Miss Independent (34 page)

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 tongue 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….

“I’m making you feel good, V,” he responded, his voice deep, husky. “Isn’t that what you want, baby? To feel good?”

Her heart raced as if she had just finished running the Million Man marathon. She knew it was wrong, she kept telling herself so. She wasn’t Sheila. She wasn’t Nikki. She wasn’t someone willing to make it in life as the ‘side-chick-turned-wifey’, hoping to score someday with a man like Nathan. She had already had him! She was smart, successful, she didn’t need this. She didn’t need him anymore or to feel good between her legs.

But oh God, she wanted it. She wanted him so badly, she could still taste his desire for her on the tip of her tongue.

She gulped and looked into his eyes; they were practically glowing with eagerness and excitement, dancing in the light of the moon which both thrilled and frightened her to no end.

As she soaked through her panties, he reached up taking either side, and slid them down her legs. They swung around her ankle as he moved his hand back between her thighs and continued stroking her pussy and clit. The slower he moved against her, the more she began to rattle in ecstasy. Unconsciously, she dropped her head and bit and licked her lips. Nathan knew he had her then and leaned in, suckling her neck until it colored and nibbling at the center as she lowered her hand from his nape to his ass. She squeezed hard. It was round, firm. Perfect.

She bit down even harder on her lips and quickly loosened his buckle and unbuttoned and unzipped his slacks. As they fell to the floor, she slid her hand around to the front of his tight fitting Calvin’s.

Is it everything I remember,
she wondered.
Is it more? Less. I was just a girl then…

She cupped the head of his dick like the rim of a baseball bat, then moved her fingers higher and higher, stroking him until he filled her entire hand. His rod was long, thick, and had gotten a helluva lot harder in just those few seconds than that multimillion dollar rock that had been sitting pretty on Sheila’s finger for the last six months. She imagined him inside her again, thrusting and pumping, making each other sweat until the hairs at her crown curled down to their tips, as if she were in a violent rainstorm, and nearly collapsed in his arms at the thought.