Romancing Her Protector

by Mallory Monroe

  But she had to, because Matty wasn’t about to let up. He wanted her now with an all-consuming passion. His penis dangled against her skin and was moving, seemingly of its own volition, for her womanhood. He had to enter her and he had to enter her now. He grabbed his wallet off of the nightstand, and quickly put on a condom, his heart hammering with fierce urgency.

  And then he entered her. His massive shaft was so engorged against such a tight entry, her fresh sweetness, that he could hardly believe how good it felt. And he began to pound her.

  He was so outside himself, so filled with lust and desire for this woman that he didn’t at first realize he had shoved through her hymen with such a force that it made her reek in pain.

  He stopped suddenly when he realized it, and looked at her. She was a virgin. This sweet, precious woman was a virgin!

  “You okay?” he asked her, angry with himself for causing her such pain.

  But Shay nodded. “I’m fine.”

  “I can stop,” he said, although to stop would nearly kill him.

  “No,” Shay said. “Don’t stop. It’s a little painful, but I don’t want you to stop.” And he was thankful because it would have taken everything within him to reverse.

  But he slowed his movements, easing in and out, taking care not to add to her discomfort.

  And it worked, he was able to get his rhythm and she was able to withstand the onslaught.

  Until his control began to break again. He moved in deeper, and the more she took him in, the further he moved in. And then he was pounding her. Shay held on, and it was painful, but it was much more than that. It was liberating, too. She felt as if she was climbing a mountain, and the drudgery of the climb was unrelenting, but she knew, once she got there, once she reached that summit, it was going to be explosive.

  And it was. Her entire body arched into his as the sound of his skin slapping against hers blasted across the sound of silence in the room and made her feel as hysterical as she felt when she first saw that spider. Only this hysteria felt joyous, so full of primal, unrestraint bawdiness, that by the time she arched up for the last time, and took in the fullness of him as he released into her like an overpowering flood, she clung to him least she fall, foot loose and fancy free, over that blinding cliff.

  The next morning, after a blissful night’s sleep, Matty awoke to find that Shay had dressed, and was gone.

  THREE

  Two weeks later

  Dr. Alexandria Kanisha Graham was a mentor in name only and Shay always dreaded going to see her. But when the Dean of Academic Affairs summons you to her office, you don’t exactly debate the summons.

  Shay went to see her. She sat in the small, arch-top chair in front of her big desk and waited patiently for Dr. Graham to finish her telephone conversation. It was rude for her to have answered the call in the first place, especially after she had told her secretary to bring Shay in. But that was Alex Graham. She was a stunningly attractive beauty queen, a dark-skinned version of Tyra Banks, who thought the sun, moon, stars, and all mankind, revolved around her.

  “Right,” she said when she finally hung up the phone. “Miss Shanita.” She picked up a file that Shay presumed was a dossier on her. “You know why I called you here.” Because Alex said it as if it were a fact, not a question, Shay didn’t see the point in answering. Alex, however, was a master at handling students. A kid like Shay wasn’t about to handle her. She simply kept reading the file and awaited her response.

  “Yes, I know,” Shay finally said. “The scholarship.”

  “What about the scholarship?”

  Shay wanted to roll her eyes. They both knew the deal, she didn’t understand why she had to hear the details. “I’m in danger of losing it if my grades don’t pick up.”

  “No, you’re wrong,” Alex said, looking at her as if she were looking over a pair of half-moon glasses. “You aren’t in danger of losing that scholarship. You have already lost that scholarship.”

  Shay was stunned. “Lost it? How could I have lost it? I didn’t fail anything!”

  “No, you didn’t fail, Shanita, but you went below a 3.0 last term.”

  “But my cumulative GPA is a 3.2, Dr. Graham!”

  “That hasn’t anything to do with it. You must maintain a 3.0 or better EVERY

  semester for the University to continue the scholarship. Those are the rules.”

  “But--”

  “No, but, Shanita, those are the rules. The question isn’t whether you’ve lost the scholarship or not, that’s not up for debate. You’ve lost it. The question is what are you going to do about it.”

  Shay ran the back of her hand over her tired eyes. What in the world could she do about it? The only reason she was able to afford Franklin in the first place was because of that scholarship. To have lost it was devastating.

  “Well?” Alex asked, almost with glee. She never cared for the likes of Shanita Cooper, some uncultured female straight off the streets who had no business in an institution of higher learning the caliber of Franklin. People like her kept the race depressed, ignorant, and behind everybody else. Far as Alex was concerned she should leave Franklin now and go to work fulltime at that truck stop diner, or whatever that greasy spoon was. Of course Alex was highly thought of among administration at Franklin, and she was a master at never revealing her true feelings.

  “What are you going to do, Shanita?” she asked again.

  “I don’t know,” Shay said with strain in her face. She always worked so hard, but always seemed to end up last.

  “I don’t know doesn’t exactly move the ball forward, now does it?” Alex started but then was interrupted when her desk intercom buzzed.

  “Sorry to disturb you, Dr. Graham,” her secretary said, “but your ten-thirty has arrived, ma’am.”

  Alex smiled. “Thank-you, Fran,” she said. “Send him through.” Alex stood to her feet. “We’ll talk later,” she said to quickly dismiss Shay. “My ten-thirty has arrived.”

  “But it’s after eleven,” Shay said, standing too. “They’re late.”

  “So? He’s one of the school’s most important business partners,” Alex lied. “We see our business partners whenever they get here.”

  “But I need to talk to you. I need to know if there’s something the school can do.” Alex rolled her eyes. She hated these welfare queens. “It’s not a question of what the school can do,” she reminded Shay, “it’s all about what you’re going to do. This is your problem, not the school’s.”

  “I understand that, Dr. Graham, I’m not saying this isn’t my problem--”

  “You put yourself in this position. Franklin University had nothing to do with it.”

  “I didn’t say the school--”

  “Matty!” Alex said jovially, her angry face giving way to a smile that could charm birds from trees. “Come on in!”

  Shay heard the name, but was certain it couldn’t be the same person. But when she picked up her book bag and turned in that direction, and saw that it was indeed the same man, her heart dropped.

  She’d been thinking about him nearly every night since the last time she saw him. He never returned to the Stop Gap café, which was a big letdown for her initially, then a source of comfort for her later. Better to not build up false hope in this world.

  But now he was standing here, right in front of her, looking fine in his designer suit, his shades on top of his head, his tough, rugged features reminding her of how he pounded her so, how he made her feel when he was inside of her. She quickly looked away.

  Matty’s heart didn’t drop, but a sudden, powerful sense of longing overcame him as soon as he saw her pretty, worried face. He knew she attended Franklin, and would be familiar with the Dean of Academic Affairs, but for some reason he never connected the two.

  He always remembered her fondly, not as one of his flings in the few flings he’d had ever since he and Alex called it quits, but he always remembered her as the one he wanted again. Maybe even as the one that g
ot away. It was ludicrous, he and Shay had little of nothing in common, but that was how he often found himself feeling. And when their eyes met, and he remembered how fantastic she felt inside of him, he, too, diverted his look.

  “Come on in, Matty,” Alex said, “we were just wrapping up.”

  “I can wait outside,” Matty suggested.

  “Nonsense,” Alex insisted, coming from around her desk. “She’s leaving.” Matty moved further into the office as Shay nervously put the papers that were meant as evidence of all of her hard work, evidence she now knew Alex didn’t even want to see, back into her book bag. She looked up just as Matty was looking back at her.

  “Hello,” he said.

  Shay didn’t say anything. Although he had extended his hand, she never saw it. She just wanted to leave. According to Dr. Graham he had business with the university. If they found out she had slept with him, they could consider kicking her out. She’d heard of it before. Not with a business partner, but once a student was kicked out for carrying on with one of the professors. It wasn’t the same thing, and Shay knew it wasn’t, but she didn’t put anything past Alex Graham. And although Dr. Graham was probably no angel herself, she always acted as if her students had to be above reproach.

  That was why Shay couldn’t speak. She simply zipped her book bag and hurried out of that office. Matty watched her hurry out, a sadness overtaking him, that same sadness he felt three weeks ago, when he awoke to find her gone.

  Alex smiled when she left. “I know,” she said. “She is so rude, I apologize for that.”

  “She’s one of yours?” Matty asked, fighting with all he had to suppress those feelings of longing that came over him when he first saw Shay.

  “Yes, unfortunately. You know they make me mentor all of our at-risk kids.”

  “Why is she at-risk?”

  “Because she came from nothingness. Ran away from home when she was something like fourteen, slept on the streets basically, pretty much raised herself. I mean the girl has a GED, okay?”

  “I didn’t realize having a GED was a negative thing,” Matty said, disturbed by Alex’s characterization. “It’s still a high school diploma.”

  “Well, whatever. And she has a pretty good head on her shoulders, I’ll give her that.

  But she’s a loser in the end. She was on scholarship, but she just lost that, too.” This concerned Matty. “Lost it?” he asked, still trying with all he had to sound only mildly interested. “Why did she lose it?”

  “Because she didn’t obey the rules.”

  For a split second Matty expected her to say that she had allowed some man to take her virginity and therefore had lost her moral authority, but he quickly realized that couldn’t be it.

  “She allowed her grades to dip below a 3.0,” Alex clarified. “But enough about her,” she said, tossing her slender arms around his neck. “I missed you!” They kissed a very chaste kiss, considering how they used to kiss. “Why didn’t you answer my calls?” she asked him.

  “I wasn’t in Europe on vacation, Alex,” Matty reminded her, his mind still on that look of despair he saw in Shay’s expressive eyes. “I was taking care of business.”

  “You still could have phoned. A man in love phones his lady. And I am your lady, aren’t I, Matty?”

  She was a smart, sophisticated female who knew the art of seduction better than a geisha girl. “You know we aren’t together anymore, Alex, let’s not play games here.” He removed her arms from around his neck.

  This angered her. “Then why do you come every time I call?” she asked him with spite in her voice.

  Matty looked at her. He knew he was a chump in her eyes, someone she could use for laughs, for money, for whatever her heart’s desire. No longer for sex, Matty drew the line there, but everything else was still on the table and they both knew it. It was the history. It was the fact that he wasn’t the kind of man that could love a woman unconditionally for nearly a decade, and just stop having any feelings for her whatsoever. He still loved Alex, if truth be told. He’d probably always love her.

  “I come because I care about you,” he said truthfully. “But there are limits, Alex.

  Don’t push too hard. Now what is it you want this time?”

  “You make me sound like such a cad,” Alex said, walking back behind her desk. Matty watched her body, that body he used to crave, but now only despised because he knew somebody else was filling her up.

  “What is it, Al, I’ve got a business to run.”

  Alex sat down. Truth was, she was terrified. Had been ever since her home pregnancy test came up positive. She told Peter Dial about it, when he returned from a football recruiting trip he’d been on, but Peter denied it could be his. But it had to be his because he was the only man, except for Matty before they broke up, she’d been fooling with. But he said no, no way, and dumped her.

  It was a heartbreaking rejection for Alex. Peter was the man she had wanted even above Matty, who was once the love of her life. He was a gorgeous hunk of a man with the body of a world class athlete and a smile that made her want to swoon. When Peter dumped her, she thought she was going to die with grief. How could she have been so stupid? She gave up a good man like Matty Driscoll for a player like that? She actually had thought Peter loved her, too, and would cherish her the way Matty had. She could not have been more wrong.

  “The campus ball at the president’s house is at the end of the month,” she said. “I need you to be my date.”

  Matty stared at her. “You’re joking, right?” he said, amazed that she would even consider such a thing.

  “It’s no joke, all right? I need this favor, Matty. I can’t show up to the most important event of the year empty-handed.”

  “And why would you be empty-handed? What happened to lover boy football coach?”

  “Stop calling him that!”

  “What happened to Peter Dial, Alex?”

  “We broke up ions ago, for your information.” A lie. She’d just told Peter about the pregnancy a few days ago, and that was when their breakup occurred. “Besides, it never was as serious as you were making it out to be.” Another lie.

  Matty had known Alex Graham for so many years, but he still was hard pressed to truly figure her out. “So lover boy dumps you,” he said, “and you come running back to me?” Alex closed her eyes. She wanted Matty back, it was true, but more than that she had to have him back. She was no spring chicken anymore. She was pushing thirty-five. She wanted to be married with a kid and time was not on her side.

  Besides, she’d already figured it all out. Matty would take her to the ball, see how unbelievably beautiful she was, especially in that diamond necklace he had allowed her to purchase from Tiffany’s, and they’d make love right then and there. She knew he couldn’t resist her when she was looking a certain way. Then she’d spring the big news of the pregnancy on him and Matty, being Matty, would feel he had no choice but to offer his hand in marriage. But that was why she had to get him in bed again. Claiming that he impregnated her before they broke up wouldn’t fly. He wouldn’t fall for that. She needed fresh evidence, a fresh night of passion, and she would have him right where she wanted him.

  Of course she’d have some big time ‘plaining to do. Especially if the baby didn’t come out with any hint of being biracial. Peter was a black man, but he was a high-yellar black man, so the baby could conceivably take on his skin tone. But if not, Alex was so dark-complexioned that she felt she could easily explain it away that way, too.

  Besides, the timing would be perfect. According to Clive Stewart, a brilliant surgeon and very close, “intimate” friend of hers, she was impregnated only about three weeks ago.

  Which meant that it truthfully couldn’t be Matty’s baby, but it would be close enough in time the night of the ball that the truth could be manipulated. Matty, not Peter, would have been the last man she’d been with, which would make the chances of his fathering the child more plausible. It would be an early delivery, y
es, but that could be explained away too. But the key was getting him in bed again.

  And if all of that didn’t work, if her sleeping with him and then declaring herself pregnant wasn’t enough to wrangle him, then she would have to result to her bigger, bolder back-up plan that was, in her estimation, too big, too bold, too incredible, to fail.

  She opened her eyes, tears suddenly appearing. She wanted Matty back. All of her life she went after what she wanted with a vengeance, and always got her way. Only she was always slick with her trick. Always lady-like and undercover. Just as she was about to be right now.

  “This is vital, Matty,” she said to him, laying the tears on as thick as she could manage.

  He could never handle her tears. Never. And she knew how to turn them on. “I wouldn’t ask you if I didn’t need you,” she added.

  Alex and tears were a foreign concept. In all his years of being with her, he could count on one hand the number of times he’d seen her cry. And usually they were tears of anger, not tears of pain. But when she did shed tears of pain, he couldn’t take it. Just like he couldn’t take it now. His heart melted. Most people would say Alex Graham was nothing but a spoiled bitch who deserved every bad turn she got. But Matty knew she hadn’t always been that way.

  Besides, this ball wasn’t for another three weeks. Maybe she’d meet somebody new by then, and tell him no thanks.

  “All right, I’ll see what I can do,” he said, and she beamed.

  “Oh, Matty,” she said heartfelt. “I knew I could always count on you! I just knew it!”

  ***

  “Shanita Cooper, please come to desk five,” the speaker announced and Shay grabbed her book bag and hurried toward the now open cubicle. She was in the bustling financial aid office in Franklin’s student union, to see what in the world her options were.

  “I’m hoping you can help me,” Shay began as she sat in the small, metal chair. It had been nearly a week since she received word of losing her scholarship, and she was still trying to see her way clear.

  “What’s your social?” the counselor wanted to know. He was tall and thin and all business. When he punched in her social security number, he studied the screen in front of him.