Chapter 21 A therapist
Daxton
I didn’t mean to check but I couldn’t stop my eyes from wandering to what Verena had scribbled in her journal. She wrote about how she had to cancel her ticket and would go to the football game when she was granted leave.
Why wait for a leave when we could fucking leave together?
Verena’s hair was slicked back into a bun that rested at the nape of her neck while she took a big bite of her burger.
And me? All I did was gawk over her, mesmerized with the way she chewed, the way her throat worked, and how much of a stunner she was.
As if she noticed my eyes on her, her gaze lifted to mine. “You hate the food?” She tilted her head, squinting her eyes at me. “Don’t tell me that you do because this is the best burger you could get in Times Square. I have never left this place without giving this place a five-star rating”
My lips curved in a smile and again, I was too stunned to speak. No one has ever held me in a chokehold like this and everything about Verena consumed me that it was starting to scare me.
The things I would do for her.
The things that I wanted to do to her.
I leaned back in the booth. “I would rather feed my eyes with something better,”
She opened her mouth to speak but the words never came as she inhaled deeply. The corner of her lips quirked and soon, her face was a flush of red.
“Is that a blush I see?”
Her cheeks heated the more she laughed it off. “No…” She cleared her throat. “So, I haven’t even asked yet but what is your favorite football team?”
I chuckled at her successful attempt to change the topic and instead of prodding, I leaned forward with my forearms on the table. “The Ace Reapers!”
She sneered at me, waving her hands at me. “You can’t be serious”
“Your favorite team?”
Pride swirled in her eyes as she adjusted her clothes. “The prestigious club in the history of football…” She paused to take a sip of her iced mocha. “The one and only—“ She rolled her hands, eyes lighting up dramatically in a way that made me laugh.
“Denver Titans!”
Pfft! Pfft!
I folded my hands over my chest, giving her a blank stare. “All that drama for what? Your favorite team stands no chance when it comes to the Titans”
She leaned forward, eyes sparking with a challenge. “Is that a bet?”
“What would you give me in return if we made it a bet?”
She squinted her eyes at me before she waved me off. “I feel like you would ask for something that I can’t give. Businessmen like you are calculated—“
She was right. Her team would definitely lose and if she agreed to the bet, I would ask for things that she would spend the rest of her life paying for. A debt that would never end. I would put her in a situation where she basically signs her life to me.
And this was what scared me about my growing feelings towards Verena.
My obsession was starting to lean into borderline crazy and I feared that I might ruin her and every man who dreamt of coming close to her— Kian inclusive.
I didn’t just have his time yet.
“I take after my father who forced me into a business school—” I took a sip of my iced mocha and almost spit it out. “This is goddamn awful!”
She shook her head at my words. “Business school? You were forced”
I wiped the corner of my mouth with the serviette, fixing my eyes directly on her. “If it weren’t for my dad, I would have become a footballer. I was the captain and my team won a lot of championships thanks to me. Can’t even count the number of gold medals that I have had,”
“But when I turned sixteen, he burned those medals, forced me to leave the team by using extreme measures on me—”
Her eyes softened and for a second, I wondered if I should keep the gore part to myself or…
Verena was too beautiful to hear the details about my past so I would keep it to myself.
“After he deprived me of certain things, I yielded to his demand and was forced to join a business school…” I tilted my head while she listened keenly, eyes bleeding with sympathy for me. “He wanted me to join the family business but to get back at him and all the things that he put me through, I got a degree in hospitality management and was yanked off the inheritance list,”
“I would rather be on my own than listen to tales about being the son of a mistress—” Anger slowly seeped through me and that was when I caught sight of her—
Staring at me like that—like she wants to take me in her arms and those eyes have to be the most beautiful I have ever seen.
Slowly, she let out a breath. “Daxton…” My name rolled off her tongue. “You might have heard this many times, but you are awesome”
No.
I haven’t heard that before.
She was the first person to ever tell me that I was awesome.
My phone vibrated with a call and I was forced to tear my eyes away from her—to the phone that buzzed with the chauffeur’s name.
My gaze swept back to her and I smiled. “We should leave now, my lady”
While everyone watched the game, someone had my attention instead—Verena. She wore a blue baseball cap, a mask over her face, and sunglasses, and the more I stared, the more I couldn’t help but smile.
She had lived a secluded life for a long time and had been paranoid about being seen with me since people would dig into her past and that would really hurt. To keep her safe from trolls and from the public eye, I had paid the paparazzi to stay clear of my path.
Her back fell in defeat as her head whipped to mine and those eyes fucking smiled that I wanted to kiss them.
And that was exactly what I did— not minding the cameras and the chaos this was going to cause after the games.
I removed the sunglasses, gripping both cheeks while she completely stilled and then, I kissed her eyes, her nose and her mouth true the fucking mask.
The crowd roared. Their eyes were not on the game anymore but on us.
Verena was consuming and beautiful…
But this was the fucking problem. Damaged men like me ruin beautiful things and Verena was too beautiful to ruin—too precious.
For a second, it felt like I didn’t deserve her…
No, screw those thoughts! The moment I touched down, I would be getting a therapist to help with my feelings towards Verena.