Twisted Vows of Seduction

by N’Tyse

  Even with everything she had taken him through, Jeff told himself that he would have traded places with Denise in a heartbeat. Had God given him that choice, he would have laid down his own life for her with no second thought about it. Denise didn’t deserve to die and Deandra didn’t deserve to be without her mother. Now, Jeff found himself a single man having to raise their daughter all alone.

  While it took Jeff a considerable amount of time to muster up enough strength to be in the same space as Denise after she’d slapped him in the face with her confession, he eventually managed to find it in his heart to forgive her. He had learned during that meeting with her that she had been raped, and that her only intentions were to raise Deandra with a man she felt would make a suitable father for her child. Denise had given him a great deal of credit before being so sure that he was even capable.

  However, every now and then, Jeff found himself wondering how any woman could look her man in the face and lie to him about the paternity of his child. Wondered how she slept at night with that kind of secret buried inside of her. The day he’d read those paternity test results and found out Deandra wasn’t his biological daughter, he’d cried like a newborn baby. Felt like his heart had been ripped out. He recalled barely being able to eat or sleep for weeks. Jeff had shut down mentally and the only thing that helped him survive the madness in spite of the paternity results, was the thought of his baby girl. While it was hard for Jeff to accept that Deandra wasn’t his biological child, he dealt with it and tried to move forward. His love for his child never wavered because in his eyes, Deandra was his baby, and that was never going to change.

  As Jeff’s thoughts raced to the role Nadine played in all of it and the downright scandalous treachery that would scar him for the rest of his life, his stomach began to churn. It made him resent Nadine all the more. After loving two women and being hurt by both, Jeff felt he would never recover from that kind of pain. He was a man scorned, but he’d be damned if he ever admitted that shit out loud.

  Jeff heard the clinking of the dishes as Deandra came walking down the hall. She was headed right his way. He pulled the sheet up to his chest and closed his eyes, pretending to be asleep. He added a snore for good measure.

  “Good morning, Daddy!” Deandra said energetically as she placed the folding tray on her father’s bed. “I made you your favorite breakfast, Daddy. Wake up!”

  Jeff slowly opened his eyes, outstretched his arms, and raised his body up in the bed. He relaxed back up against the headboard.

  “I made breakfast for you,” Deandra said again proudly with a smile brighter than the glare of sun beaming through the window. “See!” she said, moving the tray closer to him.

  “I see,” Jeff said, observing all the food piled on his plate. There were a total of six pancakes, five slices of bacon, and scrambled eggs. He even had a tall glass of orange juice to wash it all down. “All this for me, huh? Courtesy of Chef Deandra.” Jeff smiled.

  Deandra nodded her head, her big cheesy smile still planted on her face.

  Jeff acknowledged that his daughter looked more and more like her mother every day. It seemed like it was yesterday when he was bringing Deandra and Denise home from the hospital. He remembered how small she was. Five pounds, six ounces. A little over seventeen inches long with a head full of silky jet-black tresses. Now his baby girl was half-grown and about to eat him out of house and home.

  Jeff picked up his fork to dive in as Deandra flopped on the bed beside him.

  “Did you forget what today is, Daddy?” Deandra asked, a drop in her voice.

  Jeff thought long and hard before it finally hit him. It was the one-year anniversary of Denise’s death.

  Jeff eased the fork back down on his plate. He looked over at his daughter. There was a tremble in his voice as he started to speak. He cleared his throat. “No, Daddy didn’t forget, sweetheart,” he fibbed. He stopped and looked around the large room. Everything was still in the same spot for the most part, just as Denise had left it. In fact, the entire house had remained the same. “And you know what, that’s why there’s no school today. We’re going to go visit your mother,” he said. They had gone last weekend, the weekend before that, and the weekend before that. Jeff and Deandra visited Denise’s grave as often as she wanted to. Mainly on Sundays, after he picked her up from her grandmother Grace’s house after staying the weekend over.

  “Is Grandma coming this time?”

  “Not sure, but I’ll ask.”

  “I would like for Grandma to come with us. She never comes with us to visit Mommy, and when I ask she always starts crying,” Deandra said.

  Jeff knew this had been hard on Grace as well. She had lost her only child and while they never really discussed Denise openly, it was obvious that Grace was still healing from it all. A process Jeff had yet to go through.

  “Grandma will come around. It’s just going to take more time, that’s all,” Jeff assured her.

  Deandra looked at her father and planted a good smack on his cheek.

  “What was that for?” Jeff smiled.

  Deandra smiled back. “Mommy wants me to give all her kisses to you now.”

  Jeff swallowed the burn in his throat, trying to mask his feelings as best as he could in front of his daughter. “What do you say I finish my breakfast while you go get cleaned up? I have to make a pit stop to the barbershop and then we will go see your mother right after that.”

  “Okay, Daddy.” Deandra jumped up from the bed and headed off to her room, closing Jeff’s door behind her.

  Jeff was glad to see how well his daughter was coping with her mother’s death. Furthermore, he was even surprised that he hadn’t had to seek therapy for her like he had done for himself. Only he had to spend outrageous money for the kind of therapy that he needed. It was the only kind of help that would take his mind off of everything he was going through. Even if it was only temporarily.

  Jeff drove five miles per hour along the trail of Laurel Land Cemetery until finally coming to a spot in close proximity of Denise’s gravesite. He pulled in slow and parked right next to a sleek black, chrome-accented, Rolls-Royce Phantom. He called off the make and model right off the bat. He sat in admiration, telling himself that he would never spend that kind of money on a damn car, but he couldn’t deny how much pussy he would pull from it. The thought brought a tempting smile to his face.

  He leaned over to the passenger seat and grabbed the beautiful flower arrangement he had brought to replace the one from last week. Just as he turned to get out of the car, Greg Adams, his wife’s former client and the man that rocked his marriage worse than a California earthquake, was walking toward the luxurious vehicle.

  Jeff quickly placed his glasses over his eyes, wanting to be certain of the man’s identity. Thankfully, Jeff couldn’t be seen behind the dark tint of his car, but he could make out Greg Adams as clear as a sunny day. He would single the man out in a lineup without a problem. It was a face he would never forget, even if he tried.

  The son of a bitch was dressed in the same fashion that he had been dressed in at the funeral. His tailored black and gray Giorgio Armani suit, cufflinks, and polished black shoes, summarized him in one word—money. Jeff’s face frowned all on its own and an awful bitter taste filled his mouth as he sat there profiling the man that he really didn’t give a hot flying fuck about.

  “Daddy, what are we waiting for?” Deandra asked.

  “One minute, baby. I’m trying to see something,” Jeff replied, his voice monotone.

  Jeff studied the man from head to toe as he got closer. His hair and face was groomed with precision. His fine designer threads exclusively tailored for his tall, medium-built frame. He had a casualness about him, yet an arrogance that was almost as flashy as that fancy automobile he drove. The wind seemingly stood still as he approached the $500,000 car. Jeff secretly eye stalked the man as he unlocked his vehicle and got inside. He turned his head in the opposite direction once Greg started up his engine and began
to slowly reverse out of the parking lot.

  To pass time, Deandra began reciting the poem she had written for her mother earlier that morning.

  “That’s real nice, baby.”

  “Thank you, Daddy.”

  Jeff waited until Greg was a half-mile down the path before pulling off.

  “Where are we going?” Deandra asked, looking around them.

  Jeff’s eyes darted from the road to the rearview mirror. “Daddy forgot to do something, baby. Just give me one minute. I promise it won’t take long.”

  Jeff followed Greg at a three-car distance. He didn’t know where Greg would lead him or even why he was following him in the first place. After all, he hadn’t done anything personally to him accept for fuck his wife. In hindsight, Jeff had a valid reason to want to destroy the man’s very existence.

  4

  After handing the valet attendant the keys to his vehicle, Greg casually walked directly across the street. He felt extremely overdressed compared to those around him, but didn’t bother with that thought much, being that he was already running behind schedule.

  The weather was surprisingly nice, considering how it had rained most of the week. It was 82 degrees. Perfect weather for a game of golf. However, with all the pandemonium going on in his life, his day was far from perfect. Had been that way for quite a while now, and every day for the rest of his life, Greg knew he would have to live with those badgering reminders of how his life once was before he allowed the only woman who supplied him with a greater happiness and sense of fulfillment, to slip away.

  He spotted his lunch companion, Naomi Brooks, right away. Her back was turned but he knew it was her. Would recognize her delicious voluptuous curves from a mile away. Furthermore, she was the only brown-skinned body sitting all alone, nursing what appeared to be lemonade, given how she didn’t drink alcohol.

  Greg took in the scenery, hoping not to see or be spotted by anyone he knew. He rounded the table in front of him and leaned in to announce his presence with a sensual kiss on her left cheek. To spectators, it was an innocent peck, but only he and Naomi knew differently.

  “You’re an hour late,” Naomi pointed out to him before he could even pull out a chair to sit down. She offered him half of a smile and her piercing brown eyes never wavered as she twirled the top of her straw with her fingers.

  Greg looked around the patio of the trendy Oak Lawn uptown’s Taco Diner for a waiter. When he spotted one, he lifted a finger and bounced his head to get his attention. The young man scurried over to their table.

  “Hello, my name is Jeremy. Can I start you off with an appetizer today?” The tall and slinky waiter whipped out the pen tucked behind his right ear. He looked to be around eighteen years old, free-spirited, and carefree. The next thing Greg noticed besides the young man’s lively personality was the numerous piercings in his ears. He had at least six in both ears. Too many damn holes for a man. Too many damn holes for anyone, he seconded that thought. The black polish on his nails was the most puzzling to Greg. As if that wasn’t enough, he happened to notice the tattoo on the inside of the boy’s forearm. It was a dragon spitting out a ring of fire. In the fire were letters that spelled out HELL.

  Greg cleared his throat. “No appetizer. Just a Mambo Limo,” he said finally, situating himself. He removed his jacket and loosened his tie.

  “Will that be all for you, sir?”

  “For now,” he replied coolly.

  “Mambo Limo coming right up!”

  Greg didn’t really feel up to the lunch date and it’s a wonder he even showed up. His mind was still wrapped around his deceased lover, Denise. Before coming here, he had gone to the cemetery and left flowers on her grave. He missed her so much and would have given anything to bring her back.

  Greg finally settled his eyes on the strikingly beautiful woman seated across from him. Today she wore his favorite color. A casual form-fitting red dress that exposed just enough cleavage to encourage a wave of new thoughts. Her Nubian shimmering brown skin looked like a pot of simmering honey. She was flawless in his eyes. Perfect skin. Perfect teeth. Perfect smile. Her smile was what he loved the most. It was warm, captivating, and on a day like today, uplifting.

  Naomi also possessed the key traits that Greg found attractive about a woman. Confidence, intelligence, passion, and wit. She was all that and more. She was the total package. Which was even more of the reason why he was glad to have her in his life. Especially during times like this when he was missing the hell out of her.

  Losing Denise had done some damage to him internally. Part of him felt he was responsible for her death after discovering that the car accident occurred shortly after their heated phone exchange. She had told him that she was on her way to tell his wife about them. On her way to expose him and his dirty little secret. But she never got the chance to.

  Denise’s untimely death forced him to realize how selfish he had been. He had taken her for granted and had regrettably hidden his true feelings from her for the sake of what he stood to lose. He was trying to protect his wife, Vivian, along with his millions of dollars in investments, Adams Companies and all their franchises. Most importantly, he was trying to protect his and his wife’s reputation. He knew the discovery of his adulterous affair would set fire to everything he’d worked hard to build. And as he found himself in an identical situation, he knew this time would be different. He would be sure to calculate things carefully due to what was at stake.

  Naomi raised a brow at him and a peculiar uneven smirk crossed her lips as she lifted her straw and stirred her frozen lemon drink. Withdrawing the straw from her cherry-colored lips, she sighed. Frustration settled in every crease of her face.

  “I called you several times. I didn’t think you’d make it,” she said finally.

  Greg cleared what he thought was dust out of his throat, his expression unchanged. “I had a business engagement prior to coming here,” he replied, shifting in his seat a little. He watched her roll her tongue in between her lips. Any other time his dick would have shot up like a space rocket to get close to Naomi, to be next to her warmth, but at that moment it lay completely limp and hardly motivated.

  A playful wind whipped over their table causing Naomi’s naturally long, bone-straight black tresses to high-five the air. A whiff of her incredible scent found itself trapped in the breeze. Greg inhaled her femininity. It was the closest connection he had made with her since being in her presence. She was wearing the Chanel perfume he had given her. He loved that fragrance. So did Denise.

  Greg removed his sunglasses to catch a better view of the scenery. His wandering eyes began to roam her body. The sparkling diamond earrings, diamond pendant necklace, and the dazzling platinum diamond tennis bracelet on her left wrist, had all been gifts for her thirty-fifth birthday, from him. Unbeknownst to Naomi, the bracelet she wore was an exceptionally special piece to him. It was symbolic, being that it was identical to the bracelet he had given Denise for Valentine’s Day the year before.

  The longer he stared at his strikingly beautiful girlfriend, the more Greg noticed that all the gifts that he had given her in the nine months that they’d been seeing each other, were now being showcased on her incredible body, knowingly, just for him.

  Her almond-shaped golden brown eyes rested on his. “Are you feeling all right today? You look exhausted.”

  In an uneven tone, “I’m fine,” he lied.

  Naomi studied Greg’s face a few seconds longer. “Are you sure?”

  Greg looked to his left for no one in particular. Hysterical laughter coming from a group of chatty women at the next table filtered through his latest thoughts. “I’m all right,” he said. He watched people who were people watching until an ash blonde Cane Corso caught his attention. He always wanted one of those but never actually got one. Vivian hated dogs. Hated cats. Hated kids. Hated anything that required too much of her time and attention.

  “Will you look at me, please?” Naomi asked.

  Greg
brought his eyes back to hers. She stared at him as if she were carefully identifying every feature on his face.

  “You’ve been crying, haven’t you?”

  “Where in the heck is my drink?” he questioned, ignoring her all at once.

  “Your eyes are as red as my dress, Greg. You’ve been crying.”

  He fell silent, looked around for the bubbly waiter who had taken his order. Finally, he was heading back their way.

  “I’m very sorry it took so long, sir. Our machine was giving us a little trouble. Is there anything else I can get for you?”

  Greg shook his head, clearly aggravated.

  “Would you like a refresher, Madam?”

  “I’m fine, thank you,” Naomi replied kindly.

  Greg took a thirsty sip of his drink.

  “Well, if you don’t care to talk to me about it, I won’t force it,” she said.

  “Naomi, baby, there’s nothing to discuss, furthermore, be concerned about. I said I’m fine.” He flashed her that signature smile of his, forcing every bit of it.

  “Really?” she asked in a questioning tone.

  Greg looked at her more seriously. “What? So you don’t believe me now. I told you there’s nothing to worry your pretty little head about.”

  “Well, I can’t say I’m so sure about that anymore,” Naomi muttered.

  “Where’s all this coming from?” Greg held up a hand. “You know what, never mind. I don’t have time for it right now.”

  Before Greg could say another word, he watched the tears as they formed in her eyes.

  “I’m trying to be patient. I swear I am,” she started. “But this is becoming…” She picked up a napkin from the table and blotted the corners of her eyes with it. “Unbearable,” she said lastly.

  Greg cringed. This was the last thing he wanted to be dealing with right now. “All I’ve asked is that you bear with me for a little longer until I get some things handled on my end. It shouldn’t be long now,” he said, speaking of the divorce he was secretly trying to position himself for financially.