It wasn’t pity that he felt; it was a mixture of his love for her and the loneliness he too felt from not making love in months. He needed her, longed for her. He heard moans escape from her like a guttural sound as he pulled back just long enough to get out of his clothes.
Peyton couldn’t believe this was happening. Was this her Derek? Was he removing his clothes and getting into bed with her? This was what she had wanted for so long. God, she said in her mind. Thank you. Thank you.
She lay back as Derek, naked as the day he was born, eased the covers back. “I want to see every inch of you,” he whispered hungrily as he pulled her gown over her head, exposing her bare milky white skin.
He began kissing her from her lips to the sides of her neck. His kisses trailed the full length of her body as he devoured her. He lifted his head and looked down on her as he eased his body on top of hers.
Peyton could barely speak. “Derek,” she said in a faint tone.
“Yes, Peyton.”
“Derek,” she said again.
“Yes…Peyton,” he responded in his own sexual tone.
She met his every thrust as their bodies meshed. The timing was on point and nothing could take the place of this moment as they satisfied one another.
Chapter 6
“A tiger doesn't change its stripes but it will hide in tall grass so you don't notice them.”
Jae Henderson
Eva lay in the bed alone, missing Harper again. Tonight, he was at the television studio filming segments for his television show. She didn’t know when he would make it home and when he did she already knew what he would do. He would maybe get a light bite to eat, take his shower, and then go to one of the rooms in the house where he would sleep.
If he didn’t truly want her then why did he even ask her to come back home? Eva was fed up. But she had to stay in this marriage until she was able to make things happen on her own for her and her family. She couldn’t ever go back to living the way she lived in Bolivia, and she couldn’t subject her family to that kind of lifestyle again either.
School would be starting in a few days and she couldn’t wait. She was going to pour herself into it totally and completely with a goal to finish school and open her own restaurant. Not only that, she would open several restaurants, maybe even one in Bolivia. She lay on the bed, closed her eyes, and dreamed of being happy once again like she was when she and Harper first met.
He had been the perfect man in her eyes, sweeping her off her feet and treating her like she was pure gold. How could she have fallen for Seth that night? Yes, she was lonely and she was desperate. A young woman like her had needs. Didn’t Harper realize that? Surely, he had to know that she wanted children. They had talked about it, and he never once told her that he had a vasectomy. He only said he didn’t want to have kids right away. He said he wanted them to enjoy being together, just the two of them, without kids being in the way. Eva was all for that. She understood that he wanted them to be free of kids in the beginning of their marriage so they could travel, enjoy getting to know one another, and having fun. After they had been married almost two years, she started talking to him about them having a child. Harper began to clam up. He spent more time at the hospital and less time at home. Their love life suffered tremendously and Harper became aloof. The only thing that hadn’t changed was his desire to go to church whenever he could, and he expected her to attend with him.
Eva thought things would change when she took Avery’s advice and stopped taking her birth control pills without telling Harper. She was ecstatic about not being on the pill, knowing that things would be perfect when they had a child running through the house…until she did the unthinkable and got pregnant.
The night she slept with Seth she was so lonely, felt so vulnerable, and Seth undoubtedly knew it. After all, he knew his father was never at home, never around. He’d said it to Eva more than once that his father had his sight on other things and not on her. She didn’t want to believe him, but the night he grabbed her and kissed her she couldn’t resist him. She wanted Harper to be the one kissing her so she closed her eyes and fantasized that it was Harper making love to her, holding her, caressing her over and over again, but it wasn’t Harper. It was Seth, and she would regret what she did for the rest of her life.
She closed her eyes to sleep but was jarred awake with heaviness over her body. She slowly opened her eyes and saw Harper.
“Who was it?”
“Huh?” she said, confused.
“Tell me who it was,” Harper insisted again, this time his voice sounded abrasive and raised.
As soon as she opened her eyes, he began kissing her. She felt his manhood against her. He began pounding her vigorously. She missed him, and she needed this so much—until each stroke became harder and harder to the point it began to hurt her. She couldn’t fully enjoy the moment because of what he had said. Had he somehow found out about her and Seth? God, no. Please don’t let him know.
“You were with my son! God hates adulterers and harlots!” His voice became more elevated and his thrusts harder.
“Wait, Harper, please. Let me explain,” she said, trying to push him back but to no avail. “You’re hurting me. Por favor, stop, hold up,” she pleaded.
“Tell me! Tell me if you slept with my son, you harlot,” he demanded.
She wanted him to stop. She was petrified. This wasn’t the Harper she knew. She smelled the stink of alcohol on his breath. He was drunk, but Harper didn’t drink, unless it was a cocktail or a glass of wine from time to time if he was in a social setting. This was different. She smelled hard liquor on his breath. It frightened her even more. She begged and pleaded.
“Tell me the truth!” he demanded, hurting her even more. “Tell me now!”
“Yes, yes it was Seth. It was Seth,” she sobbed loudly. “Now, please…stop, Harper. Please.”
Harper didn’t seem to hear her. He continued with a harshness she’d never known or experienced before. Each of his thrusts felt like her body was being ripped apart. She tried to talk but he smothered her with hard, angry kisses. When she tried to push him away, he penned her arms down to her sides and continued pounding her with each of his loud grunts. It hurt so badly and tears rushed from Eva’s eyes.
“This is what you want? This is how you want to be treated? You want to mess around on me?” he said angrily. “I’ll teach you not to cheat on me,” he said as his strokes caused her to scream but not in pleasure. He flipped her over and had his way with her in other ways she’d never before experienced. She couldn’t move and he took her and used her for his own sick pleasure. When he was finally done, he laid spent beside her. She still couldn’t escape his grip as he held her in his arms.
“Don’t even think about leaving me. If you do, you’ll regret it for the rest of your life,” he said before he drifted off to sleep.”
Eva’s tears continued to trail heavily down her face, onto her neck, and onto the sweaty and soaked sheets. She didn’t know when she fell asleep or even how she was able to fall asleep. Every part of her body ached. Was this what it had come to? She had a lot of growing up to do and whether he realized it or not, Harper had just taught her a crucial life lesson of survival.
Chapter 7
“All relationships go through hell. Real ones get through it.” Heartfelt quotes
Meesha woke up and sat up in the bed. She yawned slightly as she eyed the baby monitor. It was time for Makena’s midnight feeding. She saw the newborn twisting and turning and then heard her tiny cry. Carlton didn’t budge; he was too busy snoring.
Their little girl cried softly and Meesha got up, walked to the baby’s nursery, and sat in the rocking chair after picking up Makena from her crib. She cradled her in her arms as she exposed her breast to feed her. She looked at her daughter with love and adoration.
“Thank you, God,” Meesha whispered, looking slightly up toward the ceiling. She looked back down at the baby and smiled as the little girl suckled her breast
.
Meesha was glad she had given her marriage another chance. She only hoped that things would truly work out between her and Carlton. She never quite understood why Carlton had begged, practically demanded, a divorce in the first place, but she tried to push it out of her mind. Whatever he had been going through she believed it had to do with Breyonna and the fact that he believed he was Liam’s father. Now that Breyonna had met her tragic demise and Liam was found not to be Carlton’s biological son, their lives returned to some semblance of normalcy. She didn’t want a divorce in the first place, but she was willing to give Carlton one if that’s what he wanted. She didn’t want to be with anyone who didn’t want her.
Her mind surprisingly drifted toward thoughts about Avery. She wondered how things were going with the new addition to Avery’s family. She couldn’t understand Avery’s coolness toward her over the past months. She hadn’t done anything to jeopardize their long friendship so she figured that Avery was going through some personal things that she didn’t want to share. Avery had been known to suffer from bouts of depression so maybe it was depression that had caused her to treat her less than friendly lately. Her pregnancy probably had something to do with it, too. A woman’s hormones could get totally out of whack when pregnant.
Meesha prayed that she wouldn’t suffer from postpartum depression. She’d experienced it after the birth of her two youngest sons and it took her for a real loop. For a period of time after each of their births, she stopped eating, became depressed, and withdrawn. She had some weird thoughts and found it hard to care for her boys. Thank God Carlton recognized it and got her some help mentally and also brought help into the house in the form of their live-in nanny who was still with them.
God delivered her from her bouts with postpartum depression a few months after each of their births. She didn’t want to ever experience that again, and definitely not with the precious little princess she held in her arms.
After Makena was done eating, Meesha burped her, changed her diaper, and held her while she herself drifted off to sleep sitting in the rocker. Right now, life couldn’t be any better.
After little Ryker was born, Ryker presented Avery with names they could call him other than Ryker the Second or Ryker Junior. The names were R2 for Ryker the Second, or RJ for Ryker James since James was Ryker’s middle name. Avery told him she preferred RJ. She didn’t want her son being called R2 like he was a Star Wars characters. Ryker agreed, and they settled on calling him RJ.
Almost immediately, after RJ’s birth, Avery began experiencing postpartum episodes. Identical to Meesha, Avery experienced a short but mild bout with postpartum depression after the birth of each of her girls, but this time it was worse.
Ryker was well aware of his wife’s struggles, and immediately sought help in the form of the temporary live-in nanny and insisting that Avery start back with her weekly therapy sessions. He hoped that the depression would pass sooner rather than later, understanding that some women could be tormented with the mood disorder for years.
Having already had one failed suicide, he couldn’t and wouldn’t take the chance of her trying a repeat performance, or worse yet, doing something harmful to his children.
At the Mitchelson household, Avery tossed and turned as she looked over at Ryker soundly sleeping. Their son was lying between them because ever since they’d come home from the hospital, Ryker refused to let the baby sleep in the nursery or his crib.
They had a portable crib in their master bedroom next to their bed but that wasn’t good enough for Ryker. He wanted RJ in the bed with them.
Avery looked at her sleeping son and at Ryker. Did he resemble Ryker or did he look more like Carlton? There was no mistaking about their girls. Ryker was their father because she had never cheated.
Eleven-year-old Lexie was the spitting image of Ryker with coffee bean brown skin, deep brown, doe shaped eyes and a head full of long black hair. Nine-year old Heather had features more like Avery’s French Canadian mother and African American father. Heather’s hair was more of a blondish brown. Her son could very well be Ryker’s and then again, Avery couldn’t tell. It looked like he had Ryker’s thick eyebrows and his same skin tone, but his lips looked like Carlton’s. She felt like she was one of the women on the Maury show talking about, “See he has his eyes, he has his upper lip, he has his ears.” Was she that bad? Probably so, she thought.
Avery hoped that she hadn’t made a mistake telling Eva about her and Ryker’s recent marriage, her affair with Carlton, and her suspicions about who Little Ryker really belonged to. But Eva had been a good friend. Avery hadn’t had a real friendship like that since she was in high school and was best friends with a girl named Joanna Webb. Joanna was dead now. Her husband, who was Joanna’s high school sweetheart, killed her and then killed himself a few months after they walked down the aisle. It was such a sad and heartbreaking period.
Avery often thought about how she could have met a similar fate had she not gotten out of the call girl business. It was a tough and dangerous life she used to live. She was glad that part of her life was over and done. Ryker had been responsible for so much good in her life and yet here she was catching feelings for another man. He looked over her past and accepted her for who she was. Not once had he thrown it up in her face, at least not verbally. She often thought the reason he didn’t marry her was because of her past, but now she could only smile at the thought that he had finally made good on his promise and made her his wife.
She got up out of their bed as quietly as possible, so as not to wake up Ryker and the baby. She picked up her cellphone which she kept mostly on Silent and then eased out of their bedroom and went downstairs to the kitchen.
She texted Carlton. She needed to talk to him or she would not be able to rest. Avery paced the floor as she texted. We need to talk. Are you awake? Several seconds passed, but she didn’t get a response. She texted him again. I know it’s late but we really need to talk. We have a lot of unfinished business. Still no reply. She then dialed his cell phone. It went straight to his voicemail. “Don’t you dare try to play games with me, Carlton Porter,” she said under her breath. “You should know by now that I’m not the one to be messed with or messed over,” she seethed.
She dialed his phone again, each time getting herself worked up more and more. She texted him again. Maybe she really was a crazed woman, but to be ignored was one of the things she despised most in the world. Whenever Ryker ignored her, Avery would blow up and when she did, it wasn’t a pretty sight. Carlton definitely didn’t want her to go that route.
“If you knew what was good for you, you would answer me!” She began to talk out loud. Her voice grew louder.
“Avery, what are you doing? Who are you yelling at?” Ryker asked as he burst into the kitchen.
Avery, startled, turned around, looking wide-eyed at her husband.
“I… it was nothing. I just needed to talk. I was feeling a little low and I didn’t want to wake you up, so I thought I’d call my sister, but she’s not answering.”
“Probably the time difference. You should get back to bed. You haven’t talked to her in ages anyway. What’s really going on?”
“Nothing, I’m fine. You go back upstairs and check on the baby. Don’t leave him alone like that, especially in our bed. I don’t like it.”
“Just come on upstairs,” Ryker said and almost demanded before he turned and walked out of the kitchen.
Avery cussed under her breath at the thought that Carlton hadn’t answered. She hated the fact that she let him get under her skin the way he did. She didn’t want to let him off the hook if RJ was his kid. She went back to her bedroom and climbed in the bed.
“You okay now?” Ryker asked.
“Yeah, sure,” she said and turned over on her side. You will pay, Carlton. If you want to do me this way, treat me like I’m yesterday’s garbage, then revenge is what I want. Nothing but pure unadulterated revenge. And I will get it—somehow someway. Avery turned back
to face Ryker, placed her arm across little RJ and Ryker, and went straight to sleep.
Chapter 8
“The cunning man uses deceit, but the more cunning man shuns deception.” Adam Ferguson
Carlton was awakened out of his sleep by the vibration of his cell phone. He was used to getting calls all times of night because of the large congregation he serviced, but it still wasn’t the best feeling. He loved his sleep and lately, with the baby, he got less than usual. He turned in the bed and lazily, with sleep in the corner of his eyes, looked over and saw his phone on the night table. He reached for it and instantly grew angry. It was Avery. What in the world was she thinking? She had sent him at least ten text messages and he had four missed calls. The phone began to vibrate in his hand and this time he quickly answered.
“Are you out of your mind? Why are you calling me, and at this time of night! What do you want?
“We need to talk. It’s time to tell Ryker and Meesha about us.”
“What are you talking about? There is no us,” Carlton said, shouting under his breath while looking over his shoulder to make sure Meesha didn’t suddenly reappear. Was she in the bathroom or what? He got up and walked over to the other side of the bed and eyed the baby monitor. She was in the baby’s room asleep in the rocker. She often fell asleep in the nursery after feeding Makena. He breathed a sign of welcomed relief.
The Real Housewives of Adverse city 3 Page 5