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Just sex.
He’d said the same thing when he had shared me that one time, but how could it just be sex when feelings were involved? Yeah, I hadn’t had any feelings for the other guys in the room, but I’d had feelings for Ashton, so how could him sharing me be just sex? Just sex happened between two strangers that weren’t invested in one another. Hell, even friends-with-benefits had the feeling of friendship mixed in there. So, no, what Ashton was asking of me wasn’t just sex.
“Look, I need to get going if I’m going to make it across town in time to meet my client,” I said, ending the conversation. “I’ll talk to you at home.”
“Okay, we’ll talk then.” Ashton hung up, and it had me wondering why he’d let me win so easily.
Forcing Ashton and Cooper Donaldson from my mind, I started the car, then made my way towards Rattenberger Street. It was located in the most northern corner of the city, and the houses sat on one-acre lots, providing plenty of privacy from the neighbors. Though there were richer parts of town, Sooner Estates was a nice place to raise a family.
When I pulled up to the property, I didn’t see any random vehicles, so I grabbed my purse and briefcase, then got out of the car to make my way towards the house. For safety reasons, whenever I showed a house, I left the front and back doors always opened. Ashton Oliver was proof enough that monsters didn’t always look like monsters, so I took precautions being a lone woman meeting people into the evening hours of the day.
Since this wasn’t an open house, there were no refreshments, pamphlets, or anything like that. Nothing was staged, and the house was completely empty. With homes this spacious, it was always a good idea to let the client form their own opinion of the home, which wasn’t the case when I was selling a shoebox. When trying to sell a small condo or home, it was my job to show the client the potential in the purchase, but that wasn’t necessary with large spaces.
With a few minutes to spare, I made a quick trip through the top two floors, making sure that everything still looked as it’d had the last time that I’d been here. Squatters were a real thing, and they were a nightmare for real estate agents. Right or wrong, some people cared only about themselves, leaving the rest of us to have to deal with the fallout of their selfishness.
When I came back downstairs, I noticed that the front door had been shut, and that had me immediately looking around, calling out. Now, while I wasn’t exactly scared or uncomfortable, I didn’t appreciate the door being closed.
“Hello?” I looked back at the door, then decided to open it again before going to look for Mr. Khan.
My heels clacked on the tile as I made my way towards the front door, but before I could reach the doorknob, a body slid out in front of me, and I could feel my entire face lose color.
“Expecting someone else?” I took a step back, my heartbeat making me deaf. “I took the liberty of shutting the doors, so that we could have some privacy.”
“What…what are you doing here?” My head swiveled around, even knowing that we were the only ones here. “How did you know that I’d be here?”
“How do you think?”
“I don’t know,” I snapped, on the verge of hysteria.
“I had someone else make the appointment under the name Jacob Khan.” He shrugged like this was no big deal. “Figured if I gave my real name, you might be a bit reluctant to meet with me.”
I placed a hand on my stomach, trying to calm my nerves. “What are you doing here, Aurelio?” I repeated. “Why…why would you bother with the effort?”
He slid his hands in his pockets, and the sight of him doing something so familiar nearly broke what was left of my heart in two. “Curiosity is a very powerful motivator, Savina,” he said. “Though we’ve all heard that very accurate saying, and though we’ve all seen curiosity kill the cat a time or two, we still find that we can’t help ourselves, don’t we?”
“Curious about what?” I asked as I took another step back, creating some much-needed space between us.
“Why would you stay with a man that gets a stiff dick from beating you?” he asked, and his words felt like gunshots to my chest.
He knew.
My heart stopped as I looked up at him, and this had to be the saddest moment in my life, even winning over the day that my father had told me that I was on my own. I finally had the chance to tell Aurelio the truth, but for what? The truth wasn’t going to make any bit of difference to him, and why should it? His mirth had been genuine when he had laughed at me for thinking that he’d help me with anything. He really was just here to appease his curiosity and nothing more.
“How…how did you find out?” I asked, buying some time.
“Does it matter?” he countered.
I shook my head. “No, I don’t suppose that it does.”
Aurelio took a step towards me, forcing me to have to take a couple of more steps back. Where Ashton was a threat to me physically, Aurelio was a threat to me emotionally, but then he’d always been. I hadn’t left him behind because I hadn’t loved him. I’d left because I’d wanted something different from what I’d been raised to believe was my only option in life. Granted, if I knew then what I knew now, I wouldn’t have made that choice, but there was no going back now, and staring into Aurelio’s onyx-colored eyes, I knew that like I knew my own name.
It also hurt that he could act so cavalier about what was happening to me. Once upon a time, Aurelio Provenza would have put a bullet in a man’s head for mistreating a woman. During our time together, I’d learned enough about Aurelio to know that his teenage years had left a significant impact on him, and violence against women had been one of his triggers.
Apparently, not anymore.
Or maybe it was that he just didn’t care what happened to me. That was possible and understandable, but still. A small part of me would like to believe that Aurelio’s love for me had been so deep that he’d always come to my rescue, but that was fantasy. You couldn’t hurt someone, and then expect for them to love you the same way afterwards; that’s not how the real world worked.
“Is that seat in the White House really so important to you that you’d let a man beat you, Savina?” Every word out of his mouth felt like a slap in the face. “To be Stewart Oliver’s daughter-in-law must be one hell of a prize for you to endure what I saw.”
