by Leach, Kiki
When the water finally stopped running, Sheila tossed her room key on the dresser and slammed the door hard, hoping that he would hear without her having to call out his name.
“Sheil’s?” he yelled out.
She pressed her lips together and clamped her teeth down tight. “Mm-hm.”
“Oh damn, Sheila, I missed you! Hearing that voice again, baby, it does shit to me that you don’t even know.”
“You’re so full of shit,” she muttered. “Mm-hm, yeah, I missed you too, baby! And that voice. And the lies and the bullshit that seem to float right out with it every time you open that damn mouth.”
“What, baby?”
“Huh? Oh, I was just saying how much I missed you too, and your hands and eyes and everything.”
When the door to the bathroom swung back, Nathan stood just outside the frame with water dripping down every inch of his skin.
Sheila was all but drooling at his build.
Even beneath the size and shape of the bruises caused by his fight with Maurice, his caramel skin looked as smooth as a Hershey bar and probably tasted just as sweet. Staring at him, or rather gaping at him, she started to remember what that taste felt like on her tongue, how it moved against her lips as he did. Every ounce of anger she had about that engagement ring was suddenly starting to melt away the longer he remained in her presence.
And he stared right back at her, knowing that looking the way he did was getting to her in the best way. It was exactly what he needed in order to make things right between them for the first time ever.
“I missed you,” he said, his voice seductive. Tempting.
But with those three words, despite how they made her shiver in her own skin, she snapped back to the reality of the situation.
“You missed me so much that you couldn’t bother to call me while you were away? To answer my calls and let me know that you weren’t laid up someplace dead?”
“I needed to clear my head after what you told me about--”
“Yeah, I know. It shocked the hell out of me too, but that’s no excuse to leave me high and dry without a word of where you were going. I didn’t have any idea of if and when you were ever coming back.”
“You had to know I was coming back.”
“You were gone for a damn month, Nathan! How the hell was I supposed to know anything? Even during all this time of us being together, you barely let me know you. And after what you did in the Hamptons, and all because of Mo and Vanessa’s relationship? Then you take off after finding out that she was pregnant with another man’s child?” She held back in telling him about the ring. She knew she needed to get her frustration about the other things out in the open before dropping that little bomb.
“I guess I can understand after hearing all of that why you’d think I could have been gone for good. I didn’t want you to worry. And I might not have called you when I was away, but I did call you earlier today to let you know where I was.”
“When?”
“This morning. You probably didn’t recognize the number on your phone because I was calling from the police station, but I took a chance in thinking you might answer anyway.”
Her eyes grew in size and she turned to face the floor. Oh. Shit.
She walked over to the bed and sat down at the edge, holding her face in shock, though she hoped he wouldn’t understand much of what it was about.
“I called Vanessa first,” he told her, though by now she was hardly paying attention to anything he was saying, “but only because I needed money to bail myself out and I assumed that my wallet was someplace inside her house. I wasn’t sure if she was going to bring it up there, but she did.” He moved over to the bed and sat down beside her. “I hated being up in there but the isolation gave me a lot to think about. And one thing I realized was how much I need you.”
She kept her eyes straight ahead, her mind racing in circles as she thought back to that morning, as she remembered being in that same bed with Adrian and how good it felt.
Nathan slid one hand up her thigh and between her legs, hoping to get her mind off of whatever the hell it was she had been thinking, and back onto him.
When he leaned in to kiss the side of her throat, she pulled back and shoved him away.
“No.”
He opened his hands. “I’m not allowed to kiss my fiancée now?”
“Your fiancée?” She sneered and moved her head back and forth. “As if that means shit to you now?”
He laughed from being confused rather than from the enjoyment of the actual conversation at hand. “What? Didn’t you hear a word I just said?”
“Do you honestly think that you can just sit there and try to kiss me when we’ve barely discussed shit? Do you think that everything can be just as it was before you stepped out?! Your ass got sent to jail last night, Nathan. That is a big damn deal! And all because you can’t stop sniffing up Vanessa’s ass like some curious dog!”
“I went there to explain about the Hamptons because I felt she needed to know.”
“And then you got into a fight with Mo and she called the cops to have you arrested and STILL, you call her FIRST. Before the one wearing your damn ring, to help you out.”
“I told you that she had my wallet in her house -- !”
“A house you should’ve never been inside in the FIRST damn place. AGAIN. And what if she didn’t have your wallet? Let’s not act like she wouldn’t have been your first call any damn way, because you’re so obsessed with her that even when she forces you OUT, you still find a way to weasel yourself back in. I feel like a broken record, but when are you gonna get it through your thick damn skull that she is in love with MAURICE?! Even knowing he’s the reason that ALL of our lives got publicly fucked, she still loves him and wants him back. There is no place for you inside her heart anymore. There’s no room for you to make--”
“What about your heart?” he asked, standing.
Flustered and confused, she was taken aback and unsure of how to respond. Here she was ranting about his continued obsession with Vanessa, which now seemed moot, because there he was asking about her, wondering about her heart and essentially them.
“What?” she asked. It was the only word she could manage to speak without becoming tongue tied.
“You say there’s no place in her heart for me anymore. I know that Maurice is in there. He’s made his claim on it and it is what it is. But what about your heart, Sheila? Is there still room for me inside there?”
She gulped. Her skin suddenly felt hot, her breath was shaky. What the hell was he doing? What the hell was he doing?
“You just called me your fiancée, right?” she asked, not really expecting much of an answer in return.
“Yeah. But I noticed that you’re not wearing your ring.”
You mean Vanessa’s ring? she thought.
She looked down at her left hand and splayed her fingers. She could have told him the truth. She wanted to. She wanted him to feel the same pain and suffering she continued to feel throughout the entirety of their relationship. But something deep inside her compelled her to keep quiet, and to lie instead. She didn’t know what part of her that was, and she couldn’t discern whether or not she even liked it.
“I’m not wearing my ring because it’s being sized,” she said.
Skeptical but sincere, Nathan bobbed his head. “You need it smaller?”
“I’ve lost some weight,” she said, staring down at herself. “Some of it in my hands. Most be the constant stress you’ve been putting me under.”
He lowered his eyes, then glided them up and down her trim body. “I’m sorry about that,” he said. “I’m sorry that I keep doing things to you and putting you through shit that you don’t deserve. Especially since I know that I can count on you to be here for me the most.”
She nervously shifted her eyes side to side, but Nathan had barely noticed.
“It’s the one thing I’ve always appreciated about you, Sheila, and our relationship.”<
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“The fact that I’m a doormat turns you on?” she asked.
He laughed. “No. But I don’t see you as a doormat. You can’t be one in being with me for so long.”
“I think being with you so long is exactly what’s made me one.”
She rested her hands on her waist and he walked forward, taking both of her hands in his. Staring down at each one, he rubbed his thumbs across her smooth skin and brought them up to his face while looking directly her in the eyes.
“Nathan--”
She knew that look. She hated that look because it made her forget all of the important things she always felt she needed to say to him when it mattered. That look put her stomach in knots, filled her chest with warm air and got her panties thrown straight down to the floor beneath their bed.
“Nathan, please don’t.”
He pressed her hands against his lips, kissing them one by one. When he unleashed his tongue and motioned it around her skin, her eyes unwillingly rolled back into her head and she nearly collapsed against that damn door.
“I don’t ever want to be the reason for you to lose so much weight,” he said. “Your body has always been perfect, Sheil’s. Every part of it. It’s part of the reason why I could never resist you back then, and sure as hell can’t now.”
He bit down on her skin and tugged it back and forth between his teeth. She sucked her bottom lip into her mouth knowing she should stop, knowing that this was the last thing they both needed to be doing with each other. Knowing she had been with another man that very same morning, a man who would’ve been open and happy and willing to give her the same life she felt for so long she had richly deserved.
With Nathan.
The moment she leaned in, her eyes aching for more, her hands aching for his skin, her lips begging to be kissed, Nathan knew there was no turning back for her and smiled wide.
Quickly removing his towel, his dick sprang up between them. She reached down for it, but he shoved her hands away and lifted her skirt high up to her waist. Then he bent down and removed her panties, and just as predicted, threw them across the room. They landed to the floor and she watched with helpless desire as he grabbed onto himself and rubbed the head of his dick against her flesh before shoving it deep inside. She slid her hands up his arms and shoulders as he lifted her leg from the floor and slowly thrusted himself in and out of her. She bounced her head back against the door and moved her hand around to the back of his neck. He found her mouth with his and kissed her deeply, slowly, swirling his tongue around hers and forcing her to feel just how much he needed to be inside of her.
As she dug her nails into his skin and called out his name between short, sharp breaths, he whispered her name into his ear while muttering just how much he still loved her. Instantly, she panicked, but tried her damnedest not to show it and ruin the moment shared between them. But unable to continue enjoying for herself, she felt her body go limp. It remained that way even as he traced kisses up and down her skin and carried her over to the bed.
A few hours later, a physically exhausted and sweaty Nathan crawled to his side and fell asleep, while a very alert yet jumble-minded Sheila remained awake. With the sheet wrapped around her body, she got up and strolled to the window to stare down at the street below, at the people still awake, relishing in the dark atmosphere. She crossed her arms over herself and looked down at the print where the band used to be on her ring finger. And then she turned to look at Nathan, who appeared satisfied with himself, convinced that he had once again pleased his woman like no other man could.
When her phone began buzzing, she tiptoed over to her purse and pulled it out to get a glimpse at the number.
“Adrian,” she whispered.
Her finger hovered over the green button to answer, but her conscious forced her to press down hard on that red button and toss the phone back into her purse.
She fucked up. And she had fucked up badly. There were many things Sheila could always seem to scramble her way out of over the years. She had a bad, bad feeling that this sure as hell wouldn’t be one of those things.
Part Twenty-Seven
The next morning, Vanessa walked into the office in a much better mood than the previous day. It helped having Nikki back at home with her last night, not to mention agreeing to have lunch with her later that afternoon. It had been awhile since they had spent any quality time together and they were both missing out on that well needed bonding time.
After dropping her purse in her office and right before taking a seat in her chair, she spotted Harold chatting with a coworker just a few feet away, down the hall. Less than thrilled to know that he was back, she thought about ignoring him and starting with her work.
But then she remembered that his girlfriend had been the cause of so many problems in her life as of late, and decided to take some action.
Scooting out of her office, she traveled down to where he stood and tapped his shoulder.
“You mind if I have a quick word with you,” she said. “In private?”
He quickly finished up a conversation with a few coworkers as well and followed her down the hall to an emptying conference room. As their coworkers cleared out, Harold inappropriately stepped into her space.
“You know” – he wagged his finger before dropping both hands inside his pockets; his eyes roamed up and down her body and he smirked – “I don’t know if anyone else has told you this morning, but you look mighty fine in that dress. And you look good in your frames today. They say men don’t make passes at women who wear glasses, but what can they say about those with fine--”
She tossed her hand in his face. “Stop.”
He playfully wagged his brows. “I wasn’t going to finish that. But listen, green is definitely your color and seems to fit your body like a glove. I guess it’s not just made for money anymore, is it?”
“Money you won’t continue to make working here if you keep running your mouth like that. Had you said any of this to me before I even had a chance to sit down and get comfortable in my chair back there, considering the way those words seem to come out of your mouth make it sound like the ultimate form of sexual harassment there ever was, I’d have been tempted enough to grab you by the balls, and it wouldn’t have been just for fun. Well, maybe fun for me, but you? Not so much.” She smiled, though wholly insincere, and rested her hand on the edge of the table. “By the way, welcome back from your extended yet quite unnecessary vacation in the Bahamas.”
“It wasn’t too much of a vacation since I was attending my ex-girlfriend’s wedding. The one you often referred to as Raggedy-Anne in the past, remember?” he replied with a laugh. But she hadn’t found much of anything too funny in the moment. “Alright, Vanessa, what do you want from me this time?”
“Well if you’re asking sincerely, you can give me the gift of telling your very current narcissistic girlfriend to stay the hell away from me, Maurice and anyone else I know personally and care about, in the near future.”
He frowned. “What?”
“Oh, and she’s not allowed anywhere near this building anymore either, let alone inside of it. I don’t care if she’s taking you out for lunch to her favorite restaurant or planning to give you a hand job in the bathroom between breaks. If I see her anywhere inside of this building for any reason from this day forward, I’m going to make sure that you both land on your asses when you’re thrown out of here simultaneously by security. Am I making myself clear?”
“Wait a minute.” He held up his hand and took a step back, befuddled as all get out. “What the hell is all of this about?”
She leaned away from him, taken aback by his seemingly genuine confusion. “When you were blabbing to me before about someone selling the story about me, Nathan and Sheila to the press, did you really think that it was just some random kid who did it, or were you fully aware at the time that it was Maurice?”
He slightly arched his brows and opened his eyes wide. “Maurice as in your current boyfriend, Mau
rice?” She didn’t reply, but he knew the truth just from looking at the grim expression on her face. “I didn’t have a clue about the original source, V, and that’s the truth. Page Six never released that information to anyone.”
“But you knew that Olivia was the one who initially spilled the story?”
He arched his brows and dropped his head. “I didn’t realize it at the time because she was going by her maiden name then. But she told me the same night we saw you two on the beach out there. She was asking questions about your relationship and finally fessed up to knowing him beforehand. And I’m sorry about that, I really am. But what she did back then is not a reason to keep her from coming around now.”
“It’s all the more reason -- !”
“Look, she was young and ambitious and your boyfriend gave her the break she needed to make a name for herself.”
“She made one, alright. And from what I can see since then is that she’s still not past the embryo stage of it all,” she replied. “Did she also tell you about the little meeting she had with Maurice the day we all got back to town?”
He shook his head and glared. “No.” Harold puffed his chest and exhaled. “What kind of meeting would they be having together?”
“The kind that involved her getting horizontal with my boyfriend, at the time.”
“You know this for a fact?”
“I know that she wanted him to screw her brains out in order to keep her mouth shut about what he did in giving her that information.”
“And I’m assuming he didn’t?”
Vanessa scrunched her face in anger. “Hell no,” she said, her voice rising at even the thought of it. “No matter the circumstance, he never wouldn’t have fucked that woman even with his right hand.”