Message from a Mistress

by Niobia Bryant

  “It wasn’t Eric, Mama, it was me,” she said, surprising herself.

  Some of the weight on her shoulders lifted even as her mother gasped in horror. Some of the veil was lifted and she didn’t know the repercussions of her admission…and she was quickly learning not to care. Not even if it meant living or dying.

  “The truth is the light, Mama, and I’m sick of the dark,” Jaime said, ready to wash the guilty blood from her hands.

  CHAPTER 14

  “Girl, you are beaming. Do I smell new dick in your life?” Aria’s brows furrowed and her fingertips paused on the keys of her laptop as she’d remembered the innocent question she’d asked Jessa just a few weeks before. She was trying her very best to focus on her column but was failing miserably. It was hard to pretend that Jessa Bell had never sent that message. It was hard to pretend that she was waiting to see if she was the victim of a betrayal.

  Aria typed the word “betray” into the dictionary search box for her computer. Of the four definitions listed, she found that one truly suited her best:

  be•tray go against promise:

  to act in a way that is

  contrary to a promise made

  On their wedding day, Kingston had promised her fidelity, but those summers she’d shared with her crazy-ass cousin had taught her men were not to be trusted. Although Aria had always lived waiting for the other shoe to fall with some cheating bs she still was caught off guard by this ish.

  When she graduated from high school, Aria was hell-bent and determined to get her shit together. Her goal was to become the exact opposite of the trick she made herself into during those long hot summers.

  Her school grades never really suffered, and during her senior year she excelled once she put true effort into her studies.

  She pushed her laptop off her lap and rose to her feet, knowing she had no hopes of getting any work done. Not when her mind was so preoccupied.

  “Girl, you are beaming. Do I smell new dick in your life?”

  Aria shook her head at being played for a dang-on fool….

  “Damn, she fine as hell.”

  Aria smiled a bit as she looked over at the table of suit-clad men sitting beside her. The smile faded as she saw the eyes were not on her. She followed their line of vision. Jessa stood at the door looking around the crowded restaurant. She fought not to roll her eyes.

  She should be used to Jessa getting all of the attention when they were together. Her friend’s light caramel complexion, long hair, and endless curves stroked the hot spots of most men.

  Easing out of her chair, Aria smoothed her stretchy turtleneck and fitted black jeans over her own curves as she stood up and made a big gesture of waving Jessa over. Out the corner of her eye she saw the men eyeing her as well. Humph, I thought so.

  Jessa waved as she eased her wide hips through the crowd to reach her. “Hey, Aria, I’m glad you got a table. It is packed in here,” she said, sliding onto the chair as she sat her monogrammed denim Louis Vuitton on the seat next to Aria’s Coach tote.

  Aria eyed her friend. The brightness of her eyes and slight flush in her cheeks. There seemed to be an excited air surrounding her. “Girl, you are beaming. Do I smell new dick in your life?”

  Jessa looked at her over the rim of the leather-bound menu. “Huh?” she asked, just the hint of a smile at her peach gloss-covered lips.

  Aria’s mouth formed into an O as she reached across the table to grasp Jessa’s hand. “You heard me. Don’t play, Jessa.”

  “I don’t really want to talk about it,” she said lightly.

  Aria gasped. “So you are seeing someone,” she said in wonder as she released Jessa’s hand and reached for her goblet of white wine.

  Jessa shrugged, closing the menu to sit beside her plate. “Yes,” she admitted.

  Aria saw her reluctance. “Jessa, don’t feel guilty for moving on. Just because Marc passed on doesn’t mean your life had to be put on pause,” she assured her. “It’s been years, and you deserve to be loved on, loved up, and just purely loved again.”

  Jessa smiled but it didn’t quite reach her eyes.

  Aria eyed her over the rim of her goblet. “When do we get to meet him?” she asked.

  “Um…we’re taking things real slow, so the whole meeting of the family and friends thing won’t be happening…anytime soon,” Jessa said, opening the menu again to cover her face.

  Aria lifted up in her chair to pull the menu back down. “Tell me about him, and I want it all. Men are like plans…it’s all in the details.”

  Jessa cast her eyes out the window and a soft smile curved her lips. “I’ll just say this. He’s an amazing man. An amazing friend. And an amazing lover,” she admitted, actually dropping her head as she blushed.

  Aria smiled. “You’re already in the sex zone? This thing has been going on for a while, then,” Aria said assuredly, knowing her friend.

  Jessa just shrugged.

  “Why the secrecy?”

  “It’s just different because he isn’t Marc and all of my friends were Marc’s friends. I don’t know. It all just kinda happened and I just want to hold on to it and cherish it a little before we let the world in.”

  “Aww,” Aria sighed playfully.

  “Girl, hush,” Jessa said, pointedly picking up her menu. “I am starving and in the mood for seafood.”

  “Where did you meet him?”

  “Um…through a mutual friend.”

  “Who? Someone I know?”

  “Not really,” Jessa said vaguely.

  “Wow, you really are keeping him under wraps, huh?”

  Jessa reached for her sweating goblet of water.

  “Is he good to you?” Aria asked, truly wanting her friend to be happy.

  Jessa locked her eyes with Aria’s. “Yes,” she answered with a light in her eyes. “It is nothing that I expected but everything I never knew I wanted.”

  Aria nodded as she leaned back to allow the waiter to set a goblet of ice water down in front of her. She lightly touched the sleeve of his crisp white shirt. “Please bring us a bottle of champagne,” she ordered politely.

  Jessa looked surprised.

  “We are going to celebrate your new Boo,” Aria said, feeling—and ignoring—the eyes of the men at the neighboring table.

  “I must admit that he is worth celebrating,” Jessa said.

  “Humph. That good, huh?” Aria teased.

  Jessa laughed a bit. “Yes, but it’s more than that now. It’s really good, you know, and hopefully…hopefully we’ll be able to take it to the next level. I know that I want to and he says he wants to.”

  “Well, I can’t wait to meet him and add him to our little circle and get to know him,” Aria said, completely curious about Jessa’s mystery man.

  Jessa smiled as she met Aria’s stare. “Yeah…one day everyone will know just who he is. Just wait…you’ll see. You’ll all see.”

  Aria shook her head as anger consumed her at the thought that Jessa had been talking about Kingston—her husband—the whole time. Jessa had played her like a fool with her vague answers cleverly cloaking her betrayal of a friend. The same way she was playing the hell out of them now.

  Aria would give anything to see Jessa. She was a mature, self-confident woman who knew how to effectively use brain over brawn…but she would love to whip Jessa Bell’s ass six ways ’til Sunday. And not a bitchy and whiny slapfest, but she wanted to land some hardcore gut punches and vicious roundhouse kicks.

  But whupping Jessa’s ass wouldn’t change the fact that only a marriage without a solid foundation could crumble at the hands of an outside person. Jessa or any other woman shouldn’t have ever been an issue.

  And she shouldn’t feel so assured that her husband—the man she loved and cherished—was the culprit.

  Not once since they received the infamous message had the thought crossed Aria’s mind that it wasn’t Kingston. Not once. What did that say about the state of her marriage? Where was her faith in him
and why was it so easily lacking?

  She thought of her past, her secrets, her shame.

  “My marriage might be over,” she said aloud as she walked to her office windows and looked out at the street below.

  Her dulled eyes landed on the house across the street. Vaguely she noticed Jasper Wiggins and Kelly Ortiz talking across their fence. Aria’s eyebrows arched at the look of intimacy between them. They weren’t touching or even standing that close together, but there was an air of familiarity between them that went far beyond “Howdy, neighbor.”

  Had the concept of fidelity completely flown out the window?

  Suddenly Jasper and Kelly both moved away from that fence. That whole scene made Aria frown. Jasper and Kelly were on their respective porches walking into their homes. She’d never seen roaches scurry away that fast. Moments later Victoria Wiggins drove up in her Volvo wagon and pulled into the driveway. Of course it could be a coincidence, but in light of Jessa’s betrayal, Aria was even more suspect of everything. Aria’s eyes shifted to Victoria, who just stood by the car with her head shifting back and forth between the two houses.

  “Humph, that’s right, Vicky, don’t sleep on it,” Aria said aloud. “Follow your gut, Boo, because they up to no good.”

  Damn, is everybody double dipping?

  Just like Jessa and Kingston.

  She’d hidden her scandalous past and even lied about a vital part of their future, but not once had she reverted to her old ways and cheated on Kingston. Today her anger and pain had her flirt dangerously close to the idea of sexing Malcolm, but even then she couldn’t quite push herself to grab the dick and go for a ride.

  Once she met and then fell in love with Kingston, she knew that his heart and his dick was all that she needed. The day they got married she felt like she had finally outrun her past and was claiming a better future. She had vowed to be a good wife: the lover, the friend, the caregiver, the whole nine yards.

  And now all of that could slip through her fingers just like that?

  The thought of that scared the shit out of her.

  Being angry was easy.

  Wanting to fight Jessa and kill Kingston was a breeze.

  “So now what?” she wondered aloud as she glanced down at her watch. Four hours and counting.

  Surely Kingston or any of the men wouldn’t leave without saying a word, offering an explanation?

  “Humph.” Then again, maybe Kingston was smart, because if he dared to tell her he was leaving her she would’ve immediately gone into kick-ass mode.

  Especially when he promised that he would never leave her….

  Aria stepped out onto the spacious balcony of the hotel’s ballroom terrace, smiling up at the stars with love and laughter in her heart and her eyes. She looked over her bare shoulder at her tuxedo-clad husband before she twirled in her wedding gown with her arms splayed wide. “Mrs. Kingston Livewell,” she said with a soft smile of pure satisfaction.

  “Any regrets?” he asked.

  “About us? Never. But I wish I had taken my grown-girl pill and called to invite Jessa. It’s been years since we fell out, but we used to daydream about being in each other’s weddings.”

  “I won’t say I told you so.”

  Aria side-eyed him. “Thanks.”

  “After our honeymoon, you make the first step to reconnect. But for now,” he said, walking up behind her to wrap his strong arms around her, “today is the first day of the rest of our lives together.”

  Aria tilted her head back against his shoulder. “Yes,” she sighed, truly feeling like she had found her prince.

  Aria thought of her past and what all she had overcome to better herself, to stop being a trick and a thief, to be the woman her mother raised her to be. And she had. Now, not too many years later, here she was a college graduate and married to a handsome doctor who made her feel like he adored her.

  For a moment, Aria thought about her past and her secrets. Things she knew she could never share with this man…her man.

  The men.

  The wild sex.

  The weed and liquor.

  The stealing.

  All of it.

  What woman wanted to tell a man that she was fucking out of both pants legs and even had a train or two run on her?

  What woman wanted to ’fess up that all of the sexual tricks she used on him she learned before she was sixteen?

  Pushing aside memories of a line of sweat-funky teenaged boys humping away between her thighs one after the other, Aria forced a smile to her lips as she turned in her husband’s embrace. “I had no idea when I interviewed you for the alumni column that we would wind up married.”

  “Even though you were throwing me sexy eyes?” he teased.

  “I did not,” Aria protested, lightly pounding on his broad shoulders. “You weren’t my type…or so I thought.”

  “Oh, really? So what was your type, because I know I am the S-H-I-T forever more.”

  “Yes, you are,” Aria agreed, even as she shifted her eyes away from him. Back when making money and hustling was paramount she had no type. Anything with a pulse and a dick was fair game back then.

  “To be honest, since my senior year in high school my education was my focus,” she admitted with honesty. “I had swore off men and you were the first man who made me even want to give relationships another try.”

  And that was the truth.

  “Found out knuckleheads and deadbeats weren’t working out?”

  Aria playfully nudged him upside his head. “Who knew a nerd could fuck so well?”

  Kingston lifted Aria up in the air against the length of his body. “Now you know it so well, don’t you?”

  Aria sighed in anticipated pleasure as she arched her breasts higher in her strapless gown. “I cannot wait for our honeymoon to begin.”

  Kingston looked over his shoulder before looking back up into his wife’s beautiful face. “Why wait?”

  Aria yelped as Kingston twirled them toward a dark corner of the balcony to one of the cement benches along the balcony railing. “Kingston, we can’t do the nasty out here,” she weakly protested even as she hitched the front layers of her wedding gown higher as she wrapped her legs around his waist. She was grateful for her thigh-high stockings and barely there white silk thong as her strong and sexy husband settled her on his lap.

  With the back of her gown’s skirts falling to the floor and covering his knees, they were shielded as he unbuttoned and unzipped his tailored tuxedo pants before lifting up to ease them down to his thighs.

  Aria reached between them to wrap her hands around the length of him and in just a heated second her seductive touch had his dick hard. She licked her lips as she looked down at him, dark as chocolate, thick and weighty in her hands. “I wish I could suck this big dick,” she told him, knowing her husband loved it when she talked dirty.

  Kingston tilted his chin up to suck her lips. “You do?” he asked thickly as he reached underneath the voluminous skirts to tightly massage her fleshy ass cheeks.

  Aria raised up and held his hard dick with one hand as she slid her throbbing and moist pussy down onto him. “Hmmmmm,” she moaned, arching her back as she adjusted to the feel of him pressing against her pussy walls.

  “You got all this dick up in you,” he told her hotly as he locked his eyes on her face intently.

  “Stick out your tongue,” Aria ordered him softly as she settled her arms around his neck and brought her face close to his. She flickered her tongue in rapid motions against the tip of his and she felt his dick harden even more inside her before she sucked his tongue deeply into her mouth. “I want to feel that dick against my tongue, Kingston.”

  He lightly slapped her ass as Aria began to roll her hips, her pussy walls tightly gripping and releasing him as she did. “You like sucking that dick, don’t you?”

  Aria nodded, sucking his whole mouth before she whispered against his lips. “Until it cums in my mouth, Kingston.”

  “You li
ke sucking up all that nut, don’t you?”

  “Every. Last. Drop.”

  Aria gasped as Kingston sucked the exposed tops of her breasts as she continued to fuck him like she was trying to complete a mission. “Shit, you big-dick motherfucker,” she moaned as electricity shimmied over her body and her heart beat wildly.

  “Damn, you got some good pussy.”

  Aria released a husky laugh into the air as she leaned back in his lap, still working her hips in a wicked clockwise and then counterclockwise motion.

  “There you two are!”

  At the sound of Aria’s mother’s loud voice, Aria sat up straight and Kingston froze. They both were glad for the cover of her skirts.

  “Your reception is going on and y’all out here?” Heather Goines said, her short and plump frame covered by her lavender dress and matching capacious hat tilted to the side. She walked up on her silver heels to stand right beside them. “What are you two doing?”

  “Just talking, Mama Goines,” Kingston lied with a charming smile.

  Aria giggled before she buried her face in Kingston’s warm neck.

  “We’re coming, Mama Goines,” Kingston told her. He coughed suddenly.

  Aria giggled some more as she worked her pussy walls against his dick, obviously shocking him.

  “Aria, get your pretty dress off this dirty floor.” Mrs. Goines bent down to pick up the dress.

  “No!” Aria and Kingston yelled out.

  She dropped the hem and stepped back to eye them oddly. “Hurry up and get inside, you two,” she warned them and walked away. They burst out laughing.

  “My parents are the stereotypical bourgeois upper-middle-class black folks, but even my mom would’ve known what we were doing,” Kingston told her even as Aria began to plant kisses along his warm neck.

  “I told you my mom walks to the beat of her own drum…but she just gave us some great advice.”