Message from a Mistress

by Niobia Bryant

  “What’s that?”

  Aria began to ride his softening dick until his strength and length returned full force. “Hurry up and get back inside,” she whispered into the heat between them.

  Aria threw her hips into overdrive as Kingston released one of her breasts from the top of the strapless gown to suck her nipple deeply. She shivered and moaned, enjoying the rapid-fire motion of her pussy sliding up and down the length of him. “Coming in…five…four…three…two…”

  Kingston flung his head back and bit his bottom lip to keep from hollering out as his dick shot round after round of cum inside of his wife’s pussy just as she released a tiny yelp that was but a small representation of the pleasure she derived from cumming on his dick.

  They clutched each other tightly in the aftermath, both weak and spent but completely sated.

  “Do you have any idea how much you mean to me? How special you are to me?” she asked in a soft voice filled with her emotions as she leaned back to look down at him. “You are the man of my dreams, and I know now that every step in my life—good and bad—was meant to be so that I could find my soul mate.”

  Kingston’s eyes locked with hers as she brought her hands up to stroke the sides of his handsome face. “I had no idea some college kid with a chip on her shoulder would get me so caught up,” he admitted, his eyes so intense. “And I am caught up, Aria. You are everything to me and I know that today is just the first day of the rest of our lives together. I will honor everything I said at that altar, Aria, I will never hurt you, disrespect or dishonor you, or leave you. This right here is forever. I promise you that.”

  Aria smiled softly and kissed her husband just as one lone emotional tear ran down her cheek.

  “Big bunch of bullshit,” Aria muttered, trying to rub a tension headache away with her fingertips to her temples. But then she thought that she couldn’t—shouldn’t—live the next few hours blaming and hating her husband when there were two other possible culprits. She had to start to at least leave some glimmer of hope that everything Kingston promised her, he would continue to deliver.

  If not, there were problems in her marriage that had nothing to do with Jessa Bell or any other Jezebel.

  The thought of that was scary as hell.

  CHAPTER 15

  How does one sin compare to the other?

  Renee wished she knew the answer to that as she stared down into the amber liquor in her glass. Drinking had become her best friend today. “Fuck that,” she muttered, her voice slightly echoing inside the glass as she took a sip that scorched its way down her throat to burn her belly.

  She turned another page in her wedding photo album. Flipping through time, reliving good memories. With manicured fingertips she touched her husband’s handsome face. She felt like a fool sitting there, but for the life of her she couldn’t close that album. She couldn’t remove herself from the past. She couldn’t stop wishing she had done things differently. Renee knew it was time for a hardcore, no-holds-barred look at her life and her marriage. And she felt like her plate was full.

  Truth: She was seven successfully hard inches from having her own affair.

  Should she forgive Jackson an affair because of her own secret dalliance? How could she cast the first stone? How could she really jump all in Jackson’s ass (to copy Aria) when she had let their problems and a few drinks lead her into bed with another man?

  Another sip of her fiery drink. A deep one that caused Renee to belch lightly.

  “Fuck it,” she said again, looking down at a photo of Jackson swinging her up into his arms.

  Her heart swelled with love for him.

  Truth: She had almost cheated and her love for Jackson had never wavered.

  Could she allow herself to believe that Jackson had cheated with his dick but never…never with his heart?

  Boom-boom-boom-boom.

  Ding-dong. Ding-dong. Ding-dong.

  Renee frowned deeply at the ruckus coming from her front door. Thinking it was Jackson and he’d forgotten his keys, Renee jumped to her feet—while she guzzled down the rest of her drink.

  She gagged and her eyes bugged out comically as she pressed one of her hands to her throat. “Have mer-cy,” she mouthed, feeling as if the liquor took away her voice.

  Renee rushed around the sofa to the front door, snatching it open. She frowned at her neighbor from across the street, Kelly Ortiz, nervously looking over her shoulder with her fist still raised to bang down Renee’s front door. “Kelly, is something wrong?”

  “She’s crazy. Help me.”

  Renee frowned as Kelly pushed past her and stormed into her house, jerking her back to slam the door closed. The liquor definitely had her moving in slow motion. “Hold up. What the hell is going on?” she screamed as she watched the short and curvy Latin woman take a cell phone from the back pocket of her tailored jeans and start dialing.

  Boom-boom-boom-boom.

  Renee swirled to eye her door.

  “Bring your no-good behind out here, Kelly.”

  Renee’s brows raised at the sound of Victoria Wiggins’s voice screeching through her door.

  “Yes, I need the police.”

  Renee swirled back to look at Kelly. “Hold on. What the hell is going on?” she yelled, the alcohol making her slightly unsteady on her feet.

  Boom-boom-boom-boom-boom.

  “What kind of ghetto-ass shit am I in the middle of?” Renee asked herself, turning to open the door and set whoever was banging on her door straight.

  “Noooooo!” Kelly yelled out from behind her.

  Renee felt herself spin like the Tasmanian Devil as Victoria breezed past her into the house and straight dead on Kelly’s ass. Her mouth fell open as she watched the two women fall atop her sofa, pulling hair and clawing at each other.

  “Victoria! Stop!”

  Renee’s head whipped from left to right as she watched Jasper zip past her to grab his thrashing wife by the waist. She gasped when Victoria twisted enough in his grasp to double slap him like she was a professional pimp.

  Jasper roared but he didn’t release her as she thrashed like a wildcat.

  “I’m going to teach your ass to stay the hell away from my husband,” Victoria roared over Jasper’s shoulder, pointing her finger and shooting daggers at her nemesis across the room.

  Huh? Say what? Say who? Another Jezebel? Renee thought, crossing her arms over her chest as Kelly raced past her to close the front door securely.

  Renee frowned at the woman and all the animosity she had for Jessa Bell leveled on her. “Oh, hell no. There’s no safe haven in here. I’ve had enough of no-good mistresses for the day,” she said, striding to Kelly and grabbing her arm with one hand and the door with the other.

  “Renee!” Kelly gasped with her heavy Spanish accent. “She’s trying to kill me!”

  “Bitch, puh-leeze. I don’t blame her,” Renee snapped, walking across the room to snatch up the cell phone Kelly dropped during the melee. She strode over to her, pressed it into her hands, and shoved Kelly’s little ass right on out the door. Renee took way too much pleasure in slamming and locking it in the woman’s shocked, dazed, and amazed face.

  With the sound of Kelly knocking wildly on her door as her backdrop, Renee calmly picked up her glass of liquor, sat on the edge of the chair, and looked out the window at Victoria digging Jasper’s eyes out and then racing across the yard as soon as he released her to grab Kelly by her throat with one hand and slap her silly across the face with the other.

  Normally Renee abhorred violence and public acts of foolishness, but in light of her own drama she felt the distraction to be pure damn entertainment. Jerry Springer and Maury wrapped all up into one. Hell with it. In fact, she raised her glass in toast to the coonery.

  As Jasper fought to separate his wife and his alleged mistress, the threesome got tangled up as the women fought around him, trampling through her garden. Fuck it. She didn’t care at that moment because the yard was Jackson’s domain, and
if he was leaving, the flowers would die right along with her soul anyway. She bit her lip as her heart ached terribly.

  A crowd of neighbors began to gather in the street enjoying the show just like Renee. Her eyes searched the growing crowd for her friends. She didn’t see them. She shifted to look at their respective porches. Jaime’s was empty, but Aria sat alone on hers watching the drama unfold. Even from a distance Renee could see the same pain, lost, confusion, and anxiety that had her stomach twisted in knots.

  Why on earth are we going through this drama alone?

  Renee rose and grabbed her keys from the foyer table before she slammed out of the house. She took a moment to watch one of Kelly’s fleshy titties pop out as Victoria tore away the front of her shirt. A collective gasp went through the crowd. Renee kept it moving, waving to her neighbors as she made her way across the street like there wasn’t a catfight going on in her front yard.

  “Can somebody help me?” Jasper roared, sounding out of breath and aggravated.

  Renee turned on her heels and eyed Jasper with daggers. “No one was there to help you get yourself into this mess, motherfucker, now get yourself out of it,” she snapped. “You’re lucky all of us wives don’t jump on you and help Victoria whup both of your asses.”

  As she turned and continued on to Aria’s house, Renee heard the sound of police sirens in the distance. She’d barely stepped onto the sidewalk before Aria hopped to her feet and came down the stairs. “Can you believe that mess?” she asked, turning to watch as a police car came to a screeching halt in front of her home.

  “I know how Victoria feels,” Aria said.

  “Right now, we all do,” Renee said, looking over her shoulder as the police officers finally tore Victoria off Kelly.

  “Damn right.”

  They fell silent.

  “I was going crazy sitting in that damned house all alone,” Renee admitted, still feeling a bit light-headed from the alcohol.

  “I know what you mean. All kind of crazy shit been running through my mind,” Aria said, holding her hand up over her eyes to shield the sun.

  Renee nodded as she watched the police place Victoria in the back of one of the patrol cars. “I wonder if whupping Kelly’s ass was worth it to her now that she’s headed to a police station.”

  “Oh, it was worth it,” Aria assured her.

  Renee said nothing else for a while and their silence was filled with the “elephant in the room.” She frowned as she watched Kelly pointing in her direction and the police officer’s head swinging to lock his eyes on her. Nerves hit her. “Um, Aria, can I get in trouble for putting someone out my house and sitting back to watch someone else whup they ass?” she asked as one of the police officers made his way to her.

  “You…didn’t?” Aria asked in total disbelief.

  “Mrs. Clinton?”

  Renee was tall but she had to tilt her head back to look up into the face of the officer. “Yes.”

  “My name is Officer Junton and I just needed to take a statement on what you saw of the altercation.”

  Renee and Aria looked at each other and shared a glance. “Officer Junton, to be honest, I have drama of my own I’m trying to wrap my mind around and I was drinking. All three were in my house but I have no clue who hit who or what was what. I’m sorry,” she lied.

  Dark eyes leveled on her. “You appear sober enough now,” he said.

  Renee sighed. “Watching a catfight in your petunias has a way of being very sobering.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” He turned and nodded in the direction of her house. “Did you want to press charges for trespassing?”

  Renee shook her head. “No, sir. I needed the entertainment.”

  His eyes became amused before he tipped his cap. “Good day, ladies,” he said before walking away.

  They watched silently as the police car whizzed past with Victoria handcuffed in the rear, turned around in the seat to watch Jasper closely as he climbed into their Lexus SUV and followed the police car out of Richmond Hills. Kelly avoided the eyes of her neighbors as she scurried across the street into her home.

  “I wonder what she’s going to tell her husband when he gets home,” Renee said as the homeowners of Richmond Hills began to head back to their respective homes.

  “I’m more concerned about mine coming home at all,” Aria drawled, showing just a hint of her usual spunk and humor.

  Renee released a heavy breath. “I’m so sick of this shit already. Part of me wants this day to be over and part of me is afraid to find out the truth,” she admitted, raising her hands to rake her fingers through her short, jet-black curls.

  “At least you’re honest,” Aria said, turning to climb the stairs back onto her porch.

  Renee turned and shifted her eyes down the street to Jaime’s home, knowing that’s who Aria was referring to. “Maybe she doesn’t have a reason to worry.”

  Aria sucked air between her teeth. “Why not? She got the text just like we did.”

  Renee just shrugged.

  “Shee-it. Her husband has a dick just like ours do,” Aria added.

  “Aria—”

  “What? She thinks she has sparks in her pussy or some shit?” Aria waved her hand dismissively. “I am so sick of Jaime and her total perfection crap.”

  Renee dropped her head in her hands. “Aria, please, I have a lot on my mind and I need someone to take my mind off the fact that I might have to explain to my children why their father left.”

  Aria’s pretty mocha face shaped with a sympathetic expression.

  “This does mean more for you, doesn’t it?” Aria asked.

  “Yes, it does,” she stressed.

  “I’m sorry, Renee. I wasn’t thinking. I know you’re right but I feel like I’m mad at the world right now and I was lashing out.”

  Renee just nodded in understanding as she settled onto one of the chocolate wicker chairs on the porch.

  “I’ve done some shit in my day but I have never cheated—or even thought about cheating—on Kingston. Never.”

  Renee had a vision of herself naked in bed with her gay assistant and his flaccid dick. She bit her bottom lip. “I did—”

  Aria gasped in surprise as she grabbed Renee’s wrist tightly. “No!”

  Renee rolled her eyes upward in exasperation. “Well, almost. If I had the pussy power to make a gay man convert, I would’ve slept with my assistant.”

  Aria looked defeated.

  Renee was surprised by that. She’d expected a flip comment or shock at her revelation. The look of defeat confused her.

  “No offense, Renee, but damn, is everybody dipping and diving on some new sex? Is anybody faithful?”

  Renee felt offended. “I didn’t go through with it, Aria. So save your holier-than-thou judgments.”

  Aria released a heavy breath. “I’m not judging you, Renee. My ass is afraid, because if you and Jackson can be married all these years facing this bullshit now, then when does the happily ever after begin? When can you trust that the man or the woman you love will not stray? I just want to be happy in my marriage with my husband.”

  “I want the same thing, Aria,” Renee stressed.

  Aria said nothing else, but the weight of their silence was heavy.

  “I’m going to check on Jaime,” Renee said, looking for a diversion as she removed her BlackBerry from the clip and dialed.

  Renee ignored her as she listened to the steady ringing of the phone line in her ear. “She’s not answering.”

  Aria hopped to her feet. “I’ll go check on her.”

  Renee followed her younger and brasher friend with her eyes. She couldn’t help but feel that in the one instant during her confession, something between them had changed. But Renee didn’t have time to ponder that. Her marriage hung in the balance.

  She’d almost had an affair (a clear sign that there was trouble).

  He might be leaving her for one of her closest friends (a clear sign that their marriage was over).

&nb
sp; How did one sin compare to the other?

  If Jackson came home tonight and confessed to the affair but begged her forgiveness, could she give it to him?

  Even if he wasn’t the culprit, when he came home tonight, could they ever heal the gap between them?

  “Are we crazy to have spent most of the day doubting our marriages?” Renee asked herself aloud, squinting her eyes as she looked off at nothing in the distance. “Damn you, Jessa.”

  Renee reached for her cell phone again. She quickly typed away on the mini-keypad before she hit Send with authority.

  Aria walked back up the street slowly with her hands pushed deeply into the back pockets of her jeans. “She’s not answering or she’s not home.”

  Renee eyed Jaime’s house. “Maybe she went to her mother’s or church or something. I don’t know.”

  “Do you think the no-good, cheating, ass-lying motherfucker isn’t even fishing?” Aria asked, locking her bright eyes on Renee. “Who knows if he even went fishing at all.”

  “You’re right. He might be with…he might be with Jessa right now.” Renee felt deeply pained as she again imagined her Jackson making love to Jessa. “How long has this been going on? How long have they been sneaking around right under our noses? Like seriously, have they fucked in my house? In my bed?”

  Aria’s eyes flashed. “This is the reason why that show Snapped is still on the air—because of liars and cheaters.”

  Renee noticed that Aria shifted her eyes away. She felt the unseen divide between them widen. “The one you always watch about women killing their boyfriends and husbands?” Renee asked, diverting her attention back to the show of which Aria spoke.

  Aria nodded and framed her fingers like a gun, pointing it to the sky. “Pow-pow.”

  Renee shook her head. “And what would murder prove? He’ll be dead and you’ll be in jail.”

  “I have nothing else to say for fear of incriminating myself,” Aria said, climbing the stairs, and headed straight for her front door.

  Renee felt dismissed. The divide widened in her eyes. “You tried to reach Jessa?” she asked as she climbed to her feet to head home.