by Mynx, Sienna
“Aiden, my guy says—”
“It doesn't matter. She can’t suspect that I’m on to her; not until I’m ready for her to know. Give her space. I want the information ready for me when I land.” He ended the call. A cold wave of satisfaction moved through him. No, he hadn’t thought it out, not fully until now. He didn’t build an empire from nothing to be some pussy whipped chump running to her door and falling to his knees. He’d walk into her life on his terms. After all, he had his fucking pride.
His smile faded, as did his nostalgia. If Daisy had gone to such lengths and avoided the burial of her father, she had changed. The Daisy he knew in Vegas he could handle; naïve, trusting, wanting to please him, Daisy. He remembered the starry eyed beauty full of dreams. That was who she was until he broke her spirit. Now who was she? He had to do something, anything to make sure she wouldn’t close the door in his face and shut him out. But what?
***
“Mommy, I want to make it up now!” Amy said from her closet.
Daisy glanced at her daughter from her vanity mirror. Her little darling, in a sleep shirt and panties, dragged an old makeup and jewelry bag from the back of her closet. She was pretty strong for her tender age. Daisy watched her struggle while removing her earrings from her lobes. “You mean you want mommy to make you up?”
“Yes! Can we?”
Daisy loved playing dress up with Amy. Though she was left with globs of product in her hair and face paint fit for a fashion disaster, it was such a great bonding time with her daughter. And Amy was a reflection of her. That worried and inspired Daisy.
Amy was always trying to figure things out for herself, plan ahead for what she wanted, and manipulate her friends and mother into getting her way. At two, she broke her arm, and it scared the hell out of Daisy. She called it the ‘cookie incident’. Since then she kept one eye open with Amy no matter what she did during play time.
“I’ma do you first,” Amy said, running the zipper along the edge of the case. Her little fingers slipped from the tiny tab as she tried to manage it herself.
Daisy rose from the antique Victorian chair and turned from the vanity to slip off her sundress. She selected an oversized t-shirt from the dresser. "Mama's ready, baby." Daisy lowered to the floor in front of her bed, making sure to rest her back against the footboard. Amy climbed on top. Daisy gave her a little push to help her. She immediately took a comb to her mother’s hair, pulling and raking it through.
“Is my birthday tomorrow?”
“No, sweetie. Remember we have it on the calendar. You have six more days.”
“Six, this many?”
Daisy looked back over her shoulder at Amy's tiny four fingers. She smiled. “Plus two.”
“Plus two,” Amy nodded. “I can spell my name. I learnt it today.”
“Learned it,” Daisy corrected.
“Leeeaarnnned it,” Amy mocked, yanking the comb through her mother’s hair.
“Okay, spell it for mommy.” Daisy said.
“Amy… A.M.Y…Amy,” she giggled.
“Very good.” Daisy clapped.
“I can spell yours too, mommy.”
Daisy flinched. “Well ah…”
“Danielle… A. M. Y…Danielle!”
Daisy frowned. How could she not, when her own child didn’t even know her mother’s real name. “Can you count for mommy?” she asked, wincing from another yank to her scalp, as her daughter roughly pulled the comb through her hair.
"Okay... one… two… three… four… six… seven… eight.”
Daisy relaxed to the sing-song sound of her daughter's voice. Amy usually jumped the shark when she reached fifteen, and skipped a few numbers in between. This was her life, and she never knew she'd love it so. Earlier thoughts of motherhood had bored her to tears. She could remember rolling her eyes over the affection her nieces and nephews wanted during her babysitting. Daisy remembered the day she walked into the abortion clinic with Jessiemae to do away with Pete’s child. A sharp pang pierced her heart, and she quickly backed out of that memory. Her eyes misted over. What if she never had her? What if in all her selfishness she hurt herself and couldn't bear children? She bit back the shame. The truth was, she did have her. Amy was her baby. Not Pete’s or Aiden Keane. Hers. She’d love and raise her the best way she could.
****
Nina laughed. Pete was so cute when he was trying to play big shot. She knew the deal. Their meal would set them back from their budget this week. He’d be packing a lunch, and so would she.
“Is it good?” he asked, chewing and grinning.
“I like the lobster tail. You should’ve tried it.”
Pete pointed his knife at the small square of meat that was once a twenty-two ounce porterhouse. “No, you need to taste this.”
Nina sat back, shaking her head. She watched him swirl it up in steak sauce, drowning out all the natural flavors. “No thanks, Pete. I—”
He held out the fork, the block of meat dripping with brown sauce. A lopsided grin on his face revealed the many beers he ordered. She playfully rolled her eyes but opened her mouth to the offering and drew the meat off his fork with a teasingly slow pull, sauce dropping to her bottom lip.
“Let me get that!”
Before she could wipe, he reached and pulled her face close, kissing her and licking her lips clean. Nina smiled, chewing and enjoying his offering. All of a sudden, the steak was the best part of her meal.
“You like?”
“I like.”
He nodded and sat back, staring at her.
“Why are you staring at me like that?” she asked nervously, touching her short cropped hair. She was thinking of growing it back. Men preferred hair. If she was to base Pete's tastes on Daisy Johnson, she was sure he preferred longer hair.
“I like your hair short,” Pete said. He stared at her and she nervously smoothed down her nape.
“You do?”
“It was the first thing I noticed. How sexy it makes you. I like the way it feels too,” he smirked.
She felt a wave of flutters like a hundred butterflies trapped in her heart. He complimented her every now and then, mostly before and after sex. Never like this. “Thanks, Pete.”
“About earlier.”
“Forget about it,” she shrugged. The last thing she wanted was to ruin their night with talk of what happened at the funeral.
“No, Nina. Let’s talk about it. That was him. You know that, don’t you?”
She nodded, picking at the opening of her baked potato. Her lashes lifted and her heart remained heavy with dread with a touch of foreboding. She couldn’t hide it, and she knew he saw through her bravado when she spoke. “Yeah, I know. You two were fighting over Daisy.”
“It wasn’t just Daisy. I realize that now. When all the stuff happened in Vegas, Aiden Keane took pleasure in grinding my pride to dust. I’ve been trying to get it back ever since. When I saw how ballsy he was, enough to show up at the funeral, I realized that Daisy was right to stay away. It's time for me to stop living in the past.”
Nina tried not to smile. She couldn’t help it. Her love for Pete was apparent all the way back to second grade. It was difficult not being noticed by someone so handsome. It was even harder when the cute boy became your hero, especially a girl who wore glasses at an early age and was ignored mostly by others. Kids used to snatch them from her face and hide them. There was no limit to their meanness. But Pete caught the big fourth graders teasing her. They circled her, holding the glasses up above her reach. She cried and begged for them to stop.
Pete, only in the second grade, came over and pushed the biggest boy. He just pushed him with all his might. No one messed with the Doyle’s. His brothers would kick their asses. The fourth grader tossed the glasses and took off. Pete picked them up, cleaned them on his shirt, and gave them back to her. When she smiled and put them on her face, he pushed her down to the ground and ran the other way. Now that was love.
Tonight he wore a similar s
mile at dinner. It drew her back from her thoughts. Nina focused. Pete’s mouth was moving. He was saying something about second chances. He poured out his heart about how he knew she was the one. She was floating on a natural buzz, drifting from her seat, hovering in the clouds. Immediately, her heart took a surge of love over the words she waited patiently to hear. It was like she was locked in some kind of time bubble; trapped in that moment and wanting it to last always.
He reached, digging in his back pocket. Nina felt the euphoria she was wrapped in pop. She watched in amazement as he got out of his seat and came over to her. Others turned and looked at them curiously. Pete got down on one knee.
“Nina Melody Stevens, I love you.”
She gasped, tears in her eyes. Looking up, she saw more than half the restaurant staring, hearing what she was hearing. He professed his love in front of everyone.
“Will you marry me?” he asked, slipping the ring on her finger. Nina shook all over. She literally was trembling down to her toes. Her mouth gaped open, but she couldn’t speak. She couldn’t say a word.
“Don’t leave me hanging here, babe. Folks are staring,” he said, looking around nervously.
“YES!!!” she screamed and jumped him. Everyone clapped at the sight of both of them on their knees now making heartwarming spectacles of each other. Her arms locked tightly around his neck as she plowed him with a kiss to seal the deal of a lifetime. Her dream was about to come true; to be Mrs. Pete Doyle.
****
“I like your hair, mommy. You like mine?” Amy asked, standing in front of the floor length mirror. There was a dab of lipstick to her tiny mouth and blush on her chubby cheeks. Her hair was tied up in a ponytail. Daisy had finally relented and agreed to let her wear a very light pair of large silver hoop earrings. She would remove them soon. Light or not, they were still too big for her daughter's lobes.
“I look pretty.”
Daisy laughed. “You’re so modest.”
She, on the other hand, wasn’t as glamorous. Her face was streaked in eye shadow and two shades of lipstick. Part of her hair was in tangled twists and the other part was wet from conditioner or lotion that Amy squeezed in her palm and wiped over her scalp.
Amy left her side, rump up in the air, she dug through Daisy’s things. Her gleeful task included pulling out different bangles that she put on her wrists while singing a nursery rhyme Daisy barely knew. She even had on her mother’s heels.
Daisy’s eyes returned to her reflection. She actually felt happy. It was a different kind of happiness, because loneliness was always there just beneath the surface. Still it was happiness.
“Mommy, can I have it?”
“Have what, baby?” she asked partially turning.
Amy stood before her holding a gold coin. Daisy tensed at the sight of it in her daughter’s’ hands. She’d forgotten where she kept it.
“It’s pretty. Can I put it in my bank?”
“Bring it to mommy.”
Amy wobbled toward Daisy in her heels. She handed her Aiden’s coin. Daisy rubbed her finger over the shiny surface remembering how Aiden rolled the gold piece over and under his fingers while his green eyes snared her into his web. The mere thought of it sent her thoughts spinning.
Aiden Keane was the first man to touch her in such a forbidden unexplored way and the last man she allowed to have her since then. How ironic that Amy would find his coin She looked to her daughter and tried to see if Aiden stared back at her through those green eyes. On most days, she told herself Amy was Pete's. She went to sleep cradling her baby and repeating it over and over, but as Amy grew and her personality shaped, Daisy feared a different truth.
"Let me see it, mommy," Amy said, pulling her hand down to run her fingers over the golden surface. She tried to toss it long ago when she threw it in her hotel room. Aiden had it delivered in an envelope with a half-ass apology for the games and destruction he brought into her life. But that evening, as she packed, she discovered it glistening on the carpet. She picked it up and tucked it away with her things. Why, she didn’t know. After all these years, she still had it.
“How much money is it?” Amy asked, her eyes wide with wonder.
Daisy flashed back to the plane and to the time he told her what it meant. To the boat and the rain, where they… She stared at the coin.
“How much money, mommy?”
“Oh, it’s um, it’s not real. Not real money.”
“Can I have it? I want it!” Amy said, her hand held out and her chubby fingers wiggling.
Daisy thought of its value. Could it be valuable? It was the most precious thing Aiden Keane had. Why hold on to it? Gently, she put it in her daughter’s hand. “Put it up. It’s yours,” she said, knowing that Amy would drop it down a drain or lose it some other way in a few days. It was cowardly to have her daughter discard it when she should have. She just wanted it out of her sight.
“Yay!” Amy grinned.
Daisy grabbed her chin and kissed her little lips. “Let’s get you bathed.” Trying to remove the hoops from her daughter’s ear, Daisy struggled for control as Amy wanted no part of it. . She ran from the room in her heels, one earring still in place.
“Amy, I’m serious. Time for you to bathe.”
****
“Pete! Don’t drop me!!” Nina squealed. Pete lifted her up in his arms and kicked at the hotel room door with his foot. Nina laughed as he carried her in. Her laughter was infectious; he laughed until he nearly dropped her. The hotel room had twin beds and not the best of furnishings, but he paid for it for his lady and he planned to treat her like a queen.
Kissing her face and nuzzling her neck, he carried her to the closest bed and lowered her to her feet.
“Say it again,” she breathed, as he pulled down the strap to her dress, kissing her shoulder.
“I love you,” he said. “I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you, Nina Stevens. I love you so much.”
"Hallelujah, the boy has seen the light!" she exclaimed, working on his belt as he eased up the hem of her dress to her hips. Hooking his thumb into the trim of her panty he rolled them down while deep kissing her. They both laughed at their adolescent like fumbling, playfully stripping each other. Falling on the bed, he was forced to his back. It was her show for the moment, so he was willing to hand over control. Nina straddled him.
Her giggles eased. “I’m so happy, Pete.”
"Show me," he said. With his hand to the back of her neck, he drew her into another deep throaty kiss and sucked on her bottom lip. Nina moaned. She moved up and down his length. Rising, she stared him in the eye. He smiled up at her and then shocked her by flipping her to her back. She gasped aloud.
“Oh damn, Nina, you smell good,” Pete moaned, pushing her left leg back. Knee bent, he rubbed her thigh and his tongue rolled over her tender nipple. He loved eating her pussy. There were times when he’d just wake her and dine on it until she was reduced to tears. She moved with a deep sigh, and he considered going for the plunge, but her quivering bottom lip and heaving breasts beckoned. Slowly, he seduced her nipple into his mouth. He sucked it teasingly slow. The entire time that he ground his hips into her, Nina moaned.
Pete’s flickering tongue traveled from one nipple to the next in such a frenzied motion that her tits jiggled and she grinned. Then he stopped and lavished a nipple with so much affection until it was a physical pain before he moved on and sampled the next. Rolling his tongue over her nipple, he sucked and nipped sensitive buds, enjoying how she writhed and moved beneath him. He could feel her temperature spike between her thighs.
“Oh, Pete,” she moaned.
He groaned, deep within his chest. It rose as a rumble of suppressed emotion from his throat. She shivered and it excited him. The tip of his cock brushed her sex and she spread her knees wide, digging her heels into the mattress.
****
“Yes, Pete, yes.”
He was such a tender lover and he took so much time with worshipping her body, b
ut tonight she needed him badly. It was as if her survival depended on it. Grabbing him by the shoulders as he explored her depths, she forced his face back up to hers. One hand dropped and went between them. She held his cock and squeezed. He grunted and bit at her lip, which tickled more than hurt.
“C’mon, baby, give it to me now,” she begged. Fisting his shaft, she guided his thickness to her spot. Pete’s muscled thighs between hers seem to be made of granite as he rammed straight steel into her. Nina gasped in glory from the invasion. His penetration was swift. Her breath caught and her eyes stretched as she took him in, thrust by powerful thrust. Pete found a pleasure pace, which instructed her rhythm. Soon it was poetry: skin on skin, his dick tunneling, and every nerve in her inner walls tingling. Nina pumped her hips up at him and he thrust down with deep long strokes that caught her breath once more. She clung to him as she came apart, rolling with him on the bed and getting on top. It was sheer ecstasy just staring down at his handsome face and the way he bit on his lip each time she worked her hips. She kept thrusting up with each strike of his meaty cock until he opened his mouth and spoke.