Opulent (7 page)

She put her hand on my wrist. “Chad?”

“Sorry… Before I got shunted to a foster home, I got to have my last Christmas with my real parents. It was all like this. The Christmas tree, the fireplace. Presents. We even had stockings on top. My mother made sure there was something to give. Even though we were so hard up. Poor and broke, because my father wasted his money on booze and cigarettes.

“I use to say to Mom to put out the fire so Santa could come down the chimney. She didn’t because it was the only heating we had and it had a wetback system that heated our water. She used to open the window and say Santa would come in through and give me my present. My dad used to joke that Santa was too much of a fat cunt to fit.

“I'd stay up late watching the window for Santa to arrive, my eyes drooping, fighting the fatigue to keep my eyes open. I'd ask Santa for a bike for Christmas. I use to tell my parents that I was so good that Santa was bringing it for me. I remember showing them my school report, the proud look on my mother’s face. Being five at the time you don’t realise the family hardship. Little did I know the bike was so expensive and we had no money, that I had my hopes up for nothing.

“I woke up on Christmas day to see a large box wrapped up. Gosh, I remember screaming that Santa had come. The feeling of joy was unexplainable, my mom came down the stairs wondering what the commotion was about and my dad was in the kitchen with bottle of beer. Drunk.

“I felt like it was a kid’s dream come true. I ran over to the big box and started tearing away at the packaging. Bit by bit the wrapping paper came off. It was wrapped in multiple layers of Christmas paper, then newspaper. There were so many layers, but I was so excited. I remember the snickering and snorting from my dad in the kitchen, my mother thought he finally did something decent.” I paused, my hands curled into a fist. My teeth gritted.

Felicity said, “It was an empty box? Wasn’t it.”

I nodded, “I looked up to my father, who burst out laughing when I cried. I was so filthy with the cocksucker. My mother came to comfort me. She growled at him for being so cruel, and he went into a rage. He hit my mom and when she fell to the floor the bells and the Christmas decorations on the Christmas tree fell on her. The lights flashed, and the angel on top fell in front of me. Dad tried to beat her more when she scratched his face in retaliation. She ran to the bedroom, holding the door back as he tried to break it down.

“The door began to split when he broke through. My mother was curled up on the floor when I ran in front of him and stood my ground.

The tears still poured while I was trying to hold this monster back.

‘Leave mommy alone!’ I screamed. ‘Stop it!’ I cried.

Whack! He got me in the stomach. I was winded. A full grown man hit a five-year-old kid. Fucking coward. I got up, huffing, gasping for air while my mother fought him off kicking and screaming.

I grabbed his legs and he tripped. My mom got past him and ran back to the lounge. When he got up, enraged, he hooked me right on the jaw, I fell down on a floor just like this. I can’t remember if I was knocked out, but when I opened my eyes, I remember huffing, watching the thin pool of blood move like waves in front of my mouth.

I got up and looked at the dressing table mirror. My face my bruised and bloodied. My teeth were covered in blood, it was seeping from my chin like syrup. One front tooth was loose. Every shriek I made had blood spitting out my mouth. I heard my mom screaming again in the lounge, I ran over and she was curled up with the phone while he hit her. I jumped in between them, shielding her, taking the hits. I couldn’t breathe, I just remember punching back, hitting the cunt with everything I’d got, to protect her.

Bang! Whack! Bang! The hits were like being hit by a truck, each blow, but I kept fighting back, kicking, screaming, scratching and punching till the police arrived.

I took so much damage that I was in intensive care for two weeks. Fractured jaw, cracked ribs and a punctured right lung. Fractured eye socket.

If it wasn’t for our local Constable Henry Farquhar. I would have been dead, maybe both of us. When my dad was arrested, he had the book thrown at him. It was all over the news, the horrific injuries we suffered. Karma is a real bitch and when he got incarcerated, prison justice got him in the end.

I took a moment to calm my breathing. I turned to felicity with bloodshot eyes. “You know what the fucked up thing is? That that exact experience made me who I am today.”

Felicity raised her eyebrow.

“To fight against impossible odds, to fight back with everything I’ve got, gave me the resilience and toughness to become a successful businessman. I wish my mother were still alive so I could have spoiled her. Give her the things we were too broke to afford. To see her happy. To never see her struggle.”

I paused for a moment and my gaze shifted to Felicity when she took off her glasses to wipe her eyes. He looked over to the presents I bought her, wrapped neatly underneath the tree.

She said, “That’s why you were teary eyed in the shop…” She put arm around me to comfort me and she said, “I’m sure she would be proud of you now…” She kissed my forehead and said, “I am.”

I raised my head to look at the angel on top of the Christmas tree. I wiped my eyes to reflect and to forget. We held each other and watched the fire burn.

When I noticed Felicity staring at me I slowly turned my head and we both looked into each other’s eyes. It was this stillness in the moment, the magnetic feeling, that drew me to her. Our stares burrowed into each other’s hearts.

I could see that glint in her eyes that made me move close. I sniffled. Felicity closed her eyes when I pressed my lips to hers. It was a gentle embrace. I pulled back when she opened her eyes. This time they were dilated, her breathing tense. She closed her eyes and leaned into me and kissed me again, her tongue gently entering mouth.

I leaned in again with a slow, deep, caressing kiss. Her hands cupped the sides of my face as she angled her head slightly to accommodate me.

I pulled back and opened my eyes. Felicity’s cheeks were flushed, her eyes bright in anticipation, waiting for the words I would say next.

Deep inside I was falling for her. In fact, I had fallen. I cupped one side of her face and brushed aside a tendril of her hair behind her ear. I ran my index finger over the surface of her right brow, down past her cheek to where I held her chin, raising it slightly. I whispered, “This changes everything you know…This is happening too fast.”

Felicity said, “I want this. To break an addiction, you have to have another…”

The way Felicity said it aroused me. The twitches below my belt sparked a fire in my heart and my cock. I placed her, back first, on the white woolen rug. Her face was glistening from the mineral makeup on her cheeks. Her eyes had the hunger for me to be inside her. The sound of a crackling fire made her eyes flinch even while she focused on me.

I whispered, “Someone that makes me happy… I get it…” I cradled her neck, my fingers loosened her ponytail, then threaded through her hair. It felt like silk. Her arms stretched out and her hands clenched the fibers when I nuzzled her neck with my lips and tongue. The fire made the trail I made shine, sparkle. I loosened her ponytail and her hair fell down like drapes. She moaned when I started to part her legs. I ran my hands down her inner thigh, it felt smooth, the muscle tone magnificent. Her calves tensed when I squeezed both inner thighs, widening them more.

She shuddered, then swallowed, letting out a gasp of air when I got close to her clit, my fingers swept past to pat the area below the belly button. Hesitation hit, but I was bubbling with desire to be inside her. Felicity took my hand, moving it down to her clit. The juices of arousal flowed whilst I continued to kiss her. She moaned when my thumb touched the nub. Her body responded with convulsions as I took control of it.

My cock was throbbing, hard and ready. My body on top of hers, my torso tensing as I started to penetrate her. Then I entered inside her, God she was tight. I whispered “You…”

The rhythm was slow, long, deep strokes. Felicity gasped when I would be in and her pelvic muscles contracted when I would withdraw. There was something special about that exchange that made me groan from the tightness, the pleasure. I nearly came first from it, the sensation deep in my spine. It made me increase the frequency. My elbows and forearms were planked, my hips and lower back coiled like a cobra, my cock wanted to feel it more and more.

The heat from the fire, and the love that we were making, made beads of sweat trickle down our bodies. Felicity's hands trailed my torso, her fingers navigating the crevices of my abdominals and chest. It felt like time was standing still, I start to thrust harder and harder as Felicity clenched the rug again. She gasped again, then moaned when I changed my body position. I grinded her harder, lifting my right arm with my hand on the right side of my lower oblique. The move had felicity screaming out as she cried, “I'm going to come… I'm going to come. Come…”

I moved my hand to hers, taking the tension from the rug she clutched. My hand intertwined with hers. Her grip was hard and her squeeze felt like it could crush my hand. I felt the tingle come from the base of me, I wanted her to arrive before I exploded inside her. I quickened the penetration again and again when suddenly her whole body shuddered then convulsed, her muscles inside relaxed and I came inside her after she reached her climax.

Both our breathing was tense, I cuddled her as our breath calmed down. The scent of pine from the Christmas tree had a cooling effect. I trailed my fingers over her forehead, over the small beads of perspiration that made her glisten and glow. She shone like the angel on the tree.

I’d fallen in love.

***

I woke up the next morning with Felicity still cuddled up against me, our naked bodies wrapped in a sheet. The fireplace was smoldering with ash and smoke. I watched as the last ember went out.

Suddenly there was a loud thud at the door. We were grabbing for our clothes when police officers burst in. We reacted by holding each other.

One of the officers was Sione Suarvea. He was without the suit but wore a tie and collared shirt with a police vest. He said,

“Felicity Neil, I have a warrant for your arrest for insider trading and suspicion of murder.”

Felicity was shell shocked. She held her hand over her mouth. “What is this all about? I didn’t do anything!” she cried.

“We will explain at the station. But anything you do say may be used against you in a court of law. ”

I jumped up and got in Sione face. One of his colleagues pulled a gun on me.

I held my hands up.” “What’s this about a murder?”

“Alex Deverau was discovered murdered last night in his apartment. We have video evidence it was Felicity who committed the crime.”

My heart stopped. The shock and horror of my friend being murdered, I couldn’t believe it, then I watched Sione put his pistol into his holster. He moved forward.

“That’s bullshit. Felicity was with me all night.”

Sione brushed past me and took out the cuffs to arrest Felicity. He said, “

I put my hands on his and said, “Felicity was setup and I can prove it! Please let me confront my colleague, Vivian. I’ll get a confession out of her. She was the one who did it!” I tightened my grip on his wrist. “You have the wrong person. Hand on heart, she was with me all night.”

Sione stood there and looked at us both, a sheet now wrapped around Felicity, and me standing naked in front of him.

He turned to Felicity when he took out his radio. We listened.

“Anna this is Sione, I think the girl might have been set up. She was with Chad the whole night.”

“An alibi? We have the footage of a woman.”

Sione paused, then said to me, “You can put your pants on.”

He said into the radio to Anna, “I need you to access the CCTV footage again and confirm the height of the female.”

“Copy that. Chad, a woman was seen entering Alex’s apartment block at twenty-three hundred hours. Then gunshots were heard.”

“Again, Felicity was with me the whole night.”

Sione said, “The footage I saw was a woman opening the fire exit door in the corridor to access his apartment. She was wearing a black veil, black jeans dark glasses, blonde hair, but she was identified as Caucasian. There was footage captured by the door where her height was in-line with the fire exit sign.” He looked at Felicity, measuringly.

Felicity’s head comes up to my chest. I’m 6 foot 3.

Sione walked up to me. Face to face. He said, “How tall is Vivian? See where I'm holding my hand is about the height of the fire exit sign. “I nodded and my eyes went hot, a rush of rage and fury bleeding within.

I grumbled, “That’s Vivian’s height, its her.”

Sione undid the cuffs and patched through to Anna. He was talking for some time while Felicity held onto me.

I said to Sione, “Let me confront her. I’ll get the confession even if I have to slap it out of her.”

Sione raised his eyebrows then said, “It’s a risk, she can use the line of being under duress that might throw the case out of court. I have a better idea. Come with me.”