Defending My Mobster (BWWM Romance) (35 page)

We parked the car and I got us a room. We were on the second floor, with a window that looked out on the parking lot of the office building next door. The room was plain and simple, cheap, but it was a roof over our heads while she cleaned up.

She went into the bathroom, and closed the door.

I had to regroup. I had come here to escape the heartbreak I’d brought upon myself. And now I was going to introduce Alyssa to my mother. And Claire would still be there. It wasn’t ideal, I knew that. But it had to be done. Alyssa deserved it.

The bathroom door opened, and she came out. She’d changed her clothes. She wore jeans and a fashion hoody that was flattering to her curves. She wore some stylish boots with it. Her hair was twisted into a knot at the back of her neck.

“You look nice,” I said, and held out my hand.

“I didn’t really pack anything to impress. I wasn’t exactly  bargaining on meeting the parents.”

“This is perfect.”

She stood on her toes and planted a kiss on my lips. Her mouth was enticing, and I lingered. She held her face close to mine, and I went in for more. I couldn’t believe how much I’d missed her in such a short time.

The kiss turned from careful and gentle to serious, and then it became passionate. I slid my hands down her back, feeling her body under my fingers. Her hands were in my hair, the way I loved it.

I leaned my body against hers and urged her back until she had her back against the wall. Her breathing became unstable, and her hands slid around to my cheeks, and then onto my chest. I pushed against her with my whole body, grinding my hips against hers.

I wanted to show her how much I wanted her to belong to me. My hands found her breasts and she was soft and firm, even better than I remembered it. She gasped slightly when I pinched her nipple through the material.

I slid my other hand down her side, over her thigh, and pulled up her leg, hooking it around my hips, holding it in place with my hand behind her knee. I pushed my hips into her so my cock pushed against her. She was warm between her legs.

“We shouldn’t do this now,” she said in a breathy voice. “We haven’t even talked about anything yet.”

“I really want you,” I said.

“I know. God, I know. I want you too.”

I stopped and closed my eyes, clenching my jaw.

“You’re right. We should do this right. Sort it all out.”

She closed her eyes, leaned her forehead against my chin and nodded.

“I think I need to go talk to my mother,” I said.

“Let me come with you.”

I hesitated a moment. “I don’t know if that’s such a good idea… let me just talk to her, smooth things over before I take you in there.”

She touched my face, traced my nose and my eyebrows with her fingers.

“I’m sure it will be alright,” she said. “Parents always like me… I can be charming if I want to, you know.” She said the last bit with a smile.

“I don’t know…” I said, but she had a point. She was charming. And maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. I was after all, not a teenager anymore. It was my life.

“It’ll be okay,” she said. But I wasn’t so sure.

“If it’s what you want,” I said. “Then okay.”

I pocketed the hotel room keys, and we got back in the green rental and drove the road back to my mother’s house. I opened the gate with my remote, and pulled into the drive way. We both got out when I was parked in front of the garage doors.

We walked up to the porch. The front door opened before we reached it. My mom stepped out.

“You’re back,” she said. She looked very unhappy. She’d gotten rid of the flour on her hands and the apron around her waist. Her grey hair was brushed neatly, her fringe in a wave above her face. It looked like she’d applied fresh make up, too.

“I had to take care of some business,” I said.

“Well, I hope you’re happy. Claire left here in a state.”

I rolled my eyes. “I don’t really care, mom.”

My mom looked at Alyssa. Her eyes travelled up and down, taking in Alyssa’s clothes and hair and face. She raised her eyebrows.

“Well, I guess you should come in, then,” she said and turned into the house. I looked at Alyssa. She looked nervous, but she nodded at me bravely and started towards the front door.

In the formal lounge we sat down on the sofa together. My mom sat down in the armchair opposite.

“So, I’m guessing you’re more than just Nathan’s friend?” she asked Alyssa.

“Mom, back off,” I said with a hard voice before Alyssa could answer. “I love her. We’ve been together for a while.”

“Together?”

I nodded. Alyssa was sat very still, looking at my mom.

“And this is something you’re serious about?” mom asked.

“It is,” I said. “This is Alyssa. I thought you should meet the woman that’s made me so happy.”

Alyssa glowed next to me at the compliment.

Suddenly my mother’s eyes welled up with tears.

“How can you do this?” she said, her voice trembling.

“Ma’am, I—“ Alyssa started, but my mom ignored her, talking over her, still addressing me. “What do you think this is going to do to your reputation?”

“My reputation, mom? Or yours?” My voice was calm. I was surprised at how relaxed I was staying. I’d expected a fight, but this I could handle.

“Don’t you dare do this,” she said to me. “And what of Claire? She came here from Stellenbosch especially for you, Nate. How can you just throw her aside like that?”

Alyssa looked at me with a slight frown.

“I’m not dating Claire mom. I don’t want anything to do with her. Even if I were single. Which I’m not. Unfortunately I’m not on the market, and at some point in her life Claire is going to have to move on.”

Mom gasped like I’d said something awful.

“I used to date Claire before I moved up to Johannesburg,” I explained to Alyssa before she came to the wrong conclusions. “She’s still interested.”

“And she’s a much better match,” my mother said.

“Mrs. Moore, please. If you’ll just get to know me...“ Alyssa tried again, but my mom wanted nothing to do with her.

“I can’t allow this, Nathan. I can’t let you squander your inheritance on
her
.”

“This isn’t about money, mom,” I said. I was starting to get upset. “I have more than enough of it of my own. I don’t need your money or your approval. I’m going to be with her, and there’s no flex.”

My mom looked down at her hands, studying her perfect nails.

“Well, then I’m afraid you’ll have to get out,” she said.

“What?”

“Get out. I have nothing left to say to you.”

“You know kicking me out lost its power once I became financially independent, right?”

"I don't just mean out of my house Nate. Out of my life. Until you come to your senses"

My mom leveled me with a look of steel.

“Come on, sweetheart,” I said to Alyssa, standing up and taking her hand. “I just need to pack, and then we’re out of here.”

Alyssa followed me meekly to the room. I packed the two or three things I’d unpacked.

“I’m so sorry about this,” Alyssa said. “I really thought I’d be able to say something, at least.”

“Oh, don’t be sorry. I expected much worse.”

“Worse than being cut off from your mother?”

“Well, she didn’t say anything offensive to or about you. That’s more than I could hope for. And really, it’s not that big a loss.”

“She’s your mother!”

I shrugged. I knew what she was saying. Alyssa did have a point. But right now I just didn’t care all that much. My priorities had changed at some point, and if my mother disapproved of Alyssa, then I would leave. I patted my pocket and felt the hotel keys.

We would be fine.

“Come on, let’s get out of here,” I said.

My mom was nowhere to be seen when we walked back to the front door. I let us out, and we drove to the hotel. If I lost anything, I wouldn’t care as much. At least I had Alyssa.

Chapter 7 - Alyssa

We drove back to the hotel in silence. I felt like I had been physically punched in the gut, and I couldn’t seem to get my breath back. Nate stared ahead through the windscreen. The rain had thinned out to a persistent drizzle, and somehow that grey curtain of misery was worse than the torrential downpour from before.

I’d never been dismissed like I had no consequence before. Sure, there’d been parents in my teenage years that hadn’t like me dating their sons, but that was the job of a mother. At this point, with us both as adults, the intensity of Mrs. Moore’s reaction to me had jarred me to the bone.

“I’m so sorry,” I said again, but Nate just shook his head, keeping his eyes on the road. “I really didn’t think anything like that would happen. I should have listened when you warned me.”

Maybe if I’d listened, he wouldn’t have been kicked out of her life.
Kicked out.
It was such a strange concept. So adolescent. I took a deep breath. I was ever-nauseous. It lingered like a bad memory in background.

“Is this going to blow over? Or are you finished? Your inheritance…”

Nate’s money had always been a given between us. He’d made his own, and he was to inherit his mother’s money, because he was the only child. It was plain and simple. Nate was well off. Now I wasn’t so sure.

“You listen to me,” he said, looking at me for the first time, his serious green eyes piercing me. “Money means nothing. It doesn’t matter. I have plenty of my own not to need her. Money shouldn’t be the reason why I stay and let her treat you that way. Okay?”

I nodded, but it was easier to listen to than to agree with. In my life money had always been an issue. We’d never had it. If you lost it, it was a problem ...a big one.

And here Nate was saying that it didn’t matter. It was a strange concept.

We made it to the hotel, In the bedroom I sank down on the bed, feeling like I had a full day’s work behind me. I was drained, not only emotionally, but physically too. I felt like I’d run a marathon.

Nathan fiddled with the hotel stationary on the desk.

“Who’s Claire?” I asked.

Nate stilled. He had his back turn to me, and it was stiff.

“Like I said at the house, I used to date her before I moved.”

“There’s nothing between you now?” I had to ask. They way she’d held onto him when I’d dropped in on him the first time unsettled me.

Nate shook his head. “There isn’t.” He turned to me. “Before I left, I asked her to come with me. She asked me to stay. It was a battle of wills kind of thing. I had to get away, so I left her behind.”

“That sounds awful.”

Nate shrugged. “You know, young love. I was stupid. I didn’t know what love was, then.”

“She looked like she thought she did,” I said.

Nate nodded and sat down on the bed next to me.

“Because I’d asked her to come with me, she figured I’d still be interested when I got back. She’s vain enough to believe I never got over her.”

“Did you?”

“Of course I did. This was seven years ago. A lot can change in seven years. I’ve changed. It looks like she hasn’t, though, but because I have, and we just don’t fit. We haven’t fit for a long time.

I looked down at my hands, studying my nails.

“Your mom would rather have her in your life than me, won’t she?” I asked softly.

Nate tipped my chin up with his hand and turned my head to face him. “I don’t care what she wants for me. It’s
my
life. And I want you in it. That’s really all there is to it.” He sighed. “I was a coward before. I broke up with you because I thought it was important to me that she approved. But when I arrived here and she invited Claire, it looked like they were all set on their plans to get us back together again. I realized nothing had changed. My mother would always try to rule my life. If the only way I can get away from her is being disowned, then so be it.”