Fascination
Enrique Cappelli joined his brothers in the ‘courtyard’ after breakfast. It was a family tradition that the family had a chat there early every morning. Since his return from College, though, Enrique had noticed a change in how not just the meetings, but the running of the family had changed. Marco was taking control and his father did not seem to object. It was Marco who occupied the chair, the traditional position of authority, while His father sat on a sofa beside Angelo.
If he was being completely honest with himself, Enrique had been uncomfortable in his own home since his return. He had always accepted his family’s crooked activities, but there had been a code of honour, he had felt, when his father had been making the decisions. Things that the family would and would not do. Now everything seemed acceptable.
When Enrique had been young there would have been nothing remotely like the ‘auditions’ Marco had held for the ‘girls’. Afraid of his brother’s temper, Enrique had taken part in that weekend, but it had not been his idea of how to treat women. He kept his eyes on his father as the meeting progressed. Stephano was quiet and merely nodded at everything his eldest son said. Enrique wondered if his father was also afraid of his elder son.
“You’ll go and visit the Galloway woman today, Enrique,” Marco told him.
Enrique nodded. He had no objection to that task. He wanted to see how the Galloways were settling into their new home. And especially he hoped to see the girl Irissa. He wondered how she liked the room he had decorated for her and the clothes she had been bought. His mind drifted towards the first day he had seen the girl in his friend Rowena’s shop...
He had taken his niece Cara to the shop. Julius had ignored his twin daughters since their mother had moved out of the mansion. A disgraceful situation, Enrique thought. The two girls adored their younger uncle. Enrique had been showing off to his niece when the other girl arrived. Cara had started speaking to her at once. Enrique had gathered from the conversation that the newcomer served in a local diner.
Cara had wanted to browse and buy in the shop so Enrique had gone outside onto the patio. A short while later that dark girl had come outside. She had been speaking to a young man Enrique had recognised, a detective from the local station and the partner of the man Marco most hated, Sergey Solarin. Enrique had been unable take his eyes off the girl. She was eerily like the girl in a picture he had purchased when he was seventeen.
The girl of his dreams come to life. Pity that she was so young. He watched her laughing and chatting to the detective and smiled wryly to himself. Or that he were not still seventeen instead of twenty two. He was being a stupid romantic, of course. Would he ever have taken a girl like this home to meet his family?
He almost laughed aloud at the girl’s antics as she talked about music to the detective, at one point mimicking the guitar antics of the lead man in a group she liked. At one point in the conversation though, he had almost jumped out of his seat. The detective had been asking her about her mother and he heard the name ‘Galloway’. That morning Marco had asked him to get a house organised for one of the girls they had hired. A woman called Suzanne Galloway.
The girl was Suzanne Galloway’s daughter. The woman didn’t look old enough to have a child of fourteen or fifteen years old. Enrique’s interest in the girl had suddenly increased. A mixture of pleasure and fear had struck him at once.
The detective had left the store and the girl had gone back inside. So had Enrique......
“Are you listening to me?” Marco irritated voice had brought him back to the present.
“Sorry, yes,” Enrique said dutifully.
“I said make sure and fuck her while you are there,” Marco repeated himself.
“What?” Enrique gasped, not yet completely aware of what his brother had been saying, his mind still on Irissa.
“The woman. Make sure you make her work while you are there. I want her to remember that we own her, understand?” Marco sounded even more annoyed at his younger brother’s wandering attention.
“Yeah, okay,” Enrique answered. “No problem.”
Jealousy
Enrique waited until the others had left then went out to the second limo.
He drove up the hill and into town still thinking about Irissa and Suzanne.
“Get them decent clothes. Do something with that little room for the kid.” Marco had instructed.
Enrique had been pissed off. Okay, buying a few clothes for a woman. No big deal. He knew the type of things Marco would want her to have. But what did he know about a teenage girl. He had been going to ask Cara’s advice that day. Then he had seen Irissa and known he would have been talking to the wrong niece.
He has spoken to Rowena and had ordered a number of items to be delivered to the Galloways intended home.
Back at the mansion he had made a number of calls. The first one had been to an interior designer friend. The second had been to his other niece, Catalina.
Catalina had been bursting with curiosity when she had met him at the boutique.
“I need a new wardrobe for a fourteen year old girl. Everything. Not sweet and fluffy like Cara wears. A bit more like your style, but really dark colours.” He had explained.
“Who is she? And if you know what she likes then why don’t you just buy it?” Catalina had demanded.
“I can’t buy undies and things for a fourteen year old! I don’t want to think about what kids your age wear under their clothes. That’s pervy!” Enrique had found himself blushing.
Catalina had looked astutely at him.
“Funny you thinking that, Uncle Enrique. Because your brothers have girls my age working for you and I’m thirteen,” she replied tartly.
Enrique had cringed. That was another one of the changes in his family that he so hated.
Catalina had seen his discomfort and had let him off the hook.
“So, what is her colouring? How tall is she? Without being pervy, what size is she. Compare her to me,” she had commanded.
“A little less tall than you, but not much. A little fuller in the ...uh... the bust. Very pale skin. Like moonlight...” he had found Catalina’s sharp eyes on him again and had felt his skin burning.
“Sounds like a girl that works in the diner, actually. Ok. I can shop with her in mind no problem.”
“Be prepared for some heavy usage on your credit card, my dear Uncle. Your girl is going to get some nice stuff,” she had grinned.
Enrique had given exaggerated sag of his shoulders.
“Do your worst,” he had sighed.
His memories were interrupted by his arrival at the Galloway house. Suzanne was in alone and she seemed delighted to see him. She smiled with apparent delight.
“Enrique, I haven’t seen you in days. You look ...very good,” she purred.
She took his hand and led him to the sofa. Enrique had considered disregarding Marco’s parting command the way Suzanne snuggled up to him on the sofa told him that she expected to have sex with him that morning. He wasn’t going to object. She was beautiful, sexy and seductive. They sat talking and flirting for a while.
It was Suzanne who moved toward him and instigated their first kiss, moving into his arms and draping her legs across him.
Enrique twisted his body round as the kissed to have her lie beneath him. She gripped his hair and pulled him closer, making eager little noises in her throat.
They kissed passionately for several minutes before Suzanne began to pull his shirt out from the waistband of his jeans. Enrique drew back from her and took a breath.
“Let’s go upstairs,” he suggested.
“The sofa isn’t comfortable enough for lovemaking?” She asked in a honeyed voice.
Enrique winced.
“I’d rather not have sex in a goldfish bowl,” he said lightly, indicating the expanse of glass behind them.
They settled onto the bed for another session of making out.
“You don’t like windows,” Suzanne said in a sultry tone. How do you feel about mirrors?”
Confused, Enrique let her undress and removed his clothing slowly. She took his hand and led him to the bank of mirrors on the wall behind her bed.
“Take me here, Enrique. I want to see how beautiful we are together and how perfectly we fit,” she whispered huskily.
Uncomfortable with her intensity, the possessive way she was looking at him, Enrique hesitated.
If he refused to have sex with her and she told Marco, though...
He did as she asked.
We’ve got company, Irissa thought sourly as the male voice carried out of her mother’s room and into the hall. Seems to be enjoying himself. Why do they always have to make such a damn noise about it?
She went downstairs and did her homework at the desk in the lounge then prepared her meal. Her mother and the man appeared a while later.
He was surprisingly young and actually, she thought, very good looking. Her mother introduced him as Enrique Cappelli, which surprised her even more. This was the man Suzanne had been talking about. She was even more astonished when he took some of the food she had cooked and joined them at the table, chatting amiably with both of them.
“I have an addition to your room decor,” He told Irissa. “A picture. If you don’t mind I will put it up there.
“Sure,” Irissa said. “I’ll leave you to it. I have dishes to do.”
Leaving Irissa and Suzanne with household chores Enrique took the picture he had brought from home and put it on the wall in her room.
She seemed to have settled in, he thought, looking at the personal items around the room. His curiosity outweighed his guilty feelings as he made himself comfortable on her bed and glanced at the little book that had been on her bedside cabinet. He frowned in concentration. It seemed to be a list of herbs and their uses, with hand drawn colour pencil sketches. Rowena had similar things. The girl fancied herself as a bit of a witch. Well he should have guessed that by her presence in the shop.
Suzanne’s voice had him jumping guiltily to his feet and heading downstairs. Ignoring Suzanne sitting at the kitchen table he crossed to where Irissa sat on the sofa.
“Do you like your room?” He asked. “Is there anything else you need?”
Irissa looked warily at him. Why was he talking to her when Suzanne wanted his company?
“It’s lovely,” she answered, adding nothing more.
“What about the clothes? Are they okay?”
Now Irissa really tensed. The idea that this man had been shopping for her and had got her sizes so spot on...
He sensed her apprehension and almost saw the reason written across her face. Damn, he was scaring her.
“I hadn’t a clue,” he said hastily. “My brother said everything was to be perfect for you both. I know what women like, but not young girls. Seems my nieces both know you from the diner though and Catalina chose your clothes,” he explained.
Irissa stood up, her tension easing.
“Can you tell her thank you?” She asked.
Enrique sensed something was still bothering her.
“Catalina is an angel, Irissa. She knows your situation, but she won’t breathe a word, nor will she ever tell anyone about the shopping trip she and I had,” he said, too softly for Suzanne to hear.
“My mother will flip if you don’t go and drink coffee. I’m going upstairs to study,” she smiled, a genuine smile that lit up her face.
“IiiiiRRRiiiissssaaaa!” Suzanne’s voice screamed, cutting into her daughter’s peaceful sleep.
Groggily Irissa pulled herself awake and out from under the blankets. She hesitated before moving. The tone in her mother’s voice spelled trouble.
“You and I are going to have a serious falling out, you little slut!” Her mother started right away. Irissa spread her arms helplessly.
“What have I done?” She asked.
“You are a lousy little bitch. What are you about, trying to steal my man? Flaunting yourself in front of him like that? Flirting? You better watch out, madam, or you are going to land yourself in big trouble. I will make you so sorry!” Suzanne screamed.
“I wasn’t flirting! I wasn’t trying to steal anybody! He spoke to me about if I liked the house and the room, that’s all!” Irissa replied. “I tried to be polite because I know you like him, is all.”
“I was trying to be polite...” her mother sneered.
The hairs on the back of Irissa’ neck stood up suddenly. Something was there, in the room. Something growing in the house, fuelled by her mother’s rage and jealousy. Feeding on the negative emotions.
Irissa realised that the entity was somehow attaching itself to Suzanne and that it had been present in the house when they arrived.
“I’m telling you that if you keep this up, you will be out, bitch. And I don’t care what your pet detective does. He has no right to interfere in my life,” Suzanne yelled.
She stopped suddenly in her tirade and stared at Irissa.
“That’s it, isn’t it? Little miss butter wouldn’t melt.... he’s fucking you. You and the big detective.... I’ve heard he hangs out with the young ones! You little slut, you are letting him...”
Irissa’s face twisted into a mask of rage. Suzanne took a step back. Irissa’s usual reactions to her rages were to be cowed and burst into tears. Now she looked furious, almost ready to kill.
“Don’t you ever, EVER say anything like that again you foul mouthed bitch! I am not YOU and Sergey Solarin is the best, kindest and most honourable man ever! You... you aren’t even fit to say his name!” Irissa roared.
Suzanne took a moment to regain her composure then she laughed.
“Stupid little bitch!” She sneered. “To react like that you feel something for him. All right. I apologise for suggesting you are sleeping with him, but you’ve got something for him. Your reaction proves it. Well, have your crush, girl. But keep your eyes off my man.”
Shaking slightly from her outburst, stunned by the fact that she had stood up to her mother and disturbed by the increasing strength of the entity, Irissa said nothing.
Irissa sat down on a chair at the desk to compose herself before going back up the stairs, aware of the presence on the stairs behind her.
What, she wondered, would Rowena’s take on this be?
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