-Mia-
My arm was hurting when I woke up but I was surprisingly comfortable. I snuggled deeper into my warm pillow. The pillows arms pulled me closer, their strong arms holding me.
Wait what?
I opened my eyes, blinking a few times as I looked at someone's bare chest. Damn it was hot. I looked up to see him smirking down at me. I scoffed, smiling slightly. "It feels like everywhere I go, you're there. Quit following me, stalker." I attempted to get up but couldn't because of his arms. I groaned.
"Vince let go."
"Make me."
"I'm going to pee myself."
"Piss on me."
"That's disgusting."
"You ain't going nowhere."
"Seriously, let go."
He moved on top of me, his arms either side of me. "Why should I?" I slapped his arms, wiggling as I tried to move.
"I'm on my period."
"Get out my bed."
He let go and I smirked at my lie. "Joking." I called out as I went into the bathroom. I used the toilet, washed my hands then went back into the room seeing him sat up and on his phone. I leaned against the doorway. "Why did you bring me to your bed?" I asked as he looked up at me. He shrugged, "you look good against my chest."
I raised an eyebrow at his reply. There was something about this guy. "Well," I said, "that won't happen again and I need to go back to my room to get changed. I'll come back in an hour." I didn't give him a chance to reply and went out the room. I peeked through April's room to see her still snoozing under her covers. I would let her father take care of her.
I went out the house and walked to the other building.
-Vincenzo-
I showered, got dressed into some black jeans, a white shirt and a large black leather jacket. I put my lip ring in and my Jordans on before going into my daughters room.
I wasn't going to work today, I wanted to spend the day with April. I hadn't seen her in a while and wanted to make the most of my time with her.
Me and her mother had a rota. April would stay with me most of the time and Bianca would have her once in a while. There were some exceptions when it came to holidays. On Mother's Day, she would be with her mother, on Father's Day she would be with me. Every other holiday she would be with me. Bianca didn't want April in the first place and almost had an abortion. If I hadn't came through that door, my beautiful child wouldn't be here.
Bianca needed a home and a job. All her family were dead except her mother and she barely got along with her so she worked here and and stayed at the maid's house. April would stay at her grandmothers house when she would be with her mother and Bianca would go and visit her there but slept at the maids house. She couldn't stand her mother.
The woman still wanted me and often made sexual advances at me which I always brushed off. We weren't together and would never be together. I only had eyes for one woman only: Mia Feather. I only had Bianca around because of April, if not, I would of kicked her out ages ago.
"Grace . . Svegliate." {Grace . .Wake up}. I pulled the covers away, shaking her gently. She quietly moaned, shuffling away. "I'm sleepy." I kneeled beside her bed, kissing her cheek. "Wakey wakey." She rubbed her eyes, still not opening them. "I'm not awake," she let out fake snoring sounds. I chuckled, "hmm. .I guess April is asleep. There's only one way to find out." I let out a monstrous growl, "here comes the tickle monster." I roared, tickling her and she immediately giggled, trying to stop me from tickling.
"No! Not. The. Tickle. . .monster!" She laughed, squirming and giggling. I lifted her up, holding her in my arms as I tickled. I stopped after a bit, allowing her to calm down. I sat on her strong bed, holding her small hand in mine. "Did you have fun yesterday?" She nodded, her breathing calming down. "The lady was very nice, papa. Can she come to the tea party today?"
April Grace was a clever girl. Her vocabulary was better than the average three year old child. Although at times she mispronounced words, she knew English well.
I never get let her know what I worked as or what I was involved in. As far as she knew, I was just a businessman and SuperDaddy, a new superhero that she had made up for me. She thought I always went on adventures in the night to save the world. April had a wild imagination. I tried to keep her away from work as much as possible, I wanted her to have a carefree life. To be happy, always.
"Well," I started, shaking my head. "Today we are doing something much better," she furrowed her eyebrows, confused. "We are going to the aquarium." She squealed, hugging me tightly. She was beaming, extremely happy at the news. April loved animals and said she wanted to live in a farm. I was planning on getting her a dog, but I wasn't sure on what breed. She needed a companion to protect her when I wasn't always there.
I got her clean and changed then combed her hair. She whined, telling me that I was hurting her. I apologised, trying to go softer but it was hard. April had curly, thick hair from her mother's side and it wasn't always easy to deal with. I decided to let it out and added some flowers into her hair before taking her into the kitchen for breakfast.
I fed her some porridge and fruit and then took her into the living room to play with some dolls.
She handed me a naked Barbie with blonde hair and pink lips that were stretched out into a smile. "Daddy, look, boobies." She giggled at this, handing me some clothes to put on her. I chortled, attempting to put them on as I sat beside her, in front of the large dollhouse. Once I finally got them on, we played a bit.
"Oh no! The baby is crying!" She made a loud crying sound, shaking the baby in its cot. "Papa!" She whispered, gesturing at me to move the doll. "Oh," I said, finally paying attention. "I'll go see the baby, everyone!" I said in a high pitch voice. April giggled, playing with the small children. I moved the Barbie's arms to hold the baby, cradling it. I fucked up by dropping the baby.
April gasped. "Daddy! You dropped the baby!" My eyes widened, I put the doll back into Barbie's arms. "We have to call the hospital!"
So we ended the 'episode' with the baby dying. There was a long and tedious funeral where April fake cried for the dolls and got the mother pregnant again by whispering abracadabra to her stomach. "Is that how babies are born, daddy?" I hesitated, before saying, "yes, that's how you were born."
"I knew it!" She whispered.
"Can we go to the aqwarium now?" She whined, bored. I stood up, bending down and holding her before kissing her cheek. "Not yet. We need to wait for the pretty lady." She giggled as I took her on the couch, switching on my large tv.
"Is she your gwirlfwiend?"
"Girlfriend," I corrected her, flipping through the kids channels. "And no. But she will be soon. Will you help me?" She clapped her hands, "yes." April knew me and her mother weren't together. When she was younger she figured it out, like I said earlier, she wasn't dumb. Bianca would often have on and off boyfriends which I and April didn't like. I didn't want other men around my daughter. April played with my lip ring while watching TV.
"The pretty lady is coming with us to the aquarium."
-Mia-
"The aquarium?"
Vincenzo nodded, shoving his hands in his pockets. "Yeah, you're coming with us." I was bewildered. I cleared my throat, leaning against the counter. The aquarium? Why was I invited?
"You know," I said, "when you told me about this job, you said it was a maid's job. You didn't say anything about babysitting or going on family trips." I enjoyed babysitting April but I wasn't sure what Vincenzo was thinking at the same time. He always had a plan for things.
"Yeah, I also said that you had to do everything I said. Deal with it."
I glanced into the living room, seeing April sing along to a children show's theme song. I'd do it for her. "Okay, can I change?" I asked, causing him to look at me from head to toe. He nodded, "don't take too long."
I went back into the maid's quarters and got changed into my light blue, high waisted skinny jeans and a cotton pink shirt. I slipped on my converses before tying my hair into a ponytail. I added some makeup on then but buttoned up my oversized shirt, spraying some perfume on my way out.
I walked into the foyer to see Cat. She was walking out of her room, her hand on her head. I approached her, smiling. "Hey. .what in the. ." I couldn't believe my eyes. She had large hand imprints on her neck and a small bruise on her head that looked painful. She was shaking, her eyes red. "Cat?" I softly asked, going to move her hand away from her neck but she flinched, taking a step back. "Y-yeah?"
What was going on? Something clearly wasn't right and I had to get to the bottom of it. First the bedroom incident and now this.
"What. .what's going on? What happened?" She shook her head, attempting to crack a smile. "What do you mean? I'm fine. I hit my head in the bath that's all, it hurt like hell," she chuckled, her voice shaky. She was pretending, I could see through her lie. "Okay," I said, playing along. "That doesn't explain your neck."
She swallowed, looking down and biting her lip. "When I saw you in that room," I started but she shook her head again. "Please. .don't. It's embarrassing enough what happened." I still wasn't convinced and she still hadn't answered my question.
"You looked sad."
She exhaled loudly before saying, "it hurt, that's all. I haven't slept with anyone in a while. I wasn't sad. Me and . ." She looked pained as she said the next few words. "Me and him just . .well, it's just . . We were being kinky." I slowly processed her words, catching on after a while. I nodded, unfazed. "Cat. ." I went to touch her arm but she moved away. "Look, I don't want to talk about it, okay?" I frowned at her sudden harsh tone. She left, going into the elevator.
I sighed, going down the stairs. Something wasn't right but I thought I was just being silly. I was making her uncomfortable.
I went back into Vincenzo's house to see him zipping up April Grace's coat. She smiled at me, waving. "Hi!" I grinned back at her, zipping my own coat. "Hey." Vincenzo lifted her up, giving me a grin, "let's go."
We went into another black Range Rover. "No driver?" I asked, looking around as I fixed April in her pink car seat. He shook his head, "just us three." He looked at April, "Grace, close your eyes." She did as she was told, frowning as did I at those words. He kissed her forehead and suddenly her head dropped. My eyes widened, "what did you . ." I trailed off, noticing the needle in his hand.
I scoffed, "why would you do that? Why can't your own daughter know the whereabouts? How does she go to-" I felt a prick in my neck and I fell asleep, the darkness dragging me in.
I woke up by a deep, husky voice calling my name. I yawned, opening my eyes to meet Vincenzo's. I touched my neck, groaning. "Good you're awake. We're here now." I heard April giggle behind me. I took off my seatbelt, stretching. I turned to see her, bouncing in her car seat. Vincenzo went out the car, opening at April's side and took her out her car seat, holding her. I opened my door, stepping out and shutting the door behind me. I sighed, looking around to see families going in and out the entrance.
"Here we go," Vincenzo murmured, leading us inside. He looked cute holding April. He was so tall and she was so small in his arms, like a little baby. His arm was under her butt and other arm was around her torso, holding her not too tightly. "Here," he said as we stood in the queue to show our tickets. He passed April to me carefully, I held her as he talked to the security guard.
"I wanna walk!" She whined, wiggling in my arms, "not yet," I replied, glancing at Vincenzo as he gave the man tickets. Once the man had checked our tickets, he let us in and we follow Vincenzo as we started to go into the aquarium.
"Wow!" April gasped as I put her down, holding her hand as we walked slowly. There were so many fishes swimming in the large tanks at each side of us. I and April were amazed. I switched on my phone, something I hadn't been able to do in a while to see forty two miss calls from Faith and fifty eight messages from her. I bit my lip, making a mental note to call her.
I snapped a few pictures, a couple with April and Vincenzo in then out my phone away, focusing on the sea creatures. April stopped, gasping at the tank. A large shark passed and she took a step back, holding onto her father's leg. He looked down and chuckled, pushing her to the tank. She shrieked as he moved her, I shook my head at Vincenzo, grabbing her and picking her up.
I held her in my arms and moved to the tank, placing my hand against the cold, glass surface. She did the same, her eyes filled with surprise as the animal came towards us, it's dangerous eyes looking at us, it's target. It thumped against the glass, looking as though it was glaring at us before swimming away, slowly.
"That was big!" I nodded, "yeah, it is. Come on, let's see the rest." We walked along to see turtles in the 'touching section'. The sign allowed us to touch the shells of the turtles. Me and April touched the bumpy shell of the turtle. April giggled as it reminded her of a show she had watched. I glanced at Vincenzo who was staring at us. I couldn't quite decipher what was going on in his eyes.
I looked away, moving to see the starfish. I touched it's hard, sandpaper like skin, as did April. I shifted her on my hip, my arm beginning to hurt. "It's so hard," April said, her hands splashing in the water. I moved her away to see the other fishes in the larger tanks. I looked back at Vincenzo who seemed more quiet than usual.
"Are you okay?" I asked, concern. He snapped his head towards me, giving me a smirk. "Why? You worried?" I rolled my eyes, putting April down so she could see the animals herself. "Can we see the other animals?" She was looking towards the other side of the room to see a crowd watching as the seals did tricks in and out of the water.
Not waiting for Vincenzo's reply, I took her to the crowd, holding her on my hip but she still couldn't see. Vincenzo came beside me and took her, placing her on his shoulders, her hands on his head as she giggled, "Daddy!" I hadn't realised I was frowning at this until Vincenzo spoke saying, "oh don't worry," I raised an eyebrow at him, going on my tip toes to stroke April's hand and she watched the seal show.
"I can be your daddy too if you want."
I know this man did not just say that.
I coughed, choking on my own saliva. I cleared my throat, my eyes widened. "That-that was inappropriate." He let out a deep chuckle, "you sure? Show me to the bedroom and we'll see." I was blushing hard and feeling incredibly warm inside. I was embarrassed and felt awkward and uncomfortable. "N-no thanks." The show ended and Vince said no more. He stood there smirking as he led us to a restaurant beside the aquarium.
We sat on a bench outside. I ordered some chips and a burger while Vincenzo asked for a salad and April asked for chicken nuggets. "Salad?" I asked Vince, watching him eat. "Out of all the food, you chose a salad?" He shrugged, patting his flat stomach, "how else do you expect me to keep this up?" I shook my shoulders, "it wouldn't hurt once in a while to have a take away."
He gave me a what-the-hell look as he chewed on another piece of lettuce. "Here," I said, pushing some of my burger at him. "Taste it."
"What?"
"Try it, it's some good stuff."
"Yeah, papa, eat!"
He rolled his eyes, "you are acting as though I have never had a burger before." I pushed the plate closer to him. "Because you act like it, now eat it." He sighed, picking up the burger and hesitantly parted his lips. Groaning, he took a large bite and placed the burger down, chewing emotionlessly. He swallowed, taking his water and gulping it down quickly.
I raised an eyebrow, waiting for his reaction, "well?" He shrugged, going back to his salad, "it's alright. I still prefer salads." I rolled my eyes finishing my burger and my Fanta. I wiped April's mouth as she also finished her food and let her drink out of her juice carton.
I glanced at Vincenzo, almost chuckling at him. "What?" He asked, curiously. "You have a. ." I gestured at the corner of his mouth. Sighing, I grabbed a clean napkin and wiped the corner of his mouth, taking away the mayonnaise.
"There."
We went home after that and when we came back, it was dark. I yawned, waking up from the injection and stretched. I opened the door, closing it behind me as I followed Vincenzo into his house as he carried a sleeping April.
He changed her and tucked her into bed as she slept, kissing her cheek and telling her that he loved her as I watched in the doorway. We left the glowing room, going downstairs. "Well," I said, "I'll see you tomorrow if that's all you want me to do." He took a step closer as I took a step back, my back on the wall. "No, that's not all I want you to do."
I blinked, scared at how close we were. "Uh. .w-what do you want me to do?" He pulled a strand of hair away from my face. "I want you to let me kiss you." I gulped, my hands sweaty as I looked into his hazel eyes.
"I'm scared to," I quietly admitted, glancing down at his lips.
"Why?" He whispered back, his hands on the wall, either side of me, trapping me.
"Because whenever I kiss you, I feel love."
"Is that such a bad thing?" He quietly asked, our noses touching.
I nodded, "y-yes."
"Let's find out."
His lips brushed against mine, about to kiss me when a loud voice interrupted us.
"Eww, ya nasties!"
_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
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