Be with Me (Strickland Sisters Book 3)

by Alexandria House

  A knock came at the door. I sprung to my feet and took my blouse off before easing the door open, peeking out at Travis. “Hey, can you give me a sec? I need to change. I went to see Little Zo and he peed on me,” I lied.

  His face scrunched up in displeasure. Travis hated bodily fluids, which was one of the reasons our sex was so lackluster. He wasn’t fond of French-kissing. He also wouldn’t go down on me, but honestly, that was a relief because he didn’t like for me to go down on him, either. The one time I did, he wouldn’t kiss me for a week afterwards. That was a relief, too. Plus, he never protested about having to wear condoms.

  “Oh,” he said, “okay.”

  “Yeah. Be out in a sec, sweetie.”

  “All right.”

  I pulled myself together, told myself I could do this. And hell, I was actually glad to see Damon, had missed him terribly. This was perfect. There was no way we could have sex under these circumstances, so the smile I wore when I finally emerged from the bedroom twenty minutes later was genuine.

  I flounced into the living room in a flare dress with bell sleeves and a V-neck keyhole that fell an inch or so above my knees, and my bare feet. “Well, I’ll go set the table and warm the food up.”

  “I’ll help,” Damon said cheerily, standing from the sofa and following me into the kitchen.

  Travis trailed us and had opened his mouth to speak, but his phone rang. He murmured, “Dang, gotta take this,” as he ducked back into the living room. From what I could hear of his end of the conversation, it was a work call and those tended to go on forever.

  “What can I do to help?” Damon asked, as he rested a hand on my arm.

  His touch made me melt and that pissed me off, so I snatched away from him and put the food in the microwave. “Go home.”

  He chuckled. “You’re not glad to see me, Nick?”

  I rolled my eyes as I opened the cabinet and grabbed three plates. Before I could move to get the silverware, Damon was behind me, pressing his erect penis against my butt. I froze. Just stood there before having the presence of mind to say, “Damon, don’t—”

  He wrapped his arms around me, leaning in to kiss my neck.

  I closed my eyes, and said, “Dame…s-stop.”

  He reached around, slid his hand under my dress and up my thigh. “You really want me to?”

  I didn’t reply, just darted my eyes toward the doorway, tuned my ears into the conversation Travis was still loudly having in the living room, and gasped when I felt Damon’s hand find its way into my panties. I moaned softly when his finger reintroduced itself to my clit. “Damon…he-he could come back in here any moment.”

  “Then you better hurry up and come, Nick,” he breathed into my ear.

  Helpless to stop him, I closed my eyes and ears. Shut my mind off from what was logical and let myself feel what I wanted and needed to feel. I leaned into Damon’s body, spread my legs for him, and whimpered softly as he plunged two fingers inside of me. Faster and faster he fingered me, his hot breath on my ear, his tongue on my neck, his other hand in my panties torturing my clit. With both his hands fondling me like that, it felt like he was playing a lewd duet between my legs, and I loved every second of it. I inhaled deeply, trying to find my scent somewhere in the midst of the roast beef and garlic potatoes that were being heated up in the microwave. It was there, barely noticeable, but it was there. Then the aching pressure that was bubbling inside of me burst, and I bit my tongue to keep from screaming.

  Seconds later, I was leaning over the counter catching my breath, Damon was at the sink washing his hands, and Travis was poking his head in the kitchen door, saying, “Babe, I have to run to the office. This case is falling apart. Not sure when I’ll be back. Sorry about dinner, Damon. I was really looking forward to chatting with you.”

  “Man…me, too,” Damon said, sounding disappointed as he dried his hands.

  “Oh, babe...really?” I tried to sound absolutely crushed.

  He stepped all the way into the kitchen and nodded. “Yeah. Be back as soon as I can. Man, dinner smells delicious. You guys enjoy.”

  Damon and I stood there and stared at each other as Travis moved around, grabbing what I was sure were his laptop and briefcase, and as soon as we heard the front door close, we were on each other like two feral animals, growling and clawing at each other. His mouth crashed into mine. My hand fumbled with the button on his jeans. Somehow, without ever disconnecting our mouths, his pants came off and so did my panties. Travis was probably still in the parking lot when Damon picked me up and glided inside of me. I closed my eyes, moaned, kissed him, tore at his shoulders, and tried not to cry. He felt…he felt like home.

  He gripped my ass and clamped his mouth to my neck as he thrusted so deeply, I was sure I’d be sore later. I was also sure I’d have a hicky on my neck, but I didn’t stop him, couldn’t stop him.

  “I love you, Nick,” he murmured against my neck. “And I missed you.”

  That’s when the tears came. I hugged him tightly and closed my eyes, letting them flow.

  “You don’t have to say it back, because I know how you feel. I know you love me, too. Maybe not as much as I love you, but you love me. You just wish you didn’t.”

  I kept my mouth shut as he kept sliding in and out of the sticky wetness he’d caused only moments earlier.

  “I’m sorry for ever hurting you. I’m sorry you think there can’t be an us because of some stupid shit I did in high school. I wish I could take it back, baby, because I love you so much. I don’t know how to love anyone else.”

  His voice was becoming more and more strained. I could tell he was about to hit his peak. So was I.

  “I don’t wanna love anyone else. You’re the air I breathe.”

  “Damon…Damon…Damon…” I wailed, as I climaxed.

  He held me to him so tightly, I was sure he’d break me, then he thrusted harder, deeper, until he was roaring in my ear, “Don’t marry him, Nick!”

  A minute later, we were still in the same position. He kissed me over and over again, almost as if it was a compulsion. Then, he finally set me on the floor on legs so weak, I had to hold onto him to keep from falling. As I bent over to grab my panties so I could put them on to catch the essence of him I knew would soon be leaking from me, he repeated, “Nick, don’t marry him.”

  “I…I love him,” I whispered, my eyes on everything but his face.

  “Look at me and say that. Matter of fact, look at me and tell me you don’t love me. Tell me it’s him you want and not me.”

  I shook my head, my eyes on the microwave. “I can’t.”

  He moved closer to me. “Then don’t marry him. You want me to beg? Because I will. I’ll get on my knees right here and beg if it means you’ll leave and come with me.”

  “W-why’d you come here tonight?”

  “Because he invited me, and I missed you. You’ve been avoiding me, remember?”

  “This was so wrong. I’ve done a lot of shit, but I’ve never committed sexual acts with a man in another man’s house with the homeowner in another room for part of it. Only you could make me do something like this. Only you…”

  “Why do you think that is?”

  “I-I don’t know. Because you have the best stroke game in the world? Because your dick is ridiculously good? How am I supposed to answer that?”

  “Truthfully.”

  I sighed and tugged at the edges of the sleeves on my dress.

  “You want me to leave now that I got you off, because you’re feeling uncomfortable and guilty for fucking me in his kitchen—Don’t look at me like that; I know you, Nick—I’ll leave if you tell me the truth. That you love me.”

  I shook my head and dropped my eyes. “I can’t. I won’t. I don’t wanna feel what I feel for you, and I’m not going to say it.”

  He smiled as he pulled his jeans back on. “You just did, baby.”

  Ten minutes later, I was standing in the living room, staring at the door Damon had just exited
through, softly saying, “You were wrong. You couldn’t possibly love me more than I love you. I’ve always loved you more. Always.”

  Several hours later, Travis had returned home and was in bed beside me sleeping soundly. I, on the other hand, couldn’t seem to find sleep, so I lay there with the bright screen of my cell phone piercing the darkness as I mindlessly perused my Instagram feed. I was checking out Teyana Taylor’s profile when a text came through…from Damon.

  Up working and listening 2 Pandora Radio. Heard this song and thought about u.

  There was a YouTube link at the end of the text.

  I glanced at a still-sleeping Travis before turning over and digging my earbuds out of my purse. Plugging them into my phone, I clicked on the link. The song was Blind Man by Xavier Omär. I sank into the bed, letting my head relax on the pillow as I closed my eyes and listened to the song. When it ended, I instantly missed its beauty and played it again. Before I knew it, I’d drifted off to sleep.

  9

  “Fake for Bae dot com? You say it’s a store?” There was a dubious expression on Travis’s face.

  I nodded as I took a sip of water. “Yeah, we sell souvenirs from around the world.”

  Travis looked intrigued as he asked, “So why the name ‘Fake for Bae?’”

  “Oh, yeah. That.” I chuckled, but before I could explain it to him, Nicky did.

  “The whole purpose of the site is for guys or girls who’ve lied about where they’ve traveled to impress their mate to be able to buy authentic souvenirs as proof,” she said, keeping her eyes off me. This little dinner at their place was a re-do of the one a week earlier, and she’d done everything in her power not to be left alone with me. If Travis got up to use the bathroom, I half-expected her to follow him in there and shake his dick for him. I was both frustrated and impressed. For all the shit I talked about her not being able to hold out, I was sitting there about to die from wanting to touch her.

  “So, your business is built on deception?” Travis asked.

  I shrugged. “You could say that. But it’s lucrative. My best business so far, financially.”

  “Where do you get the souvenirs?”

  “From tons of wholesalers around the world. Most of the stuff is cheap, too, so I make a good profit.”

  Travis nodded. “So you have the web comic, Fake for Bae, and what else was it?”

  “I review video games and comics on my blog and a little YouTube channel. Not seeing much money from either yet, though.”

  Travis shook his head. “Three businesses. You must work all the time.”

  “Basically, I do.”

  “Wouldn’t it be easier to just get a job?”

  I reclined in my chair. “Did that. Eight years in the Navy. A couple teaching abroad. Now I wanna chase my dreams.”

  “Thanks for your service, Damon. But, it just seems crazy to me, putting in all that work with no real results.”

  “Well, Travis, that’s what entrepreneurship is. We put in crazy hours, take lots of risks, so that years from now, we can live like no one else. I love what I do.”

  “Wow, I really believe you do.”

  “Travis is passionate about his work, too. Aren’t you, sweetie?” Nicky asked, placing her hand on his arm.

  I fixed my eyes on her, hoping she’d look up at me. But she didn’t.

  “I am, but I don’t wanna talk about me tonight, babe. Hey, Damon, how’d you and Nicky meet?”

  “She didn’t already tell you?” I replied, my eyes on Nicky. Her eyes were on her empty plate. Nicky always had a crazy metabolism, could eat anything but never gained a pound.

  “No…well, I guess it’s never really come up. But I’m intrigued, never met a woman with a guy best friend before,” Travis said.

  I smiled, sensed her discomfort, and asked, “Nick, you wanna tell him?”

  She glanced up at me. “No, go ahead.”

  I was surprised, because things between me and her had always been so private, but hell, she was engaged to this man. So I guess she was trying to be at least partially transparent with him. A part of me despised his ass for putting a ring on my girl’s finger, even though I knew he had no idea how deep things ran with us.

  “Well,” I began, “we met at Jefferson Elementary when we were both in Mrs. Monroe’s second grade class. I was this uber geek, a weird kid, really. Skinny, glasses, and short for my age at the time. No friends at all, because I was just awkward as hell. The second Tuesday of the school year, I wore a Dr. Spock t-shirt to school, and this pretty little girl—Nick—came up to me at recess and asked if I knew I was wearing a Star Trek t-shirt. She was so intense, I was kind of scared of her, but I said yeah, I knew. Then she smiled this big smile and we had this long, seven-year-old conversation about how the classic Star Trek was the best. She was so smart; I couldn’t believe it. In the weeks that followed, we found out we had so much more in common. We both loved to read, read way above our grade levels, loved video games, and a bunch of other stuff. The only problem came when she wanted to talk fashion. I wasn’t interested in that, but I knew I’d found a kindred spirit, even though I didn’t know what that meant at the time. And she was so protective of me. If anyone ever came for me, Nicky would be in their faces in a second, ready to do battle. She was tiny like she is now and tough and mean as hell, be kicking ass while wearing these frilly dresses with ribbons in her hair. It was like I had my own little fashionable Dora Milaje guard.”

  “Dora who?” Travis asked.

  “Dora Milaje,” Nicky cut in. “They’re Black Panther’s royal guard, all women, bad-assery at its finest. Damon is a comic book fanatic. Black Panther is his favorite hero. He’s probably watched that movie trailer a million times by now.”

  I grinned at her. “A million and a half.”

  She leaned forward with a big smile on her face. “You were hype as hell the first time you watched it, weren’t you? You should’ve done a reaction video. I know you acted a fool when you saw it.”

  “Hell, yeah! I was so hype, I damn near threw my laptop at a wall!”

  She turned to Travis, and quipped, “It’s probably set as his home page on his computer. I bet when you click on the browser, that video pops on.”

  “You know me too well, Nicodemus.”

  “Stahhhhp! You know I hate when you call me that, with your whack, Marvel-loving ass.”

  “Aw, shit! You wanna go there? DC sucks! Your love of Wonder Woman can’t save their sorry asses.”

  With raised eyebrows, she countered, “Wonder Woman could lasso the shit out of Black Panther, have him giving her directions to Wakanda.”

  “Sheeiiiiit! Wonder Woman can pull that sorry-ass lasso out around Black Panther if she wants to. Be done messed around and got her ass tied up with that rope and fucked. Shit, that nigga is from Africa. He’ll Bambaataa her ass!”

  She laughed in that loud way she always did. I loved her goofy-ass laugh. “Dame! Why are you so damn silly?!”

  I was grinning hard now. “Because bullshit makes me silly, and the mere thought that any DC character could step to a Marvel character and not get fucked all the way up is bullshit!”

  “Batman will mess Black Panther’s world completely up!”

  I leaned forward with my mouth hung open. “You’ve got to be shitting me right now, Nick! Batman’s rich ass ain’t got nothing but a bunch of gadgets and cars and stuff. And he ain’t even as rich as Black Panther! You need to put some respeck on T’Challa’s name!”

  We stared at each other for a second, and then we both fell out laughing.

  Travis just sat there with this amused look on his face, then said, “Wow, you guys are hilarious.”

  “That’s just me and Nick,” I said. “Best friends for real. We can argue one second, laugh the next. Always been that way. All the way through school, from second to twelfth grade, we were like Siamese twins, always attached to each other. She’s—” I almost said my other half, because that was what she was, but I could see the
worry on her face, and as jacked up as this whole situation was, I shook what I was feeling off. “She’s the best friend a guy could ask for.”

  He smiled as he reached for her hand and squeezed it.

  “So how’d you two meet?” I asked.

  “Babe, you wanna tell him?” he asked, then leaned in and kissed her cheek.

  My eyes narrowed a little, and I had to fight not to reach across the table and slap his ass for putting his lips on my girl, but even thinking that was irrational and I knew it. I wished more than anything I could take back the past so I could be with Nicky.

  She shook her head, gave him a fake smile, and said, “No, you tell him.” Her eyes fluttered up to meet mine, an apology somewhere behind them. I tried to make my eyes tell her it was my fault. I’d asked the question and wanted the answer, no matter how much it would hurt to hear it.

  Travis’s eyes were still on her. “You sure?”

  She nodded. “Yeah, you tell it better than I do. Go ahead.”

  “All right.” He shifted his attention to me. “Romey U has this tradition where alumni speak at their annual high school senior days. I was tapped to speak at one and Nicky was my handler, so to speak. She was working in student recruitment at the university, and she got me to where I needed to be and everything. Damon, it was love at first sight for me. It-it was like I’d found my other half…”

  I cringed, and as he went on and on about how gorgeous she looked that day and how hospitable she was to him and how he asked her out to dinner and how excited he was when she accepted, I smiled and nodded in all the right places, but all I could think was how I couldn’t wait to get out of his beige-ass condo.

  He finally took a breath, and I said, “That sounds real serendipitous and…stuff.”

  “It was!” He turned and kissed her on the lips. “I’m so lucky to have found her.”

  She smiled uncomfortably. “Me, too.”

  I managed something in between a grimace and a smile. “Congrats, guys. Can’t wait to be in this wedding.”