by Shae Black
“I saw that,” he says with his back to me, fucking hell he does know everything!
The car waiting for us is not the Maybach, far from it; this thing screams I AM DANGEROUS! It’s a Black two-door something or other. Getting him into a two-door car ought to be interesting with a cast. I have no idea what kind of car it is until he hands me the keys. Ferrari, shit!
“Uh…first off are you sure you want me driving this, and second how are you going to get in that little thing?”
“Yes I am sure Imani, I trust you with my life. And you will be surprised, it’s bigger than you think, I’ll just push the seat back.” I hesitate at the doors of the house staring at the little monster car. “Mmm I dun no Marcus, if I mess it up or if anything happens I could never replace it.”
“Oh for shit’s sake Imani, get in the damn car! I told you I trust you, let’s go.” Damn, he really wants me to drive that thing. I’m sure it’s insured, and I’ve never had an accident; I will just be really careful. Ok, I’ve talked myself into it.
I help him move the seat back and watch as he folds his sizable frame into the passenger seat before stepping around to the driver’s side. The interior is black, the car is black, and if it were night I think we would be invisible. I melt into the seat and look to Marcus for instruction, I’ve never seen a steering wheel like the one in front of me and I have no idea how to even start this thing.
“Put the key in the ignition, press the red start button for a second,” he informs me. I do as he says and nearly jump out of my skin.
“Shit!!” I yell when he growl of the engine vibrates through my entire body; I’m really considering changing my mind now.
“Good, it’s all right- that is just how it sounds baby,” he says in a futile attempt to sooth me. “Now before anything else, seatbelt.” Ok check, fucking seatbelt. I don’t wanna do this. “Now look at the steering wheel Imani, all of the controls are there, everything you need is at your fingertips. Adjust the seat, it’s set for me and you are too far away. Ok now most importantly be very gentle on the gas pedal; it’s extremely sensitive.” No, no, no, no…. this isn’t good! Why, why did I wear heels today? Death gripping the wheel, I ever so gently put my toes on the gas and thankfully we move out of the driveway without dying. “See, you are a natural.” He smiles broadly at me and strokes my arm closest to him. “Don’t touch me, I’m totally freaked out right now, this car is a monster!!” I yell at him. “All right, all right baby, I am over here, you are over there, do your thing. You know the way to Dominus don’t you?”
“Yes,” I answer.
“Ok then let’s go to work,” he says, comfortably as if I were driving a minivan. I’m a mess of nerves, scanning the road, checking mirrors incessantly, and my leg aches from the effort of keeping my toes gently on the pedal while wearing heels. We can’t get there soon enough for me.
I pull into the parking lot at Dominus and realize that after getting used to it, I actually enjoyed driving the monster Ferrari. It’s still too much power for my taste; I can’t wait for Marcus to get that damned cast off of his leg so he can drive. He directs me to his parking spot where I carefully pull in between two cars. We enter through the back again and head down to his office. It’s quiet this morning, I’m not even sure anyone is here yet.
“Anybody else come in this early?”
“No I think it is just us for now, cook will be here shortly though, he likes to get things going and organized before anyone else arrives to get in his way.”
“Cook, as in the chef?”
“Yes, I am the only one that calls him that anymore I suppose. He has been with me since I opened the first Dominus in Italy, he demands respect in the kitchen, I like that. He is my executive chef, everyone else calls him Mr. Benassi.”
“How long are we going to be here?”
“A couple of hours, you brought your iPad didn’t you?” Of course, I don’t leave home without it, but I’m not in the mood to sit around and read all morning, I really need to go to the gym. I wish I had thought to bring a change of clothes; I could have taken myself. But even if I had brought a bag I would never drive that car alone, so reading it is.
“Yea, I can read, or buy shoes.” Now that sounds much more appealing, shoes are my weaknesses. I think I’ll look up lingerie while I’m at it, that’s something I can surprise him with, maybe a little payback for the flowers…and that teddy bear.
“We are going shopping later, don’t forget,” He says as we enter his masculine office and he arranges himself behind the mammoth desk. I help him adjust his pillows and plop on the couch.
“So are you saying I shouldn’t buy shoes?” I ask.
“No, you can buy all the shoes you want, you have excellent taste in shoes by the way, I love those.” He nods toward my feet. He likes my shoes huh? I wonder how much he knows about women’s shoes but I don’t ask I might not like the answer. I need to leave him alone anyway; the sooner he gets done with his work the sooner we can get out of here.
“Thank you.” I smile and pull out my iPad to commence shopping. A couple of pairs of shoes and some extremely hot lingerie purchases later, I’ve only killed an hour and I’m bored. I could read a book but I have the urge to talk to Laney, maybe I could go outside in the car and sit to talk to her so I don’t bother Marcus. I look up to ask him for the keys and find him leaning back in his chair one elbow on the arm rest with his chin on his hand and his head back regarding me with those uniquely green speckled eyes. Sex radiates from every pore in his body.
“You’re not getting any work done.”
“Mmm, no I am not. I underestimated the power of your presence, I thought I could work with you here.”
“Oh I’m distracting you am I?” I sass and he nods his head in affirmation.
“You are so damned beautiful. I have done nothing in my life, to be worthy of you.” I thought we were messing around again but he’s serious, and wrong.
“Don’t say that,” I say softly and he frowns at me.
“Why, it’s true?”
“Because I’m damaged Marcus, unfixable.”
“Come here.” I cross the room and curl up in his lap, tucking my head under his chin like a child, as he wraps his arms around me stroking my arm up and down. “You. Are. Not. Damaged. Do you understand me? Seriously, I cannot believe you just said that, if anyone is damaged in this relationship it is me. And you are not unfixable, because you are not broken. Sound familiar?” His arms tighten and he kisses the top of my head.
“Yea,” I murmur.
“All right then, I’m always right yes?”
“Yes.”
“And I always get what I want yes?”
I roll my eyes. “Yes.”
“Good then we understand each other perfectly. I say you are not damaged and I say I want you, so there you have it.” He ends his pep talk with a gentle slap to my still-tender butt and a thrust of his hips to encourage me to stand.
“Can I have the keys to the car? I want to call Laney but I don’t want to disturb you.”
“On the desk.” He juts his chin in the direction of the keys. “Don’t drive it without me though,” he warns.
“Yea well you don’t ever have to worry about that.” He chuckles and I grab my coat to go outside. It’s so damn cold; I really hate the idea of going to sit in a cold car but I figure I’ll just start the engine to get the heat going. Sliding into the seat I review Marcus’s earlier instructions. Ok, key in the ignition, press the red button. The car roars to life! Fuck! I almost wet myself! Now how to turn on the radio, yea that only takes me approximately five minutes to figure out! ‘Fix You’ by Coldplay drifts from the speakers making me think of Marcus and then of myself; we could both use some fixing. After a few more minutes of carefully looking at the controls I conquer the heat and take out my phone to dial Lana.
“Hey! Damn woman, bout time you decided to call me back!” Lana yells when she answers and I pull the phone away from my ear.
; “Sorry, I’ve been busy.”
“Uh yea…I’ll bet you’ve been. Busy getting it on with that hunk of a man you’re working for girl!” God, she always just blurts out what she's thinking, zero filter. She hit the nail on the head though, that’s exactly what I’ve been up to.
“About that, I’m going to tell him tonight that I can’t work for him anymore, I need to go back to the hospital.”
“What for? He’s paying you three times your salary and the set up sounds pretty sweet to me, why would you wanna go and ruin a great gig?”
“It’s just wrong, it feels wrong. I’m not doing anything to earn that money. I pass him the occasional sleeping pill and prop his leg up here and there but I’m just not doing anything,” I answer with frustration before adding. “And…. we’re sleeping together…taking money from him makes me feel like a whore.” “
“Ah shit, you’re sleeping together, I knew it!” Leave it to Laney to pick out that part of the conversation to concentrate on. “So how’s the sex? Is he a machine like I said? I know he is, with a body like that he has to be. And you have to explain how you maneuver around that cast, damn woman I knew you were up to something!”
“Lana, I need help here, listen to me, you’re not listening to me!”
“Sorry, sorry, I’m to listening to you, listening to you talk stupid. What if you were married to him and you gave him some pills and propped his pillows, he’d be paying the bills and you’d be takin care of him, that don’t make you a whore. What’s the difference? It’s all relationship shit, give and take woman, you know.” “Married? Well that would be legal, there would be a marriage certificate.” Why the hell is she talking about marriage? “You’re not a whore Imani, shit you’re the furthest thing from a whore I’ve ever known. He wants you there, so he’s using the nurse thing as an excuse to keep you to himself, like all to himself. And ya know… whatever…. if you get along and he treats you good why go rockin the boat?”
It’s then that I realize that Lana's advice isn’t exactly what I need right now, she’s all about money and sex. I need to work, I have take care of someone in a fulfilling way, so that I feel like I’m making a difference. It’s what pulled me through the hardest time of my life I need to help others heal.
“You’re right Lana.” There’s no other way to get her to leave it alone, I have to agree with her if I want her to shut up.
“Damn right I’m right, so when ya gonna make up that girls night out? You bailed after one drink, we need to get out there and shake some ass!”
“Let me figure this thing out with Marcus and I’ll let you know when I’m available.”
“Shit, that’ll be the twelfth of never girl. He’s got it bad for you, I bet he won’t let you outta his sight for one second.” For some reason that gets my blood pumping, maybe because it’s true. Still, nobody tells me what to do.
“We like each other Lana, but he doesn’t control me. I’m still my own independent self.” “Yea whatever, you bolted from girls night, ignored calls from your family and friends, quit your job, moved in with him and you haven’t left his side since, sounds really independent.” She’s right, he is controlling me, it’s hard to see when you’re in the eye of the storm but when your best friend puts it out there like that, it becomes crystal clear.
“You have a point.”
“Of course I do. I’m not saying it’s wrong or anything, he’s sweeping ya off your feet, and that’s cool. Just don’t let him swallow you whole.”
“Thanks Lana.” Maybe I did need her advice after all.
“You’re welcome, now I gotta get back to work before I get fired, some of us still have a real job!” She erupts into laughter, but her comment cements my decision. I’m going back to work, to my real job. We say our goodbyes and I promise to call more often. I lay my head back on the seat and close my eyes for a second but I get the weird sensation that someone’s watching me. When I open my eyes I look left and there three or four cars down, a women with crazy bugged out eyes and whacked out hair sits in a car staring at me through several cars worth of windows. She knows I see her but she doesn’t look away, she’s looking at me hard and it’s freaking me out! I look behind me to make sure she isn’t glaring at someone else. Nope…it’s defiantly me. My imagination starts to work overtime and I visualize her jumping out of the car, thumping across the hoods of the cars that separate us, smashing the glass of my window and choking me out. Fuck, my hyper active imagination! I break the freaky eye contact, and search for a way to lock my doors- this damned car is so complicated! Trembling I start to feel faint, tunnel vision blurs my head and my hearing starts to fade; damn it, I can’t pass out until I find the locks! Fumbling with my phone I try to call Marcus but my fingers won’t do what I tell them to. I risk another glance at the crazy woman to check that she’s still there and find the car is gone. My breathing comes a little easier and my head clears. I’m still not getting out of this car alone though, no fucking way! That woman was looking at me with those crazy eyes.
Hands shaking, I find Marcus’s number on my phone and press it successfully. He answers after half a ring. “What’s wrong Imani?” he says with urgency, like he knows some crazy bitch is out here stalking me.
“Um...can you send someone out to the parking lot to walk me back inside?” “What…why?”
“I just had a super creepy stare-down with a woman in a car a few down from yours, she’s gone, but I’m a little worked up.” I downplay the situation, he has the potential to go postal on people when he’s upset.
“Lock the doors, button on the right, I’ll send someone out. Do not move, stay in the car, do you understand?” Before he even finishes speaking, a muscle-bound man with a goatee comes barreling out the back door toward the car.
“Ah…a big man with a goatee is coming toward the car.”
“That’s Nick, I sent him, let him bring you inside.”
“Ok.” I unlock the doors that I just taken five minutes to figure out how to lock and cut the engine. Nick opens the door for me without a word. He scans the parking lot around us seemingly knowing what he’s doing. I wonder how many guys like Nick are on Marcus’s bankroll? For such a mammoth man he tucks me under his arm to lead me back into Dominus. Marcos has made his way to the door by now and is waiting just inside for me. He snatches me as soon as I’m within his reach.
“Are you all right?”
“Yea, just freaked out is all.”
“You are shaking come on.” He leads me back to his office with Nick in tow, who magically produces a blanket and a soda. Marcus motions for me to sit on the couch. Nick places the drink on the table by the couch and hands me the blanket. I take it gratefully and wrap it around me while Marcus slides the drink over to sit on the coffee table facing me between my knees. “What happened?”
“I was just sitting there talking to Lana, we hung up and I felt like somebody was watching me. When I looked over, this crazy-looking woman was sitting in a car three or four down, glaring at me, and she wouldn’t look away. I couldn’t find the locks, I thought I was gonna pass out, I couldn’t dial your number…I…. I…”
“Calm down Imani, breathe- you are fine, she is gone and I am here, nobody is going to hurt you baby.” he speaks quietly, in a soothing tone while I take deep breaths in through my nose and blow them out through my mouth until I’m calmer. “What did she look like, can you describe her to me?”
“Um, yea brown skin, kinda whacked out black hair all over the place and creepy eyes, she was thin, like her face was sunken in at the cheeks kinda like a meth head.” Man I can’t believe I was able to recall that much about her.
“I’m sorry to have to ask you, but you will remember more right now than if I wait until later. Everything is clearer when it’s all fresh in your mind.”
“It’s ok, I think I’m ok now. It’s just… having someone stare me down in a parking lot…. behind a restaurant…it’s just too much like that night in the alley.”
�
�Come here.” He pulls me into his arms. Cradling my face, he kisses me softly on the mouth. “You are all right now, she was probably picking somebody up and saw my gorgeous lady in my fabulous car, got jealous and gave you a dirty look.”
“Can we go home?”
“Yes. We can go home, drink.” he says handing me the soda.
“I would like to take you somewhere first though, just one stop?”
“Shopping?”
“Yes. Shopping. We should go.” Nick is hovering outside the office door and he follows us outside. I watch as he climbs into some sort of SUV. It sags under the heavy weight of the muscle bound man. “Nick going home?”
“No, Nick is following us for a while, just as a precaution.”
“Really it’s not necessary, it was probably nothing, I just let my imagination get away with me.”
“No Imani, Nick is going to be our shadow for a while so get used to it, period,” he says, with his own particular kind of finality.
“Ok, but just know I feel guilty having you pay a bodyguard because I freaked out.” “Nick gets paid anyway, he is just getting to drive around while getting paid now- think of it as a promotion, he isn’t cooped up in the club at Dominus.”
“Promotion huh? Ok, I’ll accept that.” Our little caravan pulls out of the parking lot and we are on our way to go shopping great…. I can only imagine what Marcus Castillo wants to shop for.
Chapter 27
Marcus’s has an eclectic taste in music; a classical eerie piece plays as we drive through the misty streets of Seattle. I find it interesting that he knows the words to Rihanna’s current pop song ‘Stay’ but that he also listens to odd classical pieces. Marcus eyes me while directing me through traffic, I wonder if he’s evaluating my mood or reading my mind maybe. I’m feeling stupid for getting all worked up over nothing earlier. It was just a nutty lady looking me in a parking lot… I hope.