Romance in Color

by Synithia Williams

  Cory groaned out aloud, “I think you need to stop this.”

  Completely ignoring her, Adrian knelt down and showered soft kisses along her bare legs. When his lips reached the edge of the short denim skirt she was wearing, he paused. “Did I ever tell you, you have the most gorgeous legs I ever saw?”

  “Yes, you did,” she squirmed. Adrian allowed his hands to freely roam upwards, caressing her inner thighs. Cory was trying her hardest but a soft moan still managed to escape her lips.

  “Well, I feel like I always have to stop and appreciate beauty when I see it. And since you’re having so much fun, may I remove these?” He was referring to her thong underwear.

  The last remnants of Cory’s resolve instantaneously melted away. She closed her eyes. “Yes.” It was more of a breathless whisper coming from her.

  Adrian smiled. “I didn’t hear you, baby.”

  “Si, por favor.” Cory said this much louder and with urgency in her voice.

  “Damn, you sound so sexy rattling off Spanish. You know that?”

  “Si,” she giggled this time.

  Adrian swiftly removed her panties. Now he was free to work his magic. He hiked up her skirt around her waist.

  “Urrr … I hate you for making me want you so much,” Cory complained but grabbed his head, urgently pulling him to her heated center. Adrian’s tongue delved into her sweetness, never disappointing her. “Oooh,” she crooned as she gyrated against the door.

  “Do you like that, baby?” Adrian asked.

  “No!” she lied.

  “Liar! Tell me,” Adrian commanded. This time, he was more forceful with her, his hot slippery tongue hungrily enjoying its meal.

  “Oh God, I love you so much,” Cory eventually screamed out.

  “So … should I take that as a yes, then?” He grinned. Adrian knew exactly what he was doing to her.

  “Yes,” Cory laughed. “You know I absolutely love it when you do that.”

  With that Adrian lifted her and flung her effortlessly over his broad shoulders. Cory shrieked and giggled as he took her over to the bed and laid her down. “And I absolutely love to be inside of you,” he remarked.

  “Yes, but my turn to be on top this time,” she insisted.

  “Fine with me.” Adrian flipped positions with her on the bed so that Cory was now sitting seductively on his muscular thighs, her legs spread-eagled on either side of him. His eyes looked appreciative as she flashed him.

  “So how much time do we have?”

  “About one hour,” Adrian replied after consulting his watch.

  Cory hurriedly removed his underwear before she complained, “That’s it? What’re we going to do in an hour, Adrian?”

  “A lot. If only you’d stop talking and stop trying to resist me, woman.”

  “Fine,” Cory huffed. Adrian willingly helped her get her camisole over her head. When her bare breasts were revealed, his hands automatically moved up to cup them.

  “Oh and by the way, lieutenant. When I’m done with you in one hour, you’ll never want to go into the forests again.”

  “Is that so? What, are you threatening me now, Cory?” Adrian stopped his caressing to jokingly ask her.

  “No. I’m promising you.”

  “Well, I don’t think I can complain ’bout that, baby,” he laughed.

  “Oh, you won’t be complaining,” Cory explained as she turned her entire body in the opposite direction. She looked back at him flashing a naughty grin as she started moving her body, sensuously gyrating her hips down on his eager shaft.

  “Oh … shit!” Adrian exclaimed. His hands now moved to cup her firm behind.

  “So do you like that, baby?” Cory asked.

  “Oh, hell yeah!”

  Their lovemaking was nothing short of spectacular for the short space of time they had together. Yet, it felt like they had all the time in the world. After she enjoyed giving him what she called the “island workout of his life,” Cory quickly surrendered to Adrian in sweet abandon, only then allowing him to take total possession of her body. They left the bed and were making wild, passionate love against the wall, against the door, anywhere that had a stable backing.

  “Cory!” Adrian called her name breathlessly. Her legs were wrapped tightly around his waist, her nails sinking into his flesh as he repeatedly drilled into her against the closet. He exploded when she screamed his name, too, causing them both to climax.

  After a couple more orgasms like that, Cory must have dozed off. She was physically exhausted after their bout of loving now and from earlier this morning. When she stirred on the bed, Adrian had already showered and changed into fresh military fatigues. Her mind momentarily flashed back to just a few hours ago. Cory had woken before him and proceeded to jump his bones. Adrian awoke to some early morning action between the sheets. She didn’t want her purchase to go to waste so they picked up where they left off last night. Even though it was at five in the morning, Cory had worked that lingerie, blowing his mind over and over in it.

  “Hey, sleepy head.” He was strapping back his pistol into the holster on his leg.

  “Hey,” Cory responded groggily. “When did I fall asleep?”

  “Probably just as soon as I was finished with you,” Adrian grinned, buttoning up his camouflage jacket. “So hopefully that would be sufficient to last you two days, right?”

  “Mmmm,” Cory smiled. “I’ll miss you so much, baby.”

  “Don’t worry. I’ll try my best to get this guy as quickly as possible … for your sake.”

  “I sure hope so.”

  Adrian sat on the bed and tried but in vain to smooth her hair back. He kissed her gently.

  “Get some rest, baby. And Cory … be good till I get back.”

  “I’ll try my very best,” she groaned when Adrian started heading for the door. “Adrian, wait!”

  He stopped just as he was about to turn the lock.

  “You were saying to me last night that you had something to tell me. You started but then your phone rang with Anna and then I fell asleep I think,” Cory was saying. “So what was it?”

  Adrian’s body tensed. “Baby, it’s a long story. I’ll tell you when I get back, okay?”

  “You promise?”

  “Yep. Boy Scouts honor. Soon as I get back.”

  Cory smiled as Adrian blew her a kiss and opened the door to leave. She wondered what his story was. She couldn’t imagine Adrian doing anything crazy, other than what she supposed came with being in the military. So she knew it couldn’t be anything like that. Her next guess was an affair. It couldn’t have been that either she reasoned. Cory knew by the time she was finished with him, he didn’t have the strength to satisfy another woman. Besides, he loved her too much. He would never do anything to hurt her. But whatever it was would have to wait till he got back.

  When Cory heard the front door closing, it signaled the first time since being married to Adrian that she wasn’t going to see him for two entire long days.

  Chapter 26

  Cory remained glued to the bed for a while longer after Adrian left, daydreaming again. She was thinking about their life together. How much she loved him and how much he loved her. She had no idea where she would have been without him in her life but she felt definitely blessed to have him there.

  “Okay, Cory. It’s time to get back to work,” she scolded herself out loud. She got off the bed and searched around for her clothes. It was amazing how fast it would always come off when Adrian was around. That was when she noticed it. Her laptop lay on the floor, half hidden under the bed. Horror immediately flashed across her face.

  Please tell me nothing’s wrong with it, played in Cory’s mind over and over like a broken record. Please, please, please, she begged. It was probably knocked over during their just
concluded, rather adventurous lovemaking session. But neither of them had been bothered by this possibility whilst getting busy a short while ago.

  Cory picked up the laptop off the floor and screamed. “Oh, no!” Tears were already welling in her eyes. The top of it was busted and had one long crack running along its entire surface. She immediately opened it and pressed the power button. Nothing happened. It wasn’t powering up. It wasn’t working. Panic finally set in.

  How the hell was she going to finish her presentation now? Think Cory, think. She decided to call Adrian. He would know what to do. After all, he was the IT major in college. A fact she only found out last night for that matter. But a fact she more than appreciated at this moment, however.

  Cory dialed Adrian’s number. After only two rings, he answered, “Hey, gorgeous. Missing me, already?”

  “Yes, I am,” Cory hastily answered. “Unfortunately, that’s not the reason why I’m calling you.”

  “What is it, baby? Everything okay?” Adrian’s tone immediately changed from one of flirting to one of concern.

  “No, everything is not okay. Adrian, my laptop is broken,” Cory cried into the phone. “It fell from the bed to the floor. And now it’s all cracked up and not coming on when I tried the power button. It isn’t getting any power, Adrian. And I have to finish this presentation today. What am I going to do?”

  “Baby, calm down,” Adrian demanded. “Look, if the screen is cracked you wouldn’t be able to see anything, anyway. Were you able to save any of your work?”

  “Yes, my flash is still connected.”

  “Well, okay. At least you have something. All you need is a new machine, then. Why don’t you use my laptop?”

  “That’s a great idea.” Cory prayed her flash wasn’t damaged from the fall, too; otherwise she would have to start from scratch and redo the entire thing and all her hard work would have been but in vain. “What would I ever do without you, baby?”

  “Don’t know. Now get cracking. You have work to do,” Adrian commanded.

  “Oh and by the way lieutenant, you owe me a new laptop.”

  “So it’s my entire fault now, is that it?” Adrian joked.

  “Yes. You’re the one who wanted to make love when I had work to do,” Cory retorted.

  “Like you didn’t … besides, I didn’t hear you complaining, baby,” Adrian laughed.

  “Bye, baby,” Cory laughed and ended the call.

  She went into the second bedroom Adrian had converted into his study and opened up his laptop. When the screen came up, it demanded a password code to be entered.

  “Dammit,” Cory cursed. She didn’t know Adrian’s password for his laptop because she’d never used it before now. She would just have to call him again.

  “Adrian, sorry to bother you again but I need to get your password please.”

  “Oh yeah, I forgot about that. It’s Marine One. With a capital M and capital O.”

  “Marine One? Why am I not surprised?” Cory typed in the password. “Great, it worked. Thanks, baby.”

  “Talk to ya later,” Adrian said and hung up.

  Now, she was way behind but she wasn’t going to stop until she finished the damn thing this time. Cory inserted her flash drive into Adrian’s laptop. She breathed a sigh of relief when it was recognized. She was able to download all of the presentation she had completed so far onto his laptop so she could work from there. And she worked nonstop for the next three hours until she was finished, finally.

  She checked and double-checked the PowerPoint. She checked for grammar and spelling. She vetted it for easy navigability and pleasing use of graphics. She ensured the colors she used were easy on the eyes. When she was finally satisfied that everything was okay with her presentation, she e-mailed it to Javier and Danielle. They would have it to look over as soon as they got in on Monday morning to prep themselves before the meeting started.

  “Finally,” Cory shrieked elatedly. Now, she could concentrate on relaxing for the rest of the weekend. Take a long soak in the tub, pour herself a glass of wine, or even look at a movie.

  She was about to shut down when she decided to send her presentation to Adrian’s recycle bin first. It was quite a large file and she didn’t want it taking up too much memory on his laptop. He was working on his computer game, which probably took up a whole lot of memory in itself. Cory deleted the presentation from the documents window and clicked on the recycle bin to empty it from there, too.

  As she was about to delete it, something caught her attention. There was another file in the recycle bin. It read: Report - Confidential. Cory held her hand. Her mind started racing. She thought about it for a moment. What could Adrian possibly have in this confidential file? And what was it doing in his recycle bin?

  Probably his work stuff, Cory decided. Adrian’s job entailed a lot of challenges and Lord knows what else Cory knew. But he always spared her the details, never speaking about it. Maybe this file might give her some clues as to what he really did on the job. Curiosity got the better of her. Cory wanted to know what was in that file. She restored the file, double-clicked on the folder to open it up and saw one single item in it.

  A word document named Report opened up. It was in a letter format addressed to the Commissioner and carbon copied to the Brigadier and Minister. It was dated two years ago. The caption read: Report on Shooting Incident and the date. The 3rd of March? Why was that date so familiar to her? Cory read the document:

  Dear Sirs,

  As instructed by you, I, Second Lieutenant Adrian Mendez, hereby truthfully give my account of the events leading up to the shooting deaths of Patrick Morris, Anthony Powell, Marlon Williams and Collin Phillips on the night of March 3.

  Cory froze. Her eyes remained glued to the screen. Collin Phillips? Maybe she didn’t see correctly. She read it over. Good, she wasn’t delusional. It was indeed Collin Phillips she saw. The date was also correct, but that was the date Collin was killed. What was Adrian doing with this document? He didn’t know about Collin or how he was killed. She had only told him about this the night he had dinner over at her house.

  She continued reading the second paragraph. It stated the names and ranks of seven other soldiers and officers who were in the company of Adrian on patrol in the city that night. The third paragraph gave details of the APB they received but it was when Cory reached the fourth paragraph that she stopped. That part read:

  After all rounds stopped firing and all went quiet, I proceeded to firstly check on the driver of the vehicle as he was the one closest to my position. He was slumped behind the wheel. I checked for a pulse on his neck. There was none. It was then I realized he was already dead on the scene. This was later confirmed by homicide officers who immediately arrived. The driver of the vehicle was later identified as Collin Phillips. He wasn’t a known felon to the police. He wasn’t armed.

  Her body trembled. There was a pain in her chest, constricting her heart’s ability to pump her blood. Panic gripped her. Fear shot through her. A muffled sound caught in her throat but it sounded too weird to be a scream. Between the blinding hot tears, Cory read the part over. Could this really be her Collin? The names, the date, the time, and the events were all familiar to her. This couldn’t be possible, still? How could Adrian have been there? He wouldn’t know about something like this and keep it from her, would he?

  Cory glided off the chair and sank to the floor, clutching her chest. It all began coming at her at once. Adrian’s job. He killed for a living. He never wanted to speak to her about how many people he had actually killed. His unexpected marriage proposal on the fort that day. Their wedding in Tobago. His undivided attention to all her needs these past three months. How happy she was. His IT degree and other dark secrets he probably kept from her. Her father’s reaction to his career choice. And now this.

  “Oh, God!” Cory tho
ught of her father now. He had been so right after all. Why hadn’t she listened to him? How could she ever face him again? He would never forgive her for this.

  Cory instantly remembered the days just after Collin’s death. She was still trying to come to terms with her mother’s breast cancer diagnosis. Then, her mother went soon after Collin. Everyone had said it was because of the grief. She had just given up and didn’t care to live anymore.

  This had been the most dreadful time in her life. Many times she just wanted to die herself. Then her emotional breakdown quickly followed brought on by the post traumatic stress of their deaths. She couldn’t eat or sleep. She had to be treated by medication to get over this. If she hadn’t been treated, she may have very well been admitted to a psychiatric ward by now. Then during all this came the break-up with Preston.

  And all of this was because of Adrian? If it wasn’t for him, her brother and mother would still be alive today. How could Adrian do this to her, after he claimed to love her? It was all a lie. Everything was a lie from the beginning. The life she had now was a lie.

  Was this all a big game for him? How long did he think he could fool her for? For her entire life? Till she was dead, too? No wonder she found this report in his recycle bin. Adrian had no intention of her ever finding out about it. But how could he have been so careless as to leave it there without deleting it forever? That was his big mistake.

  “You’re such a fool, Cory!” she screamed at herself. “To think this man could really love you.”

  She didn’t know how long she remained sobbing on the floor. She only got up because her throat was all dried out. She passed the bathroom on her way to the kitchen. When she looked in the mirror, she jumped at the scary reflection staring back at her. Her eyes were red and bloodshot, puffy and swollen in her tear-stained face. Her hair didn’t make things any better either, falling in a mess about her troubled facial features.

  In the kitchen, she needed that drink of wine now but there was none anywhere. She couldn’t believe she was out of wine. She needed something strong and water wasn’t an option this time. Cory frantically searched through the kitchen cupboards for something. Anything. All she eventually found was a bottle of scotch. She didn’t drink scotch, but scotch would have to do today. She cracked the new seal on the bottle and poured a half glass of the amber-colored liquid.