You and Me: Together duet book number two

by Eve, Melody

  “I love you.”

  “I love you too. Now let me show you how much,” I say and proceed to do what I had wanted to do earlier. Turning her by her shoulders, I place my hand in the center of her back and guide her onto the mattress on her belly. She turns her head to the side, and I kiss the corner of her mouth before lowering myself onto my knees. This view is almost as perfect as the last, her round juicy ass, glistening pussy, and flawless skin spread out in front of me like a feast made just for me. My hands glide up over her calves, up the back of her thighs to the crease under her cheeks.

  I spread her open and lick her seam from her clit to the pucker of her ass. She gasps, and I go back for seconds lingering on her rim circling it until her legs open wider of their own accord.

  I slide my hands under her tilting her up so her clit is easily accessible and circle it with my tongue teasing her until she whimpers. “Please, please, Roman, let me come,” she says into the mattress. I don’t give her what she wants, not yet. I’m enjoying this too much—her soft wet core, the faint scent of her body wash, and having her in such a vulnerable position has me hard again.

  I lick her everywhere but the one place guaranteed to give her release until she’s begging for it, and then I stand and push her up on to the bed and tuck a pillow under her hips. I slide the sensitive head of my cock along her crease pausing at her pucker long enough to make her still.

  Not tonight, I want her sober when I take her there. I guide the head into her hot core and push into her deep, spreading her legs wider outside my own. I start at a slow pace and reach around her tiny waist to stroke her clit as I fuck her from behind. She comes instantly arching her back pressing against me trying to take more, but she has it all. Every inch of my cock, every piece of my heart, and every fiber of my soul is hers.

  She trembles and quivers under me as I pick up the pace and come again digging my fingers into the flesh of her hips raising her off the bed with the force of my orgasm. Clinging to her, a drop of sweat falls from my chin and lands in one of two deep dimples in her back above her ass.

  I reach for the key to the cuffs on the nightstand and free her hands. She shakes them out at her sides, and I slide out and lay facing her. “Are you still drunk?”

  The corners of her mouth turn up in a sly grin. “Why, are you going to tie me to the bedposts and do that again?”

  I glance over at the nearest post of my solid mahogany bed. “If you’d like.”

  She chuckles. “As hot as that just was, and I’m talking nine point zero on the Richter scale for earth-shattering hotness, I think you should get some sleep.”

  I raise my eyebrows. “Look who’s taking care of who now.”

  “You don’t get to take care of me all the time, you know. You might not think you need looking after, but you do.”

  “All right then, how about a shower and then we sleep?”

  “Sounds perfect.”

  We shower and wrap in large fat bath sheets before crawling under the covers to spoon. Her breathing levels out within minutes, and she melts in my arms falling into a deep sleep. I’m about to drift off myself when her phone lights up in the pocket of her skirt on the floor. She has it on vibrate, so it doesn’t ring, but the light continues to glow.

  I consider leaving it alone, but after this day, I can’t possibly. I slip my arm out from under her shoulders carefully, and she doesn’t so much as flinch. Leaving her on the bed alone, I pick up her phone and see multiple text messages filling the screen. The first few words of each text are the same, You’re not… and then it cuts off. I need the password to open the phone and read the rest of the message. Thankfully, Aria doesn’t have the most recent phone with facial recognition. Hers is one or two models old, and it still has fingerprint recognition. I take her limp hand and hold her thumb over the home button until the phone unlocks. I tuck her hand under the covers and sit next to her to read the messages.

  Unknown: You’re not good enough for him.

  Unknown: Stay away.

  Unknown: You’re not good enough for him.

  Unknown: Stay away.

  The same two messages repeat over and over dozens of times beginning several hours ago.

  Whoever this stalker is, it’s not David. And if it’s not David, who is it?

  14

  Roman

  I can’t sleep. At six o’clock when the sun starts to rise, I leave Aria in bed to find coffee and call Anthony. I need to talk to someone about this, someone who isn’t emotionally invested in the situation, someone who deals with this kind of shit regularly, and that’s him.

  The house is quiet, everyone still sleeping off their hangovers except for Ella. She is standing in the kitchen gazing out the window over the sink that looks out over the pool.

  “Morning, Ella,” I say, and she jumps placing her hand over her heart.

  “Mr. Forrest, you scared me. I wasn’t expecting anyone to be awake for hours.”

  “I couldn’t sleep. What are you looking at?”

  “A dog or a coyote, I’m not sure.”

  “A dog? On our property?” I say joining her in front of the window. “Where?”

  She points to our left where our rose garden is located. “Out that way, see!” she says pointing with excitement toward the rose garden. I follow her finger until I see a fluffy tail bobbing up and down.

  “That’s strange, the electric fence should have shocked it if it’s a stray dog.”

  “It’s probably a coyote,” she says going back to cleaning the sink.

  “I’m going to check it out. Would you make me a cup of coffee?”

  “Of course, sir, are you sure you want to go out there? Coyotes carry diseases.”

  “I won’t get too close.” I exit through the French doors in the kitchen and take the staircase on the left down to the pool keeping my eye on the area where we saw the dog. Something about this feels off. I’ve never seen a dog on our property, wild or otherwise.

  Once I’m past the pool, I start to wonder if Ella isn’t right. Maybe this is a bad idea? I don’t get time to worry about it when the dog comes bounding toward me. It’s not a coyote, it’s a dog, a collie from the looks of it. I stop, unsure of its intentions, but its tail is wagging, and it keeps coming at me like I’m its long, lost owner.

  The dog is dirty and full of burrs as if it has been out in the brush for a while. “Hey there, what are you doing out here all alone?” I ask as he or she runs to greet me. It’s wearing a collar and sits when I command it to do so. I crouch down and look into the hungry dog’s eyes. I’ve never had much of an interest in pets. I don’t connect with animals, but this dog’s blue eyes seem to speak to me—take me home, help me, give me shelter, and I will be your loyal companion forever.

  I hold out my hand and let it smell me before rubbing behind its ears. “You have a collar on, what’s your name?” I touch the worn red nylon collar and follow it to a tag that says ‘Champ.’ “Hi, Champ, are you lost?” He jumps up but returns to his sitting position as if he has been trained.

  “Come on then, let’s take you home and give you something to eat,” I say, and as if he understands exactly what I’ve said, he starts toward the house.

  I walk fast to keep up, and if he gets too far ahead, Champ stops to wait for me. “You’re a good dog, Champ, but you already know that, don’t you?” I say, and he jumps into the air from a sitting position twisting as if to say yes!

  I open the door to the kitchen, and Champ walks right in sitting down next to the island. “It wasn’t a coyote,” I say to Ella, and she turns away from the sink.

  “Oh, good lord! You brought it inside?”

  “He seems tame, has a collar, and he’s friendly.” I sit down at the kitchen table, and he follows sitting next to me. “You don’t smell very good, though.” I say patting his dirty head.

  “He might have fleas or ticks.”

  I consider him. “Yes, he probably does. I’ll take him to the vet.”

  Aria
enters the kitchen wearing a vibrant salmon colored silk robe and matching nightgown. She’s groggy and stops in her tracks when she sees the dog. “What… what is that?” She points at Champ.

  “A dog, Miss Aria. Mr. Forrest found it in the rose garden,” Ella answers for me. I think from Aria’s initial reaction, Ella thinks she might have an ally to help convince me that having Champ in the house is a mistake. What she doesn’t know is that Aria is a huge animal lover. But I do.

  “A stray?” Aria asks.

  “Lost probably. He has a collar.”

  She walks toward us and crouches down in front of Champ to take his dirty face in her hands. “Aren’t you the most beautiful thing ever? Aww, look at you, you must be starving,” she gushes, and Ella frowns realizing defeat. I smile at her, and she shakes her head.

  Aria feels around Champ’s collar to look at the back of his name tag. I imagine she’s looking for an address, but suddenly, all of the color drains from her face. She stands and takes a step back grabbing ahold of a barstool.

  “What’s wrong?”

  She points at the dog, “His collar…” I push the fur away from his collar and find his ID tag. Hanging behind it affixed to the same jump ring as the tag is a large diamond engagement ring—Aria’s engagement ring from David.

  “That’s my ring. I left it in my jewelry box before I went to Mexico.” Her voice is small and afraid. “Why is this happening? I told him to stop.”

  “I don’t think it’s him, Aria. When I spoke to him yesterday, he seemed genuinely concerned about you. I know normally I wouldn’t believe a word he says, but I don’t know… there was something in his voice, his eyes, that said he wasn’t lying for a change.”

  “But, that’s my engagement ring. I mean, who else would do that?”

  “Have you checked your text messages this morning?”

  She tears her gaze from the dog to look at me like I’m crazy. “No, why?”

  “Someone sent you multiple messages last night saying you’re not good enough for him and stay away.”

  “You read my text messages?”

  “That’s not important, what’s important is who would send messages like that?”

  “It is important, and I don’t know, maybe it’s some ex-girlfriend of yours. How did you get into my phone?”

  I shake my head annoyed that she’s focused on the wrong thing. Who cares about the invasion of her privacy when someone is stalking her.

  “I used your fingertip, you were sleeping, and I could see someone was repeatedly texting you.”

  She throws her arms up. “You broke into my phone with my fingerprint and read my messages. What else did you do while you were in there? Read my email? Check my call log? Look up what books I’ve been listening to on Audible?”

  “Of course not!” I yell, and Champ barks. We look down at him, and I remove his collar sliding the jump ring with the tag and the ring off of it. The back of Champ’s ID tag doesn’t have his address engraved on it, but there is something engraved there.

  Fake. Just like his love. I read it out loud. “What does that mean?” she asks.

  She doesn’t know that he sold the diamond out of her engagement ring a year ago and replaced it with a high-quality CZ stone. I couldn’t believe it when Anthony told me he had done it to buy a condo in Atlanta for a girlfriend who needed a place to stay.

  “He sold your diamond a year ago and replaced it with a CZ.”

  Her face crumples. “He what? No way, I never took it off, he couldn’t have.”

  “You cut your finger on the book ladder at the store. You didn’t wear it for a while.” I remember because I loved seeing her bare finger that week.

  She stares at me, and I can’t read her expression. Is she pissed again that I know so much about her life? Is she upset that her ex was such a douche? No, she already knew that. Is she embarrassed that he played her? Or angry for not realizing it?

  Ella brings me a cup of coffee setting it on the table acting like she isn’t listening to a word we’ve said. She also places a bowl of leftovers in front of Champ who eagerly dives in inhaling the food like he hasn’t eaten in a week. Maybe he hasn’t.

  “Can I get you anything, Miss Aria?” she asks.

  Aria whispers, “No,” and shakes her head. “I’m going back to bed,” she says turning to leave. I want to go after her, but maybe it’s best that she has some time alone.

  “Ella, I have to make some phone calls. Can you make an appointment at a vet and take Champ for immunizations, grooming, and whatever else he needs?”

  Her eyes widen with shock, but only for a second. “Yes, sir,” she says through her teeth.

  “You don’t have to drive your own car, take the Range Rover,” I add on my way out. I see a tiny twinkle in her eye at the sound of that. She loves the Rover, and I don’t want Champ to stink up her car. I’ll just have mine detailed.

  In my office, I call Anthony and bring him up to speed, filling him in on the text messages, the dog, and the ring. He tells me no one has tried to enter Aria’s apartment, and he confirms that David is indeed in rehab and seems to be straightening out his life. I tell him to figure out how the dog got onto my property and who took the photo from my house.

  Maybe that will shed some light on this situation and give us some answers because the questions are stacking up and something’s got to give.

  15

  Aria

  I’m so mad that my eyeballs are vibrating inside their sockets. And for so many reasons! How could I have been so blind when it came to David? I hate that Roman knows more about my failed relationship than I do. Hell, he knows more about my life than I do! I didn’t even remember that I cut my finger and took my ring off for a week, but he did.

  He also broke into my damn phone and read my text messages. He has no boundaries, no limits to what he will do to know what’s going on in my life. My life. I don’t even feel like I have my own life anymore. I can’t even go home to my apartment because some whack job is trying to scare me.

  Well, no more. I will not be driven from my home, my job, or my man. I’m going to figure out who is doing this and make them stop if it’s the last thing I do.

  In Roman’s room, I check my messages on my phone. There they are, You’re not good enough for him. Stay away.

  I had assumed the stalker meant Roman when he told me about the messages, but what if they aren’t? What if it’s David I’m not good enough for? What if it’s David I’m supposed to stay away from? Could it be Lynn who’s doing this? I haven’t spoken to her since the day of the wedding. She never so much as called or text an apology, and we’ve been friends as long as I’ve known David. To be honest, I had expected something, but I wasn’t heartbroken when she stayed quiet. It was easier, after all.

  But how would she get ahold of the pictures and the ring? She wouldn’t have known about Roman, and if she did, she would have been glad that I found someone else. David would be free to be with her.

  Unless…

  I shower quickly and wind my hair into a bun covering it with one of Roman’s baseball hats hanging on a hook in his closet. He’s not the hat type. I don’t think he actually wears them, they’re more for show. I dress in jeans and a t-shirt, something I would never normally wear, and tiptoe out into the hall to see if Roman is in his office.

  The door is closed, so I continue on to the kitchen to catch Ella before she leaves. She’s standing next to the island looking down at the dirty dog like she’s strategizing.

  “I heard Roman ask you to take him to the vet, do you want some help?” I ask startling her from her thoughts.

  “Oh, my goodness, I didn’t hear you come in.”

  “I noticed. Not a dog person, huh?”

  She glances at Champ and back at me. “No, not really.”

  “Well, I am, let’s go.” I pat my thigh, and Champ hops up to join me.

  “You don’t have to, Miss Aria. Mr. Forrest asked me to do it.”

  “I know, I
want to go. I love animals, and you look like you could use a hand. It’s a win, win.”

  “Okay, if you really want to go…”

  “I do. Come on, Champ, let’s go get you cleaned up.” Champ gives a quick bark of approval, and we are on our way to the garage.

  “Which car is yours?” I ask when faced with two rows of cars that look like they are hardly ever driven.

  “The Audi is mine, but Mr. Forrest says I can take his Range Rover, so I don’t get fleas in my car.” She is beaming, and I imagine she must like the Rover a lot.

  “You have a nice car. I wouldn’t want it to get dirty either.” She looks over her shoulder at the sleek black car and smiles.

  “Mr. Forrest gets me a new one every year for my birthday. I don’t have to go many places, but it drives like you’re on a cloud. I love it.”

  “Every year? Wow, that’s some birthday gift.” I haven’t owned a car since I bought the bookstore. I live within walking distance, and it was an expense I didn’t need in the city.

  “Yes, he is good to us.”

  She points the key fob at the Rover, and it chirps to life. I open the back, and he jumps in as if he’s ridden in the car a million times. He makes a couple turns, and when the floor is just right, he lays down. “Good boy,” I tell him and close the door.

  We ride along for about an hour before we pull into the Furry Friends Veterinary Clinic parking lot. I help Ella inside with Champ and inform the woman at the desk what we need. She assures us Champ will be well taken care of, and we are to pick him up in two hours.

  “What should we do now?” I ask her when we are outside.