Having Him: A New Adult International Romance Serial (Angelique's Greek Book 3) (2 page)

She missed the Bahamas.
 

“Everything okay?” Theo said after several minutes.

That was it. She couldn’t hold it back anymore; she sobbed uncontrollably, and it felt so good.

“Theo, I spend so much time trying to look put together and feel positive that I am tired. I want to be sad, if only for a few moments. I miss my home. I feel defeated about the hotel. I wanted it to work… And I wanted it to be easy. It isn’t and I feel sad about that.”

He reached over and hugged her—a real hug, one she hadn’t felt since she left the Bahamas and her family. She felt safe with him. He was forceful but deeply comforting, and she felt surrounded, protected on every side.

“We’ll make it,” he kept saying. “You’ll make it.”

Soon her tears abated and she felt almost foolish as she wiped her eyes and sat up.

 
“Sorry,” she managed to say.
 

“Don’t be. You wanna go now?”

“Where?”

“The Bahamas—your home.”

“Really?”

“Sure! Anything for you. I want to see you smile. I want to see you succeed. I’d love to meet your family too!”

She nodded. She was a little overwhelmed and didn’t know what to say. She wanted to go home but bringing Theo with her meant this was real—she’d never introduced her family to a man before.
 

“Can I think about it?”

“Of course you can! But what is holding you back, Angelique? You are clearly homesick.”

“I’m just not sure I am ready to give up on the spa just yet.” And I am scared of you meeting my family, she thought.
 

“That’s my girl! Don’t give up on your dreams. I can help make them a reality. We can always go to the Bahamas later. I will have to meet your family sooner or later and I prefer sooner,” he said winking at her.
 

She smiled at him, closing her eyes, and lifting her head towards the sun. He was such a good man, what was she so scared of.

*****

She felt Theo’s hands on her inner thigh and it startled her awake.
 

“Hey,” she spoke sleepily, realizing she had drifted off.
 

“Hey, sexy girl,” Theo said with a devilish grin. “I was watching you sleep and I needed to touch your beautiful skin. I’d like to put my mouth on it, to see if it tastes as goos as it looks—if I am being honest.”
 

She laughed. “Please do, my boy.”

Within a breath he was upon her. His milky white skin opposing her dark coloring in the most beautiful way.
 

She dug her finely manicured fingernails into his creamy back; she was ready for him.
 

Briefly, she thought that they should move inside to avoid any unwanted eyes, but the danger of being caught turned her on even more.
 

Theo’s hands reached into her bikini and he pulled out her breasts—her nipples rosy and erect. His pink tongue flicked at them and she felt her clit pulsing.
 

She grabbed at his swim trunks and pulled them swiftly off. She watched as his cock jumped out and stood erect. She wanted to taste it. She wanted to give him pleasure. He was so selfless and so kind; she wanted to repay him with the utmost pleasure.
 

Theo began to pull at her bikini bottoms but she stopped him, forcefully flipping him over until he lay on his back on the lounger.
 

“This is for you, my boy. I want you to cum,” she whispered before fondling his cock with her dark fingers, caressing his creamy skin softly before plunging it into her mouth. She rubbed her tongue along his shaft and felt him throbbing.
 

“Angelique. Oh, Angelique…” he moaned. She pushed her mouth further onto his cock, engulfing the whole thing in her warm mouth.
 

Quickly, he pulled at her hair and looked into her eyes.
 

“I love you,” he said as she felt him explode into her mouth.
 

After composing himself, Theo attempted to move Angelique onto her back. She resisted and instead stood up, her bikini top barely hanging on to her body. Her nipples still hard.

“I want to please you too, babe,” Theo said sleepily licking at his lips

“No, Theo. That one was for you. I wanted to please you—did I?” she asked knowing by the look on his face that the answer was yes.

“Babe, you are amazing,” he said as he drifted to sleep on his lounger.
 

*****

They sat basking on loungers for a few more hours before moving down to the pool area to get some lunch. They sat under the shade of a large parasol munching on grilled papaya and chicken salad, coconut shrimp and a tropical fruit platter piled high with cantaloupe, watermelon, and pineapple.

Theo’d set up the laptop so she could read his memoir.
 

“It’s embellished in parts,” he reminded her with a grin, slipping a piece of pineapple into her perfect mouth, “so don’t judge me too harshly.”

“I won’t,” she replied, enjoying the intense sweetness of the fruit and the lilt of his voice.

She settled back into the sun lounger and opened her thick thighs so that the laptop would fit between them on the plastic slats. Picking up a piece of cantaloupe, she began to read.

From Nothing I Rise
, the title read.

She felt eyes on her and turned to see him watching eagerly. “You like it?”

“I’ve only read the title,” she giggled.

“This is going to kill me,” he said, “and annoy you. I’ll be watching your facial expression and trying to work out whether you like it. I’m just gonna try and go to sleep and fry to a crisp.”

She laughed again. “Sounds good to me.”

They shared giggles as she caught him glancing over at her a few times, but soon his breath deepened as he dozed and she had the chance to really submerge herself in his story.
 

It wasn’t a conventional story written in chronological order, but, instead, it darted between various scenes and times through connected events. She read about a dramatic boardroom sequence, in which he made a bold decision that opposed the rest of the board and paid off to the tune of billions; then an intimate childhood scene in which his mother prepared cocoa tea in a tin can outside their shack.

But then came something that made nausea lurch through her stomach.

*****

Chapter 2

He raped my sister. He raped my sister. He raped my sister. That was all I could hear in my head. I watched helplessly as my sister lie hunched in a heap on the floor, her dress ripped, wailing like something I had never seen. Hatred pumped through my body.

Angelique sat, stunned. She pushed the laptop away from her. It felt like the world was closing in around her, drowning her, choking her. The heat in the air suddenly felt oppressive and itched on her skin. She eased up off the lounger and headed inside on tiptoes, careful not to wake Theo.
 

Suddenly she felt guilty—spoiled. Here he was, a man who had watched someone
rape
his sister, and she was forcing him to console her because she was homesick and sad that things weren’t going her way. How dare she act so spoiled? Everything felt wrong. Every. Little. Thing. She looked at his sunshades on the bedspread—even those made her feel shameful.
She couldn’t stay here. She didn’t deserve this man. He was too kind. He had seen so much hurt in his life, yet, he indulged her. She was mortified by her behavior.

 
She picked her pile of clothes up off the bed, reaching in the pocket of her dress for her door’s keycard, then headed out the door, careful to close it as quietly as possible.

Once in her room, she could do nothing but pace the floor. Throwing all her clothes on the bed, all she could think about was how little she actually knew about him. She didn’t know him at all, honestly. She knew he had a tough life but she didn’t understand
how
tough it had been.
 

How could she have been so stupid? She was the type of girl to wait, to get to know a potential suitor inside and out, to take everything so painfully slowly that every guy she’d previously been out with had gotten frustrated. The adrenaline that had sustained her so far seeped out of her body, leaving only a numb sensation and an ache in her heart that felt like regret.
 

She twisted the door lock shut and pulled the chain across it. Striding into the bathroom, she made up her mind to run herself a tub, but she couldn’t muster the energy to turn on the taps. She sat at the tub’s edge, trying not to think of the passionate love—their contrasting bodies thoroughly intertwined—that they had made in that very spot.
 

Plunging her head into her hands, she wondered how she could have been so stupid. He was a strong man— beyond rich, smart, sexy, kind, and resilient. She was a silly black girl from the Bahamas who had crazy ideas. She cried over minuscule things and forced him to comfort her and coddle her.
 

A sudden longing for home swept over her again. She recalled the delicate pale green of her home’s greenheart boards, the lightest baby pink of the shutters. The warmth of her mother’s embrace. Her father’s smile. She got an urge to phone them and stood up to log onto Skype on her iPad, but hesitated, and eventually sat back down on the side of the tub.
 

She knew she couldn’t keep the hurt out of her voice, and her mother worried so much that before she knew what was happening her mother would be on a plane out to Hawaii to come and see what was wrong. She couldn’t have that.
 

Angelique cried, thinking about Theo watching his sister and being unable to do anything about it. He deserved better than her. He deserved a strong woman who would lift him up not bring him down.

Theo
.
 

She stood up, pulling her braids back from her dark face and watching herself in the mirror. Standing there, she made up her mind to forget that he inspired her to be a better person, that he made her think of things she had never thought before, sparking her mind into new realms and possibilities.
 

She decided that she needed to end the relationship as soon as possible. She would never be able to understand him, or support him in his success. He was a man who had seen heartache and loss, who had turned nothing into everything, and she had acted like an overindulgent brat. He didn’t need that in his life.
 

She’d stay, though, and continue looking for a place for the spa. She owed that to Carla and Atreus. They had sent here on a mission, and regardless of the fact that she nearly abandoned it all and went running home to her mommy, she would complete that mission. She had come to Hawaii to start a spa hotel, and there was no way she was going to go running back to the Bahamas with her tail between her legs now.
 

She would have to start distancing herself from Theo, though. She didn’t want to hurt him but…

She picked up her smartphone and called Kalani.

“Paradise Realty, good day.” She recognized his kind voice right away. He sounded out of breath. She imagined him barreling down the hallway of his office to catch the phone in time, totally filling up a huge leather office chair with his bulk, wiping his sweating brow.

“Hey, Kalani,” she said, trying to make her voice bouncy and cheerful. “We had problems with that other piece of land, but I’m still looking for some place to start the hotel, so let me know if you have anything else.”

“What kind of problems?” His tone was full of concern.
 

She strode onto the balcony and took the enthusiasm up a notch to keep herself from crying. “Oh, nothing much,” she said breezily. “I don’t even want to think about it. I’d rather just see something else.”

“Oh,” Kalani said. “Are you … are you sure?”

“Definitely.”

“Well, sure. I’ve got a couple of new properties I’m about to add to the books right now. If anything looks good I’ll get onto the owners and call you right away, how’s that?”

“Perfect,” Angelique said. “You’re a star.”

“Bye, beautiful flower.”

She loved when he called her that, as he had ever since he had first met her and she’d worn the most vivid fuchsia sundress.
 

“Bye, Kalani.”

When she hung up the phone, the silence in the room was suddenly unbearable. She switched on the TV, flipped it over to some music channel and cranked the volume.
Livin’ La Vida Loca
blared out, a sign on the corner of the screen reading
Classic Hits of The 90s
, and she danced around the room, laughing as she caught herself in the mirror. It reminded her of goofing around with her little sisters, holding their afro combs to their mouths like crazy-shaped microphones. She had lived a privileged life in the Bahamas and she had always been proud of that. Now that Theo was in her life, she felt ashamed for living so comfortably while he had suffered.
 

How could they ever understand each other?

 
Soon Ricky Martin faded out and she flopped down on the bed, exhausted from her prancing, eagerly waiting to hear which song would come on next. She had memories of her youngest sister Claudine jumping on the table, puffing out her afro and screwing up her face, pretending to be Scary Spice.