Original Sins by Faith Summers

19

Georgiou

Evie will be here in a few minutes.

I’m going to need to be inside her after the busy day I’ve had.

Today I ran the last of my checks on Peter. I didn’t find anything, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing to find.

It just means I have to take my search to the streets, which is exactly what I plan to do this week. Christian hasn’t found much either because Peter has been in Colorado on a business trip. He got back yesterday.

All the lack of information means is that there’s something we haven’t found yet. But we will.

Right now, I have other shit to deal with that’s more family-related.

I open the door to my father’s office, and he lifts his salt and pepper head to acknowledge me.

I purposely decided to meet with my father now because I don’t want to get stuck talking to him about duty and responsibility.

We’re opening the sex club next Friday, so I don’t want him to hear about it and then ask me.

It’s right that I sit him down and talk to him properly.

He gazes at me with that smug expression known to most of us. I look like him. Christian looks like Mom.

I think because I look like him, he wants me to act like him and be him.

“You look serious, son,” he states as I sit before his grand mahogany desk.

“Just something I need to talk to you about. It’s not serious, but it’s important.”

“Sure, no problem. what is it?”

I pull in a breath. “Salvatore, Nick, Gabe, Christian, and I are going into business together.”

He temples his fingers, and the stern expression that taints his face is exactly what I expected.

“Business? What sort of business is this?”

“A sex club.”

Telling him I’m opening a sex club is not the part I have to worry about. It’s the fact that my time is going to be invested elsewhere.

“When did this happen?”

“It’s happening now. We bought the building, and we’re opening on Friday. The place still needs some work, but it’s nothing that will require too much effort once the contractors start their work.”

My father has no off switch when he gets an idea stuck in his head. There’s a reason why I grew up thinking I could own the world if I wanted to. It’s because of him.

He’s not used to being told plans aren’t going according to what he thought they were going to be. I’m not either, so I know exactly how he’s feeling right now as he stares back at me.

The reason he’s contemplating his next words is he doesn’t want to piss me off. He needs me and knows I don’t actually need him. My presence here is bound by my love and loyalty to him and my family.

If push came to shove, however, I’d take whatever road I need to in order to preserve what I want for myself.

“Georgiou,” he begins in a flat tone. “I’m not happy about this. The least you could have done is give me more of a heads up than this when all is practically said and done.”

“Pa, I didn’t need to give you a heads up because it’s something I want to do with my life, and I thought it would be cool to have my brother and my cousins on board.”

“None of them are like you. Not one of them, and when you all get together, it’s a disaster. They drag you down, and going into business with people like that affects everything else. In this instance, it will affect your standing in this company. People like them drain you of your resources.”

“People like them?” He’s fully well aware he is including Christian in that mix and talking about family like they’re strangers. “Christian is my brother—”

“Christian is a dead weight.”

“Christian turned down M.I.T when he was fifteen years old.” I’m trying to tamp down my rage.

“Exactly. That’s the kind of guy he is. He turns away opportunity when it comes knocking on the door.”

“My brother is a genius, and he wanted to live a normal life. It was his choice. That doesn’t make him a dead weight, and as for the others, they’re all Yale graduates. None of them need to work here, and I don’t either, but we’re all doing it because it’s family. You’re just pissed because you think I won’t have time to excel the way you want me to here.”

“What is so wrong about that?” he throws back. “Am I not to be proud of my son’s work in the family business?”

“It’s not about that, Pa, and you know it. The last thing I am is a fool. So don’t treat me like one.”

He’s never said this, but his plans are obvious if you look a little deeper into what he’s like and if you know him.

Uncle Julian is the boss of the family, and his sons are the first line of defense. We’re a well-known family, and that means we have an endless supply of enemies.

The possibility of our line of defense getting wiped out is quite realistic and likely.

I won’t pussyfoot around shit and think there’s no strength in the likelihood of that happening.

If it does happen, it means we’ll be in charge.That’s the code of the family, and it won’t be him. It will be me. The first son of the second eldest Giordano brother gets the empire. My father has four brothers, and he’s the second eldest. I’m his only chance at ever running the company, and the others don’t stand a chance.

That’s the way my great grandfather set things up. Giordanos Inc. might not have been the empire it is now, but my forefathers knew what they set out to do and that someday it would be great.

“Am I supposed to apologize for that too?” he asks, straightening up. “I would never say anything against my brother, but I’ve always wanted control of the company. If my child can show the competence to do it, then that’s something I can be proud of. Of course, I’m not going to want you wasting time on shit.”

This conversation is over. It will go around in circles and end up in an argument I don’t want with him.

“I think it’s best if we leave it here. This meeting was about telling you what I’m doing. I wasn’t asking your permission or approval. I’m doing this, and I can assure you my work here won’t be affected, and neither will the others. You should hope nothing happens to them, not the other way around, so that you can have the company.”

Bastard.

He narrows his fox-like eyes and cracks his knuckles. “Very well then, Georgiou.”

Clearly, he’s still pissed, but I don’t care. I said my piece, and how I said it is exactly how it’s going to be. Now he knows.

I get up and leave.

It’s time to see my girl. She should be in my office waiting for me.

After talking to my father, I need her even more now. I have the balls to stand up to my old man, but that doesn’t mean it sits with me when we don’t see eye to eye.

This was the same thing that happened when I wanted to take a year off after high school to travel. He didn’t want me to do that, so I stayed, and I went to college. When I graduated college and wanted to do the same thing, he put his fucking foot down again, and I did what I was told.

When my grandfather died and I got my inheritance, I made my first million in shares and investments. Money gave me power, but I still did what my father wanted me to do.

That money grew and grew and gave me the independence and wealth I sought. It’s why I can do whatever the fuck I want to do.

My office door is ajar, so when I push it open, Evie doesn’t hear me come in.

She’s standing by the long French windows gazing out at the docks and the Chicago skyline. That’s my favorite view too. All the offices on this side of the building have the pleasure of it, but I’m in the middle, so I get the very best view of the whole thing.

The sight of the beautiful woman in my office, though, is one no man would forget.

Henry and I have done all sorts of wild wicked things with this doll, but she still carries that light of innocence with her, and that’s the thing that makes me stare at her.

It’s purity and something a dirty mobster like me shouldn’t touch. It won’t matter what I do to her. What I’m seeing is resonating from deep inside the Duchess, and it’s unbreakable because it’s who she is.

That’s what makes me addicted to her, and every time I see her, I crave her more and more.

I never planned on that happening, and I know I shouldn’t entertain anything past fucking. I’m not sure, though, if I can control that any more than I can control the weather.

Today she’s wearing a long-sleeved top with a little mini skirt. The top accentuates her breasts, and the skirt shows off those long golden legs I had wrapped around me as I pounded into her last night while Henry fed her his dick.

Again, I note that I should be jealous, but I’m starting to think of her as not just mine but ours.

I close the door subtly so as not to startle her, but I fail.

She jumps when the door clicks shut, but when she sees it’s me, she brings her hand to her heart and smiles.

I return the smile and put the latch on the door. I invited her here because while she’s in my world, I’m going to live out every single fantasy I have of her.

The one I had last night is of fucking her on my desk, then bending her over it so I could pound into her from behind.

That’s why she’s here today.