Chapter 143

Jerome and I come back a few hours later after an afternoon of light chat. We kept it easy, neither of us wanting to address the elephant between us.

Instead, we talk mostly about horses. When we enter the house we’re too busy laughing, the dregs of our milkshakes still in our hands, to notice Kent standing in the hallway staring at us.

Jerome notices first, stopping in his tracks and clearing his throat, the smile dropping from his face. Kent says nothing, just slowly puts his hands in his pockets and shifts his weight to his back foot, giving us both a long stare.

Something about it – I don’t know what, maybe the arrogance in his stance, or the way that he stopped us both in our tracks just by standing there –

makes me roll my eyes. Despite everything – all of the trauma of the afternoon, and the crazy intimidation I felt on the third floor last night – Kent’s macho bullshit still makes me want to push back.

“My dad wasn’t in the mood to feed me,” I report calmly, “so Jerome took me to get cheeseburgers and milkshakes. You want some?” Innocently, I hold my milkshake out to him, straw first.

Kent’s eyes flick to the milkshake and then back up to my face. “No, Fay,” he responds, his voice low. Then he nods to Jerome, dismissing him.

Jerome is gone before I can even see him move.

“Your father called me,” Kent says, prowling close enough to touch. I refuse to move an inch. “He says you were...disrespectful.” Slowly, he raises a hand to my face, his thumb brushing over the red mark that lingered after my father slapped me. I flinch. Kent drops his hand.

“Why do I get the feeling that you’re giving me the PG version of what he actually said?” I reply, my voice low.

“Because,” Kent replies, still standing close to me. “I didn’t think you’d like it very much if I told you that he called you a conceited, spoiled, ungrateful whore.”

I can’t help the smile that tugs at my lips as I look up into Kent’s face. But I am surprised to see Kent give me one in return. My stomach turns over at the sight of this, at the discovery that I’ve...pleased him. And that I quite liked doing it.

Suddenly, I want to please him again.

But then, just as suddenly, I am hit with flashes of the memories of last night – of how frightened I was when he moved his hand low on my body, touching places no one has touched before. And I flinch away, knowing – deep down – that I’m...I’m just not ready for it. Not now.

“Fay,” Kent says, his voice oddly choked as I take a step back from him, looking at the floor.

“Um,” I say, buying time as I step to the side and work to move past him. “I’m just going to go upstairs –“

Fall For My Ex's Mafia Father Chapter 0142 “Fay,” Kent says again, insistent, placing a hand on my waist in a plea to stop. I hesitate at his gentle hand and look up at him. “Please,” he says, his eyes uncharacteristically wide. “Let me make it up to you...”

“Um,” I reply, hesitating again because I don’t really know what he means. Make what up to me? The horrible lunch he forced me to go to? The embarrassment of Daniel finding out?

But in my heart, I know precisely what he wants to make up for.

I’m just not sure I’m ready to hear it.

So, I push past him, a little surprised when he lets me go, his hand dragging lightly across my stomach as I pull away and move towards the stairs.

“Fay,” Kent calls after me when I’m halfway up the steps, his voice scolding. I look down at him to see the Kent I know has returned, his hands in his pockets, his gaze perfectly controlled. “Don’t forget that we have a contract. And I intend to collect.”