Calming down, Kimberly slowly sat back down. “Well, that’s fine.”
“It’s okay?”
“It was just a kiss… well, several kisses and he was drunk.”
Charisse agreed with a short nod, but looked away guiltily again.
“It didn’t stop at the kissing?!” Kimberly exclaimed jumping back up again.
“All the yelling you’re doing is definitely going to bring Jaelen up here, Kimberly,” Charisse warned.
Kimberly forced herself to calm herself down again. When she was seated next to Charisse again, she asked, coolly, “There was more than kissing?”
Chewing at her bottom lip, Charisse nodded and quickly said, “But you can’t scream anymore at me. Like I said, he was drunk and it was all new and I wasn’t prepared and you knew about those feelings.” She buried her face in her hands briefly in shame, before looking back at Kimberly. “I feel so horrible! And I don’t know what to do about it.”
“Tell me what happened, Charisse. Did you leave after the kissing?”
“No, he carried me to the couch and he kept saying he was dreaming because if he wasn’t I wouldn’t have let him touch or kiss me like that. Then he started this amazing thing with his mouth and his hands… they were everywhere and then my clothes just disappeared.”
“Parker’s not a magician, Charisse.”
“I know that, but I didn’t even feel him take them off because he was kissing me in all these different ways and then he wasn’t just kissing my lips.” Her eyes went down and Kimberly followed them.
“What?” Kimberly asked not understanding and then she looked down and then blushed. “Oh?” She giggled at not getting what Charisse was trying to say with her eyes initially. “Oh! Your breasts.”
Charisse wretchedly shook her head. “Well, he did do that and my stomach but he went lower.”
“Lower.” Kimberly had to look down at her own body to visualize and then gasped. “Parker?! Parker did that? Are you sure he was drunk?”
“Yes! He smelled and tasted like whiskey! He was drunk. I know drugged people when I see them and he wasn’t faking this!”
“And he…” Kimberly fanned herself bowled over with what she was hearing. “Okay, and then you stopped him, right?” There was no need to respond as Kimberly’s eyes widened and Charisse knew she was losing her ability to keep her emotions in check because the truth must have been written all over her face.
“You did it! He did it to you!” she exclaimed jumping back up.
“Kimberly please calm down,” Charisse said gnawing on her nails again.
“I can’t! Oh! Stop that!” Snatching Charisse’s hand out of her mouth, Kimberly said. “That’s why he’s staying away? Because he raped you!”
“He didn’t rape me,” Charisse protested immediately. “I wasn’t fighting him.”
“But you said no meant yes. You still said no.”
“Not… really. I was thinking it, but I never really said Parker stop and then after a while I forgot he was who he was and it felt so good.” She stood up and stopped Kimberly from pacing. “I know I’m wrong on every level.”
“You’re innocent. Oh lawd! You were a virgin and Parker is… Oh my lord! And you’re standing? I heard about that monstrosity from an ex-girlfriend. We have to file charges! He could have killed you!”
Charisse couldn’t help but smile at Kimberly’s exasperation. “I’m fine and yes it was…yes, it was big, but I didn’t stop it and I’m not filing charges. He was drunk and I did take advantage of him. I could have run from the room and if I had put up a physical fight I know he would have let me go, but I never did, Kimberly. It’s really nothing, because I know he’s already forgotten about it by now because he thought it was all a dream.”
“You don’t know that,” Kimberly refuted. “Alcohol may have terminal damage to memory, but from what you describe of what Parker seemed very capable of doing. Sooner or later, he’s going to know it wasn’t a dream and there had to be evidence of some kind he just haven’t picked up on.”
She argued, “If he did believe we did something, he’d have come here and faced me about it when he awoke.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because he said at the end if this wasn’t a dream he wouldn’t be able to stop himself.”
“What did he mean by that?”
“I don’t know because he passed out shortly after and I wasn’t going to wait around for him to wake up to ask him questions, Kimberly.”
Sinking back on the bed, Kimberly said miserably, “He’s going to remember.”
“When?” Charisse asked worriedly.
“Sooner or later and he’s not a man who’s going to be grateful for being taken advantage of if he has a friend like Jaelen around.”
“Why?”
“Because Jaelen lost his mind last time a woman took advantage of him.”
That did not sound good and once Parker remembered, with Jaelen in his ear, he’d categorize Charisse as no better than her lying deceiving sisters.
‘It shouldn’t matter!’ she tried to convince herself, but it did. It mattered too much.
“How was Jaelen taken advantage of?” she inquired.
Now Kimberly had a guilty look on her face, “He was raped.”
“Oh my gawd!” Charisse cried appalled. “By whom?”
In a tiny voice very embarrassed, Kimberly said, “Me.”
Now it was Charisse’s turn to have that perplexed look on her face. “You raped him?”
“It’s a long story. A very long story which we don’t have time for , but Jaelen’s going to make you look as black hearted as your sisters once Parker’s memory returns.”
“So what are we going to do?”
“You’ll have to tell Parker.”
Charisse blanched and felt the room spin. “I can’t!”
“You have to, Charisse. If you don’t, he’ll put the pieces together and he’ll set you away from him faster than dropping a bad habit.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Charisse lied. “He’s married to my sister.”
“It does matter to you,” Kimberly contested. “Otherwise you wouldn’t be so upset about it.”
“What makes you think I’m upset?”
“You’re pacing.”
Charisse immediately stopped. “When?”
Kimberly sighed. “Soon, but let’s get this Cheyenne thing out the way. Do you know what you’re going to say?”
The distraction was helping in getting control of the anxiety that was currently making her stomach hurt. “I want to first find out what she wants. If it’s just to get into my head, then I might be inclined to take Jaelen’s advice.”
“You might get on his good side if he finds that you did that.”
Charisse rolled her eyes. “I think right now, I really do need to get on his good side if I’m going to get through this. I swear, Kimberly; I didn’t mean to deceive him. I just thought if he figured it was dream I could forget it too.”
“But you haven’t?”
“Not by a long shot and I really have no idea how I’m standing here so calm.”
“After I heard about that thing between his legs, I don’t know how you’re standing at all.”
Kimberly’s text message went off on her phone. Retrieving it from her purse, she huffed in exasperation. “I hate this silly new phone my husband gave me. It keeps pressing down buttons if I don’t lock it and I can’t figure out all the durn functions. I think it can even control my television if I program it right.” After pushing several buttons and she frowned down at the screen. “It’s Jaelen letting us know that Parker’s pulling up, but to give him and Parker a few minutes.”
Worriedly, Charisse asked, “You don’t think he heard us do you?”
“My husband isn’t one to sneak around the house. He was too pissed when I shut the intercom off.”
“He’s going to be pissed about that, won’t he?”
“Oh please. I turn the in
tercom off at our house with him on it all the time. Ours is just the same as this one, so he just feels right at home. I even have a program on my phone to control the intercom at the house so I don’t have to get up anymore when he starts to rattle off.” She giggled. “I think it turns him on when I’m forceful with him, but we’re still exploring standing up to Jaelen slowly.”
“But you seem to have so much control of him already,” Charisse said amazed. “I think you’re the only person he’s been cordial too.”
Kimberly winked teasing. “That’s not control, Charisse.”
“Oh yeah. That’s heaven.” Charisse covered her mouth to cover her laugh before the last word left her mouth.
Pulling her hand away from her mouth, Kimberly whispered, “It’s okay to laugh out loud.”
She remembered how vivacious and sexy she felt when she had laughed out loud with Parker and a beatific feeling filled her. Letting out a soft breathy laugh, even though it was brief, felt nice.
“Go slow and keep your hands to yourself,” Kimberly teased.
Her humor disappeared to be replaced by anxiety. “Oh gawd!”
“I was just teasing!”
This feeling and touching and living was going to be hard to get used to until the baby was born, but the scary part was that she didn’t know if she wanted to let it go when it was all over.
Chapter 30
In all the anxiety she was going through about meeting with Cheyenne, she had really forgotten Parker’s request until she was on the way down to see him. But when they came to the bottom of the steps, Parker or Jaelen weren’t there to greet them.
They heard calm voices coming from the dining room and they went there together to see Jaelen looking over some very important papers and Parker was looking at the doorway eagerly. He smiled that very sexy smile that now was making her knees weak.
Dressed in crème jacket and silk shirt with no tie, but buttoned all the way to his neck and dark colored tawny pants with shoes to match, he looked devastatingly handsome as usual, but Charisse could care less about the clothes because the only thing she could see was the image of him standing in the middle of his office with his underwear on.
‘I wonder if his underwear matches his clothes tonight?’
She put her hand on her stomach to calm her butterflies.
“Are you okay?” he asked with concern.
“I’m fine. Thank you,” she said stiffly.
“And the baby?”
“Fine, as far as I know.”
Jaelen only glanced over his shoulder coldly before returning his eyes to the paper. “When did she sign these?” he asked Parker.
It took a second for Parker to tear his eyes off of Charisse before they returned to the perturbed Jaelen’s. “This afternoon. She wanted the lawyer to have them processed immediately and they were ready this morning.”
“What is that?” Kimberly inquired going to stand beside her husband.
Jaelen shot her a heated but annoyed look, yet he didn’t lower the paper for her to read it. “It could be Parker’s business,” he snipped.
“Then he would have put it away before we came down if he didn’t want us to know,” she said obviously.
“I wanted to ask Charisse did she know Chyna was going to do this before she left?” Parker asked as his eyes returned to hers.
She’d barely heard the conversation but was very aware when his eyes returned to hers. “Do what?” Charisse questioned.
“Woman if you don’t stop whispering like that, I won’t care where we are!” Jaelen bellowed at his wife suddenly slamming the papers down on the table.
“Do you want to take this somewhere else?” Parker asked politely.
“I think I need to take my wife home. She’s being sorely influence by others.”
“I bet you I can beat you there, Jaelen Gates and I can talk however I please,” Kimberly said and stormed out with a wink to Charisse.
They’d had their hugs and goodbyes before coming downstairs.
“They’re interesting,” Parker said, but she saw there was a jealous light in his eyes.
“You want that.”
“No. I’d never steal Kimberly away from him. Jaelen would kill me and I hold too much respect for Kimberly.”
This was the first time they’d spoken since that night, but he probably thought the last time they had spoken was at the doctor’s office.
She tried to look everywhere except at him because the only thing she thought about was him without his clothes and that made her “sickness” return full force.
“I’m glad we have a minute before we have to leave, Charisse, I do want to talk to you about some things.”
Assuming he meant about the letter, she braced herself to speak about that.
Parker continued with a strange look on his face suddenly. “I don’t want you to be embarrassed about what happened the last time we were together, Charisse. I shouldn’t have touched you like that.”
The room really was spinning and Charisse just knew he knew! ‘Oh gawd! Kimberly please come back! I don’t know what to say!’
Parker remembered everything?!
Charisse gripped the chair because the room was spinning more.
He started coming around the table, but she put her hands up to stop him. Immediately Parker halted his movements and watched her take deep breaths.
‘Calm yourself!’ she ordered. ‘If he knew, he wouldn’t be so cool about it.” Even as she tried to convince herself of this, she had to know the truth if it was so. “How did you know? When did you know?” she angrily asked panicked and dread filling her.
Puzzled by her behavior, he answered as if it were obvious. “I do have rights now.”
“What kind of right?” she asked terrified.
“Until next month, the court grants Chyna and I guardianship of you.”
Disquieted she asked, “What does that have to do with what happened?”
“It means Dr. Redmond can release and reveal your medical information. He explained what occurred at the doctor’s office. Because of my actions and all the other things that go along with a woman’s body.” His eyes perused her from head to toe before looking back at her face with a slight flush. “So I understand if you have any issues about me being close.”
Could anyone get any more understanding? Damn him! Confessing the truth was getting harder and harder.
On top of that, she clearly noticed his visual perusal, but was telling herself he was not noting anything other than what he usually saw. Still heat pulsed between her legs and was sure she would need a new change of underwear before she left.
‘At this rate, you need to carry an extra pair in your pocket!’
“Are you getting sick again?” he asked with deep trepidation.
“Why?”
“Because I’m being nice.”
She gripped the chair tighter because deep down she had missed him immensely and wanted to hug him.
‘Tell him!’ Kimberly’s voice demanded.
Charisse refused to listen to that voice of reason right now. Discussing having sex with him after that clear visual caress. It had to be a slip in his eyes and since he hadn’t seen Chyna or Cheyenne in a while, he was most likely doing an image comparison.
‘Or remembering the dream? Don’t fool yourself, Charisse. Kimberly said he could remember!’
She still refused to listen to that vice of reason right now.
“Let’s not discuss what Dr. Redmond said,” she insisted tightly.
Parker nodded in agreement. “I won’t.”
Knowing she could not leave the house in the state her underwear was in, she said, “I need to freshen up. Can I meet you in the car?”
“You look fine. Matter of fact, you look good.”
She could feel the heat increase as those dark creamy chocolate eyes did another once over. He was not comparing her to anyone! He was clearly looking at her and stripping away her clothes in his head.
Before he said anything else, she quickly turned around and ran upstairs. Hopefully he’d chalk up her strange condition as part of mental state because for the first time in her life, she really did feel she was going crazy.
Getting up to her room for a moment, she paced quickly back and forth gathering her wits about her.
Kimberly’s insistence replayed over and over in her mind and Charisse was terrified that at one point he would turn to her and just say, ‘It was you!’
She could just feel him staring and thinking about the dream. It was crazy to ignore that he might remember ‘the dream’ because it had been an intense moment for her and most likely for him.
A man didn’t put that kind of energy into making love just for the hell of it. Yet she didn’t want to think any more into it than what it was. On top of that, the fact that he was her brother-in-law and had slept with her other sister, was a situation she really hadn’t counted on being a part of.
Plus, what would be the real point in him knowing? She would just be a notch on Parker’s bedpost and he would hold a lot of anger towards her for taking advantage of him.
“You’re not going to resolve anything standing here!” she said to herself out loud and quickly changed her underwear.
***
Seeing her had immediately rocked him back to missing her hard. Parker leaned on the table and looked down at the paper Jaelen had been reading.
It was funny how Charisse seemed to make him forget all the things he worried over and despite his constant intrusions of lustful filled dreams to keep him up at night – literally, he still truly missed her company and talking to her.
Focusing back on the paper, he knew this wasn’t making his decision any better and he didn’t know if he hated Chyna more for her decision or he respected her for doing the right thing.
He folded the paper and placed it on the inside of his jacket before going to his car. Unfortunately, he was going to have to press Charisse for an answer to his question because of the decision Chyna had made earlier than expected.
Hating to press Charisse on anything because of everything that was going on with her, he would have to broach the subject as soon as she sat in the car.
His Substitute Wife... My Sister Book Two Page 3