Heart Of Stone

by Hayes, S. I.

  “You’ve been busy…” She whispered delicately, wrapping her arms around herself protectively. Not sure if she should have come down now or not. She was sure he would have been happy to see her. Would have kissed her, been holding her by now. That they would be in each other’s arms. Not like this. Two strangers in the dark.

  “You’ve been gone.” His voice was broken, barely audible as he stared almost as though he didn’t see her.

  “How have you been?” She shuffled in her space, afraid to get any closer to him, as Pepper stood attentive, but not aggressively at his side.

  He let out an exasperated laugh. “Seriously?”

  She chucked a little as well. “Stupid question.” She pushed her hair which seemed longer to him, back from her makeup free face. “I’m sorry for all of this. I don’t know what else to say.”

  “Guess I should be careful what I wish for huh?” He answered back sarcastically.

  She raised an eyebrow at him in question.

  “Well I wanted you to help me get my name and face known…”

  “I suppose that has happened… Why are we…?” She stopped herself and he looked up, his fists in tight balls at his sides.

  “I.” He sighed heavily. Taking a step toward her, just as she took one toward him. “I was angry, when I couldn’t reach you. Worried that your father took you out of the country or something. Then to find out you were just upstirs and I still couldn’t…”

  They were a breath from touching. He could feel her heat against his skin. She could feel the tension of his muscles, smell the linger of his cologne on his bare chest. She reached out first. His body yielded, and his arms were around her, his knees buckled and he put his shoulder into the wall to hold them up. He slid down kissing her, on his knees she bent to keep their mouths entwined. Running her hands through his lengthening hair, as he ran his hands up her spine, grabbing her by the shoulder blades pulling her head back so he could kiss her neck.

  Apologies were left to the wayside. They said all that was needed to be said for the time being, their bodies needed to get to know each other again. Every caress seemed like something new. A heightened experienced. He took her to bed and they took their time. Kissing and rubbing their bodies together, until neither could take the excruciating teasing any longer. Only then did they undress and take to each other like hungry animals until both of their hearts raced and their bodies were spent.

  ***

  While Matthew slept Donnella eased herself from the bed. It had been too long since they had been together and it was like the first time all over again. Her walk was going to be permanently changed, if she wasn’t more careful, she mused, waddling to the washroom. When she returned she found Pepper in the bed, beside Matthew. She looked at the clock. It was just after five. She might as well be awake, but Matthew looked like he needed the sleep. Taking her cue from the dog she closed the door and headed down the stairs to the main part of the apartment. It looked even more trashed in the rising daylight. “How could he put up with the mess?”

  Looking through the cupboards she found a box of black trash bags and started in the kitchen, determined to find his Coffee Maker and Espresso machines.

  ***

  TWO AND A HALF HOURS LATER…

  Donnella shimmied up into the stool at the kitchen island counter, and sipped her Cappuccino, pleased with herself for having cleaned the whole downstairs, and making the foaming milky concoction without blowing anything up. All she did was look it up on YouTube on her cell phone. It was relatively easy from there. She made a pot of regular coffee for Matthew, and was now slowly simmering some bacon she found in the fridge in a ceramic pan. Hoping the smell would wake him up as when she had tried half an hour prior, Pepper had actually snarled at her.

  “Do I smell something that isn’t water burning?” Matthew’s voice came from above.

  “You do. Now come down before its bacon burning. I’m not sure quite when to turn it, YouTuber’s disagree too much for a final analysis!” She smiled as he came down with Pepper who now came over wagging her nub, with a big happy grin. “Oh sure now you like me. You know she snarled at me while you were sleeping?” Donnella told him, rubbing Peppers face watching as he popped several pills into his mouth with a chug of Orange juice.

  “Oh yeah? That’s strange, she loves you.”

  “Apparently not while you’re knocked out she doesn’t. What was that you took?” She asked in an uneasy tone afraid she already knew the answer.

  “A couple Oxy’s for my hand.” He wiggled his fingers at her, coming over and kissing her before checking out the bacon in the pan.

  “Do you really still need them?”

  “Not every day, but when I’m working vigorously and after last night.” He roguishly rounded on her with a grin. Taking her in his arms, for a deeper kiss.

  She pushed him off gently. “We’re gonna burn the food.” She forced a laugh, masking her concern. “You did promise at one point to show me how to cook, in place of some rather racy pictures if I remember right.” She nudged him in the hip playfully.

  “Okay, you’re right I did.” He came up behind her, taking the spatula and put it in her hand. “Fortunately in this pan bacon never sticks. But typically you gotta give it a little tug, so it releases from the pan. He nudged her from behind on the word tug. “Then if too much fat fills up you can pour it off and save it for cooking later.”

  He retrieved a glass measuring cup from a cabinet and using the spatula to hold the bacon in place poured the excess fat into it. “See, easy. When the bacon gets brown and crispy on the edges you turn it over. Wait a few more minutes and then I usually flip it again, I like mine well done, but not black.”

  She flipped the bacon, with a little shriek as it popped and sizzled.

  “Careful. It can burn, pretty bad.”

  She pulled back her hand as a splatter hit her fingers. “Owe, owe... Fuck.” She shook out her hand.

  Matthew put the bacon off the flame and turned off the stove. He took her over to the sink, and ran the cold water over the burn.

  “Better?” He smiled, gently. Taking her hand out from the water and inspecting it. There wouldn’t be a blister. She’d be fine. She nodded as she leaned into him and he held her hand. “You ready to try eggs? They don’t spit if you scramble them.”

  “I think we should forgo the scrambling of eggs and do something about this…” She ran her hand up his thigh to his lengthened and hardened cock. “Apparently he likes to see a woman in the kitchen.” She laughed reaching into his boxer briefs as a sudden knock came to the door followed by Pepper’s aggressive snarls and barks.

  Matthew put himself back together and closed his robe, going to the door. As he opened it, he found himself faced with two men in dark suits. “What?”

  “We’ve come to retrieve Miss Stone. She has an appointment with her doctors, she cannot miss.” One of the men answered. Behind them was Cordell, who seemed to have a frown on his usually stoic face. The two men pushed by Matthew in to the apartment. Finding Donnella picking at the bacon on the stove with her fingers.

  “What are you doing?” She asked alarmed as they reached for her.

  “We were given strict orders to make sure you got to your appointment this morning on time, Miss Stone.”

  “Fine, but you needn’t barge in like this. I know where I need to be and when. I’ll go get dressed, Anthony. You can unhand me now.” She pulled from his vicelike grip on her forearm.

  Matthew went to follow her and Anthony tried to get between them. “Unless you want your balls in a vice I suggest you get out of our way.” He warned, Pepper growling at his side. Anthony side stepped. “You two can ge the fuck out of my house, now. She will be a long when she’s ready.” Matthew went up the stairs leaving Pepper at the foot of them.

  ***

  “I’m really sorry.” Donnella sniffled as she slipped out of one of his band t-shirts and into a bra from her drawer. “I wasn’t supposed to leave the penth
ouse, but I couldn’t go another night without seeing you.”

  “If I’d have had access, I’d have come to you a long time ago.” He watched her, as she turned to him, pulling on a thigh high panty, his eyes traced the pink scar from her surgery at her bikini line. The stitches were long gone, but the discoloration was still very fresh. He had felt it during their encounter the night before but couldn’t really see it in the lighting. Now he wanted to lay her down and kiss her there. Tell her it was alright. Let her know she’d earned that stripe.

  “Can I come with you to the doctor?” He asked as she straightened up, heading for the closet.

  “I don’t think-” Her voice muffled as she pulled a top over her head. “That’s such a good idea.” She came out in a red long sleeved cowl necked sweater dress that came down to her mid-thigh. Which she topped off with a skinny shiny black belt with a silver buckle. She sat on the bed as he stared at her. “I mean with all the rumors and accusations about us flying around…”

  “That’s sort of my point, really. If we’re not seeing other people, and you’re not shopping around for anyone, what’s the harm in just being like yeah, we’re dating? It would get them off our backs. Hiding is what gets them going. Give them truth and the rumors fade out. Right now they think I’m some sex slave here in the Tower, that either knocked you up or out.”

  She let out a light chuckle. “I kind of liked the one about you being my slave...”

  “As you wish…” He mouthed walking over to her as she smiled. “I’m coming with you. You’re going to show your face for the camera, and when they ask the nature of our relationship I’m going to kiss you. At that point we are getting in the car and going to the Doctor. Does that work for you?”

  “No, but something tells me I’m going to be doing it anyway.” She sighed. “You do know this is an OBGYN appointment.”

  “I don’t care if you were getting your teeth cleaned. I’m coming.”

  “Okay, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

  ***

  When they arrived in the Lobby the media circus was waiting. The security detail did its best, but Matthew pushed himself in front of Donnella, his arm wrapped around her securely. The car had been sitting idle and the cameras were blocking the entrance. Then Cordell and the other two guards muscled their way over, parting the sea of flashes and murmuring leeches. The tirade commenced immediately; “How long have you two been an item?” “Is it true you dated Claude Gentry?” “What was the altercation at the Governors Ball about?”

  Matthew did as promised. He turned to the crowd, and taking Donnella’s face in his hands he tenderly kissed her for the cameras. “If you want more, too bad. Yes we’re dating, like normal people. No strings, no hand cuffs. Just boring dinners and nights in front of the fire. Now if you’ll excuse us we have an appointment that doesn’t involve all of you.” He helped her into the car followed by the security detail. One in the back and two up front. As Anthony slipped into the back with them Matthew noticed something that raised all his warning flags.

  He kissed Donnella’s neck, whispering into her ear. “Why are these guys packing guns all of a sudden?”

  She squeezed his arm tenderly and kissed his mouth. “Later, okay?” She looked into his eyes with earnest pleas.

  15

  “Are you sure you want to come in with me? You don’t have to. You’re still being a good, boyfriend just for being here.” Donnella grinned. Boyfriend. Did that word actually come from her mouth? She hadn’t had an actual boyfriend since Tommy Vargas when she was twelve and he had dumped her after she wouldn’t blow him in the closet at a party. Twenty minutes later he was getting a hand job from Molly Peters in the pool and Donnella was calling her mom to come get her. That was the first boy she had totally liked. The second had been Donavan Kelly. He’d popped her cherry on her twentieth birthday. They’d been dating for over a year and in that time he’d been sweet, charming and understanding that while she was more than willing to do everything else actual sex scared her. So he made sure she was a master at the things she did do. He had broken her heart as well as he had broken her in, ultimately handing her over to his friends who would take her on drunk and stoned, two, three at a time. She liked the attention, she liked the drugs, and the booze. She liked the hard rough sex. At least for a while. Eventually she grew tired of the scene, the whips and straps were boring to her. She was sick of being on the bottom. When she told him she wanted some control, he agreed to show her how, instead he set her up for a gangbang, which left her pregnant and broken at a frat party with no choice but to call her father, it was also the night her mother died. Now here she was taking that chance again. Throwing out the rules that had been protecting her for the last ten years. She begged God that she wasn’t making the same mistake again.

  “I know that, and yes I’m coming in.” He kissed her hand tenderly as they called her name and she stood up.

  ***

  “Okay, Miss Stone, you can take off your clothes and put on the gown. The Doctor will be in in a few moments.”

  Donnella nodded, beginning to undress. “This is the hard part.” She smiled, as Matthew took her clothes from her and she put on the paper gown.

  “Doesn’t leave much to the imagination does it?” He said standing off to the side, and behind her. “I don’t think I could do this job.”

  “I think you’d get used to it.” She chuckled.

  “I don’t mean it like that. I mean women come in here after surgeries like yours waiting to find out if they are okay… Sometimes they’re not. I don’t think I could bare to tell them that. I suck at things like giving bad news…”

  “Saying good-bye.” She whispered.

  “Exactly.”

  She sat on the cold table her feet swinging as the doctor came in.

  “Hello, Donnella.”

  “Doc, Tonka.” She smiled as a nervous shield.

  “So we got you’re bloodwork back and you’re hormone levels appear to be regulating well. Which is a great sign. So we just need to do the physical. Okay?” She looked at Matthew with a raised brow. “Is this the young man I’ve been reading so much about? The one you mentioned in our phone conversations as well?”

  She nodded, with a swallow. “I um, yes.”

  “Have we been abstaining as was directed?” She stared an accusing hole through him now.

  “Actually, um last night, we might have…” Donnella dropped her head. “But we were careful, used a condom, mostly finger play. Heavy mouth.” She insisted.

  Doctor Tonka, sighed heavily. “If you wind up with another infection… Let’s just hope that everything has healed up by now. It’s been oh, nine weeks since you’re celiotomy so you should be fine.”

  Donnella laid back and put her feet in the stirrups, sliding down the length of the table.

  ***

  “So that was a little bit awful.” Matthew half laughed as the doctor left the exam room. “They just leave you here legs in the air, to clean yourself up.” He took the paper towels from her, and ran them under some cool water, then came back over to her. “Hold still.” He wiped at her gently, noticing that she hadn’t waxed in a while. “I have a silly request to make.”

  “You’re wiping lube off my messy vagina, which I’m sorry about by the way. But wanna ask me for a favor?” Donnella laughed, holding her tummy down. Looking down at him with twisted eyes. “What’s your request?”

  “It’s actually about the mess down here… Would you stop with the full Brazilian?”

  “Thought guys liked it.”

  “I prefer the stripe or the upper triangle to be honest. And with you being a natural red head.” He helped her into her panties. “I just think a little hair is natural, more grown up and super sexy.

  “Well, I suppose. I mean I’ve got an appointment for a wax later. If you want to come for that too. You can show her what you want it to look like.” She smiled sitting up with his gentle pull.

  “That could be interesting
.” He smirked, holding her dress out for her.

  “You really are going to stick to me aren’t you?” She questioned stifled by the dress.

  “I promised myself I would take care of you. If you would let me.”

  “Just until I go back to work though. Okay? Which is soon.”

  “I can agree to that.” He kissed her and she smiled as he helped her into her knee high boots.

  She hopped down from the table, straightening everything out. “Let’s go see what the Doc, found. Hmm.” She took his hand, squeezing it tightly.

  He pushed a curl from her face with a nod then kissed her once more as they went through the door.

  ***

  “So, it turns out the other ovary and tube is okay. She’ll still be able to have kids. If she wants.”

  “That’s great, Matty.” Mary answered through the phone. Matthew had called his mother as soon as Donnella had gone into the restroom he couldn’t contain himself knowing that she was going to be okay. “Give her my love.”

  “Okay, ma. I will. I gotta go. I love you.” He hung up the phone.

  “Was that Mary? Tell her I said hi…” Donnella came out, wiping her hands down her jacket. “Stupid paper towel dispenser was empty. They throw a dozen at your crotch but can ‘t keep five for your damn hands.”

  “She sends her love.” Matthew laughed as he pulled Donnella around the corner of the office hallway.

  She giggled. “What are you doing?”

  “I want to know about the suddenly gun packing guards. Before we’re surrounded by them again.”

  “Yeah… That… Those are Anthony and Jacob. Two of the men who work for my father. You’ll also see that Cordell is armed now too. I prefer non-lethal violence. I think a fist can make as much of a statement as a bullet. My father disagrees.”

  “It comes back to him…”

  “Always.” He has powerful friends. But also powerful enemies. People who would love to see something sad happen to us, so that they could take control of the bids we have in the city. The projects we have our hands in stand to make a lot of people a ton of money. Even the charitable ones.”