Chapter Two — Are You Still Afraid of Me?
1381 Words
Kaiden Draven
A month and a half after Italy.
I came to Italy at Eduardo Blakewood’s invitation.
Last time, he was the one who visited New York; now it was my turn.
Despite our different nationalities, despite the distance… the man is closer to me than my own three brothers.
I stood in front of the massive wooden door with his name on it.
I reached out to knock, but his secretary arrived before my hand touched the wood.
Her eyes always flicker when she sees me, and as usual… I ignored it.
I said flatly,
“Tell him he’s got a visitor.”
She nodded quickly.
“Yes, but… he’s inside with his wife.”
I rolled my eyes with boredom.
Of course. Eduardo and his wife… a couple with no limits.
I took out my phone and called him.
He ignored the first three rings more than enough to irritate me… but he finally answered.
“Did I really have to waste all this time outside?”
He laughed shamelessly.
“Kaiden… you know what women want.”
“And you know I don’t care.”
He opened the door moments later, his flushed face clearly showing he’d stepped out of something intimate… but he tried to keep as much composure as he could.
“Sorry for the delay. I should have respected your time.”
“Yes… you should have.”
He placed his hand on my back and pushed me outside.
We went to a nearby café and ordered bitter coffee.
He asked with a mocking tone,
“So, how’s the new wife? And is work still crushing you?”
I sighed. He knew the reason.
He knew what comes from an arranged marriage…
A marriage with no love.
“Lara is fine. And work? Exhausting as always.”
I am New York’s number one attorney… I don’t lose cases.
But what people don’t know… is how much of myself I’ve lost on the way.
I asked him,
“And you? You’ve been distracted since morning.”
His smile faded.
“My family is fine… except for my daughter, Tara.”
“She went through an incident… it affected her psychologically. Made her afraid of men. She’s been in therapy for six years…”
He stopped.
The pain in his voice was clear.
I’ve lived through many things with him… but this sorrow was different.
I said quietly,
“It’s okay. You don’t have to tell me now.”
He lifted his head, gave me a grateful smile.
Then he invited me to visit him that evening.
I agreed.
*************
Evening
We entered the house carrying several bags.
He shoved the bags into my hands and said,
“Go to the living room. I’ll change.”
Of course… he “won’t be long.”
His favorite lie one that life repeatedly proved false.
I pushed the living room door open with my foot.. my hands full… but what I saw made me freeze, breathless, motionless.
A girl… lying on her stomach, watching a movie.
Wearing a tiny pink piece… more like two strings.
Her body exposed… unprepared for me… and I unprepared for her.
I raised my head, tried to catch my breath, tried to hide my unusual unease.
Then I made a soft sound to announce my presence.
She gasped, turned quickly, clutching a pillow to her chest like a frightened child.
But it was me who lost balance for a moment…
For reasons I didn’t understand.
Trembling… beautiful…
Her innocence was dangerous.
Her eyes were the first thing that struck me.
Damn… it was her.
The same girl I saw on the Maldives shore on my wedding night.
The same nervousness, the same tremor in her voice.
The same way she looked at me as if she’d seen something she couldn’t name.
The girl whose image stayed stuck in my mind…
The one I told no one about…
The one who appeared on the worst night of my life and vanished just as abruptly.
But now… she was even more beautiful.
Even more dangerous.
“Don’t look at me…”
She said it in a small, trembling voice.
I stepped forward slowly, placed the bags on the table, then turned to her.
“Look at me.”
Her voice was the voice of someone running.
Mine… the voice of a man who hates chaos—
Yet had already fallen into it.
She shook her head, her body trembling beneath the pillow.
I lowered my voice, made it warmer than it should be.
“I’m not going to do anything. Just… look at me.”
She finally lifted her head.
Her eyes wide… innocent…
The kind that make you commit a sin just by looking at them.
I knelt in front of her, keeping a precise, calculated distance.
My hand approached hers… she trembled.
I didn’t stop.
My fingers brushed over her shaking fingers.
I feared myself—not her.
Her grip loosened.
Her trembling shifted into something else… something I knew well from years of reading people.
I took both her hands in mine, gently.. gentler than I ever am.
“Are you still afraid of me?”
“A little…”
She said it shyly…
I didn’t like the answer, but her voice had been stuck in my head from the first moment.
“Who are you?”
She raised a brow shyly as she replied,
“Shouldn’t I be the one asking you that… Uncle?”
I hated the word.
But I ignored it.
“I’m Kaiden Draven.”
She relaxed instantly, as if she had been searching for an anchor.
“And I’m… Tara Blakewood.”
She smiled.
She laughed softly.
She forgot she was almost naked in front of a strange man.
I said her name,
“Tara…? I’m your father’s close friend.”
Tara.
Eduardo’s daughter.
The child who used to run around this house’s garden ten years ago.
Tara…
Was she the girl I saw in the Maldives?
How?
When did she turn into this?
When did she grow up?
How didn’t I notice?
I stared at her too long… longer than I should have.
Her beauty was shocking.
Her features matured in a way that defied logic.
She didn’t recognize me.
She didn’t remember that night.
But I…
I hadn’t forgotten even the way she stood near the water.
The moment that stole my breath.
She looked at me…
With those large eyes…
As if seeing a man for the first time.
My eyes slid over her features:
The flushed cheeks, the trembling lips, the soft neck, the quick rise and fall of her breath… then back to her eyes.
And for a few seconds…
There was nothing else in the world.
She stared at me… and I remembered her.
She didn’t know me… and I knew her more than I should.
And the worst part?
It was painfully clear she wasn’t a “child” anymore.
I looked at her for a long time… her delicate face…
Placed my hands on my knees just to stop myself from doing something I’d regret.
She was looking at me in a way no woman had since I married Lara…
A look of curiosity… desire… and something like gratitude because I “reassured” her.
We sank into each other’s eyes…
She was no longer the one afraid… and I was no longer fully in control.
Eye to eye… and the curse that begins with a look… had begun.
This was the daughter of the man who stood beside me in my hardest years.
The daughter of the friend who gave me his loyalty without question.
And now…
The curse ran through my veins because I saw her as a woman.
Not just a woman
A woman beautiful enough to break every wound inside me.
She lifted her eyes again.
Smiled a pure, innocent, devastating smile.
And said in a voice that silenced the noise inside me,
“Nice to meet you, Mr. Draven.”
I ignored the shiver that ran down my spine.
Ignored the stupid urge to tell her, “We’ve met before.”
But I swallowed the words.
Because she shouldn’t know…
And the more dangerous truth
I still couldn’t believe she had grown up like this.
- Writer
