Fall For My Ex’s Mafia Dad
Chapter 129

But I clench my jaw and look away from Natalia clinging to Kent's arm, knowing that we've made a decision about how to play this. And that I've got to stick to it.

"Let her," Kent said to me a few weeks ago as we laid tangled in the sheets of his dark room. "Let her think that I'm considering her as my wife, Fay."

"Are you?" I asked, hoping that my voice didn't betray my terror at the idea. That I could lose him to that horrible woman -

"No," he had insisted, taking my chin in his broad hand and making me look at him. "No, Fay, I don't want her. But...until this settles, until we come up with a solution that makes the business secure without the Bianci's insisting on a second marriage pact to solidify it? Let her burn herself out spinning her wheels. Let her think she's getting somewhere with me. Let her try."

I tore my chin from his hand, then, turning my face away and scowling down at the bed. "But what if she succeeds?" I grumbled, a little alarmed at the level of jealousy I'm feeling at the idea of it. "What if she wiles you away with her stupid Italian charms -" Kent just laughed and slid his hand from my shoulder all the way down my back to land on my a*s, which he gripped tight in his palm. "How could she do that," he murmured, dipping his head to lick a long stroke between my breasts, "when I've got you here, hogging my bed -"

"What!" I shrieked, slapping at his back and laughing. "I do not hog the bed -"

"You do," he murmured. "You spread out like a starfish - it's horrible -"

But then I wiggled down on the mattress so that his body was leveled above me, his weight pressing me down, just the way I like it. I made him look at me, right in the eyes, not letting him get away with distracting me. "Promise me, Kent," I whispered, trying desperately not to wear my entire heart on my sleeve. "Promise me you won't leave me for her."

And he did.

Kent whispered his promise against my lips, and then a dozen more times as he worked his way down my body, pressing a kiss against my skin after each one.

He promised until I forgot what he was saying entirely, so swept away in him that I forgot everything I knew, forgot even myself as I tilted my head back and moaned his name.

And so, as Daniel hands me my second cup of coffee of the day and we make our way over to our little breakfast table, the most I can do is try to ignore the way Natalia presses herself to Kent's side, as if she's already his bride. Ignore the way he looks down at her consideringly, as if he's really thinking about what it would be like to have her there all the time.

"Careful Fay," Daniel whispers to me in a little sing-song voice as we sit down. "Your jealousy is showing."

And I scowl a little as I sink into my seat, taking a deep breath and working to wipe my face clean. "Am I that obvious?"

"To me," he says, giving me a little shrug. "Maybe to Jerome," he says, glancing over at his boyfriend who stands in the kitchen watching us carefully. "But you've got to be careful here. Because in this world, you never know what's going to happen next."

"I know," I sigh, and as it turns out the next surprise is on its way as Natalia saunters over to us, the two plates of our breakfast in her hands.

"Good morning, love birds," Natalia says, giving us a big fake smile and kissing Daniel on the cheek after she places our breakfast neatly before us. "I have a surprise for you tonight!"

"Really?" Daniel asks, looking up at her interestedly, his face warm and fond. I watch him, a little jealous at his ability to play nice so easily.

"Yes," she says, tapping his nose with a motherly finger. "I have made a little party for you two! You will be meeting some others of the young ones from good families," she says, smiling at both of us. "And your Ivan will be there," she adds, nodding to me and giving me a little wink. "I know how much you like him."

My mouth falls open a little at this, at her nerve. Ivan - I haven't spoken to him in weeks, not since the party. He texted a lot at the start - but now we've gone silent.

"Oh," Daniel says, glancing between us. "Thank you, Natalia, but I'm not sure we should -"

"Ohhhh," she says, leaning down and wrapping an arm around his shoulders in a little hug. "You'll go! You'll have fun! You two - spending all day wrapped up in that room, reading books after Fay goes and plays with animals all morning!" She stands sharply up and rolls her eyes at us. "You need a little life - have some fun. You leave it to me. I arranged it all."

And then, before we can object, she just laughs and walks away.

"Are seriously we doing this?" I ask Daniel, leaning forward so he can hear my whisper.

He glances for a moment at his dad, who studies us with chagrin as Natalia moves back to his side. "I think we have to," he murmurs as Kent gives us a small nod.

I groan and slump back into my chair, not wanting to do this at all.

Honestly, I liked the pattern that we'd set up in the past few weeks - waking up with Kent, riding my horse, plotting with Daniel, and then back through the wardrobe? It was nice.

But leave it to Natalia to throw a wrench in the plans.

"Bowling?" I murmur as we pass through the door into what I actually admit is an incredibly chic two-lane vintage bowling alley in the basement of one of the city's best restaurants. You can tell it's been lovingly maintained and that the rest of the room has been designed thoughtfully as a complementary cocktail lounge.

"We are youths," Daniel says, smirking down at me. "Youths like the bowling, remember? At least, in Natalia's mind."

I sigh and fiddle with the engagement ring on my left hand, looking around anxiously.

We're some of the last to arrive, and I see that there are already about twenty people here. I've met some of them, while others are complete strangers. But my eyes go, of course, directly to the blonde at the back corner of the bar, speaking intently with a dark- haired girl I don't know.

"The Russian dolls are here," Daniel murmurs to me as we step further into the room. I smirk at our nickname for the five daughters of the Russian mob boss I've never met. "And they're incoming..." he continues.

I rip my eyes away from Ivan to the group of girls headed right towards us, Mila at their head.

"Mila!" I say cheerfully, stepping forward and intercepting her, not letting her make the first move and ignore me as she did last time. "So good to see you again."

I wrap her in a light hug, pressing a kiss to her cheek which she falsely returns. "You're looking well, Fay," she murmurs to me, giving me a slight smile, before hastily letting me go and moving to Daniel. But I turn and smirk to see that her sisters have already ranged around him, making it hard for her to find a place.

I watch them for a moment, considering that it looks like a feeding frenzy when a slab of beef is lowered into a piranha tank. Apparently, their father told the sisters that he wants one of them to land Daniel - but he doesn't really care which one. And now they're all determined to win.

I catch Daniel's eye for a moment and he gives me a helpless little shrug, which makes me laugh. So, I move away to the bar, letting him handle it. As I go I wonder what Natalia has promised Don Kozlov in exchange for one of his daughters marrying the boy she hopes will soon be her son.

Considering how hard they're going after him, it must be something good.

I sigh as I reach the bar, watching Ivan from the corner of my eye as he chats and laughs with the dark-haired girl, wondering who she is. But I place my order with the bartender and wait patiently. I know he'll come to me. But even when the drinks are delivered, and I take one over to Daniel, and then come back to the bar to sit alone...

He doesn't.

And I look over at Ivan, staring more blatantly now at him as he talks to the other girl. And I clench my teeth a little, unhappy at how jealous I suddenly find myself.

Honestly, after everything he's said to me, everything he's offered, he can't even look at me now?

I know I'm being unfair - that I haven't given him any encouragement in weeks, haven't even texted him back. I'm aware that I have let him know with all of my actions that I am quite thoroughly Team Lippert now - But as I watch him talking to this girl, smiling at her with his lopsided smirk, raising a hand to casually rub at the tattooed skin on his neck.

I realize that I fucking hate it.

Because Ivan? He's supposed to look that way at me.