by S Cinders
It was stupid and selfish of her to overreact like this. Logically, Kim knew she was blowing things out of proportion. However, the little girl inside of her—the one who never was enough for her crackhead parents or, later, her drug-dealer husband—could only see that, once again, she was second best.
Before she could stop herself, Kim blurted out the truth. “No, Nate, you don’t care about what’s going on with me. You care about what’s bothering her. Let’s not pretend here.”
3
Nate flinched as if he’d been punched. When Alyssa Vauban had come to him last week, he’d told his secretary to refer her to one of the other partners. They’d dated off-and-on after grad school, but there were too many obstacles in the relationship.
Besides the lukewarm sex, which in Nate’s estimation was enough to pull the plug, Alyssa’s family had never liked him. The Vaubans’ money came from trade agreements with British merchants more than a century ago.
Originally from a small island, Singapore, off the Malay peninsula, Alyssa’s grandfather Bao Chang had brought his fortune and young bride to America. Having only one daughter, they’d pushed and encouraged Alyssa’s mother, Li Jing, to marry within her station.
An obedient daughter, Li Jing married Walter Vauban III, and combined the Chang and Vauban fortunes. It was said that they were richer than God. Nate had never stood a chance. He’d never have been good enough for her family.
When Alyssa and Nate had finally broken up for the last time, neither one was devastated, and they parted as friends. When they happened to cross paths from time to time, they were always cordial, if a tad bit distant to one another.
Alyssa turning up in his office out of the blue had been a surprise. When his secretary had returned, telling him that Ms. Vauban insisted on seeing him and only him, Nate took the appointment out of sheer curiosity. He’d reasoned that, with their history, it would have been rude to refuse to see her. They weren’t enemies. Hell, he really felt nothing for her—bad or good.
The first thing he’d noticed was that her dress was wrinkled and her long, satiny black hair was pulled up in a messy bun. In all the time that Nate had known Alyssa, he’d never seen her looking anything less-than-perfect.
Dispensing the formalities, he had blurted out, “What’s wrong?”
The story she’d told was both terrifying and alarming. Grieving the loss of her parents, Alyssa had gone to her paternal uncle’s home only to witness him murdering a highly ranked official in the living room.
Despite her uncle's attempt to stop her, Alyssa had managed to get away. After hours of wrestling with what to do, she’d gone back to her apartment only to find everything torn apart, with a cryptic note from her uncle saying he would find her.
Alyssa had pleaded with Nate to help her. She hadn’t been able to access her funds, her credit cards were all coming back declined, and she didn’t have anywhere else to go.
What kind of person would he have been if he’d turned her away?
“Kim,” Nate said with a sigh. “I’m truly sorry. I want to tell you everything. I really do. But I can’t, it’s not my secret to tell. All I can say is that she’s in danger. I would never pick her over you.”
Kim held herself back from him. “My head understands what you’re saying, Nate, but my heart hates the fact that you’ve put her in an apartment in our building.”
When Nate tried to speak, Kim waved his concerns away.
“No, it’s not only the apartment. It’s the fact that we’re paying for it, plus I know you’ve been giving her other money to live on. Nate, how is that supposed to look to me? For all I know, she’s your secret arrangement to fuck on the side.”
Nate’s expression darkened. “I would never be unfaithful to you.”
“It’s hard to believe you when everyone I’ve ever known has lied and manipulated me. I know you aren’t Andrew, and I am not trying to make the comparison, but everything just feels wrong about this.”
Nate clenched his teeth shut. He wanted to blurt out of the truth, but Alyssa had been frightened to share what's happened with anyone. He wasn’t anything like Andrew, Kim’s ex-husband. The man had lied to Kim for years about his involvement in the seedier side of life. He’d also hidden a drug problem and slept with Mandy’s best friend, Shay.
Growing up in a similar type of home, Kim didn’t want to believe the signs of what Andrew was involved in. It had all come to a head when, in a drug deal gone wrong, Andrew killed Kim’s parents in cold blood. Both Andrew and Shay were arrested and were awaiting trial.
Nate knew Kim was insecure about their relationship. While she wanted to be all-in, it was difficult not to see things in her current situation that she missed in the first marriage. The difference was that Nate would never cheat on Kim. Nor had he ever been involved with drugs.
Hell, he was raising this baby as his own, even though biologically it was Andrew’s child. Thankfully, Andrew had already signed papers releasing any and all obligations to the baby. This was Nate’s baby and Nate’s wife.
He just needed to get her to see that.
The situation with Alyssa was unique, and because of client confidentiality, there wasn’t much he could say.
“I shouldn’t have brought her here,” he said at last.
Kim’s shoulders slumped. “You shouldn’t have brought her here, or shouldn’t have helped her at all?”
Nate’s jaw tightened. “That’s not fair.”
Immediately, Kim felt guilt for her waspish attitude. What was the matter with her? She’d never been so jealous and crazy with Andrew. And that idiot had cheated on her.
Moving into Nate’s arms, Kim hugged him as tightly as her growing belly would allow.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I know that isn’t fair. I just feel so crazy and out of control. I could blame it on my hormones or the fact that I’ll soon need to testify against my ex-husband in court, but I don’t think that’s it. I’m not sure how to explain it. I just felt like you were my safe space when I was living in a world of chaos. And now I feel like that’s slipping away.”
Nate’s large, capable hands cupped Kim’s face as he gazed into her eyes. “You are my world, Kim. You and this baby mean everything to me. If I have failed to prove that to you, I have some making up to do.”
Kim opened her mouth to respond, but Nate’s lips came down to cover hers in a tender kiss. Her stomach dipped, and she clung to the lapels of his suit. How could one touch of his lips on hers completely turn her to mush?
Nate deepened the kiss, crushing her against him. Kim moaned as she opened further, abandoning herself to the passion that welled up between them. Nate started walking her backward toward the small apartment where Kim had once lived.
Fortunately Freddy had already left, and the shop was closed, because Nate wanted his wife. He wanted Kim naked and panting beneath him, so that she would know beyond a shadow of a doubt she was his one and only.
Kim kicked off her shoes while shoving his suit jacket off his shoulders. They barely parted lips for a moment. Nate had a hold of the bottom of her dress and yanked it over her head. The chill of the room caused Kim’s skin to erupt in goose pimples.
“God, you are so beautiful,” he rasped.
Kim self-consciously wrapped her arms around her stomach. “I look like a whale.”
“You look like the most beautiful woman in the world,” he growled. Moving in again, he unhooked the clasp of her bra and watched as it fell, exposing the gentle curves of her breasts.
They were larger than usual, and as if he couldn’t help it, Nate reached out and cupped them.
Kim’s hands went to his buckle and in moments she was sliding the leather free and unzipping his pants. His hot length strained against the fabric of his briefs.
Unconsciously, Kim licked her lips, and that was his undoing.
4
In moments, Kim found herself flat on her back in the old bedroom that she’d once shared with Nate. “Well, t
his brings back memories,” she said with a laugh.
Nate stared at his wife with the same expression a starving man would have at an all-you-can-eat buffet.
Apparently, Kim wasn’t waiting for him. With a saucy wink, she cupped her full breasts. As Nate’s pupils dilated, Kim pinched her nipples with enough force to make herself gasp.
Nate looped his fingers through the leg holes of her delicate panties and wrenched them down her legs. Spreading her thighs wide, Nate kissed the inside of her knee before working his way down to her glistening pussy, where she was hot, wet, and waiting for his touch.
Kim wriggled her hips, trying to get him to hurry, but Nate merely laughed and moved to the other leg.
“Nate!” she warned, panting.
“Impatient?” he teased, heat in his eyes.
Kim looked at him in exasperation. “How can you be so damn sexy and so utterly infuriating at the same time?”
Nate moved closer to her pussy and looked up to meet her laughing eyes. Her cheeks were flushed, and her eyes were slightly glazed. “You are just so goddamn beautiful.”
Before Kim could respond, Nate leaned down and flicked his tongue across her clit. She moaned as Nate spread her folds and began to lead her down the slippery slope of tongue fucking.
Oh, oh, oh, oh.” Kim could hardly think, let alone express herself reasonably. Over and over, Nate licked her center, flicked her clit, and then went back for more.
Kim’s breathing became ragged, her words almost staccato as she blurted out, “Don’t stop!”
Nate had no intention of stopping. He wanted this as much for her as he wanted to be buried inside of her. His dick was throbbing against his briefs and a wet spot was forming around where his tip had leaked pre-cum.
He lifted her hips slightly and really ate her out until she was crying out, shaking, and trying to suffocate him with her thighs. Nate rode out the orgasm until the storm was over, then he quickly divested himself of his underwear and slammed the full length of his cock inside of her. With a grunt, Nate fought the urge to spend. This was what she did to him. He was so whipped over his wife that he could hardly control himself.
After a moment of stillness, Kim began to rock her hips. Nate watched as his length slid deeper into her warmth. The erotic image of his dick spearing her pussy would be playing on repeat for years to come.
Nate tucked his arms underneath her thighs, and then he fucked her, his dick pounding into her body as Kim clutched her swollen tits. She was everything he could have wanted. A passionate lover, a devoted wife—albeit a jealous one.
Nate couldn’t blame her. He knew if the positions were reversed, he would behave the same way. What Nate truly needed to do was convince Alyssa to share the real reason she had come to him.
But that would have to come later, because at this particular moment Nate needed to fuck his wife.
“Don’t come until I let you,” he warned.
Kim’s breathy moan and clenching of her pussy nearly made him come.
Nate slowed things down, dragging himself out until just the very tip remained before shoving it back inside again.
Kim’s head dropped back, and her body seemed to be keyed up to a state of frenzy. “Nate,” she panted, warning him she was close.
“I know, baby,” he whispered heatedly. “I’m almost there.”
Each moan was punctuated by the thrust of his hips. And then she felt the first twinges of his release. Before she could ask for permission to come, her body detonated on its own. Her release triggered his own to be that much harder.
Nate panted as he poured the last vestiges of his load inside of her. Then he slumped down beside her carefully, so as to not land on her stomach. “Damn it woman, you undo me.”
Kim laughed huskily and curled into his side.
“I’m sorry,” she said after a moment.
When he went to stop her, Kim shook her head. “No, let me say this. I know what you do for a living and that you need to keep some things to yourself, not just because you’re a damn good lawyer, but because it’s the law. I just wanted you to know that I am sorry about all of this. I don’t know where it’s coming from.”
Nate held her close, loving how her curved belly rested against his toned abs. “No, it’s me who’s sorry. I wish there was another way around this. It’s not fair to you. I just—” He broke it off quickly.
“What?” Kim asked sleepily.
“Nothing,” Nate answered, kissing the top of her head.
Kim pulled back a tiny bit. “No, tell me what’s wrong.”
“I just wonder about the stress that you’re under,” he said at last. “I know the trial has been hanging over you, and there is still a way to go until all of that is finished.”
He wasn’t wrong, and Kim knew it. The stress of being required to testify against Andrew and Shay was difficult enough. Despite the fact they were both behind bars, Kim still worried that they could ruin her future with Nate.
And then there was the death of her parents. Kim had spent years secretly hoping that they would just disappear. Not only had Kim been the oldest, but she’d also been the one to take the most abuse. There were things that even Mandy didn’t know about.
“Hey,” Nate whispered against her ear. “Where did you go?”
Kim closed her eyes tight, hoping that he couldn’t see the demons that were lurking there. Just then Nate’s phone rang, the familiar tune loud and blaring in the silence.
With a grunt, Nate released her and grabbed his discarded suit pants. Looking at the screen to see who was calling, Nate cursed and answered, “Alyssa?”
Kim couldn’t understand what the other woman was saying, but it was obvious that she was upset, possibly crying. More guilt built up inside of Kim. A large part of her wondered why she was calling her lawyer with her problems, but Kim was wise enough to keep her mouth closed.
Nate hung up and immediately began searching for his clothes.
“Are you leaving?” she asked dumbly.
“Alyssa’s place was ransacked. She’s talking to the police now, but we need to get there as soon as possible.”
“We?” Kim asked hesitantly.
Nate nodded and said, “Yeah, we.”
5
Never in Alyssa’s twenty-nine years on the planet had she ever considered she might be reduced to hiding behind a tree fern clutching her only remaining Louboutin pump as a weapon.
Surely there had to be an explanation as to why her life had been completely upended. Alyssa had once believed that she, an heiress, couldn’t live without money, just as a fish cannot live out of water. Life had a cruel manner of teaching her otherwise.
“Ma’am, we’ve searched the apartment,” an officer said, just to the left of where Alyssa was crouched. “Whoever did this is long gone.”
Alyssa nodded mechanically. In her mind, she knew the officer was just trying to assure her she wasn’t in any immediate danger. It might have been in the way he was eyeing her, like she was teetering on the edge of a cliff. Knowing that she was safe and feeling safe were two very different things.
Safety had been something she’d taken for granted. Safety belonged to Alyssa before her parents’ unexpected deaths. A pang of sorrow ripped through her at the thought.
“Ma’am,” he started again. “You can come out now.”
Alyssa peered up at the older officer through her thick black hair. Something in his expression softened when he met her gaze.
“Let me call someone to stay with you. Do you have any family?”
Tears sprang to Alyssa’s eyes as she tried to forget placing the final roses on her parents’ caskets. The Chang family had once been extremely close. Alyssa had grown up with tea dates on Tuesday with her grandmother and special walks in the park with her grandfather. She’d studied dance in the finest studios that Manhattan could offer. Never once had her parents missed a performance. Hell, her mother had been there for every practice as well.
But they are
all gone now. Alyssa was alone.
“Miss.” His gruff voice caused Alyssa to flinch. “I’m going to call an ambulance. I think you should be checked out.”
For the first time since New York’s finest had arrived on the scene, Alyssa spoke. “No,” she croaked. “Let me call my lawyer.”
The officer’s brows drew together. “Your lawyer? Ma’am, you aren’t under arrest.”
Alyssa forced her shaky legs to extend until she stood upright, still clutching her shoe. “He’s a friend. He and his wife live in the building.”
The officer nodded, a look of relief washing over his features. “Good, then we’ll be on our way. You’ve got my card just in case you discover something that might help us discover who might have done this?”
Alyssa nodded dutifully. But she would never in a million years tell the police who she suspected of trashing her place.
How could she when she hardly believed it herself? When Alyssa’s parents had died, her father’s older brother had reappeared in her life after a fifteen-year absence. Uncle Frank and her father had a falling out when she was a child. Alyssa had never known why her father stopped talking to her uncle or why he stopped coming around.
She’d chalked it up to a silly argument that had never been resolved when Uncle Frank had shown up at her parents’ funeral. He truly seemed to grieve for his younger brother. Alyssa had been so numb that she hardly noticed when the will was read, stating Frank was the executor of the estate and that Alyssa’s fortune was tied up in a trust that Frank controlled until she was thirty.
Frank had assured her that he wasn’t there to change her lifestyle. The Vaubans had plenty of money of their own. For a time, everything had been just as Uncle Frank had promised.
If only she hadn’t shown up at his home unexpectedly. If she hadn’t used the spare key he'd have given her. Or if she’d knocked before entering his office just one week prior to the break-in. None of this would have happened. Alyssa would have gone on thinking that, at the very least, she still had one person to call family.
