28
For the next few days we were busy getting ready for our trip. Our affair was now an open secret at the office, though no one dared mention it in front of me.
I was more worried about her, and that pride of hers, but she seemed to be holding up well. Someone had even leaked the news about the home I’d bought to share with her and our children.
The realtor or someone associated with her had sold that particular story to the tabloids, which made things a bit tense this close to our departure. So I had no choice but to move up one of my plans.
I ran my finger over the ring in my pocket as I sat behind my desk waiting for her to come to me. I’d had Mary summon her five minutes ago and sat back awaiting the fireworks that were sure to come.
This past weekend after she’d spent the night at my place I thought I’d gotten somewhere but she’d awakened the next morning full of piss and vinegar.
I’d barely rolled away from her and had the bad sense to ask her what she thought about the house when she let me know in no uncertain terms that she did not appreciate me planning her life for her.
Apparently I’m a stubborn overbearing ass without reason and she wasn’t having it. I ignored her ranting and focused all my energy on my new daughter, which only seemed to make her more rabid.
She knew what I was doing of course and I knew she would do anything for her daughter. If I had to use that to break down her defenses, if that was one of the things hindering her from giving herself to me completely and without fear, why not put her mind at rest?
But no matter what we faced during the day. How she hid herself in her office once she got here, forcing me to go drag her out, she spent every night under me.
I wouldn’t say that she’d given in to me and accepted her fate, but as long as I keep chipping away at that wall she has surrounding her heart, I was sure to win.
Now I’m waiting here to put the final nail in her coffin. Listen to me, this is the woman I love and I have to run our relationship like a battleground.
She came in and closed the door behind her, her eyes already wary. She stood there with a folder held to her chest looking at me with distrust in her eyes. She knows me so well!
“Come in!” She moved towards my desk and stood defiantly in front of me. I’d forbidden her to raise her voice to me so I was sure she was biting a hole in her tongue.
Only this morning, a few short hours ago to be exact, when I’d just got through fucking her against the wall in the shower, she’d asked me not to call her into my office so often as it was giving everyone something to talk about.
I stood from my desk and walked around to stand in front of her. “Have you learned to trust me yet Giavanna?”
I lifted her chin and read her eyes. Her eyes never lie to me even when her mouth is skirting the issue. “I’m asking you a question. What more do I need to do to get you to believe?”
When she didn’t answer but looked down at her feet instead I knew she was still scared. “I’ve been thinking. Knowing you as I do, there’s no way you would’ve let me get close to your child unless you felt some of what I am feeling.”
That got a reaction from her, even if it was just a slight shift from one leg to the next. I know all her tells now. While she’s been busy fighting me, I’ve been studying her.
Apart from the deep fear that she keeps so well hidden from the world, she’s an open book. She’s sweet and strong and so fucking gorgeous it makes my heart ache.
The fact that she makes my dick hard just by breathing might have a lot to do with my besotted condition, but it was the way she made me feel when she walked into a room.
That sense of purpose I have when I’m with her. The way I sometimes feel like she needs me to stand between her and the world, that makes me do the things I do.
As my brother had said when I let him in on my latest plan, two people as stubborn as us will always butt heads. It was up to the stronger of the two to take the reins. That’s me.
If I wait for her ass to come around we’d be ninety. “Have you heard? It seems someone has leaked the news about our home to the papers. I expect the story to be front page news tomorrow.”
“We can’t afford any blemishes on the company or it’s executive staff at this time, not with the project looming. So…”
I reached into my pocket as I spoke hoping she wouldn’t see through my bullshit. I could give a fuck about gossip and who thought what. But I’d made up my mind to use any and everything to keep her by my side.
Her eyes widened and she took a step back when she saw the ring in my hand. “Evan…”
“Give me your hand.” I took her shaking hand in mine and slipped the ring on her finger.
“This doesn’t come off. If you have an issue, you talk to me about it, but this ring never leaves your finger. Understood?”
She was still speechless after the ring was in place and I held her hand in mine to admire my handiwork.
It had been a pain in the ass coming up with the right ring for her, but I wanted to do it myself from beginning to end.
I’d looked for and found the best designer and worked diligently on coming up with something I thought would suit her.
I had to pay out the ass to have it delivered on such short notice, but I was more than worth it. She was worth it.
Only Gavin knew what I’d been up to and it had been hard keeping this particular secret from her since we spent so much time together.
“Do you like it?” The tears in her eyes were answer enough but it was still good to hear the words once she was able to speak. “It’s beautiful but...”
I lifted her finger to my lips before dropping her hand. “You can go back to your office now. Remember what I said, that ring doesn’t come off your finger for any reason.”
“Evan!”
“Tone!” Her voice was just a little too loud.
“Do you ever listen?”
“When you have something worth hearing to say I’m all ears.”
She muttered some shit under her breath and marched out the door. She thinks I’m frustrating I wonder what she thinks I think of her.
I’m only doing to her what she does to me. I just happen to be better at it than her stubborn ass. I grinned as I turned back to the report I’d been reading before she came in.
I never would’ve got that ring on her finger if she didn’t want it and I know that shit as well as she does. All I’m doing is giving her what she really wants but for whatever reason is too afraid to take for herself.
It’s been that way ever since I figured her out. I knew that because of all she’d suffered as a child, the lost of her parents, and later the death of her husband when she was still so young.
Being left alone to raise a sick child on her own, all alone in the world. I knew that it was because of these things that she was hesitant about sticking her neck out.
It’s up to me to know what she wants and give it to her no matter what. I’ll make sure she gets all that’s good in this world after the hell she’s been through, in spite of her fear.
“Have you seen this?” Gavin barged into my office and one look at his face was enough to tell me that whatever it was wasn’t good.
“What is it?”
“This online rag.”
“Of course not. I don’t have time to look at that shit.”
“You’re gonna need to make an exception this time bro.” He threw a printout on my desk.
I looked at it long enough to see that they were digging into her pass.
They’d even touched on something that I had shied away from, her past in laws. Here it said that they’d rejected her.
I read on to see that…his family had been wealthy, not as wealthy as mine, but wealthy enough. They’d rejected the orphan girl, but their son had forsaken everything to marry her anyway.
No wonder she was holding on to those memories. Jealousy still raged in my gut, and it hurt that he’d loved her that much. How the fuck am I supposed to deal with this shit when it never seems to fade?