That wasn’t exactly true. Every since her brother was a little boy running around getting on her nerves, her friends had thought he was cute and adorable. Libby had once shown interest in him but out of respect for Taylor she decided not to pursue a relationship. Taylor had made up her mind long ago that she would never tell Ty that her friend actually liked him. To even think about it sounded gross.
“Well have you asked her if she likes me?” He did the moonwalk, backing a couple feet away from Taylor, then snapped his fingers and came back toward her. “I can tell that she does because I catch her staring at me all the time.”
Taylor smacked Tyler’s arm. “Boy, that’s your imagination.” She tried to keep up with Ty’s wild dance moves.
“I’m going to make a play for her and I don’t want you standing in the way.” He did a Michael Jackson move, grabbing his crotch and stomping his foot.
Taylor couldn’t stop herself from cracking up. She didn’t kid herself though; one day he would try to pursue Libby. Her wedding day just wasn’t going to be that day. “If you care anything about me, can you not shoot the cupid arrow today?” she asked.
Tyler held his sister close. “I do love you, and for tonight I will respect your wishes. But you best believe that tomorrow it will be game on for Libby and me.” He inspected his watch. “Oh snap! I’d better get your husband back over here before he has my head.”
Taylor reached out to poke his chest but her brother hit the floor in a James Brown split, then got up and ran off.
The band changed songs and everyone gathered on the dance floor to do the electric slide.
Taylor went into a nearby dressing room to ditch her train and shoes. She was soon on the floor sliding back and forth with Libby and Pam.
Pam put her arms around her best friend and yelled in her ear over the loud music. “I’m so happy for you, girl. Don’t do nothing I wouldn’t do tonight.”
Taylor yelled back to her friend. “I know you so that must mean that nothing is off limits.”
“Exactly.”
The open bar was stocked and restocked throughout the evening. As the reception came to an end, Ari stood behind his wife, pressing his body against hers, and softly asked, “Are you ready to go, Mrs. Gallagher?”
“I’m ready, hun. Let’s roll out.”
He picked his wife up and carried her through the crowd. Inside the limo, Taylor sunk into the leather seat, glad this day had finally come and gone. All the planning and stress were over.
“Come sit in my lap,” Ari said as he loosened his tie. Taylor eased into her husband’s lap and laid her head on his chest. “You know I love you?” Ari asked.
Taylor raised her head to look into his handsome face. “Yes, and I love you too.”
Ari placed both of his hands on her face and gave her a gentle kiss on the lips. “You taste so good, baby. I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of kissing these full, plump lips,” he said brushing his lips against hers.
Taylor was with the only man she had ever wanted to marry but the price she paid to have her happily ever after might cost her a lifetime of pain. Ari lay down across the seat and slid Taylor on top of him. “I’m going to let you rest, because you are going to need your strength when we get to our destination.”
One thing Taylor knew was that Ari’s lovemaking could go all night.
She closed her eyes. The mystery lady’s face appeared to her. She fought hard to keep her composure and not alarm Ari. She remembered the letter she received a week earlier it can’t be. Her gut told her that this woman was going to be a world of trouble.
Dealing with this later was going to be sooner than Taylor wanted.
Present Day…
Chapter 3
Ari’s business trips were not usually as disruptive as this one. Last night, there had been a shouting match between the husband and wife in room 310, two doors down from him. Like it or not, Ari and the rest of the hotel’s third floor guests now knew that Mr. 310 couldn’t stop chasing whores and Mrs. 310 “damn near made us bankrupt” with her out-of-control spending. He threatened to divorce her; she threatened to kick his ass. Seconds later, hotel security was banging on their door.
It was almost two o’clock in the morning and Ari was unable to drift back to sleep. “Guess I could double check my flight schedule,” he mumbled as he stretched and went to sit on the couch. When he turned on his iPad and entered his password the desktop appeared, filled with photos of him and Taylor together, happy and in love. He hoped they were not destined to be the next Mr. and Mrs. 310.
It was a no-brainer. He should have told Taylor the truth when Maci called him up that rainy night and told him that she was pregnant. But he had been afraid that he would lose Taylor for being unfaithful. It was one thing to tell her he cheated, but to tell her he had a baby on the way definitely would have been pouring salt into the wound.
As far back as he could remember, Taylor had always talked about starting a family together. She wanted a little boy that had his hazel eyes and her reddish brown hair. It sickened him to not be able to give her his firstborn. That one night of lust and stupidity might cost him the love of his life. Ari figured Taylor would never have to know if he played his cards right.
He took his iPhone out and checked a message he had chosen to ignore when it came in just before midnight. It was a text from the mother of his child. “What, you can’t call me?” was all it said.
Getting into some kind of argument with her was the last thing he felt like doing right about now. Thumbs flying across the touch screen, he punched out Evi DAMN dently. A tightness in his neck and shoulders warned him to let it go. He tapped the backspace key repeatedly, eating up the letters. He typed, “Busy now. Will call later.”
Sitting in the silent room, Ari dozed off. His conscience played back frame-by-frame the events that put him in this predicament.
* * *
When his parents died, Ari’s frat buddies decided to take him on a trip to Miami to clear his mind. They partied and drank every night. Ari tried to drink away his pain. He wanted to escape the world. Even though Taylor was there to ease his cries at night, he was pretty much mad at the fact that she still had both of her parents.
One night in South Beach, his friends had left him at a local bar and retreated to their rooms with women. Ari was on his eighth beer when a slim, golden-complexioned woman approached him and asked, “Is this seat taken?”
Ari looked up at the attractive beauty and motioned with his hand for her to sit. She beckoned for the bartender to come take her order. “I’ll have a vodka and cranberry, and the gentleman will take …” She nodded her head toward Ari’s drink and asked, “Is that a Corona?”
Ari lifted the bottle to his lips and downed several swallows. “No, this is a Bud Light and I’m fine for right now.” The bartender walked off to take other orders.
“Hi. My name is Maci Drummer.” She extended her hand.
Ari didn’t feel like company. “I’m Ari Gallagher and I’d appreciate it if you give me some space.”
Maci withdrew her hand.
Ari frowned and turned away. He knew this kind of woman; she wasn’t used to getting turned down by a man. All night, he had spotted her watching him from across the room, waiting for his friends to leave so she could talk to him. He couldn’t be sure but he guessed that his rudeness was not insulting but actually intriguing to her.
“Oh, well I can respect you for wanting to drink alone.” Her musky perfume enticed his nose. “I just thought maybe you wanted some company.”
The bartender returned with her drink. She took a sip and frowned. “Excuse me, bartender, but this is a virgin beverage. I did request vodka in my drink.”
He took the drink and poured about a third of it down the sink. “I’ll add more vodka ma’am.”
Before he could do it, she said, “Dump more out; add more vodka.”Ari couldn’t believe the nerve of this woman. He looked at Maci out the corner of his eye.
&
nbsp; “What are you thinking, Mr. Ari?” she asked taking the now-potent drink from the bartender.
“I never met a lady like you.”
“What do you mean a lady like me? And where are you from? Your accent is provocative.”
Ari threw caution to the wind and decided a little conversation wouldn’t hurt. “I mean, I never met a lady who wanted such a stiff drink. And I’m from Kingston, Jamaica, but moved to Chicago when I was thirteen. Why do you ask?”
Maci wrapped her moist lips around the tiny straw in her drink and took a sip, her eyes fixed on Ari. “Oh nothing. I just never met a Jamaican with hazel eyes and wavy, cropped hair. I’ve never been to Jamaica. How is it there?” She crossed her legs, not trying to hide her exposed thigh. Ari scratched his forehead, stealing a glance at her toned legs. “I really don’t remember a lot. I left when I was a teenager. All I remember is my time in school and there being a lot of poverty there,” he answered, not wanting to get sucked into a conversation with her.
“Oh, well, I hope we get to go back together.” She gave him a sinful look.
Ari started to correct her. He knew he wouldn’t be going anywhere with this lady. But as the drinks kept coming and the alcohol started to take control, it felt so natural talking to her. They chatted about everything from her parents to where she lived. She happened to live in Chicago as well. He listened as she told him her dog Susie’s whole life story—even though he didn’t really care for pets one way or the other. Ari told her about the death of his parents. When the words left his mouth, he didn’t understand why he would tell this outsider something so personal.
By 4:00 a.m., the bar was closing and Ari didn’t know how many drinks he had had. He was sure that Maci was drunk. She had her arms around his neck, gushing and running her hands up and down his chest. They stumbled out of the bar and flagged down a taxi.
Ari looked over at Maci in the cab. “What hotel are you in?”
Maci started babbling off names of hotels that weren’t even located on South Beach. Ari told the driver to take him back to his hotel. They had just started the five-minute cab ride when Maci grabbed Ari’s dick and squeezed it.
He let out a squeal. “Oh, watch it girl, you don’t want any of this.”
Maci licked her lips. “Maybe I do.” She unbuckled his jeans and slid down his zipper. With three fingers, she reached inside the hole in his boxers and grabbed his limp dick. Ari hissed at the sudden force she applied.
Maci leaned down and licked the tip of his manhood and ran her tongue straight down the sides.
His dick stood at attention and he grabbed a hand full of her curly hair to pull her head up and down.
She spit on his dick and took the whole thing in her mouth, his full length.
Ari felt the tip of his dick hitting against her tonsils. He thought she would gag, but she let up a little.
She bobbed her head up down his shaft, while he started groaning and saying incoherent things in a Jamaican tongue. His body jerked beneath her and she tried to rise up. He kept her head pinned to his member and released his white creamy liquid into her mouth. “Swallow it now,” he ordered.
Maci responded to dominating boom of Ari’s voice. She swallowed every bit of his creamy texture and licked her lips. “Ummm, that was good, Ari.”
The cab driver parked in front of the hotel. “That will be six dollars and forty cents,” the Indian man said with a huge grin on his face.
Inside the hotel room, Ari fell back on the bed. He watched as Maci danced around the room singing and taking off her clothes. Ari wasn’t completely drunk; he could hold his liquor. He thought about making Maci leave, but hell, he was in Miami and Taylor would never know. In fact, he needed this distraction to take his mind off his parents’ death. He was tired of being the responsible Ari and always doing the right thing. For once in his life, he decided to live on the edge. One night with a new woman would be no harm. He knew he loved Taylor and was going to marry her after they finished college. He could have meaningless sex with Maci because there were no feelings involved—plus, she would do things that he would never want or ask Taylor to do.
Maci stood at the foot of the bed staring down at Ari with lust in her eyes. She was completely naked. Ari sat up and grabbed her hips to pull her forward. He popped one of her brown nipples into his mouth and sucked on it. He switched to the other chocolate treat and sucked. Maci climbed on top of Ari and he flipped her underneath him on her stomach. He kissed her from the back of her neck down to her collarbone.
Getting up off the bed to take off his shirt and jeans, he reached into his pants pocket and grabbed a condom out his wallet. The room was dark. Only the lights from a club across the street were shining through the windows. Ari tore open the aluminum package. Maci flipped over on her back.
“Come on,” Maci’s raspy voice urged, “stick it in now.”
He felt the tip of the condom going down his nine-inch shaft, but before he could make sure he was properly covered, Maci pushed him down on the bed, got on top of him, and started rotating her hips on his dick to take him into her womanly folds.
“Wait, hold up a second,” Ari pleaded with Maci as she kept moving up and down his shaft. She was so wet, and Ari couldn’t possibly stop her—it felt too good. He decided he would pull out when he felt himself coming. Maci bounced up and down, throwing her head back to the ceiling.
“Oh, oh baby this feels so good. Please don’t stop.” She held Ari tighter as he started to pump upward, meeting her stroke for stroke. Their rhythm was in sync.
He turned Maci over onto her stomach again, and he stood up, directing the action as though she were a porn star. “Bend your knees up into a doggy style position.” He entered her from behind and pounded her over and over again. He caught a fist full of her long curls and pulled her head as far back as possible. “Take this dick.” Maci’s eyes rolled to the back of her head.
Ari carried her over to a chair and he sat down with her on his lap. She braced her feet on the sides and jumped up and down like a bunny. Evidently she was determined to show him that she could hang and give him more pleasure than any woman he had ever been with.
After what seemed like an eternity, Ari, felt himself getting dizzy. He was covered in sweat and he knew he would explode any minute. Alcohol made him go longer. Maci was on top of him, still pouncing like she was in a trance. He tried to flip her over but she grabbed his shoulders and held on tight. Ari felt himself losing control and his seed flowed into her. He immediately jumped up. Maci stumbled to the floor.
“Maci, go pee right now.”
Maci, clearly not yet satisfied, looked somewhat dazed. “What are you talking about, Ari?”
“Go use the bathroom. I think I came in you.”
She pulled herself off the floor. “Oh, I’m on the pill. Don’t worry about that.”
Ari sat on the edge of the bed. “Are you sure we’re straight?”
“Yes, Ari, we’re good. I never miss my pill.”
“Whew,” he blew out, like a man who had just dodged a bullet. “A’ight, cool.” He casually added, “I think it’s time for you to go.”
Right away, he knew from Maci’s posture that she couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “Okay, so you just had sex with me and now you are putting me out? Hell, I didn’t even get mine yet! But you’re just going to throw me out your hotel room at this time of morning.”
Ari knew he was not being the gentleman he normally was but he was feeling guilty for cheating on Taylor. And he didn’t want Maci to get the idea that there could be more between them. “Naw, I mean, I’m leaving in a couple of hours to go back to school and I was just saying you might as well leave now.” Ari wanted to defuse the argument and confusion right away. He didn’t want to hurt her feelings but the truth of the matter was that it was only sex for him. Nothing more.
“Well, let me at least take a shower and lay down for a few minutes. I have a headache.” Ari agreed; he didn’t want to be a complet
e jerk.
* * *
Ari awoke with a jolt, the dream still fresh in his mind. “Shit. Man up,” he muttered to himself. “Reliving this over and over again won’t change a thing.” Getting up to splash cold water on his face, he looked at himself in the mirror and said, “You love your wife, you love your daughter, and you’re not losing either one of them.” He hoped he could live up to that decree.
Chapter 4
“Mrs. Gallagher, you have a call on line two,” Taylor’s secretary said over the intercom.
Taylor hit the button to take the call, never taking her eyes off the report she was reviewing on the computer. “Dynasty Magazine, Taylor Gallagher speaking. How may I help you?”
“Hello, sweetie. Are you busy?”
A huge smile crossed Taylor’s face. Ari’s deep, sexy voice could make a nun blush. Twirling her fingers into the phone cord, she spun around in her chair to face the window. “Naw, baby, I’m free for you. Missing you though.”
Libby came busting into Taylor’s office, waving a white envelope. Taylor held up one finger to signal Libby to give her a moment.
“Miss you too, baby. I’ve been on this flight assignment for a week now but I’ll be home in a few days, sweetie, and I want to do something special for you.”
“Okay. I can’t wait to see you. And Ari …”
“Yeah, baby.”
“Be safe.”
Ari coughed.
“Are you sick?” asked Taylor.
“Naw, baby. I love you and I’ll try to call you tonight.”
“I love you too, Ari, and take care of yourself.”
“I will, baby. Bye.”
Taylor hung up and wondered to herself why Ari sounded different. Why was he whispering?
His Betrayal Her Lies Page 3