by Ebony Olson
I was faintly aware of a violin joining with the music I played. As I listened to the breaking heart of the violin, I opened my eyes and watched Sophie. She was losing herself to her music, finally. With a smile, I closed my eyes and continued.
Instead of hurt, sadness played this song for me now. Sadness for Sophie losing her innocence. She was about to suffer her first heartbreak, but from it, I knew she would discover just how brilliant a violinist she was. There was a great future awaiting her after this.
The song drew to an end and I opened my eyes. Sophie was crying. I put my cello aside and stepped toward her, uncertain. Sophie set her violin down and threw her arms around me as she started to cry fully.
“I am going to lose him, aren’t I?” She sobbed on my shoulder.
I patted her back, unsure how to answer that. The truth was, she’d lost Alex the moment she was willing to be the other woman. Men and women thought about these things so differently. Sophie sacrificed so much to be with the guy she fell in love with. Alex decided if she was willing to be the other woman, then she wasn’t good enough for him. I hated that he had that mentality, but it taught me a lot.
Sophie stepped out of my embrace wiping her nose on her sleeve. “I am sorry, Mora.” She packed away her violin and made her way out to the foyer to leave. The men had evacuated the area, possibly taking refuge in the kitchen. I crossed my arms, imagining holding myself together while I waited for Steffen to hand Sophie her jacket and show her out to the elevator.
I heard the door shut and took a stabilizing breath. Darius stepped into the reception room, eyes hard, arms crossed across his chest. I shook my head letting him know it wasn’t time to discuss this. He gave a small nod, and left the room again. I turned, grabbing my cello and music stand and walked up to my bedroom. Placing everything down carefully, I collected my phone and called Alex.
“Mora,” he greeted happily.
“You need to decide. Leila, Sophie or neither. You need to make a choice and stick to it, Alex. It’s time to man up and put an end to what has never worked for you.”
“Mora, what happened?” Alex asked carefully.
“Sophie just left here in tears because she wanted me to convince you to leave Leila for her,” I said.
“Mora...”
“I’m not asking you to do that, Alex. It’s your choice. Just like taking this job and living here and anything else I decide to do with my boss is mine.”
Alex took a deep breath. “She told you.”
“She was angry and hurt. She wanted to make me hurt as well.”
“I am sorry, Mora,” Alex sounded remorseful.
“Yeah, you and everyone else. Just end it, Alex. She’s in love with you. Don’t torture her if you don’t feel the same way.” I hung up.
***
I was playing my cello as I usually did before bed. It started as a slow moody song and developed into a fast, heavy piece full of angst and pain. I poured my heart into it, feeling every resonating note like a second pulse within me. When I opened my eyes, I felt calmer, more grounded. I heard a clearing of a throat and turned to find Darius propped in the corner of my room watching me.
“Time to talk.” He explained his presence.
I set aside the cello and stood. Darius’s eyes drifted down my body and back up. I was dressed for bed so I only wore a shirt with my knickers. Darius wore a pair of track pants and one of his t-shirts which showed ever muscle despite looking casual.
“I didn’t tell Sophie about my birthday. Just about you rejecting my offer last Thursday,” I clarified straight off the bat. I walked to my bed and climbed in. I was tired and still had work the next day.
Darius moved to the bed and lay down beside me looking at the ceiling. “Okay. Let’s discuss last Friday.”
“I haven’t told anyone about that,” I pacified.
“Not even your boyfriend?”
“Not for the reasons you think. As I told you, Jasper and I aren’t exclusive. I’m not hiding that from him. When I see him next I’ll let him know my birthday got out of hand and I went home with a guy. That’s all he needs to know. It won’t be an issue.” I turned my head and looked at Darius. “Unless it is an issue, for you?”
Darius tapped his fingers across his abdomen. I recognized the tapping’s of a pianist and understood the piano down in the reception room, though I’d never heard him play.
“I don’t date. I don’t sleep with random women either. For the last four years I’ve been involved with a group of people, mostly married couples, and that’s who I have sexual interactions with.”
“Swingers.” I nodded, understanding. “Why only married couples?”
“They are all wealthy; the women are happily married. I do not need to worry about a woman attaching herself to me for my money. It makes life less complicated.”
“Fair enough.” I curled onto my side to face him. “So no issue. I was drunk and randy, you took what I offered. We can leave it behind and move on, keeping our relationship professional.”
Darius turned his face to mine. “What if I wanted more than professional? Could we maybe become friends, Mora?”
I smiled. “I can’t see any harm in that.”
Darius’s smile reflected my own. “Tell me something about you?”
“What would you like to know?”
Darius thought about it. “You told me once about being in the backseat of a car. Tell me the last time that happened.”
I frowned. “You aren’t going to like that one.” I rolled onto my back again.
Darius tapped my nose. “Humor me.”
I sighed. “Fine, but you picked it.” I mimicked his posture and started that tale. “I had a boyfriend through high school. He was a nice boy from what everyone perceived to be a good, though, divorced family. His father was a judge and during my younger years, my mother dated his father.” I turned to look at Darius. “By date, I mean all bedroom, not much outside of it.”
Darius nodded. I looked back to the roof.
“Anyway, our parents hadn’t been involved in years when we developed a friendship at school. We were both kind of antisocial and spent a lot of time in the library. He was sixteen, two years older than me, so it surprised me when he spoke to me for the first time.
“At first we just hung out in the library, and then at cafes. It got around school we were a couple. So one day he kissed me. We were pretty inseparable after that. His dad was an asshole and he hated him. Since I felt the same about my mother, we kind of bonded strongly. We made plans to finish school and move in together. All the usual teenage stuff.
“We’d been together two years when I was ready for things to become physical,” I explained.
Darius raised an eyebrow at me. “Two years with nothing but kissing?”
I shrugged. “Well, there were blow jobs. He was eighteen by this stage,” I clarified. Clearing my throat I continued. “So his dad had just got a brand new Porsche and Daniel, that was his name, decided the car should be broken in and so should I. So he picked me up, we drove to the bluff and parked, and started fogging up the windows.”
“Obviously you did not go through with it.” Darius turned his head to look at me. “What happened?”
I felt the tears well up. “He was doing the pre-work. My phone pinged at the same time his rang. He saw it was his father and answered the phone, just so he could tell his dad he’d taken his brand new Porsche without permission.”
I swiped the tear away. “My message was from my mother. A picture of her new engagement ring and announcing she was getting married—to Daniel’s dad. Daniel was hearing the same thing on the phone. He was told he had to break up with me, because I was about to be his sister and that wouldn’t be right.
“Daniel was livid. He argued that we’d been together for two years, our relationship trumped theirs, but his dad wouldn’t have a bar of it. When he got off the phone, we sat there for an hour letting the sh
ock of what just happened settle in. He drove me home, kissed me goodbye and left. The next morning, I got a call from his friend. After Daniel dropped me off, he drove back up the bluff and drove his dad’s brand new Porsche off the cliff.”
Darius looked at me. “Did his dad have him charged?”
I took a deep breath. “He probably would have, but Daniel was in the car when it went over, so he couldn’t.”
Darius stared at me like I’d grown two heads. “He killed himself?”
I swallowed. “And our parents married in the births, deaths and marriages office the day after his funeral.”
“So they were really concerned,” Darius grumbled.
“You know the real kicker? If he just waited, it never would have happened.” I stared at the roof. “She hadn’t seen him in years, but two weeks before she saw Daniel and I at the cafe kissing. She only went back to the judge to hurt me. Once Daniel broke it off, her interest would have fizzled again. She only dates men for what she can get out of them, or to reach a purpose.”
I could see Darius watching me out of the corner of my eye. “She married him.”
“Salt in the wound.” I turned to meet his eyes. “She insisted they marry the day after the funeral just to hurt me all the more.”
Darius looked flawed. “You truly hate your mother, don’t you?”
I sighed looking back at the roof. “She has given me more than enough reason too.” I took a breath. “My last defying act as her daughter was to send Daniel’s diary to a journalist anonymously. It detailed his father’s physical and psychological abuse toward his mother and siblings. The journalist did a huge write up on it, since the judge just found a woman guilty of child abuse because she slapped her child in public.”
“Did anything happen from that?” Darius asked.
I shrugged and rolled to face him. “I told you, you wouldn’t like it. Your turn. Tell me about how you lost your virginity.”
Darius hesitated. “I think it is time I went to bed. We still have work in the morning.”
I was disappointed and I didn’t hide it. “I just told you something I’ve not shared with anyone else and you don’t trust me to even tell about your first time?” I grumbled, climbing out of bed walking toward the bathroom. “Guess this friendship thing has limitations.”
Darius grabbed me around the waist as I passed by him and scooped me off my feet, tossing me back on the bed beside him. One armed. I was impressed.
“You will judge me badly,” Darius defended.
I glared at him. “You just heard how the night I went to give it up to my high school boyfriend he committed suicide rather than fight for me. I’m pretty sure, unless you raped a woman to have sex the first time, that I’d find it hard to judge you.”
Darius stared at me a moment then settled back. “We grew up in opposite situations, Mora. No money, it makes people do things to make their life better.”
I swallowed. “You didn’t rape someone, did you?”
“No.” Darius rolled his eyes. “She was very willing, but it was not love or anything like that.”
“So nothing has changed for you over the last decade.” I rolled my eyes.
Darius poked me in the side and I flinched. He exhaled. “If I tell you this, it remains our secret. It will be covered by the non-disclosure agreement you signed. I will sue you for everything you have and more if you ever tell another soul.”
My throat became dry. I sat up. “I’ve changed my mind. I don’t want to know. Let’s just go with your favorite color.”
Darius touched my chin and turned my face to his. “I lost my virginity at a brothel. To the madam actually.”
My jaw dropped. I mean Darius was gorgeous. How could he not find a girl to have sex with him for free?
Darius took his hand back and started talking as if he read my thoughts. “I nearly had sex with a girl at school once. When she saw my size she ran from the room, still naked, declaring I was a demon. I believe she became very religious after the experience.”
I tried not to laugh, but with the mental imagery, it bubbled up. Darius rolled his eyes, but I saw the smile spreading across his face. He pulled himself up to sitting, leaning against the bed head, legs outstretched and crossed at the ankles. How could he look so good so effortlessly?
“So, needless to say, I decided to wait and not go through that experience again.” Darius informed. “I studied very hard to make something of my life so I did not really have time for girls anyway. I won a scholarship to college, but that limited my ability to work and I still needed to support myself.
“That is when I met Zander. He was on a sports scholarship. He was earning a living as a male escort. He loved it. All the sex he could handle, good money, and since only women with money tend to hire male escorts, he was receiving quite a lot of other benefits. He made it sound exciting and fun.”
My face dropped. “So you tried it?”
“Zander worked for a brothel, but not in the brothel. He took me down to meet the madam. She was very keen to have me on board, but needed to make sure I was able to give women the service they were paying for,” Darius explained.
I looked at him, pointedly confused. Darius cleared his throat. “That I had a sizable package.”
“Oh. Well, I don’t think that was a problem.” I smirked.
Darius smiled. “No, but I was shy. When she saw the size she asked to see me erect. I was embarrassed so she got on her knees and touched it. I was rock hard almost instantly. The smile on that woman’s face was the biggest I’ve ever seen. She wrapped her mouth around my cock and started sucking me off. It was my first blow job. I came very quickly.”
Darius was blushing and it made me smile to see him embarrassed.
“After that, she wanted to see my recovery speed. So she kept sucking. I think I came a second time, but I stayed hard for her. She was pretty impressed. Then she asked if I knew how to control myself so I wouldn’t hurt a woman. That is when I admitted I had never had sex. She saw fit to remedy that.” Darius smiled. “She spent the next week teaching me how to pleasure a woman. After that, I had a job that paid cash in hand and ensured I learned how to please a woman quickly.”
Darius’s shining eyes settled on mine. I could tell he was thinking about last Friday night as much as I was. I dropped my gaze to the bed spread and started fidgeting. “So I should never ask how many women you’ve been with. Noted.”
Darius pressed his palm to my cheek. “The amount I have been with does not count. There has only ever been one woman who was more than sex to me.” The way Darius was looking at me was all heat and lust.
“Darius...” I started to shake my head.
Before I could object, his mouth was on mine, insistent and hard. He rolled to put me beneath him and rubbed the object of conversation against me while his mouth possessed mine. I can’t say if I would have stopped anything further happening. I barely had the chance to register what was happening before there was banging on the door. I shoved Darius off me and backpeddled away from him on the bed just before Warren burst in.
He walked straight to Darius who was kneeling looking at me with the most rejected look. I felt myself react to that look, tears springing to my eyes. Warren put his hands to Darius ear and whispered something. Darius’s head snapped to look at Warren.
“When?” Darius demanded as he stepped off my bed. His eyes now focused elsewhere and just as hard.
“Two hours ago,” Warren answered. “Clark is already on his way to take you to the airport and Steffen is packing your bag.”
“Good, get the jet ready to takeoff,” Darius ordered as he walked out of my room without another glance for me.
Warren finally looked at me. His eyes took in how I was huddled against the bed head, my half-dressed state, and the swell of my lips after the passionate kissing with my boss. Warren’s eyes flared a little before they dropped to the floor.
“We’ll be gone
a few days. I’ll need you to be me in the office and keep me up to date with everything while we are gone.”
“What’s happened?” I asked standing up.
“His mother was just rushed to hospital. She has been fighting cancer and the doctors do not expect her to make the weekend,” Warren explained.
I felt my heart stutter at the pain Darius must be feeling. “I’ll keep the office running,” I assured. Warren nodded. “Warren? Take care of him. He’s going to need to let this pain out somehow.”
Warren smiled, “Darius is one of the most self-actualized people you will ever meet.” Warren’s smile faded. “It is not Darius I am worried about in this moment.”
There was another knock at my door and Zander walked in. “I have packed your bag. It is in the foyer.” Zander ran a hand through his bed head hair, his eyes flicking over me. “Everything okay in here?”
“Yes,” Warren answered turning to me. “I will call you in the morning for a run down.” He turned back to Zander. “Walk me out.”
Zander gave me a kind smile then followed Warren out of my room. I grabbed my lounge pants and tugged them on before walking down the stairs. Warren and Zander were in the foyer talking, but Darius was in the reception room on his phone.
“I will be there as soon as I can, dad,” Darius murmured. “Let her know I am on my way.” He hung up the phone and turned around. He saw me and his professional mask fell into place. “I will be gone a week. You will need to be...”
I stepped forward taking his hand. “I know my job,” I cut in. “I’m sorry about your mother.” I squeezed his hand in comfort.
Darius snarled and pulled his hand free aggressively, shocking me. “You would dance on your mother’s grave. I doubt you could ever comprehend the pain of losing someone you loved.”
Darius walked out to the foyer, leaving me there startled and feeling like I’d just been punched in the gut. Hell, maybe he had. My hand instantly went to my stomach clenching at the sudden pain I felt there.
Gasping for breath, I went back to my room. The men all in the foyer as they finished organizing themselves. Darius looked over their shoulders at me as I turned to close my door. Gritting my teeth, I shut my door on the scene below, and on anything I was starting to feel for him. Yes, I knew he was in pain, but the last thing I needed was to become someone else’s whipping boy.