pout on my lips. I catch Ryker barely glimpsing at me and he doesn’t get himself another beer, either.

  Solidarity, I suppose.

  The rest of the ride is made in silence as Damien texts someone and Ryker stares out the window and I stare at him. I will find out what happened between them. If it kills us all, I will find out!

  The smell of the ocean comes through the air conditioning vents and I find we’re turning and following the shoreline. After a while, we make another turn and go into a gate. When we pull up, the outside is all lit up and palm trees blow in the constant breeze. “Here we are,” Ryker says as we pull to a stop in front of the large house.

  It’s nowhere near as huge as the mansion Damien and his family live in but it’s big. Another limo is in the driveway and I find myself feeling a little anxious about meeting more new people.

  With the way, Damien is acting, I pray no handsome, charming men are here. He seems to hate that kind of man!

  “You guys can get out first,” Ryker says and Damien hurries to get out, holding my hand, and keeping me close to him, for a change.

  He must really be worried about Ryker stealing me away. I wonder what the hell they said to each other this morning.

  A happy dog comes running around the corner with his tail wagging and looking happy. “Toby!” Ryker says as he holds out his arms for the large Yellow Lab.

  The dog runs right past him, coming straight to me. I smile as I pet him. “Are you named, Toby? Hello, big boy.” I scratch behind his ears as he licks me and paws at me for more of my attention.

  I can see the exchange of looks between Damien and Ryker then Ryker says, “Come on, boy. Leave that nice lady alone.”

  “I don’t mind. I love dogs. It’s been forever since I’ve seen the one I had to leave behind when I moved away with Damien. Lady’s a Brittany Spaniel and I missed her so much at first.”

  The front door opens and I look at it to find a white dog with brown spots hauling ass out of it. “She heard your voice, sweetie.”

  I look up and see my mother standing in Ryker’s front door. “Mom?” the Brittany Spaniel jumps up and down at my feet. “Lady?”

  “Surprise,” Ryker says, “I flew your whole family in for the weekend.”

  “What the fuck?” Damien says.

  “Oh, my God!” I scream as I pick up my dog and run to hug my mother. Tears are stinging my eyes as I collide with her and hug her and the dog. “I can’t believe you did this, Ryker! Thank you!”

  I can hear Damien as he says, “Yeah, thanks a lot, Ryker.” Sarcasm isn’t a thing a Russian man hides well.

  Damien can be pissed but I’m not going to let that get in the way of enjoying the weekend with my family and my dog!

  My twin sisters come out and join our hug then I hear my daddy say, “Leave a few kisses and hugs for your old man, sissy.”

  Mom and my sisters, Fancy and Nancy, let me go and I put Lady down and go to my dad. He takes me in his arms and I find myself bawling like a baby as he hugs me and whispers in my ear, “It’s been too long, string bean.”

  And I know it has. Two years i
s far too long to stay away from those you love and who love you too. When Daddy lets me go, I find myself turning around and through the tears I see two hulking men standing behind me.

  I move so quick, he doesn’t have a chance to get away from me. Throwing my arms around Ryker, I say, “Thank you, Ryker. You’ve made me happier than I’ve been in forever!”

  I kiss his cheek and then I see Damien’s face as I wipe away my tears. And I know there will be hell to pay for this.

  Part 3 - The Abandoned

  RYKER

  Gia’s lit up like a firework, yet Damien still doesn’t pay a bit of attention to her as she sits between her mother and father, stroking the spaniel on her lap. She’s smiling bigger than I’ve seen her smile. Damien frowns as he taps at his cell, ignoring everyone.

  “Apollo Engineering, huh?” Gia’s sister, Nancy, asks me. “Are you planning on going to Mars, Ryker?”

  After placing my dirty martini on the coffee table that separates the twin burgundy leather sofas in the main living area, I answer her, “I will be going to Mars. I wanted to be on the first mission my company sends but lately I’ve been thinking about taking a later mission. Your sister has spoken to me about being of use from Earth. I’m beginning to see I might be of more use on the ground, in the beginning anyway.”

  Nancy’s identical twin sister, Fancy, takes over the conversation that Damien has taken a sudden interest in. He’s put his phone down and everything! “Our little sister has influenced the likes of you, Ryker?” Fancy asks me with a surprised expression.

  “She has. She’s a genius, you know,” I tell her and find Damien getting up from the chair at the far end of the large room, to take a martini off the tray full of them my cook delivered to us while we wait for dinner to be prepared.

  “Genius is a bit more than she is. I have six, verified geniuses I employ at Markov Global,” Damien says as he sits on the opposite end of the sofa I’m sitting on.

  Fancy and Nancy have taken places on the bar stools at the bar to one side of the living area. With a quick glance across the table, I notice Gia is completely in another world with her dog and parents. She’s paying no attention to us what so ever.

  “Would you two consider yourselves to be in competition to see who can get to Mars first?” Nancy asks then sips her martini, peering over the edge of the glass at me.

  With a nod in Damien’s direction, I say, “We all are competitive. You have to be in the space industry. But we’re helping one another as well.”

  “And I thought we’d be on Mars around the same time,” Damien says then looks at me. “I don’t see why you’d let a female change your mind about being on the first mission. The first people there will be the hierarchy of the new world, Ryker. I thought you and I were like-minded in that respect. Don’t you want to secure a position of power on the planet?”

  “I do,” I tell him and find him seeming a bit prickly. “But I think I’d like to be sure the missions have everything they need to build on Mars too. I may have more work to do here before I leave Earth.”

  His icy eyes level in mine. “Are you sure it’s merely for the space travelers you are thinking about and not a woman who will be left behind?”

  “It’s only because I want it to work on Mars. I don’t want the missions to fail because of a lack of support from Earth. And on that topic, I’d like to add that Gia would make an excellent scientist to have on the ground. Since you have no intention of using her gifts at your company, you should allow her to join mine,” I say and watch Damien’s face go red.

  “This is not the time to discuss business, Ryker. Gia can do as she pleases, once I leave. But she will be a wealthy woman and working won’t be a thing she needs to do,” Damien says and I see Nancy looking worried.

  “Ryker, I’m sure our sister will do what she feels is right,” Nancy says as she looks from me to Damien. “Damien makes sure we’re all taken care of, after all. He’s a generous man who loves our sister with all his heart. He’d take her with him to Mars if she’d go.”

  “Oh,” I say as I look at Damien. “You didn’t tell them about their faulty DNA?”

  “Faulty?” Fancy asks.

  And with the word, DNA, said, Gia and her parents look up and join the discussion. “There’s no need to talk about that,” Gia says then puts the dog down and smooths out her black skirt, a nervous habit I can see she has now. “Ryker, you’re playing dirty. You need to stop.”

  Looking down like a scolded child, I know she’s right. “I apologize. I’ll check on how much longer dinner will be.” Getting up, I find Fancy’s hand on my arm as I pass by her and her sister.

  “We have children, Ryker. What about our DNA?” she asks me.

  I look at Gia, instead of answering her sister. “I will leave that up to you to share or not, Gia.” Then I leave the room and feel a weight on my shoulders for some reason.

  Maybe it’s because of how Damien won’t let Gia do what’s best for herself. Maybe I feel like I should be doing more to stop the man from squashing her. But she is the one who allows it. And now that I can see how her family is about the man, I am beginning to understand it a lot better. They all are depending on him. Their financial security is all on Gia’s back and I find that unfair.

  Instead of going to the kitchen, I sit at the dining table in the dark and empty formal dining room. Placing my head in my hands, I find myself feeling desperate. I desperately want Gia to find her true self and I might be pushing too hard at her to do that but I don’t know any other way to get her to see what she’s doing to herself.

  The click-clack of high heels echoes through the hallway and into the room comes Gia, her eyes are searching and I know she’s looking for me. “Ryker, there you are. I have to make this quick as Damien has excused himself to freshen up.”

  Getting up, I meet her in the middle of the room and place my hand on her arm. Just to touch her sends millions of tiny sparks through my body. The way her eyes move to where my hand is, tells me she feels something too. “Gia, you look lovely. I’ve wanted to tell you that. I looked forward to meeting with you this morning and when Damien came alone and gave me the news that he wouldn’t let you work for me, I nearly came unglued.”

  “That’s what I wanted to talk to you about. See, he was in the hotel room when I left your room and we had a hellacious argument. He gave me the chance to walk away from him last night. He told me I could leave him and go to your room and he’d never bother with me again.”

  “You should’ve done that,” I say as I move my hand up her arm until I find her soft cheek and stroke it.

  She leans into my touch then looks up at me with shining eyes. “But I didn’t. I have more responsibilities than most. My entire family relies on Damien. And I do respect the man.”

  My lips quiver as they ache to touch hers. Her body is close to mine and heat fills me. Taking her hand, I take her with me to go to one of the spare bedrooms on the first floor. “Can we be alone for a little while?” I ask her as I tug her along with me.

  “No,” she pulls up short, stopping me. “Ryker, you have to stop this. I’m not about to go anywhere private with you. Damien and I are on shaky ground. Did you hear what I just told you?”

  “I did.” I turn around to face her and see a shadow moving down the hallway. Letting her hand go, I whisper, “Someone is coming.”

  She steps back and says, “So, when is dinner going to be ready? Daddy has to take his medication soon. He needs to eat.”

  “Clever,” I whisper. “Soon. Come with me to the kitchen and let’s get a definite time on that. We can grab him something to eat if it’ll be much longer.”

  “Ryker,” Damien calls out as he comes into the dining room. “Just what do you think you’re doing?”

  Great!

  GIA

  “I came to find out how much longer dinner will be, Damien!” I snap as he’s made me mad with his accusing tone. “And I can talk to Ryker if I want to.”

  His ey
es pierce me as he says, “That is all you two can do. You do recall our conversation last night, don’t you, Gia?”

  Ryker huffs and turns away from us. “I’m going to the kitchen if you two care to come.”

  I follow behind him and Damien takes my hand to slow my hasty retreat. “Surely, you understand why I feel I can’t trust you two together. We did talk about this,” he whispers in my ear. “You are a treasure to me. I do not wish to lose you.”

  “You won’t.”

  Looking ahead, I see Ryker turning a corner and a light comes on. “This place is like a maze,” Damien says. “So many twists and turns.”

  “It is easy to get lost in here. Keep your phone with you at all times, so you can call me if you find yourself lost in my home.” He looks over his shoulder at me. “Or take your dog with you, she’ll make sure you find your way back.”

  “Thanks for bringing my family to me, Ryker. Too bad the kids had school and had to stay home with their fathers, instead of coming. Maybe my next trip back to the states will have me seeing them too,” I say as I miss the little rug-rats.

  He pushes a door open and we’re in a bustling, huge kitchen. “Connie, when will you be serving the first course?”

  “Fifteen minutes,” a woman near the back of the kitchen shouts out over the noise of the ten or so people who are working like crazy.

  “You keep this much kitchen staff?” I ask as it seems a bit much.

  Ryker smiles as he turns to look at me. “This isn’t my staff. This is the staff from Per Se in New York. I flew them in for the weekend to cater to us all.”

  “That must’ve cost you a fortune, Ryker,” I gasp.

  One of the women working at a table nearby says, “It did.”

  My heart swells with all he did just for me to get to spend the weekend with my family. I want to give him a hug but Damien has a death grip on my hand.

  “It’s a shame we won’t get to spend more than one night here, Ryker. You really should’ve spoken to me about it. I have to be back in Orlando first thing in the morning,” Damien says, crushing me.