Chapter 10

Chapter Ten

Maple

What the hell? Who the hell? What just fucking happened?

Shouldn't I be the one pissed off and angry since he pretty much just told me I couldn't be a rich man's whore since I wasn't very good at it? Gee, that could be because I've never done anything like what me and him were doing?

He said I didn't know what the hell I was doing. Well, there's a good fucking reason, buddy! I've never let someone get this close to me. And now I understand why.

"You should leave."

Didn't Eddie say something about his grandson being with the FBI? Is this the same grandson who just told me he didn't have a problem killing someone to get what he wanted? Was he fucking corrupt? Is that why he doesn't work with them anymore?

He finally backs up and lets me go, shoving his hands in his hair and messing it up, "I should but I'm not. Not until we straighten this shit out."

"You're going to be here for a long time then. Why don't you stay, and I'll leave?" I dart for the door but don't make it even halfway there as he lifts me off the ground with a steel arm around my waist.

"You aren't going anywhere dressed like that. You can still see your fucking nipples through that excuse for a top."

I let out a squeak and bring my hands up so I can cover my breasts. Shit! I had no idea… I should have known but still, totally clueless.

"And the only way you're going out in those," he tugs on my shorts, "is if I'm inside of you!"

"Holy shit!"

"And as for your lack of experience, you might as well forget everyone who came before me because…"

"There hasn't been anyone you fucking psycho."

"Come again."

My words have his hold on me loosening. Maybe this is the way I get rid of him. Maybe he isn't okay with someone who is so… lacking in experience.

"There hasn't been anybody else. Just you."

I turn around to see how my words affect him and realize my mistake when his eyes go dark, the pupils eating up the blue around the edges. And then he's letting me go completely, moving around me so he can walk out the door.

"Lock the door when I go. Make sure you lock the door."

And with that my home is empty once again and I am alone. And unsatisfied as fuck. I would cry if I wasn't so fucking mad. I spend the rest of the night angry cleaning and practicing how I am going to tell him off when I see him again. When I go to the main house and ask when he's coming down all I get is a blank stare from Maria and Eddie.

"Cas was here last night?" He looks to Maria who gives him a shoulder shrug. "He didn't come see me or let anyone know he was here. I thought he was still in the city."

Did I dream all of it?

No! I have the proof on my skin where he left his mark on me in hundreds of little ways, hickeys, bruises, and the bags under my eyes from the sleepless night. I know he was here… or at least I'm sure he was in the guest house with me.

"What did you want him for?"

"Oh…uh…I was just…I wanted to ask him something. It's not important. Just something we had talked about before."

This excuse seems to pacify Eddie, but Maria gives me the side eye. I've noticed when me and Caspian were arguing and exchanging words, she was very alert to the fact we were interacting with one another. I think she sees more than Eddie and is curious. Not something I want her to be since I don't want anyone to find out Caspian thinks of me as nothing more than a money-hungry gold digger. And now that he knows I'm not one, he's disappeared and is back at his life in the city after coming into mine like a fucking grenade.

And he doesn't come back that night or the next or the next. I suck it up and finally make myself realize he's probably not coming back anytime soon. He got his answer about me and his grandfather and now he's gone. I should be tickled.

But a lot of sleepless nights have made for some very long days and dark nights.

I am helping Maria clean when all of it catches up to me and I make the mistake of climbing on the counter to reach something on the upper selves. All I need is just a little more height and I can bring the bowl down and help start dinner. Only my knee does some freaky thing and shifts weird causing me to lose my balance and fall backwards.

I can't turn my body fast enough to prevent myself from landing on my back, knocking the air out of me and causing my head to clunk on the floor with a loud crack that vibrates through me and rattles my teeth.

"Oh my God! Eddie! Eddie! Come quick, Mae fell!"

And that's when the pain - and air - catches up to me and explodes behind my eyes and everything starts to hurt.

Eddie and Maria come to help me up, but they really shouldn't be trying to lift me, Maria has a bad back and I don't want to be the reason Eddie has another heart scare. "I'm okay."

I say it softly so I can try out my voice before fully telling them I'm fine. I want to make sure it's not going to come out shaky or scared, the two emotions that are most prominent in me right now.

"I…I'm alright, guys. Just a little fall. No worries." No worries but I am going to be feeling it tomorrow.

"That might be, child, but you are still going to let me call the doctor to come out and check you over. And I absolutely forbid you to be alone tonight. You can sleep in the main house in a bedroom close to mine and Maria's."

"No, Eddie, really, I'm…fine! No need to worry or go out of your way for me. It's really unnecessary."

"Then you will do what I ask of you so you don't make me stay up all night worrying about you in the guest house where nobody can check up on you throughout the night."

Damn, he's good. Better than his grandson even.