OBSESSED WITH TAYLOR JAMES

by Toye Lawson Brown

  “Honey, I hear what you and Detective Diego are saying. I’m asking both of you to hear me for a minute. I don’t condone what Kelly did and if Dillon wasn’t fighting for his life, I would put her in jail. I’m thinking about what is best for him. He is going to need her if she is the only person he remembers.”

  Mario’s facial expression hardened. Letting her hands fall from his, he shook his head. “I don’t get you, and I’m done trying to figure out the unorthodox relationship you have with Dillon. From now on, this is your fight and I’m out of it.”

  Taylor swallowed, “Mario, please work with me.”

  “No—I’m done,” he said sternly going to the door. “I’ll see you at home.”

  Chapter 25

  Taylor rubbed her hand down her face turning to face Detective Diego’s amazed expression. She shrugged her shoulders. “I-I didn’t handle that well.”

  Detective Diego stayed seated on the edge of his desk. “Ms. James, I have been doing this a long time. Truly, I understand you have the best interest of your friend at heart, but what are you hiding?”

  Her skin prickled with tiny bumps from his accusing penetrating stare. “I’m not hiding anything. I had no idea Kelly was capable of doing anything illegal. She won’t even step on ants.”

  He shook his head. “I’m not talking about her. You are protecting her boyfriend; why?”

  “He was my friend long before they became engaged; we just lost touch for a few years.”

  “I see. And, now that the friendship has been rekindled, is he more important to you than Mr. Infante?”

  “Detective, there is no romance between Dillon and I. My family has been friends with the Stevenson’s for over twenty years. Letting Kelly go is the honorable thing for me to do.”

  “You aren’t answering my question completely. Is the man worth losing your relationship with Mr. Infante? What does Kelly know that you don’t want revealed?”

  Taylor chewed the inside of her jaw remembering one thing Kelly might have learned from Dillon. “Nothing that I can think of,” she said.

  Detective Diego slid off the desk walking over to her. “Okay, Ms. James, I can’t make you tell me. But, I want you to know that Mr. Infante was willing to front money as a reward for your safe return. I think he deserves the truth on why you’re dumping him for someone else to be happy.”

  She closed her eyes; the anger and pain on his face appeared. She opened her eyes slowly. “Detective, I don’t want to hurt Mario. He means the world to me, but I have done something he doesn’t know about. If I tell him, it will make him lose all respect for me.”

  “You don’t know that. I’ve spent time with him, and he seems very laid-back and not the type to fly off the handle or pass judgment.”

  “He is a wonderful person, and I am lucky to have in my life, but trusting women has been a huge hurdle for him to get over. He believed he’d beaten his disease with me. I will destroy his trust in women forever if he leans what I’ve done.”

  Diego removed his suit coat hanging on the back of the closed door. “Let me buy you a cup of decent coffee and we’ll discuss what you’ve done. As a third-party and a man, I might be able to measure how well Mr. Infante will take the news.”

  “You will agree I deserved to lose him,” she said walking towards the door.

  *****

  Taylor closed the front door leaning against it. Detective Diego dropped her off over an hour ago and she’d been sitting outside on the porch dreading what she had to do. She fingered the two house keys before putting them in a glass dish on the table.

  Now that Kelly was behind bars, she had no need to stay with Mario. She sighed looking around the richly decorated home of leather and tan furniture. Every square foot of the home had his personal stamp of approval on it. She took in a long look to remember as much as she could. Even if she wasn’t ready to go home, he was going to ask her to leave to avoid prolonging the agony of looking at her after she revealed everything to him.

  Shuddering, she walked slowly up the steps to the bedroom. She knew he was home because his BMW was in the driveway. He’d been driving that car since the accident.

  Walking to his bedroom Taylor’s fingers rested on the doorknob, she stopped to take another breath before opening the door. She heard voices coming from inside; he was on the telephone. She put her ear to the door knowing it was wrong to eavesdrop on a private conversation. However, it didn’t matter she was listening; she couldn’t understand what he was saying since he was speaking in Spanish. His words were flying rapidly and she could not determine if he was angry or using his normal tone. She could kick herself for not learning any Spanish from him. They had been together for months and he was unable to teach her his language.

  Backing away from the door, Taylor opted against confronting him with the truth. He had already ended their relationship so why throw salt on an open wound. She would go home, and the belongings she had there, he could dispose of, or pack and send to her.

  Mario opened the door before she made it to the stairwell. “Were you looking for me?” he asked flipping the light on in the hallway.

  Taylor did a slow rotation until she faced him. She kept her eyes downward to the floor not wanting to see the look of disgust on his face. “Um, I-I was going to pack my suitcase but you were on the phone; I didn’t want to….”

  “Where are you going?”

  “I’m going home. I’ve imposed on you long enough.”

  He walked around her in studying her. “Really? Are you ready to stay alone?”

  Her eyes followed his walk around her. Had Mario sensed something about her? He had a habit of taking normal situations, and applying legal strategies to reach a conclusion. Had he applied an algorithm to her situation and summed her up? And, was the phone call pertaining to what he’d learned?

  Unnerved with his looking at her the way he was, she finally asked. “What are you doing, Mario? Should I get the spotlight and chair so you can interrogate me correctly?”

  He shook his head. “No. I’m curious why you want to leave?”

  She raised her shoulders. “For the obvious reasons. You did break up with me at the police station.”

  “We had a disagreement, Taylor,” he said not raising his voice.

  His calm voice was unusual for a person who’d made a scene by storming out on her. “I disagree. Look, just curse me out and get it over with—my life is totally in the crapper, and you might as well finish me off by hitting the hand to flush me down the sewer.

  “That is not my style. I would not do anything to add to the pain you’re experiencing.”

  Her voice raised an octave. “Then what is it? Why are you acting so strange?”

  “I’m not acting strange. But, since you heard me on the telephone, you should know I was talking to Detective Diego; he told me everything.”

  She frowned. “Damn, did he think I wasn’t going to tell you? How dare he undermine me!”

  “He wasn’t doing that, Taylor; he was doing the exact opposite. He wanted to make sure I listened to you with an open mind.”

  She walked into the bedroom and sat down on the end of the king-sized bed planting her feet close together and keeping her spine straight as a razor. She cleared her throat and tossed a question to him to see exactly what he knew. “May I ask what Detective Diego told you about our little chat?” He wasn’t the only one with the ability to use legal strategies; she would interrogate him for a change.

  Mario held his breath as she crossed the threshold into his bedroom. Sliding his hands in the pockets of his fitted jeans, he answered, “I’ll make it easy for you. What happened between you and Dillon when you returned to Cleveland?”

  Smoothing her palms over the narrow indent of her waist, she bit down the lower edge of her lip wishing she could become invisible in the room. “That was a mistake; I swear it meant nothing.”

  “I asked you about the relationship you shared with him. You could have told me the truth.”
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  “I did tell you the truth!”

  “Hmm, I must have missed the part where you slept with him!”

  “It’s not what you think! Let me explain how it happened. It was Christmas, and I had broken it off with my boyfriend. I was in a bad place because we had been dating since I returned to Cleveland. Dillon heard what happened and came to my apartment to check on me.”

  “Taylor, forget it. I don’t want to know,” he said running his hands down the front of jeans.

  Her eyes bucked. “You wanted to hear it, so let me tell it to you.”

  Agitated, he leaned his buttocks against the large oak dresser crossing his legs at the ankle. “Pardon me for interrupting; continue.”

  “All right…where was I. Oh yeah, I was beyond comforting. It is not a secret I like to drink and sometimes too much. So, liquor was plentiful in my house. Dillon figured a little nip would take my mind off Miguel. Well, one sip led to our drinking half the bottle.” She caressed her forehead to ward off the headache knocking on her temples. “When he started to kiss me, I didn’t stop him.”

  “If you were drunk, how could you?”

  Taylor shook her head. “I wasn’t that drunk. I liked what he was doing, and I wanted to forget Miguel; it didn’t matter Dillon was my best friend seducing me.”

  “The fact he was your best friend and engaged to another woman didn’t make it weird?”

  Before she could think to shape an answer, Mario pinned a look directly on her. He had eyes the color of burned coffee grounds, so dark she couldn't tell where the black ended and the black of his pupil began. The way he assessed her felt like a shredding of her character, her morals, her soul. He cocked his chin a fraction and arched a brow.

  “Taylor?”

  “Of course it made it weird. I was hurting, Mario. I wanted the pain to go away, and thinking Dillon making love to me would do that, was wrong. All it did was make matters worse. He wanted more and I couldn’t give it to him.”

  He shook his head retaining strict eye contact with her. “I can imagine. Damn, Taylor, you let a man already in love with you, comfort you with sex. You used him, baby.”

  She lay back on the bed emptying her emotions. “Don’t you think I know that? I made a mess of everything, Mario. I had to put distance between Dillon and me but I didn’t know how without it being obvious.”

  “You were able to have sex with him; you should have been able to tell him you didn’t want it to happen again without it being an issue.”

  “I’m not good at hurting people’s feelings so sue me.”

  Mario finally moved after standing in the same position for most of her story. Lying next to her, he propped his elbow under his head and rubbed her stomach with his free hand. “You can stop. What happened between you and Dillon was before me. My concern is what you feel for him now?”

  “Nothing has happened between us since. I started dating but nothing ever came of those dates until I met you; I swear. I feel guilty for what I’ve done to Dillon. I may not be the cause of his health problems, but I am the cause of his heartache. Because of me, Kelly has somehow learned about Dillon and me. I am the reason she became obsessed with getting rid of me.”

  “You aren’t responsible for everything, Taylor. I’m baffled why Dillon would tell Kelly about sleeping with you. He had to know that would piss her off.”

  “Dillon swore he would never reveal our secret.”

  “So why would he tell her? He could have hoped the information would run her away.”

  Taylor untucked her hair from under her head. “I remember he kept a journal; he was the only man I knew that kept a diary. If he wrote about it, Kelly probably found it.”

  He blew a breath from deep in his belly still massaging hers. “That explains her actions. I had a feeling she was holding something over Dillon’s head, but it could have backfired.”

  “How? She would have ruined my relationship with you. They both knew I had problems with holding onto relationships and Kelly would have won. I would have lost you forever.”

  “No she would have lost Dillon and threw you two together for good.”

  Taylor removed his hand and got off the bed to go to the closet and remove her suitcase. “Well it’s all out in the open now. My actions ruined four lives and with any luck, Dillon won’t remember any of it when he wakes up,” she said unzipping the luggage.

  “So you’re still leaving?”

  Taylor removed her clothes, a hanger-full at a time, stuffing them in the suitcase without folding them. Her object was to get out of his house and home without jumping his bones. He was addictive to her. Even in a depressed mood, he was able to stir an arousal. “Yes, I’m going home.”

  “I’m not asking you to leave; you know that right?”

  The tears dangled on the lower lids of her eyelashes. She lifted her shoulder to clean away the tears that had fallen down her cheek. “And you won’t because you’re a gentleman and would not ask me to leave. I’m leaving because I’ve caused enough problems for everyone, including you. God, you must hate me. You were honest about your distrust for women, and I have been nothing but deceitful.”

  When she went to the dresser to get more of her stuff, Mario took the clothes from the suitcase and hung them back in the closet. She caught him from the corner of her eye. “What are you doing?”

  “What does it look like? I’m hanging clothes.”

  “Why? I’m going home.”

  “No, you aren’t.” He took the bottles from her hands throwing them on the bed. “Look, Taylor, there are some secrets that should be stored away forever. You have not done anything for me to mistrust you since we’ve been together. I was thrown why you didn’t want Kelly in jail, but I understand it now. Baby, I love you, and you need me whether you believe it or not.”

  The lump in her throat fell to her stomach with a splash. “I love you too and I do need your help. I can’t hold the weight I’m carrying alone anymore. I had a hand in taking a man’s life and it doesn’t matter he was the scum of the earth. Sebastian is hanging on by a thread because of me. Even what Kelly is going through is my fault. She would never hurt a fly….I drove her to act irrationally”

  Mario took her in his arms laying her head on his shoulder. The hard tear jerking of her body sunk them both to the floor where he held her and let her cry. “We’ll get through this, Taylor; we’ll get through this together,” he said smoothing her hair.

  Chapter 26

  Taylor stirred shifting to her left side to drape an arm across Mario’s chest. Her eyes cracked open to see him lying on his back with an arm crossed under his head fast asleep. She pulled the cover back and slid out of bed to go to the bathroom.

  The vanity lights atop the massive bathroom mirror showed a reflection she no longer recognized. She leaned into the mirror running an index finger under her eye. You like hell, girl.

  She got her toothbrush and toothpaste from the holder on the sink. Turning on the water in the basin, she began to brush the horrible taste away in her mouth. She had talked and cried herself to sleep last night forgoing her normal nighttime routine.

  After rinsing her mouth, she warmed the water in the freestanding shower. She loved Mario’s bathroom done in expensive European black and white marble and polished tile. She especially liked how she was able to adjust powerful streams of water to jet from four different angles.

  Dropping the silk white nightgown to her ankles, Taylor kicked it next to the bench against the wall. She stepped under the warm pulsating water of the shower. Pressing the button for the jets to spray water on her lower body, she exhaled.

  She rolled her neck as the water ran through her hair and down her back. She didn’t care her hair was getting wet; she would call Sabrina later to get it fixed. She had shed the tears now it was time to heal the body and soul and try to move on with her life. Filling a sponge with cucumber aloe scented bath soap; she relaxed to enjoy her shower.

  *****

  The sound of t
he shower running woke Mario from a deep sleep. He pulled himself up to sit on the side of the bed and looked at the clock; it was 7:30am. Stretching to relieve the kinks in his back and neck, he got up to relieve the other kink in his body, but Taylor was in the shower.

  After using the bathroom down the hall, he returned to the bedroom. Taylor was sitting on the bed applying lotion to her body. “Good morning,” he said adjusting his towel around his waist. His shower lasted ten minutes while hers had gone on for about thirty minutes or longer.

  Taylor lifted her head in his direction as she rubbed her leg vigorously to blend the lotion into her skin. “Good morning. I hope I didn’t wake you with my shower.”

  “I had to get up anyway,” he said using the smaller towel to pat the water draining from his wet hair.

  “Are you going to work?”

  He went to the dresser getting his own toiletries. “Umm, I don’t think so.”

  Taylor massaged lotion between her hands applying it to her arms and elbows eyeing him. “Mario, what’s going on? You never miss this much work, and don’t say it’s because of me, please.”

  “Taylor, I resigned two days ago.”

  Her eyes blinked to give him a surprised look. “What? Wh—why did you quit?”

  “Anderson and I had a difference of opinion. My opinion of him would not allow me to work for a piece of shit like him.”

  “Baby,” she said walking over to him. Stroking his wet skin, the sent coming from him was fresh; a sandalwood scent left by his soap. “What are you going to do? Will you rejoin your old firm?”

  “Nope, that is not an option,” he answered removing underwear from the drawer.

  She grasped his head turning him to face her. “Mario, seriously, did this have anything to do with me?”

  “It had everything to do with you, but it was my decision to quit. Taylor, I cannot smile in the face of a person that doesn’t respect the woman I love. You are more important to me than some job.”

  “God, I love you, but you are so strong-headed,” she said embracing him. The damp towel loosely wrapped around her chest fell to the floor.