Cyprian nudges me. “Take your sister to freshen up, will you?”
I nod and tilt my head toward the ladies’ room. “Come on, sis. The men need to talk business.” As soon as we get out of earshot, I let her in on Cyprian’s gift. “My man has set you up good, Rina. You and your husband will be staying two nights at the Ritz.”
“What?” she says as her eyes grow in size.
We slip into the ladies’ room and I open my purse. “Here, put this in your purse. Cyprian gave it to me to give to you. He said you’ll need some money to have fun while you have a little vacation. I’ll help Mama with your children. Don’t worry. Reconnect with Peter and see if you can get him on board with this venture.”
“What if he doesn’t want to do it, Camilla?” she asks as she seems worried he might not.
“Do your best to talk him into it. It means a lot to the kids too. This will set you all up for your whole lives. If you do smart things with it, that is. But I’m sure Cyprian will help out with great ideas about how to make the business work. He keeps saying he knows nothing about the hotel business but the man can read things and instantly become an expert. He’s the smartest man I’ve ever met and I know brilliant doctors and scientists!”
“I hope he can talk Peter into taking this offer. I don’t know what I’ll do if he won’t take it.”
I don’t know what she’ll do, either…
Chapter 8
CYPRIAN
“Man to man, no judgment,” I say to Peter. “Why would you not accept this offer?”
“I have my reasons for wanting to stay in South Africa. It’s my home country. I want my children to be raised there. I want them to know my religion and heritage,” he says, making valid points.
“Clemson has a community where they can get that as well. You see, your children are half-American too. Shouldn’t they get to experience and learn about this culture as well?” I ask him.
His eyes keep darting to the side and I think he has other reasons to want to stay right where he’s at. “My family is back in Cape Town as well.”
“You’d have lots of vacation time. Anytime you needed or wanted to go for a visit, not only would you be able to take that time off, you’d have access to the company’s private jet to make the trip.” I pile it on thick as I can see this man has that other woman on his mind.
He looks at me for a moment then says, “I suppose my wife has informed you all about me taking a mistress.”
I nod. “That has nothing to do with this offer. You see, I am planning on marrying Camilla. I’ve never had a family and I’d like to help ensure your family has everything they need. Think of me as a brother, Peter.”
He nods. “I have many, many brothers, Cyprian.”
“I am sure you do. That’s wonderful for you. Such a large and loving family,” I say but find him shaking his head.
“Loving, no. Just large. But that’s all I know. Can I be honest with you?” he asks me as he looks over my shoulder for his wife, no doubt.
“I wish you would.”
“I am facing a lot of flak from my extensive family about my wife and her slowness to fill our family with more children. They’ve set me up with another woman. She’s more than willing to make sure I have as many children as possible. So, leaving my home now would cause a rift in our families. This woman is a cousin of one of my brother’s wives. A close family we’ve traded with for many generations.”
“While I see your dilemma, may I ask you if you love your wife?”
He looks at me for a long moment. “Where I come from a wife is an asset. Love shouldn’t enter into that agreement. She married me, agreeing to bear my children. As many as we were given. When she took birth control, she voided our agreement. I haven’t divulged that information to anyone. Nor will I. You want to know why that is, Cyprian?”
“Let me guess, because you, my friend, love your wife.”
He nods but says nothing as he takes a drink of his wine. After a long time, he says, “But I have never told her those words.”
“You should. You should live your life for you and no one else except that woman and your children. I was also brought up in a family who thought love had no place in our existences. They were wrong. I had been living life almost the same way as you’ve described. I used women for sex and gave them nothing in return. Until I met, Camilla Petit. She opened my eyes and my heart to a different, more fulfilling way to live. You should forget about what you’re leaving behind.”
“Can I even do that?” he asks. “I’m not sure I can.”
“When you have sex with your wife, have you found it more enjoyable than when you had sex with this new mistress?” I ask him as I hold his eyes to make sure he tells me the truth.
“I didn’t feel a damn thing when I bedded the mistress. Except shame. That’s the truth.”
“Here’s the deal, Peter. I love Cami and I love her family now too. Your family will leave you the hell alone about this. Would you like to know why that is?”
With a nod, he says, “I’d love to know why you think that.”
I wink at him. “Because you will be sending so much money home to them, they wouldn’t dare say a bad word to you. You know, afraid you’d stop sending them anything.”
“Just how much money do you think I can make off that hotel, anyway?” he asks me.
“Well, there will be two of them, actually. There will be another in Paris. You will only work there one month out of each year. But you and your children will get fifty percent of the profits off that one too. So, how much money you make is all up to you, my friend.”
“This is too good to be true,” he says and I nod. “See, I told you it was.”
“I do have a private condition for this,” I tell him.
“And that is?” he asks as he leans forward.
This is the whole reason I sent the women away. I’m not sure Cami nor would her sister approve of my doing this. But I feel protective over her and her family, so I will do what I think I need to, for their protection.
“You and I will have a side agreement, signed and kept in my attorney’s possession. Only you, me, and my attorney will know a thing about it. It will state that, at any time, you take on another mistress or wife, you will lose everything to your current wife, Catarina. You will be deported, without a cent and without your wife or children. That’s my one condition. As long as you live by that agreement, you and your entire family will benefit from it. If you don’t, then you will go back to South Africa, penniless, without your family.”
“You’re a man who has more dark than light,” he says as he looks me over.
“I have a darkness, you don’t’ begin to have. You see, I have lived a life even worse than your own. I could’ve had love and companionship the whole time but it was kept from me. Now that I have it, I will do anything to make it stay in my life. Cami is my life and her family means the world to her and that means it does to me now too. So, I will protect them all, the same way I will protect her.”
“If I walk away, accepting nothing, then what?” he asks me.
“I wish you wouldn’t do that, Peter. Like I said, I will do anything to protect them.”
“Does that include having me killed?” he asks.
Shaking my head, I say, “Surely, you wouldn’t let it come to such a drastic thing. I am offering you wealth beyond your wildest imagination. A beautiful wife, who is willing to give you children. She’s merely asking for a small break in between them. A very fair thing to give, in my opinion. You will be beyond happy, Peter. Do the right thing, man.”
He drums his fingers on the table then looks up at me. “I have no choice, Cyprian. I will take your offer.”
I hold up my glass of wine and he holds his up as we tap them together. “Here’s to many years of being brothers-in-law, Peter, as well as business partners.”
He doesn’t say anything as he knows I have him by the balls. When my family is threatened, I’m finding I can turn into a ruthless man. But
then again, isn’t Peter the same way.
So, who is to say what I’m doing is wrong…?
Book 9: The Intimidator
Chapter 1
CAMILLA
Pulling up to the college in the red Lamborghini, I feel more than a bit ostentatious. Everyone looks at me as I get out of the attention attracting door that lifts up.
“Whoa,” a young dark haired guy says as he stops and looks at the car. “What do we have here?”
Closing the door, I hit the button on the key fob to lock it and take a step back to appreciate the car with the guy. “We have a pretty nice car my boyfriend gave me.”
He cuts his eyes away from the gorgeous car for only a moment to say, “You should marry that man.” Then he’s right back to looking at the car.
Walking away, I think about what he’s said and wonder why it is Cyprian has yet to ask me that all-important question. We’ve been living together for a bit over a month and he talks all the time like we’re definitely going to get married and he mentions having kids a lot too. But the actual proposal and an engagement ring have yet to be heard or seen.
Not that I want to rush anything but I am beginning to wonder if I’ll get a real proposal or if one day, out of the blue, he tells me to pack a bag and whisks me away to Las Vegas. I don’t know how I’d feel about not having a real proposal.
Maybe I should let Cyprian know that. No, that’s much too forward. I’d better just wait to see what he has up his sleeve.
Making my way into the lab for my first class of the new year, my last year, I find the smell of formaldehyde, stinging my nostrils and get ready to get back into the mindset of learning all I can, while I still can.
Checking my phone, before I shut it off for class, I see my sister has sent me a text, asking me to meet her for lunch. She, her husband, and kids are staying in a house, Cyprian rented for them while they scout out a great place to make the new hotel.
Catarina is over the moon about it and must have something she wants to show me or talk to me about. I text back that I’ll meet her for lunch and turn the phone off to get down to business.
This year is going to be so different with no job to go to every night. And I have Cyprian to thank for that. He’s such a good guy, now that his past seems to be behind him.
CYPRIAN
“Thank you for meeting me, Peter,” I tell Catarina’s husband who’s stepping off the elevator at my office building. “Follow, me. My lawyer is waiting for us in the small meeting room.”
“So, you really had the contract drawn up?” he asks me as if it was ever a question.
I stop and turn to him and look him over. The man is tall, dark, and mysterious looking. I can see why Cami’s sister fell for him. He’s a charismatic man and seems to be used to getting his way. He’s not a bit happy about the contract that’s the main part of our deal.
“Peter, would you do right by her, if there was no contract?” I ask him as he looks at me with a blank expression. It tells me he wouldn’t.
“Catarina and I made our vows and she’s well aware of what they were and what she can and can’t do and what I can and can’t do. I do not feel this contract is a thing I need, to do right by my wife and family.” He shoves his hands into the pockets of his expensive Armani suit I had delivered to him, along with top of the line clothing for his wife and kids.
I gave him and his wife cars to drive, I’ve already started his salary for managing the hotel that’s not even purchased yet. I’ve set them up in a nice home. I’ve done all that and he still thinks I should merely trust him to do what his wife feels is the right thing to do.
Peter is obvious to me. I can see right through him. If I don’t make him sign this contract, he will go back to South Africa and add that other woman into his life, as well as Catarina’s. I know it would break that woman.
Taking him to my office, instead of the meeting room, I decide to give him two offers. “Let’s stop off at my office for a minute. I have something else I’d like to offer you.”
He follows me into the office and I close the door behind us. “Good, I’m glad you’re seeing things my way,” he says.
With a chuckle, I say, “Far from it, Peter. You see, I’ve found a part of me I didn’t know I had. Seeing Cami as my future, has me seeing her family as my future too. Protection for them has begun to course through my veins and that has me thinking you should be given a chance to change your mind.”
“About?” he asks as I gesture for him to take a seat in the chair on the opposite side of my desk while I go take a seat in mine.
“How would you like to start fresh?” I ask him and see a puzzled expression could his face.
His dark brows furrow over his dark as night eyes as he asks, “I would like to know what you mean by that.”
Lacing my fingers and leaning my chin on them as I place my elbows on the desk, I tell him what I mean, “Divorce your wife. Leave her and your children here and I will see they never do without a thing. You can go back to your country and live life the way you want to. I’ll pay you to do that.”
“Leave my wife and children?” he asks as he shakes his head. “Do you think I could even do that? They belong to me!”
“Then what’s the big deal about what I’m asking from you? All I’m asking you to do is accept my gravy job offer and take care of your family. You’re making it out like I’m asking you to do something you don’t want to do.”
“I should be able to take another wife if I want to. It is in my religion, after all,” he says, and I find myself getting pissed at him.
“And you can, but divorce Catarina first. Let her go. It’s not her religion to do such things,” I tell him as he looks at me with a stubbornness in his eyes.
“She is mine. The children are mine. I’m not about to let them go,” he says through gritted teeth.
“Then you’re saying you will, willingly, sign the contract that states if you marry another, you will be sent back to South Africa, alone, leaving your wife and children here.”
“Fuck! I guess I can sign the damn contract but I would not call it, willingly. I would call it, you forcing me to.” He glares at me and I find a smile creeping across my lips.
“Peter, you’re a very lucky man. You have a beautiful family and now you’re going to be a very wealthy man. It’s more than most dream of,” I tell him as he looks grim. “So, let’s go get that thing signed and then I’ll take you to look at a building I think might be perfect for the new hotel. I’ve come up with a name too, Catarina’s Quarters. It is because of her that you have anything, after all.”
He slams his fist on top of the desk and growls. “I cannot do this! I will not allow this! She is my wife and those are my children and I am going to take them home. I am not a man who can be pushed around. Fuck you, Girard!”
I let him get up and walk to the door, then I say, “Have it your way, Peter.”
He stops and turns back to me, slowly. “You don’t mean to let me leave this building without signing that contract, do you?”
“If you walk out the door of the main lobby, without having signed that contract, I’m afraid a terrible accident will happen to you. But that’s your choice to make. It doesn’t matter at all to me.” I lock eyes with him to let him know I’m the one who’s calling the shots, not him.
Getting up, I make my way to the door and open it, walking out, I find him following me. I assume he’s made his decision. It’s too bad he had to be made to do the most basic thing in a marriage, be faithful.
As I open the door to the meeting room and see my lawyer sitting at the table, waiting for us, I notice a smile is on Peter’s face. Maybe he’s decided to be happy about things. He should be. He’s getting more than he’s ever dreamt of, after all.
I hope I’m doing the right thing…
Chapter 2
CAMILLA
“I’m meeting Catarina for lunch, you should join us, Cyprian,” I tell him as I’ve called him to see how his
day is going. “I don’t have another class until two, so I have a couple of hours to kill.”
“We’ll meet you two then. I have Peter with me. I took him to see a building I think might be good for the hotel. Meeting with you girls will give me the opportunity to let you in on the name I’ve chosen.”
“Great, see you soon then.” I end the call and pull up in front of my sister’s house and honk the horn.
She hurries out, leaving the kids with a nanny she found soon after moving to Clemson. She looks happier than I’ve ever seen her as she gets into the car. “God, this car is so badass!”
“It turns heads, let me tell you,” I say as I pull away. “Our men are meeting us at the restaurant. Text yours, tell him where we’re going.”
She pulls her cell out of her purse and taps in the information then puts the phone in her lap and sighs. “I’m so happy, Camilla. Happier than I’ve ever been.”
“Good,” I say and give her a smile. “It makes me happy to see you this way, Catarina. It’s been a week since I’ve seen you. How’s it all going?”
“Great.” She nods as she looks out the window and sees people pointing at the car. She waves at them like they can see her, which they can’t through the darkly tinted windows. “Peter has been a bit cloudy-headed with all the changes but he’ll come around. He’s never been given such an opportunity before. I think he’s kind of blown away by it all.”
“Cyprian has been very generous, I admit.” I look over at her as I’m stopped at a red light. “But I have to tell you, it makes me love the man, even more, knowing he’d do anything for me and my family. He’s a keeper, that’s for sure.”
Taking off from the light, I find a car full of young guys pulling up next to us and gesturing for Catarina to roll her window down. She giggles as she sees them too and rolls it down. “Hey, boys!”
They laugh and hoot and holler. She laughs and rolls the window back up. “You have a fan club, Camilla.”
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