“What is up?” John asked frowning. “I thought that you weren’t supposed to do this anymore?”
“Well, that’s why I called you. I have a problem,” he said, sucking in a breath.
“What cha’ drinking?” the bartender asked John as he passed him a menu.
“Water,” John said, pointing at Hunter. “I’m the designated driver.”
“Oh, good. Well, you can have these back,” the bartender said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out Hunter’s keys.
“Good looking out,” John said, taking them. He turned to his friend. “This is the shit I’m talking about Hunter.”
“What? I wasn’t going to drive. I was going to take a cab,” Hunter said defensively. Really, he was never intending to drive, but he was sure that John didn’t believe him. Waving him off, Hunter shook his head. “Never mind. Look, I didn’t call you here to argue with you. I could have done that with Stacey. I called you here to talk to you about a very sensitive issue.”
“Let me guess. You guys are having the race talk,” John said, sipping his water.
Hunter’s eyes bucked. “How did you know?” He turned from the bar to John.
“Every interracial couple has the race talk. It’s just that some discussions last a lifetime.”
“So you guys had it?” Hunter asked again.
“Did we have it? Do you not recall when her father disowned her in front of half of our graduating medical class, or was I there at that cookout by myself?”
Hunter recalled. “I forgot about that. Shit, it’s been ages.”
“Yeah, well, things got better for us once he died. So, we don’t talk about it much now,” John said, sucking his teeth.
Until death do his and his family apart? Hunter threw himself down on the bar. “Ugh,” he lamented, burping up vomit.
John had known Hunter for many years, and in his time as his friend, he had learned one thing about Greek men. They were high on drama. Putting down his glass, he smacked his lips and shook his head. “Well, you can start by putting your foot down with your family, if you want this woman as badly as you say that you do. If she has to deal with your mother, as much as I like the woman, she’s going to throw the towel in on your relationship.”
“The bad thing is that they haven’t even met yet.”
“So why are you freaking out?” John asked.
“Because I know what to expect. So do you. You’ve met them. And they love you, because they know we aren’t going to marry. Remember how they were with Corina? She wasn’t good enough, wasn’t from a good enough family. Her father was cab driver. Her mother didn’t have a high school diploma. The list went on and on.” Hunter felt exhausted just thinking about it.
“And you don’t think that maybe they’ve learned from that situation?”
Hunter laughed. “No,” he said confidently.
“Well…” John sighed. “It’s your relationship. You have to control it. Before Piper’s dad disowned her, I told her straight up that it was either going to be us or her with them. I wasn’t going to spend my entire life feuding with people who thought less of me, because I am a strong black man. So, when he disowned her, we already had a plan. We knew that we were going to stick together no matter what. Now, it wasn’t a complete happy ending. The old man never came around, but so many in the family did…like her mom who has been a God-send at times.”
“Yeah, Stacey said that we needed to talk. Her exact words were that we needed to plan for our future. But I ran hot so quickly until I didn’t let it sink in that she was asking me to do the same thing – to stand with her.” His head swam. Rubbing his temples, he looked at his reflection in the bar mirror. “I’m fucking up.”
“You and I both know that you two are going to fight. You’re a head strong Greek. She’s a strong black woman. I mean, together, nothing can defeat you, but apart, you guys could potential destroy each other.”
Hunter knew that John was right. “Last night, she told me that she’s going to sign a deal to sell her rights to ParaWorld for six point five million dollars. It’s amazing. I know, but a part of me felt…”
“Inferior?”
“Yes,” Hunter said, hitting the table. “Exactly.”
“Welcome to the 21st century, man. Women demand equal pay for equal work.”
“Stacey is incredible, but it’s hard to figure her out. For instance, she has a home, probably a mansion, right outside of Seattle that she doesn’t live in anymore. I just found this out last night. She has made God only knows how much money with her book. But at the same time, she’s the poster-child for reclusive authors, right up there with Hemmingway and Wolfe. Don’t get me wrong, her place is nice, but it doesn’t reflect her income at all. She lives with computer techs and teachers, not movie stars and athletes. Talk about living below your means. She makes more money without leaving her house than I have made in my career. But she’s happy just the way that she is riding her bike, walking around the city and taking care of that damned clingy-ass cat.”
“You’ve got a great catch,” John said finally. “But if you don’t figure this out, you will have had a good catch. And when she finally comes out of this thing, some other guy will marry her and help raise your kid. And it will be all because you weren’t man enough to deal with your family.”
The thought was sobering. Pushing away from the table, Hunter stood up. “That shit is not happening.” One more thought crossed his mind. “Did you know her husband was an astrophysicist?”
“I read about him in Time Magazine once.”
Hunter shook his head. “And to think that I was happy when the local newspaper did an article on our practice. It’s hard to fill his shoes, you know. He was a great husband; he was a genius; he wasn’t bad looking.”
“You’re everything that he was except the genius part” John said, standing up beside Hunter. “And you can fill his shoes, if you want to.”
“His seat,” Hunter corrected, thinking of Drew’s car accident. “The way that I see it, this astrophysicist had it figured out. Metaphorically speaking, he knew that Stacey was a head strong woman, hence her driving the car, much like she drove their relationship. He knew that she was a powerhouse and just let her do her thing. That is where he was smarter. He let her drive.”
John pulled some money out of his wallet and laid it on the bar, then turned to Hunter and leaned into his ear. “You’ve had way too much to drink, dude.” Stepping back, he hit his shoulder. “Come on. I’ll give you a ride.”
“No,” Hunter said, slipping his balled-up fists in his pocket. “I’m going to walk to Stacey’s.”
“Like this? I thought that you said that you didn’t want to ruin things.”
“My mom used to always say that people should not go to bed angry. I left her alone last night. I’m not doing it again tonight. I’m going to her place.”
“Well, you want me to drop you there?”
“No. I’ll walk. I need to clear my head, maybe plan what I’m going to say.”
John knew his work was done. “Okay, man. Take it easy. I’m going to get to the kids’ recital before Piper has a fit.”
“Thanks for stopping by,” Hunter said, shaking his hand. “Thanks for the advice.”
“No problem. That’s what friends are for,” John said, bowing out of the bar gracefully.
***
Hunter had never been a nervous man. In the past, he had been the confident one, able to work into a woman’s emotions and persuade her to his side. However, with Stacey things were dramatically different. She was a quiet woman, who loved peace and tranquility but also who didn’t mind expressing her feelings. Maybe that was why she was such a great author. Whatever the case, they had a different type of relationship. In a very non-confrontational way, she could extract utter guilt from him with only her doe-like eyes and pouty, quivering mouth.
Tonight, he didn’t know what to expect. He could walk into her condo to find all of his things in a box waiting for
him at the door. She could have surmised that their relationship just wasn’t worth it. Or to keep things really simple, she could have changed the locks. There simply was no way to tell.
Getting off the elevator on her floor, he eyed her door at the end of the hall and felt butterflies erupt in his stomach. How would he put all that he was feeling into words without messing things up more?
Pulling out his keys, he unlocked the door slowly and sighed. At least she had not changed the locks. He opened the door and inhaled the familiar scent of jasmine and lilac. Rapture was standing on the door mat looking up at him as he closed the door behind him.
“Are you a dog or a cat?” he asked, kneeling down to rub his back. Rapture wrapped himself around Hunter’s hands and purred. “Where’s your mommy?” Looking around, he noticed all the lights were off.
Great, she was asleep.
Throwing his keys on the sofa table as he passed, he made his way down the hall to her bedroom. Pushing the door open with his index finger, he found Stacey curled up in the bed listening to jazz. Her silhouette moved in the darkness.
“Hey,” Hunter said in a rough, scruffy voice.
Stacey sat up and wiped her face. “Hey,” she answered in a nasally whimper.
Hunter wasn’t sure if he wanted to turn on the light or not. He had never seen her cry before, and didn’t know if he could take the first time being because of something he had done. Feeling through the darkness, he went over to her side of the bed and knelt beside her. The moonlight shun in through her open curtains and cast a glow on her angelic face. He reached out and took her hand.
“I wasn’t sure that you’d come back,” she said somberly.
“How could I not come back?” Hunter asked surprised. “I told you that I’m going to be here, and I am. But it’s not because I feel like I have to be, it’s because I want to be. I still stand by the fact that I want to be your husband, and I want you to be my wife, but I’m willing to wait and prove myself to you. And you’re right. We do need a plan. We do have so much to discuss. But there is nothing that is going to be said that is going to push me away.”
Stacey reached over and turned on the light. She wanted to see his face, to read his eyes and know in her heart that each and every word he was saying was true.
As the lights flickered on, Hunter saw how disheveled he had made her. Her beautiful brown eyes were blood shot red and puffy from crying. A large bushy ponytail of sandy-brown dreads sat crooked atop of her head wrapped in a colorful headband, and she still had on the clothes he had left her in the night before.
As she sat on the side of the bed, he stood up and sat beside her. His face showed his immediate concern. She tried to smile for him, but he quickly took her face in his hands and kissed her lips. “God, I’m so sorry,” he said, moving his lips from her lips to her eyes. He kissed both of them.
“I have a confession to make,” Stacey said, looking into his eyes. “It can’t wait any longer.”
Hunter paused in fear. What had she done? What had he missed? If she said that she had gotten an abortion, he’d have a heart attack. His hands clammed up, and he was forced to remove them from her face, but he did not speak. Instead, he waited for tortured minutes until she spoke.
She sniffled. “This pregnancy, while maybe not consciously, was my doing, Hunter. The day that we made love for the first time I should have been more careful, but a part of me didn’t want to be. I guess that I wanted this in some weird, very unstable way.” She retracted. “Not to trap you, but to have a baby or have someone who would be in my life for the rest of my life.” Stacey looked away embarrassed. “I took advantage of you, but I promise I didn’t plan to do it. This baby means the world to me, but I don’t want to start out a relationship with you being dishonest. And if it sounds like it’s too much to comprehend or…”
Hunter was elated. She had not had an abortion. Putting his cold hands on her warm fleshy lips, he silenced her. “Me too,” he said, nodding. “I could have stopped. I could have used a condom. I could have done a hundred things differently, especially as a doctor, but I didn’t. And it’s for the same exact reasons.”
Stacey exhaled a deep sigh. “You don’t know how long I’ve wanted to say that.”
“You don’t think I feel responsible for this little person?” he said, rubbing her flat stomach. He chuckled. “The worst thing that I could think of happening to me would be losing you. The best thing that I could think of happening is having this baby with you. You’ve been nothing but good for me…nothing but good.”
Stacey began to cry again, only this time tears of happiness. Nearly leaping into his arms, she wrapped herself around him and hugged him tight. Hunter held her gratefully, savoring the smell of her and feeling her warmness against him. He never wanted to lose this.
“I love you so much,” he whispered into her ear.
“I love you,” she answered.
“And I’m going to do whatever it takes, you hear me?”
She nodded. “Me, too.”
Maybe it was the relief of getting over their first disagreement or knowing that the baby was safe or that they were still together, but Hunter suddenly went from happiness to heat.
Kissing her lips slowly, he first just wanted to be near her, but as his hands rubbed and consoled her, they also began to massage her skin, feel the curves that had landed them in this situation in the first place. Slipping his hands up the front of her shirt, he cupped her perky, warm breasts in his hands, fondling her pebbled nipples in between his fingers. Her mouth opened, releasing a sensual moan that caused him to lean in and kiss her again. She nuzzled his jaw, moving against him. Hunter watched her face, how her expression tightened, twisted in pleasure.
Maybe it was the alcohol that caused his blood to race and the room to spin or maybe it was the heady news that he wasn’t alone in his attempt to take his loneliness into his own hands, but he could not sate his growing lust.
Laying her on the bed carefully, he pulled off her pants and slowly pulled down her lace panties to reveal her perfect temple, trembling under his touch. His strong hands rubbed over her first, then found their way in between her slicked hot thighs to her eager pearl. Rubbing his thumb over her aching clit, he opened her wide and slipped a single digit inside of her. Her eyes closed and her head fell back. Holding on to him, she moved against his strong digits and rotated her hips.
Her long slender back arched in response. Clutching the pillow, she panted as she looked down at his tousled hair while he bent to her slicked sex. His breaths on her lips made her moan. Kissing her softness, he sucked in hot skin in his mouth and heard her cry out. Awakening the beast inside of him, he moaned into her quivering body, full of want and need. His lashes lowered, lifted, eyes half-veiled. She tasted as good as she smelled.
As a doctor, there wasn’t a place that he didn’t know on a woman’s body, and as a man, there wasn’t a place that he didn’t want to explore on her. Taking his time, he pulled off his shirt and nestled below. With her legs thrown over his shoulders, he made slow circular motions with his long, nimble tongue as he held her open with his fingers. He watched her melt into the bed and forget her worries. Her body wiggled under his touch. Erratic breaths caused her chest to rise and fall, pulling his attention from her heated womb to her needy breasts and all the firm skin in between. Sliding his hand back under her shirt, he fondled her in two places at once and witnessed her climax hard against him. Loud screams and shutters proceeded silk that slid over his hands.
He could barely get out of his pants now. Kicking them off beside the bed, he fell in between her legs and lifted her up to invade her throbbing, swollen sex. Feeling her muscles contract, he let out another masculine moan of his own. The tightness of her body around his was pure heaven.
Trailing a kiss from her collar bone to her ear, his hot breath hissed against her skin as he pumped into her body with powerful thrusts. He watched her submit, moving her hips around below him, adding fuel to his fir
e. Her long dreads now fanned the pillow and her strong nails dug into his tanned back.
His thoughts intermingled with his want. As he watched her body move in sync with his own, he could feel her soul. The power behind her brown eyes moved him more than the flesh below him. At that moment, he knew he was not alone anymore. There were two people who were with him, two people who seemed to care about him unconditionally, and two people who were counting on him.
The thought brought him to tears. Kissing her mouth again, hot salty water burned at his eyes as they fell on to her face. Suddenly, he stopped, hovering over her with a look of clarity. With awe in his heart at how she had totally transformed him, he pulled out of her body.
“What’s wrong?” Stacey asked startled. She couldn’t follow the raw emotion that had suddenly surged from him to her. “What’s wrong?” she asked again.
Hunter got on his knees beside the bed and looked up at her. He shook his head, pushing past the doubt of what she might say. Taking her hand, he stilled his rushing heart.
Finding Opa! Page 12