Yet, that very next morning, when she and Jessica were walking out of Devender Hall to head to class, Matty’s Mercedes was parked at the curb, with Matty, in casual wear and sunglasses, leaned against it. Shay’s heart soared, but she contained herself.
“Who is that hunk of meat?” Jessica asked as they headed down the steps.
“That’s Matty,” Shay said. “Come and meet him.”
Jessica was astounded. That was Matty? She expected a nice looking man, Shay could be so hard to please about everything, but damn, she thought. That white man fine!
“Hello there,” Matty said as Shay and her roommate approached him. He had decided to cut his trip short, and fly back overnight, to see her again. He had hurt her, he could hear it in her voice yesterday, in the way she became so defensive on the phone and had lashed out at him. And rightly so, he thought, as he saw her. He hated lying to her, he hated telling her he had to work this weekend when it wasn’t at all about work.
But he felt he was in a bind. He still cared about Alex, they had been together too long for him not to still have serious feelings for the woman, but his feelings for Shay were so different. Sometimes frighteningly different. And the idea of losing her, he was beginning to realize, would be a tough pill to swallow. A pill, he thought as he saw her gorgeous eyes light up just on seeing him again, he wasn’t sure he could swallow.
“Hello yourself,” Shay replied, attempting to sound cautious, although her heart was hammering. After yesterday she halfway expected him to call it off, to decide she was too much work like he once told her other men probably decided about her, and call it quits. Now he was standing right in front of her. “I didn’t expect to see you this morning,” she added.
“I moved some things around,” he said, standing erect, wanting desperately to pull her into his arms, but unsure if she would approve. Shay was in the end a very private person, a young lady who didn’t care to be on anybody’s front street. He respected her for that.
He looked at Jessica, who was staring at him.
“Oh,” Shay said, remembering that they were not alone, “this my roommate. Jessica Malveau. Jess, this Matty.”
“Pleased to meet you, Matty,” Jessica said in a seductive-sounding voice Shay had never heard before, as she shook Matty’s hand.
She was a strikingly beautiful woman, Matty immediately noticed, with the look and style of a full-fledge seductress who’d been around many a romantic block in her day.
Although Matty knew Shay was her own woman and wouldn’t be influenced by anyone, he was immediately concerned when he saw this woman.
Mainly because that roommate of hers was already indicating interest, by the way she squeezed his hand extra tight as they shook, by the way her assessing eyes slid down his body and then back up with interest that sparkled. She was a male magnet, a man’s kryptonite, the kind of gorgeous female that had to attract a slew of men everywhere she went. And if so many men were always around Shay’s roommate, then those same men would inevitably be around Shay. And just the thought of some other man so much as thinking about touching Shay, caused Matty’s jaw to tighten.
“So you’re the roommate,” he said. “What’s your major?”
“I’m a Drama major,” Jessica said. “For now.”
Matty smiled. “I understand that. Anyway, I know you have to get to class, Shay, so I thought I’d take care of some business here in town and then meet back up with you here, say around one-nish, and take you to lunch. You and your roommate, if she wants to come along.”
Shay didn’t like the idea of it, but it would be the only way Jessica could have an audience with him about helping Hector. “You want to, Jess?” she asked her.
“I’d love to,” Jessica said, looking, not at Shay, but at Matty the entire time. “But I have a one o’clock class. I’m free now, though. Maybe you and I can go have a cup of coffee, Matty, just to get to know each other a bit.”
She said this all innocent, but Shay immediately didn’t like the idea. Besides, how could she be free for breakfast right now when she had the same nine o’clock class with Shay? But Shay didn’t call her on it in front of Matty. She, instead, looked at Matty.
Before Shay came along, Jessica was definitely the kind of woman he’d be interested in getting to know better, and would jump at the chance to spend some time with her. She was that hot. But Shay was in his life right now, and she was the one, not any other woman, who made his heartbeat quicken.
“I’ll have to take a pass on that, Jessica,” he said. “It wouldn’t be the same without Shay there.”
Inwardly Shay beamed. She was beginning to just love Matty Driscoll. Jessica, however, although she kept smiling and didn’t show it, although she played it off like it was absolutely of no consequence, was already certain she would someday avenge this terrible slight.
“One o’ clock sounds great, Matty,” Shay said. “I’ll see you then.” This time Matty couldn’t help it. He leaned over, placed his hand on the small of her back, and kissed her on the lips. Although Shay would have preferred not to have such an open display of affection, she missed Matty too much not to be thrilled to feel his touch again.
She smiled, she couldn’t help herself, and felt like the queen of all humanity as she and Jessica walked away from Matty, and Matty just stood there, staring admiringly at her as they left.
***
That afternoon, after lunch, after talking after lunch for nearly two solid hours, they returned to the place of their first mating, to the little motel off South Benn.
It wasn’t because of any fondness for the motel, Shay could still remember the spider that lumbered across the bathroom floor, but it was the most convenient situation for both of them. Going to Baltimore to Matty’s place, or checking into the only ritzy hotel in Dresden, a hotel that overdid its’ service to the point of annoyance, wasn’t something either one of them wanted to bother with. Besides, Matty had to meet up with Alex for the insufferable ball later that night, and Shay was due at Stop Gap at seven. Neither had time for pomp and circumstance.
She was stretched out naked on the bed when Matty stretched his own naked body on top of her, and as soon as they touched, both of them shuttered. They loved these moments, when they came together, and they never wanted these moments to end. Matty took it slow, caressing her, kissing her, entering her with the skill of a man who knew what he was doing.
Shay closed her eyes and enjoyed his every touch. And when he was firmly in, and began to gyrate her in that way of his that always heighted her sensuality, her body began to gyrate, too. They moved in rhythm for a good long time, moved around and around, up and down, side to side, making their own brand of music in the silence of the room.
And when they came, Matty arched his back in a kind of spasm that was so intense that he thought he would pull every muscle in his body. He kept gyrating her, not ready to let it end, although his come was so great, so intense, that he knew he couldn’t continue. He collapsed, rolled over, and eventually, when she was ready, pulled her into his arms.
“Oh, Shay,” he said almost in tears, as he held her.
And when he dropped her back off at Devender Hall, kissed her goodnight and began to drive away, waving even as he drove, Shay felt a kind of uncompromising elation that she couldn’t hardly describe. She felt as if her life was finally coming together exactly the way she wanted it to. She would have never imagined in a zillion years that within the span of that selfsame night, the entire trajectory of that life, of her very relationship with Matty himself, would change in ways, dramatic and sundry ways, that would leave both of them reeling.
SEVEN
She arrived back at the dorm after working at Stop Gap until eleven that night. Jessica and Hector were in the room, lying across her bed, with Hector putting massaging oil on her curvy legs. Although Jessica was laughing on her cell phone, undoubtedly talking to yet another one of her “admirers,” Hector was staring, snarling at Shay.
Shay, howev
er, ignored him, grabbed her shower bag and headed for the shower stalls at the end of the hall. Hector, however, after a few minutes, his face growing angrier as he sat there, stood to his feet.
Jessica looked at him. “Hold on, Frank,” she said into her cell phone, and then put it down on the bed. “Where are you going?”
“I’ll be back, though,” Hector said, moving from side to side, unable to conceal his anger.
Jessica stared at him, thought about Matty rejecting her offer to have breakfast with him, thought about Shay driving around in a BMW when she was still catching the bus.
“Whatever,” she said, and went back to her phone conversation. Hector left the room in a near-run.
A female was just leaving the shower room when he began walking up the hall in that direction. As soon as she went into her dorm room and closed the door, he pounced, running up to the shower room before he could be detected. First he opened the door quietly and peeped inside. No-one was standing at the sinks. Then he slowly moved in, looked underneath the toilet stalls, finding no-one, and then headed for the shower stalls in back, where only one set of feet were seen. Shay’s pretty little brown feet.
He knew he had to be quick, and he was. He slung open the thick, white curtain, covered her mouth with one hand, and began choking her with the other hand, her small, naked body immediately disadvantaged by the shock of the surprise attack.
“You bitch!” he said in an angry whisper, and he began unzipping his pants. Shay tried to fight him off, but he was too big and managed to push her so hard against the back of the stall that she felt as if she’d been knocked breathless.
But she kept fighting. She wiggled and fought, forcing his hand around her neck to constantly ease and then tighten, ease and then tighten, as he kept attempting to unzip his pants and pull out his penis.
When he succeeded, and Shay felt his rock hard penis against her back, something happened to her. She was no longer fighting for her freedom, she felt as if she was fighting for her life. She threw herself down to the shower floor, causing his grip to loosen and the hand over her mouth to slip. She screamed from the top of her lungs, and began kicking and fighting him with all she had. He attempted to re-possess her, to grab her by the mouth and throat again, but he had lost that element of surprise. It wasn’t easy this time, because she was fully alert now.
Hector knew her screams had been heard and he was done for now. But not before teaching the bitch a lesson, he thought. He slammed his fist into her face, her stomach, and attempted again to force his penis into her vagina. But she wasn’t a stationary target. She wasn’t a surprised damsel. And before he could readjust, before he could get his second wind, his time was up.
Women came rushing in, some with weapons like a bat and a golf club, others with their own sense of curiosity, and they immediately fought him too. A few men visiting on the floor came in too, and it was over. Hector was dragged off of Shay, and taken down. And Shay, stunned, angry, and in great pain, eventually passed out.
***
The President’s ball was top flight all the way, but Matty could hardly contain his boredom. Alex was gorgeous, in her Dior gown and jewels by Tiffany’s, looking so stunning that Matty found himself amazed by her beauty. The older she became, the more beautiful she became. And he wondered, not for the first time, why she couldn’t find herself somebody else to take her to this retreat.
But he knew why. She didn’t want to give him up completely yet, either. Their relationship had been too long to be that easily severed, although Alex’s actions, particularly with football coach, certainly hastened their end. But he’d already told her, on the drive over, that this would be it for him. He was in a new relationship, he announced, and was going to try and make it work.
Alex had behaved as if she was pleased for him, she was always a master at that, but Matty knew her too well. She was hurt by that, which only hurt him even more. But what was he going to do? Alex’s own behavior drove him away, and Shay was his lady now. And nothing or nobody was going to hurt Shay.
Alex’s humiliation, however, was just beginning. First Peter Dial, the school’s head football coach, arrived at the retreat with a gorgeous woman introduced as his brand new wife.
Matty was across the room when the announcement was made, and he hurried to Alex’s side.
She was unable to hide her pain this time, and Matty smiled and whispered in her ear for her to never let a man like that see her vulnerability. She therefore laughed, as if Matty had just told her a major league joke, and continued the façade of being totally unfazed.
But not long after that shock, she received another one. It was shortly before midnight and she and Matty were in a small group of administration types talking about ways to make Franklin as well known as Howard or Morehouse. Stockard Blanchard, the college president, came up to the small group.
“There seems to have been an incident at Devender Hall tonight, folks,” he told the group, and just saying the name of Shay’s dorm piqued Matty’s interest.
“What kind of incident?” Alex asked her boss.
“It seems one of our students was the victim of a rape or attack of some sort, they’re still investigating, in the dorm shower stalls.”
A collective sigh of anguish went out from the group.
“They’ve taken her over to the campus clinic, poor thing.”
“Who was the student?” Matty asked, his heartbeat in suspended animation.
“One of yours, Alex, actually,” Stockard said. “I believe you mentor the girl. A Shanita Cooper, I believe is her name?”
As soon as Shay’s name was announced, Matty took off. He didn’t excuse himself, he didn’t beg Alex’s pardon, he didn’t so much as acknowledge her presence. He took off. Alex, astounded, as was the entire group, just stood there.
“What in the world is his problem?” Stockard wanted to know.
“What in the world is right,” Alex wanted to know as well. Then she sat her drink on the tray of a passing waiter.
“Excuse me, Stock,” she said, and headed for the exit, too.
***
The automated doors of the campus clinic slid open and Matty hurried inside. Jessica saw him coming and hurried up to him. Tears were in her eyes. She had expected Hector to scare Shay a little, even try to get fresh with her, but she never expected him to try and rape the girl, to nearly kill her!
“Oh, Matty,” she said, covering her mouth. She fell into his arms.
“Where is she?” Matty wanted to know, looking beyond her, moving away from her.
“She’s here, but they won’t let me see her! They say only family can see her!” Matty hurried to the nurse’s station. No way was he going to be denied.
“Who’s in charge?” he asked the desk clerk. “I need to see the person in charge.” His heart was pounding. Oh, God let her be all right, he kept saying. But as the young clerk went to get the charge nurse, his agitation grew.
“Where did they take her?” he asked Jessica, who was coming toward him.
When she pointed toward the back corridor separated by flapping doors, he took off in that direction. Looking from room to room, office to office, calling Shay’s name, he finally heard her voice.
“Matty?” she said and he hurried into a small holding room. When he saw her, seated on the edge of a gurney, in a hospital gown, her small legs dangling down, he ran to her.
“Matty!” she said, her arms opening wide. Although she had been in pain ever since she was conscious again, she hadn’t thought to cry until she looked into Matty’s eyes. The tears dropped freely then.
“Oh, sweetheart!” Matty exclaimed, and pulled her gingerly into his arms.
But he quickly released her. “Are you okay?” he asked her, looking over her entire body.
“It’s a little painful, but I’ll be okay.”
He noticed the deep abrasion on her arm, the scratch mark on her face. He placed his hand on her face. “What happened?” he asked her.
> “I got back to the dorm after work and went to take a shower. Everything was fine, but then this dude, Hector, slung open the curtain.”
“Hector? You know him?”
“Yeah, that’s why it was so shocking. I mean, I don’t know him like that, but he’s always hanging around.”
Matty didn’t like the sound of that. “Was he a friend of yours?”
“Not mine, no. He and Jessica were tight.”
Matty’s jaw tightened. That fast-ass roommate of hers! “What did he do to you, sweetie? Did he . . . I mean, was he able to . . .”
Shay swallowed hard at the thought of it. “No,” she said, shaking her head. “He didn’t rape me. He tried, but thank God he didn’t do it.”
“Thank God!” Matty said, so relieved he nearly collapsed from the lightened weight on his shoulders. “But why did he do it?”
“He was trippin’ because I wouldn’t introduce him to you.” This surprised Matty. “To me?”
“Yeah. He and Jess figured you had to be rich because you bought me that Beamer, so they figured you should spread the wealth around.”
“Did they, now?”
“I know. It’s foolishness, but that’s how they think. Jess understood, but I don’t think Hector ever did.”
“Is this Hector person in police custody now?”
Shay nodded. “Yeah, they got him.”
“Good thing for him,” Matty said in an offhand way, although he was dead serious.
Hector didn’t know how fortunate he was that the cops got their hands on him first.
But then the talking stopped, as that stormy look in Shay’s eyes made him certain she was reliving the horror again. He pulled her back into his arms.
And they remained in this position, holding onto each other, thankful to God that this scene wasn’t as horrific as it could have been, when Alex, followed by Jessica, entered the room.
Alex was at first taken aback, seeing Matty, her Matty, holding another woman. But she was pure angry at the thought that he would be holding that hood rat Shanita Cooper. She didn’t even know they knew each other. Was he that anonymous, third party donor who had agreed to become Shanita’s sponsor? She recalled telling him that the girl had lost her scholarship, but she never, not for a second, put two and two together. But he had to be the one. Who else but Matty would be this generous with someone so undeserving?
Romancing Her Protector Page 8
