Filed To Story: Falling for My Ex's Mafia Dad Novel Free PDF (Fay Alden & Kent Lippert)
But two whole days pass with Kent ignoring me completely, and as night falls at the end of that second day I’m an absolute mess.
And I guess…well, ignoring me completely isn’t quite right. Kent has given me every opportunity to give in, or to apologize, or to tell him that he’s right, or to agree to his terms in our relationship. He has created opportunities for me to agree to the idea that he has all the power and I’m not allowed to ask any questions.
At breakfast yesterday and today, Kent came and placed my plate in front of me, as he always does. And then he leaned back, crossing his arms over his chest, and stared at me.
Which pissed me off. A lot. So both mornings, I just pushed the plate of food away and picked up my coffee, ignoring him and having a liquid breakfast before driving myself to the stables and spending all day there alone with Healthcliff. Both days I stayed until it was dark, until Jerome came and got me, shaking his head at me and not asking any questions.
Both evenings, as I climbed the stairs, I saw that the door to Kent’s office was open, which it never is at this time, and that the lights were on, which they never are. And I could hear him moving around in there.
It might not be obvious to anyone else in the house, but to me the invitation is clear: I’m here, if you’re ready to give in.
But until now, until I’ve been sitting on my bed staring angrily at the wall for forty-five minutes, I’ve been able to resist.
“Okay,” Daniel says, clapping his hands and making me jump and look at him. “What is wrong with you, Fay?” he asks, shaking his head at me in wonder.
“Your dad’s a dick.” I answer sharply, turning away from him to stare at the wall again.
“Yeah,” he says, frustrated. “No shit, Fay. What did he do?”
“Nothing.” I snap, not wanting to bring him into this.
“Seriously?” Daniel asks, coming to sit next to me. “He did nothing?”
“I already told you,” I say, turning to look at him, my face expressionless. “He was a dick.”
Daniel shakes his head at me slowly. “I believe you, Fay,” he says after a minute. “But if you two are playing some kind of game of chicken here? Each waiting for the other one to apologize first?” Slowly, he shakes his head. “You are not going to win.”
I glare at Daniel, newly renewed in my determination to literally never speak to Kent ever again if that’s what this takes.
Daniel correctly interprets the expression on my face and just laughs at me a little, patting my leg before standing up and heading for the bathroom, probably to take a shower. “I’m serious, Fay,” he says as he goes. “If you think you’re stubborn? Kent’s got 10 times what you’ve got. You are not going to win.”
I turn to look at him, hoping to hell he’s not right. Because I…I can’t take this much longer.
Especially if we’re all going to die this week, according to Ivan. Is this seriously how we’re going to spend our final days, when we could be doing something to prevent this? I sigh, exhausted, worried, overwhelmed.
“Apologize, Fay,” Daniel says, pausing by the door and shaking his head at me. “Even if you don’t mean it. Kent just wants you to crack first. He’ll give in.”
“How do you know that?” I ask, shaking my head at Daniel. “Has ever done that for you?”
“No,” Daniel says with a shrug before passing into the bathroom. “But he’s not obsessed with me.”
My mouth falls open to ask what the hell he means by that, but the door closes before I can ask anything.
And then, acting more on my desire to stop feeling so incredibly horrible than anything else, I stand up and move immediately to my wardrobe. There, I pull together an outfit that doesn’t really make sense. There’s a lingerie body suit in here, all sheer except for black satin panels over the breasts which barely come up to cover my nipples.
Because if I’m going to eat crow in front of Kent? I’m damn well going to look good while I do it.
And then I pull a pair of jeans on over the body suit, because I have to walk through the house and I can’t…well, I can’t walk through the house in my underwear.
I pull on a pair of black heels without letting myself think too much about the whole look. Then, stopping only for a little bit of eyeliner and to run a brush through my hair, I slip out of my door and hurriedly walk down the stairs, trying to make as little noise as possible.
My eyes go immediately to the door of Kent’s office at the bottom of the stairs, which is as I hoped still standing wide open, light spilling out of it. When I get to the landing I cross to the door as quietly as I can, peeking inside.
He’s there, as I knew he’d be, though he’s never in there this late. Kent is giving me every opportunity to do precisely what I’m doing: swallowing my pride. I watch him as he leans over his desk, looking at something on his computer, his face turned a little away from me.
And, still a little angry that he’s making me do this, I lean myself against his door frame, my arms crossed over my chest, and I wait.
Kent glances towards the door as he turns his face away from his computer and he freezes a little when he sees me standing there in silence. And then, slowly, he gets to his feet, slipping his hands into his pockets, leveling his gaze at me.
And I stare right back, setting my jaw, staring at him.
Because I’m the one who made the first move I came down here, after all. I swallowed my pride. He can damn well meet me halfway and say the first word.
But he doesn’t. Kent just stares at me.
And as he does, I just start to…collapse, inside.
Seriously? I think, my heart breaking a little. Seriously? Me groveling that’s so much more important than everything? Than than all of this? Than us? Whatever we are?
And I feel my face fall as my eyes go wide and fill with tears. As I stare at him, and my lip starts to tremble, and my knees start to go weak at the realization that…
That I might mean absolutely nothing to this man. Absolutely nothing at all…
And then he cracks too.
“Fay,” Kent says, his voice breaking as he takes one step towards me, reaching out a hand
And it’s all I need.
I’m moving in an instant, slamming the door shut behind me, crossing the room in a flash and hurling myself in his arms, which wrap tight around me desperate
“Fay,” he groans, holding me to him like he can’t ever let me go, tucking his head down against mine, his fingers gripping tightly against the skin of my back.
“I hate this, Kent,” I sob, burying my face against his chest, letting my pride fly away, wrapping my fingers in the cloth of his shirt as if I could tear it to pieces. “I I don’t want this I can’t stand it you can’t hate me, you can’t ”
“Fay,” Kent says harshly, pulling back from me a little so that he can look down into my face but I don’t let him, not wanting him to see me all red and blotchy. But he says my name again, taking his hand from my back and sliding it under my chin, forcing me to look up at him so that he can see all of me, so that he can see the tears streaming down my face.
So that I can see all of him. So that I can see his heart breaking as he watches me cry.
“Fuck, Fay,” he says, his voice catching, “I don’t hate you I couldn’t ”
And I gasp a little in relief, pressing my eyes shut as he gathers me to him again. “I’m sorry,” I hear him whisper, his arms tightening around me, holding me closer if that’s even possible “I was just so mad and so stubborn and so were you, Fay, and I couldn’t…I’m sorry, Fay,” he says, rueful, apparently not able to come up with new words.
But I understand. I get it, I really do.
“I’m sorry too,” I murmur, sniffing, my voice thick with my crying. “I should I should trust you ”
“No, what I said was unforgivable,” he murmurs against my hair.
“Well, yeah,” I say, whipping my head up to glare at him a little while I wipe at my face, an act that makes him smile in relief. I think he’s more comfortable with me mad than he is with me sobbing. “Seriously, Kent?” I ask, taking his lapels in my hand, “is that what you think of me, what you want from me? To just sit around and look pretty and wait for you to ”
New Book: Returned To Make Them Pay
On her wedding anniversary, Alicia is drugged and stumbles into the wrong room—straight into the arms of the powerful Caden Ward, a man rumored never to touch women. Their night of passion shocks even him, especially when he discovers she’s still a virgin after two years of marriage to Joshua Yates.