Aaron's Patience

by Tiffany Patterson

  ****

  “Arrgghhh!” I grunted as I threw the wooden chair Alicia had just been strapped to against the concrete wall, shattering it into large pieces. I was so fucking tempted to pick one of those boards up and end her life with it.

  “Aaron, stop! Please!”

  Her cries had zero effect on me, unlike my wife when she spoke the same words the night before.

  “Why are you doing this?” she begged to know.

  I came to stand before her as she slouched on the floor, dressed in a pair of dark sweatpants and an old Williamsport University T-shirt. It was a far cry from her much more glamorous days, growing up as the daughter of a supposed oil tycoon. But her outfit was overshadowed by the large purple bruise and busted lip that marred her face. The marks hadn’t been courtesy of me but I’d called in some favors.

  “Why have you brought me here?”

  “You couldn’t leave well enough the fuck alone, could you, Alicia? Answer me!” I yelled when she didn’t speak.

  “I-I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Patience! My children. It’s one thing to send her away and not tell me about it. It’s a whole different animal when you have my family attacked!” I snatched her up by her shoulders, shaking her. I was fighting hard to keep a grip on reality but the part of me that wanted to end her and be done with it was close to winning out.

  “No! No! I never–”

  “Don’t fucking lie to me!”

  “I swear! I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  Releasing her, I took a step back and stared at her intently. She shook like a leaf.

  “Who’d you have do it? Who’d you send to Oakland to attack her?” That fucker was going to die a slow, painful death. I prayed to whatever God there was to grant me that ability to kill someone twice.

  “N-no one! I didn’t even know she was in California!” Alicia ducked when I advanced on her again.

  “She’s telling the truth, Aaron!”

  I peered up, toward the corner of the empty basement of a supposed abandoned house. Townsend Industries owned the home via dummy corporations on our real estate side. It was untraceable back to me but useful for situations such as this one. It wasn’t the first time I’d found myself down in this dank basement but this was the most meaningful.

  Emma.

  She stood at the corner, worried eyes on me. “Don’t do this. Alicia’s telling the truth. She didn’t have Patience attacked.”

  My chest heaved up and down as I let her words sink in. I stepped back, turning my gaze from Emma to Alicia who eyed me warily.

  “Please, Aaron. I-I didn’t do it.”

  Again, her pleas barely stirred up any emotion in me besides rage but I took another step back. I’d never trust my ex, but Emma…she was a different story.

  “You’re still partly to blame for what happened,” I seethed. “If you wouldn’t have sent her away, she would’ve never been in that fucking city. Alone.” I was nearly choking on my anger and helplessness. “That, I won’t forgive.” I shook my head at the impossibility.

  “Wh-what does that m-mean?” she stuttered.

  “I’m calling the Razzioli family.”

  “No!”

  “Aaron, don’t!” both Alicia and Emma shouted.

  “Your protection by the Townsends has ended. Our debts to your father have been paid in full. We’re done!”

  The Razziolis were one of the most notable crime families in the country. Alicia and her father had screwed the family over nearly ten years prior. She was only granted the opportunity to live this long because of my family. That had just ended.

  “Aaron, pl–”

  “Don’t say my fucking name! Ever again!” I stormed over to the wall where I’d tossed my suit jacket and Patek Philippe, not giving a fuck that it alone was worth more than the entire house, picking them up.

  I moved to the door, yanking it open to see my head of security standing there. Even I had to look up to meet his eyes. His stern look went from me to over my shoulder, and narrowed when he saw Alicia.

  “Call the Razziolis,” I instructed before brushing past him, not giving a solitary fuck about Alicia’s cries and yells for me not to do this. I had sacrificed myself for my family and the business once before and it nearly cost Patience and my children their lives. If she had been with me, she never would’ve been attacked. I was due into the office but there was no way I could hold it together in the state I was in.

  Instead of having my driver take me into the office, I had him take me home. There I let off the anger that continued to radiate through my body by going nine rounds with my punching bag. When my arms felt too heavy to lift any longer, I opted for a five mile run. Not until I reached the house did I begin to feel the anger lifting ever so slightly. It also helped that at the same time I received a text from my head of security that the package had been delivered. Meaning, Alicia had been taken care of.

  “She didn’t deserve that you know.”

  I slammed the refrigerator door shut in the kitchen and angrily pointed the bottle of water I held in my hand at Emma. “Trust me, that’s not half of what I wanted to do to her. And if you were more than just a figment of my goddamn imagination, I would’ve done more to you, too!” I growled.

  Emma sighed, shaking her head. “After all these years, that’s all I am to you? A figment of your imagination? Aaron, you know that isn’t true.”

  I grunted, slamming the bottle onto the kitchen counter, and brushed past Emma, heading to the front of the house toward the stairs, to take my second shower of the day.

  “Aaron, listen to me!”

  “Fuck you!” I shouted, reaching my bedroom. “You knew! This whole time she’s been back you fucking knew she was attacked! And you never said a word. You begged me to spare Alicia’s life though.” I turned on Emma with angry eyes.

  “Yes,” she nodded, “I did. Because she was not responsible for what happened to Patience that night.”

  “So who is?” I yelled.

  Emma gave me a sorrowful look, her lips sealed into a thin line, remaining shut.

  That pissed me off anew and I ran my arm across the top of my dresser, knocking everything over.

  “Aaron, please!” she yelped, looking almost as frightened as Alicia had that morning.

  “Please, what? Spare your life? You’re lucky you’re already dead.”

  Her eyes widened in shock and then horror. Hurt.

  “You’re not real.” I shook my head. “Just a figment of a child’s imagination. A lonely, scared child that needed someone to save him. Instead, I got you. A fucking ghost that holds secrets and lies to my face.”

  “I never lied to you.”

  “But you damn sure never told me the entire truth. Even now, you know who attacked my wife and my children and you haven’t said shit!”

  “I can’t! There are things I can’t tell you. It would alter too much. But I can help you–”

  “Yeah, help me by leaving me the fuck alone. Forever!”

  “Aaron, you don’t mean that.”

  “I do. Leave. Me. The. Fuck. Alone. Forever! Keep your snide, I told you so’s and your fucking hidden truths and take them back wherever the hell you’re from.”

  Emma made a move in my direction, but the snarl on my face caused her to stop. All I saw was red.

  “Is this how you truly want it?”

  “Have you not been listening?”

  “Okay,” she stated, nodding solemnly. “I will abide by your wishes. I will only return upon your request.”

  “A request I wouldn’t hold my breath for if I were you.”

  Her enlarged brown, watery eyes peered up at me. “We will see each other again. At your request.”

  I snorted and stormed off for the bathroom, slamming the door behind me. Twenty minutes later when I emerged from the shower, the room was empty. I glanced at my dresser, expecting to find the mess that I’d left, but it wasn’t there. Everything had be
en placed on the dresser where it had been. Even the mirror that had been knocked off and cracked, was restored and placed on top of the dresser.

  I stood in front of the mirror, looking myself in the eye. I saw the anger boiling behind my hazel irises. I blinked my eyes closed, inhaling deeply, attempting to pull myself together. I needed to get to the office, but most importantly, I couldn’t let my wife and children see how upset I was. I would never want my children raised in the type of home I lived in the first eight years of my life. And to do that, I needed to tamp down on my aggression while at home.

  That was a feat easier said than done, in the state I was in. But I’d done impossible feats before.

  I finished buttoning my suit and removed my cell phone from my pocket as I raced down the stairs to the front door. As I got in the backseat of my town car that was held open by my driver, I pressed the button for my head of security. I told him to meet me in my head office later that afternoon. We needed to go over increased security for my family. The Oakland police may have believed Patience’s attacker was caught but she hadn’t seemed convinced. And neither was I.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Patience

  “Mmmm,” I moaned as the delicious sensations rolled through my body. I felt as if I was being elevated into the highest, brightest light possible. My muscles clenched and I wiggled my hips, seeking more and more of that ecstasy I was experiencing. Slowly, my eyes opened and I realized I was flat on my back in my bed. When my vision cleared, I peered lower down my body and felt another gush of moisture release from my body, when I saw Aaron’s dark head between my thighs. His arms wrapped around my legs, holding them in place, as his mouth worked its devastation on my pussy.

  I let out another deep moan, slamming my head back against the pillows. I went to reach for his head, to push it away. I’d already had one orgasm—the one that woke me up in the first place, and he was obviously trying to wring another one free from my body. I couldn’t…we didn’t have time for that. But when I moved my hands, I could only lift them a few inches off the bed. They were handcuffed and tied around one of the posts of the headboard, restricting my range of movement.

  “A-Aaron,” I panted, my voice caught between confusion, anger, and lust. “A-Aaron, untie me n–” I was cut off on a gasp when he ran the tip of his tongue across my swollen clit. I felt his thick fingers as they invaded my pussy. I gushed again when he curled them, brushing my inner walls. Another orgasm was coming and I couldn’t do anything to stop it, or him. He rose to his knees, bringing the entire bottom half of my body with him, pushing my upper body deeper into the bed. Finally, his eyes opened and caught mine. They were almost black with need. He still hadn’t said a word, past the moaning he did against my nether lips, as if my body had been the only thing he had ever hungered for. I came again, that thought pushing me over, with his intent eyes still on mine. I shook and convulsed and he continued to lap up all the cream that spilled from my body.

  I was still trembling but completely spent by the time he lowered my legs to the bed. I watched through half-closed eyes as he moved over me, the bulge in his pajama bottoms bumping against my aching need. He moved over me, staring down at me, the scowl on his face another one of my turn-ons. I ached to feel his lips, to lick the wetness from his mouth that I’d left there. I lifted my head to meet his lips, but his hand to my throat stopped me.

  “Have you been with anyone else?” he gritted out, as if the words were nearly incomprehensible to him.

  My eyes widened a smidgen, not certain I’d heard him correctly. “Wh-what?” I was still breathless from the two orgasms he’d ripped from my body. Certainly, he wasn’t asking whether or not I’d had sex with another man.

  “You heard the question.”

  “You cannot be serious.”

  He gave me a hard glare.

  “You’re asking if I cheated on you since we’ve been married?”

  He shook his head. “While we were apart. Were you with anyone else?”

  “Aaron, what does that ma–”

  His hand around my throat tightened. “I’ll take that as a yes.” His jaw was so rigid.

  “You had a fian–”

  “She wasn’t you.”

  I blinked and shook my head, swallowing. “This is ridiculous. Uncuff me, the children are probably already awake.”

  “They’re in the den, watching TV.”

  I looked at the clock, noting it was almost eight o’clock. “Aaron, I need to make them breakfast. We ha–”

  “No. I will make them breakfast and get them ready to spend the day and night with their aunt and uncle. We will see them again at Mother and Father’s for the family dinner.”

  “What?”

  “You’re spending the entire day in bed. Just like this.” He moved from the bed, leaving me there, as if his word was final.

  I yanked my hands, still in the handcuffs. “Aaron, untie me!” I hissed.

  He didn’t even look my way as he threw a T-shirt over his head and ran a hand through his mussed hair.

  I called his name again, yanking at the cuffs, and kicking at the bed. Surely, he was not going to leave me like this. Again, he ignored me. Just as I was about to yell and curse him out, a knock sounded at the door.

  “Mommy, I’m hungry,” Kyle’s little voice came through the door.

  Before I could answer him, Aaron moved to the door, cracking it, but using his body to block Kyle’s sight of me. “Shh, Mommy’s still sleeping. She’s not feeling well today. Daddy will get you and Kennedy some breakfast.”

  “I want cereal,” Kyle announced.

  “Cereal it is,” Aaron responded, not sounding at all like the jealous lover of a few moments ago.

  I hated the way my anger faded slightly at hearing the tone of voice he used with Kyle. But it returned when I caught him give me one last look over his shoulder as he moved through the door, shutting it behind him and our son.

  “I’m going to kill him!” I grumbled, pulling at the cuffs one last time to no avail. All I could do now was wait for him to return.

  ****

  It took thirty minutes. Thirty minutes for my asshole husband to return to our bedroom. When he did, he just stared at me, his back pressed against our closed bedroom door, arms folded across his chest. His face held a scowl but there was a gleam in his eyes. I guessed it was from seeing the annoyance written all over my face.

  “Untie me,” I seethed.

  He moved from the door, slowly. “Carter picked the children up.”

  I eyed him as he carefully walked around the bed, inching closer to my side.

  “Untie me.”

  “Are you arms sore?” he questioned, running his hand along my arms, assessing, stopping to peer at my wrists.

  “I’m going to kick your ass as soon as the handcuffs are taken off.”

  He turned, staring down at my face. “Is that so?”

  My eyes narrowed.

  “I asked you a question earlier…” He trailed off, staring at me. He took a step back from the bed and then moved to circle to his side of the bedroom, going to open the top drawer of his dresser.

  “I’m not answering that. Untie me!” I demanded.

  “You keep tugging like that and you’re going to hurt yourself. Better to just relax.”

  I sucked my teeth. “You’re such an ass,” I declared. He was silent while his back was to me, but when he moved I gasped at what he held in his hands. “A-Aaron,” I warned, but I could feel my body growing warmer as I stared at the contents he held.

  “Now,” he began, moving back to the nightstand beside me. He placed the items on the nightstand. “I’ll ask you again.”

  My gaze remained on the tube of lube, the gold plated vibrator, and the crystal butt plug my husband had just arranged on the nightstand.

  “Have you been with anyone else?”

  “I-I—” I struggled to pull my eyes away from the sex toys to him as he glowered down at me. “I’m not answering th-
that,” I stated through trembling lips.

  He picked up the vibrator, turning it on. The only way I could tell it was on was because I saw him flip on the small switch, but the actual vibrator was completely silent.

  “I’m not spending all day in this bed either,” I argued against his earlier comment.

  “You will. On both accounts,” he countered, lowering the vibrator between my legs.

  I gritted my teeth against the first sensations that rushed through my body at the initial contact. But I bit down on my lip, refusing to give him what he wanted. He pried my thighs apart when I tried to clamp them shut, in an attempt to shut out the feelings brought on by the vibrator.

  “Ah!” I yelled when he tugged my head back by my hair with one hand and turned the speed of the vibrator up with the thumb of his other. “A-Aarooon!” I yelled when the orgasm took me completely off-guard. I squirmed and wiggled my hips, trying to get free from his onslaught, but he continued to stare down at me, and turned the vibrator up yet again. “D-don’t!” I demanded through clattering teeth.

  “Don’t what?” He tugged my head back farther, tightening his hold in my hair. “Answer the question, Patience. I will do this all day.”

  I squeezed my eyes shut. I felt his warm tongue on my neck as he licked and bit me. A shudder ran through my body, making its way to my core. That, along with the contact of the vibrator, stirred the beginnings of yet another orgasm. That one started in the soles of my feet, running up my legs.

  “A-Aaron, please!” I panted at the same time more core exploded, lifting my hips off the bed. Everything in me strained, painfully. “Yes! Okay, yes!” I yelled. “I’ve been with someone else!”

  The most thunderous grunt I’d ever heard from Aaron spilled from his mouth. His hands were at my wrists, removing the cuffs, but pinning my hands to the mattress with my own. He moved over top of me, using his hips to force my thighs apart even more. Before I could release another breath, he was impaling me with his erection. I yelled out his name, but it was cut off when he covered my mouth with his, possessively. I wanted to hate him. But it all felt too good to hate. So, I did the only thing I could in my position. I bit down on his lower lip, hard. That spurred him on and he pounded into my wet pussy with a vengeance, shaking the entire bed as it bumped the wall. His hands tightened around my wrists and his kiss became even more insistent.