Page 81 of Claimed By my Father's Enemies
"What is wrong with you?" I retaliate. "Why do you keep dragging me into rooms and telling people to get out?"
He starts pacing. I can see his nostrils flare while he takes deep breaths trying to calm himself down. I just stare at him, bracing for the moment all his coiled energy releases.
He stops.
Looks at me.
"What kind of games do you think you are playing?"
I don't understand the question. "Games?"
He takes a step toward me. Then another. I hold my ground. My pulse kicks up. I don’t feel threatened. What I feel when he gets this close to me is not what I should be feeling right now.
It is want. Direct, inconvenient want, and I am furious at myself for it.
"I saw you." Another step. "I saw you going behind Adrian's back." He gestures toward the window, the party below. "The second he left you alone you were all over Carter."
I open my mouth. I need to say something. I need to defend myself.
Nothing comes out.
Because what do I say to that? That I am with both of them? That no one is being deceived? I look at William's face and I can see that he has already decided. The words die before I find them.
I look through the window. Carter is back at the bar. By the way he is moving through the edge of the crowd I can tell he is looking for me. I raise my hand without thinking, a small wave.
"One way glass," William says. "We can see them. They can't see us."
I drop my hand. I keep my eyes outside that window. Adrian has now joined Carter and they are now talking at the bar.
And all the while William keeps volleying accusations at me. Saying that he will not let me hurt his friends. That they deserve better.
And something inside me snaps. "Why the fuck do you hate me so much?"
I don't swear. Well, I almost never swear. But, it was effective to shock William into silence.
I take a breath. Then another. I push the anger down far enough to speak from underneath it.
"I know my father fired your father. I know your family had to leave. And the thing with Charlie—" I stop. Start again. "I was sixteen. I was a kid and—"
He starts walking toward me. Slowly.
He brings his face down close to mine and I stop talking.
He looks into my eyes. Then my mouth. Then to my eyes again.
When he speaks his voice is deadly quiet. "Want to know why I hate you? Because you are his daughter. You lived a privileged life inside that house while my family lost everything." A pause. "WhileI lost everything." Another pause, longer. "You want to know what he did to me?"
He takes off his jacket letting it fall to the floor.
I watch it fall.
His hands go to his tie. He pulls it loose. Drops it.
"What are you doing?" but he doesn’t answer
His hands go to his shirt buttons and he starts jerking each one open. The shirt hangs open. He pulls it off his shoulders and drops it.
He is standing in front of me and my brain goes briefly and entirely offline.
