Page 14 of No Right To Love You (Winter of Love #6)

Ocean

I told January that I would meet her at her event, and I meant it.

Walking into the hall they rented for this gives me a bit of Deja vu because of her first firm event that we went to together.

Her father glared at me the entire time we were there as if he knew I had defiled his daughter in one of the restrooms. What he doesn’t know is that I took it up a notch and had his daughter walking around with vibrating panties.

She remained a professional as I kept teasing her to a minimum.

Not enough for it to make her cum but enough to make her so damned ready for me that when I slipped in, it was a sloppy, wet mess.

My hand trembles at the memory as I smooth my already slicked back hair some more. It’s a control tick and it always gives me away to January.

I shake it off and put my hands in my trench coat pockets as I walk into the coat check area.

“Hello, may I take your coat?”

“Thank you and it’s for Māhoe.” I give the girl my coat.

“Oh my God,” her eyes widen. “You’re Mrs. Māhoe’s husband!” She shrieks as if she’s just met a celebrity.

“Yes,” I say with a smirk. “Why does that seem like my wife has been gushing about me all night?”

“Because she has!” The girl giggles.

Look, I get it. I'm Hawaiian, we are naturally gorgeous, male, and female. Me being as tall as 6 feet and five inches doesn’t make it any better for those who find me attractive.

My wife says the scar over my right eye makes me look like I’m some badass that’s done something bad to earn it and now, I’m reformed. It’s hilarious.

“She’s the force but I’ll take the compliment. Thank you.” I say then walk away. She smiles and I nod my head walking away toward the hall.

When I walk in, my eyes don’t take long to connect with my wife’s.

She looks fucking gorgeous in her blue dress that has a split that’s too high for my liking.

The deep neckline in her dress makes me want to rip it apart but I won’t.

I have a surprise for her in my suit jacket that I’ll use on her later.

She knows where we’re going after this. Her intricate braids are up in a beautiful bun while that red lip she’s wearing is calling to me.

January stops talking to whoever she’s talking to, and she watches me as if she didn’t see me at all today. She saw me this morning, but this morning and tonight are two different things. She tilts her head and smiles at me. It’s a sweet smile, one that I love seeing on her face.

Everyone seems to melt away as I get closer and closer to her. One hand is in my pocket while the other is busy with my thumb messing with my ring. It’s a thing I’ve never been able to give up doing since I put the gold band on.

“Hi,” January greets me when I get in her face.

“Hello, love.”

I lean in lower and kiss her quickly not wanting to make a scene in front of these people. I give her another one because I miss her soft and beautiful kisses then I pull away before I take it too far.

“You clean up very well, Mr. Māhoe. Two times in a row this year that I see you in a suit. You’re quite dashing.”

I cup her jaw in my hand as my thumb caresses her skin.

“You’re exquisite. If I had seen you leave the house with this dress, my love. The night would end very differently.”

Her eyes widen but I see the lust in them. She’s ready for me and I’m glad she is because I’m not holding back even for a second.

“It’s a shame then, isn’t it?” She flirts as she touches the lapels of my jacket. It’s a habit of hers. She has to touch me somehow.

“Isn’t this how we ended up with a baby the first time around? All the touching and flirting? Now, look at us, we have three. You want another?” I ask and lean into her ear. “Be my good marionette and I will reward you.”

I give her a kiss on the cheek and move back out of her space, but she moves closer to me, invading my space like she always does.

“How are you?” She asks after a moment of her just staring at me.

“I’m good, love. Go on, go mingle and I’ll get us a drink.” I lay a kiss on her temple as her father walks towards our direction.

Instead of being pissed off at him, I walk away to the bar. I know that her father and I didn’t get along well and naturally, I would be fine with having a cordial conversation, but I was too disappointed with him for me to hold a conversation with him.

“Ocean, it’s good to see you.” Bernard says to me as he slaps my back.

Ah. Bernard. The little man that has no self-respect or knows what boundaries are.

“Bernard.” I say to him after I take a sip of my whiskey.

“How’ve you been? Haven’t seen you around for a bit.”

“I’m busy.”

“Too busy to visit your wife? Trouble in paradise?” He says as he laughs as if I’m laughing with him.

“We’re fine.”

Bernard’s beady eyes tell that he’s hinting at something, but I won’t take the bait.

I call him a little man because he acts like a little ass man.

A man full of insecurities, full of bullshit and is always starting fucking issues.

Tonight, isn’t a night that a petty little man like him should test me.

I haven’t figured things out with my father, and I haven’t come down from wanting to put him in the hospital again.

My mind automatically goes back to that night.

Everything was going fine. I had come back from hanging out with a friend of mine, Jenna but when we walked in the house, there dad was, passed the hell out on the floor.

It embarrassed me that I left with Jenna and dropped her off home. Once I got back home, I sat there on mom’s swinging bench for a good while as the sun went down. There was no way I was going into the house as angry as I was.

There was another side of me when it came to my father.

He didn’t have to ever hit me because every time he opened his mouth, it was worse. I could take the physical but with everything else and the way he was with us, especially me, made me wish I was never born.

My mother tried her best to shield me, but I considered her weak for not doing something about him. For not taking the bottle from him or rather, bashing him over the head with it so that he could go away.

While not many people said anything to the man because of his business aspect and how we were practically part of a legacy, it didn’t change that he shouldn’t have been drowning in alcohol.

“Come in for dinner, honey.” Mom called out to me, and I didn’t want to come in, but I stood anyway.

That was the problem with kids who had alcoholic parents or a parent, we forgave them too easily and we lived in constant fear of what could happen next.

My father was a mean drunk and I experienced it again the second I sat at the dinner table.

“Where are you going for school, son?”

“I’m thinking maybe Algonquin in Ottawa since I’m going for Horticulture. I’m thinking that going out of the city will be good for me.”

Dad scoffed. “Why Ottawa? You can go right here in Toronto so that way it’s easier for me to pass down the business.”

“Pass down the business?” I repeated “dad, I manage everything. I’m only going so that I’m certified, and I have the educational background for it.”

“Will you even be able to keep my company afloat with the way your brain works? You’re always trembling like a little bitch. Crying about unnecessary things when that’s not even important. Grow some balls and be a man.”

“Grow some balls?” I repeated.

“Ocean…” mom called my name trying to calm me down and I knew she wanted me to leave the table. It wasn’t for dad; it was for me.

I stood. “Excuse me.”

When I excused myself, my father stood as well.

“Where are you going? Did I tell you; you could get up?”

“You’re pissing me off, old man. I don’t want to hurt you.”

“Hurt me?” Dad laughed and scoffed.

I didn’t care about that because it wasn’t important to be affected by him.

It wouldn’t do me any good but then as I walked off, dad threw a glass of whiskey at me, but it missed and hit the wall.

The glass shards nicked me in the face over my eye.

The same scar that I first got because of him trying to push me out of the way while he was busy trying to down another bottle when I was twelve.

It was easier to tell people that I was playing too rough with my cousins than to say my alcoholic father did this.

That was what made me black out as I turned and ran for him head on. All I had time to do was workout, run and try to just eviscerate this building anger inside of me but he pushed it. He pushed me and I couldn’t see past anything.

I wanted to kill him… I could have killed him if my mother hadn’t slapped me in the face to snap me out of it. That’s what changed everything for me. She saw me as that man. That monster and when I was sitting on that grass with unshed tears, I was at my lowest…

Until January tended to me. Making me feel like I finally had someone who saw me.

Just me.