by Carter Blake
He thrusts hard into me, slamming me back even harder against the wall, leaving me gripping onto him so tightly that my nails are digging into his shoulders. I toss my head back and allow my eyes to slip shut, just so I can lose myself in the sensations, but as I do a stark realization fills my mind. It’s almost as if now that I’m in the heat of the moment, I can finally accept the truth.
I love him.
I have for a while now, and I really don’t want to leave. If anything I want to stay here, I want to remain at the company doing the first job I’ve ever felt good at, the first position I have ever found fulfilling, I want to be with Wesley…properly, and I would do just about anything to make that happen.
As the pressure of pleasure builds up inside of me, I clamp my lips tightly shut, trying to keep all of that locked away.
“I love you,” he pants, as if he’s been trying to keep everything inside too. “I love you so fucking much.”
What am I supposed to do with that? As long as I don’t say anything back, everything will be fine.
“I love you too,” I hear myself crying out as the orgasm screams through my body, shattering everything inside of me. As the words I was trying not to say escape my mouth, I feel a large weight lifting from my shoulders.
Once he slides out of me, and we’re both panting like crazy, everything swims around in my mind.
This is too much, it’s too intense, it’s too hard to take.
My head is telling me to run for the hills, to recover from what I’ve been through and discovered by myself, to start again by myself, but my heart wants to grip onto Wesley with both hands. Before I can make any rational decision, tears are rolling down my cheeks and I’m whimpering like an idiot.
“Hey,” Wesley says softly, wrapping his arms around me. “It’s okay, I know you’ve been through a lot, but I’m here.”
“You can’t be,” I burst out through the tears. “You can’t be there for me, it isn’t right.”
“Why not?” he pulls back to look into my eyes for a second. “What’s going on Naomi?”
“I have to go,” I tell him quickly. “I need to move away from here, to start again. I can’t continue to live here knowing what I’ve done. It just hurts too much.”
“You can’t go.” His eyes narrow on me, darkening.
“But this isn’t right. I can’t do it. I’ve put you through too much, I’ve caused too much damage.”
He grips tightly onto my hands, before looking intently into my eyes. “Both of us had our lives dictated by our parents, and the mess that they created, but it doesn’t need to be that way anymore. We can be free of it all now, we can leave it all behind.”
Can we really do that? Is that possible? I gaze into his eyes, trying to find all of the answers, things to make the pain go away, to stop the confusion.
“I… I don’t know,” I tell him honestly. “I don’t think I can do it.”
“You know as well as I do that we’re strong enough to work through it, we can make each other happy.” He strokes my cheek and looks at me with nothing but love. “That future, the one I’m sure we’ve both been imagining. We can make it happy. It’s up to us.”
My mind spins, my heart pounds, and indecision courses through me. I’m being given another opportunity, a second chance, even if I don’t feel like I deserve it, all I need to do is grab onto it with both hands.
It’s scary though, terrifying to think that I could have everything, because I’m so afraid of losing it all again, of screwing it up. I still have that sense that I don’t know who I really am just yet, and I don’t know how to solve that mystery. Do I stay here and allow Wesley to help me, or do I stick to what I decided all along?
“Say you’ll be mine,” he repeats, rubbing the pad of his thumb across my bottom lip. “Say you’ll stay. With me. Don’t make another mistake from running away from what we can have together.”
I want it so bad. I gaze into his dark eyes, seeing my future there. Knowing I’ll never be fully whole if I walk away from this man now.
“Okay,” I concede, finally, for the first time in my life giving my heart the ruling of the roost. “I’ll stay. I’ll stay with you.”
“I love you,” Wesley exclaims, scooping me up into his arms, and kissing me hard. “You will not regret this. I will make you happy, I promise you that.”
I just hope and pray that he’s right.
Chapter 24
Wesley
Two months later…
“Thank you, team,” I announce to everyone at the end of launch day. “This has been one of the biggest challenges that we’ve ever had to face yet, but we did it. When times got tough, when things got hard, we pulled together, and now things have gone great.”
I explained the truth to all of my staff, the day after we got the formula back, before Naomi returned to work, and because I was honest with them all, and I answered all of their questions, they eventually got back on board. Now, they treat her just like one of us again.
“The reports are in, and the drugs have reached everyone that truly needed it, so that’s something worth celebrating.”
Everyone raises the champagne glasses that they’re holding, and we all take a swig.
“Now, everyone, take the rest of the day off, and we’ll start again on Monday.”
People chat among themselves for a while, before slowly filtering out, and the whole time my eyes remain on Naomi.
She’s starting to look a little happier, which is a great thing, that’s all I want for her, and I really hope that doesn’t change when I tell her what I have planned for us tonight.
Now that my Mom and Michael are working on rebuilding their friendship, I finally feel ready to hear him out, so I have arranged for the four of us to have dinner tonight. It could get a little hairy, so I know that it’s a risk, but I feel like it might be a positive step in moving forwards.
She hasn’t really spoken to her Dad this everything happened.
To be honest, she’s been a little like a lost lamb, just trying to find herself, but I’m doing all that I can to support her with that. I’m being there for her, listening when she wants to talk, and distracting her when she needs that too. I even told her to take some time off work that we would sort the PR out ourselves, but she’s insisted on keeping on working.
I can’t help but worry about her.
“How are you feeling today?” I ask her once we’re alone, placing a small kiss on the end of her nose. We aren’t keeping us a particular secret anymore, but I would rather not act upon it in front of the others. I want to keep what we are just for us, not to be a subject of gossip. “Are you up for going out tonight?”
“Why, what do you have planned?” she asks, sending me a weary smile. “I suppose I can work up the energy if I need to.”
“I think that it might be time to speak to your Dad,” I tell her honestly. “So I have booked a table at the local Italian restaurant.”
Her expression hardens, but she eventually sends me a quick nod. “Yeah, I think that’s a good idea. It might be time to finally put all of this behind us,” she sighs thoughtfully for a second. “It’s all been a bit much, but I think I’m coming to terms with it now. I think it would be better for all of us if we didn’t worry about it anymore. There’s no point in dwelling in the past, I want to focus on the future.”
I smile brightly, glad to hear something so positive come from her mouth. That has to be a good step. We’re moving forwards now, which means that soon enough we’ll all be in a good place.
That’s all I care about.
***
“I cannot imagine my Dad acting that way. He was always so…serious.” I can’t believe it. I’m having dinner with the man who was my enemy for such a long time, and I’m actually enjoying his company. He’s telling me tales about his relationship with my Dad before things went sour, and he’s really making me smile. “That’s incredible.”
“I know, and when he really got drunk… w
ell that’s another story entirely.”
There’s a warmth between him and my mother, and I can’t help but wonder what it is. Are they really just friends, or is there a spark between them? Something more real developing? And how do I feel about that? I mean, my Dad has been gone for years now, it isn’t unreasonable for my Mom to move on…but with Michael, the love rival? The man who tried to destroy my company? How would Dad feel about that?
“Oh, remember that night he tried to steal the pub sign?” Mom joins in laughing too.
The man I knew was always so serious, always looking down on me for being crazy. Now I learn that he’s been bad too? It’s absolutely crazy.
“Thank you for having me,” Michael suddenly says seriously, completely changing the atmosphere around us. “I mean, I know it must be hard for you to look me in the face again, so I want you to know that I really do appreciate it. I don’t think that I would be able to be as good a man as you.”
“I think it’s just time,” I say honestly. “I know that this has all been a long time coming and that a lot of bad feelings were floating under the surface for many years, but all I want now is to move forward.”
Naomi holds my hand under the table, giving it a gentle squeeze. She’s comforting me in the way that I have been her in the last few weeks, and that makes my chest swell with love.
“We’ve turned over a new page now, and I think we can move forward in the right way.”
“That’s great news.” He smiles thinly at me. “I have to admit that I feel really ashamed of my behavior, and that your Mom has helped me to see what a fool I’ve been.”
They share a look of love, one that I can’t even begin to process.
“Well, there’s more.” This is something that I haven’t told anyone yet, not even Naomi, but I’m sure she’ll be happy with me. “I actually want you to come back to work for me, at the company. I want you to head up the research and production team, doing what you’ve always done best. You too, Mom. I know you were a huge part of Future before you had me, and I would love you to come back in. I’ve been doing okay by myself, but as Naomi showed me when she came in with her brand new ideas, I could use the outside perspective of some people I can trust. Some people that only have the best interests of the business at heart.”
I really have thought about this long and hard, and this feels like the best solution to me, the one that keeps everyone happy and progresses the company too.
“Now, I know you have your teaching job and this might not be something you want, especially working under my rules, so I understand if you refuse–”
“I would love to,” he interrupts quickly, his eyes clouding. “That’s incredible that you would even ask.. All I’ve ever wanted is to be back at the company I started, especially after I screwed it up. I won’t let you down, I promise you.”
“And you, Mom?” I smile at her, hoping that she’s say yes. She must have been amazing in her heyday, and I would love to see that in action. She deserves some happiness too, and if this can help her with that, then I’m all for it.
“Of course, I would love that. I’m only doing part-time though, I don’t want it to become my whole life again.”
“Okay sure,” I laugh happily at her. “Whatever you want.”
I glance around the table, looking at everyone in turn, and I realize that everything feels right with the world again. I feel like I’ve done something good, and that I can be proud of.
***
As I drive Naomi back to her house, there’s a thick silence hanging over her. I want to ask her what’s wrong, but I don’t know if I really want to hear the answer. If she tells me now that she doesn’t want me to invite her father to work with us, then I’m about to find myself in a very sticky situation – one that I won’t be able to get myself out of. I can’t exactly un-hire him now, can I?
“Was there something going on?” she eventually asks, looking at me curiously. “Between our parents, I mean?”
I chuckle, relieved that seems to be the only things on her mind. “You noticed that too, huh? Yeah I think there might be.”
“And what do you think about that?”
I consider that for a moment, considering it from every angle. “Well, I suppose we could be mad. They caused all this trouble with their feelings for one another, and now they are just… together. Or we could see it as something sweet. They loved one another once, but their lives took them in different paths, and now they’ve found one another again.”
“I don’t want to think of it at all,” she jokes. “But I guess we might have to, if we’re going to see them every day.”
“You are okay with that, right?” I ask her curiously, deciding to just get the damn answers already. “You don’t mind that I did that?”
“Of course I don’t. The only reason that I got involved with all of this was to make my Dad happy, and you’ve found the best way to do that.”
“It’s for me too,” I tell her honestly. “I meant what I said, and I truly do think that all my Dad would want is for all of us to be happy.” I glance at her out of the corner of my eye for a moment. “I know you might have been raised to see him as a bad man, but he really wasn’t. He was kind, with a big heart.”
“Like you,” she interrupts quietly. “That’s exactly how I see you.”
“And is that something you like?” I ask, with a grin on my face. “Do you think that’s the sort of qualities you would like in a boyfriend?”
“Why is that what you want to be?” she teases. “You want to be my boyfriend?”
“Of course I do,” I exclaim happily. “That’s all I’ve wanted for ages now. I have never ever wanted anything so much. I want to be with you, so what do you say?”
She kisses me sweetly, before giving me a smile. “Of course I want you to be my boyfriend, now are you coming inside, or what?”
As I follow behind her, realizing that this is the first time I have ever been to her house, I smile secretly to myself. Me and Naomi are together now, it’s official, and I’m so excited for what the future holds. There is still so much that we need to learn about one another, still so many journeys that we need to go on, and I cannot wait for all of them.
Naomi Hayes Norton is wonderful, a truly incredible woman, and despite the fact that we’ve already been through more bumps than any other couple in the world, we’re still here, still going strong, it shows that we have what it takes, and that means so much more to me than anything else ever could.
I love this woman, and I always will.
Epilogue
Naomi
“So, how is it living with Wesley?” Amber asks me over our morning cup of coffee.
Despite the rocky way that our relationship started, we’ve actually managed to become good friends.
She was frosty with me, because she – rightfully – suspected that I was up to something, and now it’s been almost a year since all of that happened, and it’s all far behind us, we’ve really managed to build something incredible.
“It’s good,” I smile warmly. “I mean, it’s taken us a long time to get to this point because I really had to sort myself out first, but now…well, the timing is right, and it’s incredible.”
Wesley has to be the kindest, most understanding person that I’ve ever met, and I’m really lucky to have him in my life. While I went through the healing process, including therapy, most men would have run a mile, but Wesley stayed, supporting me every step of the way.
“I’m glad we’ve finally made that move.”
“Come on, girls, back to work.” My Dad races past us, giving us his little joke, “This company isn’t going to run itself.”
“I don’t think you and Madeline need us anymore,” I shout as he gets away from us. “You seem to have total control of things all by yourselves.”
Having them on board really has been a blessing for Future Pharmaceuticals, they’ve progressed things to a level no one could have imagined. At one point my Dad did sug
gest bringing Oliver back in, just so we can all keep an eye on him, but Wesley shot that idea down right away. Oliver’s belief that he should be paid more for his mediocre skills will never go away, and that isn’t the sort of people we need working alongside us.
“Things are going really well for them too, right?” Amber whispers, making me smile.
“They are. Yes. Things are great now. It is like they’ve managed to find their way back to one another in this crazy, mixed up world. But the great thing about it is neither of them regret the missed years, because they both had other loves, so actually it doesn’t feel too bad. I don’t think Wesley is too bothered by it either.”
“Who would have thought it…what a crazy, happy family.”
“Yeah, I suppose it is a little strange,” I giggle alongside her. “But it just works, so that’s alright for us.”
“Well, we better get to work. We don’t want to get in trouble with the boss.”
I can tell that something is up, the entire day long. Things are progressing well, but we don’t have any drugs ready to launch, yet Wesley is acting like the entire weight of the world is on his shoulders.
“What’s wrong?” I ask him for what feels like the millionth time. “What is going on with you?”
“Nothing.” He waves his hand dismissively at me, but I narrow my eyes regardless.
He can’t fool me, I know him way too well for that. Something is troubling him, and I want to know what.
“We are still on for dinner tonight, right?” He asks, still not looking at me.
“Dinner?”
“You know, the one to celebrate us finally moving in together. I told you about it yesterday. At that fancy French place that just opened?”
He finally looks at me, rubbing his forehead as stress overcomes him even more.
“Okay sure, I vaguely remember that. But we moved in together a week ago, why are we only celebrating that now?”
