“Not tonight, Eden. No fighting. No anger. No fucking reliving bad memories.” He pulled me tight me against him. “I’m tired of missing you.” He confessed quietly.
I sighed long and hard, closed my eyes tightly.
“I’m tired of hurting you and myself by holding onto anger from the past.” He said.
Grasping my wrist, he ran his thumb along the sensitive skin underneath, calming me and causing goosebumps to explode all over my body.
“I’m so sorry for everything, Eden. Please forgive me,” he begged, placing kisses on the curve of my shoulder
I tried to hold my tears at bay, but they started falling and wouldn’t stop.
“I found out you were here, and I came back with the intent to hurt you. Then I saw you, felt you, smelled you and I couldn’t do it.” He caressed and kneaded my hip. “Nothing from the past matters, just what happens after this moment. I’m ready to let the anger go and just love you.”
I shut my eyes tightly. Even if I wanted that, I couldn’t have it. My life would be getting complicated soon. I had been home five days. I didn’t expect to make it another.
As if he read my mind he said, “I’ll fix whatever it is that brought you back here. Nothing will stand between us.”
Palming my breasts, he teased my nipple between his fingers. A soft whimper forcefully escaped my mouth.
“Let me take the weight off your shoulders.”
He trailed his hand from my breast to my pussy. He snaked it between my legs and massaged my clit, swirling his thumb over it.
My toes curled; a moan slipped between my tightly pressed together lips.
His fingers sped up.
A pained and excited gasp left my mouth.
“Please,” I pleaded.
“Please what?” he asked.
“I need it.”
“You need my dick or me, Eden?”
I wasn’t so sure at the moment. Being so turned on had me confused.
“Tell me, Eden and I’ll make you feel good.” The way he said, “I’ll make you feel good,” made me think of the devil and selling my soul, but then I realized I’d already sold it. I wanted him so bad my entire body ached.
He groaned and trailed his finger up my spine forcing the words I wanted to say but knew I shouldn’t from my mouth.
“You. I need both.”
He slipped his cock between my thighs, pressing it against my opening. He pushed in slowly.
“I need you too, Eden. I always will.”
I sucked in a breath and held it.
His fingers dug into my fleshy hip, gripping me, guiding me back into him. He repeated that until my hips were moving of their own volition.
His strokes were slow, his breathing labored.
“Fuck. I’m gonna cum, already.” His breathing grew ragged “You gotta cum with me.” Frantically he sucked and kissed at my neck. “Please cum Eden.” He fucked me harder. My eyes watered, I was so close.
“Tell me you love me, Eden.”
I didn’t hesitate. “I love you, King,” I moaned. I figured I should tell him the truth while I could. I still had to deal with Ellis.
When I’d told him, I would probably always love him I hadn’t been lying. Ever since that night I watched him making love to the redhead, there had been a pull between us.
When he grunted and bit into my shoulder the sensation started in my pussy and spread throughout my body like quicksilver. My whole body clenched. “Fuck,” we moaned in sync.
His body tensed. Not even seconds later I was following right behind him into euphoria. I came hard, so hard I got dizzy.
He buried his face into my hair and hugged me from behind.
I wanted to live in the afterglow, but reality wouldn’t let me.
I sighed.
King pulled me closer and covered us with a sheet before slowly pulling out of me.
“I know what you’re thinking, and you’re a widow as far as I’m concerned.”
In that moment I thought about telling him that I may have killed Ellis. I said, “It’s not that simple.”
“It is,” he said resolutely, “I have some things I need to take care of, then we’re leaving. This place is not good for you. Too many bad memories. We’re starting over, I’m taking back what’s mine.”
I quickly dismissed my earlier thoughts of telling him. I didn’t want to start a fight or get him involved at all. Like I’d said before, he would find out soon enough.
Eden: Nightmares Come True.
Present
I was in a black room. At first there was music, a choir of sorts in church singing that mismatched fucked up song from the night I’d stabbed Ellis.
Danger, danger the Queen’s about to kill. If love ain’t dead I’ma kill it ‘cause it’s killin’ me. Kill the king. Tear him down. Kill the king, yeah. Got to take his crown, Heaven help me. Their singing turned into a chant that was soon drowned out by an analog clock, which ticked loudly on a nearby wall, then even that sound stopped.
Suddenly all I could hear was blood rushing in my ears. Panicked I looked around, searching for a door. The only thing there was a chair with a redheaded life-sized doll sitting slumped over in it. In the back of my mind I knew that doll was an important part of my dream. I cautiously walked up to it and realized it was a woman, not a doll.
“Are you okay?” I reached for her, but before I could touch her to check, she jumped up and started screaming at the top of her lungs. I screamed and backed up bumping into something. No someone. I turned around to find Ellis. He was holding the same butcher knife I’d stabbed him with tightly in his hand. The screaming stopped long enough for me to hear him say, “Until death do us part, Eden.” He swung the blade towards me. I woke up, breathing heavy and kicking my covers, just before he could slit my jugular, after fully waking up I could still feel the presence of the chilled knife grazing my throat.. I frantically felt my neck in search for blood or wounds. When I didn’t find any, I exhaled, then made myself just focus on my breathing. I calmed down long enough to orient myself and turn on the lamp.
I didn’t really get time to think about the nightmare. Momma and King’s raised voices drifted from downstairs. I couldn’t make out all the words, but I knew King was trying to convince Momma to do something that she was adamant about not doing. I adjusted myself in the bed to hear better. The springs in my old mattress creaked. They both stopped talking then I heard someone coming up the stairs. I clicked off the lamp and pulled the covers over my head. Something told me not to let them know that I’d heard them.
When King came into my room, I pretended to be asleep. I heard him take a seat. I maybe pretended for about ten minutes before I was pulled back under.
***
I could feel it when I woke up. Something bad was about to happen. I thought about King. He had awakened me earlier to tell me that he needed to do something important and would be back in a day or so. I had a feeling that whatever it was had to do with his illegal activities from before he’d gone to jail.
I called him; glad I’d made sure he hadn’t left until he’d added his cell number Momma had gotten him into my phone. It went directly to voicemail.
“Fuck.” I called again and got the same result. I didn’t want to think too hard about what he was doing and work myself up, so I pushed it to the back of my mind. That and thoughts about what happened the night before. Telling King I still loved him had probably been a mistake, especially when I would soon be going go to jail or have to go back with Ellis. Despite King’s promise to fix things, those were the only scenarios that awaited me.
If Ellis was dead, his family would make sure he looked like the victim and I ended up in prison. If he wasn’t, I knew he’d demand I go back with him and I’d have to in order to keep King safe and myself out of prison.
I’d fucked up and told Ellis entirely too much about myself. When I’d tried to leave before he’d used it against me. I didn’t understand Ellis’s obsession with keeping me as his wife. Nothing
had been easy about our relationship and he had a mistress he seemed to love a lot more than me. I had a suspicion his family even knew about her.
I wanted to go back to sleep but nature was calling. I got up to use the restroom. While I washed my hands and brushed my teeth the nightmare I had drifted to the forefront of my mind. “Fucking ominous,” I said aloud, but the nightmare also explained why I felt an overwhelming sense of doom and gloom suddenly.
Momma must have heard me walking around because as soon I went to lay back down, she called me.
“Eden, Come down here.” She yelled upstairs.
“Shit, shit, shit.” I stomped my feet like a child throwing a tantrum. I was too fucking tired to deal with her bullshit, but I got dressed, throwing on a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt I’d bought at Wal-Mart since I hadn’t exactly packed a suitcase before leaving home.
I trudged down the stairs. The whole house smelled like bacon and biscuits, so I figured King was back or would either be back soon since Momma was cooking again. I swear it irked the fuck out of me the way she treated King like he was her man.
I walked into the kitchen. My eyes immediately landed on our guest. I wanted to die, for just a little while.
Sitting across from my momma was Ellis. My hands shook and my legs felt like spaghetti.
What was scarier than him being there in the flesh was the fact that he didn’t have a mark on him. He looked so fucking smug in his expensive suit with not a hair out of place.
I blinked hard, closed my eyes and reopened them. “But I hit you in the face with a blender then stabbed you?” I blurted out.
They both frowned and looked at me like I had grown an extra head.
“What are you talking about, girl?” Momma asked.
“Are you okay, Queen?” Ellis drawled.
I gritted my teeth. He knew I hated when he called me Queen. It was a dig at King and my relationship.
“How are you here? Didn’t I kill you?”
“You obviously didn’t,” he responded snidely, raising his hands.
I dug my nails into my palms thinking I was having another nightmare or maybe I hadn’t woken up from the first one. I winced at the pain that came immediately.
“What is wrong with you, Eden?” Momma asked. I never looked in her direction. My eyes stayed focused on Ellis. His blue eyes sparkled with mischief.
Ellis spoke up. “I can probably explain this. Eden and I got into it. You know how she is. She got out of hand. I had to defend myself, of course. She threw a blender at me. She slipped on whatever spilled from it, fell and hit her head on the kitchen countertop. I went to get help but when I came back, she was gone.”
His heavily rewritten, retelling of the truth brought back my memories.
I had confronted him about having a vasectomy. He hadn’t said anything, just attacked me, not just attacked. He’d beat me so bad I could barely stand, let alone defend myself, and then slammed my head down on the kitchen island like he was trying to kill me. The rest, stabbing him and standing over his dead body I’d probably hallucinated.
But I knew for a fact he’d watched me in pain and bleeding while he’d called his mistress and made plans to take her out.
He threw his head back and laughed. Momma joined him.
Irritated, I cut my eyes in her direction
“Why is he here, Momma?” I was asking her to confirm what I already knew would come, but I still needed to know if he’d come on his own or if Momma had a hand in it.
“I called him.” She shrugged.
I opened my mouth to ask her why she would do such a s thing, but Ellis cut me off. His gaze cut to Momma.
“Mrs. Ruth, do you think I could have some time alone with my wife?” He smiled showing her all thirty of his pearly whites. His sugary sweet tone turned my stomach. I wanted to jump across the table and strangle his ass.
“Of course.” Momma giggled before pushing away from the table. “I’ll be upstairs if you need me,” she said to him. While walking past me, she mumbled, “fix this” under her breath before leaving the kitchen.
Ellis and I entered a staring contest, like we often did before all hell broke loose.
“Sit down, Eden.” His deep baritone was filled with malice.
When I didn’t move to do it right away, he screamed, “Sit down!” I had never feared Ellis even after the beatings started. He would hit me; I’d hit him back. He more fucked up my self-esteem. But for the first time I jumped when he yelled. I guess the last beating had finally broken me.
For some reason I glanced towards the door where Momma exited. I imagined her coming back and being a mother and telling Ellis to leave. But hope for that only lasted a second. I didn’t have that type of mother.
As if he had read my mind, he said, “She’s not coming to save you. Neither is your King. We’ll be long gone before he gets here.” Smugness was thick in his tone. He smirked and gestured for me to take the seat next to him.
I continued standing where I was with my arms folded across my chest. My thoughts were racing a thousand miles per minute, trying to figure out how I could make it so I did not have to go back with Ellis.
“Disobey now, suffer later. I might even call your King’s parole officer and tell them he’s on the run. He’s not supposed to cross state lines and he’s probably already in Georgia, searching for me after he got some false information about my whereabouts.
He was a master at using my weakness against me.
On heavy feet I made my way over and sat next to my husband. The crisp clean smell of him made me angry. I hated how easily he was able to hide how evil he was behind the trappings of wealth.
He placed his hand on my thigh when I sat. I fought the urge to snatch away.
“So?” he said and cocked his head. “Did you enjoy your vacation?”
I rolled my eyes and shifted in my seat so his hand would fall away. He replaced it.
“Why did you come here, Ellis? We don’t even like each other anymore.” About a year after we’d gotten married, he’d morphed into an entirely different person. First was the name calling, then a slap here and there, then the demand for a baby, because his parents wanted grandchildren. The abuse ramped up after another year passed, and I still hadn’t become pregnant.
“I like you, Eden. I love you even. It’s you who can’t love me. You never will, Will you? Because of him.” He cocked his head and stared me dead in the eyes. “Do you think he’ll still want you when he finds out you killed his wife? Should we wait and tell him together?”
“I didn’t ever tell you I actually killed his wife.” I had told him about hitting her with the lamp.
“I already know. I dug the bitch’s grave and put her in it,”. King’s chilling voice came out of nowhere.
I saw the flash of fear in Ellis’ eyes, felt his hand tremble, but he recovered from the shock of hearing King’s voice faster than I did.
King walked into the kitchen with a smile on his face that the devil himself would envy.
Turning his attention from Ellis he smiled at me. “Good morning, beautiful.” His tone was light, but his jaw flexed. His eyes fell to Ellis’ hand he had moved it to my wrist, using his grip on it to hold me in place.
“Come here, Eden.” King ordered.
Ellis’ grip on me tightened, though I hadn’t attempted to move. “She’s exactly where she needs to be,” he said.
King winked at me and Ellis’s grip tightened even more. His nails dug into my flesh.
Ignoring King I turned to Ellis. “Just let me get my things and then we’ll leave.” I tried to deescalate the situation. I could tell King was itching for a fight. He had just gotten out of prison. I would leave with Ellis if that kept him from going back.
I was looking at Ellis. He was looking at King.
“See King, your queen has chosen.
The sound of what I’m sure was a gun clicking echoed off the wall.
My breath caught in my chest when King lifted his arm
and aimed the gun directly at Ellis’ heart. His mouth was drawn in a thin fine line.
“Eden,” I recognized the tone as one that brokered no argument. My heart twisted, then sank. I yanked away from Ellis grip. I walked the scant distance to King’s side. A million ways to talk King out of what he was about to do —cycled through my mind so fast that none of them fully formed.
When I turned to face my husband, Ellis’ face was neutral, but smugness in his eyes. His lips twisted into a half smirk and I wondered what he had up his sleeve.
“I hope you didn’t think I came here alone?” he said.
King chuckled. “Of course, you didn’t. You never fight your own battles, unless it’s against a woman.” King taunted him.
“I tried to take a page from your book and bribe the two you left out front, like you did my investigator. But you paid your guys too well. They wouldn’t take bribes.” King threw his free hand up and shrugged. “So, I put a bullet in both of their heads,” he said nonchalantly, he managed to maintain a cool detachment, like he’d just told us he’d done something other than kill two human beings.
Ellis’ face dropped. a hint of anger twisted his features. His bleak cloudy blue eyes fell to the weapon King held.
I knew I should have probably stayed quiet, but I was curious. “What investigator did he bribe?”
King cut his eyes to me. “The one I had watching you while I was away, of course. You didn’t think I’d let you go anywhere without knowing? But it seems Michael the private investigator I hired left out a few details, like the ones about him beating you. But don’t you worry your pretty little head,” he said and tapped the gun to his own head. “He’ll pay for lying with his life when I find him.”
At the end of his explanation King returned his attention to Ellis, while I was left with more questions than answers.
I glared at Ellis, who was staring at King like he was about to soil himself. I wanted to be petty and ask him where all his big talk was now, but I wouldn’t make the situation any worse than it was.
King spoke up. “Don’t look so sad, Blondie. I’m not going to kill you.”
The relief surfaced on Ellis’ face immediately.
King: Darker Than Romance Page 9
