Chpt 4

4

 

At five in the morning, Sonya’s alarm clock went off. Its loud ringing jerked her from a relatively peaceful sleep. Groaning, she debated whether to get out of bed or toss the annoying contraption against the nearest wall and crawl back under the warmth of her covers. Had it not been for the fact that her father was leaving that morning, she would have gladly chosen the latter of her options. But since she had moved back home, she had been the one to see him off before each of his journeys, taking over what her mother had been doing for years before she died. Today would be no different, even if she was waking up at the crack of dawn.

Mother, I swear I don’t know how you did this each and every time.

Sitting up, Sonya reached for the clock and hit the alarm button. As she rubbed the sleep from her eyes, she tossed the covers from her legs and got out of bed.

Dad better appreciate this, Sonya thought as she headed to the bathroom, yawning and stretching as she walked over to the bathroom sink. As she passed the bath, she couldn’t help the flush that washed over her. Thoughts of Jacks quickly filled her mind. Heat rushed through her as she remembered his touch, so real and hot that it made her head spin. A kiss that had left her weak in the knees.

Sonya shook her head clear and reminded herself that it was just some off-the-wall dream, and a man like the one she dreamt of was better left in her imagination.

Standing at the sink, she let the cold from the marble floor wake her up. In the large Victorian-styled mirror that hung over the sink, she caught sight of her reflection. She had been in too much of a fluster to tie her hair up and had to struggle to tame the wild mane of hair on top her head.

What are you doing? She had asked that question countless times since she filed for her divorce and would ask it even more once it was finalized. It had been years since she last held a job, and it wasn’t like she could go back to her old job. Her ex had made sure of that, demanding that she quit immediately. He claimed he would take care of her every need, that she would want for nothing. Like the young fool she was, she had believed him. With a solid “kiss my a*s” to her boss and the middle finger to several of her co-workers, she didn’t look back as she walked out the front doors of the building, stupidly taking her ex at his word that he would protect and provide for her.

Later, she saw it for the bullshit it was. He had used and discarded her like he had done with so many before. If she could, she would kick herself in her own a*s for thinking he would change.

“F*****g stupid,” Sonya grumbled as she angrily tore her gaze away from her reflection and focused on turning on the faucet and washing her face.

For so many years, she had looked down on those women who lost themselves in their man, especially when they knew their partner was a liar and a user. She had thought she was better than them, but she had become one of the very women she talked about.

“Whatever,” she huffed. She could throw herself a pity party later. If she didn’t hurry, she would miss her father. After splashing a handful of water into her hair, the thick strands absorbing the water and giving way to their natural curl pattern, Sonya headed out of the bathroom. Back in her bedroom, she rummaged through her suitcase for a pair of old sweats and a T-Shirt. She grabbed what she wanted, quickly changed her clothes, and was heading out of the room in less than ten minutes.

Walking into the living room, she found her father sitting on the sofa with a drink in one hand and one of his favorite cigars in the other. With his head resting on the back of the sofa, her father didn’t notice her as she entered the room.

“Are you planning on setting us on fire before you leave?” Sonya asked as she leaned against the doorway of the living room.

“Your sisters, maybe, but not you.” He lifted his head and added, “So the house is safe for now.”

Sonya couldn’t help the broad smile that spread across her face. Her father was something else at times.

“Come, sit with me.” He motioned for her to take the seat across from him. “We haven’t been able to talk much over the last few days. Spare me a few minutes before I leave.”

“Of course.” Again with the smiles, Sonya moved from the doorway and took up the seat across from her father. Drawing her knees to her chest, she reverted to the little girl she used to be.

“So, tell me, what’s on your mind,” her father said as he straightened himself and placed his drink down on the floor beside his foot.

“What makes you think something is on my mind?”

He gave her a dull look, and she rolled her eyes.

“Did you really just ask me that? I know you better than anyone. Ever since you moved back home you haven’t been yourself.” He paused and stared at her so long she began to fidget in her seat. She had never been able to stand that knowing gaze of his. Every time he gave her that look when she was younger, she would instantly crack and tell him whatever he wanted to know. As she grew older, nothing had really changed, and yet she couldn’t bring herself to tell her father about the nightmare she had a few nights ago, or about Jacks. Those secrets she would keep to herself… because really, how could she tell her father that some mysterious dream man had given her the best orgasms of her life?

There were just some things a girl’s father should never know.  Instead of telling him the truth, she opted for a half-truth.

“It’s just the usual things: finding a job, the house, the divorce, and Dorian,” she replied with a casual shrug.

“Uh huh.” He took a pull of his cigar and gave her a skeptical look.

“What, you don’t believe me?”

For a long moment, her father stared at her, looking deep into her soul until he found what he was looking for.

“I believe you’re telling me what you think I want to hear”, he took another pull of his cigar, “but like I said, I know you, and I know when you are lying and keeping something from me. Right now you’re doing both.” The disappointment in his tone tore her apart. The last thing she wanted was to upset him, but she couldn’t tell him the truth.

His sigh drew her attention, and she silently watched as he put out his cigar in the ashtray that was sitting in his lap.

“If you don’t want to tell me, that’s fine.” He rose from his seat. “But if you don’t fix your face by the time I get back home, I’m going to send you on a week-long vacation with your sisters.” Walking over to her, he patted her on the top of her head, comforting her in the best way he could.

“You wouldn’t dare,” Sonya said playfully, swatting her father’s hand away.

“If it kept you from walking around with that sour face, then yes I would.” With one more pat to the side of her head, her father walked out of the room.

As she watched him gather his suitcases by the front door, her thoughts drifted back to Jacks. Absently, she wondered if the two of them would get along. Though she doubted in. Not only because Jacks was a dream, but because she could count on one hand�"and still have some fingers left�"the number of men who had gotten her father’s approval.

“So,” her father’s voice drew her from her thoughts, “are you going to come and see me off or not?”

Instantly, she was on her feet, hurrying into his awaiting arms. Again she reverted into the little girl that only wanted her father’s love, clinging to him as he held her close and patted her on the head softly.

“Hey, look at me.” She lifted her head and found his expression tender as he cupped the sides of her face.

“Everything is going to be fine. Remember, you are my daughter, and you deserve much more than some two-bit con man.” He placed a gentle kiss on her forehead.

“I love you, Daddy.”

That she meant. He was the only one she could turn to when her world was falling apart.

“Now, let me go before I miss my train. Love you.” He kissed her again. Then he was walking away with his bags in his hand.

For a moment, she wanted to tell him not to go, to turn back, as a foreboding sensation passed through her and she got the odd feeling that she would never see her father again.

“Don’t be silly.” She mumbled as she fought hard against calling out to her father.

“Aw.”

Sonya looked over her shoulder and found Beth standing on the staircase, filing her nails with a bored look on her face.

“I missed father, huh.”

Sonya rolled her eyes. “Like you care.”

“Whatever, Sonya… oh, I’m sorry, I mean, Beauty. You’re the only one he cares about. His precious brokenhearted Beauty.” Beth snapped at her sister with so much venom, Sonya could do nothing but stare. “Such a Daddy’s girl. I bet that’s why he left you.”

Ouch, well that was uncalled for. Sonya didn’t know what pissed her off more, the fact that her sister was right about her ex or the fact that Beth was just a b***h. Whatever it was, it took all her self-control not to slap her sister into the middle of next week.

“Pathetic.” With that last word hissed like a venomous snake, Beth turned and made her way back up the stairs, leaving Sonya caught between wanting to call back her father and walking up the stairs and snatching her sister by the hair and dragging her back down the stairs so they could finish their conversation.

Instead she opted for the library where she could retreat from the world… and her own feelings.

 

Beth couldn’t take it anymore. Just how long was she going to have to put up with her bratty b***h of a sister and her fragile feelings? God, it seriously ticked Beth off, although she didn’t know what enraged her more: the fact that her father still refused to realize that he had two other daughters who needed his love and attention or the fact that, once again, her sister had used her so-called innocence to take away the only thing Beth had ever wanted.

When Beth seriously thought about it, Beauty was definitely the bane in her existence. A thorn in Beth’s side, and if she didn’t get rid of it soon, she would go insane.

True, their relationship hadn’t always been broken. Heading back up the stairs she had just come down, she remembered the days when she and her sister had been the best of friends. Always together, always getting into trouble, smiling, their eyes sparkling with the hidden secrets between them. Back then they had been two young girls who knew nothing about the true coldness of the world.

“It’s all her fault,” Beth whispered as she walked past Daphne’s room, sure she was still in her bed sleeping. “Lazy b***h.” As bad as Beth wanted to bang on the solid oak door and wake her good-for-nothing sister up, she didn’t. Instead, Beth let the heated feeling go with a roll of her eyes and continued to her room. Barging into the luxuriously decorated room, Beth beelined to the large canopy bed that rested against her wall and divided the room perfectly in half. After pulling back the lace drapes, she climbed into her bed and pulled the covers up over her head.

“Damn her,” Beth said as the sting of tears burned the back of her eyes.

It was all Sonya’s fault that Beth’s life was currently spiraling out of control and that she was half the woman she wanted to be. This was not how she intended her life to be in her thirties. She was supposed to be married to a handsome and successful man with a home that made a mockery of most celebrities’ houses.

Shutting her eyes, Beth buried her face in her pillow.

This was not the life she wanted. Forced to live with her father because she was in so much debt she had a hard time buying the simple things she needed, let alone being able to afford a house.

“I hate her.” Beth sobbed into her pillow and wished she could go back in time, to that one day that had changed her world… if only she could take back the life that was stolen from her. She would happily trade her sister’s life for her mother’s. With Sonya gone, everything would be the way it should be. Beth would have her mother… and Dorian.

Beth sobbed harder as both loss and pain circled inside of her. Hugging the pillow close to her as she huddled herself into a human ball, Beth longed to see her sister go through a fraction of the pain Beth had.

How could she lose the only two people that mattered to her in the course of twenty-four hours?

Her sister didn’t deserve him in the first place. Beth would have made a much better wife than her sister, and they all knew that. Yet, Dorian had chosen Beauty and left Beth to stare at his back as her would fell apart and theirs came together.

They had been the perfect little couple to the outside world, but Beth knew better. One look into Dorian’s dark gaze, and she could see his boredom and knew that he wasn’t happy. For years she had watched them, her naïve sister in love with the man he pretended to be.

How could it not enrage Beth to watch some useless twit hold back the man Beth loved more than life itself. He was worth so much more than a simple little girl who knew nothing about truly satisfying a man’s needs.

“Serves her right,” Beth mumbled into the tear-stained pillow. Her sorrow slowly morphed into a dark satisfaction at the fact that she had managed to take back a small piece of what was hers.

“I love you, Dorian… please, choose me.”

She had all but begged him once she was finally able to reach him. She had quietly molded her body to his in the kitchen, taking advantage of his anger and dissatisfaction with his wife.

“I know the real you, I know you better than anyone else,” she had whispered seductively into his ear and when he gave into her, her world finally came together. Her feelings had been returned, and she would make sure he never regretted his decision.

The way he held her, touched her as if he were stroking her soul… the memory was enough to have her temperature rising.

“I want to see him�"”

Just then her cell phone went off. Quickly, Beth tossed the covers from her body and was on her feet, practically running over to her dresser where she had left her phone. Snatching it off the dresser, Beth answered her phone.

“Hello.” She tried to make herself sound as sexy as she could, which was hard to do when she was huffing from rushing to the phone.

“Why are you breathing so hard?” Dorian’s heavily accented voice carried through her cell and down her spine. Although there were times when his accent made it difficult to understand him, it was still the sexiest thing she had ever heard, like a foreign love song, dark and sensual, that called to her soul.

“I was exercising when the phone rang,” she lied. There was no way she was going to tell him that she had been sobbing over the thought of losing him.

There were some things a girl kept to herself.

“Uh huh.”

Of course, he didn’t believe her; he knew her well enough to know when she was lying.

“I miss you,” she blurted out before she could stop herself.

“Is that so?” He sounded amused, and a piece of her heart broke off. While she knew him better than anyone else, there were still parts of him she wished she had no knowledge about.

Yeah, and that would make you just like her…

That was the last thing she wanted to be. She was nothing like her over-sensitive sister. Beth wouldn’t let his cold-hearted remarks affect her. His harsh attitude was a part of him she had grown to love.

“Beth?” Dorian’s dark voice broke her thoughts.

“Yes.”

“Did you hear what I said?”

No, she hadn’t. “What did you say?” she asked as she returned to her bed. Making herself comfortable, she sat back against the headboard of the bed, her cell phone to her ear and her legs crossed at the ankles.

“I swear,” he said a soft curse under his breath, and she frowned.

What was he so mad about?

“What’s wrong?” she asked, worried she had upset him somehow. “Are you mad?”

“No.” He sounded as if he had taken a deep breath to calm himself before he answered. “I need you to do something for me.”

He had her undivided attention. It was rare that he ever asked her for something; most times she was the one doing the asking. Beth could count on one hand how many times Dorian had asked her for something, and when he did ask her, it usually pertained to her sister.

Beth had a feeling that this time would be no different, and she found herself irked. “What is it?” she asked with a hit of attitude.

The low chuckle he gave her, as if her anger meant nothing to him, pissed her off even more.

“Don’t be mad at me.” He paused as if contemplating his next choice of words. “What I need from you will finally allow us to be together the way you want us to be.”

 Just that quickly, her anger subsided. The thought of truly having him, of no longer hiding her feelings from the world, had her willing to do whatever he wanted.

“All right”, she gave a defeated sigh, “what is it?”

“That’s a good girl.” She got the feeling he was secretly laughing at her by the tone of his voice. “Now this is what I want you to do…”

She fell silent as she listened to his request. With each word, the nervous anxiety she had been feeling from the first moment he mentioned wanting a favor intensified. By the time he had finished spinning his story and telling her why they needed to do this, Beth was speechless and almost mortified that he would even think she would go along with what he was asking.

“Did you get all of that?” he asked.

Forgetting she was on the phone and not actually in front of him, Beth shook her head.

“Beth, my love,” he said in the softest tone she had ever heard him use. “I can’t see you nodding your head. You have to say it.” He paused as an unsettling silence spread between them. “Do you understand what I am asking you to do?” This time around his tone was harsh and impatient.

“Yes,” she muttered and felt as if a dark weight had made itself at home on her shoulders.

“That’s my girl… hold on real quick,” he told her, and then she heard him speaking in hushed tones.

Beth came out of her stupor and strained to hear who Dorian was talking to. By the soft whispers she heard in the background, she would have sworn he was talking to another woman. Instant fury washed over Beth, and she shouted into the phone, “Dorian! Who the f**k is that?”

“What are you talking about?” his reply was so quick that she wasn’t sure if he was talking to her or the person that was clearly in the room with him.

“Are you talking to me or the other woman in the room with you?” Pissed, she couldn’t sit still any longer. Getting off her bed, Beth began a feverish pace back and forth.

“What woman? What are you talking about?” His nonchalant tone did nothing to change her mood, and she fought the urge to pick up the lamp on the nightstand and toss it across the room.

“Don’t play with me, Dorian. I know what I heard… now, who is the b***h?” Beth practically shouted into the phone.

“You need to calm down.”

Again, that nonchalant and condescending tone of his that continued to push her over the edge.

“Dorian�"”

“Beth!” He shouted her name. With his voice being so deep and accented, it came out more as a harsh demand that quickly quieted her down, but it didn’t subdue her temper. “I just told you that there’s no one else here… you’re turning into Sonya.”

“Excuse me?”

She was not turning into her sister… how dare he!

“You heard me. I love you more than you’ll ever know.” Again his voice softened, and his accent became a soothing caress against her ear. “Why don’t you understand that there’s no way I would ever look at someone other than you.”

God, he was cunning and a good liar, yet that didn’t stop her heart from skipping a beat when he said he loved her.

“Yeah, but�"”

“Aren’t we meeting up today? How about I show you just how much I care about you.”

Instant heat rushed through her, and excitement had butterflies in her stomach. When it came to him, she was like a yo-yo. One minute she was ready to stab him in the eye with the sharpest knife she could find. The next minute her heart was fluttering in her chest like a nervous school girl.

“Fine,” she finally said.

“That’s my girl. I can’t wait to see you. Meet me at our usual spot.” Before she could say another word, he hung up the phone, leaving her with nothing but the dial tone as she struggled to convince herself he was not playing her for a fool. She truly wanted to believe him when he said he loved her. But she knew he would use whoever and whatever means he could to get what he wanted. She feared she was turning into another pawn for him to use.

Author's Note

Enjoy... the last chapter is coming next