feel like a child. Yet, I rarely speak up, if ever. At least not out loud.
“You marry Darius then.” That’s one I’ve said in my mind a lot lately.
I’m defiant in my head. Will tell my father and Darius off in a heartbeat. Not so much to their faces.
I snort as I take off my sunglasses, slowly folding them to place them into my bag. I look around the house. Everyone’s moving around to help with plans for some dinner party Darius is having tomorrow.
“Not going to be here for that one,” I mutter under my breath.
“What was that, Ms. Pérez?” Darius’s butler says.
“Oh, running through my to-do list,” I reply with a forced smile.
There I go again. Funny thing, I wasn’t always this way. A people pleaser.
“Your mouth hangs on the hinges of hell,” my mother used to tell me as she’d glare at me.
I was always on punishment for something I said. Life was different then. I had nothing to lose.
And there lies the problem. I have become so complacent, who I am is a blur. All so I don’t lose my father again.
Which is why I plan to give away the one thing my father has always been insistent I hold onto. It’s that or I walk away from it all. I haven’t gained that level of strength yet. I’m still waiting for the day he tells me why he left in the first place.
I guess that’s why in the past I’d been trying so hard to please my dad. Hoping he doesn’t push me all the way away. Twenty-two and still seeking my father’s approval.
Daddy issues much?
“One day needing daddy’s attention is going to bite you in the ass,” I mumble to myself.
“Miss?”
I turn my attention to Norwood, the Butler. “Nothing. Is Darius here?”
“Yes, in the study. I’ll get these bags to your room.”
With a nod, I flip my freshly silk-pressed hair over my shoulder and turn for the study. My heels click against the floor as I make my way down the hall. Raised voices cause me to slow down and silence my steps as I go.
“You’re catching feelings for her,” Richie, Darius’s younger brother bellows. His Dominican accent thick. “I warned you about that shit.”
“Give me a break.”
“No, you give me a break. If you fuck this up, you’ll get us both killed.”
Darius scoffs. “I doubt that. I think you are forgetting who we are. They came to us.”
“You are going to fuck this up.”
“What is there to fuck up? We want her to fall for me, don’t we? Isn’t that what everyone wants? I don’t see the problem,” Darius says as if he’s bored.
“I know you, that’s the problem. You’re getting attached. Soon you will start to change things. Everything is set up to go as planned. You need to do your part.”
“I’ve been doing my part for over a year. Have I not? Her father has given me the green light to propose and I will. Carajo, give it a rest.”
Richie snorts. “I should have been the one to do this.”
Darius laughs. “Ah, sí, we are getting to the problem here. I see now.”
“No, you don’t. I wouldn’t become attached. You and I are very different.”
“Yes, we are. I will get this done because I have to. My feelings will not play a part. I haven’t worked this hard for it to all fall apart.”
“As if this all has been such a hardship on you.”
“You think it hasn’t? Her father has watched our every move since you almost fucked this up. Oh, and the icing on the cake little brother, he threatened me to leave her a virgin until we marry.
“Come on. Have you seen her? She walks around in those heels and she’s always showing off her tight body, I’ve wanted to fuck her from the beginning,” Darius says like an angry child.
I stumble back. At this moment, I’m grateful to my father for ensuring I remained a virgin until married. I have no idea what’s going on, but I don’t like the sound of it in the least.
Both brothers are handsome with their dark hair and hazel eyes against tanned brown skin. Darius being the taller of the two has a nice build and keeps himself well dressed. It’s why losing my virginity to him wasn’t the most revolting idea.
With Darius, it’s always been his attitude holding me at arm’s length. He can be a lot like my father at times, other times he’s overly attentive. Something that has always