MEETING ANTHONY

SONIA'S POV 

Today started with me taking a brisk walk through the city park then… I found myself here, where it all began. The only difference is that I'm at the top of the New Orientals Hotel, so close to the edge that if I take a large step forward, I'd be falling 30 feet to my death.

Death.

That word suddenly doesn't sound so bad. I've had two days to think about my situation and I've always come up empty on a solution. My father might as well have disowned me, the two people I thought were my people are now for each other, making them a thing of the past for me and I'm pregnant. But the most insane part of my last ordeal is that I've just considered keeping the pregnancy.

I made this decision just two seconds ago and going over it again, the thought doesn't really seem so bad. I have just myself in the world right now and getting rid of my child will only make me feel shitier that I already do. Besides, I have the money from my years of savings to fend for us both. Sure, my lifestyle will be a huge downgrade from what I'm used too but it'll still be something.

My thoughts are still scattered all over the place when I feel a huge force of wind almost knock me over from behind. Solidifying my foot on the ground so I don't fall since I don't really want to die, I look behind me and realize that it's a helicopter about to land on the helipad a couple of feet from where I'm standing.

The noise it emanates as it lands is deafening and between struggling to keep my hair from temporarily blinding me and rooting my feet's to the ground, I almost fail to see who alights the helicopter.

Keyword being 'almost'.

It's difficult not to notice a man as good looking as him even at night. I watch as my blond stranger from over a week ago alights from the helicopter, eyes locked with mine as he hands his headset to a man on standby. 

Instead of heading inside like someone who just got back from a journey should, he starts walking towards me. Just looking at his powerful strides, it takes everything in me not to turn scarlet red. The wind acts like a paid actor with this man, blowing his sandy blond strands in the perfect direction along with his black coat. 

He stops beside me and with him standing almost as close as we were the last time we met, I have to crane my neck back just so I can look at him. Being 5'6, I wouldn't exactly call myself a short woman but with his over 6 feet height hovering over me, I might as well be short.

My stranger whose name I still don't know looks over the edge of the building for almost a minute before looking back down at me.

"It won't be a straight death from where you're standing."

I blink. "What?" 

But he doesn't give me a reply. At least not yet. Instead, he takes hold of my arms in his large, gloved hands, and pulls me to him so that we are standing toe to toe. 

"What are you doing?" I whisper. This new position has brought us closer. So close that if I stand on my toes, and he dips his head down a bit, I'd probably have the best kiss…

"If you fall from here, the possibility of you dying immediately is 98% at the very least," He begins as I stare at him with my mouth slightly agape. "Falling from where you stood before is about 35% lesser. You'd die eventually, maybe after a night or two of trying to revive your shattered bones, but not immediately." Having made his point, he steps back from me and climbs down the somewhat elevated platform. 

"Did you just make way for me to kill myself?" I murmur, feeling like I'm losing my mind all over again. What kind of a man is this?

'Your stranger', remember? My inner mind reminds me.

He cocks his head to one side, looking at me still as if examining my reaction. "Oh, I'm sorry," He starts again in that addictive voice of his, not looking sorry at all. "Did you come all the way up here to admire the view that the hotel offers? Because then I should apologize for assuming you came here with the intention of getting yourself killed." He finishes like he's an all knowing being or something.

I'm suddenly annoyed with myself for being attracted to such an arrogant asshole. If I was going to commit suicide and he knew about it, shouldn't the words coming out of his mouth be more encouraging than provoking? 

Well, I have no one to blame except myself for not always being a good judge of character. If I were, then I would have known to stay clear of him the moment we had our first encounter. But then again, I didn't agree to meet him here or at all which brings me to my next question.

"Who are you?"

"I'm Anthony."

His name immediately clicks and I scoff at him, me, and the world as I look away from him. "Of course, Anthony Romano. I should've known." 

"Should've known what, Miss Dexter?"

"That you mafia men never take no for an answer." I snap. "You can't marry me, Mr. Romano because I'm no good at the moment." I mutter that last bit to myself but he grabs it anyway.

"Why not? Because you're pregnant?"

"If you know that, then why are you here?" Now that I think of it, how did he know to find me here? Is it purely coincidental or did he track me to teach me how to fall from a high rise building?

"I'm here because I think you're just what I need, Miss Dexter." He says with a smug look on his face, like he knows something I don't. "I need a wife and a child along the way. And here you are, a potential to be both. I don't need to sleep with you to get you pregnant since you are already."

"A win-win." I clock. "What I want to know is why?"

"The 'why' isn't any of your concern, Miss Dexter." He's definitely hiding something. 

"And what makes you think I'll agree to marry you?"

He surprises me with an unexpected and clipped laugh, one that sends a vibration down my clit, making my nipples stand at peak. My face changes to a crimson red because his eyes are immediately drawn to my breast, the thin material of my running clothes not thick enough to hide my nipple buds. 

"You're a pregnant woman, alone in a dangerous world. Nothing screams vulnerability louder than that fact. If you accept my proposal, you'll have my protection, Miss Dexter. You can give your child a good life even after the duration of our marriage."

"It's very bold of you to assume that I don't have the protection of my father." I state bitterly.

"If he really cut your inheritance then I'm sorry, Miss Dexter, you don't have any protection except what I have to offer."

No matter how stubborn I try to be about this, I know he isn't wrong but I don't admit it out loud. I don't even want to start with how he knows about my inheritance. 

"I can find protection on my own." I counter stubbornly.

He dips his hand into his coat and brings out a folded pile of papers. Handing it over to me, he says, "When you don't, go through this contract with your lawyer and give me a call. I'm in the city for two more days so you have until then."

With that, all 6 foot of him turns away walking in the direction of where he came, but I'm not done.

"How did you know to find me here?" I shout above the noisiness of the wind.

"I own the hotel, Miss Dexter," He yells behind him as he keeps walking. "Our meeting here was purely coincidental." And with that, he disappears into the opening of the door being held open for him while I stand there utterly transfixed and more confused than before I got here.