Love TKO
Page 6
Looking good was very hard fucking work.
Besides all the exercise I did, I had to do massages—both body and facials—and I spent a week every six months in a special German spa where my skin was poked, prodded but I came back refreshed and looking much better than I did when I’d left.
I yawned before I got out of bed and took a shower before I slid on a pair of designer black skinny jeans and a pale pink cashmere sweater. After I slipped on a pair of black UGGs, I closed the front door of my house and walked next door to Sienna’s house.
The only reason why the outside looked presentable was because I took care of that too by having my lawn company take care of her yard. If she got any fines from the HOA, I would have to pay those so it was just easier to prevent them in the first place.
I knocked on the door several times before Amelie answered the door. She was a Bassi, like me, except her father was one of my half-brothers, with whom Sienna did not share a blood relation since her father was part of the Abandonato crime family.
It was still pretty disturbing this young girl, who was only seven years old, was my niece on both my sister and brother’s side since they were both my half-siblings, us each sharing a parent, unfortunately. Like me, my niece was illegitimate and the precise reason why Angelo’s father, Nino Rossi, had left my sister.
He was a sexy, good looking guy from Baltimore, half Polish, half Irish—though he’d been adopted by a decent, hard-working Italian-American family—and he’d loved my sister so much but he’d finally had it with her mood swings. The highs and lows her manic depression caused her to suffer because half the time she refused to take her Lithium, had became too much to take. We’d gone through every treatment available for bi-polar patients but the only one that worked was a medication that had been on the market almost as long as the disease had been identified.
Sienna had a severe case of manic depression but I couldn’t stand to see her institutionalized. Both Nino and I had considered everything, including electro-shock therapy at one time but that just seemed too cruel and unjust. I couldn’t allow my sister to go through with that and when she was going through a period of mania, she was pretty good. She worked herself too hard painting and could be quite productive during those times but when she came down and was going through depression, she wouldn’t get up, bathe or do anything for the kids.
Child Protective Services would have stepped in a while ago but I’d solved that by hiring a full-time nanny for the kids. Bella was responsible for looking after the kids and she was fluent in Italian so it was nice both kids knew about part of their heritage and spoke a second language fluently.
Amelie smiled at me with bright hazel-green eyes. “Aunt Chiara, how are you?”
I embraced her and realized we weren’t so far apart in height anymore though she was a bean pole, just like her mother.
“Hey, sweetie. Where is Angelo?” I greeted as I stepped into the house.
Bella greeted me shortly afterwards and pulled my arm to the side. “I’ve had to hire another housekeeper.”
“What the hell happened to Graciela?” I questioned belligerently.
“Sienna thought she was Maria and chased her away saying she was using poisonous chemicals around the kids.”
I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms against my breasts. “Do I have to talk to her again?”
Bella’s face fell as her brown eyes looked toward the ground. “Maybe that would be best.”
“Okay.” I smiled softly before I kissed the top of my niece’s chestnut head and then strode upstairs.
Sienna’s bedroom doors were closed and I knocked once before I opened one of the doors. I found her painting in the corner. She liked to do landscapes, portraits, anything really that grabbed her attention. She truly was a mad genius and her paintings sold for a decent amount of money but all the money was tied up in a Trust I’d set up when I started selling her paintings for her.
When she was thirty-two, the Trust would start to pay her a monthly allowance. She was just two short years from that date but I’d hoped by then she would have found some stability for her and the children. They were who were important and thus the vast majority of the money went to them.
“What the hell do you want?” Sienna’s dark hair was pulled back into a solitary braid and she whipped around to face me with arctic green eyes.
Ironically, neither of her kids had gotten her eyes. Amelie was a dead-ringer for her dad and Angelo looked like a male version of her but had his father’s blue-green eyes.
I glared at my sister with my own brown eyes and wondered how two people could be so alike yet so different.
Sienna was thinner than I was with a dancer’s build; a sleek, long neck, a collar bone that jutted out and could clearly be seen, B-cup breasts, slim waist and long coltish legs. She had long dark hair like me but that is where the resemblances ended. She looked more like her father with a feminized version of his looks, a complexion that was a cross between peaches and cream and a faint olive tint. I looked more like my mother than my father including her amber eyes, which I’d inherited.
“Well, Bella told me she has to find another maid again because apparently, you frightened Graciela away.”
Despite my sister’s mental illness, she was perfectly fine with communicating with people though when she was going through a depressive mood, she could get downright mean and petty. Lucky for me—and her—she was currently on the verge of a full blown mania spell.
“The bitch tried to clean my room and I don’t go for that. She is supposed to clean my bathroom and nothing else.” Sienna turned back to her landscape picture and picked up her paint brush. “No one is allowed to move my art supplies, you know that.”
“Sorry, I didn’t realize that was the issue.” I stared at the back of my sister. She wore black leggings and an oversized thin sweater but she looked just like the models in the Victoria’s Secret catalogue, otherwise she would have never been able to pull off such a cheap ensemble.
It was the reason why I stuck to designer clothes. They were more forgiving on my size six frame and we couldn’t all be a perfect size four.
“Listen, I had no idea. I just wanted to make sure you were all right and…where’s Angelo?”
“With Nino. He picks him up every other week now and we split custody so the bastard doesn’t have to pay me child support. It’s good for him. He’s at that age where he needs a man in his life. He’s nine going on nineteen and I can’t handle him anymore. He listens to Bella more than he does me. Do you know how humiliating that is? I gave birth to that ungrateful little prick.” She snorted before she continued to paint long brush strokes that seemed as natural to her as moving her languid arms up and down the canvas.
“He did catch you cheating on his father—”
“—he was six years old. He couldn’t have had a clue what I was doing and besides, if Nino had done his job in the bedroom, I wouldn’t have gone looking elsewhere.” Sienna stopped painting and set her brush down. “Speaking of fucking guys, how are you doing? Still planning to quit on your twenty-eighth birthday?”
I stood in my usual defensive stance with my arms crossed firmly against my breasts. “Yes, that hasn’t changed.”
Sienna turned toward me and strolled closer, her green eyes searching my face for something I didn’t want her to find. “Something’s changed though. Already. You’re fuckin’ glowing, my dear. Did you have a hot date or something?”
“I don’t date, Sienna, I have clients…and this one was particularly good and managed to get under my skin. I left my number but I know he won’t call. He’ll think it’s fake.”
One of her perfectly shaped eyebrows shot up as her lips pursed together. “Are you sure about that? I have never seen you glow…well, except when you come back from one of your beauty treatments.”
“Yes, I am positive. There will be no second time around for us. This guy…he’s too dangerous and I’m not ready to have those feelings about any
one yet before I quit the business.”
My sister closed the distance between us and removed a stray hair from my cashmere sweater. “Don’t think I have any ill will against you. If it was up to Mom, I would be stuck in an institution playing with my own feces and you saved me from all of that. I’m eternally grateful, Chiara…but I know what it has cost you. Never allowed to date, sleeping with random strangers for outrageous sums of money. I didn’t want that for you…not when we had to watch Mom in the same line of work.”
She held up her paint smeared hands to keep me from talking. “I know it could be worse. You could be working for some unscrupulous pimp instead of Raymond Jackson but that isn’t the point. You were robbed of your young adult years and forced to grow up way too fast. Whoever this guy is, he saw the potential in you for so much more. You discount yourself and think you are nothing but a whore…but don’t you understand you are so much more than that?”
I was taken aback by my sister’s reaction. “Listen, Sienna, thanks for the pep talk but this guy isn’t like a regular Joe. He’s not even my usual john since he’s not used to paying for it and his friend, Jesse, paid for us to be there. He wouldn’t understand my job and he wouldn’t want me if he knew what I did for a living—”
“Is there any way to break the contract early?”
“Not if I want to keep my arms and legs, no. It’s iron clad and besides, it’s not worth pissing Raymond off. Not for the lousy five and a half months I have left on my contract.”
“That’s always been your problem, baby sister. You never saw the potential in yourself and you were so busy taking care of me, you don’t realize that most men would give a ball sack for you. You’re intelligent, witty and I bet you’re great in bed after being an escort for all these years. Hell, you’ve gotta be at least a consummate actress with your clientele.”
“It’s never been that simple and I guess we were ruined by our mother. We saw her earn easy money but no one ever told me I’d have to sell my soul.” I paused and regained my composure because the last thing I wanted to do in front of my sister was cry. “I’m tired, Sienna. I just want to sit in my Parisian apartment and forget about the world. I want a man who wants me for me, and I don’t want him to have to pay a dime to have me. I know my fantasies are just that but…I still have hope and faith in humanity. Sad, huh?”
“Not really. You’re just a better person than I am.” Sienna turned away from me and strode back to her canvas. “Listen, everything is fine over here. Why don’t you run along and do what you have to do, huh? I’ll call you—or Bella will—if there are any major problems.”
I smiled and realized this was my darling sister’s way of dismissing me. “Okay. Remember to take your Lithium, especially when you sense you’re on your way down. Amelie and Angelo don’t need to witness you having a major melt down, okay?”
“Yes, Mother dearest.”
“I’m serious, Sienna—”
“I know you are. I have Bella, the nanny slash nurse practitioner who feeds me my pills when I am about to come down. I haven’t had a major melt down in about six months.”
“Oh, and what happened with Graciela?”
“That wasn’t a meltdown. If the bitch hadn’t been messin’ with my shit then she would still have a job,” Sienna replied in a cold voice before she picked up her paint brush. “See ya later.”
I turned to walk out before she called towards me as I opened her door.
“Yeah, what is it?”
“Take a chance on this guy. My gut has a good feeling about him.”
“Your gut had a good feelin’ about Nino too and look how that worked out—”
“Actually, I didn’t have a good feeling about Nino. My gut kept telling me to run but how was I to know he was stickin’ holes in the condoms so I could get preggers and then we would have to have that traditional dago marriage I never wanted?”
“Hey, you’re talking about us. We’re half-dago or have you forgotten?”
“Don’t remind me of something I’d rather forget.”
I rolled my eyes and left my sister’s bedroom before I closed the door behind me and double timed it back downstairs.
Bella stood immediately and was followed by my niece. “She all right?”
“She’s fine. Just tell the next maid to clean her bathroom and that’s it. Apparently, Graciela tried to organize her paint supplies or something.”
The middle-aged woman clutched a Rosary in her right hand. “Thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to come by here and check on her.”
I nodded. “It’s no problem. She’s my responsibility too, remember? You get paid for looking after the children, not Sienna.”
I left shortly afterwards and made it back to my home where my cell phone continued to blow up. “Big Pimpin’” by Jay-Z kept playing, the ring tone for Raymond and now my handler, Karl Schmidt, as well. I knew it wasn’t Raymond so I picked up the phone and answered it as soon as possible.
“Hello?”
“Chiara, darling, how are you?” Karl’s masculine voice rolled off him like silk.
“I’m fine, Karl. What’s up?”
“You’ve been requested, my dear. Kenneth Dawes wants to take you to the upcoming MMA fight. Duffy versus Castaneda. Do you think you can accommodate him?”
Kenneth was an easy client. He had nothing but money and owned one of the biggest construction companies in Nevada besides Bassi Construction, my own father’s company, which I would never inherit a dime from.
He didn’t require sex and only liked beautiful women on his arm but I was by far his favorite and he raised a hell of a temper tantrum when I wasn’t available.
My heart beat fiercely in my chest. “I’m available but…isn’t that fight next Friday?”
“Yes, it is, which is why he wanted to book you now.”
I clutched at a thin platinum chain around my neck. “Of course, I would be happy to accompany Kenneth to the fight.”
“I’ll let him know.” Karl paused before he inquired, “How did last night go? I was told by Yvanka and Alexis you left with a client off premises. You know how dangerous that can be—”
“When that client is Torin Duffy, you take your chances. He didn’t know who I was and thought I was a madam. He didn’t even realize I was the hired help.”
Karl laughed out loud. “That’s rich. Well, Friday night should prove quite interesting then.”
“More than you know,” I murmured.
“Until then, enjoy your weekend and don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”
I scoffed out loud. “Karl, there isn’t much you wouldn’t do.”
“Exactly. Raymond isn’t here. There’s nothing wrong with a man taking you out on a real date…since he doesn’t know what you do—”
“—until Friday, you mean, when I show up on another man’s arms? Brilliant plan, Karl.”
“I’m just suggesting you live a little.”
“Good bye, Karl.”
I ended our phone call and threw my cell on the sofa.
It was so tempting but I knew how it would end and right now, my personal wellbeing couldn’t take the inevitable heartbreak. No matter how unforgettable Torin Duffy was, he would have to remain a lovely memory.
The one that got away.
Chapter Five
Torin
TORIN AWOKE SATURDAY and found himself alone in bed.
He stared at the number left by Chiara but knew it was fake and should have been tossed into the garbage.
After a quick shower and putting on a track suit, he lazed around the house but whenever he walked into his bedroom, there that stupid number was and he found himself all the more tempted to call it. What was the worst thing that could happen? Even if it was fake, it would put his mind to rest and he wouldn’t feel like he was wasting his fucking time pining after a woman he’d had a terrific time with the night before.
He certainly wasn’t looking for another booty call; he actually
wanted to get to know her as a person and take her out on a proper date.
After what seemed like an eternity of the back and forth, he broke down and rang the number. Most people didn’t even pick up numbers they didn’t recognize and let them go to voicemail but his call was answered after the third ring, and that same silky voice with a husky tinge answered.
Chiara had given him her real phone number.
“Do you know who this is?” Torin inquired in a sexy voice.
“Well, if I can’t remember last night, perhaps I need to consult my doctor to see if I’m going through early Alzheimer’s?” she answered in a soft tone.
“I seriously didn’t think you would give me the correct phone number. I’m completely taken aback you actually picked up the phone.”
“I’m not sure what I was thinking…” Chiara trailed off. “I didn’t think you would call me to be honest.”
“You’ve got reverse psychology down pat.” Torin couldn’t help but laugh out loud as he grabbed thirty-two ounce bottle of water out of the pantry and opened it. “Why wouldn’t I be the least bit interested in calling you back? Did you ever ask yourself that question?”
“Because we had a one night stand, and most men treat women like that as skanks. Unless you’re calling for another round of what you served up to me last night?”
“What if I was?”
“In that case, I’m going to have to regretfully decline. I don’t do booty calls,” Chiara responded calmly.
“Actually, I wasn’t calling about a repeat performance.” Torin’s heart thudded in his chest. “I want to get to know you. I know you’re not going to believe me but I’m not as shallow or as big of a dickhead as I seem. I actually think you’re a decent person and although I know what you look like without any clothes on, I want to get to know the real you.”
She laughed on the other end. “I think we did everything ass backwards, sweetie. Most couples get to know each other and then have sex—”
“Whoever said we have to be like other couples? I still want to take you out on a proper date. I would prefer to pick you up but if you’d rather us to each other at a restaurant, it can be arranged.”