by Cleo Jones
Nia’s heart skipped a beat. For the first time since Blake’s arrival, they were speaking to each other like civil adults, and she wanted to make sure she took full advantage of the moment. “What about you?” she questioned, choosing her next words carefully. “What have you been up to all this time? You know, aside from inheriting your father’s fortune…”
Blake picked up the underlying hint of snark in her tone, but he didn’t comment on it. “I uh…I got into a bit of trouble for a while,” he admitted, deciding that now wasn’t the time for lies. “I did some time behind bars, but I cleaned up. I’m not that person anymore…”
Nia couldn’t believe her ears. “Why didn’t you tell me?” she questioned, struggling not to raise her voice.
Blake hung his head in shame. “I don’t know. I guess I just…I didn’t want you to think any less of me…”
Nia let out a humorless laugh. “No, Blake, what made me think less of you was you leaving and never even having the decency to write. You just disappeared. Do you have any idea how that made me feel?”
“I know,” Blake whispered, clenching his jaw and looking out the window beside him to soak in the night sky. “I don’t have a good excuse for it. I was just a stupid kid who made a mistake…”
“Yeah, well so was I,” Nia shot back. “It’s not like I had the option to just throw in the towel and run away! I had to sacrifice everything to raise our son, and now here you are expecting all of the perks and none of the obligations! It’s not fair, Blake!”
Blake sighed and sifted his fingers through his dark locs. “Yeah, well, at least you didn’t have to sit in a room and listen to some woman discuss you like you weren’t even there…” he muttered, pushing back the tears of frustration that gathered in the corners of his eyes. “My own son doesn’t know who the fuck I am. So do me a favor and stop acting like you’re the only victim here. I’d say we’re about even.”
“You can’t be serious,” Nia said, shaking her head in disbelief. “Tell me…did you ever change his diapers during a bout of stomach flu? Or press an ice pack to his head every time he got a cluster headache? What about all the times when you only had enough money for a weeks worth of food, but he came home with a permission slip for some expensive field trip that you had to tell him he couldn’t go on. Did you experience that?”
Nia turned her back and walked into the kitchen so that Blake wouldn’t see her crying. “We’re not even,” she whispered, reaching for the half-empty bottle of Merlot above her fridge and finishing it off. “Not even close.”
Chapter eighteen
Blake rounded the corner into the kitchen and found Nia struggling to regain her composure near the sink. “I never said what you did was easy,” he whispered, coming up behind her and backing her up against the counter. They stared each other down in a silent standoff, and suddenly Nia became ultra aware of the fact that Blake’s face was just a few inches away from her own. She moved her hands off the edge of the counter to push him away, but he grabbed hold of her wrists before she could.
Nia's gaze wandered down to Blake's mouth as she awaited his next move, and she flinched when she felt his breath graze her neck. Blake couldn’t help but think that he liked her best like this, with her full lips slightly parted and her blouse slightly askew, giving him a tiny glimpse of the cleavage it contained. All he could think about in that moment was kissing her. He gave into the desire when he saw her glance down at his mouth for a second time, but she turned away before he could get very far. “Don’t,” she whispered.
Blake wasn’t that easily deterred however. He could hear the slight undertone of desire in Nia’s tone, and their lips locked not even a second later with such tenacity that they both struggled to remain upright. Just like he’d suspected she would, she began to relax against him, letting out a soft moan of approval when his tongue grazed her own.
Nia mimicked each one of Blake’s gestures, and he wasn’t surprised to find her nipples standing to full attention when he let go of her wrists just long enough to rip open her blouse. He pinched each one through the taut fabric of her bra before inching his fingers beneath her skirt to caress her pussy, and a pool of wetness awaited him there.
Nia rushed to free Blake’s dick from his pants like a wild animal in heat, bucking against him when he began to penetrate her long-neglected slit with his fingers. She was just about to reach her peak when he dropped to his knees and buried his face against her mound, darting his tongue between her labia to taste her juices before forcing her down onto his length.
Nia gasped at the all too familiar sensation of being filled to full capacity by Blake, and it propelled every thrust of her hips as she rode him. He watched her writhe and moan above him as he spread her ass cheeks, inserting a single finger deep into her hole just like he’d done the first night they ever spent together. It was an action that sent her spiraling into an orgasm, and Blake’s own release came shortly after.
Nia awoke the following morning to an empty bed. She didn’t remember going to sleep, let alone setting her alarm, but its blaring beep alerted her of the new day nonetheless. She slammed down on the snooze button and buried her face in her pillows, but it wasn’t until she finally shuffled into the kitchen to put on a pot of coffee that the previous nights events came flooding back to her.
Nia’s heart was still racing when she arrived at work. She sat down at her desk and pulled on her headset to connect with her first client, but she stopped short when she noticed Robert coming her way. “Nia, can I have a moment with you?” he questioned in a hushed tone, motioning towards the conference room.
Nia stood up to follow him, not thinking much of it, but a lump of anxiety surfaced in her throat when she noticed the Chairman of the board and two other men awaiting her inside. “Please, have a seat,” Robert said, pointing to an empty chair at the end of the table.
Nia did as she was told, bracing herself for the worst.
The Chairman cleared his throat before speaking, looking more than a little uncomfortable. “Ms. Evans, let me start this meeting by making it clear that you’re one of Kanadov’s top crisis management rep’s, and that prior to this discovery, we saw you as a top candidate to head our new public relations branch up in Houston…”
Nia frowned, glancing over at Robert for clarification. “I’m sorry…I’m not entirely following…prior to what discovery?”
The Chairman exchanged a look with a rep from HR before continuing. “Ms. Evans, as you may or may not know, Kanadov has a strict policy against family members working together. We consider it to be a conflict of interest…”
“Okay…” Nia trailed off, still not following.
“With that in mind, I regret to inform you that we’ll have to be terminating your employment. You’ll receive a small severance package, and your remaining benefits will be paid out until the end of the quarter, but I’m afraid that’s all we can offer you.”
Nia’s jaw dropped. “I…I don’t understand,” she stammered out, shaking her head in disbelief. “I don’t have any family members who work here!”
The Chairman sighed. “Our policy also extends to two individuals who have a child together,” he clarified, getting right to the point. “You and our interim CEO, Mr. McNulty, do have a son together, correct?”
Nia’s heart slowed to a dull thump, and her entire body stiffened.
Blake had screwed her.
Again.
Chapter nineteen
“I knew it,” Nia sobbed, wiping her nose with her sleeve. “I just knew this would happen!”
Deidra pushed a box of Kleenex across the table to her sister. She was an emotional wreck, not to mention barely understandable as she tried to explain what had happened through a cavalcade of tears. “What does Blake have to say about all of this?” she questioned, keeping her tone light so as not to upset her any further.
“I don’t care. I haven’t talked to him. I don’t want to talk to him.”
Deidra sighed and re
sted her hand on top of her sister’s. “Nia, something isn’t right here. This whole thing sounds illegal to me, not just unethical. They can’t fire you just because you have a child with another employee…”
“They didn’t,” Nia muttered, wiping away her tears with a balled up tissue. “They’re laying me off so that I can continue collecting benefits and unemployment.”
“Oh,” Deidra said, perking up some. “Well that’s not the worst outcome in the world, is it?”
Nia laughed a dry laugh. “Their severance package equates to exactly two months pay. I’d rather have a career than some pocket change. And to make matters worse, they just had to rub my face in the fact that I was being considered for a managerial position up in Dallas prior to all of this mess…”
Deidra gave her sister a sympathetic look. Nia’s situation was bleak, she couldn’t deny that, but she also couldn’t help but wonder what Blake’s side of the story was. Nia might have been firm in her belief that he’d orchestrated this whole thing, but that theory just didn’t make any sense to Deidra. Why would he try to sabotage Nia’s career when he was so obviously trying to smooth things over with her?
“I guess I’ll have to call dad and ask him if I can move home and work at the firm,” Nia said with a sigh. “I really don’t want to do that…but I don’t see what other choice I have. There aren’t any jobs out here. I’ve already scoured the internet.”
“Come on, Nia,” Deidra pleaded. “You should really talk to Blake about this before you do anything rash. Maybe he can help…”
Nia shook her head and clenched her jaw. “No way. He’s already done enough. I don’t need his charity.”
Nia stood up and made her way into the living room to fetch Noah’s belongings before her sister could respond. She appreciated the opportunity to vent, but she needed to get home and start making preparations for their future.
Nia was in the process of gathering up Noah’s toys when she caught sight of Blake’s reflection in the window above her and froze. “Get rid of him,” she called out to Deidra. “I don’t want to see him right now.”
Deidra nodded, feeling her blood pressure rise as she opened the front door to face Blake. “You have a lot of nerve coming here,” she remarked, crossing her arms and narrowing her eyes at him.
“Deidra, please,” Blake pleaded, buckling over for a moment to catch his breath. He looked as though he’d just run a marathon. “I need to speak to Nia. It’s important.”
Deidra glanced over her shoulder at her sister, who was vehemently shaking her head. “She doesn’t want to talk to you.”
“Please,” Blake begged. “I need her to know that I didn’t have anything to do with this...”
Deidra sighed inwardly. She felt for Blake, she really did, but she couldn’t show it at the risk of upsetting Nia any further. “I’m sorry, but there’s nothing I can do…” she trailed off, pulling her gaze from his.
Blake held out an arm to stop her from closing the door in his face. “How can you think I would do that to you?” he called out to Nia. “Haven’t I proven that I’m not that kind of person?”
Deidra turned to look at her sister again, and she found Nia lingering in the living room wringing her hands. Blake noticed that she was distracted and immediately took his chance, pushing past her to enter the house. He spotted Nia right away and rushed towards her, but she moved away from him just as quickly.
“Nia, please just let me explain,” Blake pleaded, circumventing the couch and taking a careful step towards her. “It’s not what you think…”
“Sure it’s not,” Nia deadpanned. “It never is with you, is it?”
Nia pushed past Blake without another word, making her way into the backyard to fetch Noah and grabbing his coat and backpack up along the way.
Blake groaned in frustration, looking up at Deidra, who had been lingering in the foyer watching all of this unfold. “You know I didn’t do this, don’t you?”
Deidra shrugged, refusing to make eye contact with him. “I don’t know. All I know is that Nia was doing just fine until you showed up.”
Blake looked pained by that. “It was never my intention to screw things up for her…I even warned her that this could happen…”
“See, that’s the thing about intentions,” Deidra said. “They can be as good as gold, but none of it matters if there isn’t any follow through. If you want to make things right with my sister…I suggest you start by using that pull of yours and getting her job back.”
“Pull?” Blake let out a humorless laugh. “I don’t have any pull at Kanadov. Dead or alive, it’s still my father’s company. His board makes sure of that.”
“Oh please, that’s an excuse and you know it,” Deidra said, rolling her eyes. “Look, Blake, it’s time for you to man up. If getting back in Nia’s good graces matters to you as much as you claim it does, then you wouldn’t care about pissing off a couple old white men in order to do it. Regardless of how it feels, you’re still the CEO. It’s high time you start acting like it.”
Deidra made her way outside to check on her sister before Blake could respond, leaving him alone to process her words.
Chapter twenty
Nia walked straight into her property manager’s office and explained her situation, giving the woman behind the desk a handwritten notice of her departure. She was nice enough, but they were firm in their policies, and Nia was informed that she would have to pay for the leftover two months in her lease as per her rental agreement.
This day just kept getting better and better.
Nia’s cell rang incessantly that night, and she knew who was calling without having to look. She proceeded to put it on vibrate and considered turning it off entirely, but she decided not to just in case someone from Kanadov called to inform her that this was all just one big sick joke on her behalf.
“Noah, it’s going to be an early night tonight,” Nia announced, crossing her fingers that he’d be cooperative. “Dinner, then bath time, then bed.”
Noah pouted at the notion of an earlier bedtime, but he didn’t put up that much of a fight. He could tell that his mother’s mind was elsewhere tonight, and he didn’t want to push her buttons at the risk of getting in trouble.
After putting Noah down for bed, Nia proceeded to do her nightly check of the house, making sure everything was off and locked. She was just about to retire to her bedroom when she noticed her cell buzzing on the kitchen table, and upon closer inspection, she was able to see that she had a new voicemail from Blake. Nia sighed and pressed play on the message, bracing herself as his deep voice filled her ears.
“Nia, It was Davis. That asshole was telling Robert all these derogatory things about you and Noah…and I…I lost my temper. I confronted him, and it just…it slipped out. I didn’t tell you because I was hoping it would all just blow over. I didn’t think it would spiral this out of control. Please…just give me a chance to make this right.”
Nia swallowed hard and stared down at her phone as soon as the message came to an end, taking a moment to contemplate Blake’s words. Eventually she erased the message and made her way into her bedroom, collapsing on her bed as she began to mull over her options. So far, she didn’t have that many, and the only viable one she did have wasn’t all that appealing. She could swallow her pride and move back east to work at her father’s malpractice firm, but then she’d be forced to admit that she was a failure, and she wasn’t so sure she could handle that.
Nia exhaled a deep sigh and turned onto her side with the intention of sleeping, but a rumpled up item on the ground caught her attention as soon as she did, and it only took her all of a second to recognize it as Blake’s t-shirt.
Across town, Blake was more than a little on edge himself. Nia had yet to call him back, he’d threatened the trust of his father’s board by failing to inform them about Noah, and he was about to move into a house that was far too big for one person. To add insult to injury, tomorrow also happened to be a Tuesday, and he wa
s dying to see his son.