by Kiki Leach
“You don’t know anything, Nik. You’re screwing around with Oscar at the coffee shop while standing here trying to give me love advice.” He took another swig of vodka. Her brows crinkled. “What Vanessa and I have is special,” Maurice went on. “It always has been. Meanwhile, you’re screwing a married guy who doesn’t ever plan to leave his wife for you--”
“How the hell do you know about me and Oscar?”
“I overheard you and Vanessa talking. And then I remembered coming home and seeing his jacket here. I saw it on him when I visited The Bean a couple of weeks ago. He came to sign papers or something for a new building. I may have been a model,” he muttered, “but I’m not as stupid as you like to think.” He lifted the bottle to his lips again, but Nikki stepped forward, pulling it from his hand and setting it on the counter.
“Oscar has nada to do with this conversation--”
“He’s the one that got you pregnant, isn’t he?” he asked. She turned her eyes from his and he had his answer. “Does he know?”
“No,” she told him. “And he’s never going to find out, because just like you said, he’s never going to leave his wife for me.”
“Where did you go tonight?” he asked. “To see him?”
“You noticed I was gone in between fighting with Nathan and slobbering all over Vanessa?”
“She asked and got concerned. She went looking for you--”
“And then the fight of the century happened, I know.” She looked to the floor and tapped her toes against it as she nibbled the inside of her cheek. “I went to see him, but…”
“Are you done with him?”
She lifted her head and breathed out, irritated. “Stop asking about me. You’re not interested in what’s going on in my life, you’re just trying to deflect from what happened in yours tonight, and the fact that Vanessa is never going to see you as you see her.”
“She already does, Nik. You just haven’t been too observant.”
“Are you sure this isn’t just all inside la cabeza?”
“I know I’m in there somewhere,” he said. “I’m inside of her.”
She made a face. “I think you mean you wish you were inside of her.”
“I mean I am Inside of her heart. I know she’s got feelings for me. I can see it when she looks at me, there’s something there. It might not have always been there, but it’s there now.”
“What do you plan to do to find it?”
“I need to find her.”
He tried moving around, but she pressed her hand against his chest, stopping him.
“She wants to be alone, Maurice. She’ll come home when she’s ready. In the meantime, why don’t you go shower and sleep this off.”
He jerked back and made a face. “Why are you being so pleasant?”
“I’m not being pleasant. I’m trying to be what you accused me of NOT being before, a friend.” She twisted the cap on top of the bottle and placed it back into the fridge.
He headed for the door, but stopped and turned to look at her once more. “How much do you think things would change between us if Vanessa and I ever hooked up for real?” he asked.
“Us?”
“You and me.”
She stopped to think for a few seconds and shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t think they’d be any different but I’d probably move out. If I were to ever see you in the ‘throws of passion’, Dios en el cielo, it might send me to an early grave.”
“In that case, you should never leave.”
“Funny, Mo,” she replied.
“In all truth…” He paused to reflect for a moment. “Thank you.”
“I didn’t do anything.”
“You might not think so,” he said, “but you did. You did a lot.”
He headed upstairs to take a quick shower, promising himself he’d be out before Vanessa returned home.
She, meanwhile, was sitting behind her desk at her office still holding her cheek, certain it was going to bruise within days. It wasn’t especially terrible looking at the moment, but she knew that heavy makeup would definitely be needed. But how would she keep her mother from finding out and asking questions? She remembered seeing people pulling out their phones to catch the fighting on video, but seeing as she was too preoccupied with nearly killing Sheila in front of them, ripping the phones from their hands and smashing them was the absolute last thing on her mind.
Feeling restless, she got up from her chair and moved across the room to grab a month old issue of the magazine, plopping it down on the edge of her desk and flipping pages as she stood in front of it. Being in the office late at night was the only time she felt she could be in complete solitude. None of her employees ever worked late and all calls were often forwarded to her assistant, who would later take messages and only inform her if it was dire.
In the midst of reading the magazine, she felt a quick sting of pain coming from her jaw before it went away. It was almost like a spasm, coming and going at whim. She pressed her fingers against it to see if it would return and slowly moved her jaw side to side. She was so focused on herself that she never heard Nathan come up behind. He stood in her doorway, watching as she shifted back and forth in her heels, grinning as he wondered if some things were still the same about her, while others were so exceptionally different. He waited a little longer before finally knocking on the frame of her door.
She spun around and immediately dropped her hand, almost frightened at the prospect of who was there. When she realized it was only Nathan, she wasn’t the least bit thrilled, no matter what he may have believed on his own when he arrived.
“I didn’t mean to scare you. I only wanted to make sure you were okay,” he said.
“How did you get past security?”
He turned his lips downward. “I didn’t see anyone down there. Maybe he’s on a break.”
“They’re not supposed to take breaks. That’s why they’re security.”
“He wasn’t down there,” he said. “If you want to call him, I can wait.”
She rattled her head and turned away. “It’s fine.”
“Alright… How’s your face?”
“Still intact. How’s yours?”
He steadily lifted and lowered his shoulders, and dropped his hands inside his pockets. “It’s been worse. But that’s ‘cause your boy punches like a bitch.”
“So does your girl. But I can guarantee you that you’ll feel what Maurice did to you the next day and maybe even a few after that. Because he, unlike Sheila, is not a bitch. And when he hits you, he means it.” She turned back to the magazine and continued flipping pages. “How the hell did you know I would be here, anyway?”
He looked aside and tugged at his collar, then removed his jacket, tossing it across her couch. “Wild guess. I remembered when you liked to be alone before, and you’d go to Alexis’ office after hours. I’d find you in there and we’d—”
“Did Sheila send you or did you come on your own this time?” she asked, purposely cutting him off. “You called Maurice a lapdog, but it seems you’re being run around the city by Sheila to try and appease me. Think that’s very wise?”
He scratched his forehead and groaned. “Are we ever gonna get past this, Vanessa?”
“I am past it, can’t you tell?”
“V--”
“Nathan. I’m not going there again, okay? So just let it go.”
“Why should any of us when you haven’t? Tonight’s fight with Sheila proved that.”
She whirled around again and noticed he had stepped closer. She backed into her desk and swallowed hard. “And your fight with Maurice didn’t?” she asked, struggling to regain self-control. “We weren’t even fighting about you.”
“No?”
“No. She’s deeply insecure. She let that get the best of her and took it out on me.”
“We’re all insecure about something,” he said.
“Yeah, but that doesn’t give her the right to try and pummel my face in for it.
Talk to me like a grown woman and I’ll do the same. But come at me like a raging bull and be prepared for me to go in on your ass. What the hell are you doing here anyway? Shouldn’t you be off comforting her back at your hotel?”
“She doesn’t want me there.”
“Great, so you came here to spend time with me instead. I so feel the love in this room.”
“You should.”
She scoffed and pointed toward the door. “Get out, Nathan.”
“No. I’m not leaving until I get the answer I came here for.”
“And what answer is that?”
“Did you miss me the entire time I was gone? Because, Vanessa Rae Brown I missed the hell outta you.”
She felt herself succumbing to her emotions the moment those words escaped his lips. She felt it, and he knew it, but she couldn’t show it. She tucked her hair behind her and looked away from his eyes and cleared her throat, trying to dismiss her feelings. “I meant what I said before,” she told him.
“You didn’t tell me if you missed me or not.”
“I all but asked you why I should.”
“And that wasn’t an answer.”
“It’s not the one you wanted to hear.”
“Because it’s the one I know isn’t true. I missed you, Vanessa. I missed everything about you every single day I was away from you. All one-thousand-six-hundred-and-forty-two days, baby.”
“You counted?” she asked. He nodded and she gulped. “Is that supposed to make me feel good? Am I supposed to be flattered that you still want me after all of this time? Granted, I feel like I’ve one-upped Sheila in that respect even though you came here on the heels of her tossing you out on your ass--”
“That’s not what happened--”
“But trust and believe when I say that it doesn’t trump the fact that you still chose her and are still getting married. Not to mention, I don’t even want you anymore.”
“Yes you do,” he said confidently.
She laughed and folded her arms. “You think so?”
“I saw it the moment we locked eyes again in the restaurant, and then tonight as we danced. I see it now. I could take you back to any room right now and you wouldn’t hesitate. I could take you here on this desk.”
She opened her eyes wide and stared across the room. “Wow. And the role of a sexist pig will now be played by--”
“You were hoping I’d show up instead of Sheila that day at the restaurant, and when I did, your eyes lit up like they were on fire. And then we hugged, and I felt you embracing me like a woman welcoming her man home from work or the service. You didn’t want to let me go and I didn’t want to let you go either.”
“My God, you are a delusional piece of shit. At least when I tell Maurice to back off, he does. You just seem to keep going and going like the Energizer bunny on crack.”
“Every word I just said is true, Vanessa.”
“It might be true to you, but that doesn’t make it true in general. To think that I thought that maybe you had matured overtime, and it seems that being with Sheila has just made you even more juvenile and managed to lower your IQ all at once. I guess when they talk about ‘pussy power’ that’s what they mean. How the hell do you even manage to make it to court in the morning to sit in on depositions? Do you have to have a map drawn out for you in crayon on a napkin in order to make it there on time?”
He chuckled and wiped his hand down his face and throat, patting his chest.
“No, I’m serious,” she continued. “It’s either that, or your brain is now permanently damaged from all of those blows to the head that Maurice gave you tonight.”
“Alright, then I’m sorry.”
“No you’re not. You’re a big, fat, two-timing asshole. Sorry? Yeah, sure, in more ways than one but certainly not in the way you think.”
She turned again and tossed her magazine across the desk. She reached on the other side for a pile of previously unopened junk mail and began sorting through it, shaking her head, amazed at his arrogance.
He came up closer and placed his hand at her back. She stiffened, but refused to look at him.
He leaned his face, pressing his lips against her ear and whispered. “You can say what you want, Vanessa Rae Brown. But we both know the truth here.” His hand moved lower and lower to her tailbone. He gradually moved his fingers around in a circular motion and stared at her as if she were a piece of forbidden fruit. “Does that feel good, baby?”
She could feel herself falling for the same tricks he used in high school, the ones that always managed to get her into his bed, even when she knew she shouldn’t. She tried shutting down what she felt and quickly slid away from him, dropping her mail on the edge of her desk. It fell to the floor, but she didn’t have the strength to pick it up.
She rubbed the edges of her fingers against her forehead and looked toward the door. “Please leave,” she said through her teeth, though she was second guessing herself which she didn’t like. “You need to go.”
He moved in and looked down at her, smiling in almost a devious way. It made her angry, yet stimulated all at the same time. “Everything you said tonight is bullshit,” he told her. “And so is this.”
“Nathan--”
“Do you really want me to go, Vanessa Rae? Because if you do…” He caressed her face, then moved his hand around her neck and into her hair, massaging her scalp. She unwillingly embraced the feeling it gave her, resting her hands on his chest as he pressed their bodies against one another. She became even more aroused, throbbing between her legs. “I can leave anytime,” he said, hovering his mouth above hers. “Just tell me again, and I’ll go.”
She couldn’t bring herself to say it. She wanted him gone, she so desperately wanted him to leave her alone, but that part of her brain seemed to collapse at his touch. The part that wanted him to stay, the part that wanted him to keep touching her, the part that didn’t care he was engaged, the part that loved and had him first, didn’t want him gone.
Her entire body was tingling at this point, like tiny needles poking every part of her limbs. Her legs began to tremble, her heart quivered. She rubbed her thighs together without even realizing what she was doing, or why. What this man did to her emotions, the feelings he gave when he placed a single finger on her body, should’ve been considered illegal in all fifty states.
He dropped his hand from her hair and walked around her. He placed both hands on her waist and rocked against her as he moved his face into her hair. She could feel his dick expanding between her ass cheeks; it made her ache like a throbbing tooth. She didn’t want to feel like this. She of all people knew better than to feel like this, but she couldn’t help herself as much as she tried. It was an uncontrollable desire she didn’t even know she had, and one she would’ve gladly returned to the store for a refund if she were available to do so.
He shuffled them against her desk and she dropped her hands, curling them around the edge. He slid his hand down her ass and then up into her cocktail dress.
“Wait,” she said, tuning to face him.
His hand was still inside her dress, moving as she did, resting on her skin. His eyes were closed, his breath was warm. His lips looked like two pieces of soft candy, the kind you chew until there’s no more left to taste on your tongue.
She wanted a bite.
Without even thinking, she bent forward and licked his bottom lip from one side to the other. He opened his eyes and stared at her. And that’s when he was certain she had never given up on him, or them.
He moved in and took her by the waist again, gently lifting her from the floor and placing her on the edge of her desk. He maneuvered himself between her legs and loosened his tie.
Vanessa hiked her legs around his waist. She realized what was about to happen and felt she couldn’t stop it. Most of her didn’t want to, even though she tried to keep that part of her even lower than the part that couldn’t.
He lowered his face to hers and effortlessly slipped his tong
ue between her lips.
She moaned his name against it. “Nathan…” It sounded like a song in her voice this time.
He smiled. “Baby,” he growled. He moved his hands down between her legs, spreading them even further apart.
“Na…”
She kissed him deeper than she had before. Emotions had overcome her will to discontinue what she knew was against her own principles of committing such a common act of indecency.
Nathan swirled his tongue around the creases of her lips, tasting every part of her mouth that he could find. He hadn’t a care in the world other than to be with her in any way he could.
She dug her nails into the nape of his neck and jerked herself against his throbbing rod, slightly raising herself from the desk as she moved.
His fingertips slid against her inner thighs. He quickly found her clit through her panties and lay his thumb against the cotton, pressing down hard as it pulsated against him. She pulled back in surprise at the intense feeling of elation.
He smiled wide, teeth white, glinting against the moonlight that shone through her windows. He was beginning to sweat. His caramel colored skin looking just as tasty as ever.
“What?” he asked. His tone was mischievous, playful and wanting as he stared down at her lips and breasts. He remembered what it was like to taste them, and wanted to know if it was better this time around.
He glanced into her eyes, then down at her breasts again. Little by little he lowered her dress, stopping right after the top of her breasts were fully exposed to him, though her nipples were still hidden tightly behind her white lace bra. He rubbed his finger across them, then slipped one inside. Her nipple felt as hard as a rock, which excited him even more.
She shook her head as he lowered his hand back down and softly rubbed his thumb against her clit. He expanded his fingers around the walls of her pussy, sending her into a slight trance. She was almost at a loss for words, only managing to find them after an extended pleasurable moan.
“What are you doing to me?” she asked almost innocently. She was breathless, and reflecting genuine confusion. Vanessa hadn’t felt this way about a man since Nathan. She was certain no man could ever touch her the way he did and make her feel as she did in this moment, desirable, sexy….