Wildflower (Chapter 15)

Chapter 15

 

            “I’m going brunette,” Sugar said. The first stop of their girl’s weekend was to get their hair and nails done. Brooke had been the one to rent out the expensive salon fir the day, but she swore it was Carmen’s idea.

            “That would be very different,” Wildflower replied. Somehow the girls talked her into getting high lights.

            “Wildflower you are so the coolest aunt ever,” Krista told her. And around the room the other girls agreed.

            The day started with them taking a limo to breakfast at a fancy restaurant. Apparently just because they were a part of one of the richest families in the world, that didn’t mean that they ever went to nice expensive restaurants. Or that they ever did nice things like this. After breakfast they went shopping, another luxury most of the girls didn’t get a lot of. It was interesting to see how different things were from what they appeared to be. After lunch they came here to have their hair and nails done. And after this they were going to dress up and go to the under 21 club. Somehow they talked Wildflower into that too. But there was no harm in a little dancing. Even though she and Brooke were a little older than 21, but only by two years so it wasn’t a big deal. Tammy had graciously offered to watch the little ones while they went to the club, she came out with them too because they all agreed that she needs to get out of the house.

            “We never do anything fun when we come here,” Lin said and the other girls agreed. “I think I speak for all of us when I say we are so happy you are going to be our new aunt.” And again the girls all agreed.

            “Yeah and we’ve never had an aunt young enough to go out with us,” Sonya said.

            “Or one that would want to go out with us,” Marli said.

            “There was that one crazy chick Jose brought home, that one time. And she decided we should all drink with her,” Lexy said.

            “She was pretty crazy,” Sammie agreed.

            “Well I’m definitely not letting any of you drink,” Wildflower said.

            “You say that like none of them have ever done it,” Brooke said. “We are not that much older, and we were always partying when we were in high school.”

            “Yeah, but that’s different,” she said glaring at Brooke who shrugged.

            “Not all of us are party girls,” Lin said. She gave Sugar a dirty look.

            “There’s nothing wrong with a little fun Linny,” Marli told her.

            The rest of their salon visit mostly consisted of them gossiping and surprisingly actually getting along. Wildflower had actually seen how divided the girls were and it was shocking. She’d been very close to Daisy and even Iris but Iris was too busy always trying to act superior. It was a lot easier to get along with her brothers and that was probably why she didn’t have a lot of girl friends in school. Now she was surrounded by teenage girls that all admired her. At least they didn’t think she was some gold digger trying to ruin their family. They actually told her about the rare times Nicolas ever dated and they met the women, and all of them agreed that those women were boring.

            Wildflower could admit that she liked doing these girlie things that were more Daisy than her. Sometimes she felt like Daisy was probably laughing at her wearing dresses and shopping and doing all these things. When she was in high school she wore jeans or shorts and would never have wore a dress or a skirt. No she had a lot of girlie clothes and she even wore pink, which was Daisy’s favorite color. It was funny how much had changed. And she didn’t feel so guilty about using Nicolas’ credit card and buying things. She wasn’t sure when that changed but she felt like maybe after all she’d been through in her life that maybe she deserved it. Like maybe it was karma and the universe had decided that she shouldn’t have to worry about everything. And she liked not having to worry about how much things cost and how she was going to pay bills for her mother. It was nice to just be free.

 

 

            Nicolas shook his head; Wildflower was going to kill him. His brother decided that a fun “fishing trip” would be great with strippers. The boys of course didn’t mind and they also didn’t mind having a few beers. Why had he let his irresponsible brother plan this? Probably because he didn’t feel like it himself. If the boys were happy, he didn’t really care that much. What harm could strippers and beer do? Well it wouldn’t harm the boys but Wildflower was going to kill him. Van and Dominic decided to join them at the last minute and they looked pretty happy so did all the other boys. The youngest were Jordan and Evan and Evan was about to turn 16 and it wasn’t like he was a virgin. Neither of them were.

It made him feel oddly towards the boy who had been sleeping with his niece, in his house. Worse things happened in that house so he wasn’t going to hold it against them and he did believe that Sugar would never have taken no for an answer. They were alike in that way, so he couldn’t fault her for that. But he was going to have to do something about her. Katrina was too busy whining over her divorce, she didn’t even want a divorce at first. Their parents however were not going to let her stay with the ex-senator.

He was looking out at the water, strippers did not interest him. No woman interested him but his wife-to-be. Delanoz and Jose however were just like little boys and they liked the strippers. And no doubt they would probably have sex with one or two of them. As long as Delanoz didn’t rape anybody, he didn’t care. Cleaning up his brother’s messes had gotten old a long time ago. Sometimes he regretted helping him because he never learned his lesson.

“Hey,” one of the strippers said. She was looking at him like she wanted something, maybe she was pretty or something but none of that registered to him.

“I’m not interested,” he said and stared her in the eyes. She got the point and went away. He was never going to be unfaithful, there was no point.

“When D said you were in love, I didn’t believe it,” Jose said. He’d flown in last night, perfect time for the cruise of illegal activity.

“Things change,” he replied.

“You did get an attractive one, but I hear she was very expensive.”

“Stop listening to what your idiot brother tells you, I didn’t have to buy her. I just like to have some insurance.”

“Little Nicky has always been the one to know what he wants and get it. I envy you that; you do always get what you want.”

“Practice brother, I had to work at this and if either of you cared to you wouldn’t have to worry about not getting what you want,” he told him. Though what he wanted at the moment he couldn’t have and he couldn’t stop thinking about her bent over his desk.

“We aren’t like you, somebody had to be the perfect son and the perfect everything and you just happened to be all of it,” Jose shook his head. “The parents still prefer you to us even now when they think you’re being ‘reckless’. It’s nice to see you be different for a change. And you’re going to marry a woman that has control of you. I can tell you’re thinking about her, she’s a smart woman.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Just that you aren’t in control of your relationship, she gets what she wants all the time, doesn’t she? You can’t say no to her and you’re doing things to prove your love for her, like giving her a house that’s been in your family for ever. That makes me think that you don’t think you deserve her, I may not be the genius of the family but I know women. And this one didn’t have to lift a finger before she got control of everything you own,” Jose said looking amused.

“Maybe you’re right,” Nicolas admitted. “I don’t think I do deserve her, but she’s mine and she will be mine forever.” Leave it to Jose to say something smart and point out things that he wasn’t trying to think about.

“Don’t say that too loud, I’d hate to see the brothers throw you overboard,” Jose laughed. “Only you would think it was a good idea to marry a woman that has nine brothers. You step out of line with her and they will kill you.”

“And you wonder why I don’t like you,” he replied.

“Quit being such a grouch little brother, I’m just speaking the truth and you hate it when I tell you the truth. Nobody else knows you like I do or understands you, well for the most part. But I would rather be Jose the lover and not Nicky the genius prodigal son, too much work being you.”

“Since you and D choose your roles in the family I never got a choice,” he said with a little bitterness.

“Even if you did you would have choose to be who you are, there was no choice in that. You are who you were meant to be Nicolas, and it would be boring if you were any other way.”

“Nice that my life amuses you so much.”

“If we didn’t have you to count on we’d all be screwed, you can always talk your way out of anything and you know its true.”

“It’s a talent that comes in handy more often than not,” he shrugged.

Staring at the crystal blue water, he knew Jose was right, about everything. Nobody ever gave Jose the credit he deserved, but it was Jose that preferred it to be that way. That way you never knew what to expect from him. Maybe it wasn’t so bad having the family around. His brother was a different perspective and maybe he was going too far with doing things to keep Wildflower because he didn’t deserve her. She was goodness and love and selflessness and he was darkness, just darkness. And she had no idea, he wanted to be the person he was when he was with her, the person she thought he was, but he wasn’t. And if she found out about his new special project, she would never marry him. Sometimes he was certain that he had no soul because of the things he did.

“Don’t worry little brother, your woman will forgive you of most of your sins,” Jose said.

“I doubt that,” he replied. He didn’t deserve to be forgiven, especially since he didn’t even feel guilty about anything and he should have. He really should have.

 

**************************

Tonight was pizza and scary movie night, so they were all in their jammies in the TV room. Earlier that day they went to Build a Bear so that the younger girls Anna-Maria and Olivia (Carmen’s daughters) and Iris’ daughter Isabel and Ariela, could do something fun. But in the end all of them made Build a Bears, so they had animals to snuggle while watching the movies. They were having a lot of fun and the guys were coming home in the morning. All of the girls were in agreement that they should take a Paris shopping trip once Carmen came back. And in an amazing turn of events Sugar was actually getting along with her cousins, so it was a good weekend. It made Wildflower miss her sister.

She wondered what Daisy would say about her new life. And what she would think of Nicolas and his over enthusiastic giving and his wicked witch mother. Her own mother called her that day to apologize for her ‘episode’; she would be staying at the expensive clinic for the next few weeks. And she cried when Wildflower told her about Isaiah and Christina, she really regretted what she did to Christina. But Wildflower was not going to let her mother bring her down anymore, sometimes she was such a poison person and she sucked the life out of things. She vowed to herself to never let it happen again, she was happy now. Though she did wonder what the men were doing, Nicolas was very vague when she spoke to him. He even distracted her by trying to get her to have phone sex with him, but she refused him. But she trusted him to not do anything crazy with her brothers so she wasn’t worried.

Halfway through their second movie someone rang the doorbell. It was rare that anybody rang the doorbell because the door way always open during the day, they never had to worry about unwanted visitors because they had to go through the guard. But since it was late and only females were in the house the door was locked and the security system was on. The girls jumped when they heard the bell. Wildflower was the one who got up to get it. An older woman was standing outside the door when she opened it.

“Yes?” She asked, and then she realized who the woman was and why she looked so grouchy. It was Martha, Emilio’s wife; she’d seen a picture of her. And that was why she was pulling a suitcase behind her.

“Who are you?” Martha asked, she walked in uninvited but that wasn’t a surprise.

“I’m Wildflower and I’m guessing you are Martha?”

“I am but I have no idea who you are…” She trailed off while staring at her. “Right you must be Nicky’s girlfriend, I think Emilio mentioned you. He didn’t say you were staying here, which I assume you do?”

“Yes, I moved in awhile ago,” Wildflower nodded. Then Martha’s eyes fell on her hand and she took it to stare at her ring.

“I guess I have been gone a long time,” she shook her head. “Ok you are Nicky’s fiancé, so where might he be?”

“Oh that is a good question, he said he was taking the boys fishing but I wouldn’t be surprised if they didn’t come back with fish. I should have suspected that since both of his brothers went.”

“Boys? You mean Delanoz’s boys?”

“Yes and 5 of my brothers,” Wildflower said.

“Hey Martha,” Sugar greeted when she came out into the hall, she looked a lot different with espresso brown hair.

“Sugar? I almost didn’t recognize you,” Martha said staring at her.

“I see you’ve met our new addition, grandpa never said you were coming in today,” Sugar said. She was leaning on Wildflower; they were basically the same height and wore around the same size so Sugar was always stealing her clothes.

“Well he is out of town on business,” Martha replied. “Is your grandmother here?”

“No, she’s spending time with Katrina, she’s taking her divorce hard,” she said bitterly. It was no secret that Sugar and her mother did not get along.

“Oh yes I saw the news,” Martha nodded. “So what are you all doing?”

“Having a movie night,” Wildflower answered. “You’re welcome to join us.”

“No thank you dear, I think I’ll go rest my flight was long,” Martha said. With wave she walked away down the hall pulling her suitcase.

“Don’t let her fool you, she’s way bitchier then Rosa,” Sugar said.

“Do you call anybody by a proper title?”

“Yes Tia, see I can have manners and stuff, I just don’t feel like it most of the time,” she said with a smile. “These people aren’t my family; you are my family so I don’t care about them.”

“Speaking of that I talked to Nick about you.”

“Oh God he’s kicking me out, right?”

“No, you are such a drama queen Sugar Capriani, he just agrees with me that we need to help you,” Wildflower said. “And I want you here where I can keep an eye on you and it would be nice if your mother just let you stay here permanently. But she hates me and would keep you just to be a spiteful b***h.”

“Indeed, but thank you for being here for me, I swear I’ll be good like saint Sammie, you know that girl don’t do nothing fun. She’s going to soccer camp in a few weeks she’s so weird,” Sugar shook her head.

“You are so me when I was 16, it is scary and Sammie is Daisy. She worked all summer to pay for cheer camp.”

“Eww that is so wrong, I’m picturing you as a cheerleader since you looked just alike. I bet Uncle Nick would like you to dress up as a cheerleader.”

“I am so not talking about sex with your uncle with you,” Wildflower said and Sugar laughed. “Come on we are going to watch movies that are scary and not talk about sex, it’s a sex free weekend.”

“Only because Uncle Nick isn’t here, you two are like freaking rabbits, everybody knows it,” Sugar said and she stopped moving.

“Really? Do we make a lot of noise?” Wildflower asked feeling embarrassed.

“Not always, but everybody can tell, he looks at you and anybody can see it. As soon as he gets home what does he want for dinner? You, that’s probably why you were at his office so long yesterday.”

“Sugar stop being 16 year old me and be a child, please, before it’s too late and you’re old and boring. Like your mother,” Wildflower said and they both laughed.

“Gross I don’t want to be like that washed up hag,” she shook her head. They went back to join the other girls and Sugar laid her head in Wildflower’s lap.

She really saw a lot of herself in Sugar and that scared her. There were too many bad things from the past that she did not want for Sugar. At least she had her sister and brothers if something went wrong back then, but Sugar had no one. Her brother was gone because he felt guilty because he didn’t protect her. And as a result of everything that happened Sugar was out of control now. But Wildflower was not going to let her get any worse, she knew all Sugar needed was someone to believe in her and just love her. She had her brothers after Daisy died and Sugar had her and Sammie.

 

 

Katrina was angry and hurt; her brother had ruined her life. All because she didn’t like his little toy. She wanted revenge but she was terrified of her little brother, he would do something worse than creating a huge scandal. She couldn’t even leave her house reporters and paparazzi were all out there waiting for her. Everybody thought of her a fool, how could she not know her husband liked teenage girls? Maybe she should have known, but how could she believe a word Sugar said? All the girl did was tell lies, so how could she know that she wasn’t lying? People thought she was a terrible mother after Sugar ran her big mouth and told people that she had ignored her when she told her. Being ignorant was so much easier that being the stupid wife and the horrible mother.

All of this because she didn’t obey Nicolas. Everybody in their family was afraid of him, she knew since he was born that he was evil. You could see it in his blue eyes. Eyes that not a single member of their family on either side ever had, they were the eyes of evil. Saying that aloud would not only get her a one way ticket to the nuthouse but also it would make him want to do something worse. She wanted to get back at him and expose him for what he truly was. But that was too risky. So if she wanted revenge she had to take the one thing he loved the most, Wildflower.

It was so bizarre to see her brother love anything or anyone. Maybe she did overact and blame the silly girl for things that weren’t her fault. But the whole situation just looked bad, the poor girl and the billionaire. It was a Lifetime movie come to life and it bothered her. Just like the fact that her daughter loved Wildflower and not her, bothered her. Sugar held grudges; she could apparently hold one for 6 years. How was Katrina supposed to know that her husband had done something to her daughter? Because she didn’t believe her son, he left and she never saw him again. And her brothers almost killed her husband and that was divorce number three. After that Sugar wasn’t the same little girl she had once been. For a long time she didn’t speak to anyone. Slowly what was once a happy little girl turned into the thing she was now. She snuck out and had sex with strangers and drank and probably did drugs. How was Katrina supposed to fix that? Her daughter was broken and she hated her.

But there was Wildflower the poor princess that met Nicolas by chance and she got everything she ever dreamed of. And she had Katrina’s daughter. While Katrina sat in a big empty house, a prisoner in her own home. Her husband was in jail and he wasn’t getting out. So maybe she was wrong to be angry with her brother, she didn’t need to be with a man like that. And what if he had done something to Sugar? Then she never would recover and the therapist she’d been seeing for years still hadn’t fixed her. No mixture of antidepressants and anti-anxiety pills could help her. But that wasn’t Katrina’s fault; she was doing the best she could. Maybe if her children’s father hadn’t ditched them things would have been different. Or if she had just let him take the kids, like he so desperately wanted to do, then at least one wouldn’t be missing and the other the way she was. At the time she was hurt that he wanted to leave her and wanted to take her children away, so she fault to keep them and destroyed them.

Maybe she deserved to be called a bad mother. They even brought up Markus’ disappearance in the news; they really liked to dig up things to hurt her. ‘Socialite with cheating husband doesn’t care he’s been after teenage daughter’, she made headlines. And her father was mad at her and so was her mother. They knew it was Nicolas that leaked the story but he was precious Nicky. Her mother had been over all week complaining about Wildflower. And how she seduced Nicky into putting her name on the deed to the house and rewriting his will and spending the money he did on her family. At first Katrina thought that too, that she did something to make him do all that, but that wasn’t the case. Nobody ever made Nicolas do anything he didn’t want to, he was a master manipulator and could literally talk anybody into anything. And that was probably because he sold his soul to the devil. So she had to believe that Wildflower was just a poor girl that got caught up in a very bad situation that she didn’t even know about. Nicolas saw her as his possession and that was dangerous, she almost felt sorry for the girl. But she had her own life to worry about not the hot tamale her brother picked up in a bar. She needed to repair her life first and then get revenge on Nicolas. If he thought he was going to have his happily ever after with his princess then he had another thing coming, she was not going to let that happen.  

 

 

Nicolas was thinking of nothing but Wildflower by the time they got back home. They had actually fished the second day of their trip so at least she wouldn’t be suspicious. He was addicted to this woman and he didn’t get why, how had she made him feel what no other woman could? Every second of the day he wanted to see her and touch and have her scent on his skin. No woman ever interested him very long and the one that did he was going to marry. And he would do anything to keep her. The females were outside playing basketball, they looked happy and were laughing. So it appeared that their weekend went well.

Wildflower was out there in shorts he wanted to take off her body and a tank top that showed her pierced belly button. He didn’t like her dressing the way she did when men could see her. Any man with a pulse would want her and he had two brothers and five nephews in his house. It took all his strength not to go down and drag her back in. Never in his life did he feel this possessive of a woman. She needed a different bra on because her breasts bounced too much while she was out there running around. That bothered him, he was just about to go out and get her when someone tapped his shoulder. He turned t see his stepmother standing there.

“Hello Nicolas,” Martha said. She was short and thin with dyed blonde hair and she often tried to appear a lot younger than her age.

“Hi, I didn’t know you would be in so soon,” he said. None of his siblings liked their stepmother and he was no different.

“I arrived last night, I came back early because I was concerned for Katrina and your father was very concerned about you. And I’m going to assume that has something to do with your fiancé? He did not tell me that you were engaged, I was going to have lunch with your mother so she could fill me in on what’s been going on,” she said.

“Oh and I’m sure she’ll give you an earful about Wildflower but mother isn’t thinking properly,” he said.

“Is that so? Well I am happy for you that you finally found someone, you were getting a little old. You need to get started on a family of your own; you keep Sugar and Samantha over her all the time. And I hear that you are having your wedding here at the house, that is a nice idea,” she said. “I’ll see you later on.” She left before he could respond, not that he actually cared.

When he turned back to look outside he didn’t see Wildflower down on the basketball court. Where was she? He was about to step out on the deck when she jumped out in front of him. Usually he hated it when people tried to scare him, but he could make an exception for her. So he pulled her inside and kissed her, it was only two days but he missed her. It felt so good to just touch her.

“Maybe we should be apart more often if you’re going to kiss me like that,” she said with her cute little smile.

“Oh I’ll show you how much I missed you,” he growled in her ear.

“Nick,” she purred while he kissed down her neck. “We really can’t do this in here, someone might see.”

“I need you right now,” he told her. He pulled her closer to him so she could feel how much he wanted her. A slow smile spread across her face and she bit her bottom lip and looked him in the eyes, he loved when she gave him that wicked look.

“We need to go upstairs,” she said. “But let’s go in your office instead; I’m so feeling the office thing right now.”

“You are going to be the death of me,” he said while she pulled him down the hall. “Did you wear this little outfit to torture me too?”

“Actually I did, I thought it would make you come running down there but you didn’t. So I figured you were either mad or you didn’t like it.”

“Oh I like it and I was going to come down there and spank you. But I was trying to exercise some self-control; I doubt your brothers would like it to see me touching this nice a*s you have.”

“I figured you would be ready to hit the bed when you got home so I didn’t even put panties on today,” she said halfway up the stairs.

“Damn,” he shook his head and she giggled. “You better stop wearing these little outfits around here; I don’t need my nephews fantasizing about you.”

“Oh Jason is 21 isn’t he?” She asked and he glared at her.

“You are not funny,” he replied following her into his office. He made sure to lock the door; he didn’t want to be disturbed.

“Maybe I should come work in your office and leave my panties at home,” she said sitting on his desk.

“Are you trying to kill me?” He asked while she was undoing his pants.

“Nick I’m so freaking addicted to you, I was thinking about you in the shower today,” she said while slowly unbuttoning his shirt.

“In the shower?” He asked and she just nodded. “I think we are going to need a shower after this.”

“Probably,” she nodded. “I love you.” She said staring into his eyes; he could see it right there in her eyes, she really loved him.

“I love you too,” he said and he kissed her. “I really love you.” For a moment he didn’t care about sex, he just thought about how she looked at him.

“Honey is something wrong?” She asked looking concerned; he just wrapped his arms around her and held her tight. “Nick, what’s wrong?”

“I don’t deserve you,” he whispered. Why of all the times in his life that he should feel guilty about something was it now?

“I don’t think I’m that big of a prize,” she said stroking his hair. “Just tell me what’s wrong, one minute you want to rip my clothes off and now you’re being weird.”

“Baby, you have no idea the type of person I am,” he said. He picked her up and went around the desk sit with her in his lap. “It’s not right for you to marry me; I’m not the person you think I am.”

“Nicolas,” she said staring into his eyes searching for a clue.

“No, listen I am a very bad person, I’ve done a lot of things I should regret. And when Katrina pissed me off I leaked the story about her husband,” he told her.

“Was all of it true?” She asked and he nodded. “Then so what, she was being a b***h and I wouldn’t want that man near Sugar. I love you Nick, I really do and I’ve never been in love before. So what if you’re a little mean, I wasn’t always so nice either. We are getting married right here at our home next year and nothing will change that.”

“You amaze me sometimes,” he said. He felt like something had to be wrong with him, why did he feel like he should tell her the things he’d done? For once he truly felt completely out of control, he wanted her to know that he was anything but a nice person.

“I try,” she shrugged. “Stop being so weird, I love you no matter what and the Nick I love is strong and sexy and he cares about his family, that’s all I need to know.”

“I think you should stop taking your birth control,” he said and she stared at him.

“You want to have kids, like now?”

“Not right now but we could just leave it up to fate.”

“Um ok, I’ll do it,” she said. He hadn’t really expected her to give in so easily but then again he didn’t plan to ask her that, not today. “You better still think I’m pretty when I’m fat and knocked up.”

“I don’t think you could ever be unattractive to me,” he assured her.

“I’m going to hold you to that,” she said. “Nick, I don’t think I want to get married next year.”

“Would you prefer tomorrow? Because I am all for it,” he told her.

“Its just like why wait when we love each other and what’s really going to change a year from now?”

“Exactly, so if not tomorrow how about a nice fall wedding, October good?”

“Yes, that sounds perfect,” she said and they kissed. For some reason a wedding sooner rather then later sounded a lot better.

Reviews

[Katie]

Seems like the boys had fun! And it seems like Nick really does always get what he wants....

[silver threaded queen]

I liked katrina's side of the story, how nick was born evil and such then you get him buying wildflowers family a house and all those good deeds. It's kinda funny.

[MarkGMelvin]

Strippers and beer fa sho as long as dey aint skinny

[deeps]

build a bear, I've heard about those places!
This is another wonderufl chapter here,
Such vivid details and imagery,
Alot is going on this, Ilike it.
Very well written as well.