by Mia Villano
“I’m so sorry I hurt you. I never wanted anyone but you. I have tried to want someone else. To force what we have with another person, didn’t work. It will never work.”
“It is okay, Alex. You are here now, and that’s what matters. I know who you are, and you are the most honorable and honest man I have met. Just the thought that you stayed away from me so you could get past the fact you knew me when I was a teenager, is pretty special. Everything about you is amazing,” I said through my tears.
“When you kiss me, Prudence, I’m not a senator. I’m a king.” I heard him whisper. His body relaxed, and he drifted off to sleep in my arms.
He was where I wanted him, and I was not going to let him go this time. I held him in my arms all night as I slept, safe and at peace for the first time in my life.
Chapter Ten
“You look different,” said Beulah when I met her for lunch during the week. My big fear that my grandmother knew I’d bedded the senator, hit me. She and I were so close; she could sense things just by looking at me.
Alex and I had been together every night, and we had had no sleep except for maybe a couple of hours each night. We were exploring one another and getting used to each other’s wants and needs. I loved every second of our time together, and sleep was not important. He was making love to me every night, and no one else, and at that moment, nothing else mattered.
“What do you mean I look different, Grandma?” I asked, hoping to God she would not say what I feared.
“You are with him aren’t you? I can tell. You have a sparkle back. Something in your eyes is telling me you are with Alex again.” She smiled as she sat across from me and grabbed my hand.
“Well, maybe. Yes. We are together, Grandma.” I could not help but smile, and put my hair behind my ears nervously. It was weird telling her that I was back with the man of my dreams.
“I knew it. I knew it,” she gushed.
The waiter brought our salads, and we stopped talking as we waited for him to fill our water glasses.
“Thank you,” we both said in unison as we devoured our favorite strawberry salad.
“Well, tell me the details. How did you get back with him? Are you done with Trevor?” she asked in-between bites. She looked lovely with her signature white blouse, khaki pants, and leather driving shoes. Beulah had just got her hair cut in a bob style and had it highlighted with blonde streaks. She was a catch for any older man, and as we sat there, quite a few gave her a second look. But, in true Beulah form, she didn’t even notice or care.
I didn’t want to go into too much detail, especially the part where he brought me to his house. I just told her that we met up at the party, and we’d started dating. I left out the fact that he’d made me come about six times in one night, and that I thought I had left my body.
“That is excellent, honey. I hope you are happy now. You were distraught for some time. At least I don’t have to play matchmaker with Senator Fishburn’s son,” she laughed.
“I’m happy, Grandma. There is something about him. I can’t describe it, but I can’t live without him. I can’t breathe without him, and I can’t breathe when I’m with him.” I sipped my cool glass of water as I felt heat rise in my body just thinking of him.
“I know. That is what your grandfather did to me, honey. It is called finding the love of your life,” she said.
“I’m a little scared that he is seventeen years older than I am. With him being a senator, I don’t want this to be the center of his next election.”
“Your grandfather and I were ten years apart, and even back then, it was not that big of a deal. Don’t sweat that stuff, Prudence. Alex is a good, honest man, and that is what they will see.”
Her cell phone went off. She glanced at it, and then silenced the ringer.
“Toby,” she explained. “I will call her later. She is just being nosy again, as usual.” She smiled a wicked little smile because she knew she had one up on her sister.
“Is that why you don’t date anyone else? I mean, come on, half the men in here are giving you the once-over.”
Her face reddened.
“No one compared to him. No one even came close. He was once in a lifetime. Why bother with any of the others? It just doesn’t suit me. I’m happy being alone and spending time with my friends and family, especially you, honey.”
“That is how I feel about Alex, Grandma. Trevor was just a distraction, and I was comparing him to Alex,” I said, wiping my mouth.
“We are lucky, I guess. Not too many people get that. Hold on to him and love him.”
I planned on loving him, all right. I planned on loving him every night and every morning, and anytime in between.
***
Out of the blue, about a month after we started dating, I got a text I presumed was from Jade. It read.
You didn’t win him, he’s still mine.
I ignored it but saved it, and decided I would ask Alex about it later.
That night at dinner, I showed him the text. I didn’t want him to think I was a jealous girlfriend, but thought he should know. He told me he would handle it.
Our need for each other was getting intense once we gave in the first time. The floodgates were open and we couldn’t get enough of each other. Our nights, filled with fiery, physical sex and our mornings, filled with love, waking up in his arms, and tangled in his legs.
“I love spending the night with you,” he said one morning. He kissed me awake and I untangled myself from his warm body. Staying at his house, with the huge bed and fireplace was something I looked forward to. Being surrounded by his smell and his things always comforted me.
“I sleep so well when you’re with me.” I was trying to get myself up and out of the bed to make coffee, but the cool air and his warm body make me feel otherwise. That particular morning, he wouldn’t let me out of the bed.
“Alex, let me up,” I smiled and kissed him. But he was having none of it and refused to let go.
“Did you forget we have the senator’s steak fry today and it’s already eleven? You can’t be late.”
“Come on, stay in here with me. It’s so warm and cozy.” He had his hands all over me trying to entice me to stay in bed with him.
“You should move in with me,” he said, as he kissed my head and played with my hair.
“I can’t. I have my condo, and Beulah would kill me if I did.” The thought of moving in with him was enticing, but not something I felt I should do right away. First, I wanted to make sure we were both comfortable with each other before I moved in and took up space in his bathroom. It was a significant step for both of us. With Alex being a senator and dating a younger woman, we needed to take things slower.
“I want to wake up with you every morning, Prudence, and we can’t do that if we have separate places. Wouldn’t you like to be here with Becket and me?” he asked, as he started caressing my breasts. He was rubbing my areolas, purposely leaving my nipples untouched. He would just circle them with the tips of his fingers ever so gently. It made me beg for him to touch me and I bet he knew it. I felt his erection against me as he began moving his hips.
“Are you trying to bribe me with sex, Alex?”
I smiled at him as he moved in between my thighs. I opened my legs to fit his body as he began to kiss my stomach.
“Maybe I should withhold sex from you if you don’t comply,” he laughed, knowing full well he couldn’t do that himself.
“I can hold out, Alex. I have held out for a long time waiting for you,” I said, as I moved to get him inside me. I was always wet and ready for him. It was Saturday and usually we could take our time and be lazy. I loved those mornings when we stayed in bed until noon, talked, and made love. He would get us a cup of coffee, and we would sit and watch the news for hours. This was not one of those mornings.
“I don’t think I will give you this until you agree to move in with me. How’s that sound?” He teased me and rubbed himself against me, making me very unco
mfortable.
“Okay, I can hold off,” I said, playing his game. I let him feel the warmth and velvet softness of my skin, and I started touching my nipples. I could not take the torture anymore as I touched myself, hoping it would get him fired up.
Immediately, my nipples hardened under my own touch. Using both hands, I circled them with the tips of my fingers. Alex lay between my legs and watched.
“Does that feel good?” he asked. It did and knowing he was watching me do it, made me even hotter. All I could hear was the clock over his bed ticking, and my moaning.
“Mmm it does, Alex. It is making me throb.”
“Do you like touching yourself?” he asked, with a gasp in his throat.
“I do. If you won’t touch me, I am going to have to do it. I will just pretend these are your hands all over me. It feels so good, Alex.”
He became harder as he watched. I licked my finger and reached down to touch my clit. The thrill of his attention had lured me closer to coming. Touching myself the same way he did, I began to move my hips around. It was incredibly sexy, and I felt my body respond like it did when Alex touched me.
The feel of his body was heavy on top of me, his scent, and his beautiful face tore into my senses.
“I’m so close, baby.”
I did this in private with a vibrator, but I had never let anyone watch me. With Alex, anything sexual seemed comfortable. I had worked myself up into a climatic frenzy as I let it take over my body. Our little game made me more desperate for release.
As soon as I moaned again, he got up out of bed and said, “Come on, we gotta go. I’m going to be late.”
“My God, Alex. That is just mean,” I yelled.
“You’re just going to have to wait. We don’t have time,” he winked.
“I’m going to remember this later tonight when you’re all hot and bothered wondering if I’m wearing your favorite thong, or no thong at all.” I got out of bed, walked up to him, ran my hand across his hard cock, and walked to the shower.
“We’ll pick up this roommate conversation later this evening. I need you to see things my way and I know just how to do it.”
“You think, Mr. Conrad,” I yelled from inside the bathroom.
Chapter Eleven
A few months into our newfound love, I was at his house taking an early morning shower. I had not agreed to move in with him, but I kept a stash of things there when I did spend the night, which recently, was becoming every night. Running late again from lack of sleep, I was cussing in the shower trying to hurry. I was playfully blaming Alex for my current state of trying to get to work on time. We could not keep our hands off each other all night, and I was sleep deprived. I had to be in court with Victoria and it terrified me to be late.
Alex came in, “Baby. Your grandmother is on the phone. She needs to talk to you.”
I peeked my head out of the shower with the shampoo dripping on my face and steam billowing out behind me.
“You answered my cell phone this early in the morning? She’s going to know what we are up to,” I whispered, a little upset about it. I didn’t want Beulah to get ideas about me that weren’t upstanding, or to think I was acting in any way inappropriate. Though, since I’d been with Alex, that’s all I’d been doing.
“Come on, Prudence; you are an adult last time I checked.” He raised and lowered his eyebrows at me and smiled.
“Did you tell her I am taking a shower? Can I call her back?” I asked, with my eyes closed to keep the soap from burning them.
“I told her that, but she says she can’t wait. Here take the towel,” he said, laying a puffy, white towel over the shower door.
“Good God. I hope it’s important.”
“She sounds upset,” he whispered again.
Alex stepped out; I rinsed off quickly and wrapped my wet body in a towel. I walked into his room, he handed me the phone and spanked my ass with a wink.
“Hey, Grandma, it’s me.”
“Sweetheart, are you sitting down, or is Alex with you nearby?” she asked, and then I began to get concerned.
“Yes, Alex is here with me. What is it? You are scaring me.” I looked over at Alex.
“I received a call today from Ohio. It wasn’t your mother; it was someone from a hospital. I don’t know how to tell you this, honey.” Her voice told me she had been crying.
“I will be okay. Just tell me. Its Deidre, isn’t it?” I asked.
Alex looked over and sat on the bed next to me, putting his hand on my leg.
It had been nine years since I had seen or spoken to my mom. Numerous attempts to get in touch with her went ignored. The last I heard anything about her was from my best friend, Veena, and that was when I first moved in with Beulah. She told me my mom’s boyfriend was in jail for murder, and the police were at my mom’s trailer questioning her. After that, I tried dozens of times to talk to her through letters and heard nothing back.
There was no way to call her because she had no phone. I could write to her. Since I had been with Beulah, I sent her at least fifty letters to our trailer. Every time I mailed one, I thought that would be the one to make her write back. Now, I was waiting for the news I knew was inevitable.
“It seems she is very sick, honey. I guess she has only days to live.” With that, the crying started again. My face flushed, and my childhood flashed before me in an instant. Stunned at the reality of what was happening, I swallowed and tried to speak.
“What’s wrong with her?” I asked, trying to be strong for my grandmother.
“Well, the nurse told me it’s AIDS. Now, I don’t want you to freak out, but it gets worse. She was also in prison. I guess she was part of the murder Mort committed. She admitted she stabbed this man with this character, Mort. It is a sad situation. I have a flight for us this morning, and we should get in Ohio by noon. I know I didn’t ask you to come, but we both need to be there. Our plane leaves at eleven this morning. The sooner we get there, the better, honey.”
I just sat in awe at what I heard. My worst fear had happened. I knew from the last time seeing my mom, she didn’t look well. She was so skinny and gray, and must have been sick then. I had to see her. No matter what she had done, or what happened between us, she was still my mother, and she was dying.
“Okay. I will be ready. I will have Alex take me to the airport. Do you need a ride?” I asked in a whisper, trying to keep it together.
“No, Toby is bringing me,” she said.
“I have to call work and tell them something. I don’t want to tell them she has AIDS, but I will let them know it’s an emergency. Are you okay, Grandma?”
She had not seen my mom in twenty-some years. Not since she snuck out of her house and ran away with a couple of guys she met at a party. My mom wanted nothing to do with Beulah or my grandfather. She lived in a van, traveling all over the United States and taking drugs. She never knew my grandfather died until two years after, when she called asking for money. The day she found out he was dead; my mom laughed, and got wasted screaming what a horrible father he was till she passed out.
“I will be fine, honey. You don’t worry about me. I want you to take care of yourself. We will face this together like we have everything else,” she said. I could tell she was trying not to sound to upset as she spoke to me.
We hung up, and I knew I had to get myself together and move fast to get to the airport in two hours.
“Oh Prudence, I am so sorry you have to go through this. Let me come with you?” he said. I could not let him be in the middle of this. It had publicized he was dating an attorney, and there had been pictures of me in the paper. No one had released my name yet. I didn’t want my past dug up right now, and have it hurt his career.
“No, I will be okay. This is something I need to do alone. Our past would come out, and I don’t want it to hurt you right now,” I said. I buried my face into his neck, breathing in his cologne. I didn’t know how long I would be gone away from him, and I wanted to remember his c
omforting scent.
“Let me call Victoria and explain. We don’t have to tell her why, we’ll just say she is sick right now,” he said, holding my hands and kissing my forehead.
“Yes, please. Will you call Thomas for me as well? He will be worried, and I don’t feel like talking right now. I have to get to the airport soon. Do you think you can take me?”
He nodded.
“Tell Beulah, next time you have to fly somewhere; I have access to a private jet, and would prefer you us that instead. I feel better if you let Colt, my pilot fly you. He has been my pilot for years,” he said.
My head lay in his lap, the tears dripped down my cheeks and onto his thigh. We sat for a few seconds in silence.
“I understand, baby. Of course you have to go. I would like to be with you, Prudence,” he said, stroking my hair.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea right now. I don’t want you associated with this,” I said, as I pulled him down for a kiss.
“I could fly out this weekend.”
“No, Alex. I would feel better if you stayed here. Trust me on this one. If I need you, I will call.”
He looked wounded. “Okay, but I will be right here waiting for you to come back to me.”
He called his office and told Susan he would be in later, and then I heard him call Victoria as I packed and dressed. She was more concerned about me than the case, and told Alex that I could take as much time as I needed.
We were both quiet on the way to the airport. I held his hand the entire way wanting to touch him and to hold on to him before I left.
When we pulled into the airport parking lot, he looked at me and said, “If you need me for anything, I will be right there. Remember that. Don’t go through this alone. You are more important than anything.”
“I know, Alex. I have to be strong and do this, and put the past behind me. She is dying, and I need to make peace with her. I can do it.”
“I know you can, baby. Remember, I told you how strong you are. I saw it when you were just sixteen, and now you are a grown woman and even stronger. Call me as soon as you land. I need to hear your voice and know you are okay. I will be able to tell if you aren’t,” he said. We kissed goodbye, neither of us wanting to part.
