Rivals in Paradise (12 page)

She thought about the duet they had sung together at Margie's.

Although neither one of them could carry a tune even if it had a handle, she couldn't help smiling at the memory of Chase's voice crooning those words.

God, how she wished he'd meant them!

As he kissed her, his fingers coaxed her sex until she was writhing underneath him. She moaned into his mouth and ran her hands up and down his broad back. The feel of him under her hands made her want to feel him inside of her all the more.

Soon she was clutching his fingers in her sex. A small orgasm pulsed through her, causing her to arch her back in a silent plea for more. He chuckled.

“You ready for me, Cicely? Hmm? Let me know, babe.”

“I need you, Chase. I
need
you.” Her voice sounded raw and she was shocked by how much she didn't care that she wasn't just talking about the sex. Yes, she needed him to complete the sex act. But she needed him for so much more, and in her current state of mind, she didn't care who knew it.

“I need you, too, Cicely. I need you so much.” He moved to protect them, and then he entered her.

She cried out as soon as his sex connected with hers. The impact was just that strong. She came with a force that stunned them both.

“Oh, God, babe, I'm not going to last. You're killing me, Cicely,” he cried out as his release took him over the top.

He wrapped her in his arms after he got rid of the protection and laughed. “That has never happened to me before.”

She smiled. She'd had lovers come quickly in the past but never after making her come just as quickly beforehand.

“Me, neither.” She buried her head in his chest and inhaled. She knew she would remember the scent of him for as long as she lived.

“I won't wake you up before I leave in the morning. We'll get a really early start so that I can come back
and spend the rest of my day and night making love to you before you leave on Saturday.”

She didn't say anything. If she told him she was leaving in the morning as soon as he got up to go fishing with his cousins, he would have tried to talk her out of it.

She knew she was going to be leaving a big part of herself in Dahinda. But at least she'd gotten to turn her rival into a lover, a lover she would never forget.

“O
kay. What the hell are you still doing here, Isaac? I told you I didn't want to see you ever again. What part of that did you not understand? Did you have extra copies of my keys? I want every single copy, Isaac!”

Cicely glared at her ex. A part of her was beyond irritated that he had the nerve to be there. The other part of her was glad he was there. Leaving Dahinda had been the hardest and most painful thing she'd ever had to do, and it was good to have someone around to take it out on.

“I've waited here all week. I came back to try and talk to you last Sunday, thinking that if you had a
couple of nights to cool down, you might be ready to listen to reason. But you weren't here, and you never came back. So I just wanted to be here when you came back…” Isaac had a kind of crazed glaze in his eyes that made her feel just a tad uncomfortable.

She moved closer to the door. “And why the hell would you want that?” Cicely snapped.

“I was hoping that once you had a minute to cool off you'd be able to see reason.”

She made a project of turning her head to and fro, beside her and behind her.

“What are you looking around the room for?” Isaac asked in an irritated voice.

“I'm looking for Boo Boo the fool, because that's who you must think you're talking to, Isaac.” Cicely shook her head. She couldn't believe the unmitigated gall of him showing up at her place and waiting for her to get back.

Isaac sighed and started pacing the floor. “No one said you were a fool, and no one is trying to play you. I was just hoping that you could find it in your heart to forgive me.”

Cicely moved closer to the door and leaned against it.

“It's not about me forgiving you, Isaac. It's about the fact that you and I are over. I could forgive you and that would still be the case. In fact, I do forgive
you and I still don't want to be with you anymore.” Cicely sighed.

“Look, it just wasn't meant to be, and you obviously knew that before I did. I should thank you, actually. You weren't the man for me, and clearly, I wasn't the woman for you. So could you just leave, please?” She tried to talk in a calmer voice and mask her irritation. Maybe a kindler, gentler approach would have worked better with him? She doubted it, but she was willing to try anything to get him to leave.

“You say that like you've found the man for you or something like that.” Isaac snapped his words out viciously.

She thought of Chase.

Yeah. She had found the man for her.

Too bad she wasn't the woman for Chase.

It seemed like the only way she was going to get Isaac out of her house was to be blunt and brutally honest.

“I say that because you and I both know that what we had wasn't mad, passionate love. I can't speak for you, but I can speak for myself. I was settling for less than real love when I was with you. And coming home to find you in bed with another woman was a pretty huge wake-up call. I don't want to settle anymore.” She crossed her arms and waited for him to get a clue.

“And you wonder why I was in bed with another
woman? You are one coldhearted bitch, Cicely! How can you stand there and say some mess like that to me after all we've been to one another? You saying you didn't love me? What the hell? What the hell is that, Cicely?” Isaac was becoming increasingly irritated.

Cicely didn't think that he would do something stupid like hit her or anything. But she wasn't taking any chances.

“Listen, do I have to call my brother-in-law over here? It's over, Isaac. Over! Now, I'm going to run to the store and I want you gone when I get back. Just leave the key in my mailbox, okay? Please just be gone when I get back.” Cicely turned quickly and left the apartment.

Her heart was racing. She wasn't sure if she had really needed to flee the apartment like that. But better safe than sorry….

She took out her cell phone and thought about calling her sister and brother-in-law so that Carlton could help her change the locks and be there in case Isaac got crazy or something. But she remembered that they were in New York City until Saturday. If only she had stayed with them, or maybe stayed in Dahinda until Saturday like she was supposed to…

She decided to call the twenty-four-hour locksmith instead and have them meet her at her place in an
hour. That would give her some time to grab a few groceries, and hopefully Isaac would be gone by then.

 

When Chase got back to the hotel and found that Cicely had checked out, he wasn't too upset. He simply assumed that she had done what he had told her to do all along, moved her things to his place. It was only after he'd gone to his place and found it untouched that he realized she didn't have a key to his place. So she wouldn't have gone there. The only other logical place was his mother's rum shack. And when she wasn't there, it was time for Chase to face the obvious…

Cicely had skipped out on him.

Rather than get upset, he just smiled.

She really thought she was getting away with her little ground rules safely intact. Poor girl, she honestly believed that she was going to be the one to get the best of The Wolf twice in one lifetime.

It. Wasn't. Gonna. Happen.

He got on his cell phone, made some phone calls and pretty easily got her address and home phone number. She could run, but she couldn't hide.

When he returned to Miami he fully intended to continue seeing her. She did not get to call all the shots in their relationship when his feelings were involved, too.

And his feelings were involved. A lot. A whole lot
more than he was willing to admit or analyze, but he certainly wasn't going to let that keep him from full pursuit.

He gave her enough time to make it back to Miami and get settled before he called her to let her know exactly how he felt about her skipping town.

He waited as the phone rang and debated just how much of his irritation he was going to allow to surface. If she was apologetic enough, he might decide to go easy on her. But if she was still talking all that stuff about ground rules and the like, he'd have to take a firm line.

All of his debating went out of the window when a man answered her home phone.

“Hello,” the male voice snapped.

Taken aback, Chase had to pause for a second before he queried, “Who is this?”

“Who the hell is this? You dialed my number, not the other way around.”

“I'm looking for Cicely Stevens.” Chase just knew he must have dialed the wrong number in his irritated state.

“She stepped out to run some errands. This is her man. Who is this?” The other man's voice picked up a healthy dose of bass.

Not one to be punked, Chase felt his chest puffing out as he asked, “You mean the man she just broke up
with because she caught him in the bed with another woman? Would that be you?”

There was a fair amount of sputtering, and Chase could have sworn he could see the man's indignation through the phone lines.

“Don't you worry about what is going on between me and my woman. You just need to know that she and I will work out any problems we have between us. So, if she gave you any indication while she was mad that she was on the market, sorry,
partner,
you picked the wrong one.”

Chase had to laugh at that. He didn't even know why he was wasting his time talking to that chump. Even if Cicely had suffered a momentary state of insanity and taken the chump back, he would be history as soon as Chase came back to town. Chase would make sure of that.

“Yeah, well, you just tell her Chase Yearwood called. And let her know that we will be finishing what we started in Dahinda when I get back to Miami in a week.”

“Dahinda?”

“Yeah, Dahinda. Where she was all week with me,
partner.
Tell her I'll see her when I get back.” Chase hung up the phone.

It was only after he'd hung up and his testosterone levels had gone back down to normal that he began to question if he'd done a smart thing by goading
Cicely's ex or man or whatever the chump was to her. He really hoped that the man didn't do anything stupid. Because he knew he would hunt the fool down if he laid a hand on Cicely.

He only knew that he was heading to Cicely's home as soon as he got off the plane next Saturday. Because ex or no ex, man or no man, Cicely Stevens had started something with him on this island, and he wasn't ready to just let it end because of some silly ground rules. He knew what he felt when he was with her, and he was willing to bet she'd run away because she was scared and she didn't want it to end any more than he did.

At least, that's what he was hoping….

 

When Cicely returned to her apartment with her groceries, the twenty-four hour locksmith guy was waiting for her. She was surprised to find her living room trashed and the cordless phone smashed and on the floor. She was so happy that she had had the foresight to leave when she noted that Isaac was getting unusually agitated.

She considered calling the police. But for the most part the damages to her living room weren't that bad. The hazelnut velvet sofa and loveseat were toppled, and chair pillows and throw pillows were tossed everywhere. The end tables were overturned and the coffee table was broken. The lamps where smashed, too.

The cost of a new end table, phone, lamps and locks was a small price to pay to get Isaac out of her life. If he came back and continued to be threatening she wouldn't hesitate to call the police on him. After this, she might consider going on a male-free sabbatical. If she had to worry about attracting losers like Isaac and she couldn't be with the man she had fallen head over heels in love with, then she might just as well be man-free.

She watched as the man changed her locks and contemplated her new man-free status.

She could do it.

She might not be able to do it for as long as it would take her to get over Chase, but she could do it for a little while. At least until the thought of loving someone didn't cause her chest to ache and make her want to cry….

 

“What's the matter with you? What's with the long face?” Margie slapped Chase's arm with her cloth.

He thought about not answering her, but he knew that would only earn him another smack with that damn cloth.

“You know, you really shouldn't be hitting people with that little cloth you walk around here wiping stuff down with. It's unsanitary, Ma. You could give somebody a rash or something.” He made a show of rubbing the spot she'd just hit.

“Don't change the subject.” Margie held her little
cloth weapon in a threatening manner, ready to strike again. “And you still haven't told me about Cicely and why she left early. Did the two of you have a fight or something?”

“No. We didn't have a fight. As far as I knew, everything was going fine with Cicely and me.” Chase gave a half shrug. “But you can best believe when I get back to Miami I intend to find out why your new best friend got scared and ran. Plus she has to come with me to your wedding.” Chase chuckled. “I told Mr. Frank I'd bring her, thinking there was no way in hell you'd say yes after all those years of saying no.”

She slapped his arm with the cloth. “Stop getting smart, and stop trying to change the subject.”

“I'm not trying to change the subject, Ma. It's complicated.”

“Please.” Margie sucked her teeth. “How complicated could it possibly be? Either the two of you love one another and want to be together or you don't. It's not rocket science.”

“Tell that to Mr. Frank— Ouch!” This time the cloth stung when she hit him with it.

The first chance he got to hide all of her little terry cloth towels he was going to do it. The woman had to be stopped from terrorizing the world.

“You always were such a smartass.” Margie pointed her finger at him and was reminded immediately of
what people said about pointing fingers. His mother had fingers pointing back at her, because he had come by his smart mouth
very
honestly.

“If I didn't like Cicely so much, I might say it serves you right that the one girl you want to get serious with is the one playing hard to get.” Margie tapped her lip in contemplation.

Chase frowned. “Who said I wanted to get serious? I just want to give us time to explore what we can be. She would rather put a timetable on things and let what we have end on this island because she's too afraid to risk her heart for more than a fling.”

“She isn't the only one who is scared and doesn't want to risk her heart.” Margie gave him a knowing look that made him feel like he was still a kid and he'd gotten caught trying to steal an extra cookie.

“You think because you say you want to expand the expiration date of your ‘island fling' beyond your time on the island that you are somehow not afraid? What about your desire to win all the time no matter what?” Margie fired her questions like she was the police or something.

Chase rolled his eyes.
Not the you-have-to-win-all-the-time-and-there-is-something-really-wrong-with-that speech. Please, Ma, anything but that.
He knew better than to say that out loud, though, because his mother would have smacked him with that cloth hard enough to leave a mark and he would have
gotten an even longer speech. And she would have followed that speech with the it-took-me-a-whole-day-of-labor-to-bring-you-in-this-world-so-I-get-asay-in-your-life-forever speech.

“Sometimes you have to risk everything even when you know you might lose. That's when it matters the most. When you know you don't stand a chance, but you go all out anyway because your heart and soul won't let you rest unless you do. That is why I finally said yes to Frank, even though I'm more than comfortable keeping our relationship the same as it has been.

“He's my man and I'm his woman, and since it wasn't broke, I couldn't see the point in bothering with it. But he kept asking me, all the while expecting that I'd turn him down again. He never gave up on me, even though I gave him
no
reason to expect that I'd change. Do you see yourself doing that for Cicely, as much as you hate to lose? Can you see going all out and pursuing her like a man intent on making her his for real instead of a man looking to continue a fling until it's flung? That's living without fear, my hardheaded, stubborn son who is the love of my life. Can you, or do you, love Cicely like that, without fear of losing?”