KING (Mistress & Master of Restraint) (35 page)

“No!” Niel angrily shouts- the anger directed inward. “No fucking way were her parents prepared for this shit,” he insanely screams, the vein in his forehead pops out and his eyes bulge. “And I doubt she’s on birth control… I’ll deal with the consequences.”

“What the fuck, Niel?”
My hands flutter in the air, frustratingly useless. I have no words to describe the state Niel is in or the words to solve it.

“Hit me or something. Make it hurt. Beat the ever loving shit out of me until I can’
t feel anymore,” he pathetically begs. “I can’t feel this. Please, if you’ve ever loved me make it go away,” he pleads with me, kneeling on the floor with tears streaming down his cheeks.

“I don’t understand?
Tell me what I can do to fix this, please,” I whimper.

“I’m going to be sick,” Niel moans, charging towards the wastepa
per basket. I get to him just as he begins to wretch. I can tell the kid didn’t even have a drop to drink. His emotions are stressing him out to the point of vomiting.

“Oh, Niel,”
I cry. I rub his back while he convulses over the basket. “Shhh… You’ll be okay.”

“No,” Niel desperately
cries, wiping his face with the back of his hand.  He gazes up at me with agonized emerald eyes. “I’ll never be the same after this. I have to be with Ava because it is demanded of me, but it hurts us. It’s not right. None of it was right.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I lost my virginity on my eighteenth birthday,” Niel despondently replies.

“
I know,” I murmur, gently patting his back. “It’s usually a cause of celebration, not regurgitation.”

Niel
sadly smiles at me and captures my gaze. He opens his mouth a few times but no words spill out. Finally, when he shores up his resolve, he blurts out, “I didn’t lose it to Ava… and after tonight, I’d rather cut my own dick off than be inside her.” 

“Who?”
I whisper, and he barely breathes his reply.

My brain takes a vacation
, and all I can think of is: if I were a top player in the Master of the Universe game, Niel would have scored my team a trillion points. Hell, an infinite amount of points.

Jesus Christ, my kid just ruined himself for life.

~Chapter Thirty-One~

When one door closes, another opens
…

I refuse to begin my new life with Dalton until my old life has met its conclusion. Regina was th
e most important factor in my life. Every step I took was on the determination of how it would affect her. If the course of our lives hadn’t drastically changed, Grant would have been that person. But it
did
change, and I survived by taking care of something precious for Regina. That precious boy is now a man, and it’s time for me to let go.

It’s time for me to grow up and become Daniel Whittenhower. I may share a name with two people, but I
will
be an individual.

Ninety days… ninety days you must wait to finalize your divorce. It is a three-month to
rture session. Even though you
know
it’s for the best, the doubts creep in. Uncertainty assaults you at every turn. Can I be selfish and not care about the consequences? Will Niel and Ella understand that even if I’m not married to their mother, I will always be their Dad? Does Regina understand that this doesn’t lessen my love for her? Does Dalton get that nothing will rip Regina from my heart? A divorce isn’t like an exorcism- Regina is firmly rooted in place and this isn’t some quick fix. Divorcing Regina won’t solve any of our problems, with the exception of righting a wrong.

It was wrong to marry Regina- wrong reasons and wrong people. I could have kept them all safe without a legally binding union. My conniving nature blinded me to any other solution. Wrong or right, we did get married. And now, I don’t know how to say goodbye.

I don’t know how to let my Queen go…

Months
of couples therapy- of spending every free moment with Dalton, and I can still feel Regina with me. She’s my background noise. She’s my moral compass, the mirror I gaze into that tells me if I’ve went off course.

I’d always wondere
d what put that dead look in Regina’s eyes. Grant. He never left her. It’s why he can ruin her and she will still love him. They weren’t meant to be together, but her soul doesn’t care about that. Just as mine doesn’t care that I’m meant to be with Dalton… Once someone becomes a part of you and you have to let them go… that hole in your heart will never mend.

Tonight I should feel proud of all I’ve accomplished, but the papers in my pocket are burning my soul. Tomorrow I will no l
onger be a husband or Regina a wife. It’s surreal.

Alt is nearing completion. It’
s still months from opening because every minute detail must be perfect. My home was completed weeks ago. Dalton and I chose everything in our first home, down to the patina of the fixtures and the pattern on the silver. We move in tomorrow after I file the papers with the court. I’ve never felt so sure of anything in my life, and that includes Regina.

Dalton:
thoughts of him have me placing the paper on Alt’s mahogany bar. I quickly sign my given name before hesitation changes my mind. My signature is written with a shaky hand. Heart bleeding and pounding in my chest, I fold the document back up and stuff it into my pocket. One last signature and my old life will be over- the ultimate closure.

A cute whining draws my attention. I bark a laugh at one of the greatest pleasure in my life. “Ah, Vixen, do you have to go potty?” The black French
Bulldog shakes her tiny tail and her entire backside at the same time. “No tail to shake, so ya gotta shake your hiney?” I tease my pup.

“Wicked,” I yell in the large empty club, “Potty.”
Wicked immediately charges in with his leash resting in his soft mouth. “I guess you’re ready, too.” Vixen just wants to play, but Wicked loves learning tricks. His favorite is carrying around his leash, signaling that he wants to walk to the park.

I’d thought the kids were in love with the p
ups until I saw Dalton’s eyes light up. He’d never had a pet. Since we’ve been living apart, we share the puppies. They spend one night with me and the next with him. Tonight’s the last night I have to sleep alone. Tomorrow night I’ll have the love of my life in bed next to me and our dogs curled at our feet.

I open
the door while my eyes are on the dogs, since they always tangle up in their leashes. I jerk back in shock. “What are you doing here?” I breathlessly accuse the black widow.

Olivia smirks at me and
it’s eerie how much she and Dalton look alike. Evilness emanates from her pores, or that could just be my true feelings for her tainting my impression of the woman.

“These guys need to get to the park,” I say
in parting and keep walking away. Dalton has been slowly incorporating Olivia back into his life, but that doesn’t mean she has to be in mine. He’s not naïve; he still won’t allow Itsy to see Olivia.

“I’ll walk with you,” she purrs. No matter what she says it sounds salacious. It’s her accent and her demeanor. The woman bl
eeds sex. Olivia is in her late-forties, but she looks half her age. She’s been dubbed the Vampy Kitten: immortal with claws and fangs. Her pure white skin, hair as black as midnight, ruby red pout, and eerie green eyes lend to the vampire claim. I just see her as the mother-in-law and neighbor from hell.

“I want you to reconsider your divorce,” she says falling into step with me.

I ignore her. I put all of my attention into the balls of fur sniffing everything in their vicinity. This is their time, not some black widow who’s hell bent on screwing me over. The park is just ahead. It’s one of the pluses to Mayhem Street. That is if you can ignore the eyesore of French Kissed Kink’s neon sign lighting your path or Restraint loud patrons lining the street waiting for admission. The park is directly across the street, and as per usual, empty. Gee, I wonder why? It does create a nice view from my living room windows, though.

“
We could play this game. I could threaten you and say intimidating things that would definitely get your heart rate up-”

I cut her off, “Or you could respect me with the truth. Tell me who your foundation
is and admit that you’re Niel’s,” I stiffly demand. I stride over to my favorite bench, the one that faces away from the street and is shadowed by a huge maple the pups find fascinating.

“I said I didn
’t want to play games, didn’t I?” Olivia sits next to me and sighs. “Yes, I am in contact with Daniel the third,” she readily answers.

“What did you tell him to do?”
I try to hide the animosity and desperation that leaks into my voice, but her knowing smirk says I failed.

“Your Niel
is to date Ava Zeitler, obviously.” She rolls her eyes in a girlish manner that reminds me of Itsy. I have to bite my tongue not to laugh.

“
It didn’t escape my notice that you failed to tell me who your foundation is,” I grumble at her. “What are your other orders? Obviously you were told to stop my divorce…”

“Currently
, my only orders are to keep Diane and Niel in line. Niel needs to continue to date Ava and Diane is to wait until her granddaughter is ready. Their objectives are a long game. I was to use my influence over you via my son to get you to remain married to Regina. They’d love her in their game. Curiously, I think they want her at the top of Mount Olympus.” She growls in jealousy. “They’ve wanted Marcus up there forever,” the resentment wafts off her in waves. 

“Wow… I did not see that coming… What would they have to do?”

“Even I don’t know what that ultimate test is. But it wouldn’t surprise me if they had to kill their way to the top.” Olivia doesn’t seem too disturbed by the idea. “You should know… one of yours is already up there. I’ve been researching this game forever. I believe that our families are running the game, which means, one of each of ours is sitting at the top, fucking with us. Don’t ask,” she says when I try to interrupt her. “I have nary a clue as to whom.”

“What?”
The sharp edge in my tone has my dogs stopping mid-sniff and staring at me with their ears cocked. “It’s all right,” I murmur to relax them. Pets are like emotional meters- they read you and act accordingly.

“Are you deaf?”
she snidely hisses, staring with unveiled interest at my dogs. It’s like she’s never seen a puppy before. Olivia’s used to human beings as her pets.

“No,
I’m not deaf,” I snidely hiss. “Did you just say one of us is orchestrating this shit?” I mutter in disbelief.

“Yes
, I believe I did in fact say just that… and if I knew who it was, I’d slit their throat,” she growls, slicing a hand across her neck in demonstration. “So make my life a little easier, would you? I’m trying to protect my children. I’d think you’d appreciate their safety. Stay married,” Olivia pleads, her accent deepening as strong emotions fill her voice.

“I’m not sorry to say that it’s too late on for that
, Olivia…way too late. Even if you’d gotten to me months ago, I still would’ve gone through with it.”

“Already?
” She tilts her head to the side, as if looking at me, truly looking at me for the first time. “Well, you work fast. I didn’t even think divorce was on your radar three months ago.”

“Well, it was.”

“Why?” Olivia eyes me like an inquisitive, vindictive cat.

“Your son,” is all the explanation she needs.
“Dalton had issues with my marriage and I agreed with him. I plan on spending my life with him… and here is his mama telling me to stay in a fake marriage.”

“I will inform them it’s too la
te. If you were to marry my son… it might appease them.” Her eerie eyes glow with calculating thoughts.

“I’m doing jack-shit to appease those bastards. If Da
lton and I get married it will be for the right reasons. I’m-”

“So get married for the right reasons,” she says with saccharine sweetness. “But allow us to enjoy the fringe benefits.”

“What fringe benefits?”

“Security… safety.
If you do what they tell you, they usually give you a long game objective. Those are easier to deal with. Just be happy you’re not an enforcer. That is a full time job. Since Daniel, Diane, and Niel have been playing nicely,” she winks at me, knowing full and well that we’re plotting against the Elders. “I no longer have an enforcer on my ass. It’s so much easier to breathe.” She draws in a deep lungful of air and sighs it out.

“
Grandfather said some interesting shit a while back. Any chance that Dalton, Itsy, Ella, and I are in a long game I don’t know about?” I was going to ease into this, but I’m sick of games. If Olivia’s being honest, I might as well push my luck.

“Well, there is that
. It’s in the developing stages.” Olivia waves the problem away, like it’s not an issue right now, so why worry.

“
Is my grandfather one of them?” I whisper, scared to know the answer to my question.