The Billionaire From New Jersey

by Sherie Keys

  Kelly just looked at her and walked away. Charlotte felt like she was going to throw up again and ran into the bathroom. It was just a false alarm. She walked to the sink and splashed her face with cold water. She let her hands fill up with water and took a long sip. She looked in the mirror. Charlotte wasn’t liking what she saw. Everything felt different and strange. She didn’t feel right.

  Charlotte hoped that he would be there waiting for her when she left practice. She had checked her phone, but he still hadn’t responded. She didn’t want to have to walk home alone again. Practice was bad enough that day. She would have to get back into the mind set of working hard. It was a good first week of summer, but she had to get more serious now. She couldn’t let high school insecurities get in the way of important opportunities for her future. She collected her things and headed out of the door.

  If Charlotte’s heart dropped any further, she was sure it would have fallen right out of her body. There wasn’t anyone waiting for her. Instead, she had to walk home alone again. Charlotte wasn’t so sure she would be able to do that all summer. She had rehearsal three times a week for two months, so walking home alone every time wouldn’t be ideal. Charlotte still had to remind herself that it could be a possibility, and that she would have to be OK with that.

  She felt scared again. Every time she saw someone walking across the street, she thought they might be staring at her. What had gotten into her to make her so paranoid? Charlotte needed to get herself together quick. Perhaps living in the city and having to walk home alone at night would make her more independent. Walking around in New York City alone would surely be worse. One of her friends had stated that if you hadn’t gotten mugged, you weren’t a true city-person. That had happened to Charlotte, but luckily, she had Angelo to help her.

  She didn’t want to feel so defenseless. She thought back on the night that she was attacked. She wondered what happened to that man. Charlotte hoped that Angelo had done something to make sure he never hurt another girl again. Did Angelo stop all women from being attacked, or was it just something special about Charlotte?

  She wondered if he was a womanizer and had just been playing Charlotte. He certainly could have done that. After being able to wrangle up the dinner cruise for Charlotte, she was sure he was capable of anything. How many times had he done that for other women? Was he still doing that for other girls?

  People had seen them together around town. It wasn’t a secret anymore that they were into each other. Charlotte had tried to deny it at first, but there was no stopping their attraction. She hadn’t heard any other rumors about Angelo and other girls, but who would really tell Charlotte anyway? Despite all of these thoughts, Charlotte felt deep down that Angelo wasn’t really capable of hurting her like that. He was so genuine when they talked. She could feel connected to him emotionally just with a physical touch. Things felt magnetic, and right. Charlotte needed to just stop all of those thoughts from flowing through her brain. It was everyone else talking, not Charlotte.

  At least her grandmother would be waiting for her once she got home. Charlotte wondered what it would be like to live alone, and if she could handle returning to an empty house. although her grandmother was pretty strict, it was still nice to be around her so often. She reminded Charlotte of her mother. They had the same smile and eyes, the most comforting parts of their personality.

  At the very least, Charlotte was feeling blessed that she had this time to spend with her grandmother. It was meant to be a punishment, and her grandmother even knew that. Still, Charlotte didn’t want to miss an opportunity to get closer to the matriarch of her mother’s side of the family.

  “Was practice good sweetie?” April asked.

  “No, actually. Kelly wasn’t very pleased with me and I just wasn’t doing my best. There’s nothing else I can really say about it,” Charlotte responded.

  “Oh honey, I’m sorry. I’m sure it was just first day shivers,” April said.

  “Yeah maybe,” Charlotte responded. She thought about Angelo and how if they had just been able to talk for a moment that day, she would have felt so much better. She didn’t like knowing that either. He wasn’t supposed to just be someone to make her feel better.

  “At least you know that if today was your worst, you could only do better, right?” April asked.

  “I guess so,” Charlotte said, laughing. “It was just a weird day.”

  “Oh, you might feel better knowing this! I went for a walk earlier and saw Mr. Lisa,” April said. “I told him you mistook him for someone else and that you didn’t mean any harm. He thought it was funny!”

  “Well that’s good at least,” Charlotte said relieved. She had forgotten about the whole thing but was glad to know that he didn’t think she was a monster any more. “I think I’m just going to shower and head to bed now.”

  “OK, sweetie. Don’t be too hard on yourself! Don’t say anything to yourself you wouldn’t say to a friend!” April said, trying to be helpful.

  “Thanks, grandma,” Charlotte said, laughing.

  Charlotte was looking forward to her cry in the shower. She was going through a lot. Adulthood was hitting her hard and fast. She had to be responsible for her own problems now. She couldn’t rely on other people forever. Still, she knew that her attraction for Angelo was more than just dependency. She just wanted to crawl into his chest the rest of the night.

  She blasted the shower all the way to hot and let it hit her sore muscles for a while. She knew she only had so long before it would turn cold, so she rubbed down her body with soap as fast as she could. She stayed with her back turned to the showerhead until it started to get cold. She slipped out and pranced back over to her room.

  She didn’t want to look out her window, but it’s not like she just couldn’t. She peered through the curtains and didn’t see anything. Even though that didn’t make her feel better, she wasn’t sure what she could have seen that would have been any better. As long as he wasn’t having a huge house party that he didn’t invite her to, there wasn’t anything that she could really be mad about.

  She wanted him to be looking out his window. She wanted to go back to before his brothers were there. Everything seemed perfect then. Something about them just gave her a bad feeling. She knew they were family, but that didn’t mean that they weren’t trouble.

  Her heart was gone. She was feeling lonely and defeated. How could she have been feeling like she was flying just last night? Just as quickly as things turned magical for her, they turned sour again. She just wanted Angelo back in her arms, feeling his heart beat against hers. Knowing how bad it hurt when he wasn’t around was a sign that Charlotte was falling for him.

  He would have known what to say to make her laugh and cheer her up. if they could have celebrated together in the first place, she might not have even had a bad practice. She decided it was best to stop looking out the window and try to sleep the day off. Tuesdays were never good anyway.

  She turned around and there he stood there, looking right at her. He had a black eye and a bandage wrapped around his knuckles. He was holding his side like he was in pain.

  “Charlotte,” he said, walking towards her. He grabbed her face and kissed her hard.

  “Angelo!” she said, tearing up at the site of his wounds. They kissed for a moment longer. She felt terrible that he was hurt. Then she remembered how he had told her he was going to put his criminal activity on the back burner for her. She remembered the gun he had brought over and everything he did to make her nervous to be with him.

  “Where have you been?” she asked angrily.

  “It’s been a challenging day,” he explained.

  “Yeah, it has been,” she said with an attitude. She could only feel sorry for him for so long. Maybe he deserved to have those bruises. Charlotte didn’t want to be too harsh, but she didn’t want to go easy on him anyways.

  “My brothers. They haven’t been very happy with me,” he told Charlotte. “They decided to remind me what mi
ght happen if I decide to leave.”

  “Your brothers did this to you?” Charlotte asked, mortified. “Angelo, I’m so sorry.”

  “They took my phone too. They sent people to watch my house, but they finally left. I’m so sorry, Charlotte,” he told her. She felt terrible. She had been overreacting the entire day when in reality, she should have been supporting him after he was brutally attacked by his brothers.

  “So, what now?” Charlotte asked.

  “We talked. Everything’s fine,” Angelo responded with a fake smile. Charlotte could tell he was lying, but his response showed that he didn’t want to talk about it. “I’m sorry if I made you feel abandoned.”

  “I’m the one who abandoned you,” she told him. “Don’t feel like you need to protect me all the time. I don’t want to depend on you.”

  “I can’t stop that feeling. I’ll always look out for you, Charlotte,” he told her.

  They kissed softly, Charlotte worried that she might hurt him if they went too far. She grabbed his sides and led him gently to the bed. She laid down, pulling him over top of her.

  He slid off his pants, pushing them under the bed with his foot. Charlotte didn’t see that his gun was in his back pocket. She also hadn’t seen how Angelo and his brother’s “talk” had really gone. They attacked him, hoping that the beating would remind him how much worse things could be if he left and they caught him.

  Angelo had received worse, but it was never easy getting that treatment from a family member. Sebastian had punched his eye and Francesco kicked him once he fell. Angelo had agreed that he wouldn’t let them down anymore. It wasn’t what he wanted to do, but he needed to in order to protect Charlotte. He couldn’t walk away even though that was the only thing he wanted to do.

  Charlotte felt guilty. She didn’t want to make Angelo feel bad. She knew that he had so few options. If Angelo hadn’t been raised the way he was, he would be a different person. Charlotte needed to remember this when she was being so judgmental about his lifestyle.

  She felt so insecure sometimes, and having someone to lean on, who she knew she could count on, made it a little easier to know that everything was going to be OK. Her parents had put so much pressure on her as a child that she created that high standard for herself. This started to reflect itself in her relationships. If someone walked away from her or chose not to be with her, she saw that as a great flaw in herself. She took it personally and imagined that she needed to change to be a better person. Charlotte realized that she needed to work on that.

  With Angelo, it was better. He never made her feel insecure. Instead of breaking her down, he would only build her up. She realized that she would be the worst enemy to the relationship. Those doubtful thoughts made her self-destruct too often. If she couldn’t complete something in the first place, then there wouldn’t be the chance for failure later on, after her hopes had been built.

  When she kissed Angelo, those thoughts were gone. He leaned over Charlotte on the bed and she peeled her towel back, revealing her wet and dewy body. Angel started to kiss her skin, still smelling clean like the soap she had rubbed all over her smooth body. He kissed her legs, slowly inching closer to her vagina. He spread her lips with his fingers, slipping one in while he kissed her clitoris. He spent some time there until she was pouring wet. He ran his fingers up her side and kissed her neck.

  She grabbed his side hard, causing him to let out a howl.

  “I’m so sorry!” she said, getting too lost in the moment to realize she had dug her fingers into his bruised side.

  “It’s ok, I just need to lay down,” he said, falling onto the bed. She started to kiss lightly where he was wounded, slowly working her way down to treat him just the way he had for her. She slipped off his underwear. He wasn’t as hard as he had been the other few times when they got to this part, but Charlotte just saw that as a challenge.

  She slipped his entire penis into her mouth, feeling the head hit the back of her throat. She worked this area for a while, running her free hands up and down his legs and around to his butt, pushing him even deeper inside Charlotte’s mouth.

  He yelled out again, this time in pleasure. She lifted her head up and put a finger to her mouth, reminding him that he needed to be quiet. She took him all back inside her mouth, him doing a better job to hide his pleasure. Charlotte realized she would have to stop if she wanted to experience any of him that night.

  She crawled on top and slid Angelo’s hard penis deep into her body. She lightly bobbed up and down, careful to not put any pressure on his side. She was being as gentle as possible, and surprisingly, this made it even harder for her to last.

  “Oh, Charlotte, I’m not going to make it,” he told her as she slid up and down. Normally, she would have slowed down even more to make sure that they both came together, but that only made things feel even better for Charlotte. She just stopped altogether, sitting on his lap with him entirely inside Charlotte. They sat their frozen for a moment, every movement, no matter how small, electrifying her body.

  She lifted herself up and down onto him and he moved his fingers to her breasts. She placed her hands over his and bounced up and down, faster with every stroke. They both got closer and closer to orgasming, Angelo being the first to drop. She felt his warm semen fill her up as she came as well. She grabbed the towel she had used to shower with, still sitting on the bed. She wiped Angelo and herself off before throwing the towel on the ground and falling next to him.

  “Did I hurt you?” she asked sweetly. It was clear they both had a good time, but she still wanted to make sure she hadn’t made his injuries any worse.

  “Not at all,” he told her reassuringly.

  “I forgot to tell you, I got the part,” she told him cheerily.

  “Are you serious? I knew you would, I knew it. You’re so amazing!” he said, leaning in and kissing her. “Charlie, I’m so proud of you! You have no idea!”

  She kissed him again, lingering for a bit to soak up every last second of his kiss. She grabbed his hand, remembering that it was bandaged.

  “What happened to your hand?” she asked.

  “Well, I might have punched a wall,” he replied. “I know it was stupid, but I was feeling pretty angry after my brothers left,” he told her.

  “Well, I mean, rightfully so. That’s awful what they did to you. Are they going to be upset if they know we’re seeing each other?” Charlotte asked.

  “No. Don’t you worry about a thing. I learned my wall-punching lesson,” Angelo responded. He didn’t normally have a temper but knowing that his brothers had so much control over him made him unmanageably angry. They hadn’t mentioned Charlotte, and Angelo knew they wouldn’t care as long as he kept doing what they asked. Angelo had thought is own brothers would let them out, but he knew that wasn’t going to be as easy as he hoped.

  Charlotte leaned up and kissed Angelo’s hand, sliding down to give his side another gentle kiss before turning over. He followed her, wrapping his arms around her once again. This was quickly becoming their favorite cuddle position. Charlotte just loved being held by him more than anything. There was something so comforting about being wrapped in his arms.

  She was wary about being too dependent but knew that she didn’t have to worry about that. He made it fairly clear that he was always going to be there. She just worried that his brothers might get in the way. She was more worried about what her brain might do to their relationship. It wasn’t going to be an easy summer, but Charlotte was going to fight for him, for them. Charlotte didn’t know how to accept failure, so she decided that it just wouldn’t be an option at all.

  She couldn’t let their love fail. It was the only thing that had made sense to her in a while. There was no way she was going to let it slip out of her hands. Nothing felt better than being right next to Angelo, hearing him breathe and feeling his heart beat. His warmth was the energy that kept her going. She feared she might freeze to death without his body next to hers. No matter what happened
that summer, she knew that falling in love with Angelo was going to be the best part.

  Chapter10

  Charlotte woke up and realized it was Friday, August 24th, one day before the premier of the ballet. She rolled over and saw Angelo sleeping there, breathing heavily. They had spent every night together since Charlotte’s first day of practice. She didn’t know what it would be like to sleep alone now. They still respected her grandmother and would have him sneak out.

  They would also try to stay at Angelo’s as often as possible, but Charlotte didn’t want to leave her grandmother completely alone every night. She had grown closer to Angelo throughout the past two months, but it was her relationship with her grandmother that had really evolved. By learning about her mother’s mother, Charlotte was able to discover so much about herself.

  She thought about everything that had happened to her since she was expelled for school. She knew now, at that moment, that it had all happened for a reason. If her life had gone exactly to plan, she would have never met Angelo. The thought of not knowing his existence made her feel nauseated.

  Thursday was dress rehearsal, and it had gone exactly as planned. Charlotte had been working incredibly hard during every rehearsal, proving to Kelly time and time again that she hadn’t made a mistake in casting Charlotte as the lead. She pushed her body to limits she didn’t think were possible, and the results were stunning.

  She didn’t realize what her talent was capable of until she had been pushed to that limit. She was also able to make it through an entire production without an injury. She had only hoped that it would stay this way until the premiere on Saturday. There was only one day to prove to everyone just what she was capable of.

  As hard as the production worked to get the theater for Friday, they couldn’t set up a show because someone had already booked the theater for the day. There was a premiere of a local indie movie that was set to premiere that night. They booked every last room in the theater, but still wouldn’t give the play another night. They couldn’t do it later because some of the cast members were public school students.