Forgive Me...but You're Mine

This is the last chapter before I introduce sex into the story between these two characters. I hope you don't mind the build-up but I felt that you needed to understand both Jared and Nicki's back stories before you could really enjoy the path they are about to take with each other...

Again sorry for any errors in spelling and grammer but I just write this story because I want to know what happens next to these characters so if you think there are too many mistakes for you then feel free to stop reading on...

'Daddy, look at the shape of this.' Nathan beamed thrusting a piece of buttery toast towards Jared as he entered the kitchen. Jared regarded the star shaped browned bread with interest, its precise shaping easily achieved with the set of cutters Jared had brought a few months ago to entice Nathan to eat his food. Mary, Nathan's nanny slipped another piece on his plate whilst scooping up his empty plastic bowl and spoon to rinse in the sink.

Jared had to admit the last few years had been tough but they would have been damn near impossible without Mary. Trying to bond with Nathan had been hard enough in the first few months since Nina left, let alone remembering feeds, nappy changes and sleeping schedules. The day Mary walked through the door with her bright smile and softly wrinkled face was the first day Jared realised he was a dad. Not a full time babysitter waiting for Nina to return, not a guy stuck with a baby hoping someone would realise the mistake and release him of the responsibility of being a parent, but a real dad. Overnight Jared realised he had become the centre of a little child's world, its sole provider and protector and once Mary had established an ounce of order back into their lives Jared took to fatherhood like a moth to a flame. He was addicted.

Nathan swung the toast in the air darting it above his head as though a shooting star in the sky. Before he could draw the piece back to his plate Jared leaned over Nathan's chair, teeth primed and nipped one of the points chewing it with exaggeration.

'Daddy ate my star... did you see that Mary?... daddy ate my star!' Nathan squealed with laughter stuffing what was left in his mouth before Jared could grab another bite.

'And that's why I made you a new one.' Mary smiled using a freshly washed spoon to direct Nathan's attention back to the hot piece of toast on his plate.

Jared took the chair next to his son around their large kitchen table. A fresh cup of coffee had been placed in the centre of the table sometime after his arrival and though Mary had not looked at him since the moment he had walked in, Jared instinctively knew she had slipped another spoonful of caffeine in his drink to give him an extra kick for the day ahead. He sipped it slowly not quite feeling ready for the morning buzz he was about to receive. The last few hours had proven a rollercoaster to say the least. Last night he had settled Nathan into bed with only one thing scheduled for the morning to come. Get up and play with his son. Now thoughts lashed at him from every angle with so many to-do's for the day ahead of them, the thought of scooping Nathan into a giant bear hug and chasing him around the apartment felt like a distant dream no longer his reality.

First he had to explain to his son and to Mary why a crazy woman had been roaming around the house in the wee small hours of the morning and somehow make her confinement in the guest bedroom a blasé affair. Most importantly he'd eventually have to confront Nicki with a well thought out plan on how her time in his house was going to go including the current predicament he foresaw of trips to the bathroom over the next three days and what she was going to wear. Did Tracy never think anything through before ploughing ahead with a hair brained idea? How about letting the girl grab a few clothes before hauling her ass into his SUV and throwing her into Jared's hands for the next few days? Hell by the looks of it she hadn't even brought a jacket to wear over her relatively thin top and he wasn't even sure she wore socks under her snickers, even though it was mid-November.

'Jared... do you not want any?' A smooth voice broke through his thoughts driving his mind back to the present and the homely smell of hot buttered toast and apple juice at his side.

Nathan sat watching him wearily with half a star in his mouth, sucking the butter from his toast while Mary topped up his cup with fresh juice.

Jared stared at them blankly, completely excluded from the conversation they were supposedly having while he'd been pondering his little captive locked away down the hall.

'No?' Jared grappled for an answer, sensing Mary knew very well he was merely guessing at his reply.

Her lips thinned slightly as she leaned on her heels to retrieve the plate she had set before him. Instantly the smell of hot toast vanished as she walked back to the countertop.

'Very well, from the looks of it you already had breakfast early this morning anyway. Though I was surprised to see you had chosen fruit and milk to start your day, you're usually a fry up and coffee man whenever I cook for you.' The slight inclination to her tone let Jared know something was amiss. Mary had never gotten even remotely heated when they spoke, she'd never raised her voice or argued back even when Jared had cut her hours after the first couple of months, the day he realised he wanted to be more hands on with Nathan. She hadn't even flustered when Nathan had told Jared one day that Mary thought 'His Daddy was very handsome indeed'. Yet something about her this morning screamed of annoyance, the faint twitch in her jaw said something about her thoughts. She didn't usually arrive at Jared's apartment until eight thirty to get Nathan ready for the day so she surely missed the carnage that Nicki wrought before seven. To his knowledge she could think nothing different about the day. Unless...

'Am I going to see that lady again who woke me up?' Nathan frowned popping the final piece of toast into his mouth and licking the last of the butter from his fingers.

Jared looked up to see Mary visibly stiffen at the sink, the water sloshing the sides as she abruptly stopped swirling the plate in her hands. What had Nathan told her about the events of the morning he wondered and how easily could he explain it away with a shrug of his shoulders and an 'it was nothing' reply?

Jared brushed the few crumps from Nathan's t-shirt to the floor. Apologizing silently to Mary that he forgot to catch them in his hand and deposit them in the bin. Not only was she the nanny but she was also the cook, the cleaner and the laundry woman around these parts. In truth there was little Jared could do around the house that Mary couldn't do better and because of this she had taken it upon herself to become the full time caretaker of not only Nathan but Jared as well. Jared paid her handsomely and in truth he wished she would take more time off than she did but having her around the house meant everything ran like clockwork and as long as the house remained in perfect working order all Jared had to worry about was spending time with his son.

'She will be staying here a day or two with us little man, but you don't have to see her around the house if you don't want too.' Jared sighed, wrestling Nathan out of his chair and into his arms before Nathan had another chance to think more on the subject.

But once Nathan was settled in Jared's lap his mind quickly returned to the subject at hand.

'Well can I see her daddy... If I wanted to I mean?' Nathan asked his fingers snaking around Jared's waist as though the very question he was asking unnerved him yet filtered from his mouth all the same. 'I think I need to say sorry because I scared her this morning and I told Mary that I think I made her cry.'

Mary glanced momentarily towards the pair at the kitchen table, 'And I told you there was no way she would ever have been crying because of you. You just don't have it in you to make someone cry sweetheart.' Once again the crisp tone in her voice assured Jared she did not think the same about him. Jared had never spoken of his violent past with Mary but he imagined she had put two and two together with the mention of his surname. There were few people left in Vegas that did not know of the infamous Laylan brothers, something he constantly worried about when regarding the gorgeous child he held in his arms every day.

Jared had to end this line of questioning fast. He had not thought enough about the situation to offer anyone any answers about the days to come, let alone how he was going to interweave both playing the threatening jailer and the doting father in one house for the next three days.

'Nathan of course it was not you who made her cry it was daddy. I got angry and shouted at her because she did something she wasn't allowed to do in my house and for that I lost my patience but everything's got resolved now and she is just going to stay in the guest room for a couple of days until her friend can come and pick her up. You don't need to apologise to her but if you would like, I could go and say it for you. I'm sure she would appreciate hearing it from me just as well.'

Jared quickly considered just how much of the next couple of days he was going to need to apologise for. If he would ever say it would be another story however. The Laylan brothers tended not to apologise for their actions and certainly not to those who owed them money.

' Alright,' Nathan beamed instantly reassured by Jared's offer of an apology from them both, this way he could say he was sorry without actually having to give it himself. To Nathan it was a win win, 'tell her sorry and that if she wants Mary can make her toast into stars when she comes for breakfast!'

Jared couldn't help but laugh, ignoring the clatter of dishes by the sink as Mary briskly turned off the tap.

' I will tell her the good news kido' Jared placed Nathan back in his chair making a fast escape into the hall.

For the last two hours Nicki had wanted to scream, her little escapade with the hairpins had been a dud and try as she might she hadn't been able to prise the antique looking window frames from their sills since the moment she started poking at them after Jared's departure, even though she had fashioned a makeshift rope from the many bed sheets she had found in the linen cupboard in preparation for her fantastic escape out the window. At one point in the morning she thought she heard a female voice ferrying down the hall calling to Nathan but the idea of getting mixed up with the kid again and making him anymore terrified shook fear into her very soul. Images still floated through her mind flashing pictures of Jared's face when she had locked herself in Nathan's room. To get the kid involved once was an honest mistake, twice and she felt sure Jared would make her pay one way or another.

The idea of being physically hurt by Jared spurred new resolve in her muscles; there was nothing else for it. If she couldn't prise the window apart, she was going to have to smash it open. But how to break glass without making too much noise she considered? Gathering the blue comforter strewn upon the bed Nicki reached for the small metal lamp stand on the side table. Of course even with the thin layer of fabric placed over the corner she aimed to smash, it would be a miracle if someone in the house didn't hear the clatter of the glass as the window broke around it but with one last glance toward her make shirt rope and all the courage she could muster Nicki levered the lamp stand toward the frame.

Breathe tucked into her lungs, 'One...Two...'

'You're honestly going to try and break my two thousand dollar reinforced bullet proof glass window with a light stand and a comforter?' Jared questioned eyeing the scene before him with strange enthusiasm. He had half a mind to let her try but the thought of the lamp stand ricocheting off the glass and hitting her square in the face stopped him from silently watching on.

Frozen, Nicki didn't dare turn to see Jared at her back. She knew her master plan for escape had been more mission impossible than ocean's eleven but quite frankly she wasn't willing to let Jared pass comment on her ability to escape out of the prison HE had put her in.

'Well obviously I wasn't aware they were two thousand dollars.' Nicki replied sharply. Her grip on the stand loosened slightly as she measured Jared's reaction with only the tension in the room.

Jared shut the door behind him, reminded not to make the same mistake twice; he locked it before stepping slowly into the room. 'And now that you know?'

Nicki sighed, every resolve in her lost to the pointlessness of her situation, her plan and the conversation. 'Now that I know I wouldn't dream of damaging them.'

Jared felt a small scale of relief knowing that her compliance brought him a free pass in not having to discipline her for her actions. Now that he had taken some time away from her, from Nathan and from Mary for the last hour, he had managed to come up with somewhat of a descent plan for the week ahead. A throw back to his ruthless days he recalled having to keep many people in check under the same roof at any one time, drug addicts, prostitutes, murders and gamblers all had to pay their debts to Rick Laylan and once upon a time it was Jared's job to see him paid. If a murderer threatening him for two grand didn't shake his ability to handle a situation then this petite little woman from the wrong side of the Las Vegas strip would be easy to hold under the thumb for three days.

Jared regarded her from her position at the window, though she hadn't turned towards him he could imagine the tension flowing over her face at being caught in the act of vandalizing his property. He couldn't help it but a little playtime with her suddenly felt very appealing.