Fire & Desire (Hero Series)

by Monique Lamont

  This wasn’t how he had envisioned the truth coming out. He had made plans at a restaurant for that evening, specifically for the purpose of confessing. By the looks of things, those needed to be canceled.

  When Tiffany had walked out of the governor’s office, he’d known at that moment he might have lost the best thing that had ever happened to him.

  “Man,” Trevor berated himself. “I shouldn’t have lied to her. I should have told her the truth a long time ago and trusted what we had together.”

  Trevor started his car, pulled out of the parking lot and into lunch hour traffic.

  After the news he’d gotten from Tim Patterson, he should be celebrating. There was no way he could be excited when he didn’t know if there would ever be a place for him in Tiffany’s life.

  Fourteen

  “Tiffany, come in!”

  A soft voiced greeted Tiffany. Her pastor’s wife, Paula, had been a confidant since her mother’s death.

  “Hi, Mrs. Paula, I hope I’m not disturbing you.” Tiffany entered the house and was enfolded in a warm hug by the other woman. It always astounded Tiffany that she could pull so much comfort from Paula, who was much shorter and petite.

  “Never. I was just making a list of the things I need to pack for Pastor and my annual trip to Italy. We’re headed to Venice this time.”

  Tiffany envied Paula’s joy in her relationship.

  “That’s great,” Tiffany followed her through the house.

  “Your timing is perfect; the tea just finished boiling. Have a seat.”

  Tiffany sat quietly as she watched Paula putter around the kitchen, grabbing cups and saucers and dessert plates.

  Paula joined Tiffany at the table and served them both tea and a slice of her famous pound cake.

  Even with all of the emotions churning inside of her, Tiffany couldn’t resist a bite of the cake.

  “Hmm, that’s good.” Tiffany’s eyes closed of their own volition as her mouth savored the bite.

  “It always pleases me that you like it,” Paula spoke softly. “Now tell me what’s wrong.”

  Tiffany laid her fork down next to the plate, not wanting to ruin the cake by fidgeting with it. “I look that bad, huh?”

  Paula placed a reassuring hand over Tiffany’s. “No, you don’t. But I can see you’ve been crying.”

  “I’ve been a fool.”

  “Oh, that’s hard for me to believe. You’ve always made very sound choices.”

  Tiffany snickered. “I used to think I was capable of making wise decisions. Then…”

  “Then what?”

  Tiffany could no longer stop the tears from welling up in her eyes again. “Then I met a man who made me lose myself.”

  “Oh, honey, that’s not always a bad thing.” The minister’s wife reached over and rubbed her shoulder. “Who is this man?”

  Tiffany reached for a napkin off the table and wiped her eyes, then began to fidget with the edges of the napkin. Paula would only be the second person she had told about her marriage to Trevor.

  Paula sat quietly at the table, waiting for Tiffany to speak.

  Looking at the older woman, she said, “He’s my husband, Mrs. Paula.”

  Tiffany waited for the censorship, but it never came.

  “If you got married without Pastor performing the service, it must have been a spur of the moment decision.”

  “It was.”

  “Tell me about this man that swept you off your feet.”

  Tiffany gave a smile and a small laugh, thinking of Trevor always put a joyous feeling in her heart, even when she was mad at him. “Mrs. Paula, honestly, we got married in Vegas under a weird set of circumstances. It was attraction at first sight…but not love at all.”

  “Is it love, now?”

  “Yes.” Tiffany took a breath, reached for her tea and sipped.

  “That’s all that matters, Tiffany,” Paula said firmly.

  Rising from the table, Tiffany stood behind the chair, feeling too anxious to be still.

  “Mrs. Paula, if you understood what he has done over the course of this marriage. You would probably be telling me to head for the hills far away from Trevor.”

  “Trevor. That’s a strong name. I had a friend once who named her child that… if I remember correctly, it means prudent.”

  A burst of laughter erupted from Tiffany, too quick to stop. She sat back in the chair and reached for another napkin to wipe the tears of humor away.

  “Trevor is anything but…”

  Paula glanced at Tiffany with a soft smile and a slight tilt of her head. “You know most people hear the word prudent and think prude or someone that is moralistic.” She reached her hand across the table to Tiffany’s again, in a reassuring gesture. “It is the ability to govern and discipline oneself by the use of reason. Therefore, it’s possible to an outsider that Trevor might have married you on a whim, or that he has been reckless in the handling of it. Just maybe this is all part of Trevor’s plan.”

  “That’s a scary thought,” Tiffany mumbled. “With all this mess, I couldn’t begin to figure out what his plan could be.”

  “Well, you’ll never know what it entails until you talk to him,” Paula said confidently.

  Tiffany looked at her minister’s wife and smiled. “I know better than to ask how you know I haven’t spoken to him yet.”

  Paula answered Tiffany’s smile with one of her own.

  “Well, I have held you up long enough. So I’m going to finish my cake, then I’m out of your hair.”

  Paula’s smile brightened. “I’ll even send you home with a slice …or two.”

  ~ML~

  Trevor slowly pulled his car along the curb in front of the fence incased executive mansion in Capitol Square. He allowed his car to sit idle as he looked through the gate at the house. The fact that he stared upon the oldest continuously occupied governor’s residence in the United States didn’t even cross his mind. There was no thought of being impressed with the past when he didn’t know if there would be a future for him and Tiffany.

  He was angry. Everything within him desired to walk up to the house and ask if Tiffany was there. Earlier, he’d gone by her house and knew she wasn’t home.

  She was avoiding him.

  He’d hoped she would be with her father, even though it could mean possible disaster for his company and its newly won contract.

  It would have been simple for him to turn his anger away from himself and toward Tiffany for not revealing their relationship to her father. But he couldn’t do it. More than half of this problem was his.

  He was the one who’d sought her out in the beginning.

  Deep down, he was the one who didn’t want to jeopardize his career by allowing the truth to come out.

  Tap, tap, tap.

  Trevor was jolted out of his musing by knuckles rapping against his passenger side window.

  Damn. The last thing he needed was some estate guard hounding him about his presence in front of the property at night. With no one else out loitering the block, he was an easy target for harassment.

  Exhaling slowly, Trevor pressed the button in the center console to roll the window halfway down.

  “This is really pathetic,” the man said as he stooped down to speak into the opening.

  “Manning,” Trevor growled.

  His was the last face Trevor expected to appear above the half-massed glass.

  “Trevor Wayne…you always seem to have a habit of being in places you don’t belong.” A smug smile spread across Manning’s face.

  Trevor desired to wipe it off.

  “What brings you to this side of town…dreaming big again?” Manning laughed.

  That laugh sent chills of remembrance shimmering down Trevor’s spine.

  Trevor quickly undid his seatbelt and leaped out the car. Standing in the door opening, looking across the hood, Trevor spoke to his old college rival, “You’re the last person who needs to talk to me about my dreams.”

>   Manning began to take steps around the trunk of Trevor’s car. “But I know your dreams…”

  Trevor stepped toward him. “You don’t know a damn thing about me.”

  “Of course I do…. scholarship boy.” Manning stopped.

  Trevor counted the two feet it would take him to reach Manning.

  “You always make sure I never forget it.” Trevor could feel his jaw muscles flexing as he clinched his teeth.

  Manning took one step too many, as he came face to face with Trevor. “You know, Trevor, there is no charity Pell Grant program that will get you into Tiffany Selina’s panties.

  Stay the hell away from my woman.”

  Before Trevor realized what was happening, Manning threw a sucker punch. Trevor barely moved in time to keep from being clocked. He sidestepped then slammed Manning against the side of his car. Trevor’s sense of touch heightened as he wrapped his hands around his nemesis’ throat.

  Shock registered into his adversary’s eyes. Manning had always been a coward.

  “You know I could kill you.” Trevor’s hands squeezed a little tighter. “I could snuff your life out…without taking a breath to think about it.”

  Manning’s body began to flail against the car as his hands gripped Trevor’s in an attempt to remove them.

  “Do you think anyone would miss you? How long do you think it would take for them to find your worthless body?”

  “You’d…never…get away…with it,” Manning croaked on raspy breaths.

  “I wonder what my reward would be for ridding the world of a parasite like you.” Trevor could taste the sweetness of revenge as anger permeated throughout his body. This is what he’d dreamed about. This was what he had always wanted.

  “Jail—” Manning squawked.

  “You think I care about that?”

  Manning began to make choking sounds while frantically clawing at Trevor’s hands.

  “What I cared about, you took away. Do you even think about the life you stole carelessly? Does she haunt you at night?”

  Manning’s gasps continued.

  Trevor looked at the man he held in his clutches. Christopher Manning, the spoiled rich kid. The person who could kill someone and walk away untainted. Manning took away one dream and one life and never paid. He was poison.

  Poison. Trevor didn’t consider himself poison. If he killed Manning, he wouldn’t be any better than the man he despised. He would have willingly allowed the toxin into his blood like an eager junkie. Trevor wanted more than that. He wanted a future unencumbered by any more nightmares.

  Trevor let go and stepped back and watched Manning’s body crumble against the side of his car.

  “You’re not worth it.”

  Manning coughed and choked on the gulps of oxygen rapidly filling his greedy lungs.

  Trevor turned and walked back toward his driver’s side door that stood open, patiently awaiting his return. He slid into the car and was in the process of closing the door when he heard Manning’s words.

  “Rebecca was nothing but a high priced whore who could be bought for any frat party entertainment. No one even said her name a month after she—”

  The force of Trevor’s fist contacting with Manning’s jaw ended his stream of words.

  “I did.” Trevor turned back to his vehicle, got in and drove off.

  Manning’s body lay unconscious in the street.

  ~ML~

  The sanctuary was dim. The church’s lights were low, but it was a representation of how Trevor felt. He walked to the front of the church and sat down in the front pew. He chuckled sarcastically. He hadn’t been in a church in years, and even then, he would have been fighting for the back row. Now that he was in serious need of solace, the front pew appeared very welcoming to him.

  Trevor sat down, closed his eyes and waited. He didn’t know what he was expecting, but he knew he needed help.

  He knew he’d messed up with Tiffany and didn’t know how to fix it.

  A slight throbbing in his hand reminded him of his confrontation with Manning. Looking down at his hand as he flexed it, he reflected on his old mantra… One day Christopher “Golden Boy” Manning, you’ll lose something that you hold dear…I’ll see to it personally.

  Trevor had always believed that when he began to serve Manning his just desserts, it would feel good. He would get chills of vindication running up and down his spine and he’d celebrate.

  Tiffany’s face came to his mind. He hadn’t considered that he could hurt the people who were associated with Manning.

  No, he didn’t feel like celebrating.

  “May I help you?”

  Trevor opened his eyes and looked up to the ceiling when he heard the melodic male voice, expecting Gabriel, the messenger angel, to have appeared.

  Shaking himself for the wayward thought, he turned around and located the man standing in the center of the aisle, a few rows back.

  “I’m sorry if I’m trespassing. I just needed a place to think.”

  The man moved closer. “This is one place no one could ever trespass.”

  As the man stood next to the seat Trevor was in, he could see him more clearly. The man stood about a foot shorter than him and was casually dressed in jeans and a T-shirt with a wool Ascot cap in his hand. Trevor figured he was the custodian there to check up on the place during the week.

  “Do you mind if I sit with you for a moment?”

  Trevor slid down the bench a little further and turned back toward the front of the church.

  The other man sat down in the vacant space.

  Both men sat in silence.

  The press of guilt weighed on Trevor’s shoulders, making it difficult for him to remain quiet. “I don’t know if there is help for me,” Trevor said as he thought back to the man’s original question.

  “Why do you think that?”

  “Because as the old saying goes, ‘I made my bed, and now I have to sleep in it’.”

  “I don’t know where that saying comes from, but if the people actually began to sleep in messes of their making without a way out…the world would be a disgusting place.” The other man made a sound as if he were exhaling a breath. “Good thing that for everything there is forgiveness.”

  Trevor turned and discovered the other man looking at him. “That’s God, not people. I’ve hurt someone pretty badly.”

  Trevor faced front again and debated whether or not he wanted to reveal his sins toward Tiffany to the stranger with the Ascot cap. Then he decided he had come inside the church for something, and maybe sharing with this other man would help him find a little peace.

  Humorously, Trevor began, “It’s been too many years to count since my last confession…”

  The other man’s boisterous laughter caused Trevor to turn back toward him and smile.

  Trevor’s smile slipped from his mouth. “Out of revenge, I married a woman I didn’t love and because I thought she was special to a man I considered my enemy. I plotted out the revenge.

  It doesn’t matter that I thought it was the only way to avenge my friend; I hurt the woman I married.”

  “Did you tell the woman you married what was going on?”

  “No.”

  “Are you still married to her?”

  “Yes.”

  “How does the situation stand now?”

  Trevor bowed his head. “Worse than if she had found out I was using her for revenge.

  Because she knows I’ve lied to her and pushed her to consider jeopardizing her father’s career, just to accept me in her life. Because I wanted to be with her.”

  Just saying the words aloud made Trevor feel miserable. Hurting Tiffany had been the last thing he wanted to do. He had even planned to tell her the truth about everything that night at dinner so their relationship could begin untarnished by the past.

  “The fact you’re here with a colossal weight on your shoulder, instead of out clicking your heels together over the contract, tells me you have some very deep f
eelings for her.”

  Trevor eyed the large cross hanging over the pulpit. “You’re correct. I never expected this. But I fell in a big way.”

  “Love will do that.” The other man stood. “You need to tell her.”

  Trevor stood as well. “I’ve been trying to reach her all afternoon.”

  “Don’t stop until she agrees to listen to you. If she feels the way you do about her, then it won’t take long at all.”

  “Thanks.” Trevor extended his hand toward the man. “I’ll get out of your way. I’ve held you up long enough.”

  The man grasped Trevor’s hand. “It’s no problem. I thought I was only stopping by to pick up my sermon notes for Sunday, but I guess I was wrong.”

  “No, you were right,” Trevor said with confidence, as they broke contact. “By the way, I’m, Trevor.”

  “Anthony,” he said, smiling and leading the way to the front of the church.

  Nothing more needed to be said as both men remained silent as they exited the church.

  Anthony paused to lock the door, and Trevor continued toward his car with more lift to his spirit than when he’d arrived.

  Fifteen

  Doon, doon, doon…

  Tiffany heard the high and low tones of the door chimes and rose from the couch in the living room where she sat idly flipping through a magazine waiting for Trevor to arrive. Tossing it on the table, Tiffany’s chest expanded as she inhaled a deep breath. She walked toward the door and exhaled the air from her lungs slowly, audibly. The metal handle of the door felt cool against her palm as she reached out and grabbed it. She squeezed and turned, feeling each muscle in her right hand tighten around the knob. Tiffany was amazed how awake and alive her senses had become just from the ringing of the doorbell, and she hadn’t even opened the door yet.

  She shouldn’t have been shocked at her response. It was Trevor, and he always did that to her. Made her come alive.

  She looked at Trevor from head to toe, knowing his body as intimately as she knew her own. “Who are you?” It was the first thing she needed to know before she let him in. She had opened her door and heart to him too many times under false pretenses.