Page 17 of Southie
I guess they were used to being next to him twenty-four seven or something.
The sitting guy turned toward the one who spoke and glared at him. The man dropped his head, but not before he masked the anger that flickered in his eyes.
“Sure thing, boss.”
The seated man sneered and motioned to the other guy. The men who he’d called Johnny and Sean headed out of my father’s office, but not before winking at me and shutting the door behind them.
The silence in the room was deafening. Only the hum of the radiator supplied any sound. My father shot daggers at the stranger from across his desk while the stranger seemed unfazed by my father’s anger.
We continued to stare at one another like we were in a trance. The tip of my tongue darted out and licked my bottom lip, causing the man to smirk, which broke me from my daze.
I shook my head and turned to my father. “Um…I’m sorry, Daddy. I didn’t know you were in a meeting. I’ll straighten up in the gym until you’re ready to leave.”
My dad sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. His shoulders slumped, but he wouldn’t look at me. From his demeanor, my intrusion on his meeting frustrated him.
I turned to leave, my hand hovering on the doorknob, when that deep baritone voice cascaded over my skin like the finest silk.
“No, you sit,” he commanded in a calm but stern voice.
I turned around. My eyes widened in surprise and then narrowed.
“Excuse me?”
My voice rose a few octaves, and I glared at him, challenging his command for me to sit. The stranger was fine as hell. Not the normal fine, but like male stripper fine and had the sexiest voice I’d heard on anyone in my entire life.
But who was he to order me around?
The audacity of this man!
A smirk stretched across his beautiful face, and he flicked his finger towards the chair. “Sit.”
I lifted my brow at his order and crossed my arms over my chest. His eyes drifted down my body and back to my eyes. Along with fine, I was adding cocky to the list of things about this man who had the boldness to ogle me in front of my father.
“We keep her out of business,” my father growled.
His voice infiltrated my and the unknown man’s intense stare down. Most of the time, I tried to avoid confrontation, but something about this stranger made me want to stand my ground, push his buttons to see how much I’d get away with. His directive sent tingles through my body straight to the junction between my thighs. My body craved the challenge he could give me.
My father’s voice, stern and calm, pulled my attention away from the man to concentrate on him. He’d aged so much since my mother’s death. His once slightly graying hair was now pure white, and his smooth chocolate skin was now ashen gray with black circles underneath his light brown eyes. We moved to Boston to help with the healing process, but it was the worst move we made.
His body looked tired. It was still in peak condition for a man his age, but unless you were family or a close friend, you wouldn’t notice the weight he’d lost since her passing.
For a few days after her death, he refused to eat. In the weeks following, when he gained some of his appetite back, he ate only broths and soups. Now, he ate more solid foods but not large meals. He hadn’t returned to his full weight, but he was getting there.
My father’s eyes once held a glint of mischief and excitement, but they were vacant now. Soulless. Cold. Dead. His hard stare at the man conveyed he wanted to do more than just talk. He looked like he wanted to come across his desk. By the looks of it, my dad had regressed into his fighting days and that meant he was deadly.
This version of my dad, I’d only seen when he was directing his fighters, on old videotapes from his days as a professional fighter, and when I’d had my incident with Frankie. But he stared at this guy like an opponent.
While he had some age on him now, this guy insisting on me staying for whatever was going on was pushing my dad’s buttons. And that could be detrimental to this man’s health. My father was someone you didn’t want to mess with. Whatever I’d walked in on wasn’t good and me being here just made things worse.
“Of course, Mr. Jennings. I try my best not to involve women in business.” At the sound of the stranger’s voice, my eyes connected once again with his. “However, I want to get a better understanding of your situation and conclude this tonight.”
His gaze drifted down my body before returning to my face.
He then crossed his legs at the knee and tilted his head, motioning towards the chair. “Sit, Ms. Jennings. Please. It’ll just be a few minutes longer. We are about to finish. Then everyone can go on with their night.”
Unsure of what to do, I looked from the man to my father. I’d already defied my father by showing up at the gym. I didn’t want to sit if my father wanted me to leave regardless of what the man wanted. Even though he was a stranger, by my father’s rigid posture and intense glower, this man was no friend.
When my father nodded, I sat in the other chair against the wall across from the gorgeous stranger. He turned his attention back to my father whose fists clenched and unclenched in his lap. I could feel the tension in the room now that I was paying attention instead of eyeing the handsome man. It was suffocating.
