Miss Independent, Volumes 1 - 4

by Kiki Leach

  She nervously shifted her eyes side to side, but Nathan had barely noticed.

  “It’s the one thing I’ve always appreciated about you, Sheila, and our relationship.”

  “The fact that I’m a doormat turns you on?” she asked.

  He laughed. “No. But I don’t see you as a doormat. You can’t be one in being with me for so long.”

  “I think being with you so long is exactly what’s made me one.”

  She rested her hands on her waist and he walked forward, taking both of her hands in his. Staring down at each one, he rubbed his thumbs across her smooth skin and brought them up to his face while looking directly her in the eyes.

  “Nathan--”

  She knew that look. She hated that look because it made her forget all of the important things she always felt she needed to say to him when it mattered. That look put her stomach in knots, filled her chest with warm air and got her panties thrown straight down to the floor beneath their bed.

  “Nathan, please don’t.”

  He pressed her hands against his lips, kissing them one by one. When he unleashed his tongue and motioned it around her skin, her eyes unwillingly rolled back into her head and she nearly collapsed against that damn door.

  “I don’t ever want to be the reason for you to lose so much weight,” he said. “Your body has always been perfect, Sheil’s. Every part of it. It’s part of the reason why I could never resist you back then, and sure as hell can’t now.”

  He bit down on her skin and tugged it back and forth between his teeth. She sucked her bottom lip into her mouth knowing she should stop, knowing that this was the last thing they both needed to be doing with each other. Knowing she had been with another man that very same morning, a man who would’ve been open and happy and willing to give her the same life she felt for so long she had richly deserved.

  With Nathan.

  The moment she leaned in, her eyes aching for more, her hands aching for his skin, her lips begging to be kissed, Nathan knew there was no turning back for her and smiled wide.

  Quickly removing his towel, his dick sprang up between them. She reached down for it, but he shoved her hands away and lifted her skirt high up to her waist. Then he bent down and removed her panties, and just as predicted, threw them across the room. They landed to the floor and she watched with helpless desire as he grabbed onto himself and rubbed the head of his dick against her flesh before shoving it deep inside. She slid her hands up his arms and shoulders as he lifted her leg from the floor and slowly thrusted himself in and out of her. She bounced her head back against the door and moved her hand around to the back of his neck. He found her mouth with his and kissed her deeply, slowly, swirling his tongue around hers and forcing her to feel just how much he needed to be inside of her.

  As she dug her nails into his skin and called out his name between short, sharp breaths, he whispered her name into his ear while muttering just how much he still loved her. Instantly, she panicked, but tried her damnedest not to show it and ruin the moment shared between them. But unable to continue enjoying for herself, she felt her body go limp. It remained that way even as he traced kisses up and down her skin and carried her over to the bed.

  A few hours later, a physically exhausted and sweaty Nathan crawled to his side and fell asleep, while a very alert yet jumble-minded Sheila remained awake. With the sheet wrapped around her body, she got up and strolled to the window to stare down at the street below, at the people still awake, relishing in the dark atmosphere. She crossed her arms over herself and looked down at the print where the band used to be on her ring finger. And then she turned to look at Nathan, who appeared satisfied with himself, convinced that he had once again pleased his woman like no other man could.

  When her phone began buzzing, she tiptoed over to her purse and pulled it out to get a glimpse at the number.

  “Adrian,” she whispered.

  Her finger hovered over the green button to answer, but her conscious forced her to press down hard on that red button and toss the phone back into her purse.

  She fucked up. And she had fucked up badly. There were many things Sheila could always seem to scramble her way out of over the years. She had a bad, bad feeling that this sure as hell wouldn’t be one of those things.

  Part Twenty-Seven

  The next morning, Vanessa walked into the office in a much better mood than the previous day. It helped having Nikki back at home with her last night, not to mention agreeing to have lunch with her later that afternoon. It had been awhile since they had spent any quality time together and they were both missing out on that well needed bonding time.

  After dropping her purse in her office and right before taking a seat in her chair, she spotted Harold chatting with a coworker just a few feet away, down the hall. Less than thrilled to know that he was back, she thought about ignoring him and starting with her work.

  But then she remembered that his girlfriend had been the cause of so many problems in her life as of late, and decided to take some action.

  Scooting out of her office, she traveled down to where he stood and tapped his shoulder.

  “You mind if I have a quick word with you,” she said. “In private?”

  He quickly finished up a conversation with a few coworkers as well and followed her down the hall to an emptying conference room. As their coworkers cleared out, Harold inappropriately stepped into her space.

  “You know” – he wagged his finger before dropping both hands inside his pockets; his eyes roamed up and down her body and he smirked – “I don’t know if anyone else has told you this morning, but you look mighty fine in that dress. And you look good in your frames today. They say men don’t make passes at women who wear glasses, but what can they say about those with fine--”

  She tossed her hand in his face. “Stop.”

  He playfully wagged his brows. “I wasn’t going to finish that. But listen, green is definitely your color and seems to fit your body like a glove. I guess it’s not just made for money anymore, is it?”

  “Money you won’t continue to make working here if you keep running your mouth like that. Had you said any of this to me before I even had a chance to sit down and get comfortable in my chair back there, considering the way those words seem to come out of your mouth make it sound like the ultimate form of sexual harassment there ever was, I’d have been tempted enough to grab you by the balls, and it wouldn’t have been just for fun. Well, maybe fun for me, but you? Not so much.” She smiled, though wholly insincere, and rested her hand on the edge of the table. “By the way, welcome back from your extended yet quite unnecessary vacation in the Bahamas.”

  “It wasn’t too much of a vacation since I was attending my ex-girlfriend’s wedding. The one you often referred to as Raggedy-Anne in the past, remember?” he replied with a laugh. But she hadn’t found much of anything too funny in the moment. “Alright, Vanessa, what do you want from me this time?”

  “Well if you’re asking sincerely, you can give me the gift of telling your very current narcissistic girlfriend to stay the hell away from me, Maurice and anyone else I know personally and care about, in the near future.”

  He frowned. “What?”

  “Oh, and she’s not allowed anywhere near this building anymore either, let alone inside of it. I don’t care if she’s taking you out for lunch to her favorite restaurant or planning to give you a hand job in the bathroom between breaks. If I see her anywhere inside of this building for any reason from this day forward, I’m going to make sure that you both land on your asses when you’re thrown out of here simultaneously by security. Am I making myself clear?”

  “Wait a minute.” He held up his hand and took a step back, befuddled as all get out. “What the hell is all of this about?”

  She leaned away from him, taken aback by his seemingly genuine confusion. “When you were blabbing to me before about someone selling the story about me, Nathan and Sheila to the press, did you really think that it was ju
st some random kid who did it, or were you fully aware at the time that it was Maurice?”

  He slightly arched his brows and opened his eyes wide. “Maurice as in your current boyfriend, Maurice?” She didn’t reply, but he knew the truth just from looking at the grim expression on her face. “I didn’t have a clue about the original source, V, and that’s the truth. Page Six never released that information to anyone.”

  “But you knew that Olivia was the one who initially spilled the story?”

  He arched his brows and dropped his head. “I didn’t realize it at the time because she was going by her maiden name then. But she told me the same night we saw you two on the beach out there. She was asking questions about your relationship and finally fessed up to knowing him beforehand. And I’m sorry about that, I really am. But what she did back then is not a reason to keep her from coming around now.”

  “It’s all the more reason -- !”

  “Look, she was young and ambitious and your boyfriend gave her the break she needed to make a name for herself.”

  “She made one, alright. And from what I can see since then is that she’s still not past the embryo stage of it all,” she replied. “Did she also tell you about the little meeting she had with Maurice the day we all got back to town?”

  He shook his head and glared. “No.” Harold puffed his chest and exhaled. “What kind of meeting would they be having together?”

  “The kind that involved her getting horizontal with my boyfriend, at the time.”

  “You know this for a fact?”

  “I know that she wanted him to screw her brains out in order to keep her mouth shut about what he did in giving her that information.”

  “And I’m assuming he didn’t?”

  Vanessa scrunched her face in anger. “Hell no,” she said, her voice rising at even the thought of it. “No matter the circumstance, he never wouldn’t have fucked that woman even with his right hand.”

  As a few employees passed by the room, overhearing, she gave them a nasty look which sent them hurrying off in the opposite direction.

  Harold wrapped his hand around his chin, then crossed his arms. “How did you find out about all of this?”

  “Mo told me.” She placed both hands on her chest. “And we’re not together right now, so I’d appreciate it if you would keep quiet about all of it. Not many people know we were together as it was to begin with, mostly for reasons like this. And the last thing I need is more bad press that my mother can throw in my face, especially since she has no idea about any of it yet.”

  He became thoughtful and bobbed his head while keeping his eyes toward the ground. “Of course,” he told her. “Yeah, of course.”

  “Thanks.” Vanessa ducked her head to get a better look at the somber expression on his face. She knew then and there per her information that he had just received a solid blow to his ego. “I take it you didn’t know Olivia was the kind of woman to pull a stunt like this?”

  “No.”

  “Hm. I’m sorry.” She sighed. “But I’m just letting you know all of this not only as a heads up but to also let her know that if she comes near any one of my friends again, and that especially means Mo, she’ll be having to answer to me this time.” She bent forward, whispering. “And I sure as hell won’t be as nice to her about it as he was.”

  “Don’t worry,” he said. “I’ll be talking to her about it myself later today.”

  “Good.”

  When another worker approached needing Harold’s attention, Vanessa nodded at him before grabbing a pile magazines off of the conference table and heading off down the hall.

  Back in her office, an impatient Sheila was now waiting in one of the chairs in front of her desk to speak to her about something she felt was more urgent than showing up on her stoop to tell her that she had blabbed to Nathan about Adrian and the baby.

  And even more than her need to confess that she had in fact had sex with Adrian as well.

  The minute Vanessa saw her through the glass window, she stopped and thought about turning around to head back down the elevator. What the hell could she want so damn early? And when she had just gotten there her damn self?

  But she knew that Sheila would wait all day to speak to her if she had to, which meant that once again, there was no way to escape her vile clutches.

  Clinching her teeth and passing Samantha’s empty desk, she stepped inside her office and slammed the door.

  A flummoxed Sheila whipped around in the chair and clutched her chest. She swallowed hard and leaned forward. “I’ve been waiting to talk to you--”

  “Oh, please forgive me for having shit to do during the day, like an actual job.” Vanessa motioned around her office and tilted her head, grimacing. “Speaking of which, I’m really starting think that you’re in need of a nine to five your damn self if only to keep you from being such a gotdamn busy body day in and day out. But it still won’t be here. Because I haven’t changed my mind again about you writing for the magazine. I don’t want to have to school your ass on that again, but I will if I have to--”

  Sheila quickly waved her hand. “I’m not here about that, V.”

  She dropped her set of magazines on the table and rounded her desk. “Then what the hell do you want, Sheila?”

  “A listening ear, that’s it.”

  “You’re aware that there are people who get paid to hear the shit you spew, right? I have a therapist I haven’t seen in a good while, but I can give you her number. Because I shouldn’t have to continue suffering while being the only one forced to listen to this shit for free.”

  Sheila purposely disregarded her comment and jumped up from the chair. “I slept with Nathan last night.”

  Disgusted, Vanessa made a face as if she was going to vomit all over the room. She clutched her chest with one hand and her stomach with the other and turned her head, making gagging noises.

  Once the feeling passed, which took at least a few minutes, she covered her mouth and turned her head to glare at her current nemesis. “Why the hell would you come here to tell me something like that when I haven’t even had lunch yet?!”

  “I came here to tell you because it’s YOUR FAULT, V!”

  She bent forward and scrunched her face in confusion. “My fault? Bitch have you once again lost every single part of your mind? What do I have do with YOU being unable to keep your legs closed for every Tom, DICK and Harry that happens to pass you by on the damn street?”

  “You told me when Nathan got out of jail to stroke his ego. He apparently needed a lot more than that.”

  “Were you a willing participant in the act?”

  Sheila sucked in her cheeks and wiggled her foot while darting her eyes across the room.

  Vanessa pointed. “And that’s exactly what I thought. Now get the hell out.” She took a seat in her chair and rolled closer to her desk.

  Sheila stomped forward and slammed her hands down in front of her.

  Vanessa placed her elbow next to her keyboard and lowered her glasses down to her nose. “Listen here, you thirsty trick. If you think I’m gonna let you try me at my job when I wouldn’t even let you try me inside my own damn house, then you’ve got another thing coming as well as that ass hitting the pavement just outside my damn window. Now get the hell out.”

  “Not until I get what I came her for, Vanessa.”

  “The free clinic is nowhere near here,” she said. “Try again.”

  Sheila made a face. “This isn’t funny, Vanessa!”

  “Who’s laughing?”

  She groaned. “I need to know what the hell I’m going to do! And now that I’ve slept with Adrian again --”

  “What?”

  “He showed up to my room after I left your house,” she said. “One thing led to another, and…” She dropped down in the chair and slapped a hand over her face, embarrassed. “Having sex with Nathan again is something I could probably classify as a pity fuck since it was right after he got home from jail, right?”
/>
  “Wait a minute.” Vanessa cringed. “Nathan got home last night – did you…” She paused. “Did you fuck them both in the same day?!”

  Sheila slowly nodded her head.

  Vanessa felt like vomiting again. “You are so, SO damn nasty, BLECH!”

  “It’s not like I planned for any of it to happen the way it did!” Sheila shot back.

  “Bitch, you’re like an STD just waiting to happen. Your vagina must me stretched from here to Kalamazoo.”

  “Could you at least back off from the insults, Vanessa?”

  “What the hell do you want me to do in the meantime? Give you a comforting pat on the back and hand you the pill and a condom while telling you that it’s a-OK to keep fucking these men left and right without saying anything to either one of them about it? Shit like this is exactly how you continue to get your ass caught up and in trouble!”

  “I know that!” she exclaimed.

  “Do you?!”

  “YES, okay? YES! I told you that I never planned for it to happen like that, it just did. Originally, I made a promise to myself, one I had planned and tried so damn hard to keep, that after being with Adrian I would never go back to Nathan’s bed no matter what. And would finally break it off when I saw him again. I wanted to call off the wedding, give back the ring, the whole thing. After the way he treated me before he skipped town, not telling me where he had gone and then coming back to see you first. I finally realized that I just couldn’t continue doing it anymore, waiting for him not to piss me off or hurt me like he’s done for so long…”

  Sheila became pensive and pursed her lips while swallowing hard as she looked off into the distance.

  “But after he got out of that shower, wrapped in nothing but a towel, his dick was swollen like I had never seen before and it kept calling me somethin’ fierce, V--” She wrapped a hand around her neck and shut her eyes for a few seconds, remembering.

  “Oh for the love of God.” She threw her hands up in the air and groaned so loudly that her employees began looking over their desks and into her office. She reached for the remote for the windows and pushed the button to draw the curtains. Then she tossed it across her desk and rattled her head. “There is no way in hell I didn’t murder someone in another lifetime. That’s got to be the only reason I’ve been forced to deal with this shit.”