Fiona Love

by Sherrod Story

  “I don’t know, but she’s due for her yearly,” Cleo said. “I’ll make sure it gets taken care of.”

  “Besides, you did help her,” Netty told him over her shoulder as she prepared them a spiced chai tea with milk. “Dr. Neill was super nice.”

  “We’ve known each other since we were kids.”

  “We’re lucky he could come on such short notice,” Cleo said.

  “He actually works not too far from here. I caught him just as he was about to go home for the day.”

  “Have you eaten?” Netty asked.

  He hadn’t but he hesitated, not knowing if he was really welcome.

  “Please join us for dinner.” She cuffed his shoulder. “We missed you, you know.”

  He grinned. “I missed you too. How’s Flora?”

  While they filled him in on the baby’s latest antics, they shared a simple meal of cheeseburgers and sweet potato fries Netty baked in the oven. Daney caught them up on what he’d been doing, and they told him of their latest escapades over Skinny Cow ice cream sandwiches.

  “And Fiona? How has she been?”

  At first no one said anything, then Cleo began to recount a funny story involving Flora, and when Daney laughed Netty contributed another. Soon they were nattering on as though he’d never left.

  A little before nine he said he had to leave. “I’m just goin’ in and say goodbye.”

  “Sure,” Netty said, shaking her head when he was gone. “That fucking Tino has a lot to answer for,” she said quietly.

  Cleo agreed. “I don’t think I coulda forgave him the way Fiona did.”

  Remembering the sadness she’d seen on Daney’s handsome face just now, the days and nights she’d pretended not to see Fiona crying, Netty couldn’t see herself being that generous either. “Not at all.”

  Fiona had been up for about 20 minutes when he came in and quietly approached the bed.

  “Thank you for bringing the doctor, pretty,” she said, her oddly formal speech couldn’t prevent the pet name from slipping out. She lowered her eyes then raised them and smiled bravely. “How are you?”

  He reached out to caress the side of her face with a warm familiar palm, and Fiona nearly choked trying to hold back a cry.

  His hand fell back to his side. “I’ve missed you.”

  The intensity of his words, what she saw in his clear green eyes made her bite her lip against the sobs rising in her chest.

  But then he seemed to get a hold of himself. Whatever she’d glimpsed vanished. He rose, and she feasted her eyes on his tall, rangy figure in jeans and plain, but elegant grey cashmere.

  “Feel better,” he said gruffly. “Call if you need me,” he told her, and was gone.

  Fiona’s nails scored red welts in her palms to keep the words ‘I need you,’ behind her teeth.

  ******

  “How is she?” Buck asked when he got home.

  “Don’t start.”

  “I just asked how she was, Dane.”

  The tone of his brother’s voice brought Daney’s eyes up. Green eyes a shade darker than his own rested seriously on his face.

  “She was pretty bad for a while there. Freddy gave her some kind of injection that put her asleep for a few hours, and she woke up a lot better. He left her painkillers and a few tranqs. She’ll be fine.”

  “That’s it?”

  “Basically.”

  “Did you guys talk?”

  “A little. She was up when I went in to say goodbye.”

  “She was groggy from the meds?”

  “No, she was a bit weak, but otherwise okay, why?”

  “I’m trying to figure out why you didn’t say anything to her.”

  “Anything like what?” He snapped, giving his brother a look that warned him to back off. “What would you suggest, Buck? Something like, why’d you fuck that other guy when you knew I was coming over? How could you betray me and play me for a fucking fool in front of the entire goddamn world?”

  Fiona hadn’t really, but for a while it had felt that way. He’d collected more faux sympathy and offers of poor Daney pity sex than was even reasonable. He thought it was even more unreasonable that he hadn’t taken any of the nitwits up on their offers, while Fiona was happily fucking her producer like 40 going north. His lips curled as he recognized one of her signature phrases in his mind.

  “You don’t know that for sure.”

  “Know what?” he snarled.

  Buck withstood the evil tone with a younger brother’s fearlessness and pressed on. “She told you it wasn’t what it looked like. You yourself wondered since she wasn’t naked with the guy, only sleeping with him.”

  “I’m over this,” Dane said flatly.

  Buck sighed. “No, you’re not.”

  “Buck. Leave, me, the fuck, alone. I’m not kidding. You’re makin’ me wanna punch your fuckin’ face in.”

  Buck paused and cleared his throat at the look his brother was giving him, but it was because of that look that he continued. “You look pained even when you’re snarling. You’re like a cornered wolf too stubborn to back out of a trap. You fuckin’ love this girl, and what? Your feelings are hurt? You wanna hurt her for daring to hurt you? What is it? ‘Cause she’s moving on without you. You’re the one who’s stuck, and you don’t have to be ‘cause I think she’ll take you back. You’re just too much of a fuckin’ pussy to try.”

  Dane’s mean gaze dropped from his brother’s. “She won’t take me back.”

  Buck remembered some of the looks Fiona had given his brother in his presence. How she catered to him and kissed and touched and teased until Dane was nearly crazy from wanting her. “Yes, she would. You’re just gonna have to hope this other guy hasn’t got under her skin, and she’s let go of you completely.”

  ******

  “You okay?”

  Natty.

  “Hey, boo. Netty called you?”

  “Yeah, but I got the message way late, and then no one was answering your phone or Cleo’s. On the message Netty asked me if I knew a doctor out there who’d prescribe pills fast. She said you were pretty sick. That the doctor had to come? I offered to call my aunt at Northwestern, but a few minutes ago Cleo told me you had things handled by then. What happened?”

  “Oh, I’m fine, baby. Don’t worry. Just had a spell. Doctor came though, gave me a shot and some pills, all better.”

  “You sound like you’ve been crying.”

  She laughed softly. She had been crying indeed. Daney had just left a little while ago. “I feel better hearing from you,” she said truthfully.

  “I can be on the next plane out there. Bring you home?”

  “Not just yet. I’m gonna chill for a minute, regroup, then I gotta have this perfume meeting.”

  “That’s a big move. Creating your own fragrance.”

  “Yes, it is, but I’m gonna do it.”

  “You’ll be a hit. Whatchu gon’ call it? That’s key.”

  “I know, and I have no idea.”

  “I think you should call it Fiona.”

  “Yeah? Why?”

  “Because it should symbolize you. Who you are, a woman other women wanna be, down to earth, sexy, successful, dangerously talented, intelligent. That sort of thing. The first one’s usually the signature scent, right?”

  Wow. “Yes. Wow. That’s a good idea.”

  “You sure you okay?”

  “Yes.”

  “You’re sure. I’ll come out.”

  “I’ll be home in a few days.”

  “I miss you.”

  “You miss having someone to bully.”

  “Bull shit. I got plentya muh’fuckas to bully.” People flew in from out of town to work with him on a moment’s notice when he said he had time. “I miss you,” he said again, lower, sadder.

  Daney had said the same thing. Fiona let her shoulders relax. “I miss you too, baby. I’m gonna have stored up a lot of missin’ you by the time I get home.”

  “I’m not touchi
ng you for a month until you recover.”

  “Nu-uh. Then it’ll be my period again.”

  “We’ll see,” he said righteously. “And what does that mean? You had a spell. Has this shit happened before?”

  She smiled, not really listening. They’d see the truth when she got him alone in a few days.

  “Fiona!”

  “Hmmm?”

  “I asked has this happened before?”

  “Not this bad in a while.”

  “What about last month? I never saw you acting sick.”

  Because I hid from you the days it was hurting.

  “I’m a little tired, babe. I’ma go to sleep. Good ni-ight,” she sang, drawing the word out on a breathy rasp.

  He inhaled audibly, and she laughed, knowing he was feeling it where it counted. “Good night.”

  As much as she enjoyed Natty when they were together, as soon as she hung up the phone her mind refocused on Daney and how he’d looked tonight. His looks were only part of why she felt what she did, but she’d missed him so bad she couldn’t help but replay every little detail. He’d looked so good tonight her fingers had itched to touch him. To feel the softness of his thick, black hair, enjoy the rasp of his evening beard against her palm.

  He’d said he had missed her, but she doubted he knew what that meant. The pain of his absence still had the power to steal her breath, to make her stutter in the studio, courting Natty’s fury ‘cause he seemed to know when the emotion was running thick in her veins and thoughts of her former lover were top of mind.

  Daney couldn’t fathom, or at least Fiona would never have believed he could, that she often turned to talk to him when he wasn’t there. That tears would well out of nowhere when she saw or heard something that reminded her of him or of their time together.

  And though she’d stared hungrily the last time she’d seen him, soaking him in like a paper towel, it wasn’t his beauty that had floored her. It was him. His scent, the sound of his voice, the fact that he’d dropped everything to come help her without thinking twice.

  Even when he was acting reserved that innate sexiness clung to him like confetti on damp skin. She’d felt the heat from his body when he sat beside her and touched her face. She shifted restlessly, half wishing she had said yes to Natty’s offer to fly out here. But she wasn’t quite selfish enough to take him away from his music to assuage feelings for another man.

  She wanted Daney. It was that simple, and that scary. After all this time, after she’d taken up with another man and thought she was satisfied, her body, her spirit still craved Daney.

  “Fuck,” she whispered.

  Someone knocked.

  “Come in.”

  “You don’t sound too good,” Cleo said.

  “I don’t feel too good.”

  “Belly?”

  “Not so much anymore. That doctor’s got good drugs,” she laughed. It’s Daney. After all this fuckin’ time. It’s once again, Daney. “Where Boomer keep his weed?”

  “By the big screen TV.”

  “His precious home entertainment center that looks like a mini-theater?” Fiona laughed. “Bring it here for me, please?”

  “You shouldn’t with those drugs you took.”

  “Bring it, Cleo.”

  “All right! Don’t get worked up.’

  ******

  With a successful perfume meeting behind her, a plan under way and her next tasks before her, Fiona returned gratefully to Chicago. She knew it was bogus, but she had Netty call Natty to say she was home and exhausted, that she had fallen asleep talking about calling him. She hoped he wouldn’t stop by. With Daney hovering in her mind like a ghost, the thought of seeing another man was barely tolerable.

  Of course, not seeing Natty also meant not going to the studio. Not that she wanted to. She wanted to sit in her room and pout and smoke until she fell asleep watching some obscure movie on cable. And that, she told herself, is exactly why you’re going back tomorrow.

  The next day he greeted her normally. Mike was there and a few of the session musicians, and they palled around. She and Natty had agreed to keep their relationship quiet, and though everyone knew, their friends and peers respected their privacy for the sake of the work.

  She told them a little about the perfume deal, discussed the different types of scent she was considering until Natty grabbed her hand. He tugged her gently and rose. She followed without looking back at the now silent room.

  He brought her to his apartment.

  “It’s clean,” she said.

  “The maid came,” he muttered, already pulling her clothes loose. “I know we can’t do anything until you’re better, but I need to feel you,” he groaned when she was in her undies and in his arms. He squeezed. “Fiona. I won’t lose control, I promise. Just let me,”

  He kissed her so passionately, she had to respond. The feelings built as she realized she’d missed him and his honest desire for her. It was amazing. The heart could be intertwined with one and the body could still feel the pleasure of another’s touch.

  He groaned as she stroked the inside of his mouth with her tongue.

  “I haven’t hurt for days now,” she whispered against his lips. “It’s been a week since the doctor.”

  “Five days,” he corrected, rubbing himself gently against her. “Are you really feeling better? I was worried about you.” His hips stopped their restless movement as he squeezed her again, and Fiona wanted suddenly to cry.

  “I’m perfectly fine, except for not having been made love to in forever.”

  “Try two weeks,” he laughed, kissing her cheerfully as he stroked her back.

  “An age,” she corrected. “My period’s completely over,” she said, kissing him aggressively in a way that reminded him of the other things she liked to do to his body.

  He groaned, ground himself against her hard, and was instantly contrite. “Did that hurt? You drive me nuts!” He made to pull away, and Fiona wrapped herself around him like wet hair.

  “You’ve never hurt me,” she whispered, kissing him gently now. She sighed and rubbed her breasts very deliberately against his chest. She arched her back and slowly surrounded his rigid dick in the hot V between her thighs. “Quite the contrary.”

  Fiona loosed the breathy, panting noises she knew he loved, and with the special gift that only belongs to a very sensuous woman, she made herself smaller, more vulnerable, luring her lover to master her, to control her with firm, but caring hands. With her beauty and warmth she incited him to pleasure her, to worship her curves and the long lines of her endless legs.

  Natty followed her lead expertly, and when it was over, she lay idly stroking a hand over his back, another over the slender round of his ass. She wondered if she was horribly cruel to keep this lovely man when her heart was somewhere else.

  Then, as was often the case when self-doubt appeared, she answered herself. Fuck no she wasn’t cruel. Cruel was leaving a woman for a man she hadn’t even fucked. Cruel was not calling, not even once, to see how she was. Cruel was sending Flora the most adorable clothes from Japan and not including a word for her. Cruel was being photographed with your fuckin’ arm around a supermodel in Soho.

  Daney was a prick.

  She kissed Natty’s shoulder and the side of his neck as she hugged him close.

  Natty lifted his head to kiss her. “I’m glad you’re home,” he whispered, and with the special talent only a truly blessed, beautiful man has, he made love to her. By turns sweet and seductive, he caressed her until the last lonely bit of tension melted from her limbs. They fell asleep wrapped so close in each other’s arms their breath mingled.

  ******

  She was sorting things for the dry cleaners the next day when her phone rang. Scrambling to find it beneath the heap of shit on her bed, she answered it without looking to see who it was. She was expecting a call from Gilbert in Paris.

  “Peace.”

  “Peace.”

  She froze mid-illicit smoke
. Literally stopped breathing, then began to cough.

  “You okay?”

  “Fine,” she gasped. “You?”

  “I want you back.”

  “What?” she shrieked, still coughing.

  “I want you back,” Daney repeated. “I’m coming over.”

  Fiona plopped down on the edge of the bed and attempted a few deep breaths. “You’re in Chicago?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Are you working?”

  “No. I’m here for you.”

  Fiona was completely dumbfounded. “I don’t know what to say.”

  “Say, yes, Daney. Come over.”

  “Yes, Daney. Come over.” she breathed, her heart already beating faster with anticipation. He was on his way.

  She ran to the shower, then ran to her cell. She had to put Natty off so he wouldn’t drop by. Thank God she’d resisted the lazy urge to give him a key. She called the studio phone, thanked God again when Mike answered. “Tell him I’m not feeling as well as I thought. My voice is still a little hoarse,” she added truthfully. “I think it would be wise to chill for the day, not talk and come back tomorrow.” She knew Natty wouldn’t come by after that. He’d just bury himself in work and call her tomorrow.

  Mike agreed, and said he’d pass along the message. “Glad you’re feeling better.”

  “Thanks, buddy. Peace.”

  She showered quickly with Daney’s favorite soap and walked through a small cloud of his favorite perfume. She lamented that Netty wasn’t home to spray her down properly. But soon she’d have her own shit to mist! She still had to look at those bottle designs. Where were those fuckin’ – there! She put in a pair of small gold hoops with a thin, pave strand of gold running over them. She only had time to get her bra on before he was at the door.

  She threw on a cream silk robe and ran. She skidded to a stop and pulled nervously at her hair, took a deep breath before she opened the door.

  He didn’t speak. He didn’t have to. His hot eyes and even hotter hands said everything. He came over the threshold and pulled her into his arms like he’d crossed a battlefield to reach her. He kissed her lavishly, stroking her mouth with warm wet licks that dewed her starved-for-him pussy instantly.