Until My Last Breath

by Tiffany Patterson

  Jason’s dark eyes, which were similar to my own, enlarged.

  “Maybe you’re the one who needs a drink. You’re starting to remind me of someone else I know.” He eyes glided from me to our father, obviously letting it be known who he was referring to.

  “Robert,” Deborah stated in a hushed tone, pulling me by the arm as I halfway stood up to reach my brother to throttle him.

  He knew, more than anything, what comparison to our father did to me. I may be a lot of things, but Robert Townsend Sr. I was not.

  My father kept mostly silent. Jason was just twenty-five years old, but my father had already given up on him. Sure, he’d fund his lifestyle—which included his growing number of stints in and out of rehab facilities—but that was as far as it went. In my opinion, much of Jason’s defiance was an obvious attempt to get some type of reaction from our father. I would’ve told him it wasn’t worth it, nor should he even bother, if I thought he’d actually listen to me. But what Jason, myself, and our father all had in common was our stubbornness.

  It was a Townsend male trait.

  One I was certain wouldn’t be broken in this generation or the next.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Then

  Deborah

  “I’m sorry about this evening.” Robert’s voice was heavy with concern as we approached my apartment door.

  I turned to him, hating to hear that defeated edge in his voice. It was the same tone he used whenever the subject of his family came up.

  “And I thought my family was bad,” I joked, but Robert didn’t find it funny. “Hey,” I cupped his face, lifting on my tiptoes even though I wore three-inch pumps, just to be level with his face, and pressed a kiss to his lips, “that was a joke.”

  Turning his head, he pressed a kiss to the inside of my right palm. “I know.”

  “Then why the long face?”

  “Because I don’t want to scare you off with my ridiculous family.”

  I grinned. “Scare me off?”

  He nodded.

  “I don’t think that’s possible.”

  “Are you sure?”

  Damn, why do I find him so irresistible? Just when I thought I couldn’t fall for him anymore, he showed me another layer of his vulnerability that made me love him even more.

  “I’m sure.”

  “Good, because I wasn’t letting you go no matter what you thought of my dysfunctional family.”

  I turned my head upward, letting out a laugh.

  “I just needed you to see what you were getting yourself into.”

  “Getting myself into?”

  “Yes, when you marry me.”

  “Robert …” I sighed. Not a week went by that he didn’t bring up the mention of marriage and our future together. At first, I thought he was just teasing, but I quickly learned that he was one hundred percent serious.

  “I know, us Townsends have our issues. Trust me, I know, and it’s actually selfish of me to ask you to be a part of that, but I’m a selfish bastard when it comes to you, princess.” His hands moved to my waist and he dipped his head, letting his lips graze mine.

  I couldn’t respond to his words because his kiss had stolen mine. My arms wrapped around his shoulders, pulling him to me. Robert’s family had been exactly the level of dysfunction I had anticipated thanks to his many warnings. But if he thought that was enough to scare me off or give me doubts about our relationship, he had another thing coming.

  “Keys,” he said against my lips.

  I blinked, confused. “Oh!” I suddenly stated, realizing he was telling me to take out my key to my apartment so we could get inside.

  As soon as I pulled the key from my purse, he plucked it from my hand, stuck it in the lock, and opened my door, ushering us both inside in a manner of seconds.

  The door was barely closed before he pounced on me. My core began to weep with need for him. His hands were pulling at the tucked in silk blouse, searching for the soft skin underneath. As soon as his calloused hands made contact, my body temperature started to rise even more.

  His lips were demanding against mine, searching, prodding for mine to open, to let him enter. I moaned into the kiss, allowing him entrance into my mouth, our tongues finding one another’s.

  Robert walked us down my short hallway toward my bedroom, pressing the door open and then turning the light on. All without breaking the kiss. His lips began trailing down from my mouth, over the line of my jaw, and down my neck until he reached the sensitive spot that always sent me into overdrive when he kissed it, just underneath my earlobe.

  “Robert,” I whispered breathlessly.

  “Tell me you’re mine, princess,” he demanded.

  I had no choice but to comply. When in this position, with all of these feelings running through me, I would say or do whatever it is he asked. “I’m yours.”

  “Huh!” I gasped at the loud tearing sounds that I heard. I pulled back to see a tear in my blouse.

  Robert didn’t even stop to acknowledge it, his hands going to my skirt, pulling at it.

  “Robert, you ripped my blouse!”

  “I’ll buy you another,” he responded urgently, while his hands easily found the back zipper of my skirt, slipping it down my hips and legs, leaving me in a torn shirt, bra, and panties.

  “You better!” I responded, trying to sound angry but the airy tone of my voice spoke more to how turned on I was in that moment, than upset over a shirt. Besides, it wasn’t the first time he’d torn an item of clothing of mine in his rush to get me undressed.

  “It’d be better if you stopped wearing clothes altogether.” His lips closed in on mine again, halting any reply I might’ve had.

  I began hurriedly unbuttoning the collared shirt he’d worn to dinner while loosening the tie. As soon as his buttons were free, I pushed the shirt over and down his shoulders, exposing his broad, sculpted chest. I licked my lips as he let me stare at his body in amazement. I admired how, despite the fact that he often worked sixty-plus hour weeks, he found the time to keep in shape all while still being an attentive boyfriend.

  “Come here,” he growled, wrapping his right hand around the back of my head and neck, pulling me to him, collapsing his mouth to mine again. He would only let me stare for so long before he needed to touch, to finish what he’d started.

  Finding myself pressed against the cool sheets of my full size mattress, I arched my back, pressing my still covered breasts against his bare chest as his body covered mine. His hands went around my back, undoing the clasp of my bra and quickly discarding it. His head dipped low and he ran his tongue down the center of my chest before moving to my left breast, covering it with his mouth.

  “Ah!” I let out on a heaving breath when his tongue ran along my turgid nipple.

  He did it again and again, sending my body to higher and higher levels of pleasure, but just prior to the peak he would back off, delaying the ultimate gratification. He used his hand to pinch my other nipple before he trailed a line of kisses down my belly, pausing for a moment to dip his tongue into the folds of my belly button before continuing on.

  With insistent hands he tugged at my panties, pulling them down my thighs and over my knees until he removed them completely. He then forced my knees apart with his hands, his eyes glittering in hunger as he stared at my sopping wet sex.

  Instinctively, my knees tried to tighten, but Robert held firm, keeping them apart.

  “I told you, your body belongs to me. Every inch of you is mine. Don’t ever try to hide this pretty pussy from me, princess.”

  I sighed, tossing my head against the pillow, still unable to believe the impact his words could have on me, when I felt the wetness between my legs increasing. Oral sex was something I was still getting used to. The only man to have ever done it to me was Robert. Cohen had believed that it was unsanitary. Of course, that hadn’t stopped him from requesting I use my mouth on him. But that wasn’t the case with Robert. He gave as if his own life depended on it,
and rarely asked for the return favor. It was as if seeing me pleasured gave him his own pleasure and he didn’t need to ask for more.

  Any coherent thoughts I’d been able to have up until that moment, were cut short when Robert dipped his head and ran his tongue up and down the entirety of my labia. Again, my back arched and I planted my elbows into the mattress, my toes digging into the bed as well. Robert’s hands moved under my buttocks to my waist, essentially lifting me off of the bed, bringing my core closer to his mouth. The moans that poured from his mouth as he sexually stimulated me with that same mouth turned me on that much more. I’d never felt so desired and wanted as the times when he and I made love.

  The tingling first started in my toes before working its way up my legs, down my thighs, until finally exploding in my core. I lifted my hips as the powerful shockwaves of my orgasm took a hold of my body. My fists tightened and I threw my head back against the pillow, all the while calling his name.

  It took me a while to reorient myself after that explosive orgasm. When I did, I came to to see Robert hovering over me.

  “I’ll make you come like this every night.” His words were so full of promise. “Marry me.”

  I went to respond, but my breath was stolen once again as he began to ease his thick erection inside of me. He lifted my right left over his left forearm, opening me up and exposing me even more to his entry.

  Panting, I lifted my hips, wrapping my arms around his shoulders, pulling him closer.

  “Marry me,” he insisted again at the same time he fully seated himself inside of me.

  “Robert,” I sighed out, not knowing what else to say. I could barely register the words he was saying. “Oh!” I yelled when he tilted his hips, allowing his penetrating cock to hit the sensitive nerve endings that composed my G-spot. My eyes crossed and head fell back when he did it over and over again.

  “Be my wife, Deborah,” he demanded.

  “Yes!” I shouted, ready to agree to anything at that point.

  He rewarded me by reaching down and rubbing his thumb against my clitoris while continuing his penetrations, sending me into my second orgasm of the night.

  I didn’t yell this time around. I was too spent. Instead, I let the orgasm have its way with my body as I convulsed and tightened up. I felt the inner walls of my sex clamping down around Robert’s still thrusting cock. Finally, I felt his body stiffen in my arms, the veins popping out of the side of his neck as he came.

  But something was different.

  I felt the gush of his explosion inside of me for the first time ever. It was then I realized why this time had felt so much more intense, so heightened. Because we hadn’t used protection.

  At the same time that realization struck me, Robert began easing out of me.

  “W-we didn’t use protection,” I stated just above a whisper.

  His eyes scoured the length of my naked body before finally resting on my own gaze. “We don’t need to. You’re going to be my wife.”

  I blinked at the cavalier way he’d said those words, as if completely unfazed. That was when it hit me—I had agreed to being Robert’s wife and he was completely serious about it.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Present

  Aaron

  “You don’t sound like yourself.”

  My jaw flexed upon hearing my mother’s words on the other end of the phone. I still hated when other people were easily able to read my emotions. Even if that someone was my own mother.

  “I’m fine, Mother,” I replied as I glanced out the window of the backseat of the town car I was riding in. It was early morning, and I’d just finished dropping off my oldest two children, Kyle and Kennedy, at school, while Patience stayed home with Andreas and Thiers. Now, I was on my way to a breakfast meeting, more than a half an hour away from my office.

  “Whenever somebody says I’m fine that’s a clear indication that they are not fine.”

  I remained silent because there was no response I was ready to give to that. I heard my mother sigh on the other end of the phone, obviously growing impatient with my lack of response.

  “Did Kyle and Kennedy get to school, okay?”

  “Yes.”

  “Good. Ken was so excited about the diorama she made depicting a scene from the latest book she read.”

  I snorted, a small smile covering my face at the memory of Kennedy showing me her school project.

  “I’m sure she’ll get an A on it.” And if she didn’t, her teacher and I would definitely have a talk about it.

  “Don’t go bullying her teachers, Aaron,” my mother stated, guessing my intent without my opening my mouth.

  “I’m not a bully.”

  She made a disproving sound with her mouth. “If you say so. How’s Patience feeling?”

  I sat up straighter, my hand tightened around the phone that I held to my ear. “Did she tell you she wasn’t feeling well?” I questioned. I knew she hadn’t told anyone else about the pregnancy yet. Again my hand tightened around the phone at the fear that ran through my belly when I thought about my wife being pregnant. I was such a fucking greedy asshole. I should’ve made sure she was properly protected.

  “No, I just saw her yawning a little the other day at the shelter. She told me Andreas is still waking up a couple of times throughout the night to feed.”

  I relaxed slightly, releasing the breath I’d been holding. “Yes, he is.”

  “You know, I think he’s even more like you than Kyle.”

  “How so?”

  “Well, he only wants Patience, he lets it be known when he doesn’t want to be around or held by someone, he rarely smiles, accept of course when he’s with his mother. Hell, I’ve seen him nearly hit you a couple of times when you tried to give her a kiss while she was holding him.”

  I actually chuckled at that because it was true. Andreas had certainly inherited my surliness and my near borderline obsession with his mother. He hated for her to even hold his own twin at times.

  “You might be right.”

  “I am. I’ll let you go. Enjoy your breakfast. Hope your meeting goes over well.”

  “Thank you, Mother.” With that, we disconnected the call and I continued to stare out the window instead of down at the papers in the file that sat next to me. I’d been over the files numerous times, had memorized the information inside. This breakfast was just a formality to meet with the heads of a local finance company Townsend may’ve been interested in acquiring. I needed to go over it with the board first in order to get the ball really rolling.

  But business wasn’t the prevailing thought in my mind as I rode closer to the restaurant. I could conduct that meeting in my sleep. What had me on edge, and what my mother had heard in my voice, was the tension that coursed through me whenever I thought of my wife. My body tightened again as I thought about her pregnancy. It’d been two weeks since she told me and I still couldn’t come to terms with it.

  Just as we passed another street the hairs on the back of my neck stood up, a tingling sensation moving down my spine. My gaze narrowed and I refused to turn my head to the right of me, already knowing what I’d see.

  “I don’t even get a hello?”

  My frown deepened. “I was hoping if I ignored you, you’d go away.”

  Emma giggled. “Since when has that ever worked, Aaron? Come on, you know how this goes. I show up when you need me the most.”

  I pushed out a breath on a sigh. “I don’t need you.”

  “I thought we were passed this by now.”

  I didn’t respond.

  “You know you’re being bullheaded.”

  I finally turned my head slowly in her direction.

  Emma.

  There she sat in the long, white nightgown she always seemed to have on whenever she appeared out of nowhere. Emma was my guardian angel or whatever the fuck you wanted to call it. She was my person from beyond. A distant family relative who had lived and died long before I was born. And yes, she always seemed
to pop up when life presented its most difficult challenges.

  “By not talking to you?” I questioned, finally responding to her statement about my stubbornness.

  She shook her head, her long, brown locks moving about her shoulders. “No. I’m used to it by now. I’m talking about your wife. You’re being borderline unreasonable about this baby.”

  “It’s not about the baby,” I insisted. “It’s about my wife. Her life.”

  She tilted her head, giving me a sympathetic nod. “I’m sure you believe that.”

  “It’s not what I believe, it’s what I know. Are you here to give me advice?” My tone was harsh, dismissive.

  “No. I’ve learned better than to give you advice. You’d never take it. My job is to help you see where you’re making a mistake so that you can fix it before it’s too late.”

  I turned to her sharply. “Don’t use ominous language like that.” My tone was threatening.

  “It’s not a threat, Aaron. You know I don’t do threats. I am simply asking you to think about what it is you’re doing and how you’re treating your wife before you do irreparable harm to your relationship.”

  “I’m not doing anything harmful.”

  She gave me a get real expression. “Aaron, you’ve practically demanded that your wife get an abortion.”

  “To save her life!” I yelled before I could catch myself. I glanced up ahead, glad to see that the partition was already up. I wasn’t a fool. I knew what it would look like to an outsider, me sitting in the backseat screaming at a woman only I could see.

  “Worry less about what the driver thinks of you and more about what your wife thinks,” Emma insisted.

  I fucking loathed when she read my thoughts.

  “I don’t give a shit what the driver thinks of me. And I am thinking of my wife. She might not like it now but she will come around.”

  I grabbed the file I had been ignoring moments before and tore it open, as if I was really reading through the pages.