“I’m sorry, Gloria.” He was concerned for me. Of course, he had nothing to worry about for himself. He was the CEO.
I pulled myself away from him. “I’m sorry if I’m messing up tomorrow’s event in any way, but I’m quitting. You can hire Luise to take over since he’s feeling better.”
Aiden took my hand into his. “It’s not the event that I’m worried about. I can recreate these events with hard work and willpower, but what I have with you isn’t replaceable. I don’t want to lose you.”
I withdrew my hand from his grip. “We’re in this situation because you kissed me and gave me that blouse in your office. If we had separated business from pleasure then none of this would have happened. Now the whole office building knows about it and I look like a slut.”
Aiden’s voice grew defensive. “That’s not true. Nobody believes that.”
Fuck. Here come the tears. God damn it! My eyes swelled and that old familiar pain from my fiancé returned, pinching my heart. “You made a fool of me…I trusted you.”
He listened to me carefully, even under these circumstances. He was always trying to understand me, and it was his most attractive quality. He ran the back of his index finger over the two small beauty marks, sitting next to my eye. “Remember what the psychic told you. You were going to meet someone with the same mark on your body.”
I wanted to laugh at him. “She was talking about my career!” I closed my eyes for a moment, feeling the soft touch of his hand against my face for what might be the last time.
He lowered his voice. “Exactly, then keep the job.”
I opened my eyes and pulled myself away for the last time. “I’m sorry, Mr. Ford, but I can’t see you anymore… in any capacity.”
It was the first time I had ever seen Aiden vulnerable. There was a sweetness inside his walls that most people didn’t know about. I didn’t want his event to fall apart, but there was no way I could show my face with him again in public. I’m sure he had a backup plan, anyway.
***
I walked up the creaky steps of my brownstone, lit by a dangling fluorescent light. I unlocked my door and stepped into my little safe haven, switching on the light. I threw my keys on the table near my plant and turned on a playlist with my favorite songs from Joni Mitchell’s album ‘Blue’. “Hey Katrina, how was your day? I bet it wasn’t as bad as mine. I hadsort of a sex tape leaked online today… Now, I know how Jennifer Lawrence must have felt. What has our world come to? Can’t anyone get any privacy anymore?”
I laid down on my sofa and played a voice message on my phone. It was the bank; they were calling for the second time this week to remind me that my school loan payment was past due and collecting interest. Shit. The light on my ceiling suddenly flickered and blew out. I curled into a ball. “Katrina…I think we’ve hit rock bottom. At least, it can’t get any worse than this.”
I suddenly heard a faint sound of moaning in the distance. Oh no. The moaning grew louder and turned into a high pitch squealing. It was my neighbor, the hyena, and her boyfriend. I covered my head with a pillow, wanting to die.
I managed to drown out all of the sounds in the room and stared at my plant, lit by a slither of moonlight. I stayed on the couch all night, without falling asleep.
The sun eventually came up, spilling new light into the room. My eyes, a bit sore and tired, noticed something different about the roots of the plant. I sat up and walked across the room. I bent over my plant and found a tiny bud starting to grow. I couldn’t believe it. The plant was coming back to life. Chuck’s voice played through my head. “They need more than just water, they also need connection.”
I suddenly had an ah-ha moment. It wasn’t the gossip at work I was scared of…it was Aiden’s love for me that scared me the most.
He was the first good thing that had come into my life in a long time and I was pushing him away. And it was killing me. I needed connection just as much as the plants did. My chest expanded and a new sense of hope rose up my body.
There was no way I was giving up because of that weasel, Darek. I took a hot shower and rejuvenated my body. A flood of realizations poured over me as I cleaned myself. After my separation from my fiancé, I convinced myself that I didn’t deserve to be loved anymore. I had somehow blamed myself for all of it.
I dried myself off and twirled around like a ballerina, something I hadn’t done since I was 12 years old. I put on the Channel blouse Aiden had given me and looked at myself in the mirror. I ran my finger over the two, little beauty marks next to my eyes. The thought of seeing my sex trap, Aiden Ford, again made me smile inside.
GLORIA
I arrived outside the trendy, five-star venue by taxi and was greeted by a doorman. I entered the lobby of the private dining hall. I looked the best I had ever looked in my life, and that was without a night of sleep. I’ve got this. It’s already in the bag. The three bitter assistants, checking people in at a side table, glanced up and flashed me dirty looks. Whatever. I was used to their negativity.
I moved towards the large doors and was stopped by Darek, holding a clipboard. “I’m sorry Gloria, but I’ve taken over the position.”
“What happened to Luise?”
He flashed a fake smile at some of the passing guests. “Luise is still sick. He couldn’t make it on such short notice.” I lowered my voice and looked Darek square in the eyes. “I know that your wife cheated on you six years ago. I heard about it from the staff. I’m not the only one people talk about.”
He crossed his arms, not pleased with the direction this was going in. “And honestly, I get it. You have a right to be upset. It sucks. But you need to grow up and become a man because not all women are out to undermine you. In fact, some of us want to help you.”
He dropped his head and averted my eyes. I pulled the clipboard slowly out of his hands. “Now step aside and please let me do my job.” He stepped aside and I entered the massive dining hall, decorated with chandeliers and a giant elephant statue at the back of the room.
I walked through the room, receiving a few more dirty looks from some of the office staff. I brushed them off and walked towards Stephanie, who stuck out like a sore thumb with her bundle of auburn hair.
She gave me a tight hug and whispered, “hey girl, you look sexy as hell. Beautiful blouse.”
“Thanks!” I spotted my prince charming on the other side of the room, surrounded by donors and other admirers. She handed me the latest seating chart and I walked in a straight line towards my man, Aiden Ford.
AIDEN
Her hips swayed as she walked through the crowd, her beautiful, wavy, hair, flowing behind her. She was taking over coordination of the event and I loved every moment of it. I turned away from a couple guests I was making small talk with and took in Gloria’s full appearance from top to bottom. “Nobody has ever made that Channel blouse look so good.”
She blushed like a little girl. I wanted to pick her up and bend her over the banquet table, but she would wake up with her face in all the tabloids and never talk to me again.
She lowered her voice, smiling. “Thank you. You look pretty handsome yourself.”
“I thought you quit.”
She nibbled on the tip of her pen. “I didn’t want to miss this opportunity.”
I glanced around the room. “I’m glad. It looks like you organized a very good event.”
She took a deep breath. “That’s not the opportunity I’m talking about…I’m talking about us.” Her blue eyes sparkled under the chandeliers. “I was lying to you about the psychic.”
“There was no psychic?”
She straightened her face. “No! I did see a cheap psychic on a drunk dare, but when she said I would meet someone important with the same mark on their body, she wasn’t talking about my career…” Gloria blushed, “…she was talking about my heart.”
I wished I could kiss her in that moment.
She scanned some names on the guest list. “Now, before I start crying, or you sta
rt groping me in public again, let’s knock this thing out the park.” She walked away and managed some staff members who looked lost. Not only was my cock aching to bury every inch of itself inside of her, but a part of me was also deeply touched by her confession. I never doubted that she was mine, but now she knew it, too. I was the luckiest man in the room.
Darek walked up to the podium and invited all of the guests to sit down for dinner. He gave a short speech that ended with an applause. “There is one last person I would like to thank this evening because, without her, none of this would have been possible. Please put your hands together for the charity’s Head Coordinator, Gloria Haggerty.” Gloria turned around and the whole room, looked at her, applauding. She glanced at me and smiled.
***
After what turned out to be our most successful event so far, I returned to my apartment with the best prize of the night. I opened a bottle of Champaign and poured two glasses; one for me and one for Gloria. We held up our flutes and I made a toast. “I’ve got to admit. You have a lot of potential in two areas; one is in the non-profit sector.”
She smiled unable to wait for me to complete my sentence. “And what’s the other?”
I took her by the hand and led her into my bedroom. “I will show you the other area.”
She fell onto my bed, spilling some Champaign and giggling. I turned on some dance music on my Bose surround sound speakers and she stood up on my bed. She moved her hips to the beat, gradually unbuttoning her blouse. She bent over, revealing her inviting cleavage. She twirled her blouse over her head and threw it onto my head. She undid her bra, slowly unveiling her soft, creamy tits.
I climbed onto the bed and pulled down her panties. I couldn’t wait any longer. I had been waiting to devour her all night. I took off my pants and she reached into my underwear, pulling out the monster between my legs. She wrapped her hand around it and brought it to her mouth. It entered the warm crevice of her mouth. This girl had a way of turning me on that was unlike anything I had ever experienced before. She circled her tongue around it, making me groan. My cock was aching with pleasure. The look of her head bopping up and down drove me crazy.
GLORIA
His manhood filled up my whole mouth as the heat from his gland traveled down my throat and through my whole body. He looked me in the eyes with the gaze of a tiger and growled. “I’m going to fuck your tight little pussy and make you mine.” I held onto his girth with one hand as he lowered me down onto my back.
I smiled. “I am already yours.”
He wrapped himself with a rubber and spread my legs open. He dipped all 9 inches of his strong, hard manhood into my soft, soaking wet nectar. I groaned as my legs trembled. “Oh, Aiden…Take me…Take all of me.” He swerved his hips like a screwdriver while thrusting into me. I felt tension being released from parts of my body that I never knew had tension. His gorgeous, rock-hard abs swayed back and forth over me. My mind and body were captivated by Aiden Ford. He brought out new parts of myself I didn’t know existed.
I felt a sudden impulse to take charge and spun him onto his back. He glanced up, smiling. I held him down by the shoulders and started riding him like a cowgirl. He growled as I swallowed his rod with my tight little pussy. I gyrated my hips faster and faster. His head tilted back and his forehead broke into a sweat. We were both at the edge.
His voice grew deep and steady. “Cum for me.”
My head leaned back and my arms flailed. An electric current soared up my spine, converting into a light show in my brain. My eyes locked with Aiden and everything around us became warm and fuzzy. I fell onto my side as the spasms in my legs ran their course. My body finally simmered down and I snuggled my head into Aiden’s arms.
We gradually caught our breath and sat up in bed. He handed me a glass of purified water. “Do you remember I said there was a man who was my mentor in Ghana?”
I sipped the cool water, replenishing my body. “Yeah, you said he changed your whole point of view.”
“Well, he told me that he had a granddaughter in the US who lived in New York. And that…she has two small beauty marks next to her eyes, just like I have.”
I lowered my water glass. Ghana is a big country in Africa. I never thought to ask him if he’d ever met my grandfather. “I can’t believe it. My grandfather was the man who inspired you to start your charity?”
“That’s right.”
I ran my finger over the two, small beauty marks along his eye. “I believe it now…that this was fate.”
“I knew it from the moment you came into my office the first time.”
“Why didn’t you tell me sooner about my grandfather? You could have sold me on your whole fate theory much sooner!” I drank my water while letting Aiden’s hazel brown eyes connect with me. Like the plant given to me by Chuck, I could feel a new bud growing inside of me. I was alive for the first time in a long time.
THE END
Ambivalent Heart
Chapter 1
So here we were, on our first day of College; or more realistically, our first day of lectures. Fresher’s week had been chaotic; UV raves at the student’s union, foam parties, and copious amounts of drinking. We’d made friends with our fellow dorm mates, and gone through the usual spiel of explaining that Tim and I had come to university as a couple and this would be our first time living together. Although we had separate dorm rooms, we spent every night in the same, small dorm, with a single bed, a small desk and chair, and a little sink which seemed to aggressively splutter water out every time you turned it on.
Tim’s room down the hall was basically unused; we pretty much just stored our stuff in there, which freed up the much-needed space of my tiny dorm room where we slept.
Throughout the foam parties, UV paint and drinking, I felt like something of an observer, rather than an active participant in the drunken shenanigans and debauched sexual stories. For most people, this was the first time they’d lived away from home, and that meant it was party time. No parents, no rules, just a bunch of horny teenagers drinking and having the time of their lives.
But now fresher’s week had ended, and lectures had begun. The infamous ‘fresher’s flu’ had taken its toll on the campus, that - in combination with the week of drinking a partying - meant that the lecture hall was made up of a collection of weary, lethargic looking students; lamenting the week-long holiday they’d just endured, and the reality of studying for three years, which was about to begin.
I wondered if I was the only one who was glad that fresher’s week was over. For me, it wasn’t nights of booze-fuelled antics and sexual encounters, but one of profound loneliness. I wanted to dance in the foam, drink myself sick and experiment with the cute boys I’d seen around campus; but I couldn’t. Though we tried to join in with the drinking games, once people realized Tim and I were a couple, we were treated differently. Sure, we’d made friends with the people in our hall, but everyone knew that we’d be the first ones to turn in during a night out; guys who chatted to me seemed to lose interest once they realized I was there with Tim, and the same applied to him. It’s not that I wanted anything to happen, it was more the freedom of possibility that I wanted; the freedom to not know how a night might end.
Anyway, fresher’s week had ended. Soon, normality would resume, and I’d be able to focus on completing my degree, and my relationship with Tim. I loved him, and for the last three years, he’d been my rock. We’d spent some of the best parts of our high school years together. I wasn’t about to throw all of that away for a drunken fumble with a horny student.
I sat at the front of the lecture hall, my eyes focused on the tutor. He was explaining how the semester would pan out, what books to buy and which ones to avoid. Though I tried to pay attention, my thoughts were wandering wildly, wondering what fresher’s week would have been like if Tim and I had decided to go to different Universities.
Come on Cara, stay focused.
The lecturer - Mr. Osidipe - which he said was pronoun
ced ‘Oss-ee-dih-pee’ was a tall African man, with an unusually stoic nature about himself. His explanations were succinct, powerful and confident, wildly throwing his hands about as he spoke.
“I am not just a tutor. I am here to guide you through every step of this course. I will encourage open debate and forum. The last thing I want is to be yet another tutor who stands in front of his students, says a few words, clicks through a few PowerPoint slides, and then expects them to regurgitate it later in an essay,” Mr. Osidipe explained.
I looked down at my notes, realizing I’d barely written two lines.
“The advancement of knowledge comes from each and every one of you exploring new ideas, studying new ways of thinking; it does not come from simply repeating what has been said countless times before.”
Taming The Billionaire Page 39