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Chapter 5
Keri
Seven years later
I’d run from him that night. I’d gotten in that car and had the driver take me to Connecticut where I spent the rest of the night in a small boutique hotel on Ashleigh’s credit card. Despite the fact that I hadn’t stayed through the night, Jaxon had been true to his word and when I turned on the news the next morning, the news of my father’s arrest was plastered all over the television. Before the sun had risen, a group of elite anti-organized crime detectives working with the FBI had raided my house and many of my father’s business, taking him down along with a number of additional targets within the family. It happened so swiftly that I had no doubt that Jaxon had been the reason behind it, that he had the kind of power and influence to accomplish whatever he wanted whenever he wanted it. The money he had afforded him that kind of leverage in today’s world. I didn’t know if that scared or impressed me, but I most certainly knew it aroused me.
That morning was the first time I made myself come while I fantasized about him. The moment that orgasm broke over me, I had known it wouldn’t be the last time either.
I hadn’t seen him since that fateful day, but I’d thought of him an infinite number of times since then. I wasn’t sure if I regretted leaving him that night. Sometimes I thought I did, but other times it just made me angry to even think about it. Occasionally, just thinking about him turned me on in a way that both frustrated and excited me at the same time.
Late at night when I woke up wet, I would think of him and use my vibrator between my thighs to bring myself to orgasm. Sometimes I would dream of standing in front of him, of the moment he pulled my panties down and exposed the fact that I was aroused by the idea of him baring me and putting me over his knee.
I never told anyone what happened in that room between him and me. Not even once. I couldn’t bring myself to. To be honest, I really didn’t even want to admit it to myself. How would I even begin to explain that I had willingly played his game, that I’d taken his hand and allowed myself to be put over his knee with my bottom bared so that he could spank me? Or that after it was all over that he’d put his fingers between my legs and given me the best orgasm I’d ever had in my life still to this day.
It was my dirty little secret.
Since my father’s arrest, my whole life had changed. I walked away from the life of a kingpin’s daughter and I’d never heard from the Battistas again. From what I’d gathered from my curious searches now and again, Anthony had married another mafia princess from another smaller family that hadn’t fallen into ruin like the Espositos. He seemed happy and that in turn gave me a small sense of relief.
Through means I still didn’t entirely understand, the FBI had allotted some of the funds they had initially confiscated from my father to me. With it, there was enough to afford myself an apartment in New York. I’d had also been able to continue my education and had achieved a master’s in business as a result. I’d graduated at the top of my class and had moved on to work in the industrial sector, but after a while I grew bored. I wanted something more. I wanted my work to actually mean something.
I’d quit my job in finance and had applied for a position in local government. I’d started off at the bottom rung of the ladder and slowly worked myself up. I didn’t call in any favors with anyone I knew. I simply rose based off of the merits of my own work.
Now I held a respectable position in the department of education, and I was well on my way to rising even further within the city administration as time went on. I had no plans to run for office or anything, but it was nice to pave the way through hard work and pure grit. I’d done my fair share of coffee errands for those I had worked for and now I was being considered for a promotion that would come with a healthy pay bump as well as a corner office with a view of Central Park. I didn’t really need the money, but the room with a view would most certainly be worth every day of hard work that I’d put in to earn it.
There was only one problem. One fucking annoying problem that was always and forever aiming a knife at my back.
Miranda Parker.
She and I had been office rivals for a long time. With every step up the ladder I took, she was right there vying for the same one. I tried to avoid her for the most part. I knew she wasn’t above doing whatever it took to get what she wanted, including sleeping with the right people or gossiping about those she hated most, which most of the time was me. Even when I tried to stay away from her, that didn’t stop her. It might have even egged her on, but I wanted to be the bigger person and rise above her dodgy tactics.
She told people that I was hot on my boss, that I wore things to entice him because I wanted to rise up in the company. She made up rumors about me, calling me something of a village bicycle even though I never mixed work and pleasure, not even once.
Honestly, I hardly dated and even when I did, I only made it to the third date at most. None of them even remotely held my interest for more than a few casual hookups. Either they were too hung up on work to focus on me for even a second or they had their own set of deep baggage, not to mention the momma’s boys. None of them had thought to ask me about what I wanted in life because they had been too involved in their own to want to get to know me in the first place.
That didn’t stop Miranda from being a constant thorn in my side and this time, she’d gone too far. She taken an innocent business meeting in a coffee shop and twisted it into a sordid affair that made me look like a total piece of shit in front of the eyes of all my coworkers.
I walked into my office and I heard her voice ring out just a hair louder than all the rest. I froze, holding the doorknob in my fingertips as if it was a lifeline.
“I wonder how long it’ll be until he’s filing divorce papers. Do you think there’s a paper trail? Evidence of all the hotels they’d stayed at together just so they could fuck each other?”
It was the kind of story that could ruin me.
One of the higher-ups in the department had taken a trip to Washington to attend a conference. On the day he’d returned, I’d picked him up from the airport and we’d stopped at a local coffee shop along the way at his request. We’d gone inside and gotten a table, one by the window because he wanted to feel the sun on his face, and we’d enjoyed some delicious lattes on the city’s dime. We’d talked about his favorite seminars that he’d attended. We even got a second beverage because we were enjoying bouncing ideas off each other so much.
Miranda had been in the area that day. She’d seen us in that window, and she’d told everyone that we were having some sleazy affair despite the fact that he was happily married with three young children. She turned me into the homewrecker that was trying to tear his family apart. The judgmental looks and the disgusted glares were almost too much to endure, but I held my head high despite it all anyway, at least until I could figure out how to deal with the whole mess as best as possible.
“I wonder if she’ll even offer to take care of the kids.”
I froze. I tried to take a breath. I tried to remember that the promotion would be decided in a matter of days, that now was a time more important than any to remain levelheaded and rise above her tricks. I tried to think about all that I had worked for, but she continued spewing her vile words and I couldn’t see anything but red.
“How do you think she likes it? Think she begs him to take it in the ass?”
I could ignore her silly rumors about how many buttons of my blouse were undone or about how I strutted my stuff when I walked by the people I worked for. I could handle that, but when she attacked my integrity as a person, I would stand up for myself no matter the cost.
I turned around, only to find Miranda watching me with her ruthless gaze. She was waiting for me to falter. I knew that, but I couldn’t hold myself back. My fury was too strong.
“You fucking liar,” I spat, loud enough for the entire office to hear. “There is nothing between Robert and me and you know it. We had coffee once to discuss the talks he attended at the conference and that’s it.”
