Filed to story: Falling for My Ex's Mafia Dad Novel Free PDF (Fay Alden & Kent Lippert)
“Oh, no, I couldn’t ” Daniel replies, laughing, embarrassed.
“Please,” she pouts and my mouth falls open a little bit at how bold she is. “It would be so rude of you to deny me ”
Daniel, faced with insulting who I assume is the daughter of a Russian mob boss, shrugs and complies, stepping forward to her. “I’ll be back,” he calls to me over his shoulder as she pulls him away, “just one dance!”
As Daniel steps away, Ivan smoothly steps into the vacant place next to me. He doesn’t look at me, but his cat-got-the-cream expression tells me all I need to know.
“Nicely done,” I say, crossing my arms and looking up at him. “How much did that cost you?”
“Fifty bucks,” he replies, watching as Daniel and Mila take to the dance floor.
“Rich girl like that?” I ask, surprised, “took fifty dollars to dance with Daniel?”
“No,” Ivan responds, turning to look down at me and shifting his weight to knock his shoulder against mine. “Fifty bucks to the band leader to start playing the tango, which I know she can’t resist. Playing on a lonely girl’s teenage crush on the guy that her dad wants her to marry?” Ivan’s eyes crinkle with humor as he looks down at me. “That was free.”
“Cruel,” I accuse, shaking my head at him a little but impressed despite myself. Ivan is, if anything, quite good at reading weaknesses before using them to move people around like pawns on his chess board.
“Worth it,” he says, slipping a hand out of his pocket and, unseen, dragging his fingers down the length of my spine until his hand comes to rest at the small of my back. “I’d have paid much more, after all, for the chance to chat with my best girl when she won’t return my calls.”
“Oh, you called?” I reply, coy. “I’m sorry, I must have missed it.”
“Lies,” he whispers to me, but then he laughs a little. “I missed you, Fay.”
And, damn it, but that old butterfly fleeing rises in my stomach.
And I have to admit to myself I missed him too.
“Come on,” Ivan says, shifting that hand on my back to my elbow and tugging me with him as he heads behind the little rose arbor next to us.
“Ivan,” I gasp, glancing around anxiously as he pulls me with him out of sight. “Stop! We can’t go back here!”
“Sure we can,” he replies, grinning back at me, a little danger dancing in his eyes. “No one saw I made sure of it.”
“Ivan,” I growl, digging in my feet and trying to pull out of his grasp. “You’re going to get me and everyone in big trouble!”
Ivan stops and turns to me, still smiling but shaking his head. “Would you just trust me for a second, Fay?” he asks, a little exasperated. “I organized all of this I’m the one who got your dad to come here tonight, and the Russians. Do you seriously think I don’t know how fucked we’d be if Lippert, or Alden, or anyone finds us sneaking away?”
His face drops now, becoming more serious like it was that morning when we woke up, and he told me to run from the Lippert house. “I’m doing this for a reason, Fay!” Ivan insists, “I have to talk to you.”
I hesitate, but then I nod, trusting him. As much as Ivan is a player in this game, I do for some reason trust that he has my best interests at heart. And maybe I’m a fool for believing him maybe he’s tricked me too but I step forward, ready to follow. A genuine smile breaks out onto Ivan’s face and I can’t help the matching grin that crosses my own.
“Come on,” he says, turning again and leading me down a narrow outer corridor towards a secret alcove. “I bussed tables here when I was a kid there’s a spot back here ”
Both curious and anxious, I follow Ivan to a little chef’s garden growing on the roof, a door down to the kitchens in the far corner. It’s lit by a couple of lanterns and there’s an unlit fire pit out here as well as some mismatched seating and a couple of ashtrays, suggesting that staff come back here for their breaks. Honestly, it’s cozy and charming.
“See?” Ivan says, sinking his hands into his pockets and giving me a shrug. “Told you.”
“Ivan,” I sigh, letting my shoulders slump a little and looking anxiously over my shoulder. “Seriously what is it? They’re going to notice that I’m missing.”
“Come on, Fay,” Ivan murmurs, taking a step closer to me. “Didn’t you miss me? Just a little bit?”
“Ivan!” I protest, lifting both hands to give a little shove against his chest, too anxious now to entertain his flirtations. “Come on! You told me you needed to talk to me, so let’s talk!”
“Fine,” Ivan says, the teasing smile falling from his face to reveal genuine concern behind it. “Fay,” he asks, taking a step closer to me, “why haven’t you answered my calls? And more importantly, why are you still in that house? I wasn’t lying when I said Kent’s going down you’ve got to get out of there, before you get wrapped up in it too!”
My stomach drops when I hear this. Honestly, I’d told Kent what Ivan had said, and Kent gave me every impression that he’d dismissed it as an idle threat designed to get me on Ivan’s side. But hearing Ivan reiterate it when he’s taken the risk of pulling me from the party to reiterate it
I have to admit, I’m anxious again.
But, I’m not willing to give into it just yet.
“What about the Bianci’s,” I ask, folding my arms and looking up at him. “Doesn’t that change anything? That they’ve come to show their support?”
“Well,” Ivan replies, looking closely at me, reading my every move and expression. “If they have come to show their support, then yeah. Maybe it does. So,” he pauses, watching me like a hawk. “Did they?”
“Of course they did,” I snarl, telling myself it’s only half a lie because I don’t know what they’re thinking or if they’re going to choose to support Kent, especially after Ivan’s little play tonight.
Ivan takes a second to watch me, to study every muscle on my face. Then, his lips curve. “Liar,” he says, laughing a little, making my scrunch my nose and mouth with frustration. But that just makes him laugh.
“See?” Ivan says, putting a hand on my waist. “You don’t know if they support Kent which means they haven’t decided. Thanks, Fay. That’s helpful.”
“Screw you, Ivan,” I growl, putting my hands on his shoulders and shoving. “That’s a dirty trick telling me you have something to say to me and then trying to get me to confess things ”
My shoves do nothing though Ivan just uses his grip on my waist to pull me closer.
“Stop, Fay,” Ivan orders, his voice suddenly serious. He puts his other hand on my waist and pulls me closer to him. Angry, I shove him again but Ivan doesn’t relent, his grip iron. “Fay,” he insists, his tone matching my anger now. I stop shoving and look up into his face, furious.
“Let me go,” I command, my teeth clenched, but he just shakes his head slowly at me.
“I’m not fucking with you, Fay,” Ivan insists, his voice revealing his frustration. “You haven’t given me any information that I haven’t guessed myself. God damn it, Fay,” he grinds out, “don’t you get it? That it would be easier for me to let you go down with them? Do you think it’s making anything better for me that I fucking care about you?”
I stop protesting and look up into Ivan’s face, shocked. I’ve never never heard him get angry before never heard him confess this kind of real emotion. He gives me a little frustrated shake.
“What’s it going to take, Fay?” Ivan snaps at me, his breathing coming harder now. “To get you to go, to leave that house? Because I’m not letting them drag you down with them!” His voice is rough now, out of control in a way it never is. “You mean too much to me,” he confesses, staring into my face, shaking his head back and forth.
My mouth falls open a little in surprise. I mean, I know that Ivan and I we have a connection. But honestly, with everything with Kent…
I think, perhaps, I let myself forget how intense this actually is
How real it is, apparently for Ivan and perhaps for me as well
“What, Fay,” Ivan demands, shaking me again and bringing me out of my thoughts. “What’s it going to take for you to believe me? Because I’ve tried being nice, and begging you, and giving you all of the information. And in response, you ignore my calls and apparently renew your ridiculous engagement to Daniel ”
“Ivan,” I protest, looking away
“What, Fay?” Ivan asks again, pressing himself tighter against me and slipping his left hand down from my waist, crossing my hip and dipping into the slit in my dress. He moves fast, boldly sliding that hand around the back of my thigh and gripping me there, using his grasp to drag my leg sharply up and settling it over his hip, pulling my body flush against his as he bends over me, just a little.
“Is this what you want, Fay?” Ivan growls, making my breath come a little too fast. “Do you want me to be more aggressive, to make you listen?” He lowers his face close to mine now, staring at my lips. “Because I can do that. If that’s what it takes.”
And god damn it, but I don’t pull away.