The club looked completely different in the daylight. The huge dance floor was empty, VIP lounge deserted, and it was eerily quiet. I followed the man working the door back to a hall that led to Stefan's office. He knocked and opened the door as I stepped in and closed it behind me.
Stefan sat at his desk on the phone. He motioned with a finger for me to hold on and I walked around his office, looking at the shelves filled with books, files, and small sculptures on them. I ran my fingers along the shelves and stopped when I came to the only picture in his entire office. I looked over at Stefan, never seeing any sort of personal item of his. His apartment was minimally decorated so I felt like I was seeing something I wasn't supposed to. He was turned and still talking on the phone.
I picked up the frame and looked at the man and little boy. The older man looked just like Stefan. He was bulkier than Stefan is now and with a round gut. He had tattoos up the front of his neck and his hand that was draped around the little boys shoulder. He was wearing an all black suit and had a beard and mustache that was turning gray. The little boy was smiling in contrast to the stern looking older man. He had unruly black curls on his head and was missing a front tooth. He had his arms pulled behind his back. His eyes were wide and so innocent. I ran my finger over it.
Stefan set his hands on my shoulders and I jumped, almost dropping the picture.
"Jesus, you scared me." I hadn't heard him get off the phone. He lifted the picture from my hands and looked at it before setting it back down. I turned to him.
"Is that you and your father?" I asked. He leaned back on his desk and put his hands on my waist, pulling me closer to him.
"Yes." He said flatly. I pursed my lips, wanting to ask more questions but his tone told me he didn't want to talk about it. He knew almost everything about me, so I decided to ask anyways.
"What happened to him?" I put my hands on his shoulders and massaged gently. He closed his eyes as I kneaded them.
"He died a little while ago from cancer." He kept his eyes closed as he answered.
"When?" I pressed, wanting to see how much I could get out of him.
"Six months." He said. I kissed the corner of his mouth and massaged him harder, rewarding him for the answer.
"That must of been hard. What about your mother?" His eyes opened and narrowed on me.
"I don't want to talk about that right now." He pulled me in closer by my hips and bushed his lips over mine.
"You know you can talk to me about it if you want to, right?" I leaned our heads together and brushed my nose against his.
"Less talking, more fucking." He said, spinning us around, turning me and bending me over his desk. I let out a shaky breath as his hand pressed down on the back on my neck, pushing my cheek into the cool glass top.
He reached around me, working the button of my jeans and pulling them down. I put my palms down on the desk, listening to his heavy breathing and the fabric of my jeans sliding off my legs. I stepped out of them when he had them down over my ankles.
I heard his sharp intake of air, knowing exactly what illicited that reaction from him. He was looking at the thong I had on. It was white lace with a bow at the top of my ass. He slid it down, to my ankles. His hands went to my cheeks and I pushed back into his touch. He started massaging my ass gently before pulling his hand back and smacking it.
I gasped and tried to turn to look at him but he pressed his hand down again on my neck, keeping me from moving.
"I told you what I was going to do when I saw you. Did you think I was lying?" He smacked the same asscheek again and I let out a small whimper. The heat on my skin was creeping up from my bottom to my spine. He smacked it again, but rubbed it right after, soothing the sting.
"I don't like worrying about you, Claire. You drive me mad." He smacked my other cheek, making me press my forehead down on the top of the desk, panting out breaths.
"Do you want another?" He asked, his voice dark and deep. I went to say no but stopped myself. I actually.... did. Before I could answer, the loud smack of his hand against me rang in the room. I was coming down from the force when I heard him fumble with his belt and his zipper come down.
I felt him move his length to my entrance where I was already wet from what he had just done to me. I felt a tinge of embarrassment but couldn't let it bloom into anything other than lust when he thrusted into me. I let out a moan as he pulled out and shoved back in, forcing my legs further apart. His hand held me down by my neck, driving into me over and over again. I heard his pained exhales from behind me as he kept thrusting into me from behind. I spread my fingers over the glass, wishing I could grab onto something. I grabbed the edges of the desk, holding on as he rode me. He fisted my hair and pulled me up, never breaking his pace. He dropped one hand around my waist and his other down between my thighs and starting rubbing my clit over and over again.
I was moaning so loud, I thought someone would definitely hear, but I didn't care. He bit my shoulder, kissing it right after. I felt myself getting closer to the edge, his pressure on my clit intensified and I was there, falling over, screaming out. He threw his head back, his hot breaths no longer on the back of my neck. His grip on me tightened while he finished inside of me and loosened a few seconds later. I fell back onto the top of the desk, both of us panting frantically.
He leaned down over me, kissing the middle of my spine up to my neck. He pulled me up gently, the complete opposite of how he had just handled me. I turned and he fastened his belt back in place. I pulled up my panties and put my jeans back on. He smiled, watching me.
"What?" I said, cheeks growing hot. It felt wrong what we had just done but so incredibly right at the same time.
"Nothing, I just can't believe you're mine." He took my hand and led us over to his chair. I sat on his lap and he tucked my hair behind my ear. As soon as I went to respond, my stomach growled loudly. He looked at me with a raised brow.
"Melanie took me to some vegan place, I haven't eaten." I said sheepishly.
"Let's fix that then." We walked out of the club, Stefan nodding to the man working the door.
We drove until Stefan pulled in front of a restaurant right across from central park. A valet came up to the car but I looked at Stefan. This place was definitely too fancy for what I had on.
"I'm wearing jeans and a tee shirt, I can't go in there." He was wearing a classic suit and I was in flip flops and looked every bit the college student I pretended to be today. The valet waited outside my door but I kept my hand over the lock.
"I don't give a shit, Claire. You look beautiful, it doesn't matter. If anyone looks at you differently, I'll kill them." It would of sounded like a joke coming out of anyone else's mouth, but this was Stefan. I knew he wasn't joking. I shot him a pleading look. He might not of cared, but I did. He dropped his head and shook it, putting the car into drive and leaving the valet standing there stunned.
"Okay, so where do you want to go?" I looked around, having no idea what or where anything was around the city. We drove until I saw a bar off to the side of one of the side roads.
"There." I said. He pulled over and parked. No valet in sight, thank God. We got out and Stefan looked around.
"Are you joking?" I stood on the curb and looked at him.
"No, come on, don't be stuck up." He looked at his car and down the street we were parked on.
"Claire this car is a million dollar car. I can't park this here." I laughed and walked over and grabbed his hand.
"Aw come on, is the big bad mafia king scared of a little dive bar?" I heard the beep of the lock over and over again.
When we walked in, everyone turned to looked at us. It was an old run down bar, with ripped cushions and neons beer signs covering the walls. I definitely fit in, but Stefan stood out like I would have in the fancy restaurant he just tried to take me to. I felt a pang of guilt but he would be fine. Everyone went back to doing whatever it was they had been before we walked in and I slid into a booth. He followed and looked down at the table.
"I think there's semen on the table." He said, poking the sticky surface. I laughed and pulled out some napkins.
"It's character, not semen." I said, laying them out on the table in front of him.
"Well this 'character' smells like HPV." I laughed again and pulled out the menu's tucked behind the napkin holder. I slid him one and he opened it with his finger tips, not wanting to touch it.
"Come on, are you seriously telling me you've never been in a place like this?" I looked at him.
"Claire, I have pocket squares that cost more than the rent of this building costs for a year. So no, I haven't. That's the whole perk to being rich is nice restaurants and STD free dining experiences." The waitress came over in jean shorts and a tank top that she was spilling out of. She had four different kinds of piercings on her face and green hair.
"Can we just get two cheeseburgers with fries and some beers." She nodded at me and walked back to the bar. I took Stefan's menu and tucked it back behind the metal dispenser. Watching him look uncomfortable for the first time made me unbelievably giddy. Who new a grungy bar would be the thing to make this untouchable man squirm?
"They don't ask for the temperature of the meat here? Or do background checks on people?" He looked at our waitress.
"If they did, you couldn't get a job here." I smirked.
"True." He said, finally smiling for the first time since we got here.
"This is what an average date looks like now a days. A shitty bar, mediocre food, and if you're lucky, I'll let you feel me up in the back of your car later." I winked at him.
A dimple in his cheek came out and he leaned in to me. "If a man ever took you someplace like this, you should report him to the authorities, because you're going to end up chained in his basement and he'll be wearing your skin." I laughed out loud, making the people at the bar turn and look as us. He had held me captive so he was not one to talk. His eyes glimmered as he watched me.
"You can chain me up." I tried to flirt with him but it felt so odd after everything we had been through. Even though I was giving him shit, I had turned my ring around so the diamond was facing my palm and hidden. He, of course, noticed.
Our beers came and I took a huge sip of mine and Stefan did the same. This domineering man drinking a beer was one of the sexiest things I had ever seen.
"Did you think I would really sign the papers?" I asked him, holding my breath. I had been wondering, but too afraid to ask.
"I didn't think you would, no. But I needed you to see that for yourself. When my lawyer called saying you did, I was already on my way to come get you. I wanted you to choose to stay married to me. I wanted you to see nothing in your old life could compare to the life we could build together. This time, I wanted you to see it for your self." That had not been the answer I expected. He took another sip and then grabbed my hand on the table, holding it in his. We sat there and talked about everything and absolutely nothing until our food came. He had seemed relaxed for the first time since I had met him. He actually started flirting back with me at some point, forgetting about the sticky tables and sketchy surroundings. He seemed like a normal guy.
The bar started filling up the later it got. The crowd was a mixture of college aged kids and older couples that were definitely swingers. Stefan pulled me over to sit next to him on his side of the booth and we kept talking and laughing for what seemed like hours. I wasn't sure how many beers I had but the warm humming of my veins told me I was definitely buzzed.
"Come on, let's get out of here." He said in my ear. He threw down three one hundred dollar bills and I stared at him.
"Jesus, Stefan." He led me out of the noisy bar and shrugged.
"I was going to spend more than that tonight anyways at the first restaurant." His car was still parked on the curb, unharmed. I gave him an 'I told you so' look. He opened my door but I wasn't ready to give up my normal Stefan yet. He gave me a questioning glance. I held my hand out to him, and he grabbed it closing the door and re-locking the car.
"I want to do something." I said, dragging him behind my excited steps.
"What?" He said, chuckling. We walked down the street until I stopped us in front of a shop. He looked up and looked at me like I was going crazy.
"No way." He said, trying to pull me to the car. I escaped his grasp and walked in the door. The man behind the counter looked me over, and then at Stefan who walked right in behind me.
"I'd like to get a tattoo please." I said to him. He raised a brow to Stefan and I turned around to look at him too. He let out a breath and shrugged to him.
"You heard her, she wants a tattoo."