by Mia Carson
“Vanesa?” Tanya said softly. She looked at us, her eyes bleary. She was probably on some heavy-duty pain meds. “You remember me? I spoke to you about Neil Gibson?”
Vanesa nodded slowly then looked at me. I handed her the foot-tall teddy bear. “I’m sorry we’re meeting like this.” She nodded slowly as she started crying, tears running out of her eyes, but she made no sound.
“Did you tell the police Neil assaulted you?” She slowly shook her head. “They said you did.” Another shake of her head. “Was it Ed Harnette?” She looked at us but gave no indication. “The man that hired you to setup Neil?” Tanya added.
Vanesa nodded slowly. “Couldn’t remember name,” she said softly as she winced. It obviously hurt her to speak.
“I’m going to kill that motherfucker,” I growled. Beating a woman nearly to death like this because of me? I couldn’t let that slide. I was going to gut him and put his head on a pike.
“You told them Neil because it was the only name you could remember?” Tanya asked. Vanesa shook her head. “You told them Neil because it was related to him?” Vanesa nodded.
“Can I record you answering some questions, so we can string Ed up by his balls for doing this to you?” Vanesa nodded. Tanya pulled out her phone. “Is your name Vanesa Pierce?” Tanya asked. Vanesa nodded slowly. “Did Neil Gibson assault you?” A slow shake of her head. “Was your attacker Edward K. Harnette, the man who hired you to implicate Neil Gibson in a false sexual harassment case?” A slow nod. “Would you like to press charges against Edward K. Harnette for assaulting you?” A slow nod. “Will you testify in court that he paid you to implicate Mr. Gibson?” Another slow nod.
Tanya ended the recording and pulled her phone down. “Thank you, Vanesa. You’re safe now. I’m truly sorry this happened to you. Is there someone I can call for you? Family?”
Vanesa shook her head again and began to cry. I felt so bad for her that I took her hand and squeezed it. No matter what she’d done, she didn’t deserve this.
“We’re going to get this bastard, and he’s going to pay for doing this to you, I promise you that.” I gave her hand another gentle squeeze. “When you get out of here, stop at one my fitness centers. We’ll help you get your strength back. On me.”
She stared at me, tears streaming out of her eyes, and nodded. “Thank you,” she murmured, her face crinkling in pain.
“I’ll check on you in a couple of days, okay?” Tanya said, and Vanesa nodded. Tanya looked at me. “We need to get this to the police, tonight,” she said, giving her phone a shake.
I looked at Vanesa one more time. “Get better,” I said, and she nodded before I turned and followed Tanya out.
“You’re too nice to her. She doesn’t deserve it. Have you forgotten what she tried to do to you?” Tanya asked as we walked to the elevators.
“No, but she didn’t deserve what happened to her, either.”
“No, she didn’t, but you need to stay away from her, Neil. That can go sideways in so many ways.”
I nodded and sighed. “Yeah, I know.”
She softened. “You’re a good guy, and I know you want to help, but I’m telling you, in my professional opinion, do not be anywhere alone with that woman. This is why I told you to stay as far away from her as you possibly can. The last thing you want at this point is to have your name dragged into this. Think about how it looks. She accused you of the next thing to rape, then she ends up in a hospital beaten half to death. And no more ‘I’m going to kill that motherfucker’ either. You need to stay squeaky clean on this.”
“You’re right. I shouldn’t have called him a motherfucker.” She glared at me and I smiled. “I know what you mean. Okay, I won’t say things like that again, but just between you and me, Ed needs a good ass kicking.”
She nodded as we stepped out of the elevator. “The cops are going to give him one, and you can keep your hands clean. What I recorded in there is enough to get them to stop looking at you, which is main reason I wanted to record her. There’s no way that recording will stand up in court on its own since she looks like she’s drugged out of her mind, but it’s enough to get the ball rolling and get the cops pointed in the right direction. They can come back later and get a sworn statement from her that will put Ed’s ass in jail.”
It took an hour at the police station, but by the time we were done, Ed was going to be in a world of hurt. Now he was wanted on felony battery and attempted murder. If the police caught him, he was going to be taken off the streets and would probably pull a few years in the pokey. Good riddance to him was all I could think.
That was twice Tanya had pulled my ass out of the fire. Dinner was ruined, but I still owed her a meal…and some news.
Tanya
I carried the pizza into Neil’s apartment. In-N-Out and pizza in the same day. I half-expected his body to go into toxic shock.
“It’s finally over, isn’t it?” Neil asked as he pulled two beers from his fridge, opened them, and poured them in glasses.
“Yes, it’s finally over. I’ll try to get Vanesa to agree to release the video I took of her in the hospital. We’ll package that up with the footage of Ed admitting he was setting you up, and we’ll try to get that some airtime. Maybe we can go back to the Lunch with Diane show and see if they want to air it. I’d also recommend you put it up on your websites with the post where you denied any wrong doing with Vanesa. I want to burn that bastard Ed good.”
“Can I do that?”
“Check with your lawyers, but I think if we blur his face and beep out his name, it should be legal. He can’t claim invasion of privacy if you can’t tell who he is. It doesn’t matter who said it, you just want people to hear it said.”
He nodded as we sat down at his table, the pizza box between us. “I’ll check on it,” he said as he flipped the box open before dragging a slice onto a plate and handing it to me before doing the same for himself. I took a bite.
“Good,” I said, toasting him with my slice. “Pizza, beer, and In-N-Out, all in the same day. I’m corrupting you.”
His lips twisted into a teasing smile. “You gotta do what you gotta do. I’ll have to put in some extra time working this off.”
“You can start tonight.”
He looked at me over the rim of his glass, his eyes playful, before he took a sip. “My God, woman! After last night, how can you still be horny?”
“Just lucky, I guess. You up for it?”
“You’ll find out,” he said and looked down. “Telling you this over a takeout pizza wasn’t what I had in mind, but…”
He looked at me, apprehension clear on his face. I said nothing, waiting for him to tell me whatever he needed to tell me. I’d been dreading this all afternoon. I’d forgotten about it with the news of Vanesa, but now the dread was back.
He’d said it was good news, but I couldn’t shake the feeling I wasn’t going to like what I was about to hear. If it was good news, why couldn’t he tell me at In-N-Out? Why did it have to be in private? Was he afraid it was going to make me cry? I steeled myself for whatever came. If he was tossing me aside, or if he was sensing my growing attachment to him and wanted to be clear that he only wanted me for a fuck-buddy, I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of seeing me cry, and I wouldn’t beg him for more.
He looked at me, his face soft and kind as he took my hands. He was a good man. Even after what Vanesa had tried to do to him, he was willing to help her get back on her feet. I wanted to be like him. Being around him this last month made me feel like I was a better person. I was still a cynic and skeptical of people’s motives, but I was changing. He had shown me there were still good, kind people in this world, people who didn’t think only of themselves.
“I don’t know how to tell you this, so I’ll just come out and say it. Tanya, I’m falling in love with you. I don’t know when it happened, but I am.”
He pursed his lips, as if he was likewise steeling himself for bad news. I whimpered softly. Was he afraid I wo
uld reject him? Was that why he was so up and down throughout the day? I whimpered again. I was about to cry. I was starting to fall for him too. I wanted him like I’d wanted no other man. I wanted to be with him, to fall asleep in his arms each night and wake up there the next morning. I wanted to start my day with his kiss, and finish it the same way.
I wanted to make love to him and go shopping with him. I wanted to cheer his successes and kiss away his disappointments. I wanted to share meals and memories, to see new things and revisit old, all with him at my side. I wanted to be there for him, make him part of my life, and I wanted him to want me in the same way.
I whimpered again as all the feelings, all the things I’d kept shoved deep down, locked in a box inside me because I was afraid to let myself experience them lest I be hurt, broke free of their shackles and forced their way out. They flowed over me, warming me in a way I’d never experienced before.
“Do you mean that?” I asked, holding his gaze. “Do you really mean that?”
“More than I can find the words to say.”
He was still waiting for me to respond, to give some indication of my feelings. I wanted to tell him how I felt, but I was afraid, afraid of making the commitment, unsure of my own feelings and afraid to believe in his.
“If you don’t love me…that’s okay,” he said softly as he looked down, unable to hold my gaze. “I’ll wait for you if you think you can grow to—”
I threw caution to the wind and lunged out of my chair to kiss him. I wanted this! I wanted this more than I’d wanted anything in my life! His arms went around me and held me close. I felt hot and out of sorts. Was it love? I didn’t know, but I wanted more of it. Lots more of it.
I began feverishly kissing his neck, holding him tight. I wanted to say the words, needed to say the words, but I couldn’t. I writhed in emotional anguish, desperately trying to utter those three little words, but I lacked the courage. I was afraid of being hurt if I let myself believe. How could I believe him? So many people said the words, only to later start fucking around and breaking someone’s heart.
He grabbed my head, his hands holding me firmly but gently, so I had to meet his gaze. “I’m falling in love you with you, Tanya. I want you. I want you and no other.”
How had he known? Could he read me so well? I could see the truth in his eyes. He did love me!
“I love you too!” I blubbered, the words bursting forth as I fought tears, my need to say them unstoppable and overcoming my fear.
As I finally admitted my feelings, a great weight suddenly lifted from me. Saying the words gave them power and made them true. I did love him. I was falling hopelessly, madly, deeply in love with him. If I felt this way for him after only a month, I imagined how I’d feel after a year, five years, a lifetime. I wanted it. I wanted it badly. I wanted to love him and be loved by him in return.
In the last thirty seconds, since he’d admitted he was falling for me, and having admitted the same, my feelings for him had doubled and doubled again. Neil fucking Gibson said he loved me! I wanted to scream it to the world. The thought terrified and thrilled me at the same time. Other than my father, I’d never felt love, not as an adult, but what I was starting to feel for Neil was different. It was the difference between a candle and the sun. Both gave warmth, light, and comfort, but only one was blinding in its intensity.
“I love you!” I said before I kissed him again. He returned the kiss and my feelings for him swelled.
It was the single best kiss I’d ever received. My passions roared, the heat of the kiss melting my fears and doubts like a blast from a furnace.
“I love you!” I murmured again. Each time I said those three little words, it was easier. I wanted to say them again and again, and go on saying them forever.
“I love you too,” he breathed as he held me, his lips dancing on my neck.
God, how I loved to hear those words!
I’d eaten less than a half-slice of pizza, but no amount of food could sate the hunger clawing at my insides. I needed him in my arms and inside me. He must have felt it too, because before I could order him to take me to his bed, he picked me up and started to his bedroom. I loved how he handled me! His strength made me feel safe, like nothing could hurt me when he was with me.
He carried me into his bedroom and gently, as if I were made of the finest porcelain, lowered me to his bed. He hovered over me, watching me, holding my gaze. My eyes, he always came back to my eyes.
“What?” I whispered.
“I was just thinking how you are the most beautiful woman I have never known.”
I went all gooey inside. I didn’t think I was ugly, but I didn’t consider myself beautiful either. I’d have described myself as cute. Women like Julie, the waitress, or Vanesa, the porn queen, with their full, ripe, bodies, were the type of women men lusted for.
Hearing Neil say those words made me feel like, for the first time in my life, the most desirable woman in the world. He could have any woman he wanted, but he’d chosen me. Me! Tanya Renee Jacobs! The sexiest man on the planet had chosen me!
I smiled up at him, a smile I couldn’t wipe away if I tried. “You’re not so bad yourself,” I said softly.
His smile made my heart flutter. I pulled him down on me, taking his lips, luxuriating in the feel of his weight as his hard, muscular body pressed me into the bed.
He kissed me. I mean, he really kissed me. The kiss was slow, and deep, and full of desire and promise, but there was more. It was different than all the other heated kisses we’d shared. It touched me in ways I couldn’t describe, like trying to describe how a beautiful piece of art spoke to you. There were some things that couldn’t be described, things that you simply had to experience.
I felt safe and protected in his arms, like I was no longer alone in this world, as if together we could face and overcome any threat, any obstacle, life may throw at us. I moaned softly, the kiss filling me to overflowing with emotion. I wanted to cry and laugh, so I did a little of both as I pulled his lips from mine and held him with all my strength. I never wanted to let him go, and I would cut the heart out of the first bitch that tried to take him from me. He was mine, and I would guard him jealously.
He forced himself up from my embrace. “I want you,” he whispered, those three little words sending a chill through me. He’d said them to me before, but now they held so much more meaning for me.
“I want you…more,” I murmured in return.
I was in the first blush of new love. It excited me in ways I’d never felt before, but I knew as our feelings for each other developed and matured, as our love deepened, what I was feeling now would pale in comparison. I would love him like no woman had ever loved a man. He was giving me his heart, and I would treat it like the treasure it was.
I began to remove my blouse, but he gently brushed my hands aside. “No. Let me.”
He slowly drew me from the bed and proceeded to undress me with near infinite slowness. He kissed and nuzzled my neck as his fingers worked my various fastenings, slowly opening me to his inspection and touch. It was one of the most sensual things ever done to me.
Neil was the master of seduction. Washing me in the shower, this slow undressing, cooking for me, holding me as we soaked in the tub, he’d always made me feel like there was more to me than just a place for him to bury his cock, more than just a life support system for my vagina, and I loved him more for it.
As the last of my coverings were slowly removed, he stared at me, his gaze slowly traveling my length. “You are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met,” he said as his gaze returned to mine. Always the eyes.
“You said that already,” I teased, but he could say it as often as he wanted.
“And I’m going to keep on saying it until everyone I know has heard it at least a million times.”
I melted a little more inside. I glanced down to admire the bulge in his pants. “My turn,” I whispered as I began to undress him.
I started slowl
y, kissing my way down his body, my lips following the spreading V of his shirt as my fingers worked at his buttons. My lips danced and played over the ridges and valleys of his body as I slowly drew his shirt over his shoulders and allowed it to fall to the floor. I took a nipple into my mouth and used my tongue to scrape it gently against my teeth. He hissed, a big hand going to the back of my head to hold my mouth in place as I battered the point with my tongue.
I’d said he ‘wasn’t so bad himself.’ There had never been more of an understatement. He was amazing. His body was the stuff women dreamed of, perfect in form and without a blemish. His face was handsome, angular, and strong, with eyes that could look deep into your soul. He was kind and thoughtful, and his prowess in bed was second to none. I would never want for another.
I smiled, watching his face from under my eyebrows as I kissed lower, my tongue caressing the ripples of his abdomen. I slowly lowered myself to the floor, letting him anticipate as I opened his pants to free the object of my desire. I continued lower, sliding his pants over his taut, muscular ass. He stepped out of them, his hands resting feather light on the back of my head.
He didn’t try to force me. He would nudge, indicating his desire, but he never tried to make me do anything I didn’t want to. I teased him, kissing all around his manhood, but never where I knew he wanted me to kiss.
I loved how he was weeping, his cock bouncing and visibly throbbing. Using a finger, I slowly wiped away the slickness and deposited it on my tongue as I watched him, his soft groan of desire my reward for my play.
“You want me?” I whispered as my lips caressed his member with butterfly kisses.
“Yes,” he murmured.
I took him into my mouth, refusing my gag reflex as I took him deep. Neil was larger than most men, as large or larger than any lover I’d ever had. It tasked me to take all of him into my mouth, but for him, I would try anything, do anything.