by Bailey West
“I asked Nette to find you a few things you could wear while you are here. At least until we can get into your house and get your things.”
“Paxton, I really think that everything is okay. I can go back home. I don’t want to be a bother.”
“No, everything is not okay. I don’t want you to go back there or to the church until we can figure this out.”
“To the church? How can I work if I don’t go to the church?”
“I’ve spoken with Roman. I told him that you will be working from home. He agreed. So, you can work from here. I will set up a space for you to work in one of the other guest rooms. All of your meetings can be postponed or held somewhere else but not at the church and not at your house.”
“I feel like this is extreme. You said I am a fighter so, I can prot…”
“I went by your house,” he interrupted. “It looks like someone is watching it.”
“What?”
“Yes, I took a picture of the car and the license plates. There was a black charger parked a few houses up the street from your house. Have you noticed a car like that in your neighborhood before?”
“No, I haven’t.”
“Those guys didn’t leave. They are waiting for you to come back. I told Brother Adams. He sent over a squad car, and the car wasn’t there but, they will be back. It’s not random. They want you.”
“But why! I haven’t done anything! I don’t even know anyone here!”
“I don’t know what’s going on but I will find out. I promise. In the meantime, please Ollie, stay here. Don’t make me murder someone over you because I will, and that’s not just a figure of speech, I mean it.”
She leaned against the kitchen counter.
“Okay, Paxton. I will stay,” she sounded so defeated.
“Hey,” I pulled her into my arms. “This is going to get resolved. You don’t have to worry or be afraid. I am going to make sure it’s handled. You trust me, right?”
“I do trust you.”
I kissed her forehead and released her from my arms.
“Now, I need for you to tell me the whole story of what happened today.”
“Huh?” She tilted her head and looked at me.
“You’re leaving out something, and I want you to tell me what it is.”
“How do you know that I’m leaving something out?”
“Because I know you. I study you. Not in a creepy, naked old man peeking through the blinds, type of way but in a sincere attempt to know who you are for real. So, I know when you are not telling the entire story. I can feel it.”
She squinted her eyes at me then folded her arms across her chest.
“I don’t know what you are talking about,” she smirked and turned her head to the side.
“You want me to pry it out of you?” I raised one eyebrow and looked at her.
She kept her chin held high in defiance until I cracked my knuckles and started to move towards her. She backed away and threw up her hands in surrender.
“Okay, Okay…”
I stopped moving to listen to her response.
“I may have taken some self-defense classes, and I may have fought both of those guys off before I ran away.”
I knew it. She must be pretty good if she was able to get away from her attackers.
“So, if I do this,” I pushed her head with my fingers, “what will you do?”
“Nothing. Stop it, Paxton.”
I did it again, this time a little harder.
“Paxton, stop it!”
“Make me.”
I mushed her harder.
“Don’t do that!” She swatted at my hand.
“I said, make me!” I jumped at her. Before I realized it, her fist had connected to my mouth, and she was coming with a combination before I blocked her.
“Paxton, I’m sorry,” she said as I looked at the blood on my fingers that I had just wiped from my lip. As soon as she got close enough, I grabbed her and put her on her back onto the ground. I straddled her pinning her arms at her side.
“Where did you learn that?” I looked at her while she attempted to squirm free. Once she realized I had her pinned, she gave up.
“I took self-defense classes when I lived in Georgia. How did you know?”
“I told you, I see you, Olivia. Not the person you want everyone to see. I see you.” We stared at each other for a few minutes, “Never apologize and don’t ever show mercy again, do you understand? When you draw blood, you hit them in that same spot again. Draw more blood. You don’t stop until they are down. I mean down for good. Got it?”
She nodded.
“You're bleeding, Pax.”
She craned her neck to connect her lips with mine. I met her halfway and followed her head back down to the floor. She pulled her arms free and grabbed the back of my neck intensifying the kiss. She prompted me to open as her tongue found its way into my mouth. Her hands felt amazing running up and down my back as we hungrily explored each other’s mouths. I felt at a disadvantage because I had to use my hands to hold myself up. I pulled back and stood up. I helped her up from the floor and then pulled her to me. Now I could touch her like I wanted to. I gently held her face and slowly made my way back to her lips. I didn’t rush. I knew how her lips felt. I knew how she tasted; now I wanted to savor her. We kissed until I felt the strong urge to nudge her backwards toward my bedroom. I was about to make my move when she pulled away and peppered my bottom lip with quick pecks and then my top. I had to think of something other than being inside of her.
“Why didn’t you want to tell me about knowing self-defense?”
“My mother told me that it wasn’t ladylike to fight, so I never talked about it. The day I left Mason was the first time that I knew it worked. I broke his nose before I ran out of the house.”
“He had hit you again?”
“He tried, but I whooped his ass. Those classes saved my life.”
“Twice…” I added feeling the anger building in me again. “I need for you to always be yourself with me. I don’t want anyone except you. Not the woman that your mother tried to make you into or the one you became because of a clown-ass boy. You, Olivia. Okay?”
“Okay, I can do that,” she smiled.
“Would you like to learn more self-defense techniques?”
“Yes.”
“Then I will teach you.”
I kissed her again.
Olivia
I went to the doctor the day after the attack because I woke up in a lot of pain. I wasn’t feeling any pain while Paxton and I kissed, but once the adrenaline from the day wore off, I was in pain. While I was at the doctor’s office, I asked for a complete blood work up to include testing for STDs. I’d never been with anyone other than Mason, but I didn’t know who he’d been with. We never used condoms so if he had something it was almost a guarantee that he passed it to me. I wanted to be responsible. When Paxton and I sleep together, because we are, I want to know for sure that there is nothing that I could pass on to him to hurt him. The doctor told me that I had some severe bruising, but nothing was broken or torn. He prescribed me a mild pain reliever and told me the result of my rapid HIV test was negative. That was good news. He said the other test results would be back within a week.
When Paxton and I arrived back to his house, the family was there, Zanetta, Roman, Ezekiel, and Zora. They were all there to check on me. Zanetta had brought over some fried chicken and spaghetti and her biscuits. I had never heard of eating spaghetti as a side dish. According to Zanetta, that’s how they eat it where she is from. Her fried chicken is delicious. Her spaghetti had me going back in for seconds. We laughed and talked over dinner. Having them there to check on me made my heart explode. I’ve never had as much support in my life.
After a week of staying in the house, I started having some serious cabin fever. I was tired of being inside, even though there really wasn’t a need for me to leave because everything that I needed was here, Paxton saw to that. I
still felt restless. I decided to prepare dinner for us since Paxton had taken it upon himself to either bring home dinner or prepare something when he came home from work. I started cooking early so everything would be ready when he arrived home.
I prepared smothered pork chops, mashed potatoes, and fresh green beans. For dessert, I made a pineapple upside down cake. I made some sweet tea and chilled some water in a glass pitcher just in case he wanted that instead.
I heard the elevator open just as I was turning off the stove. Paxton walked into the kitchen carrying his briefcase and a bag of groceries. He looked around the kitchen confused.
“Before you start asking questions, I didn’t leave. I asked the concierge to recommend a grocery delivery service. They delivered the groceries downstairs, and the concierge brought them up. So, go wash and get comfortable then come back so we can eat.”
He didn’t say a word. He put the grocery bag on the counter then turned and went to the back to wash his hands. He came out about ten minutes later. He had changed out of his suit and into some basketball shorts and a t-shirt. He quickly kissed me and then sat down at the table. I fixed his plate and placed it in front of him.
He waited for me to come back with my plate before he reached for my hand and said a quick prayer. He has never prayed with me before. I was not expecting it, but I was happy he did it. I followed him in saying Amen, and then we both began eating.
“I haven’t had smothered chops in a long time. These are delicious.”
“Thank you. I was trying to think of something different than what we’d been eating.”
“You made a great choice. Thank you for cooking.”
“It’s my pleasure, plus it was my turn.”
“We don’t have to take turns. I don’t mind taking care of you, Ollie.”
“I love being taken care of but I want to take care of you the same way you take care of me.”
We continued our small talk while we ate dinner. After dinner, I brought out the pineapple upside down cake.
“I hope you like pineapples. This is my mother’s special recipe.”
I cut him a slice and placed it in front of him.
“Speaking of your mother, does she know what happened?”
“No, she doesn’t. I don’t plan on telling her unless I have to.”
“Does she know you are staying here?”
“Are you kidding me? So, I can hear a whole lecture about what ‘proper women’ do and don’t do? No thank you.”
“She still talks like that? Even though you’re grown?”
“Paxton, she still buys my clothes. Of course, she still talks like that.”
He laughed as he took a generous fork full of the pineapple cake and placed it in his mouth.
“Wow, this is good.”
He ate the piece I cut and then went back and cut a larger slice. He finished that one and sat back in his chair satisfied.
“Do you think you are ready to start training?”
“Yes, the soreness is gone. I’m ready to train and go to work.”
“Cool, let’s start tomorrow. The guest room is all set up for you to use as an office so you can start that tomorrow also.”
The next day, Paxton started training me in a couple different forms of self-defense. I’d learned some things in the classes I’d taken in Georgia, but he was taking it to a whole other level. We started out with kickboxing and then integrated some Krav Maga. Every morning we would meet in his gym, and he would show me a new concept. I was picking up on the moves quickly. He was careful with me at first, but then he started working with me for real. Sometimes it hurt, sometimes I couldn’t get the move, but I was determined to never let anyone get the upper hand on me again.
“Next week, I am going to take you to a gun range. We can start with something small that you can carry in your purse.”
After a couple weeks of training, I guess he felt like it was time to add something else to my training plan.
“I’ve never even seen a gun in real life.”
“Really? I thought country people did a lot of hunting,” he smiled.
“I know you are trying to be funny but nope. Never been around any hunters. How do you know so much about this stuff, the military?” I asked as I sat down on the ground with my legs folded. He sat down next to me.
“Yes.”
“Those special missions you told me about?”
“Yes. Olivia, I wasn’t an IT specialist in the Army. I was infantry.”
“Infantry? Isn’t all the Army infantry?”
“No, Infantry units are trained in combat on foot and close-range combat. Everyone in the Army does not do that. I never explained that to my parents. I signed up for IT when I first joined, but I changed my job and didn’t tell them.”
“Why?”
“I didn’t want them to be worried about me. I didn’t want them to try to talk me out of it. I was going through a slightly rebellious stage and thought I knew everything. Once I was in, I couldn’t really discuss it with them anyway. I recently told my brothers, but I don’t know if I will ever have that conversation with my parents.”
“Like me in a sense. Just trying to make everyone happy?”
“In a sense, yes. One day, I want to share more of my experiences with you. I want you to know who I am.”
“I would love that.”
He leaned over and kissed me quickly before he stood and helped me to my feet.
“All of this working out should help me. I don’t need to gain any more weight.”
Paxton
“Why would you say that? You could gain weight and still be bad a hell.”
“Whatever Paxton. I hate my body. Don’t nobody want to see all of these hips and butt. I know I have more than I should.”
“There’s no such thing as too much hips and butt. I love your body.” She looked at me like she didn’t believe me. “Are you kidding me right now? Have you seen your body?”
“I’ve seen it, but I try not to look. I have been called fat my entire life. I tend to agree.”
“You shouldn’t accept people’s labels of you. A lot of the time, most of the time, when people attempt to call out your perceived inadequacies, they are insecure themselves and projecting it on to you.”
“I guess that’s true in a lot of cases but I see my body. I know it’s not nice.”
“Do you trust me?”
“Of course, I do.”
“Come with me,” I said as I took her hand and led her to the full-length mirror in the guest bedroom. I turned her to face the mirror then stood behind her. I lifted her shirt over her head exposing her black lace bra underneath. Her hands immediately went to her stomach. I gently removed them and placed them on her sides.
“Don’t move them,” I said to her through the mirror.
She remained still while I pulled down her shorts.
“Step out.”
She stepped to the side and out of her shorts. She stood in the mirror in front of me in a black bra and black lace panties to match. I wanted her so bad, but I had to stick to my plan and let her make the first move. I had a reason for standing her in front of the mirror, I just hope I can get through this without taking her.
“Paxton…” she turned to look at me. I turned her to face the mirror again.
“Shhh, don’t look at me, look at yourself.”
I placed my hands on the fullness of her hips and moved them up to her waist. “This is the perfect hip to waist ratio.”
“Tsk…”
“You know that I wouldn’t lie to you, right?” I spoke to her through the mirror.
She nodded her head.
“I don’t care what someone said to you in the past, I’m showing you what I see. I’m showing you what’s actually there.”
“Okay…” she quietly replied.
“The size of your waist accentuates the fullness of your hips. Your stomach is not muscular but it’s beautiful and soft like a woman should be. I rubbed my h
and across her stomach. Your breasts look amazing in this bra.” I stepped back to unhook her bra. She didn’t protest this time or try to hide. She let me remove it completely. “Without it, they look even better. Look at how perfect the contrast is between the shade of your skin and the darkness of your areola.” I used my finger to circle her areolas without touching her nipples. Do you see how sexy it is when your nipples are hard?” I whispered in her ear.
Touching her, smelling her aroma mixed with her perfume had me feeling heady. I wanted to be inside of her so bad, but I had to make her understand how I felt about her body. I needed her to believe me when I told her how sexy she was. I didn’t want her to think it was just something I was saying because I was supposed to. I wanted her to know I meant every word I said.
I hooked my fingers in the sides of her panties and pulled them down. She stepped out of them. I gently touched her thighs, “Open your legs.” She followed my instruction. “This…” I ran my fingers along the top of her thighs, “…is the most perfect thing that I’ve ever laid my eyes on. I love the way you’ve groomed it.” She had all her hair shaved from her mound except for a small strip of hair right down the middle. “Anyone would love to make their resting place right here.” I was careful not to touch her because any moan or purr would have forced me to bend her over.
I moved my hands back up to her waist. “You, Doctor Olivia Callahan, are perfect. There is nothing wrong with your body. If God were to give me clay and say create the perfect woman, I would hand it back to Him and say, I can’t you’ve already created her and you created her for me.”
“Paxton…”
I turned and left her standing in the mirror even though I wanted to carry her to my room. I walked into my room, closed the door, stripped out of clothes and went straight to the shower…a cold shower.
Olivia
I watched Paxton walk out the door through the mirror. I was stuck in place still examining myself in the mirror. I’d never had anyone describe my body the way Paxton did. I’ve never experienced words that caused my nectar to seep and coat my thighs. I accepted his description of my body and decided at that moment that no one would ever be able to tell me anything different.