CHAPTER 15 PART 1

C H A P T E R - - - - F I F T E E N - - - - R E I D A N

Reidan felt like the sun was shining directly down on his head the next morning as he headed toward the Bianco compound. He couldn’t keep this stupid smile off his face, even though he knew he looked ridiculous, walking around smiling at absolutely nothing. But he just couldn’t help himself.

His body was so content, so happy, so relaxed for the first time in what felt like years, honestly. Even with previous Subs, he’d never felt this way after sex. It was the most satisfying, invigorating experience of his entire life, and this was all after the first time he’d fucked Selena. He couldn’t even imagine what things could be like between them if they got to know each other’s bodies more intimately.

He was whistling a little bit as he headed into the office, nodding at people who still looked back at him with flat, mournful faces, allegedly sympathizing with him over the loss of his father. Reidan knew it was terrible, and he was also aware that he was probably going to pay the price for this down the line when the full reality of his father’s death actually hit him, but for the moment, he was practically grateful for the loss.

If it hadn’t happened, he never would have met Selena or, at least, not for a long time. He felt so free, so full of glorious, healing light. He felt like all of his wounds were closing up, one by one by one by one, just because of Selena’s wonderful, submissive touch. God, he was so lucky. He’d never felt this happy before.

“What’s the news, kid?” Reidan asked as he stepped into his office. Selena was waiting at her desk already, her hair tied back into an impossibly tight bun at the top of her head. Reidan couldn’t wait until he saw her that night; when he could let that hair down about her shoulders again, mess it up, get it dirty and wet from sweat. God, he was getting a little hard just thinking about it…

“Um, you have a visitor,” Selena replied, staring down blankly at her desk. There was a stack of papers in front of her, but Reidan could tell by watching her facial expression that she wasn’t actually reading any of the words on the page.

She’s trying not to look at me, Reidan realized, feeling a small twinge of pain in his chest as a result. But he tried not to let himself feel offended by it. She probably just feels awkward because this is the first time she’s seeing me at the office after we fucked, Reidan reasoned to himself. It’s normal for her to feel weird around me right now. She’s a good girl without a lot of experience in this kind of thing. She’s not used to this situation yet. But it’ll get easier as time goes on.

“Who is it?” Reidan asked, even though he really didn’t care that much. He was disappointed that he couldn’t devote every last minute of his work time to Selena—to learning more about what she knew while staring at her gorgeous face and body in the process. Anything else felt like a waste of time in comparison.

“It’s your mother,” Selena said, her tone stiff and strange like she was nervous.

Reidan felt a little bit of worry strike him as he stared down at her for a minute, wondering if anything else was going wrong. It took him a few seconds to realize what Selena had actually said, but when it hit him, he felt the old familiar crushing sensation of dread return to him. Goddammit. His fucking mother. What did she want?

“How long has she been waiting?” Reidan tried to cover up how disappointed and annoyed he felt, even though he really wished he could whine and stomp his feet and refuse to see his mother. She wasn’t like other Italian moms—she didn’t go around trying to feed everybody or laugh too loud, or drink too much wine. She was a weapon of a woman: sharp, hard and frightening. She’d forged her sons out of the flames of disapproval, and she was continually disappointed that they still hadn’t turned out to be good enough. Reidan really didn’t need to have his good mood brought down by maternal judgment.

“She’s been in there, um, about fifteen minutes,” Selena answered, still not looking up from her piece of paper to meet Reidan’s eyes. He silently wished that she would look at him, at least once, if only to give him a little spark of strength to prepare for the battle he was about to face. “In your old office, that is. She didn’t want to wait in here with me.”

Reidan couldn’t suppress an eye-roll at that, for numerous reasons. For one thing, it was just like his mom to make him meet with her in his old office, practically telling everybody in the compound that she didn’t accept him as his father’s replacement yet. He didn’t need that kind of disrespect when he was still fighting to get people to recognize him as the leader.

And for another thing, it was obvious that his mother still thought Selena had slept with Giovanni before he died, which Reidan now knew was completely ridiculous. Anybody only had to meet Selena a few times before they’d be able to realize that she was incapable of sleeping with an old guy just to get at his money. She just wasn’t that type of woman.

In any case, Reidan inhaled deeply and steeled himself, trying to build up an emotional wall so that his mother wouldn’t be able to say anything to damage his ego. “Right,” he said, more to himself than to Selena now that he realized it was pointless to try to get her to acknowledge him right now. “I’ll try to be quick, and then we can pick up the conversation from yesterday and keep going.”

He quickly exited the office and crossed the hall, highly aware that his mother was certain to be incredibly annoyed that she’d had to wait on him for several minutes already. She wasn’t going to be soft on him today. That much was for sure.

“Mother,” he said as he entered his old office, shutting and locking the door behind him so that they wouldn’t be disturbed by anybody.

“Hello, son,” Mama Bianco said. She was sitting behind Reidan’s old desk and gestured for him to take the other seat as if he was the visitor in this situation rather than the new boss of the whole organization. “How have you been?”

Reidan had to bite back a laugh at that. He knew his mother didn’t care about his life, especially since he hadn’t bothered to check in with her at all before Giovanni died. He couldn’t help but notice that she’d lost weight since the last time he’d seen her, over a year before. She looked a little ragged, all of the bones and veins in her neck sticking out prominently every time she spoke or breathed.

“I’ve been fine. Of course, except for the obvious. I’m so sorry, Ma. I know Dad was everything to you.”

“It’s all right,” his mother said stiffly, putting down the newspaper she’d been perusing to look him directly in the eyes. There was already something hard and sharp, something accusatory hiding in her eyes. She wasn’t happy. “Have you been adjusting well to the new position?”

Reidan was a little taken aback by that. He’d expected her to launch into a tirade right off the bat, telling him all the ways that he’d already failed as boss. But instead, she was acting genuinely interested, maybe even concerned about him. What was going on? This wasn’t the way his mother usually was. She was all business, no bullshit, no time for any mushy feelings or anything else that might possibly detract from the business, from the bottom line. It was all about profit for Mama Bianco. Reidan was convinced that she was incapable of understanding anything else.