by Amaya Black
“Just my part-time gig,” she assured him. “I actually just landed a gig with a cool tech company. I’m doing a little bit of cybersecurity for them.”
Out the corner of my eye, I saw Andrew’s head pop out the door. I guessed he’d been inside already and had grown tired of waiting. “Oy, come on!”
Everyone turned to look at him. Andrew had been hanging out in Britain too long. I chuckled to myself. Every once in awhile, he’d say something like fish and chips and it would leave me scratching my head.
“Guess we better get in there,” Cindy said.
Darien groaned and Cindy led the way. I grabbed for his hand again and gave it a reassuring squeeze. He seemed to relax before entering the club. For me, this was nothing new as I had been a bartender for way longer than I should have been.
The table Andrew had chosen for us was near the dance floor. Cindy almost seemed to struggle to get up on a stool, but she did it. The music was vibrating over all of us and Andrew was feeling it the most. He had already ordered shots for us.
“Andrew, I’ve got a meeting tomorrow,” Darien turned up his nose at the site of the Lemon Drop.
“Brother, let loose. For once, I promise no one will die,” Andrew said.
I chuckled and Darien gave me a look. “Don’t do that.”
“Stop it,” I looked between the two of them. Clearly, Andrew was trying to bond with Darien. They hadn’t left things on that great of terms the last time we had seen each other. “I will drink with you.”
Andrew gave me a wink.
“Same,” Cindy said and then plopped her shot down. “That all you got? Cause I heard were on you tonight.”
Andrew let out a crazy loud laugh and waved a waitress over. “What’s your name, by the way, sweetheart?”
“I’m not you sweetheart,” Cindy replied with all the confidence in the world. Her eyes were sparkling as she took Andrew in. “But, its Cindy.”
As Andrew and Cindy struck up a conversation of their own, I watched sparks fly between the two of them. Darien still seemed to want to be anywhere but here. He had pulled out his phone and was scrolling over something. I leaned in close to him and whispered.
“Dance?”
He didn’t respond to my words and I felt kind of defeated. There were a ton of men and women on the floor dancing. I had worn a pair of stilettos and I would have felt perfectly comfortable grooving in here. Years prior, I had dated a Latin guy from Cuba and he had taught me a few moves here and there.
“Okay, your loss,” I quirked my eyebrows at him and then went out to find myself a dance partner.
The dance floor was packed but I found a little room and started hitting the basic steps I knew. I got a few looks, but I just kept working with what I knew.
Step.
Step.
Step.
Back.
Back.
Back.
I repeated this over and over then some guy asked me to dance. I cut a look over my shoulder and saw Darien looking. He made no moves to come out and dance himself, and Andrew and Cindy still seemed engrossed in their conversation.
“Mami, you looking good tonight,” the guy smiled. He had bout eight gold teeth in his mouth and was going bald. I had worn a red and black dress that stopped a little above the knees and the middle had dipped extremely low. I had to use double sided-tape to keep the dress in place because there was no bra underneath.
My new dancing partner spun me around the room. My hair was flipping about my shoulders and slowly he ground into me from behind, the music’s seductive beat edging him on. As his hands worked over my hips, I noticed that Darien was on his way over. The scowl had returned. He said nothing as he yanked me away. My dance partner said something in Spanish but Darien paid him no mind. Just pushed me into a darkened corner.
“This is what we do in clubs, Allanah?” He was up against me and his mouth on my ear so that I could hear him over the music.
“We were just dancing,” I replied.
“You know what you were doing.”
“Apparently, getting you hard,” I peered up at him through my mascara coated lashes.
He felt like marble in his pants as he pushed up against my stomach. He came down and captured my mouth in his. Darien didn’t like another man touching me; I couldn’t say for sure that I cared for it either. I had noticed it the first time with Andrew and our stupid kiss.
Heat hummed around my mouth from the ferocity of how he kissed me. It traveled all the way to in between my legs. I could feel how he was straining against me.
“We should go,” he said.
“But Andrew and Cindy…” I reminded him.
“They seemed preoccupied with each other,” he stated, now kissing the sides of my neck.
“It would be rude. Stop. We have all night for this.”
Gently, I pushed him back. I watched as he readjusted himself in his pants and we went back to join his brother and my guest. They hadn’t even noticed we were missing when we came back.
“Having fun, brother?” Andrew asked as soon as we sat down. There was a playful twinkle in his eyes.
“Always,” Darien replied and then leaned over and kissed my cheek.
“So, I haven’t even asked, how is my baby?” Cindy beamed at both me and Darien. “You two seem to be on better terms.”
“Alex is amazing. He’s coming up on his first birthday.”
“Oh, I wish I could come. If this new job will allow me some time off, I’ll get a flight.”
“Really?” I asked astonished.
“I wouldn’t miss it. You didn’t know, but Alex got me through a tough point. I was struggling with finishing my last few classes at Harvard.”
I had had no idea that Cindy was Ivy-League educated. I’d just thought she was some random babysitter a bunch of bartenders knew. I realized how closed off I really was. I hadn’t even really got to know her.
“I had no idea,” I said. “That’s amazing.”
“Ivy League, huh?” Andrew asked and seemed even more enamored.
I hoped she wasn’t about to become a notch on his belt. If he was anything like his brothers and I suspected he was, running through women was a thing. Hopefully, Cindy was smart enough to know when a man was just trying to get into her pants and when he genuinely wanted to get to know her.
We had about five more shots, and danced a little more. Darien warmed up and started talking more so. He and Andrew were getting along and clapping each other on the back. It made me smile. Finally, Cindy leaned across the table.
“So, the uncle huh?”
I bit my lip and looked at Darien. “Yeah. We’re just being…”
“In love?” she asked.
I was slightly taken aback. I had never said anything about love to that man. “Mmm…I don’t know.”
“Well, it’s pretty obvious he’s in love with you. Mr. Tall-dark-and-brooding has a type. And it’s you.”
Listening to Cindy’s words I blushed. Next thing I knew Darien was hugging me from behind and kissing my neck. I giggled and he whispered into my ear.
“What are you two talking about?” he nipped playfully.
“Nothing,” I leaned back into him. The feel of his arms enclosing me made me feel safe. I had never had that from a man.
He kissed my cheek as another round of drinks came. I was extremely content and happy at this moment. I wished it would last forever, but I knew it wouldn’t. I tried to push the feeling that something was going to happen soon away. I didn’t like carrying those feelings; that feeling that the other shoe was about to drop somehow. I needed to learn how to let that feeling go.
Chapter 7
Months later….
Darien was yelling from his study. I was supposed to be getting dressed and he was supposed to be getting Alex out of his room. Yet, he had started yelling at the top of his lungs, hard and deep. This was an unusual sound coming from his mouth. Darien never yelled. That was more of my department if I was bei
ng honest about; although, he had started to rub off on me.
I had leaned myself and my ears out into the hallway, being nosey and trying to hear the conversation better. I determined that it was a business call. I heard the words reports and files and that was when I lost interest. Darien could run numbers in his head while making love to me. He could look over a million executive reports and remember what was going on three years ago to the decimal point. I had no interest and knew he’d be along shortly.
Just had to get through the day…
Coming back into the bedroom I now permanently shared with Darien, I had feverishly pinned up my hair into ponytail and noticed how badly my ends needed clipping. Ugh! Pushing the unneeded thoughts away because today wasn’t about me, I put on my pair of black Keds. Today, was about the coolest kid on two feet. Today was Alexander David Kiriakis’ first birthday. Jocasta had taken over planning every single detail for her first grandchild’s birthday.
If this party was going to be anything like Andrew’s coming home party… I instantly cringed at the thought of all that unnecessary finery. My mom had once gotten me a birthday cake. We hadn’t celebrated many birthdays growing up. My mom had either been nodding off or out trying to feed her habit.
We’d been smart, though. Me and Dana learned to survive early on. If our mother had come back with two hundred from tricking we would wait until she was asleep and take thirty. She never really caught on. She would never know that she made us survivors.
“You ready,” Darien peered around a corner.
“I am. Is he up?”
Darien stepped into view with Alex walking into the room. He had gone to get him out of his crib.
“There’s my big birthday boy!”
Alex saw me and his eyes went wide, and drool slid down. His cheeks were rosy and I saw a hint of Dana there. It was like a mischievous twinkle that was darting back and forth in his eyes. I took a deep breath and instantly went to scoop him up.
“Come on, we need to get up to the main house,” Darien chided.
“Do we have to go. So many people I’m sure are there, already?”
He leaned down and kissed my cheek. “Lana. Only a few family members. I made her cut the guest list down dramatically. Only family.”
I rolled my eyes as we strolled towards the door. “So, it’s just going to be us, your mother and about six hundred of your cousins huh?”
Darien ignored me and reached for the diaper bag sitting by the door. The click of the door told me that he was right behind me. Together we started the trek up towards the mansion that had belonged for hundreds of years to the Kiriakis family.
I still remembered the night of Andrew’s party. How Darien, in a fit of jealousy, had pulled me out of the house and down through this yard. He had been ready to make love to me. As Alex gurgled in my ear, and I smiled from ear to ear, I peered over at him. He was a good man and a good father to this kid. He could just be so damn serious sometimes.
He caught me staring. “Would you like me to take Alex?”
I smiled, “Sure.”
We made the transfer and I took the grey hued diaper bag that was embroidered with Alex’s monogram. It was something Jocasta had contacted a local shop about having made a few months ago for Alex. My fingers ran over the threads as I gave the bag a reassuring pat and kept pace with Darien’s long legs.
Once we were inside the house, and I saw that it was probably only two hundred people, here I relaxed. Balloons were raining from the ceiling, but white with the number one scrolled across them. Alex gleefully clapped his hands as his grandmother came straight to him. He went with ease into her arms, a smile still planted on his face.
Jocasta was dressed in a lovely looking dress, dark green and it seemed to flow about her. Gold threads shimmered in the light, along with all the gold jewelry she was wearing. S
“My Alex,” she exclaimed almost completely ignoring me and Darien.
“Jocasta, this is a lot of people,” I said timidly and looked around.
I didn’t recognize hardly anyone in the throngs of people. The gift table was piled high with things Alex probably wouldn’t need ever. Darien had given me free rein with his credit cards a long time ago and now I even had a small amount of my own money thanks to Dana.
“Allanah, enjoy the party, my dear. Darien make sure she has fun,” she said to her son. “I’m taking this one to visit with some state dignitaries.”
“Yes mother,” he leaned down and pecked her on the cheek.
I watched as my kiddo bounced out of sight with his overly excited grandmother and sighed. Alex was going to rub elbows with state dignitaries at the tender age of one. What a life he was already starting to lead. And here I was, in the last legs of my twenties and hadn’t accomplished anything. I didn’t exactly have a legacy that I was leaving behind, did I?
Darien left my side for a few moments and then returned with champagne. He kissed my forehead and smiled. “We are going to have fun, Allanah.”
I rolled my eyes at him in a more playful manner than usual. “Oh, are we now. I guess I just need Andrew here to liven up the party.”
“That boy,” Darien shook his head at the mention of his brother.
Andrew had opted out of the party and was instead back in England, trying to lay low. It hadn’t been working though. Paparazzi had spotted him in the south of France on a yacht with a British princess named Sophie. No one had even known that that was a thing. All we had ever heard from Andrew was that he was casually dating, but the photos of a naked princess and her playboy lover all over the gossip news channels had said differently. And let’s just say, Jocasta had not been pleased with her youngest son, at all.
I took a drink of my champagne and noticed Darien had become extremely stony looking. I turned in the direction of his gaze and followed his line of sight. Heads bounced and bobbed in the way and that’s when I saw the bane of my damn existence.
Cassandra Petrakas.
I couldn’t stand this bitch as far as I could throw her. She was a pretty awful ass person and I don’t know if Darien had ever sensed it but damn it I had. I watched as she realized we had both seen her and then this bitch did some shit I’ve only ever seen in rich people’s circles. She gave a hair flipped and then slowly raised her glass in the air to us as if to toast.
“Oh no this heffa did not just toast us,” I looked at Darien.
He didn’t look at me at all. His features remained stoic as if he were a gargoyle made of stone. He handed his champagne off to a waiter walking by.
“Stay here, Allanah.”
The eye roll I gave this man, when those words dripped from his moving lips, could have set a cathedral on fire somewhere. People tried to speak to him as he stalked by, but he was having none of it. My own feet itched to follow him because I hadn’t seen Cassie in a good long while. Something told me that she had not been invited to this party because Jocasta hated her as much as I did.
The smile that grew on Cassie’s face as my lover approached her. I wanted to rip her ass apart for breathing the same air as me. The way she was looking at Darien told me that she had come here strategically. That she had done this for a whole entire reason but I wasn’t sure what that reason was.
Once Darien reached her, he immediately grabbed her by her arm and hustled her snake-like ass out of the room. I looked around and gave them a few moments before I tossed my glass to a waiter and followed. I don’t know who in the hell Darien thought he was talking to when he told me to stay put. I was not the ONE, and I damn sure wasn’t the TWO! I think at this moment in time…Darien had me fucked up.
I bumped into a few people and almost tripped. I made it to the doors just as they slipped out into the front of the house where no one would see them. My blood began to scream because this was so weird to me. The urge to follow them and see what was about to transpire between them wouldn’t go away.
They’re still sleeping together!
I hated that little voice in th
e back of my head. It was saying all sorts of nasty things to me. It was causing me to question everything I thought I knew about Darien. He had said this affair was over with Cassie along time ago. I had never thought anything else until now.
I edged as close to the door as I could. It led out onto the front porch of the house. My hand slipped onto the brass knob, that was cool to the touch of my palm. Easing open an unfamiliar door wasn’t as easy as it seemed. It gave a slight creak and I almost pissed on myself and hoped they didn’t hear me. They didn’t because they were too busy shouting at each other.
“Cassie,” I heard Darien say. “What are you doing here?”
“You think you’re something, don’t you? You think you can just toss me to the side like I was never anything to begin with?”
I heard Darien take a very deep breath. “You need to go. And you need to do it now. Before I call the police, and have you escorted from the grounds.”
Cassie let out the loudest laugh I had ever heard. It was deep; a rumbling type of laugh that only a psycho could make, and it sent chills down my spine. “You think that little black bitch is your soulmate? I can see how you look at me still, Darien. In meetings. Thinking of all the times you fucked me on the board room tables. All the times you fucked me in that bed.”
Her voice dropped to an audible whisper but I didn’t care. Had Cassie just called me a black bitch? I had already whooped her ass once. Andrew had been the one to pull me off of her and saved her life. Now I was going to have to show out at a child’s birthday party and do it again.
Something stopped me though. That small bit of self-control that was still in my possession caused me to keep my body still and my mouth closed. Cassie’s talking ass wasn’t done. She had some shit she needed to get off her chest.
“I really don’t think about any of it, Cassie,” Darien said. “I’m sorry that you’re still carrying and holding on to things that we did together.”
“If Mikos was alive….” She let out a slight wail. It was a weird sound and I could tell she was on the verge of crying.
“But he’s not. He’s dead and it’s a fact that we’re all still facing. But you know as much as I do, that he was always, always searching for something and Cassie it wasn’t you. Please find a way to deal with your grief. As I told you earlier on the phone, your time at the company has come to an end. I’m giving you a generous severance package.”