Page 10 of Santa Daddy

Chapter Ten - Charles

I want to pound my chest and roar in some stupid display of victory. She’s not dating him. They’re not together. Part of me wishes she had told me sooner but they’re close, obviously supportive of each other. It's nice to know my son has friends like that. Friends. They’re just friends!

Persuasion for her to come up to my apartment instead of going back to hers fails. She’s adamant she has to get some work done. If she hadn’t said that, I would have gone back up with her but there is no way I would be able to let her work after finding out she’s uncommitted. I don’t know what I’m thinking; why would a young woman like her want to see an older man like me? She’s friends with my son for crying out loud. However, there’s no denying I’ve been completely consumed with her since that very first night. I’m hers to use and abuse for as long as she’ll have me.

The apartment is quiet, so I put on music quietly and get ready for bed by jumping in the shower with a glass of whisky. The hot steam feels nice and relaxes my muscles so much that when I lay on the bed, I nearly fall asleep instantly. If the host of this landlord ever decides he is going to stop letting this out to me, I’m stealing the bed. The mattress is better than the one I have in the apartment I stay in, in Dubai.

Chirp… chirp… chirp…

My mind struggles to decipher what the noise is until I look over and see Lillian’s name and picture across the screen. It’s probably not one I should have on there considering she’s posing in only her underwear, looking down at me as she straddled my hips.

“Baby girl?” I think my mind is playing tricks on me because the phone stays silent. I check the screen to make sure the call is still there. “You there?”

“Charles. I’m so confused! Chuck was here when I got back!”

It takes a second for my brain to wake up again but when it does, I know what’s happened. I thought it was too good to be true. A man only waits outside a woman's apartment for one reason. “He loves you.”

“I don’t know! He doesn’t know! He was just babbling about not finding a woman he has interest in like he does me and not wanting to lose me. A lot of what he said didn’t make sense, and I don’t think he even knew what he was going on about. I’m just about to log on to a meeting with a client. I’m so confused but can I come up when it’s over? I just feel unsettled.” I can hear the chime of a computer starting up in the background.

“Of course. I’ll wait for you.”

She sighs with relief before saying a quick goodbye and cutting off the call. He can’t mean what he’s said to her. I’m probably to blame with what I said to him at lunch. Did it make him worry that he will lose her if another man comes and snatches her up? Is he scared he will lose his friendship with her? Because I never saw him have any kind of attraction toward her at that party. I wonder if they have every gone past the line of friends. If they had slept together before, then that could be the reason. Me and my big mouth. Any state of zen I had reached from my shower is shot to shit as I sit on the bed, waiting for her to come up. Not even the novel on my nightstand is enough to distract me.

What am I supposed to do when I’m in competition with my son? I wonder how she left it. She can’t have any reflecting feelings for him if she called me straightaway and asked to come up and see me. Although that isn’t a guarantee. Women do weird and unexplainable things at times.

I cross the apartment the fastest I ever have when I hear her knock. She steps in, dumping her coat on the chair as she walks straight past me to the living room. She’s already in her sleepwear underneath. Pretty pink silk pajamas cling to her full-figured body in a way that highlights every perfect curve.

“Oh, hell no! Don’t you go looking at me like that. I didn’t come up here for sex! I came up here to solve this! Your son came very close to finding out about us tonight and for some unknown reason he’s now thinking he hasn’t had any interest in dating other women because he’s had me!” She begins doing laps around the table as she frowns in deep thought. “Why on earth would he think I could be the right woman for him? We have been friends for years!”

“It could have been me. I said to make sure he didn’t lose you.” I sit down in an armchair adjacent to the table so I can watch her walk in circles around it. She stops on the spot and slowly turns toward me at my admission.

“Why would you say that him?” She stares at me incredulously. “Why?”

“I was trying to trip him up. He was still telling me you two were dating! I just wanted to scare him into realizing that if he didn’t love you undeniably, then he shouldn’t be with you.”

She crosses her arms as she stares at me, and I suddenly get the feeling of being a naughty schoolboy about to be told off. “So instead you’ve scared him into thinking he should be dating me because he must have feelings for me if he can’t find any interest in other women.”

I wince as she looks mad enough to spit nails.

“Charles! What were you thinking?” She sits down on one of the dining room chairs, avoiding looking at me as she slumps down on it. “This is a fucking mess. What was I thinking getting involved with my best friend’s father…?” It’s a question to herself but it might as well have been screamed at me with how hard it hits. I hadn’t thought about the position I’m putting her in by dating her. She spends more time with my son than I do. She's more supportive of him and probably has far more insight as to why he is being the way he is, and I’m not exactly being helpful with that.

Getting up out of my chair, I kneel down in front of her. “I’m sorry. I’m not dealing with the thought of competition for your affection.”

“He could have found out today. We need to be very careful!” I can see the stress sit heavy around her eyes.

“Baby girl, please stop worrying about everything. We will figure this out as we go. It won’t be fixable tonight.” I lean forward and nuzzle into her neck until she relaxes in her chair, opening her legs to let me get closer. Without giving her any warning, I grab her hips and pull them against mine, eliciting a gasp and a giggle from her as her body automatically rubs against mine.

“You’re a horn dog.”

Only for her.

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