by Q. B. Tyler
Me:Are you alone?
Stassia: Yes.
Me:I don’t like that you’re staying there by yourself.
Stassia: You gave up the luxury of telling me what you like when you left me sobbing on our floor.
Fuck. I knew I’d gone too far, but I knew I had to say the things that would make her let me go. Anything else I said she’d argue and wear me down. I had to bring up the things I knew she was insecure about so that she’d hate me. If she’s angry, maybe it will hurt her less. Maybe it will be easier for her to move on.
Me:I’m sorry, Stassi.
Stassi: What did I do?
Now that I won’t stand for. I won’t let her think she did anything wrong.
Me:Nothing. This is all me. I’m fucked up.
Stassi: No, you’re not. You’re beautifully broken…but you’re mine.
Me:I can’t be…as much as I would like to be. I just can’t.
Stassi: In another life?
The tears trail down my face as I type out one word before tossing my phone far away so I don’t have to see any more of her incoming messages.
Me:Forever.
The days slowly turn to weeks, and before I know it, it’s been two weeks since I’ve seen or talked to Stassia. We haven’t even texted since that first day and every day that goes by I feel a piece of me floating further and further away. I’d left my entire heart with her, leaving me hollow and empty. I’d given Seth a very watered down version of what happened and made him swear on everything we know that he won’t tell Stassi and he obliged, probably because he believes this is for the best as well even though he knows I’m destroyed.
I’ve heard from Kate periodically, making me wonder if Stassi had broken down and told her. She’s away at MIT but every once in a while I get texts like. “She’s doing good today,” or “She laughed on Skype,” or “Maybe you should call her?” I let every one of her texts go unanswered until the one she sent today.
Kate:Micah showed up at your house.
I’m pressing the button to call her instantly. “What is he doing there?”
“I don’t know,” Kate says. “And hello to you too, by the way.” She lets out a sigh. “Why aren’t you answering my texts?” I don’t say anything because I don’t know what I should or shouldn’t say without totally incriminating myself. “I know, okay? She called and told me. Borderline hysterical.” I still don’t say anything because she’s not being specific enough. “I know you’ve been sleeping together. More importantly, I know she’s in love with you. The question is are you still in love with her?”
“That doesn’t matter.”
“The hell it doesn’t.”
“Kate, there’s shit she doesn’t know…”
“And whose fault is that?” she snaps.
“We are getting off track; Micah is there now?” I jab the heel of my palm in my eye before throwing a hoodie on over my naked torso and pulling sweatpants up my legs. I grab my keys and my wallet and am out the door within minutes.
“Yes, I guess to help her move?”
“I don’t trust that guy, Kate.”
“My Spidey senses are tingling too, Dominic. Just get there and make sure she’s okay.”
“She doesn’t want to see me,” I mumble as I head into the parking garage and grab my car.
“Yes, she does.” She pauses. “Be warned though, she’s lost a bit of weight.”
“What?”
“She’s not eating and no one really knows what’s going on. There’s only so much I can do from MIT. I can’t force it down her throat.”
“No one has been to see her?”
“No, not that I know of.”
“Fuck. I should have had food sent there.” I shake my head. I’d been so caught up in my own pain and trying not to think about how bad I’d destroyed the woman I love, I had overlooked the fact that she might not take care of herself.
“That’s not the point, Dominic. She wouldn’t have eaten it. I had my mom drop off food a few times, and Stassia still had it sitting on the counter untouched a day later when we Skyped.”
“You said she was doing okay,” I growl into the phone.
“She had one good day and a few others here and there, but overall, she’s not doing well, Dominic. She misses you so much.”
“I miss her,” I confess in a moment of weakness.
“Then get her back!”
I’m definitely caught off guard by her reaction. She didn’t think I was sick for wanting her? Needing her? Falling completely in love with her? “You’re not weirded out by it?” I ask as I pull out of the garage.
“No. I mean…it’s strange or whatever, but you’re not her father and people seem to forget you spent most of the last seven years hating each other. Well…she hated you. It’s not like you guys were going on father daughter dates and hanging out. Sure sometimes, she tolerated you but overall, you kind of annoyed her.”
“Thanks,” I reply sarcastically though I could have guessed as much. I saw more of Stassi’s back as she stormed away than I did anything else when she was growing up.
“Oh, get out of your feelings! Why the hell did you end it? And so fucking nastily.”
I let out a deep sigh. “I had to, Kate.”
“Tell me why.”
I take a deep breath as I prepare to tell her the truth, but only because I might murder Micah when I arrive at the house so it’ll probably all come out anyway. “Micah had us followed, Kate. A PI, a fucking good PI that had all kinds of pictures of us. Very clear, very vivid, very explicit pictures. She’s naked, I’m naked, we are together, touching, fucking, you name it. Then he found out I was her math teacher in fifth grade. He put all these pictures together in a fucking folder and shoved it in my face and said he’d release them to everyone Stassia and I know if I didn’t leave her.”
The silence on the other end is deafening.
“That son of a bitch.” The voice I hear isn’t Kate’s though. It’s Stassia.
“Wait…Stassi?” My heart hurts just saying her fucking name.
“I’ll kill him. Literally. I am going to commit murder.”
“How…how is this happening? Someone speak,” I growl as I continue to zip through traffic.
“I’m Skyping with Stassi,” Kate answers. “I have you on speakerphone.”
“Why?”
“Because I needed to know the truth, Dominic,” Stassia answers. “I knew…I knew in my heart he’d done something; I just didn’t know it was this bad.” I hear her sniffle. “Are you really coming home?”
“Yes. Is he really there?” I ask, wondering if all of this was just a ruse to get us in the same room.
“Not yet, but he will be in an hour. We need to face him together, Dominic. I’m not afraid of him and you shouldn’t be either. I’m not going to let some asshole I’ve known three minutes with a God complex run my life. But I’ll talk to you when you get here.”
I nod, knowing she’s right. We’ve both been miserable because I made a decision for both of us. Instead of facing the problem, I ran from it and left Stassi in the midst of it to fend for herself against the devil. Why hadn’t I thought about the fact that he’d probably prey on Stassi if I was out of the picture?
“Has he been bothering you?” My scalp prickles and the need to punch or hit or break something clouds my vision as I prepare for the worst.
“No, not really. He’s called a few times but I haven’t been talking to anyone.” A breath I didn’t realize I was holding escapes my lips.
“Has he been by?” I should have had a private investigator of my own put on him. I know he has to have some shady dealings.
“No.”
“He hasn’t hurt you in any way?”
“No, Dominic, the only man who’s hurt me recently is you. Why didn’t you talk to me?” I’m acutely aware that Kate is still present and currently very involved in our business, but I didn’t care. This is the first time I’ve talked to her in weeks and I am minutes a
way from seeing her sweet face.
“All I could think about was that if those pictures got out, it would ruin you. If your grandparents saw them? I knew you’d be so humiliated. I was trying to save you from that.”
“Humiliation you can get over. But the pain from losing you hasn’t lessened at all. I’ll take embarrassment over heartbreak any day. And those pictures are a gross invasion of privacy, if he leaked them, I could sue the shit out of him.”
I hadn’t thought of that. But the damage would have been done by that point and that was what I was trying to avoid.
I’m pulling onto my street and I can already feel the weight of the world slowly lifting off my shoulders at just the idea of seeing Stassi again. “I’m going to be there in a few seconds.”
“Okay. Kate, I’ll call you later,” I hear her say, and then Kate’s voice chimes in, “Okay, behave, lovebirds!”
She hangs up just as I pull into the driveway and Stassi is running out of the door before I even manage to open the car door. Just as she gets to the bottom steps, I get out of the car and catch her in my arms as she lunges for me. She is sobbing into my neck as she wraps her legs around my pelvis. We keep this embrace as I walk us upstairs and into the house, but the second the door closes behind us our mouths find each other as we kiss like we are old lovers that haven’t seen each other in years.
Shit, that’s what it felt like.
“I love you,” I tell her between kisses. My mouth finds all of my favorite spots. Behind her ear, her neck, the corner of her mouth, her cheeks. It’s as if I’m reuniting with every part of her sweet face.
I push her against the wall, grinding myself into her as she fiddles with my sweatpants and reaches inside to grab my dick. “I’ve missed you, Dominic.” She smiles when my eyes meet hers and she must see the same love in my eyes radiating back at her. She’s wearing a dress that I lift slowly and move her panties to the side. I slide one digit up her wet slit and my mouth waters for a taste. She grabs my jaw. “Dick first. Tongue after.”
“Yes ma’am,” I laugh as I lower my sweatpants and briefs to my ankles and push my way inside of her.
“FUCK!” she screams. “Oh my God, how did I forget how good this feels?” She moans and puts a hand over her eyes as I pound into her. I’m already ready to come because it’s been weeks since I’ve been inside the love of my life so I am ready to explode. “Holy shit, I think I’m going to come.” Her eyes squeeze shut and she bites her bottom lip so hard, I’m afraid she might split it.
“You’re quivering around me. I need you to fucking come so I can get my mouth back where it belongs. I’m fucking hungry, baby. I haven’t eaten you in weeks and it’s the only thing that sustains me.”
“Godddd, your mouth and the dirty filthy words that come out of it. The things your tongue can do to me. I need it all.” She digs her nails into my shoulders just as my teeth attach to her neck and I empty my cock inside of her. She whimpers when she feels the first pump of cum and then she begins to convulse in my arms. “Fuck fuck fuck, I’m coming, Dominic!” she cries out. “Oh my God, fuck me harder.”
I do as she says, fucking her through both of our orgasms so hard, I’m afraid we may break through the wall. At some point, she stops and her eyes are staring so hard into mine, I wonder if she can see every inch of my heart and soul.
“You haven’t told me you love me back,” I tell her. “Do you still?” I ask, hoping for the best but fearing that maybe I’d fucked things up too much.
“The last time I said I love you, you destroyed my heart. You’ll need to work to get that back.”
Memories of our last conversation run through my brain. It was the last time I thought I’d see her like this. “I know.”
“I know why you did what you did. I’m glad you love me so much that you weren’t afraid to break our hearts if you thought it would protect me. But losing you isn’t good for me. It isn’t what’s right for me and it doesn’t protect me. Next time, talk to me. Don’t eviscerate me because you need me to walk away. Whether or not you meant them, you knew what to say to hurt me and it did fucking hurt. You preyed on my insecurities. On my mind, Dominic. That’s not okay.”
I let her very calm and rational words wash over me and in this moment she seems wise beyond her years. “I know. I was just so worried about what Micah was going to do to you.”
“Let me handle Micah.”
“How?”
“I did some research on dear old Dad. Seems he’s not so out of the life after all.” I let her down and watch as she smooths her hair down. “Had a nice little chat with a lovely detective at the police department and I didn’t give away too much necessarily. But maybe enough for them to be able to do some digging.” She shrugs. “In the meantime now, I’m going for blood.”
The look on Micah’s face when he sees me sitting in the living room is nothing short of pure entertainment. “Dominic, I thought you weren’t staying here.”
“Why wouldn’t I? It’s my home.”
“Yeah, Micah, I know you’re familiar so let’s just get all the intros out of the way.” She rubs my chest and leans in to wrap her arms around me when I stand up. “You remember Dominic? My boyfriend?”
“What did I say I would do if—”
“Blackmail, right? Adding that to your already pretty long list, huh? Extortion, bribery, embezzlement, murder, prostitution, assault with a deadly weapon, my God, and all the drug charges.” She continues to list off his crimes. “You know the detective that’s been after you for years certainly had a lot to say when she showed up here curious about my connection to you. I wonder if she knows the dirty cops you have on your payroll that allow you to hide in plain sight? Anyway, imagine my shock, when I realized that she was talking about my dear sweet birth father that I’d just reconnected with?” She puts a hand over her chest. “The horror!”
“Anywho, she left me her card in case anything came to memory…and of course, I can either be forgetful…or…I can remember a lot. Especially about those apartment buildings you were trying to move me into. What’s going on with those, huh? Fronts for any number of illegal operations?” My girl is on a roll and I’m honestly impressed with how much homework she’d done on this asshole.
His nostrils flare as he looks between us. “You’re both disgusting.”
“In comparison to everything you’ve probably done; I’d say that’s a false assessment.”
“I’ve never fucked anyone in my family,” he snarls.
“No, but you’ve probably killed a few of them, no?” Stassi snaps and cocks her head to the side. “You know, I’m sure they could find a lot of the weapons for a lot of crimes if they just knew where to look.” She taps her chin.
“You want the pictures? Fine, fucking take them.”
“All of them,” Stassi demands.
“Any copies too,” I interject.
“And I don’t ever want to hear from you again,” Stassi says. “Stay the fuck away from me and out of my life, forever.”
“And if you come near my girl again, you’ll answer to me and you won’t be able to scare me off,” I tell him as I take a step closer to him. “You come near her again,” I whisper. “I will kill you and I don’t need to be in the mob to get that job done, motherfucker. Do not mess with me.”
Stassi grabs me by the elbow and pulls me back towards her and away from the man that I’ve seriously considered punching for the last five minutes. “I want to live in peace, Micah. Just…let us. I love him. Maybe you don’t get it and that’s totally fine, a part of me doesn’t get it either. But I just want to be free to be with the man I love. Please, Micah. In eighteen years, I’ve never asked you for anything. You’ve never done anything for me. I’m asking that you just give me this. Just…let me be happy.”
The look he shoots me is one of pure evil, though the look he gives Stassi is significantly softer. He pulls a thumb drive out of his pocket and slides it into Stassia’s outstretched hand.
�
�This thumb drive has the only copies.”
“It’s not on a computer anywhere?”
“We change our computers out so frequently nothing is stored on there,” he says and Stassia narrows her eyes as if she doesn’t believe him. “I won’t Stassi. I don’t like it. As a matter of fact, I hate it, and I think you’re pretty abhorrent for this,” he says pointing at me. “But I can’t stop you. I have too much left to do to go to prison.” He looks at Stassi. “Don’t go to the cops. There’s more that even they don’t know…” he starts.
“Well, then we have an understanding. You don’t know anything about us, we don’t know anything about you.” She sticks her hand out and although I don’t want her touching him, I know Micah comes from a line of a handshake meaning almost as much as your word.
“Have a nice life, Stassia Vale.” He looks at me and shakes his head. “Get her out of Maryland. Somewhere no one knows either of you,” he says as he makes his way towards the door.
“The second I have a ring on her finger, we’re out of here and not a minute later,” I say and Stassi’s mouth drops open. Micah shakes his head and closes the door behind him hopefully forever.
“Me? You want to marry…me?”
“If you’ll have me.”
“Forever,” she tells me before she presses her lips to mine.
* * *
Five Years Later
“And just what do you think you’re doing, Mrs. Callahan?” I hear from behind me as hands wrap around my swollen belly and then I’m lifted off the small stool. I’m trying to put something away in our newly decorated nursery as we prepare for our first baby. I’m eight months along and Dominic and I are beyond excited to meet our baby boy.
“I am trying to clean!”
“And we agreed that I would put away anything that is above your eye level, if I recall correctly.”
I roll my eyes. “Sorry, Daddy,” I sass and cock my head to the side.
He pushes me against the wall and pulls my breasts out of the tank top I’m wearing. He pushes them together and runs his tongue over both nipples including my pierced one that he’s enjoying as much as possible now before it has to come out. “You know I’m going to love hearing you call me that all the time now.” He leaves one final kiss on each nipple before putting them back in my shirt. “I don’t want you climbing up on anything, my stubborn yet very sexy wife, understand?”