“Sure.”
He was about to wave over the bartender when a thought crossed his mind. “You’re not a whore, are you?
Her eyes became huge and her mouth started to open, more than likely to yell from his blunt question.
He spoke up before she could try. “Don’t get your panties in a twist. If you’re wearing any,” he added as an afterthought. “It’s a valid question. Your clothes barely cover you and you came over here with the sole purpose of getting my dick inside you. I ask now, because I don’t pay for shit. Never needed to, and never plan to. Is that going to be a problem?”
“Of course not.” She huffed in irritation and ran her fingers through her hair. “You’re not very nice, are you?
“Never claimed to be. Now, am I gonna get you that drink, or not?”
She stared at him for a few seconds before answering. “Fine, I’ll take a vodka press,” she said after rolling her eyes.
She’s a real piece of work, he thought. Why was he even humoring her then? Oh yeah, because he could. She was hot; not as beautiful as Nicole, but definitely fuckable. She might even be a bitch, but there was nothing that said he needed to talk to her. It would just add to the many differences between her and Nicole.
The thought caused visions of Nic to pass through his head. He saw her standing in her doorway in a flowing gown. Then he saw her, again in the gown, laughing as she tried to eat a large slice of pizza and not make a mess. Then he saw her in her kitchen and smile at him mischievously right before she pelted him with grape tomatoes. They had some fun times, he thought with a grin.
He was about to turn and tell the woman that he had changed his mind when another vision appeared. It was Nicole. She was no longer smiling. Instead, she was lying lifeless on a hospital bed. Blood was everywhere, and their stillborn baby was resting on her chest. It was inevitable that it would happen again.
With a rotten feeling in his gut, he stood up and threw enough money for his drinks and a large tip on the bar. “I’m outta here.”
“What? What about my drink.”
He could have kept walking, but instead he turned around with a scowl. In a gruff voice he said, “I don’t care about your drink. I’m leaving. You can come with me or not, I don’t give a shit. Know this though, I am in no mood for nice and friendly and sure as hell won’t be gentle.”
Without another word, he turned around and started to walk out. He didn’t need to see her to know that she would follow. Her excitement was pouring off of her in droves; enough to make him almost choke on it.
He felt a cool slender arm slip up and around his. It's better for everyone this way, he thought. Everyone was starting to think too highly of him, and he could finally remind everyone who he truly was.
They made it out the doors, just as her hand slid down to grip his. It felt cold and different. Giving his head a hard shake, he tried to force himself to stop thinking about Nicole.
He shook off her hand, gripped her arm, and pushed her up against the outside wall of the building. Without another thought, he slammed his mouth down onto hers. She tried to keep up with him, and as a result the kiss was sloppy. Teeth were clashing as she tried to bite his lip and he brought his hand to her hair and gripped the strands tightly to hold her still.
Next, he grabbed the hand that was moving down his chest, and brought it up to press next to her head on the wall. “Let’s get one thing strait,” he said when he released her mouth. “I’m not your fucking boyfriend that you hold hands with when you walk down the street. I’m the guy that fucks your brains out, and leaves you without any way to get a hold of him the next day. Now, is that what you want, or not?”
Her eyes examined his face, more than likely trying to determine if he was putting on an act. She could look all she wanted. He may be drunk, but he knew what he was saying. Finally, one side of her mouth slanted upward. “Lead the way.”
She sounded confident, but he reached in to touch her emotions to be sure. What he found was… nothing. There was the expected excitement, but not an ounce of anxiousness, nervousness, or any other common human emotion. He had come across a few people like that before. It was usually with people that didn’t care about anyone or anything other than themselves. In his world, those people were considered dark souls.
With a grim feeling, he released her and started walking to his truck. She was perfect for the night, he thought as she moved to walk behind him, a soul to match his own.
******
Nicole woke early the next morning with a new outlook on things.
The day before had been a rough one. She had just gotten used to the idea of one baby, and then there were two. She might be in a relationship, or whatever Gemariah and she were, but she would still be a single mother. After doing the math, she barely would have made enough money to support two people, and then there were going to be three. Of course there was Gemariah, but there was still that nagging feeling she always had that she had to know she could stand on her own two feet, without the help of anyone.
She had freaked out a bit the night before and after many failed attempts to get a hold of Gemariah, she called Trinity. They talked for hours, until she had calmed down considerably. It had felt just like old times.
Finally, after a restless night, she got out of bed with a new mission. She knew that Gemariah was just as unnerved about the twin surprise as her. She could tell, even though he had tried to hide it. Together, they would figure something out, but first, she had to make him admit his true feelings, then they could move forward from there and help each other.
Smiling to herself, she saw the humor in how she was thinking. All her life, she knew that she had to be able to take care of herself, but in just a few short months, an overbearing oaf had come into her life and made her reconsider her whole outlook.
Therefore, that morning, she woke up early and stopped at the local coffee shop she usually went to and instead of grabbing one cup, she ordered two.
When she got out of the car in his driveway, she was careful not to spill the two cups that were in a drink tray. Leaning down somewhat awkwardly, she grabbed the small bag that had a delicious aroma coming from it. At the last minute, she spied a cherry filled bismarck under the glass counter and immediately thought of Gemariah. Obviously, she had to get it.
She started walking quicker when the wind picked up and the late winter chill hit her face. Clenching her teeth, she thought how there were only twenty more days till Spring. Even though it wouldn’t warm up until mid-April, at least she could say that it was Spring.
When she got to the door, she started to lightly bounce to try and keep warm. She looked down at the doorbell, and shuffled things around in her hands to press the button. After almost dropping everything in two failed attempts, she decided to kick the door as an improvised way of knocking. When the first went unanswered, she assumed that he hadn’t heard, so she tried again.
As her foot swung forward on the third kick, the door swung open and it nearly collided with a bare and definitely feminine shin. At the last second, the woman moved to the side, but swung her head up with a vicious glare. “What’s your problem? Are you slow or something?” she snapped.
Nicole knew that she should say something, but she was too thrown off by the woman’s appearance. Her hair and make-up were a mess, with lipstick smeared on her face. Not to mention that she was wearing nothing but a shirt. A man’s shirt, Gemariah’s shirt to be exact. “Umm...” She had no words.
The woman sighed loudly in annoyance and leaned against the doorjamb. “Take your time. It’s not like I was doing anything.”
“Gemariah?” Nicole asked confused.
“Oh.” The woman chuckled and ran her finger along the neckline of the shirt. “He’s still in bed. Late night and all.”
Shaking her head lightly, she snapped herself out of her stupor. “You know what, never mind.” With that, she turned to leave.
“Would you like me to tell him you stopped by?” Nicole
heard the woman ask.
She stopped long enough to turn around and holler, “I could care less either way.” The lie rolled easily off her lips. The truth was that she was using all her inner strength just to keep it together.
She didn’t stop walking to her car when she heard the front door close, just like she didn’t hesitate getting into her vehicle when she heard the roar come from inside the house. Just as she was pulling the shifter down to put her car in reverse, she heard a loud bang and looked up to see what it was.
The front door had been thrown open hard enough to hit the stone wall, but that’s not what held her attention. What she couldn’t take her eyes from was Gemariah tearing his way to her car.
The look he had was a full blown panic. In record time, he made it to her door and started frantically knocking on the window. “Open up. Now, Nicole.”
She would have ignored him except when his knocking got harder, she feared that her window would shatter.
He didn’t wait for the window to be completely rolled down before he started to talk. “This is not what you think,” he said.
Nicole couldn’t help but laugh. “Oh, that’s rich. Come on Gemariah, can’t you do better than that?”
“I mean it! You have to give me a chance to explain.”
She might have been swayed by his panic stricken face or earnest voice, but his appearance said everything she needed to know. Sliding her eyes down, she noticed that he wasn’t wearing a shirt, and she wondered if the one that the woman was wearing should have been there instead. Continuing with her downward descent, she became aware that his pants were undone and his zipper was down. From where she was sitting, she could see that he had nothing on underneath them. It was as if he had thrown them on at the last second to rush outside.
He looked down, and noticed where her eyes had traveled. “Shit,” he snapped under his breath and reached down to fasten the button. He then quickly knelt next to her car so he wasn’t towering over her. “You have to listen. Noth—”
“I don’t have to do anything!” she snapped, successfully interrupting him.
He put his hands up in surrender. “You’re right. You don’t, but I would really like it if you would.”
“I don’t know what there is to say,” she said as she stared out the windshield, not meeting his gaze. “I knew who you were… what type of man. It’s my own fault for getting too involved and assuming that there was more to us than there was.”
“No!” He ran his fingers roughly through his hair. “There is. I just panicked, is all, but nothing happened.”
Nicole finally looked over at him, but gave him a look that said she wasn’t stupid. “Yeah, right. I may not have as much experience as you, but I still know what two people look like after being together.”
The sound of a door closing momentarily distracted her, and she looked up to see the woman from before coming out of the house. She was beautiful. That was all that she could think of. The woman was tall and slender, confident in her own skin. Nicole couldn’t help but look down at herself and think, no wonder he wanted her. She was huge and bloated, and pale.
Using her distraction from what was going on, Gemariah quickly reached through the window and grabbed the keys out of the ignition.
“Give them back, now!” she yelled.
“Not until you listen to me.” Almost as an afterthought, he added, “Please…”
As the woman walked by Nicole’s car, she hollered, “I had a great time last night Gem. We’ll have to do it again.” Nicole looked up in time to see the woman wink at her.
A deep growl of frustration was the only answer she got from Gemariah.
Looking forward, Nicole pinched the bridge of her nose to ward off the headache that was forming. “You have two minutes to talk. Then I want my keys back.”
“Two minutes? There’s so much that I need to tell you. Two minutes isn’t enough time,” he complained.
Angrily, she looked over at him. “You’re wasting your two minutes.”
“Fine.” He held up his hands in surrender once more. “First of all. I was in a dark place last night.”
“That’s no excuse!”
“My two minutes. Let me finish.”
Pinching her lips together to keep quiet, she turned her head to look out the windshield.
“I was in a dark place because I got scared.” Resting his head on the outside of the vehicle, he mumbled, “I can’t believe I’m about to tell you this in my driveway.”
He brought his head back up. “Will you at least look at me?” he asked.
She didn’t want to. She wanted to harden her resolve and stay angry forever. Part of her didn’t think it would be as easy if she were to look at him. Taking a deep breath to fight back the tears, she made her face like stone and turned to him.
“I was scared because of my mother. She died when I was twelve, giving birth to my two brothers. We didn’t know that she was carrying twins. During the birth, the strain was too much for her. She died as well as both boys. I watched the whole thing happen.”
Out of everything she was expecting to hear, that was not one of them.
“Therefore, yesterday, when we saw both babies on the monitor, all those memories came crashing back. It scared me to think that something could happen to you, and there wasn’t anything I could do to stop it. I didn’t think that I was strong enough to go through that again, especially with my own children.”
“You know what that’s called… Fatherhood! You don’t think that I’m scared? That’s why I called you so many times last night and came over here today. I needed you. I’m happy and excited, but really, really scared. If you would have answered your phone, we would have still both been scared, but at least we would have been together!”
“I know. I know. I wish I would have, but last night, everything wasn’t so clear. I went to a bar to drink myself into oblivion. She approached me. Like I said, I was in a dark place. Eventually, she followed me home. I won’t lie. We kissed and things got heated, but before anything got too far, I stopped.
“Too far? Too far? It was ‘too far’ the moment you touched her!” Nicole had to take a few calming breaths. “Okay, if you stopped, why was she still here and in your clothes?”
“I don’t know. She said she was going to call a cab since she was so drunk. My shirt… she must have found on the floor. I’m not sure. I went up to my room, and didn’t come down till I heard someone at the door. You know the rest.”
“How come you both could drive here, obviously drunk, but not get her home?”
“I don’t know. I wasn’t thinking straight.”
“You seem to have that issue a lot lately.”
He didn’t respond to her verbal jab, and instead waited for her to say anything else. She was so mad right then that she didn’t know what to say. The story about his mother cooled her temper a bit, but she kept seeing the woman standing in Gemariah’s shirt, which made her angry all over again.
All she wanted to do was curl up somewhere and cry. Why does this man always make me cry, she thought? She was done; done with the drama, done with the confusion, done with him. Everything was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back.
Looking him in the eyes, she kept her resolve strong and held out her hand. “Keys, please.”
For a moment, he didn’t do anything, just looked into her eyes. Finally, he placed the keys in her hand but didn’t let go when she moved to pull away. “I really wish I knew what you were feeling right now,” he exclaimed.
“No. No you don’t.” With a slightly stronger tug, she pulled her hand away.
When she started up the car, he stood up but kept his hands on the windowsill. “What happens now?”
Shaking her head, she looked up at him before speaking. “Now, I leave. That’s all I got right now.”
He didn’t stop her as she backed out of the driveway and drove off. She wouldn’t look at him, but knew that he stood and watched her the entire time
.
Driving down the road, she swiped at the tears that had finally started to fall. Her anger kept building and building when she couldn’t help but picture the woman or the lipstick on Gemariah’s neck. “I hate him for making me feel this way,” she choked out.
At her words, she felt a tiny kick in her stomach before a gentle and soothing feeling slowly started to spread through her.
Taking a hand off the wheel, she gently caressed her stomach. She wasn’t alone anymore. It didn’t matter what happened with Gemariah in the end because she still had two people that would love her unconditionally. The three of them would stick together always.
CHAPTER 12
Do you understand what you have to do?
“That lying BITCH,” the man yelled.
You’re not listening to me. I asked if you knew what you had to do.
The man went on, as if he hadn’t heard anything. “After everything I did for her… provided for her, and then she goes and spreads her legs for another man!”
He immediately grabbed his head and went down to his knees in pain. “Ahh,” he yelled.
Now that I’ve gotten your attention… You already took care of your wife as her soul is already gone. Now, you have to find the boy.
“Why? He’s nothing!”
You handled one woman that disrespected you. Don’t you want to keep going?
The man’s head finally stopped throbbing, be he stayed on his knees to listen to the voice that’s been speaking to him for over a year. It never steered him wrong before, so he listened carefully.
There. That’s better. Now, that “nothing” is on the phone, as we speak, with the social worker you loath so much. Now is the time to find him. She has a tender heart and will be here in minutes. She’s going to meddle in your life again, and I need you to take care of her like you did your wife.
He sneered at the thought of the woman. She was small, tiny really, and easily breakable. Man, he was going to love breaking her.
The Divine Whisper Page 21
