Filed to story: Falling for My Ex's Mafia Dad Novel Free PDF (Fay Alden & Kent Lippert)
“I have new instructions for you,” he says after a moment, still not looking at me. I watch him, curious, my anxiety increasing. If he just has instructions, why didn’t he wait to give them to me at breakfast, like he always does?
“All right,” I say quietly, waiting for him to continue.
But he doesn’t. Instead, he just nods abruptly and turns away, heading back down stairs. I watch him go, baffled, but noting that he doesn’t look at me again. Not once.
Almost as if he can’t.
A little smirk pulls at my lips as I slowly shut my bedroom door and look down at Ivan’s suitcoat. Well. That hadn’t been my intention, when I put it on….But it certainly yielded results, didn’t it?
I take careful note, and then head to my bathroom to start getting dressed for my day. When I return from my shower, I see that my clothes delivery has arrived and that it contains a crisp little blazer in just my size. I smile and tuck Ivan’s jacket away behind the headboard of my bed, hoping that the household staff won’t find it there. I’m not ready to say goodbye to it, not just yet, and I know that if I leave it in my wardrobe today that, by this evening, it will have mysteriously disappeared.
Twenty minute later I head downstairs for breakfast, dressed in the suitcoat and chic grey slacks that Kent chose for me. It’s a more formal and restrained look than I’m used to, and I’m curious about what he has planned for me. I’m certainly not going to the stables, after all not dressed like this.
When I push through the door to the kitchen, though, the first person I see is Daniel. My stomach drops and I hesitate when he looks up to meet my gaze. He does not look happy.
Instead, for the first time since I’ve known him, Daniel refuses to smile at me. He just looks at me, grim. A little angry. Then, his eyes flick to the empty chair across from him, a demand as much as an invitation.
I hesitate a little longer, glancing around the room to better assess the situation. My gaze falls, on Jerome, who is likewise looking at me. Jerome gives me an exaggerated wide-eyed grimace, drawing a finger across his throat and nodding towards Daniel. His meaning could not be more clear: I’m dead meat.
Nodding towards Jerome, who gives me a sympathetic shrug, I make my way over to our little breakfast table and sit down across from Daniel.
“Good morning, Fay,” he says, his voice even. I raise my eyes to glare at him a little, wondering if he realizes just how much he sounds like his dad in this moment. Who the hell was he anyway, to make me feel bad about anything, when he’s sleeping with Jerome?
“Good morning, Daniel.” I murmur, mocking his tone a bit. I probably shouldn’t, but I can’t help myself.
“And just how long,” he bites out, glaring at me, “have you been fucking my dad?”
“Oh my god, Daniel,” I spit, blushing beet red and leaning forward across the table. “Are you serious? Before coffee?”
He leans back in his chair and glares at me. “What, do you think coffee is going to make this any better?”
“Yah,” I say, snatching his own tiny espresso cup from its place in front of him and quickly draining it. Screw him, I need this way more than he does.
Daniel’s mouth falls open a little when he sees what I’ve done. “Fay!” he complains, “that’s mine!”
I slam the cup back onto the table and glare at him in return. “Oops,” I say, cocking my head to the side and crossing my arms over my chest as I lean back.
“You’re being such a brat, Fay,” Daniel hisses, leaning over the table. “I can’t believe you’re acting like this, after what you did to me ”
“What I did to you, Daniel?!” I exclaim, huffing in disbelief. “You’re the one making crude accusations before I’ve barely had a chance to sit down and what business is it of yours anyway!”
“You’re my fiancé! Of course it’s my business!” He retorts, his voice growing louder as he gets angrier.
“Am I?” I ask, sarcastic, unfolding my arms and putting my hands flat on the table so that I can better accuse him in return. “As far as I know, you never asked me to marry you. Your dad told us we were engaged. And so, when it comes to dissolving the engagement, it seems like that was his prerogative. And besides, where were you these past few days? If we were so engaged, and so close, and so dedicated to each other, why weren’t you around, begging me to come back? You were probably out somewhere, paying attention to your actual boyf-“
“Watch it,” Daniel growls, silencing me and looking around anxiously to make sure nobody heard.
I sit back in my chair, feeling cowed and guilty. Because, of course, I don’t want to ruin his life just because he’s being a jerk to me. “I’m sorry,” I say, a little bitter. “I didn’t mean that. That last part. But everything else I did mean!”
“Fay,” Daniel grumbles, waving a hand to dismiss it all. “I saw you come down from the third floor I saw what you were wearing, and I know what he keeps up there.”
“Do you?” I ask, my eyes going wide.
“Fay,” Daniel pleads, exasperated, “can you please, for once, focus on what is actually important here?”
“Okay,” I say quickly, nodding. “Sorry. It’s just nuts what’s up there have you gotten to see it all? Do you know what’s in all of those cabinets?”
Daniel just gives me a withering, exhausted stare and I bite my lip, realizing that I’ve done it again. “Sorry,” I murmur, and then I look down at my hands and sigh. “Daniel, I haven’t slept with your dad.”
From the edges of my vision I can see him sit back in his chair in relief.
“But that doesn’t mean that I won’t,” I continue, raising my eyes slowly to his.
Daniel’s mouth falls open in disbelief as he stares at me. I blink, surprised, and realize that he was actually hoping that there had been some mistake that there was some kind of reasonable explanation for why I was running around the third floor in my underwear.
And that actually, I may have just confirmed one of his worst fears. That he was losing his one ally in his house to his dad. I shake my head slowly, opening my mouth to tell him that I’m sorry, but suddenly a plate of food lands in front of me.
I look up, my mouth still open, to see Kent standing there, sliding a plate in front of Daniel as well. I look him over, noting the chef’s apron tied tight around his slim waist, his clean-shaven cheeks below eyes with dark circles beneath them. Apparently, he got less sleep than I did last night.
I cock my head, curious about that.
“Daniel,” Kent says, his voice even but unfriendly. “Don’t you have class to attend?”
Daniel just crosses his arms, glaring at his dad and not responding. But Kent doesn’t rise to the bait. Instead, he turns to me.
“Fay, I’d like you to go to lunch today at your father’s house.”
“Really?” I ask, my eyebrows raising.
Kent nods. “Yes, I need you to feel out the situation. Word has gotten out about the end to your engagement to Daniel,” he continues, looking briefly at Daniel to include him in the conversation, “and that you’ve been spending time with Ivan. I’d like you to see how your father feels about this change. And report it back to me.”
I nod, agreeing but hesitant.
“What,” Kent demands, his words clipped. “You don’t want to do it?”
“Oh,” I say, surprised. “Um, no, I’ll do it…it’s just…one of the less pleasant tasks that I’ve been assigned.”
Kent does an almost double take at these words, looking suddenly into my eyes with surprise on his face. I cock my head to see it I’m not sure I’ve ever seen Kent truly surprised before. But then I consider the meaning of my last words and realize that, of course, our encounter on the third floor last night was an assignment of sorts. And that I’ve just implied that lunch with my dad will be worse…
I blush, and curse myself again for my stupid tendency to do that all the time. Not only do I look like an idiot, blushing all the time, I also wear my emotions right on my sleeve.
“No,” I blurt out, shaking my head and looking down at my breakfast, “I mean, it’s fine. I’ll do it. It won’t be so bad.”
“Not every assignment is going to be a date with a sexy tattooed blonde, Fay,” Kent insists and I look back up at him in shock. Was he…did he just tease me? Did he just…
“Did you just…call Ivan? Your enemy? A sexy tattooed blonde?”
Kent just smirks at me and laughs a little, turning away. “Your car will be ready at eleven, Fay. Jerome will drive you. Don’t make me regret assigning him to you this time.”
I say nothing as Kent walks away, just staring after him, wondering how he does this. Balances it all, lives a life of such extremes with such complete control. Hell, I get one knot in my plans and go to pieces, but Kent…