Controlled 2: Loving An Alpha Male

by S. K. Lessly

  Nyla stayed in the bath for at least forty-five minutes before she got out of the bathtub and cleaned it before exiting the bathroom. With her body wrapped in a very soft towel, she searched through Andrew’s drawers until she found what she was looking for—his T-shirt drawer. What didn’t surprise her was how neatly his clothes were folded and placed in their respective drawers. She smirked to herself and thought about changing his dresser drawers around just to mess with him. It would probably drive him up the wall, which would be vindication for how he had behaved earlier. But she resisted. Instead, she climbed into one of the softest beds she had ever felt in her life and drifted off to sleep.

  18

  Andrew dropped his pen on the table in front of him and fell back against his couch. He slouched further into the cushions and draped his arm over his eyes. He’d been reviewing a case file that should have taken him only an hour to get through. Instead, it had taken two hours for him to only get halfway through the folder.

  He was exhausted.

  His mind, body, and soul were tired as hell, but he refused to shut down. He knew that the moment he did, his mind, body, and soul would just switch gears and start thinking and craving the very being that was the cause of his exhaustion in the first place.

  Andrew desperately wanted to turn off the lights in his living room and head for his bedroom. He needed to touch her and hold her. For the past few weeks, he had consumed almost every second he had available with everything that was Nyla. The moment he would get off work, he would head to her place or he’d pick her up from the diner. He had spent nights either talking to her on the phone or lying next to her in her small, uncomfortable bed. He’d even taken a few trips to the diner just to see her. He didn’t order anything, he’d just stand there in the doorway watching her. And when she’d finally notice him, she would smile, and that small gesture would make him feel complete. At least until he could see her again.

  The shit Rinic had told him earlier didn’t deter his need for her in the least. Sure, he hated the fact that Nyla had so much power over him, but that was his reality. In spite of that, Andrew was a realist. He believed in himself and he believed in his strength. No way would he let anyone or anything take away his free will. If Rinic was right about how Nyla would shift, then recognizing the signs would be easy enough. Hell, as many times as he had come to claiming her and refrained, was a true testament to his control. But right now, he just needed his woman.

  He hated that they were fighting. He couldn’t help the way he was, but maybe he could have just told her why it wasn’t a good idea for her to be with her friend Diane, a.k.a Dee Dee, without beating his chest and going all caveman on her. Maybe he needed to reevaluate how he handled Nyla. If he would have played his cards right earlier and been truthful and honest, who knows, he could’ve been balls deep inside his woman right this very moment. Instead, he was sitting on his couch trying not to get hard from just thinking about her glorious taste.

  Andrew sat up and scooted forward on the couch. He ran his fingers through his hair and rested his hand at the base of his neck. He was massaging the tension he felt when every nerve ending in his body suddenly came alive. He closed his eyes and relaxed knowing exactly what was about to happen and welcomed it. On cue, his breathing picked up, and his heart started beating faster. The thick vein that traveled along his neck pulsed erratically under his heated skin. Andrew even felt his dick twitch just before he heard her soft voice.

  “Hey, you’re still up I see.”

  Andrew raised his head in the direction of her voice and froze. Nyla was standing in the archway leading to the back of his apartment watching him. She was covered in one of his white T-shirts and as his eyes instantly fell to the imprints of her nipples protruding from the cotton material, he surmised nothing else. The sight before him immediately made his mouth water.

  Nyla could see his eyes darken and she knew exactly what he was looking at. She folded her arms in front of her chest, redirecting his eyes back to her face. Seeing that he was caught eye fucking her, he smiled at her unapologetically and shrugged.

  Nyla shook her head, returned his smile, and walked around the loveseat to the couch. She sat next to him and folded one of her legs in front of her, tucking her ankle underneath the knee of her other leg. She took him in slowly. Andrew was still dressed in his work slacks. They were unbuttoned and hanging open allowing just the band of his briefs to show. He had lost his shirt at some point in the night, but he still wore his wife beater that showed off his strong chiseled chest and beautifully sculpted arms.

  Nyla swallowed, fighting the urge to rake her fingers along his abs, and met his eyes as he fell back against the couch and assumed his favorite position. She tilted her head to the side and asked, breaking the silence, “Are you still brooding?”

  “No,” Andrew huffed out.

  She nodded. “Good, do you want to talk about what happened back at my apartment?”

  “Ah, no! Not particularly,” he answered, stiffening perceptively.

  Nyla laughed and leaned back on the armrest of his couch. Her eyes roamed his apartment again, studying the architecture, floor plan, and the huge obvious differences between their apartments. “This place is really nice. I could probably fit my entire apartment in this room, it’s huge. But as I said before, it fits your style: clean, strong lines, and dark. There’s not much here, though.”

  Andrew shrugged. “It’s enough.”

  “How long have you been here?”

  “I got this apartment around seven years ago. My wif- uh…Mikaliah wanted a house, but I bought this condo instead. I wasn’t ready to make a commitment to buy a house. I hadn’t planned on us being in this city for very long anyway.”

  “You guys were planning on moving out of the city?” Nyla asked.

  “Yeah, that was the plan, but it never happened.”

  Andrew fell silent and Nyla studied him, trying to figure out the best way to ask him the question that had been on her mind all night. Although her curiosity was getting the best of her, she decided on another approach. There was no easy way to talk about the loss of a child so she just said softly. “I’m so sorry about your daughter.”

  “Thank you.” Andrew brought his eyes to the dark hallway leading to his daughter’s bedroom.

  “Can I ask how she passed away?”

  Andrew took a few seconds before he brought his eyes back to Nyla. “My wife was pregnant at the time of the accident and didn’t survive.”

  “Andrew,” was all she could say. She touched the side of his face with the back of her fingers and placed her palm against his cheek. Her heart ached for this man something awful. She saw fresh pain in his eyes as if his loss had just happened. She couldn’t imagine what it was like losing a baby. But to lose someone you never got the chance to see or hold had to be torture.

  Andrew shifted slightly and kissed her open palm before taking her hand in his and squeezing it. He gave her a small smile. “It’s all right. As I said before, it was a long time ago.”

  Nyla wanted to believe that he was all right. Except, every time he would tell her that he was fine, she saw the contradiction of his claim in his eyes. She sighed heavily, looked around the room again, and narrowed her eyes on the coffee table. Time for a change in topic.

  “Working I see?” she asked as she took in the mess of papers on the table in front of them.

  Andrew looked at the table in front of him and shook his head in frustration. He let go of her hand and pushed his fingers through his hair. “Yeah, well, I’m trying anyway.”

  “That’s right. You said you had court in the morning.”

  “Yes, I do. I’m trying to look over some old related case notes so I can be prepared for tomorrow.”

  “How long have you been at it? You look exhausted,” Nyla added.

  “Baby, you have no idea,” Andrew groaned and leaned closer to her. He pulled her leg from its prison and pushed it behind him. At the same time, he brought his arm a
round Nyla’s waist and pulled her down slightly toward him. He then leaned over between her thighs and rested his head against her chest, essentially making her his body pillow.

  Nyla shook her head and once he seemed comfortable, placed one hand on his back and started to caress him. She placed her other hand into his hair and massaged his scalp as he moaned his contentment.

  Nyla smiled at him.

  “Are you comfortable?” he asked her.

  “Yes, I’m fine. Are you?”

  “Oh, baby this right here is heaven.”

  She laughed, shook her head, and continued caressing his back.

  They stayed like that in silence for a long time, both hibernating inside their own thoughts. Faint sounds of the highway close by filtered through the closed windows. The cushions underneath their bodies added to the peacefulness they both were beginning to feel.

  Andrew let out a long, slow, and gratifying moan. “Man, I could stay like this forever.”

  Nyla giggled. “You have issues. You do know that, right?”

  “Yes, I do,” he replied simply. He tightened his hold on her when she brought the fingers from her other hand into his hair. “Damn, baby. Why does this feel so good?”

  She chuckled and shook her head. “I have no idea. But it seems to calm you.”

  Andrew moaned his reply and closed his eyes. He felt his whole body relax in her arms. Finally, he was exactly where he wanted to be. He breathed in her scent and it flowed through him calming the rage that typically swam in his veins. The cadence of her heart that drummed against his face did the impossible. It aided in soothing the beast within.

  Several more minutes passed with ease before Nyla informed him softly, “You know, you could have just asked me to stay with you.”

  “I thought I did when I told you that you weren’t going to Diane’s,” Andrew mumbled faintly.

  Nyla’s grip tensed in his hair and Andrew’s body stiffened, along with his dick.

  “Andrew Pierce, when are you going to learn that I do not respond well to being bullied? All you have to do is talk to me.” Andrew sat up and looked into her eyes. She placed her hands on the sides of his face. “You don’t have to be controlling or bossy. All we have to do is just talk. Can we agree to do that? Just talk about things?”

  Andrew didn’t answer her right away. He remained quiet; his fierce blue eyes steady on her. There were so many things he wanted to say to her; things that had been on his mind since the first day he had saw her. And for months, he hadn’t expressed himself to her fully. He had wanted to; however, he wasn’t sure how she would respond to him. But he was tired of waiting. He was tired of her second-guessing his motives. Tired of slowly chipping away at a shell that seemed to be impenetrable. He was just tired.

  Andrew sat up fully and pulled Nyla into a sitting position with him.

  “Let me ask you a question,” he said simply.

  “Okay.”

  “How many relationships have you been in?”

  “Uh… I don’t know… Are we talking serious or just—”

  “The meaningful ones. Tell me about the ones that mattered to you and affected you in some way.”

  Nyla looked up at the ceiling, thinking of how to answer his question and what all she could share with him without causing his blood pressure to rise.

  “Well, I guess then I’ll say that I have had three meaningful relationships.”

  “Okay, tell me about them.” Andrew put his hand up before she spoke and warned her, “You don’t have to go into painful details. Just the highlights please.”

  Nyla smiled and shook her head. “Okay, I can do that, but can I ask why you want to know about my past boyfriends? What are you up to?”

  Andrew faced Nyla, bending his leg in front of him. He placed one of Nyla’s legs over his bent one and pulled her a little closer to him. He braced himself for what would undoubtedly be a painful conversation and tried to seem aloof as he rested his elbow on the back of his couch.

  “Just humor me and answer the question.”

  Nyla’s grin broadened. “Are you going to be Dr. Phil now and evaluate me?”

  Andrew didn’t answer her and Nyla, seeing that he was going to remain quiet, sighed and blew out a surrendering breath.

  “Okay, here goes. The first meaningful relationship was Jabrier. He and I dated all through high school.” She smiled as she thought about him. “He and I were inseparable. When we met, we hit it off immediately and started dating about a month into our freshman year.”

  “And, you two were together all through high school?” Andrew questioned doubtfully. “You two didn’t break up then get back together?”

  She shook her head. “Nope. I was fortunate enough to be placed in a foster home for the duration of my high school years. I didn’t have to move anymore, which allowed me to put my guard down and open up to people. Make friends, you know? So yeah, we were together all that time. Well, we had been together up until the last few months of our senior year.”

  “Really? What happened?”

  Nyla shrugged off-handedly. “I don’t have a clue. One minute we were talking about going to college together and getting a place when we graduated, to him breaking up with me the day before prom.”

  Andrew’s eyes grew with that bit of news. He never understood the fascination of prom. For guys, it just meant that they were finally going to get laid. He knew that for most girls the meaningless event was a big deal.

  “Damn, before the prom?”

  Nyla nodded her head, sadness in her eyes. “Yup. He pulled me to the side after school and told me he didn’t want to be with me anymore. He didn’t really give a reason, well not one that I can remember. He just told me that he wanted out. Needless to say, I was devastated. But I went to the prom anyway. My foster mother had sewn me a dress for the prom. She and I worked on it together for weeks. So, I had to go. I didn’t have the heart to tell her that Jay had broken up with me and I wasn’t going. When it was time for me to leave for the prom, I had told her that we were meeting at the school. And when I walked in and saw that Jay was there with someone else, I was crushed.”

  “Shit. So, he broke up with you and went to the prom with someone else? Did you turn around and leave after that?”

  “No, my dumbass let my friends talk me into staying. That was hell for me. Everyone in the school knew about me and Jay. We had been voted best couple and everything. And here I was sitting on the side of the dance floor while Jay was hugged up with another girl, ignoring me the whole night.”

  “Did you go up to him and confront him?”

  She shook her head. “No. What would have been the point? I had already been embarrassed. I didn’t need to feel even more like shit.”

  Andrew reached for Nyla’s hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. Inside, though, he was plotting on finding this Jabrier piece of shit and so he could beat the crap out of him.

  “I’m sorry that you had to go through that,” he told her.

  “Thanks,” she said to him and smiled. “What about you? Did you go to your prom?”

  “Yeah, a group of us went together. I didn’t have a girlfriend at that time, but I went just to say that I did. So, what about the second guy?” he asked, changing the subject.

  Nyla breathed out. “Well, that would be Anthony. I was a few years out of high school, just trying to find my way when I met Anthony. He and I had met at a friend’s house party and we hit it off instantly. Anthony was great. He was good-looking, charming, funny, and a really nice guy. He had a lot going for him. He was in his third year of college and had been applying for medical school.”

  “Okay, so what happened?”

  “He cheated on me multiple times. But I was that cliché chick. I took him back every single time. It was stupid of me, I know. He didn’t deserve my forgiveness, but I believed in him when he promised that he would change. He would tell me that he wanted to change for me. He wanted to be a better man for me. He would say that I deserved
so much and that I was a good person with a huge heart. He couldn’t live without me, blah, blah, blah. He even told me that he loved me before I could even get out the words to say it to him. But time and time again he continued to cheat on me.”

  “How did you find out he was cheating on you? Did he admit it to you or did you walk in on him?”

  “Please,” Nyla huffed. “That idiot had no balls to outright admit it. No, the women he was sleeping with would confront me. They would call my cell and send me pictures of him with them or they would confront me as if I was the other woman and not the other way around. I would get fed up, approach Anthony, and end things. And time and time again, he kept crawling back. The last time I took him back, some woman came to his apartment with a baby and dropped it off to him. She claimed that the baby was Anthony’s and she was tired of taking care if it by herself. That was when I left him for good and shortly after that, I moved here.”

  Andrew nodded his head absently, but in the back of his mind, he had been relieved. He expected some story of an abusive ex-boyfriend or something, which undoubtedly would have resulted in him finding the fucker and ripping him apart. Gratefully, that hadn’t been the case. Sure, he wanted to still beat the snot out of the schmucks she had been with, but that was it. They were typical idiots that didn’t know the kind of woman they had until they had lost her.

  “Okay,” Andrew said finally. “The two guys you were in love with, I guess you would say were idiots. One cheated on you, and the other one broke your heart. What about the third?”

  Nyla sighed. “You know who the third person is.”

  Andrew looked at her strangely before he groaned and closed his eyes. “Don’t tell me it’s Downs?”

  Nyla nodded her head when Andrew opened his eyes and looked at her. “Yes, he was my third meaningful relationship.”

  “You were in love with that son of a bitch?”