Easton's Crime: A Second Chance: (Argenti Crime Family) by Audrey North (1)

 

1

 

 

 

Easton’s father’s office always used to feel like an uncharted mystery. As a child, he watched as men in their fine business suits, who held an air of significant importance, walked in through his grand oak doors and disappeared into the warm, wood-paneled room. The rest of the sprawling estate was Easton’s to run free, but not the office. Once in a while he would peak inside, the mystery just too great to stay away from, but his father made it perfectly clear that he was not ever to enter.

 

His father himself was his own mystery. He didn’t come to career days at school, telling Easton that not every career path was easily explained, and he never brought him to take your son to work day telling his son that he just wouldn't understand what he did. By the time Easton became a teen, he knew that his father was a very important man, that many people worked under him and looked up to him. But he also understood that his father was not a great man who did good things, and it was these horrors of his reality that he tried to shield his only son from.

 

It wasn't until Easton’s eighteenth birthday when his father took him to a dark, quiet bar where he told him the truth. Sitting in the rich, plush booth with two glasses of sweating scotch, Easton’s first drink more than a stolen beer, that he learned his father’s business. The family business. His father, Samuel Argenti, was in the mafia.

 

“You have your choice,” he told his son. Sitting across the booth he offered him a life. “You can go to college, have some sort of career and work your life away. Or you can follow in my footsteps. Live a life like mine.”

 

That was all he needed to say before he shot back the last sips of his whiskey and slammed the glass on the table. He stood and nodded to the bartender and headed for the door, leaving Easton alone with his glass to decide his future. As he walked past, he stopped and squeezed Easton’s shoulder, then walked out into everyone else's regular day. But for Easton, what had been a regular day was the day he had to choose his whole life.

 

As Easton sat in the booth, he thought about the life that his father lived, not the job or the things he was made to do, which he didn’t know much about, but the lifestyle he provided. He had given Easton’s mother an impressive house that was more like a mansion, given his mother the finest jewelry and clothes, given Easton everything he asked for, and taken the family on luxurious vacations.

 

Who wouldn't want that type of life? If that wasn't enough to entice his eighteen-year-old brain away from college, then the power and prestige that his father held would be. All his life he’d seen men treat him with the highest respect, open doors, offer up their tables in a busy restaurant, look at him as if he was the almighty himself.

 

Yes, that was the life Easton knew he wanted.

 

Five years later he sat in my father’s office, the one that no longer seemed like a mystery but like he’d always been allowed into his selective club. He’d been so proud when Easton decided to join him, whereas his mother hurt from it, wished he had chosen a life far away from theirs. She loved the life his father gave her but had hoped her son would find a different path, a safer path. But instead, he was becoming just like the man he’d idolized.

 

“I think it’s time I start upping your responsibilities,” he told his son while he poured two glasses of scotch, both on the rocks.

 

Easton nodded and took the glass from him. He’d been feeling bored, restless, lately and getting more responsibility would hopefully take the edge off of that.

 

“I have a new project for you. I need you to get some information on Eli Spano.”

 

A cautious man, he handed Easton a sheet of paper that listed the dirt he needed from the man. As soon as he left he knew his father would destroy the paper as well. It was a life lesson he had taught, that there were ears and eyes everywhere, even the places you felt the safest.

 

“His ex-wife, that’s where you’ll get the information you need. He cheated and she’s pissed. But it has to be delicate, it has to be smart. You can’t jump into this, it’ll make her cautious. While she may no longer care about him, she could get into some very big trouble if people found out the things she knew.”

 

“Is that your plan?” he asked while he read and memorized the sheet.

 

“No. She isn’t worth anything to me. He is, though. And I need her to tell you what she knows.”

 

Easton handed the paper back to him and he promptly stuck it in the paper shredder. The machine came to life, eating the evidence and then spitting it back out into pieces. Most people would stop there, but not his father. When the bag filled with shredded documents, he’d shred them again, making it nearly impossible to put the confetti back together in case he ever got caught.

 

That part of Easton’s life made him weary, the constant fear of getting caught. The over cautious lifestyle that required he and his loved ones to constantly watch over their shoulders for police, or a rival member. But, he’d made his life choice. Sure he’d been young and possibly blinded by power and money, but he’d chosen it, and now it was the path he’d have to walk.

 

“So, how exactly do you plan on me getting this information for her?”

 

Easton’s father sipped his scotch and leaned back in his chair. “Figuring that out, my boy, is part of the job.”

 

 

2

 

 

 

“Ok, so what about this hoodie?” Claire asked.

 

 

Maisie looked at the ratty college hoodie, one she wore as almost a second skin throughout her entire relationship with Ben.

 

“Trash,” she said simply.

 

Claire obeyed and threw it into the ever growing trash bag of Maisie’s lying, cheating, ex-boyfriend’s things. It hurt to watch the hoodie, which now had holes in the sleeves and was missing the drawstring, get thrown away as if it hadn’t mattered. When Ben went away for college it was her favorite piece of comfort. She’d curl up in her apartment with the stuffed giraffe he’d bought for her during their date at the zoo, and throw on his hoodie, feeling as if it was his arms wrapped around her instead of some cloth. But now she couldn’t even look at it. All she could imagine was another girl, the faceless, nameless, girl who he cheated on her with, wrapped in one of his newer hoodies.

 

New hoodie for a new girl.

 

“Maisie?” Claire asked.

 

Maisie looked up from the garbage bag, one that was full of ticket stubs and dried roses, Valentine’s Day cards, and his clothes. Tears were brimming in her eyes and she could no longer tell if it was the anger or the sadness for everything that she had lost that was boiling inside of her but the emotions ran down her cheeks.

 

“That’s it,” her best friend and roommate declared. “I knew we couldn’t do this without alcohol.” Claire put an arm around her best friend. “We need a shot, or seven,” she teased and pulled her from the bedroom to their makeshift bar in the kitchen.

 

“Vodka or whiskey?”

 

“I can’t believe he cheated,” Maisie said to herself. Running her fingers through her hair.

 

“Yup, it’s a whiskey and wine night,” Claire made the decision for her.

 

Pouring two shots she handed one to Maisie and kept the other for herself. “Cheers,” she attempted to toast the small glasses together.

 

Halfheartedly Maisie lifted her own. “What are we toasting to?”

 

“To taking out the trash,” Claire answered her.

 

That finally made Maisie laugh a little and she downed her shot in one quick swig. Claire did the same and quickly poured them both another, which they both toasted again and let the liquid burn down their throats. Maisie could feel her body relaxing, the blood cooling in her veins from the pain that he’d put her through.

 

“Listen, Ben was a great guy…in the beginning….in high school. But you two didn’t belong together in college, and it’s amazing to me that this didn’t happen sooner. But it’s been months, it’s time to forget that cheating dog and move on.”

 

“I thought he was my future, though.” Maisie knew she sounded whiney but she couldn’t help it. After being together for so many years, so many critical years, she thought they were going to be together for the long haul.

 

Clearly, he had other ideas on that.

 

When she’d gotten the text from one of his friends at school, a picture of some girl sitting on his lap, her arms around his neck and his lips on hers, she could see that Maisie was the farthest thing from his mind.

 

“We’re just too young to be settled down. We should have taken our space before to let ourselves grow. But we grew apart and I’ll always love you, but I need my space now.”

 

That was it, his whole excuse. No apology, no begging for forgiveness. Nothing. He hung up the phone and she hadn’t heard from him again, that had been months ago.

 

Claire opened a bottle of white wine and poured two chilled glasses of it. “Well, your future is far brighter than that guy. Any guy that doesn’t even feel bad for breaking your heart and doesn’t care what type of pond scum he is isn’t worth another tear.”

 

Maisie knew she was right, of course she was. Memories were great, but they were in the past. The only thing that mattered was what was in store for her future. On impulse, Maisie picked up her glass and went back into her bedroom and searched for any last piece of Ben around her room. When she was satisfied that there was nothing left, she tightly pulled the drawstring, tying off the bag, and marched it to the building’s garbage shoot. Without another thought, she chucked the bag in and closed the door behind her. Satisfied with herself, she took a long gulp of her wine.

 

With new confidence and new resolve, maybe from the strength of finally throwing his things away, maybe from the alcohol, she waltzed back into her apartment where Claire was waiting with a smirk on her face.

 

“So,” Maisie started. “What’s the next step?”

 

Giddy with excitement, and also probably the booze, Claire ran and grabbed Maisie’s laptop. “Next, we get you back out into the dating world. It’s time for bars and clubs and the best way to meet tons of guys in the digital age, an online dating profile.”

 

Maisie filled both of their glasses again and rolled her eyes. “Right, like I’m going to find a relationship on a dating website.”

 

Claire booted up the computer. “Who said anything about a relationship? I said dating. That’s not the same thing.” She gave her friend a wicked grin and started to type away.

 

Maisie had to hand it to her friend. If there was anyone who knew how to play the dating game, it was Claire. She was the expert in the area and after years of being in what Maisie had thought was a committed relationship, Maisie definitely was not.

 

“Alright, I’ll play along,” she caved. “Let’s do this.”

 

The rest of the night the girls giggled and drank wine, pouring themselves into giving Maisie the best profile anyone could come up with. Already Maisie could feel the weight of pain lifting from her chest. Who knew, maybe being single could be fun after all.

 

3

 

 

 

All night, after Easton came home from his father’s house, he thought about the responsibility his father had given him. It wasn’t a choice, the job to get the information from Cindy about her ex-husband, it was Easton’s job whether he wanted it or not. But how was he supposed to do that? According to his father she seemed easily spooked, so it wasn’t as if he could simply knock on the door and ask her questions. He’d have to find a smoother approach.

 

But what would it be? He had plenty of resources at his disposal. His father’s underlings which were, in turn, his underlings, that could track her, find out where she goes and who she associates with. But that wouldn’t get him any direct information. He had to get straight to the source. Grabbing a beer from the fridge, Easton went over to his leather couch and stared out the window at the drizzling, grey afternoon. He liked his house, worn wooden floors, bookshelves that were built right into the walls, it was an older home and he hadn’t had the heart to destroy any of the craftsmanship to update any of it. Much to his father’s dismay. Bring a psychiatrist in there and she would probably tell him that he had chosen a home like that because it matched the décor of his father’s office, a symbol of success. It didn’t much matter why he chose his home, the fact was it was his retreat from the tension filled world he lived in.

 

It wasn’t exactly as if he lived in a small town and worked in the mafia. His family worked a whole city, but one on the smaller side, one where eventually you did have only one or two degrees of separation between everyone. But it was a large enough city, and his father ran most of it, but he still had to be careful what he said or did or what people knew. The jail wasn’t exactly somewhere he wanted to be, which was why he loved his retreat to the comfort of his home.

 

Easton thought about what he knew about Cindy, which wasn’t much. She was thirty-five, rather spoiled by her ex-husband, and newly single. She was scorned, but not someone who was going to take that lightly. From what Easton knew she was already out on the dating scene. A thought dawned on him. Where did many newly single people go when they were looking for dates? Looking to move on?

 

Online dating.

 

He snagged his laptop from his coffee table and opened the internet icon. Cindy Spano, he typed in the browser. Many things came up but very little social media. If she was doing online dating she would, of course, be using her maiden name. Cindy Springs, he typed next. Several hits came up with accounts, none that were online dating, but yet….he still had a hunch that he could find her. So one by one he joined different dating sites, using the same fake profile for each, typing in Cindy Springs, knowing now that’s what she was going by. Finally, he got a hit.

 

Easton scanned her profile, nothing very exciting, and nothing to give away much about who she was. In fact, if you didn’t know her, you would have no idea that she had once been married to a very high profile politician. She seemed like any other woman on there, maybe a little more high maintenance based off of the pictures she chose to use in her designer clothes and ball gowns. But that didn’t seem so odd, it just looked as if she was looking for the right kind of man to fulfill that for her.

 

There was only so much he was going to be able to get out of profile information and knew that if he was going to get anywhere, he was going to have to message her, with his fake profile, and start talking to her. He had no idea how long it would take before her defenses fell and she would open up to an online suitor, he supposed it depended on how desperate and lonely she was feeling. Not like he liked preying on a woman who was desperate and lonely, but it was all part of the job. No one could be spared when his father needed him to do something.

 

Typing up a generic message about her profile picture and how pretty she was, that her information seemed interesting and that he’d like to get to know her, he hit the send button and sat back and waited. What else did he really have to do? Easton worked his way through the TV channels, wondering how long it would be before Cindy reached out to him when he heard a little chime go off on his computer. Fully expecting it to be Cindy and getting ready for what his next message should be, Easton grabbed his computer and clicked on the message icon.

 

It said he had a new love note. How cheesy, he thought, but he opened it anyway. The little profile icon though wasn’t Cindy, it was someone else.

 

MaisieDaisy13. He enlarged the picture and saw a blonde girl, short little bob in her hair, and green eyes that could nearly leap off the screen. She had fine, tiny features that reminded him almost of a little pixie. She was cute, really cute into that picture. He clicked through the rest before he even read her information or her message and each picture ranged from this cute little pixie to a blonde knockout. There was something familiar to him about her, something he couldn’t quite put his finger on.

 

He read her message, same generic type thing that he had sent, but at the end, she had included a little smile face and he felt his own smile on his lips. He wasn’t on there to date, hadn’t even thought about it, yet he didn’t want to ignore whoever this MaisieDaisy13 was. So instead of clicking the x button to ignore her, he typed a message back and sat and waited for her response.

 

 

4

 

 

The leftover food spilled on her uniform, splashing cold soup and pieces of meatloaf all down her, as a child ran around the table in the restaurant and his mother who was too busy on her phone paid no attention to him. Maisie quickly cleaned up the dishes while the busboy was called to clean up the mess on the floor.

 

“Well, that’s just great,” she complained, as she slammed the dishes into the dishpan in the kitchen.

 

“Iew, you’re going to smell the whole rest of your shift.” It was Claire, coming back to help her friend clean up.

 

Some people wondered if being roommates and working together was too much bonding time as friends, but Maisie felt lucky to have a friend like Claire around as a roommate and a co-worker. Especially at times like the one she was currently in, covered in food and highly frustrated.

 

“How am I still working here?” She complained. “I went to college, got my degree, and can’t seem to get out of working in this dank restaurant.”

 

As she wiped, the chunks of food were coming off but the stain and smell would linger until she got off from her shift, in a matter of hours.

 

Claire being the bartender, snuck her a whiskey and coke to calm her down.

 

“You’ll get out of here, relax. You’ve only been graduated for a couple of months. Finding a full-time job isn’t that easy.”

 

“I know,” Maisie conceded. “I just hate my life always being on pause. I just want it to start already!”

 

Claire nodded, pretending like she understood, but Maisie knew it was just a show. Whereas Claire was easygoing, and able to float with the wind, Maisie had never been able to be that way. She liked plans, she liked moving forward, and hated the thought of just twirling in the breeze.

 

“Just think of this, you’re newly single, newly graduated, and you’ve got your whole life ahead of you!”

 

Both girls walked out to the dining are, Claire to take care of her bar people, Maisie to take the next table their food and hopefully not spill. Even with food and smell stuck on her, she still made her best attempt to smile brightly and be warm and welcoming with her table. Of course, that was a bit easier to do as she thought about Luke.

 

After putting in the new table’s order, she went back to the bar. “So, you know that part about me being single? Well, I think I kind of met someone.”

 

Claire filled up two wine glasses for two women at the end of the bar, huddled together and gossiping. “You met someone? Really? Where? All you do is work here, go to the gym, and go home. Oh! Is it some gym hottie?”

 

Maisie laughed. She felt so stupid confessing to her friend that her secret guy was one she hadn’t even met yet, but she’d been talking to Luke for a couple weeks and she knew she shouldn’t be getting too excited, but she really like him so far.

 

“Actually, I haven’t quite met him yet,” she hedged.

 

Her friend arched her brow, not yet putting the pieces together, so Maisie continued.

 

“Remember a couple of weeks ago, we signed me up for the dating site? Well, I sort of…met someone.”

 

The memory dawned on Claire and she laughed a little. “Girl, that wasn’t what the dating site was for! It was for you to meet a couple of guys, maybe get a couple of hook-ups out of it, and that was it. Not for you to go falling in love.”

 

Maisie glanced over at her table who looked to be arguing over if they should get an appetizer or not. When a table was fighting over something so silly, Maisie knew that it was most often over something far different and the fight was going to come out later while she was serving them. Sometimes best to give them their space, at least until they could decide if they wanted the mozzarella sticks or not.

 

“I didn’t say I’ve fallen in love. I just said I met someone,” she answered defensively.

 

“So, you’ve actually met this guy? What’s he like? Cute? Tall? Please tell me nothing like Ben.”

 

“Well, he seems really nice and funny. We can text all day long and not seem to run out of things to say.” Maisie had chosen her words carefully yet she knew her friend was smart enough to pick up on it.

 

“You said seems. He ‘seems’ really nice. Have you not met him yet?”

 

“Well, not exactly. Just texting so far. But I really want to meet him. I wasn’t sure at first but we’ve been talking non-stop and I think he seems pretty great.”

 

The door to the restaurant opened and for a moment, it was as if the whole restaurant was on pause. Like the air simultaneously turned too electric and too thin at the same time.

 

“Well, whatever you do, just make sure you don’t fall for a guy like that.” Claire nodded toward the door and Maisie followed her gaze.

 

Mr. Argenti and his son, Easton. Maisie didn’t know them any better than taking their order when they came in or maybe catching a glimpse of them in the grocery store. But you didn’t need to be introduced to them to know who they were. There were rumors, and plenty of them, about the ‘connections’ that the family had. That they had ties and money in almost any business and any politician in the city, and probably farther than that. They were a family at the top of the food chain, one you didn’t mess with, and as unbelievably sexy as every girl in the city knew Easton was, he was not one to ever get involved with.

 

“Don’t worry,” Maisie said as she walked away to take the Argenti’s order. “I think I’m smarter than to get myself mixed up with someone like that.”

 

 

 

5

 

 

 

“So, I haven’t heard anything from you in a couple of weeks. You haven’t been coming over for Sunday dinner. Your mother is pretty upset.”

 

Easton looked over the menu, attempting to ignore his father’s comments, yet knowing he’d have to address them. Especially the one about Sunday dinner.

 

“Yea, I’ve just had some other things going on the last couple of weeks. I’ll make it this week for dinner.”

 

Easton’s father nodded and looked at his own menu.

 

“And how about the job I gave you?”

 

There hadn’t been too much headway on the Cindy front. She was less desperate than he’d anticipated, at least as far as connecting with someone. Cindy was cautious with him online, but slowly, he was getting her to open up. It just wasn’t going nearly as quickly as he’d hoped.

 

“I’m still working on it all. She’s tricky, you know scorned lover and all. But I think I’ll be able to get to her open up soon.”

 

His father hadn’t exactly approved of the method with which Easton had been trying to get the information from Cindy, but slowly he had been able to filter a few bits of information here and there to his father, nothing major yet but at least he saw it was working. His father just grunted and kept looking at his menu.

 

“Hi guys, what can I get you today?”

 

Easton looked up from his menu and immediately had to stop his jaw from hitting the floor. The picture, MaisieDaisy13, the reason she had felt so familiar to him. She was familiar to him, he had seen her a handful of times when he had come into the restaurant. How had he not noticed before? He had been speaking to her for weeks now, her picture constantly popping up on his screen as they spoke, and eventually, he figured that she seemed familiar because he saw her picture constantly throughout the day. But now he knew that wasn’t it.

 

“I’ll have a glass of whiskey and the meatball with sauce.”

 

Maisie, as Easton saw from her name tag that was her real name, wrote down the order and then turned to Easton, her smile beaming as much as it did in her pictures.

 

“And for you?” It took him a moment to realize that she had been waiting for him to give his order and he felt flustered for a minute.

 

“Can I have a beer, draft, and a roast beef sandwich? Fries please.”

 

She wrote that down too and smiled at the men. He watched her walk away, her hips swaying and he couldn’t help but stare.

 

“Can’t you ever order something a little classier? At least to drink. Draft beer,” his father commented.

 

Easton shrugged, no longer concerned with his father’s thoughts. He was too busy thinking about MaisieDaisy, or just Maisie as he was going to have to start thinking of her as, and the countless conversations they’d had. Things with Cindy hadn’t been going so well but talking to Maisie had been going great. At first, he thought he would just exchange a few flirty messages and then disappear once he got what he needed from Cindy. But truthfully he was devoting far less time in getting information from Cindy like his father wanted and far more time talking to Maisie.

 

“So, when do you think you can start getting the big fish from her?”

 

“Um…probably a couple of weeks.”

 

Easton’s father shook his head. “This needs to go faster or you need to find a new method. The election is coming up and I need the information on him to take him down.”

 

“What’s wrong with paying for it again?” Easton’s words were there with his father but his eyes were roaming the restaurant, watching Maisie every time she made another move. She was so friendly, a smile that was lighting up the dark booths, she was almost mesmerizing to watch. Even with the spilled food on her.

 

“Because why spend money if I don’t have to? If I can get her to leak the information about the money and accounts than I can keep my own money in my own accounts.”

 

Maisie walked back over to their table, dropped off their drinks and quickly swished away back to the kitchen.

 

“This is why you have a lot to learn son. You’d have spent the money, rash and major, whereas I will go to every avenue I can to keep my money.”

 

Easton turned back toward his father. He was right, he did have a lot to learn about the business. But more importantly, he wanted to know more about Maisie. But now that he’d seen her in person, how could he keep talking to her, keep lying about who he was? She had told him that she was a waitress, he could tell she was friendly, and she had used all of her own pictures.

 

He hadn’t even used his real name.

 

But it wasn’t as if he could tell her the truth now, the way she was looking at him when she thought he wasn’t looking. It was watchful, slightly nervous, and definitely judgmental. It wasn’t as if he could blame her, he had a reputation. Often times the dangerous, sexy bad boy thing worked but he already knew that with a girl like Maisie it would never work out that way. He didn’t want to stop talking to her but how could he continue with his lie?

 

“Are you even here with me?” his father asked him sternly, bringing him back to the present.

 

Easton turned to look at his father again. “I’m here,” he answered.

 

 

6

 

 

 

After her shift, Maisie felt exhausted and sticky from food and wanted nothing more than a hot shower to rinse off the night. As she toweled off and got comfortable in her robe, she heard her phone vibrate on the porcelain bathroom counter and she became giddy when she saw that it was Luke messaging her. She opened it and her heart fluttered in her chest with just the simple question of ‘How was your day beautiful?’

 

It was amazing how much he could make her smile, which she found completely wild because she had never even met the man who could put a smile on her face like that. It felt good to feel good again though, it felt good to feel happy. It had been a long time since she had felt this way, like a kid who is seeing an ice cream truck for the first time, or getting the college acceptance letter to your first choice college, or when your crush finally asks you out for the first time. You feel like you’re floating like a balloon in the sky, like you can finally breathe, like you feel pure happiness coming from inside of you.

 

But after finally spilling her secret to Claire, Maisie could feel a little fear wiggling inside of her. There was always the thought that Luke wasn’t who he said he was because as close as she felt to him, he was still a virtual stranger.

 

My day wasn’t that great. Got spilled on at work, and well just being at work in general. Haha

 

She could see the bubbles that he was typing so quickly she dried her hair and left the bathroom. Better to have conversations with him with a glass of wine, it felt kind of like a date that way. Warm in her robe, she poured a glass of wine, knowing that Claire had a few more hours on the bartender shift, and curled up on the worn couch.

 

Why do you work there if you hate it so much? You have a degree, get yourself out of there.

 

There was nothing grey in Luke’s world. Everything was black and white to him, at least when it came to giving her advice and how he described his own life to her. She couldn’t help but wonder what his real life was like. He had told her pieces about it, but only surface things. She knew he had a job that worked with people on a more private basis, and that he was very close with his family. But most of the time he found a way to turn any conversation back to her. She liked being the center of attention to a guy that seemed like such a great catch.

 

But there was still that wiggle of fear, the one that Claire had implanted. Maisie hadn’t really thought much about the idea that whoever was on the other end of the messages was not real. He had pictures, he had a profile, and she figured that Luke was just like her, just trying to meet someone who you have a connection with. And she still felt like that was most likely the truth, but what if the other things weren’t? He often times was very vague about his life, what if there was a reason for that?

 

Back and forth they messaged for hours while she sipped her white wine, smiling and feeling content. But a sudden flash, the one of Easton in the restaurant, struck her suddenly. Maybe it was the wine, maybe it was Claire’s warning that she could be talking to a guy like that, but she couldn’t shake that feeling. Easton was incredibly sexy, with his searing dark eyes and long lashes that made his gaze smoldering. Even his body, underneath his fine tailored suit, was tall and she could tell very muscular. If he wasn’t such a dangerous guy, he’d be one every girl drooled over, even though some girls still did she was sure. Some girls wanted the bad boy, but she wasn’t one of them.

 

And now that Claire had planted the seed that she didn’t really know who was on the other end of those messages, she knew that she had to find out. Biting her lower lip, she typed up a text. Erased it. Typed up another one. And then rolled her eyes at her own annoying self. Finally, she typed up one final one and took her liquid courage and hit the send button without even reading it.

 

I’ve really liked talking to you these last couple of weeks. You make me laugh and I would like to know if that’s something you could do in person too. I think it’s time we meet for real. What do you think?

 

Nervously she waited for the little bubbles to tell her he was typing a response. It was a couple of minutes before she saw them, then they disappeared. A watched pot never boiled, she knew, but it was nearly impossible to tear her eyes away from the screen. But the little bubbles didn’t pop back up again. Anxiously she downed the rest of the crisp wine and went to the kitchen to pour another glass.

 

The lock jiggled on the front door and Maisie knew that Claire was home. She finished off the bottle by pouring her friend a glass.

 

“Ah, you’re the best,” Claire told her. She didn’t even change before taking her first gulp.

 

“I asked Luke to meet me, finally.”

 

Claire’s eyes nearly bugged out while Maisie wrung her hands and stared at her phone on the coffee table.

 

“Um…yea? And?”

 

As if on cue her phone buzzed and Maisie nearly knocked Claire over to get the phone.

 

I think that’s a great idea. How about tomorrow night? 8 at the bar on the corner of Main and Tennyson.

 

“Tomorrow night!” She squealed as she jumped around a little bit.

 

Claire lifted her glass in a slight toast at her friend’s happiness. After all these weeks she was finally going to meet the man behind her phone, and she could only hope that it was going to be everything she was imagining.

 

 

7

 

 

 

It was stupid to tell Maisie that he would meet her, he knew that with every part of him. But he just couldn’t say no to her, and he really didn’t want to. Especially now that he’d seen her in person, well, realized who she was actually. Now that he knew that the cute little waitress that waited on him often at the restaurant that he went to with his father was the same girl that he couldn’t keep his mind off of every day, his addiction to her felt even stronger.

 

He wanted to get to know her, more than just through texts. He wanted to hear her voice ask him how his day was instead of hearing her ask what he wanted to eat. And he had to admit he was dying to know what her skin felt like, what her lips tasted like, he wanted to know every intimate part. There was no way he’d ever be able to do that if all he did was send her text after text.

 

But how could he reveal who he really was? It wasn’t like he could come out and tell her he had a fake profile to catch Cindy’s husband in some major money scandal in order to benefit his father. It wasn’t exactly a secret what he and his family did, it wasn’t talked about for certain but people still gossiped. Sometimes it was to his benefit that men would befriend him in order to be on the inside of their operation, and some women would throw themselves at him just to say they had been with the money and power that came with Easton. In some ways, he was royalty of his city.

 

But for other people, it wasn’t like that. They crossed to the other side of the street when they saw him coming, avoided eye contact with him if he looked their way. For some people, he was a rotten seed that had come from a poisonous flower. Based off of the innocence and charm that came off of Maisie in waves in person at the restaurant and her text messages, he had a very good feeling that she was going to be in the second group of people.

 

But how could he tell her who he was? How could he take the risk of watching her reaction, as she kept up her guard in the moment when she saw who he really was? He’d been hiding behind his fake profile for so long, built her trust that Luke was who he really was, was there any way she could forgive him? He doubted it. That would be a lot to take in, a man in the mafia, a man who started off whatever they had going with a massive lie.

 

Maisie was a catch, there was no doubt about that, as well as recently single. There was no way she would stay on the market for long, that was a fact. But there was also no way she would keep talking to him if she knew who he was. He had seen the way she looked at him when she was his waitress. Guarded. Nervous. He didn’t even want to think about the fact that her guard may not drop when she met him finally. And why should it? It wasn’t as if by lying he had built up his reputation with her as a good guy.

 

He had to cancel on her, there really wasn’t a choice in the matter. Not if he wanted to keep talking to her. If he just put it off a little longer…he could keep her in his life. But eventually she would get bored with it and find someone who she could actually see in person, and he would lose talking to her anyway. Either way, he was at full risk of losing the only person that made him feel like he wasn’t stuck in some stereotype that had been built since the day he was born. And hadn’t gotten any better when he chose to follow his father’s footsteps.

 

Either way, whether he blew her off or revealed himself, there was a good chance that the jig was up for him with Maisie. And maybe it should be, he tried to reason with himself. She was a great girl as far as he could tell and she didn’t deserve to be lied to. So, he would go show her who he was and do his best to convince her that he wasn’t what he appeared to be.

 

Button-down blue shirt, unbuttoned at the top, sleeves rolled up, and a nice pair of black pants. He knew the blue matched his olive skin tone, and it typically drove girls wild. His looks, at the moment, were going to be all he had to go with until he could explain himself and what he’d been doing with a fake profile. Not that he’d even figured out exactly what he was going to say about that yet. It was probably easiest to tell her that he was just nervous to show who he was because everyone already had their opinions of him.

 

It didn’t matter too much that story only became true only after he had started talking to Maisie, but it was still another lie. Of course, in his line of work, lying was just par for the course. He knew his father lied to his mother constantly, but she never questioned a word he said. It was hard to imagine that he’d be able to live like that, not care about what words came out of his mouth as long as it held up a good pretense for him.

 

He had to go, he had to see her. Maybe the best thing for him was to go and try to break down his own walls and hope that she saw him for just being Easton.

 

 

 

8

 

 

 

If she changed her outfit once, she changed it at least seven times. Maisie, no matter what combination of clothes she put on, could not settle on what to wear to the bar. It was a nicer bar, she knew. More of a martini lounge really than a bar, though she’d never been there before it had a good reputation. But it wasn’t the reputation or the fancy drink she was worried about, it was making the perfect impression on Luke.

 

It was a tough debate with Claire if she should show up early, and have him see her sitting there twirling a cocktail looking ravishing, or if she should show up fashionably late and make him sweat it out a bit. Eventually, Maisie convinced her that she would be far too nervous, shaking probably, to meet Luke, her first date and interest since Heartbreak City. So if she was already sitting, sipping a cocktail, it would be far less obvious. Reluctantly Claire agreed, a firm believer in making men wait for her, and helped her search through both of their closets for something that would look fantastic while she waited.

 

Leggings and boots were the first option, casual yet wrapped her legs tightly to make them look great. But it seemed generic, the same thing that every other girl there was probably going to be wearing. Jeans seemed too casual for a place like that and they wouldn’t stick out either. Finally, in the back of Claire’s closet, there was a pencil skirt with a nice high slit up the front.

 

“This.” Claire handed her the skirt and it was not a question of if she was going to wear it, but what she was going to wear with it.

 

Maisie checked out the skirt, the slit was high but she had hope that it was going to make her legs look amazing. “What do I put with it?”

 

Claire thought for a minute before her eyes lit up. “I’ve got it!” She grabbed Maisie by the hand and dragged her, clad in her robe, back into her own room where she rifled through the hangers in Maisie’s closet looking for something specific.

 

“This,” she demanded again.

 

Claire held out a hanger that had a black sheer tank top with a plunging neckline. Maisie looked at the two pieces of clothing in her hand. A slit up far past the point of decency and a neckline that did the same thing. Yea, she would definitely be memorable in this outfit, there was no doubt about that.

 

Maisie couldn’t believe how nervous she was to finally meet Luke. She took way more time getting ready for meeting him than she had for anything in her life. Manicure, pedicure (even though she was wearing boots for the night), make-up that was near perfection, and every piece of hair in place. Even picking out the jewelry took extra time and luckily Claire was home to help her get herself together.

 

She hadn’t been on a date since the first time Ben took her out way back in high school to a school dance. He had been her crush for months and she had been stunned when he had asked her out, even more stunned when he became her boyfriend. And she had thought at the time that it had all been meant to be, it was why she had hung around for so long even when she could feel the shifting between them.

 

Maisie had to shake away the thoughts of Ben. It was a new chapter in her, a fresh start. Not that she wanted to get ahead of herself and think that Luke was going to be her new life, she was excited but not naïve. But just the thought of meeting someone new, going on a new date, it all felt like a new beginning for her.

 

“OK, so you’re going to a public place so I know you’ll be ok there.” Claire handed Maisie her jacket. “But you have to promise me that you won’t leave with him or go anywhere else without telling me. I do not want to see you on the news tomorrow night as dead or missing. Got it?”

 

Maisie nodded, knowing it was futile to argue with her protective friend.

 

“And remember, if you need an excuse, text me the word ‘cat’ and I will call and get you out immediately.”

 

Maisie nodded again. The realization that she was really about to meet Luke was hitting her hard. How many messages had they exchanged since that first one online? Hundreds? A thousand? She knew it would take far too long to count, but soon he wasn’t just going to be a message on a screen. He was going to be a real person. And she had to wonder if he was thinking the same things, if he was nervous or excited. Or maybe he was a serial dater and this was just another date in his book. Or even a serial killer. She doubted that last one, still, it ran through her mind.

 

“I’ll have a cosmopolitan please,” she asked the bartender.

 

He nodded and reached for a clean cocktail glass and started to mix her drink. It was hard not to watch the door, just to see his reaction when he walked in, but Claire had strictly advised against it, telling her that she needed to stay calm and cool. She didn’t want to appear needy or desperate like she hadn’t been on a date in five years. Even though she hadn’t. The bartender set her glass down on top of a little white cocktail napkin and Maisie took great care to not spill as she lifted the drink to her lips to take a sip.

 

Even though she knew the first sip wouldn’t have an effect on her yet, as soon as the sweet tang of the drink hit her lips she was already more relaxed. Carefully she set the glass back down and she heard the door to the bar open. It was a Thursday night so it wasn’t empty inside but nothing like a weekend night yet the crowd around her suddenly started to whisper, the room swelling around her into a feeling that felt familiar yet she couldn’t place.

 

“MaisieDaisy?” came a voice from the side of her.

 

Taking a breath she turned to see a small daisy being handed to her. Graciously she took the flower and looked up at the man who was handing it to her. For a moment her mind felt puzzled. He looked familiar, someone she knew from somewhere, but definitely not the guy from the pictures she’d been staring at and fantasizing over. Her mind reeled at putting faces and names together before she suddenly realized the man that was standing before her.

 

Easton Argenti.

 

“You!” She hadn’t meant to shout but the word came flying out with so much shock and horror that she wouldn’t have been able to keep it any quieter.

 

“I’m so sorry I lied.”

 

Maisie had no idea what to say. She couldn’t decide if she was more upset that Luke was not Luke, that he was someone completely different. Or if she was upset because Luke had turned out to be Easton, someone that she knew implicitly that she didn’t want anything to do with.

 

“I can’t believe this,” she mumbled. “I’ve got to go.”

 

Easton blocked her way from getting off of her stool. “Please, let me explain.”

 

“There is nothing to explain. You lied. Right from the beginning.”

 

“But please, at least let me tell you why.”

 

Maisie looked up at him and she could see his eyes were pleading, and God help her she was falling right into those dark eyes of his. She could feel the strength of his body leaning into hers, and the way he smelled like a spice that she couldn’t name, but one that smelled so masculine it made her dizzy. But it didn’t matter. He’d been playing her for weeks and she was sure this was all just a plot to play her some more.

 

“No. It doesn’t matter why. I’m not playing any more games with you. This was such a mistake.”

 

Signaling to the bartender for the check, over her head she could hear Easton tell the bartender it was on his tab.

 

“Yes sir, Mr. Argenti”

 

Maisie couldn’t help but roll her eyes. Apparently, he was just willing to wield his power anywhere. Bars, online dating, didn’t seem to matter to him. Whatever, she wasn’t going to argue, if he wanted to buy her a drink that was the least he could do for her.

 

“I’m out of here,” she declared and pushed past him hard.

 

Easton got knocked off balance and she didn’t dare look in those puppy dog eyes again. Or let herself register how hard bodied he felt. She did not want to imagine what those muscles felt like underneath the clothes.

 

Maisie headed for the door and when she felt like she was plenty of steps out of the bar she felt herself let the disappointment start to hit her. It was pathetic, she knew, to have had her hopes up so high, but still the sting of it all was bringing tears to her eyes. Maybe there was no man in the world that could tell the truth, maybe she would never find a good man to be with. Those thoughts fogged her mind until she heard her name and the footsteps chasing after her.

 

“Please,” he said snagging her elbow and turning her to look at him. “Let me explain.”

 

It wasn’t so much as a question as a demand he was putting on her and she looked up at him, fully ready to tell him off, but the way the blue shirt stood out against his smooth olive skin, she was rendered momentarily speechless, giving him just enough time to get out what he needed to say.

 

“Do you have any idea how hard it was for me to come here tonight? People judge me before they even meet me and online I didn’t need to be judged. I could just be and talk to people without them having any thoughts of who I really was. I was just Luke.”

 

Maisie opened her mouth to say something but Easton put his finger to her lips, his words coming out softer now. “I didn’t want to come tonight. I’ve seen the way you look at me when I come into your restaurant, and I knew that you would look at me the same way tonight. I didn’t know who you were when we first started talking but once I realized it, I felt even more magnetized to you, more pulled to you than I already had. I didn’t want to come tonight because I was afraid I’d lose you and never hear from you again.”

 

He stepped closer to her and Maisie could feel her heart pounding against his body. They were so close she could feel the heat from his skin and it took everything she had to keep herself from stepping into him. She was still angry. Easton took her lightly by the chin and pulled her face up to look at him.

 

“But I knew if I didn’t come tonight then I’d lose you too. I had to take the risk, I had to show you who I was on the off chance that you would see past what you think you know about me.”

 

Maisie’s mind was reeling. She wanted to pull away from him just as much as she wanted to stay against his body. Feeling stuck either way she just stood there helplessly, finding herself believing what he said. Believing that maybe, in a way, he was really Luke after all.

 

Easton leaned down, his hair falling across his forehead, and she felt herself immediately pull up to toward him as if she didn’t even have a choice in the matter. Her body was making the decision for her. The moment her lips brushed against his, she felt something spark inside of her, her heart quickening. He was soft, tender, yet grabbed her face to tell her that he wasn’t going to let her go.

 

 

9

 

 

If Easton hadn't been addicted to Maisie after all of their conversations and meeting her in the restaurant, he definitely was after he kissed her. Her body had fit perfectly against his and when his arms wrapped around her it felt like two puzzle pieces sliding together. The sugary taste that lingered from her cocktail mixing with her own sweet taste had been like drinking a tall glass of water after days of thirst. And now that he'd had it, he had no idea how he'd survived without it. It hadn't been his plan to lie to her, again, about his fake profile, but it had just popped out. And the more he thought about it, the more it was easy to convince himself that he was telling the truth, that he had just wanted her to like him for him, or not like him for him whatever she chose.

 

Luckily for him, she had chosen to like him. There were times that he wanted to tell her the truth about Cindy, especially if she saw he was still active on the site, but then he didn't really want to mix his business life with his personal one. And Maisie didn’t ask. Sometimes he wondered if she still pretended he was Luke in her mind, this good upstanding guy instead of who he really was.

 

The son of the city's Mafia king.

 

In the two weeks since they’d met, she didn't ask about his money or his connections, or thankfully the bad things he had done. Instead, she wanted to about his favorite memories growing up and his favorite places to vacation. She'd wanted to know him as Easton and now that he wasn't hiding behind Luke, he liked telling her about himself.

 

''I should really get going," he whispered in her ear. She had fallen asleep with her head against his chest and Easton hated to wake here and even worse, he hated to leave her. But, Cindy wanted to chat with him and he was so close to getting her to talk about her ex, but he would not talk to her in front of Maisie. Against his chest, she stirred. Sleepily, she asked him to stay.

 

“I wish I could, but I have some work to do tonight,” he told her and kissed the top of her head, taking in the scent of her strawberry shampoo.

 

“You always have to work,” she yawned. “It’s too much.”

 

Easton felt his body stiffen under her. He knew that she was only half awake and this should be a normal conversation for any couple, but it wasn’t. Never once had she questioned him about what he did or complained, and for that he was grateful. How long could she go on without asking him anything or worse, how long she could go on pretending what he did didn’t bother her? It wasn’t like anyone knew the extent of anything, but rumors were a powerful thing, and as of two weeks before, she believed the rumors. He could tell by the way she had looked when she was around him.

 

She didn’t look that way anymore at him and for that, he was grateful, but eventually…when she realized fully who he was and the starry feeling of a new relationship wore off, he was afraid she would look at him that way again. And that was something he definitely didn’t want. Actually, in the last two weeks, Easton realized he didn’t really want anyone to look at him like that anymore. But what could he do? He had a reputation and it was going to be stuck with him for life.

 

“Are you going to go to bed?” he asked her, attempting to distract his own mind.

 

Maisie stretched and moved away from his arms to let him get up. It took everything he had to stop himself from grabbing her and pulling her back into him.

 

“Yea,” she told him. “I’ve got the lunch shift tomorrow.” Easton could see the way that she was averting her eyes, the way she didn’t want to look at him, or couldn’t.

 

“Something bothering you?”

 

“It’s just….” She twisted her hands in her lap and his heart started to pick up speed at the nervousness that was inside of him. “It’s late. And whatever you’re going to do right now, it isn’t good is it?”

 

Apparently his moments ago thought of ‘eventually she’d look at him differently’ was happening right there, on the couch.

 

“It’s not as bad as you think,” he tried to hedge. But wasn’t it bad? Maybe taking down a corrupt politician wasn’t so bad, but playing the heart of his already hurting wife was. And it wasn’t as if he was doing it to get someone better into office, he was doing it simply to get someone more corrupt in. Someone his father could use as a better puppet to do whatever he wanted.

 

“But it can’t be good. And you’ve done bad things before right?”

 

Easton rubbed his hands down his face. This was exactly what he didn’t want. Already the look was changing in her eyes and he was losing her. He didn’t know what to say to her.

 

“You don’t want to know. You don’t want to be in that part of my life. Please. And I don’t want you there,” he begged.

 

Maisie looked at him, her eyes filled with tears, only for a moment before she dropped her eyes back into her lap. “Alright, I get it.”

 

Quickly, as if reaching for a life preserver, he grabbed her hand, afraid to let her slip any further away. “You’re too good to be in that part of my life. You’re too good to even be with me. And I don’t blame you if you want to run away screaming from my life…”

 

As the words were tumbling out of his mouth, she leaned over and put a finger on his lips, like he had to her that first night. Leaning over, she gave him a kiss. Sweet and passionate, but he could feel that it wasn’t the same.

 

 

10

 

 

 

Claire couldn't believe it when Massie had told her that Luke was really Easton. She had an even harder time understanding why Maisie hadn't turned on her boot heels and run. But then again neither could Maisie. It was obvious that Easton was not the type of guy she should be with. Especially if any of the rumors that she'd heard were true about some of the things he and his father had done. But when she looked in his eyes, heard the pleading in his voice, felt his lips against hers, she couldn't walk away. There was no way to explain it in words to Claire, no way to make her understand it when she couldn’t even understand it herself.

 

At first, it felt easy to pretend that Easton was still the same guy she had thought he was. Other than the fact that they saw each other every free moment they got, nothing had changed. They still texted all the time and their conversations had actually gotten better. Now that she knew who he really was, he had stopped just skirting around who he was and actually starting to open up to her. With everything except his place in the mafia. Claire couldn't understand how Maisie could just ignore the biggest part of his life, but Maisie didn't see it that way. Somehow, she had been able to separate who he was and what he did. But as good as she'd been doing that, it had started to creep in her mind that her Easton and mafia Easton were the same.

 

''So you actually said something about his job?'' Claire asked over a mug of steaming morning coffee.

 

Maisie shook her head at her own disbelief. "I didn't mean to. I was just so tired and didn't want him to leave. It just kind of, popped out."

 

"So what happened?''

 

Maisie didn't know if he had felt it too, but as soon as she even brought up what he was doing and hedged at the things he'd done, something had changed. Their kiss had felt like there was something caught between them, in the way of what they had just had moments before. Even their texting that night had seemed a little off.

 

"I don't know. He begged me not to leave him, and I really don’t want to."

 

''Are you sure that this is what you want? You just got out of a serious heartbreak, are you sure you want something this heavy right now?"

 

That's what Maisie had been thinking about all night. As much as she wanted to ignore who Easton really was, how long could she really go on pretending?

 

''I don't know. There's something different about him. I feel different around him."

 

Claire took a sip of her coffee and Maisie could see that she was deciding what she thought of the situation.

 

"I want to be happy for you, I really do. But it’s hard to be happy for you when I know you’re with someone who is trouble. Especially because he is not being honest about all the trouble he is."

 

She was right and Maisie knew that, she had just been putting off admitting it. The last thing Maisie needed in her life was to be hurt by another guy who lied. And she knew, at the end of the day that was most likely the road she was headed down

 

"Maybe I should just break it off with him before I get in too deep.” It was nearly impossible to keep the disappointment from her voice. For a moment she could feel Claire staring at her, studying her.

 

"Maybe you already are."

 

All day, as Maisie sat waiting for Easton’s messages that were now coming less often than they had just the day before, she thought about what she should do. Her brain was telling her that she was crazy, that she had to get out before any more of her got hurt. But her heart was telling her not to give up, not quite yet. The argument wrestled inside of her throughout the day, both pieces of her throwing valid points at her. Her brain would tell her it wasn't as if she'd known him long enough to have that much of a connection, her heart would argue that something felt amazing inside when she was with him. Countering, her brain would tell her that he'd done bad things, but her heart would tell her that he was a different person around her too. The final words came from her brain.

 

"You listened to your heart last time," it told her. ''look how well that turned out." the moment that thought popped into her head, she knew what she had to do. She texted him.

 

Can we talk tonight?

 

Almost immediately she felt her phone buzz.

 

I know where this is going. I don’t need to come over. We’re done, aren't we?

 

Maisie’s hands shook as she tried to reply like her own body was betraying her.

 

I’M sorry, but I just can't handle the truth.

 

Staring at her phone behind the counter at work, she waited to see the little bubbles to know he was answering. She knew he wouldn’t yet she wanted him to reply. But nothing came. Just as quickly as it all began, it was over. When she got home, the house was empty, lonely. Claire had the night shift and wouldn’t be home for hours which was why she had planned on Easton coming over. Instead, she looked over at the couch where just twenty-four hours ago she had felt so happy. Happier, she realized, then she’d been in a long time. Probably years. But she’d taken it and thrown it away. Her brain had made too many good arguments she needed to protect her heart.

 

So why was it that she could feel her heart breaking anyway?

 

Tired and only wanting to forget the day, forget Easton, Maisie changed into a baggy sweater and leggings and poured herself some wine. She had just gotten herself wrapped warmly in a blanket on the couch when there was a knock at the door.

 

Eagerly Maisie went to the door, ready for the warm cheesy pizza that she had full intentions of finishing herself, when she opened to door to the softest brown puppy-dog looking eyes she had ever seen.

 

“Can I come in?” Easton asked her.

 

Maisie pulled the blanket around her tighter, and looked away from him. She was completely a sucker for his eyes, and his lips, and every other body part she’d seen from him. And she had the distinct feeling that she’d be a sucker for the parts she hadn’t seen yet too.

 

“I don’t know if that’s such….”

 

In one swift move, he stepped forward and grabbed her firmly around the waist, pulling her into him. He was only a breath away and she couldn’t hold out any longer. She looked up into his eyes only for a moment before he bent his head down and kissed her. Hard. With intention. For a moment Maisie felt stunned, but soon her body relaxed into his and she wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him into her. His tongue opened her mouth and she tasted him, but her body wanted more. She could feel the space between her legs start to throb and wanted him to touch her so desperately.

 

Reading her mind he gently pushed her back into her apartment, shutting the door behind himself. Being there before he led her toward her bedroom, without ever having to take his lips away from hers. When he finally got her in the bedroom he shut the door and before Maisie knew what was happening he was pulling at her sweater, lifting it over her head and leaving her breasts exposed to the air, as his hands slid down her leggings. Everywhere he touched burned her, warming her. But she didn’t just want his hands, she wanted to feel his whole body pressed against her.

 

Fervently, she undid the buttons of his shirt, not letting her lips leave his. He pressed his hard, smooth, chest against hers and wheeled her over to the bed. As he laid her down, naked, she felt exposed to him, open to him, and she wanted him to see and feel every part of her. She pulled away, forcing him to look at her, see her whole body as she took in him. His chest was like soft caramel, and she expected it tasted as sweet. She could see the hard muscle beneath it and she let her fingertips trace the planes of his body. Easton took a sharp breath in as her touch traveled down to his belt, undoing his pants and letting them fall to the floor.

 

In the dim light of her room, they stared at each other, marveling for a moment in each other’s bodies before he climbed on top of the bed, encircling her. When he kissed her again it wasn’t with the intensity as it had been in the doorway, but with sweet tenderness, which made her body ache even more. Easton didn’t even need to touch her before her body was ready for him, slick with desire.

 

Maisie felt the pressure as he pushed inside of her, simultaneously filling her and releasing something sensational in her body. Their bodies danced, slowly at first, placing sweet kisses on each other at every second, and then the heat began to build between them, stirring intensity and longing in the space between them.

 

They clawed at each other, pulling each other closer together, in the desperate attempt to make them one. And when they both fell over the edge of ecstasy, they did so together, filled with screams and quivers that sent their bodies reeling.

 

Panting, Maisie and Easton held each other in the still of the night. He rubbed her arms, sending goosebumps along her body, and she trailed her fingers over the V that lead from his stomach down lower.

 

“That was amazing,” he whispered.

 

“It was,” she breathed. Having him so close to her, breathing him in, was more amazing than she could ever have imagined.

 

For the rest of the night, they lay there, alternating between talking, touching each other, and, sending each other over that perfect edge over and over again.

 

 

11

 

 

 

The sun streamed in from the windows, waking Easton from the most relaxed sleep he could ever remember having. It took him a moment to realize exactly where he was but when he felt the weight that was cradled in his arms and smelled a hint of strawberry shampoo, it all came flooding back to him. Her kiss. The smoothness of her skin. The scent of her lingering in the air. Every inch of her that he had kissed and caressed was now a permanent part of his mind and it felt so good.

 

A smile slid onto his face as he replayed every detail. Gently he kissed the crown of her head, afraid to wake her at such an early hour of the morning. All day, he thought, he could lay there like that with Maisie tucked safely in his arms. This was how life should be, this was how he wanted it to be. A great woman in his arms, the feelings he had for her rolling through him in pleasant waves, the peaceful feeling that filled him inside. Easton could feel inside of him that being with Maisie was exactly where he should be. Shattering the silence, his phone started to clatter along the nightstand. Quickly Easton grabbed for it, hoping that the buzz of the vibration hadn't woken her. Clicking the side-button he silenced the phone. He checked on Maisie and found her still soundly asleep. After the night before he couldn't blame her for feeling exhausted. He loved the feel that her skin was still seared into his brain

 

In his hand, his phone buzzed again signaling another text message. Grudgingly Easton opened the messages, they were from his father.

 

Cindy is going to be leaving town. You need to get her to meet you now and stop her until you get the info.

 

He scrolled to the next message.

 

This is not a question.

 

Easton rubbed his eyes. This was the last thing he wanted to deal with, the last thing he wanted to be reminded of.

 

She's not ready to tell me yet.

 

Easton knew as soon as he sent the message that there was no way his father would accept that. Sure enough, another message came in, one that made Easton's stomach sink.

 

Then you make her. She doesn't leave until she tells you.

 

It wasn't as if he hadn't done things like that before, used force to get something done, but usually, it was against people who were just as corrupt as he was. But Cindy, though she probably wasn't entirely innocent in her ex-husband's dealings, wasn't a choice. If he had been able to get her to talk by using the online chats then his father wouldn't have cared how he got his information. But he had failed. And now things had to be done. Things that he suddenly felt sick that he had to do. Rolling back toward Maisie, he wanted to wake her to tell her he had to go but as he watched her face, so sweet and peaceful, he knew he couldn’t wake her. He didn't want to tell her he had to leave, she'd know why and he didn't want to see the hurt that would come with it. And he suspected that there was very little chance that she wouldn’t see straight through him, to the fact that he was about to do something that disgusted himself.

 

Instead, he slid out of the bed, without rustling the sheets, and slipped on his clothes as quickly as he could. It would be worse if she woke up and saw him sneaking away from her, though he hated to think he was sneaking away. He wanted to pretend that he was protecting her instead, protecting her from knowing that he was leaving her to go do something he shouldn’t be doing.

 

For the first time, Easton felt the pull of his job against what he wanted in his life. There hadn’t been many things in his life that he felt had been more important than working for his father, than doing his job and creating the lifestyle that he had grown up with. But for the first time, the lifestyle, the money, and even his father’s approval wasn’t feeling like enough anymore. Something in him had shifted ever so slightly, enough that had he wanted to he probably could have buried the feeling and continued on with his life as it always had been.

 

But he looked at Maisie. She deserved better. A man that could talk about his job and his life, and man that didn’t have to worry about keeping all the power and connections in order to avoid being hauled away behind bars for life for some of the dirty deeds he had done. She deserved to have safety, security. And as much as he knew that she also deserved the finer things in life, jewelry and vacations, there were ways to give her those things without needing to be part of the seedy part of the city life.

 

For his whole life, he had pictured his mother as a radiant person, who was always welcoming his father’s guests and putting on glamorous parties, making sure to put out a positive and strong appearance. But last time he had seen her, Easton saw the lines around her eyes, the slight paling of her skin, and the creases between her brows which gave away how much she frowned. If you looked briefly at her, you’d never see it, but when you looked closer you saw the toll that his father’s lifestyle had taken on her.

 

He wanted better for Maisie which was something he knew. But what he wasn’t sure was if he could be the one to give her what she deserved.

 

 

 

 

12

 

 

Maisie woke up, her body aching from the night before, but the kind of ache that makes you smile, and that makes you remember the feeling of his body pressed against hers. She stretched, reveling in the feeling of the impact of him. But when she reached across the sheet to feel him, it was empty. Smoothing her hand over the sheets, she could tell they felt cold, he’d been up and out of bed for a while. Maybe in the shower?

 

Getting up she put on her silk robe and synched it tightly to walk to the bathroom, maybe surprise him in the shower. But as soon as she opened the door to the hallway she saw that the bathroom door was open. The kitchen, that had to be it. She followed her instinct to the kitchen and saw that it too was empty. The kitchen connected to the living room so if he wasn’t in any of those rooms then that meant...he had left her?

 

The air nearly whooshed from her at that thought. He wouldn’t have done that to her, would he? Would he just have had his way with her and leave without even a word? Maybe he had left a note she reasoned and padded quickly back to her room where her eyes scanned the top of her dresser, his pillow that he had slept on, the nightstand, even the floor just in case it had fallen off when she had gone to find him. But nothing. Everything was as she always left it, almost as if he had never even been there at all. But the ache in her body, which moments before had felt delicious were now just a painful reminder that he wasn’t there.

 

Taking her phone off of her nightstand, she lit the screen. A text message from Easton sat there, waiting to be opened. It should make her feel better to know that he had at least said something but for some reason it made her feel worse to know that she had been an afterthought to his leaving. Briefly, she thought of just deleting it before she read it but curiosity got the better of her and she knew that she had to know what he said.

 

So sorry to leave. I didn’t want to wake you. But there was something I needed to go do last minute. Forgive me

 

So that was why he left, he had something he needed to do, most likely for his dad. A shiver of anger raked through her body. But it wasn’t so much anger at Easton as it was for herself. She had been right to listen to her brain in the first place. This wasn’t the lifestyle that was going to be good for her, healthy for her, and probably not safe for either of them. Whatever he kept sneaking off to do, whatever he was keeping hidden, she knew wasn’t good. And in that moment she knew that she couldn’t be with a man who would do things that hurt others and live with it. She knew she could never live with that.

 

The way the loneliness hit her, Maisie also had just confirmed that she couldn’t be with a man who would disappear the way Easton had a habit of doing. She needed to be with someone who was going to be able to be with her an entire night without having to run off to secretly take care of things for his father, a man who wasn’t going to have to lie and hide half of his life from her, a man who was still in her bed in the morning.

 

No matter how much she wanted to be around him, how good he made her feel, and how happy she was when she was with him, she had to really listen to her brain this time. No more letting her heart have any say in the matter. Before she could even think about what she was doing or give her heart another second to talk her out of it, she typed up a text and sent it into virtual space where she knew it would end up changing her entire life.

 

Easton, we can’t do this anymore. I’m done.

 

She had no idea where he was or what he was doing, and there was a moment where she thought she should have sent something kinder, but she still had that anger bubbling up inside of her. After she showered and dressed for the day, a day of mourning her newly broke heart and binge eating, she checked her phone to find a series of messages from Easton.

 

Please don’t do this

 

You don’t understand

 

I need you in my life

 

Please don’t end this

 

Maisie had no idea what to say back to the texts. On the one hand, he was begging her to stay and she knew that he felt the same way about her that she did about him. But on the other hand what was he offering her? Not even an apology, an explanation, nothing. If he wasn’t willing to even do that much for her, then what chance did she have of her life with him ever being any different? Somewhere, so deep inside her that she hadn’t even admitted it to herself, she had hoped he would come running back, offer to change, apologize, to do something other than beg. That was what he’d done the night before, coming begging for her back, but nothing had changed.

 

    Why should I stay? I have no good reason to. I don’t want your lifestyle.

 

She paced her room, wondering what he was going to stay, the tiny ray of hope dimming even further that he was going to do anything to change his life. And why should he really, she reasoned. They hadn’t been together very long and were only in the beginning throws of a relationship. One that had the potential to be great, but still, it was only the beginning. What had she truly expected? Just because she had felt her whole life spin and change when he had kissed her, didn’t mean that his whole world changed too.

 

    You should have thought about that before

 

Easton hadn’t needed to point out her fatal flaw, she knew very well that she should have stopped everything the moment she had found out who he really was. She shouldn’t have stopped on the sidewalk when he called out her name, she should have kept walking, no, running away. Maybe if he hadn’t kissed her, maybe if she hadn’t felt the electricity flow through her, then walking away wouldn’t sting nearly as badly.

 

You’re right. The moment I realized who you were, I should have just kept going. It’s my own fault for thinking I could ignore the truth. Pretend you weren’t really who everyone thought you were. But you are. I don’t know what you’re doing for your father but this is a life I don’t want to be any part of.

 

Tears streamed down her face as she typed up the message. It wasn’t fair, none of it was. Ben should never have cheated, leaving her heart in shattered bits in his wake. Easton should never have pretended to be Luke, making her fall for him before she had even met him. And Easton shouldn’t be this amazing guy that made her smile and her whole body tingle, who just happened to be in the mafia. Why couldn’t life just be easy, fair, and stop wringing out her heart? There wasn’t going to be much left of her if her life continued this way.

 

    I’m sorry Easton. Goodbye.

 

Typing the final message was nearly too much to handle. She didn’t want to see his reply, she didn’t want to see his goodbye, and so before she could even see the little bubbles to know that he was typing back, she went into his contact, her finger hovering over the button that would end it, once and for all. As if her finger had a mind of its own, she clicked the button to block Easton from her phone.

 

No more texts, no more calls, and just for extra measure, she went and deleted her online dating profile. That was it, her hands were clean of him. In a way, the anxiety that she’d been feeling about Easton and his life that had been building up in her for weeks, had eased. She felt as if she could breathe again. But in its place was a feeling that she knew all too well, a feeling that she hadn’t even realized that Easton had been filling for her.

 

He had been filling up a space in her heart, the gaping hole of emptiness that Ben had left there for her.   

 

 

13

 

 

 

Easton got into the back of his limo and gave his driver the address his father had sent him. The goons that work under them had found where Cindy was and Easton knew to ensure that she would be there he was going to have to get there as fast as he could. His mind tumbled with far too many thoughts about Maisie and the texts he was reading as his driver quickly took the turns and backroads trying to get there as quickly as he could. It had only been a matter of time, he had known, she was going to end things with him eventually. She was too sweet for his lifestyle, too perfect, and in his gut he knew that he wasn’t going to be able to hang on to her.

 

But still, part of him had hoped, just maybe, she would have been able to look past it. Yet he couldn’t blame her for being angry that he wasn’t there for her, that he had left her alone in her bed. And he couldn’t blame her for wanting to say goodbye, even though he was sure that deep down she felt the exact same way about him that he felt about her. They couldn’t have touched, kissed, and spent all night entwined in each other’s bodies if she didn’t. Truthfully she wouldn’t have even kept him around as long as she had if she hadn’t fallen for him just as hard as he had for her.

 

Anger was filling him as he thought about how unfair it all was. He wanted to be with Maisie, had finally found someone in his life that was worth anything, and he couldn’t have her. All his life he had spent living under his father’s decisions. In order to protect the family, his father was able to rule almost every aspect of Easton’s life. As a child, playing with only who his father deemed appropriate to be in his life, dating only girls that his father felt were going to be able to uphold the lifestyle which meant that friends and girls were few and far between by his father’s choosing. Not that many of the friends or girls that his father had chosen were anybody that Easton had really wanted around but he had gone along with because it was them or be lonely.

 

But Maisie was different. Easton had finally found someone that he wanted to be around, who he wanted to be with, who made him think differently and feel differently but because of who he was and what he did, he wasn’t able to have her. After her final goodbye message he had called her a million times and sent her messages, but nothing was going through. He was sure that she had blocked him from her phone. Quickly he logged onto his dating profile hoping to send her a message on there but she had deleted that too. There was no way left to get a hold of her.

 

For a moment the thought of telling his driver to turn him around and take him back to Maisie’s place but what would he even tell her? He had already shown up at her door the night before, and without any explanation, she had let him in. But the odds that that would work again were very small, not without some type of change in him

 

Easton’s phone buzzed in his hand and eagerly he checked the caller, hoping against all odds that Maisie had changed her mind. But instead, he saw it was his father. Angrily, he punched the accept button.

 

“Yes,” he gritted.

 

“You don’t answer the phone to your father that way,” he scolded. “Are you there yet?”

 

Skipping the apology Easton answered the second question. “How could I be there? The address was an hour away from where I was.”

 

“I don’t like this tone from you. We wouldn’t need to be in a rush like this if you had just been able to do your job.”

 

Words filled his mouth that he wanted so desperately to say, but instead, he bit his tongue and went for the answer that was least likely to cause a problem.

 

“I was doing my job, I just was trying not to hurt her.”

 

“Since when does it matter who gets hurt? Just as long as the job gets done.”

 

“How can you live like that?” Easton exploded. “She didn’t do anything to anybody! Just married a low life man.”

 

“I’d be careful what you say, he’s not much different than you and me.”

 

The reality was that was true. The man she married wasn’t much different than Easton or his father. But the more he thought about it, the more he didn’t see why Cindy had to get hurt in the process of it all, it didn’t seem fair.

 

“So why not just go after him? Why do you have to attack someone who is already hurting enough?”

 

His father was silent for a moment before he answered his son, but when he did his voice was something deep and terrifying. A voice he reserved for the men he was about to make “disappear.”

 

“Since when did you become such a caring person?”

 

Easton knew whatever he said next, he should be very careful.

 

“It’s not that…it’s just…” he didn’t have the words to say. It wasn’t as if he could say that Maisie had dumped him and that he was questioning everything. His father wasn’t that type of man. His father really wasn’t even a father, but a man who had a child that was born to work for him.

 

“I don’t care what it is. Get your head clear and go get Cindy. End of discussion.”

 

The line went dead and Easton sat back, resting his head on the cool leather of the seat. How had his thoughts, his entire life, felt so flipped upside down so quickly? Never before had he truly questioned what he was doing to people, the things his father made him do. It had been a job, not who he was. But now that Maisie had left him, he was starting to see that he and the job weren’t two separate things but all mixed up as one.

 

Closing his eyes he tried to sort out his mind, think it all through, but before he could get anywhere the car came to a stop and Easton looked out the window. There was Cindy, in a coffee shop, with a book in her hand and some luggage at her side. She was definitely planning on leaving, his father had been right about that. And from the look of it, she was planning on leaving for quite a while if her excess amount of luggage was any indication.

 

For a moment, he just sat there and watched this woman. She was pretty, her profile picture hadn’t lied, and she sat there calmly, reading a novel with a cover so worn, probably a favorite, that he couldn’t even read the title. This woman was not just a prop for his father, she was not a piece of leverage to be used against someone, and she certainly wasn’t a toy as Easton had even treated her. She was a person, a person who had gotten hurt and humiliated, who had a favorite book and probably a favorite type of coffee, who had a future that she was planning for herself. Most likely to start over.

 

And what his father wanted him to do…to get her in the back of the car and take her away, scare her, torture her, do whatever he had to do until he got what he needed from her. It just wasn’t right. This woman wasn’t a game, and Easton was not going to treat her like one.

 

Without hesitation, he rolled down the partition and told his driver to keep going. Weary eyes glanced in the rearview mirror to look at Easton. They both knew what this would mean.

 

“Are you sure this is what you want?”

 

If he rode off without securing Cindy in the car, he would be giving up everything. He’d be walking away from his job, his father, his life, and there wouldn’t be a way to come back if he ever wanted to. His father would never speak to him again, possibly never forgive him. But if he took Cindy, he was sure he’d never be able to forgive himself.

 

“I’m sure.”

 

The driver put the car into drive and Easton rolled the partition back up. Suddenly the big TVs and cars and having a personal driver didn’t seem important anymore. He thought back to that conversation with his father when he had graduated, the one where he had made the choice to skip college. What would have happened if he hadn’t made that choice? What if he had taken the other path that had been laid before him? He probably wouldn’t have what he had today, the house and the money, but would he be able to look himself in the mirror?

 

Would he be able to be with Maisie?

 

His hands shook slightly as he dialed his father.

 

“Problem?”

 

For a moment Easton couldn’t speak. He had already made his choice, he knew that, but to say the words out loud…there would be no going back.

 

“I’m out,” he answered weakly.

 

“Out? Out of what? The coffee shop? Then why are you calling me? Unless you screwed this up.” His father was gruff, hard, making Easton’s resolve stronger.

 

“No. I’m out of this. I’m done. I want out.”

 

His father started to chuckle on the other end. “Out huh? Because of some woman that you don’t even know? Fine, I’ll send someone else to grab her you big softie.”

 

“I’m really out. I’m not doing this anymore. This isn’t the life I want to live.”

 

“And what life is it that you think you’re going to live? You think being who you are you will ever get a respectable job? Or that anyone will ever look at you without knowing where you came from, who you are?”

 

“They will always know where I came from, but this is no longer who I am.”

 

For a moment, both father and son were quiet on the line. There was nothing left between them. Easton had broken free of his father’s grasp, he didn’t need him anymore and what was more was that he didn’t want him anymore.

 

“Bye dad,” he said as he hung up the phone.

 

“Where to sir?” his driver asked who had clearly been ever dropping.

 

A breath of relief slipped out of Easton as he realized what he’d just done. For the first time since he had been a little boy, since before he found out who his father really was, Easton felt as if he could breathe. And there was only one place he wanted to be.

 

“I need you to take me home so I can get cleaned up. Then I’ll need one more ride.”

 

 

14

 

 

 

Claire had heard the crying from the living room, and stepped out of her room tentatively until she saw Maisie curled in a ball on the couch.

 

“What happened?” she asked worriedly.

 

“It’s over,” Maisie told her through her tears.

 

Claire came over to the couch and told Maisie to scoot over. Like a lost puppy, she obeyed. “Ok, this is worse than the Ben breakup. What happened?”

 

Maisie sat there, tears pouring down her cheeks, as she recapped everything, from him showing up at her doorstep to the night of pure passion they’d had together. Then the heartbreaking realization that he was gone in the morning and the way she’d told him goodbye.

 

By the end of her story, Claire was up off the couch and pacing.

 

“I knew it, I knew this was going to happen. I should never have put you on that site. This is all my fault. You were so not ready for that.”

 

Maisie sat up and wiped her tears away. “This isn’t your fault. It’s mine. The moment I realized that Luke was Easton I should have just kept walking down the sidewalk. I even told him that myself.”

 

“I know, but you were too vulnerable. Too much on the rebound and he so easily sucked you into it all.”

 

Maisie played with a stray string on the couch pillow. “It wasn’t like that,” she mumbled.

 

Claire stopped pacing and looked at her friend. As much as she seemed to live in the moment and be spontaneous without a care in the world, she wasn’t like that at all. She was thoughtful, scrutinizing every fact and situation. “So what was it like then? You still believe that he made you feel so...different?”

 

Maisie nodded. “Especially after last night.”

 

“Couldn’t it have just been really hot sex?”

 

The memory of his body against hers made her cheeks burn. It had been really hot sex, all night long. But that wasn’t it.

 

“It wasn’t just about the sex. It was something different. Passion, emotion, something I’ve definitely never felt before. Something that I could probably go another fifty years and never feel again. It was electric, it sizzled, it was…indescribable.”

 

“Wow,” Claire breathed. “I want that.”

 

Maisie laughed a little. “Trust me, I never wanted to give it up. But what choice did I have? I can’t live like this. It’s like he’s two different people. He’s Easton, the sweet, attentive, caring, sexy man that I can’t get enough of. And then he’s Easton, prince of the mafia. I can’t be with two people like that, especially when the second one I can’t stand.”

 

“So, what now?”

 

Maisie shook her head. “There isn’t anything now. It’s over. I ended it and I blocked him. That’s that.”

 

Skeptically her friend looked at her. “So, you’re just going to forget all of this? Forget him?”

 

“What choice do I have?” she shrugged.

 

“I guess you have to do what you have to do. You’re a tough girl though, that’s for sure.”

 

“Why is that?”

 

It was Claire’s turn to shrug. “What you and Easton have, it sounds like something that every girl dreams of. It’s far more than you ever made it sound with Ben and I know I’ve never felt like this before. It can’t be easy to walk away from it all.”

 

Maisie looked up at her friend as it was her turn to analyze the situation. “Would you walk away?”

 

There was silence as Claire turned to walk to the bathroom to shower and get dressed for her shift. “Honestly, I’d like to say I’d be as strong as you, but I really don’t know if I could hold out.” She turned and looked at her friend as the tears started spilling down her cheeks again. “Did you call in today?”

 

“No. I can’t sit here and cry all day. I’ve got to get out of here.”

 

“We’ve got the same shift today so when I’m ready we’ll head in together ok?”

 

Maisie nodded and got up off the couch. She needed to start getting herself pulled together, get dressed and make herself feel at least halfway human, even if she felt like she may never feel human again.

 

***

For an afternoon shift, the restaurant was pretty busy when both Maisie and Claire came in which Maisie had to admit she was thankful for. The moment she tied on her apron she was thrown to tables that were eagerly waiting for their waitress. There were tables full of kids and parents, women who were looking to start day drinking on a Saturday afternoon and men who were watching sporting events on the big screen TVs.

 

Maisie kept her smile on full-blast as she went from table to table, making herself even perkier and upbeat than usual. She felt if she could fake it hard enough, maybe the smile would stop feeling like it was about to shatter her face like glass, and maybe if she stayed perky and happy then her heart would stop feeling as if any second it would stop beating. The only thing that was still reminding her that she wasn’t as ok as she was pretending to be was Claire’s constantly worried expression every time she went to grab her tables’ drinks at the bar.

 

“Holding up ok?” she asked her.

 

“Best as I can. I’m glad I’m here though instead of at home, which is odd because I didn’t think those words would ever come out of my mouth.”

 

Claire laughed at the joke and nodded. “Yea, I was starting to worry that you were feeling far too happy here. Good to know that you still have your moods in check,” she teased.

 

The door to the restaurant opened and Maisie felt a slight breeze trickle in at the same time she heard a small hush wave through the patrons. It was the same type of hush that had settled over the guests the last time that Easton had walked in. With that thought, Maisie turned to see Easton, his tall, strong, unforgettable build being seated at a table alone.

 

“What is he doing here?” Claire whispered, anger tingeing her voice. “Has he got no tact? No decency?”

 

The hostess, oblivious to the fact that Maisie’s face had just paled as if she’d seen a ghost, informed her that he was her table.

 

“Can’t someone else take it? I can’t,” she pleaded.

 

“Sorry, everyone else’s sections are packed. You’re the only one that has an open table,” she told her. Swinging her ponytail as she turned, she let Maisie know that it was a done deal.

 

“What are you going to do? Throw food on him? How about tossing a drink in his face?”

 

Shaking her head, she smoothed down her hair and straightened her uniform, which at the moment she was wishing was far more attractive than it was. “No, I’m not going to do either.”

 

“Why not?” the disbelief evident in her voice.

 

“Because I’m the one who broke up with him remember? Technically speaking, he didn’t do anything to have a drink thrown in his face.”

 

“I’m here if you need me,” she offered.

 

Taking a breath Maisie walked over to the table, gripping onto her notepad with all her might so that it wouldn’t be so obvious that her hands were shaking. As soon as she was a few steps away, even over the smell of fried foods, she could smell his cologne and it made her heart flutter at the memory of being in his arms.

 

“Hey,” she greeted.

 

Easton looked up at her from his table and a small, half smile, played at his lips. They locked eyes and already she could feel that she was falling into the pool of them and she had to look away.

 

“What can I get you?” she asked clearing her throat of the emotion that was building inside.

 

“A second chance.”

 

Maisie’s heart began to pound harder as she looked at his lips, the ones that not even twenty-four hours ago had been all over her body. Goosebumps rose as she remembered how searingly hot his lips had been on every inch of her body as he devoured her as if she was his last meal. But she couldn’t let herself get confused, let her mind and heart start fighting again.

 

“I can’t do this,” she told him and turned to walk away. Find someone else to take the table, find someone else to fall for him.

 

But as she turned she felt his hand wrap around her arm again, just as it had that first night he had stopped her on the sidewalk. She had turned back around that first time, fallen into his eyes and his body, but she shouldn’t have, and she knew that now. This time she had to keep walking away from him. But maybe this time she should run as fast as she could, before her feelings could catch up to her.

 

Maisie tried to pull her arm away but he gripped tighter, refusing to let her go.

 

“Please.” She could hear the begging in his voice but she did everything she could to block it out. “I just need to talk to you. If you won’t take me back I understand but I just need to tell you something.”

 

Closing her eyes she tried to block it all out. Her heart was too fragile, too shattered, and there wasn’t anything left to give. She ripped her arm away from him suddenly, catching him off-guard enough that he let go.

 

“I’m sorry, but nothing has changed from this morning. I can’t do this with you anymore.”

 

She wanted to get out of there as fast as she could, briefly, she thought to go running to the door. Forget her tables and her shift and her job, none of it mattered. She just wanted to get as far away as she could. But as she moved through the busy restaurant she could feel Easton following on her heels.

 

“Please, Maisie, just listen to me for one minute. Everything has changed. You have to believe me, just let me explain.”

 

He grabbed for her one more time and this time she turned around, looking right in his face.

 

“Easton, there is nothing that could have changed from a few hours ago to now!” She knew she was raising her voice and she knew that people were starting to watch the little show unfold, but she couldn’t help it. It was hurting enough that she had to walk away from him and be strong, she couldn’t keep going around and around with him. “I told you that I can’t live your lifestyle with you. It’s too much for me and I can’t stay with you and fall for you anymore knowing that it will never work out, that I’ll never really be with you!”

 

Easton stepped closer to her and Maisie felt her cheeks flame from the heat of frustration that was building inside her and the heat of emotion that was also building in her again.

 

“That’s what I’m trying to tell you.” His voice was low, a sweet slow syrup of words dripping from his lips. “That’s not my lifestyle anymore. I’m out.”

 

“You’re what? What do you mean you’re ‘out’?”

 

“I mean,” he took her hand and she tentatively let him, “that my father asked me to do something today, something that made me leave you. And I didn’t want to do what he asked and even more…I didn’t want to leave you. So, I told him that I’m out. I’m done with that part of my life.”

 

Maisie could barely believe what she was hearing. Was he really out? Instead of Easton being those two mixed up people, was he now one person, the one that she had completely fallen for?

 

“Do you really mean that?”

 

Taking another step closer he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her into him where she felt the warmth of him spreading throughout her body.

 

“I mean it. I don’t care about any of that stuff anymore, and I don’t want that life. What I do want, is a chance with you.”

 

Maisie looked deep into those dark eyes that looked as warm as melted chocolate. And she could feel it in her soul that he was telling her the truth, that he was really done living a life like that.

 

“So, what do we do next?” she asked.

 

Easton moved his hands up her sides and lightly grasped her face, pulling her up toward him as he bent down and showed her exactly what they were going to do next.

 

15

 

 

 

The moment Easton felt his lips touch hers he felt his entire body go on high alert of excitement yet felt his soul relax into her. He couldn’t explain it in words how she made him feel, but he did know that he didn’t even have a second thought or a tiny question of if he had made the right decision. When her arms went around his neck, he felt nothing but perfection in his life. He needed to get her out of there, he needed to touch her, to taste her again. In a swift move, he swept her up, cradling her in his arms and headed for the door,

 

“Wait! I can’t just leave,” she giggled. “I’m right in the middle of my shift!”

 

He bent his head and kissed her again. “Anyone who takes the rest of my girl’s tables tonight gets an extra $500 from me!” he called out as he kept walking her through the door.

 

Her laugh was musical as it bubbled up from inside of her. Easton had his driver still waiting outside because he knew that one of two things would have happened, either he was going to leave with her or need a get-away car to hide from his embarrassment of being shut down. But thankfully, there she was, in his arms, nuzzling into his neck. His driver, seeing them coming down the sidewalk, hurried out of the car to open the door to the back of the car where Easton slid her inside.

 

He shut the door and laid her down across the bench seat. Checking that the partition was up, he unbuttoned her jeans and wiggled them down her hips to reveal red silky underwear that nearly made his mouth water. After a moment of staring, he pulled those down too and tossed everything aside where he began to place kisses on the inside of her thighs, working his way up to the spot that he knew was already aching for him. The moment his tongue licked against her most sensitive spot, he could hear the sharp intake of her breath. Her hips moved underneath him and he could feel his own body responding to her.

 

Around his lips, he could feel her body start to shake and he knew that he had her right at her breaking point, but instead of letting her fall over the edge with pleasure, he quickly pulled down his pants and slid inside of her, easily as if she was made for him.

 

Easton and Maisie moaned in sync with each other as they started to move together, quickly and needy. Clawing at each other, unable to get close enough to, to feel enough of each other’s bodies. It didn’t matter that they were in the back of his car, or that his driver was just on the other side of the partition, the only thing that mattered was that he was with her and Easton knew he would take being with her no matter what the cost.

 

Suddenly Maisie’s body started to quake around him again and he knew he didn’t want to make her wait anymore. Slowing down he let her body savor every bit of her ecstasy and watched her face. The way the pleasure was written across it, and the smile that danced across her lips after the waves of satisfaction subsided.

 

When her eyes opened again they were burning with more passion than Easton had ever seen.

 

“Your turn,” she purred.

 

She pushed him back and got her knees in front of him, taking him in and tasting the mixture of both their bodies. Easton watched her as she pushed him, giving him satisfaction, felt her tongue swirling around him and bringing out every sensitive piece of him. The pressure was building inside of him and while he wanted it to last as long as he could, he also couldn’t wait to feel the release she gave him,

 

“Now,” he growled, fully expecting her to move away from him. But instead of moving away, she stayed right with him, taking in every moment that he let his body go.

 

Easton didn’t know about Maisie, but he knew he felt equal parts spent and exhilarated from the day. As much as he wanted to take her to his bed and wrap her up in his arms, falling asleep tangled together again, he also wanted to go everywhere and do everything with her, both private and not.

 

The partition rolled down slightly, still affording their half-naked bodies some privacy. “Sir, we’re here.”

 

Easton looked out the window and saw that they were at his home. Next to him, Maisie started to dress again and slowly, Easton got dressed as well. As they dressed he looked out the window at his home and realized that that was probably going to change now that he had left his father. There were many things in his life that were going to change and his mind started to reel at the thought of it all. But then he looked at Maisie next to him, her eyes bright and excited, and without a doubt, he knew that any change in his life was completely worth it if she was by his side.

 

 

*****

 

 

THE END

 

 

 

 

 

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xo,

Audrey North