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“Thanks,” Marvin said, quickly left the office, and returned to the bar where Serek was waiting.
“I’ll be by your office in the morning with the money,” Marvin said, and he shook Serek’s hand knowing that he had taken his first step toward earning on his own.
Chapter Fifteen
Since Demi had opened the club earlier that day for happy hour, Mileena didn’t have to be there until midnight. After showering and putting on just a touch of makeup, Mileena selected a black ribbed bodycon dress with a halter neck by L’AGENCE. It hugged her curves while also providing a nice view of her sexy calves.
Once she was ready to leave, Mileena grabbed her bag and headed for the door and that was when Carter got home. He had gotten out of bed and left early that morning to take care of some business and then he met Rain at J.R.’s and had been with her the rest of the day.
“Hey,” Carter said and looked at Mileena before he kissed her and for a few brief seconds she forgot everything that she’d been thinking about.
And then their lips parted, and it all came rushing back to her and Mileena’s facial expression changed from caught up in the rapture back to, “I never see you,” Mileena said and her jaw tightened. “You coming to the club?”
“I’ll see you up there later,” he said and Mileena kissed him and hoped that those thoughts would go away again, if only for those few seconds.
They didn’t.
And Mileena rushed out the door thinking, Yeah, like you saw me last night. But oh yeah, that was Fantasy whose face you were all up in … the bitch, she thought as she closed the door.
Carter shrugged his shoulders. “What is she talking about?” he asked aloud. “I just saw her this morning,” he said and continued on his way to take a shower. He wanted to change clothes and get back in the street. Carla had given him some information on El Decreto de Guerra that he wanted to check out.
Mileena drove to J.R.’s slowly and in silence, but her mind was racing a hundred miles an hour and the conversation was intense. She was beginning to think she made a huge mistake.
“Allowing Carter back in my life was a mistake,” Mileena finally said the words out loud that she’d been thinking for a while now.
Sure, he looked at her with the same intensity as before, and sure he made love to her just as passionately, if not more, since he’d been home. But he was gone a lot more than she’d anticipated, a lot more than what they discussed. Mileena had quickly discovered that her thinking that his role would allow him to sit back and delegate, leaving him free to spend more time with her was total fiction.
For the past couple of weeks, he’d been in the streets and only had enough time to come home to sleep, fuck her, and maybe grab a bite to eat before rolling back out. And it only got worse when Rain got shot.
Now he spends all his time with her.
And that was another thing. The fact that she woke up alone again this morning, because he was probably somewhere with Rain, grated on her nerves.
He could have at least woken me up to say he was leaving.
Then there was the exchange the night before with Fantasy, and what she didn’t want to admit was jealousy over the two of them being so close together. But it was jealousy. It made her wonder what was going on between the two of them. And that made her wonder if anything was going on with any other women, and that made her wonder what was really going on with him and Rain. And that meant she couldn’t really trust him.
Not a good look.
“So, yeah, I’m thinking I made a big mistake, but what to do about it?”
Mileena parked in her space at J.R.’s, turned off her car and knew that her options were few. She could just shut up and deal with it, because she loved Carter with everything she had. Or she could leave him and let Fantasy, or whoever else was sniffing around him, have him. The latter seemed impossible, but at the same time, seemed like it was the best thing for her. But could she really just walk away and watch him move on with someone else?
Especially that bitch, Mileena thought as she watched Fantasy get out of a white limo, loop her arm in Leo’s and he escorted her past the line and, “Into my club!” she shouted and got out.
As the water beat down on Carter, he thought about what he and Rain talked about the day before. Consigliere of The Family. That was a huge honor and an even bigger responsibility. He wanted to tell Mileena, but she was asleep when he woke up and didn’t want to disturb her, and then he had to go.
Carter turned off the shower and dried himself thinking about what Mileena would have said had he had a chance to tell her that morning. He laid out his suit and laughed.
“She would have given you the look.”
Because he knew that Mileena would not be at all happy about him getting more responsibility. As Carter got dressed to leave, his mind drifted to the brief conversation that he had with Mileena before she left.
I never see you.
“That’s what she was talking about,” Carter said and straightened his tie.
Knowing that Mileena wouldn’t be happy about Rain making him consigliere of The Family made him stop and consider that this was everything that Mileena said that she didn’t want. Everything she left you for the first time.