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When I woke up, I was thankful he was still with me, sleeping beside me, using the top of my head as his own headrest. His soft breathing was sweet, and I couldn't help but admire how handsome he really was since I got to look at him in normal people's clothes.
His face was unshaven today, which gave him a much more rustic and normal person vibe. His dark hair was very messy, and I could almost imagine him as someone who was disorganized and chaotic like most men were, not the control freak, always put-together person he was.
When he finally woke up, he stretched out like a dog would do, a smile coming to him easily.
"Watching me sleep, eh?" He asked with a sleepy laugh, pulling me very gently onto his lap, his happiness to see me very evident through his tiredness.
"Maybe, is that okay?" I asked.
"Of course. There is a price to pay, though." He said with a smirk, pulling me down to kiss him before I could stop him. His kiss was as controlling as he was, but I enjoyed it, letting him lead and showing me what to do. His hands ran over my body, and he hummed in pleasure, appreciating it.
"You look healthy. I think I've kept you in here for too long." He said, breaking the kiss, just to trail kisses along my neck, distracting me.
"Mmmhmm." I murmured.
"I have a date planned for you, but right now, I just want to take all of your clothes off instead and savor every inch of your body one kiss at a time." He told me, his voice deep and his kisses getting lower and lower.
"Ow." I gasped when his hand ran over my scar, unintentionally making him stop immediately.
"Sorry, sorry. I just...got carried away." He said, taking his hands off me abruptly.
"I'm fine. please continue!" I begged him desperately, but he just smirked at me, bemused.
"Oh, how I love to make you beg for me. I think I will hold out a bit longer, actually. I really want to see you on your knees, desperate for me to fuck you." He told me devilishly, his smile contagious. I groaned, frustrated, but got off him, knowing it probably was for the best with me still healing anyway.
"So what's the date then?" I asked curiously, ready to get out of here.
"It's a surprise." He said vaguely, as usual. I hoped it wasn't something with a ton of people, at least, but he had enough money to do anything he wanted. What did the ultra-wealthy do for dates anyway? Rent out yachts or concert halls to watch a movie?
Thankfully, the doctors finally signed off on my leaving, and James freed me from the hospital to take me to the apartment to get changed and ready for our lunch date.
I had no idea how to dress, so I decided to go with one of the dresses that had appeared in my closet a few days after I arrived as if by magic. It was a plain-sleeved black silk dress with a light blue belt, and I paired it with black flat slippers with a silver LV on the top of it. It was comfortable and worked well with my still-healing injuries.
I did my makeup the best I could after seeing how Amanda had managed it before and even curled the end of my long hair. I was ready for anything.
"Ready to go?" He asked, leaning in the doorway and adjusting an expensive-looking watch on his wrist. He had taken a shower but was in black sweats that were plain and what I would expect to find in a bazaar back home. Knowing him, he had still spent at least a hundred dollars on the flimsy fabric.
"You look amazing." He commented, looking me up and down behind glasses I had never seen him wear before, a small smile playing on his lips at the less-than-pure thoughts this gave him. I didn't even know he wore contacts. The glasses gave him a nerd vibe that meshed amazingly with his well-built physique.
"I think I'm overdressed. Are we going to the store for our date?" I asked, wondering why he would go so casually. He chuckled and shook his head, leading me out.
"You're perfect, actually. Just a heads up, since you seem to be great at getting yourself injured, we had a slight change to our security team. I added in Tom here and Caden." He said, waving first to Tom, a tall then guy who was chewing gum and acted like he couldn't see me, and Caden, a very young but well-built guy who smiled like a giant teddy bear.
"Oh, okay," I said, uncomfortable but knowing I didn't have a choice.
The drive was crowded in the new black SUV with so many people, but James was on his phone the whole time anyway, arguing with someone over a date swap he wanted for an important event.
"I need the date pushed out for another two weeks. I just can't be traveling right now. Yeah, I know it wasn't easy to set up...look, make it happen. That's your job." He fussed at whoever had earned his ire that day. When we finally stopped, it wasn't a restaurant like I expected, but a townhouse in the older part of the city.
The building itself was ornate and beautiful, but time had worn on it, and the edging of the beautiful home had started crumbling.
"Give us a minute," James ordered the security once I got out, making them back up quite a bit before he turned to me excited.
"Are you really buying me a house?" I asked, shocked he had taken me seriously. He laughed, pulling me to him, the flirtation from earlier still playing in my head, making me wonder when he would finally go to bed with me.
"No. I already own this house."
"Then why bring me here?" I asked curiously. He sighed deeply, getting serious.
"I may not always be around for you, Anaya. If something happens to me, I want you to have a support system here. People who will protect you and take care of you." He told me, glancing at the house. I could hear occasional laughter come from inside, and the warm glow of the yellow lights inside lit up the small sidewalk.
"I see. So this is your family, then. I get the feeling you don't think the crash was an accident. It's odd that I almost die, and you worry about yourself being the target." I said, putting the pieces of the puzzle he had created together.
"I know it was intentional, Anaya...I was supposed to be taking you to get dessert. I cleared it with security, but then I got called away to work. I wanted you to keep the Lambo in case you wanted to leave, so I took my old Tesla. I was supposed to be in the car with you. Also...I called Chase's family since I knew he had a lot of gambling debt. It was all paid off, every cent. It was enough debt it should have taken him ten years to pay." He explained softly, regret lacing every word.
"They were after me. I have a lot of enemies. When you asked me to buy a house, it wasn't enough. I should've bought you an entire apartment building. It was my fault entirely." He admitted, looking down at me with pain in his warm brown eyes.
"All at once, you have become my everything. I never meant to hurt you."
"You didn't mean to. You can't help that other people hate you." I assured him, shaking my head.
"They are right to hate me, Anaya. You're just too naive to see what's right in front of you." He told me honestly. I wanted to comfort him, convince him he was wrong. The door opened interrupting us, and Seph poked his head out.
"Come on in, everyone's waiting!" I squealed with excitement, running to him for a hug, remembering my incision a momement too late.
"Of course you're here," James said loudly, but without real malice, going inside like he owned the place, which he did.
"I had to come back from the Philippines when I heard about your car crash. It was all over the news! The cops are saying it was intentional. Who would want to hurt an angel like you?" He said fondly, earning himself a dirty look from a cute young brunette he was here with.
"How are you, darling?" His mother said, enveloping me in a gentle, warm hug. She smelled like cinnamon, and her long white hair tickled my nose.
"I wasn't expecting to see you so soon, little brother. It's only been a month since your last visit. I'm his sister, Tasha, by the way." A happy, chubby woman said while she made some balls of ground meat. They were cooking what looked like spaghetti and meatballs with garlic bread. James didn't even hesitate and grabbed the lettuce, starting to cut it for a salad.
"Nice to meet you, Tasha. I didn't know you knew how to cook, James." I commented, surprised since I had never seen him cook. He looked embarrassed as his sister and mom laughed at his expense.
"Getting too used to all the help around that penthouse?" Seph asked, bemused, giving me a wink.
"I'm too busy to cook usually. My time is valuable." He explained with a shrug. His mother clicked her tongue in disapproval, giving him some carrots to chop.
"You shouldn't work so much. It's not healthy. You will have a heart attack and die before I do at this rate." His mother said, fussing at him lovingly. I wasn't sure what to do, so I started washing the dishes, only to be stopped by his mother.
"You sit yourself down. I don't know what he was thinking of bringing you here so soon after the crash. I would've brought you some soup, but I wasn't sure if you liked me at all and didn't want to stress you out." His mom explained, forcing me to sit down at the counter facing the small kitchen. It was cramped, as well as the rest of the house. It was full of pictures and small trinkets from years past set out on every surface and felt so lived in. The house radiated love and felt so lively compared to James's sterile apartment.
I had thought maybe his family was dysfunctional in some way, and that was why he was so obsessively clean, but they laughed and smiled, telling stories of when James was a kid to me. They were loving and everything I wished I had growing up. There wasn't a single part of the small townhouse that spoke to James's wealth. I looked around and saw photos from his childhood and teens, as well as his sisters. Paintings from their kindergarten days and all sorts of cheap mementos.
Her son could've been a garbage truck driver, and the house would've looked the same. A baby started crying in the distance, and Tasha stopped her cooking instantly.
"Lincoln's up!" She announced, rushing up the tiny wooden stairs that creaked and came down with an adorable one-year-old baby in a red cotton dress with her hair in a giant bow.
Her hair was black like James's, and her eyes were blue like Tasha's.
"She's adorable," I said, instantly falling in love with the sweet baby.
"Thanks. She's a handful, though." She said, smiling fondly at the sleepy baby before passing her off to James without an ounce of regret.
"You just are not as fun as Uncle James, huh, Lincoln?" James told the baby while throwing her up in the air, immediately earning himself giggles from the ball of chunk.
"I'm too tired to be fun usually." She said, realistically chopping some peppers for the salads quickly.
"Why doesn't the father give you a break?" I asked curiously. Generally, it was the father's task to play with the babies while the mothers did tasks around the house.
"I paid him a boatload of money to get lost, and he's not been seen since," James said with a smirk at Tasha, who just rolled her eyes.
"She had to get with the most dusty guy from Queens, obviously." He explained.
"Did he work in construction? Isn't that uncommon for an American?" I asked, horrified he would pay the guy to get lost because of his dirtiness. Tasha chuckled, amused.
"Dusty, meaning broke and looser. Also, he was Iranian. There are crappy people in every culture, don't let anyone tell you otherwise." She explained brutally.
"Ooooh."
"Corruption knows no bounds, but neither does love." James quipped, a very romantic thing compared to his normal seriousness. His eyes found me, and he smiled in a knowing way.
He had told me he loved me, and I wasn't ready for that yet, but seeing him look at me so lovingly, so obsessed, so unconditionally devoted... made me rethink my desire to not love him.
Watching James play with the baby was a whole different type of emotion. There wasn't an ounce of the cold CEO in those moments. He was doing baby talk, tickling the baby, and his entire expression was alive and beyond happy. I imagined what it would be like to give him his own baby one day, and I felt a flutter in my heart that I had never felt before.
Dinner was delicious, and I ate more than I had in my entire hospital stay combined. Her food warmed me in a delightful way that the hospital food couldn't do.
"I need to use the bathroom," I said before dessert was served.
"Upstairs on the right through the bedroom." His mother explained.
I found the bathroom and used it without issue, but I got distracted in the bedroom. It was slightly less crowded, but it did have another family photo sitting on the nightstand that was worn, and it had what looked like his father in it and another girl who was at least five years older than he was. There weren't any pictures of the two extra people downstairs.
"They are dead." A voice interrupted me, startling me, and I almost dropped the photo.