Filed to story: Falling for My Ex's Mafia Dad Novel Free PDF (Fay Alden & Kent Lippert)
“Fay,” Daniel snaps, making me look over my shoulder at him, but I don’t stop. “Are you actually going to talk to him?”
“Don’t be jealous,” Ivan says, walking backwards to grin at Daniel as he follows me towards the deck. “I’m only chatting with your wife. Not your boyfriend.”
Daniel growls and lunges forward but Jerome easily catches his arm, holding him back and laughing a little. “Come on, Danny,” Jerome murmurs. “Don’t rise to the bait that easy.”
Ivan’s still smiling as he turns to me where I stand at the back slider, my eyebrows raised. “Do you have to?” I ask, gesturing him outside.
“I do not,” he replies with a sigh and a shrug. “Though I find it very hard to resist.”
I shake my head at Ivan as I slide the door shut behind him, making eye contact with Daniel and nodding so that he knows that I’ve got this handled. Daniel just settles on the couch, his arms crossed, staring out at us apparently content to watch everything we do.
Jerome, to his credit, settles beside Daniel and picks up a magazine from the table, starting to flick through it. Janeen does the same.
“So,” Ivan says, settling back in his chair and giving me his patented satisfied smile. “How are you enjoying married life?”
“It’s great,” I snap, and then I nod my chin towards him. “What happened to your face?”
“Oh this?” Ivan asks, running a hand over the right side of his jaw, where a large bruise is fading from purple to green, just barely visible on his pale skin. He grins. “What do you think happened?”
“No way,” I say, leaning forward, my eyes going wide. “Kent punched you?”
“Punched the shit out of me,” he confirms, sighing and smirking at me. “He’s fast, for an old guy.”
I laugh a little and shake my head, a little pleased that Ivan underestimated Kent’s physicality and paid the price for it.
But after a moment, I look up at Ivan and cock my head to the side. “How do you do that?”
“Do what?” he asks, taking another sip of his lemonade.
“Disarm me like that?” I ask, genuinely curious. “I came into his house ready to hate you, and what, sixty seconds later? You have me laughing.”
“It’s still me, Fay,” Ivan says, leaning forward a little, holding my gaze. “I know that…that there’s been a lot of lies, and misinformation. But…” he shakes his head, “you still know me. The connection we made over these past couple of months it was real.”
I sit back in my chair, looking away from him, still determined to hate him but…well, kind of believing what he says. That as much as Ivan is a cop now, instead of a mafia boss, he’s still also the guy I formed such an intense connection with when I really needed support.
It’s complicated. It may always be complicated.
The fact that it’s complicated doesn’t change anything at all but…well. It does make everything just a little bit more difficult, which is not at all what I need.
“What are you even thinking about, Fay?” Ivan asks, interrupting my thoughts and making me blink and look at him.
“What?” I ask.
“You just spaced out for a solid minute and a half,” he says. “What are you thinking?”
“I was thinking about how you ruined my life,” I say bluntly, cocking my head to the side, curious to see how he takes my words. “And how to get you out of here as fast as possible.”
“Lie,” he says, giving me a little wink.
I sigh, looking down into my lap for a second. “You always could tell when I was lying, Ivan,” I murmur.
“Because I know you, Fay,” he says, leaning forward, eager.
I look up into his eyes again. “Why are you here, Ivan?”
“Because I want to help you,” Ivan replies, honesty all over his face, as if it’s the simplest thing in the world. “And I want you to forgive me. And trust me.”
“Why on earth do you want that?” I ask, my voice soft because…I’m not sure I’m ready for his answer.
“Because,” he says, his voice equally soft, as if he’s not sure he’s ready to say it. “Even though you’re married? And knocked up with my enemy’s kid?” he shakes his head. “I…can’t stop thinking about you, Fay.”
My lips curl up into a very small, very hesitant smile.
And I let him see it.
Ivan stays…late. Way too late.
I see my dad’s expression when he comes home with the groceries, as he spies me out here with my sort-of-ex-boyfriend, and then glances at my husband, who is sitting on the couch with his boyfriend. I can’t hear him, but I see him groan in confusion.
Ivan laughs a little. “Should I go in and say hi?”
“Nope,” I say, wrapping my arms around my knees, starting to get a little cold as night falls. “I think that nobody in that house is very happy to see you here. Except maybe Janeen. But she just thinks you’re hot.”
“Really,” Ivan says, perking up and looking around for her.
“Don’t,” I say, laughing and swatting his arm. “She’ll just rope you into being one of her regulars at the club. She’ll drain your bank account and leave you sobbing.”
“Yeah,” Ivan says, turning back to me and raising his eyebrows provocatively. “But don’t you already know, Fay? Complicated, hard-to-get girls are kind of my type.”
I roll my eyes at him, but I can’t help laughing anyway. “Why do you even like me, Ivan?” I ask, shaking my head and genuinely wanting to know. “I mean, is it just the hard-to-get thing? Do you just like a challenge?”
“Are you a challenge?” he asks, turning his head and looking me up and down.
“Well, I am married,” I point out, laying out the facts like they’re obvious. “And I hate you, and you’ve already got a bruise on your face from the guy who got me pregnant, so,” I shrug, “yeah, I think that qualifies as challenging.”
“Yeah,” Ivan says slowly, nodding a little and considering my points. “But your marriage is a sham to make your baby legitimate, and your baby daddy is locked up forever, and, above all,” he takes a moment to really look into my face now, making me hear him, “you don’t hate me, Fay. Not really. Not in your heart.”
“Don’t I?” I ask, letting my eyes fall to his mouth.
“Maybe for now,” he murmurs. “But…you have a heart. You know what’s right. And I did what I did because it was right.”
“Right for you,” I sigh, closing my eyes and letting my head hang back a little.
“And for you,” he replies, but I almost feel him lean back in his chair, giving me my space. Because if this is real for him like actually real? Then he knows that he’s playing the long game. And he’s not going to be getting much more from me tonight.
I open my eyes when I hear the door slide open. My brow furrows when I see Janeen coming out with two beers in hand, shutting the door behind her. “Hey,” she says, plopping down in the chair next to Ivan and setting the beer in front of him. “I thought I’d bring you your last drink before Mafia Jr. in there rips you to shreds.”
“Who, Danny boy?” Ivan asks, grinning and peering into the house where Daniel is still glaring at us, his arms crossed. Jerome, still casual, continues to read contentedly beside him. My dad sits on Daniel’s other side, watching a game on the TV. Ivan laughs a little. “I can take him.”
“I don’t know,” Janeen murmurs, smirking and likewise looking in at Daniel. “He’s got a couple inches on you.”