Relief washed over me from the news, and I couldn’t hold back the happy smile that crossed my face. “That’s good to know. But, am I ever going to meet this person?”
Nathan hesitated for a couple moments, clamping his lips together as he rubbed his hands. “She’s not…” he began, but shook his head. “Never mind, you guys are going to meet soon. I’d say sometime next week.”
I wondered what he was going to say before he changed his mind, and why he wanted me to meet her, if she was no longer in the picture as he’d said. But whatever, I wanted to meet the bitch that stole the love of my life away, to find out what she had that I didn’t. I decided to change the topic.
“So since you’re single, does this mean that we still have a way to possibly work our relationship out?” I nervously asked, gazing into his eyes. “She’s obviously out of the picture so that means we still have a chance. I just want to believe that you won’t cheat on me again.”
Nathan let out a deep breath before sliding his hand across the table to grab mine. He laced our fingers together, his warmness lingering on my skin. “Believe me, I would take back that day if I could. But, I don’t know if us getting back together would be a good idea.”
I blinked repeatedly, my heart overtaking with an overwhelmingly hurt. “But why not? We were so happy together and we love each other.”
“You’re right, Melissa.” He nodded his head. “But, I just need a little bit of time.”
“A little more time for what?” I exasperated, throwing a hand up. Nathan ignored my question, looking over my shoulder at someone.
“Oh look, our food’s coming. You’re going to love this restaurant.” He clapped his hands with a laugh, changing the subject. I observed him awkwardly as he tipped the waiter after he placed our plates on our table. There was something he wasn’t telling me. I had my own secret from him too, but this was about our relationship. I definitely had to find out what he was hiding.
Two hours after our lunch date and him dropping me off home with a kiss on the cheek, I decided to dial my best friend, Veronica. We’ve known each other since we were sixteen and she needed an update on what was going on between me and Nathan.
“Hello?” her voice croaked into the line after a couple of rings.
“Veronica! I need your help!” I hissed into the phone, clacking my heels against the tile floors as I made my way in my small kitchen. I poured myself a glass of wine.
“Why, what’s wrong?” she inquired more alertly, giving me her full attention now.
“Nathan is back in town for good and I need a way to get him back!” I told her before sipping on my glass.
“What, he’s back?” she gasped into the phone. “And get him back? For what, so he can cheat on you again? Hell no!” she said. Veronica loved Nathan for me ever since we first started dating but when she found out that he abandoned me, she hated his guts. I don’t blame her, I hated him too. But he came back to California for me, and that had to mean something. I just had to do some deeper digging.
I let out an exasperated sigh, pushing back my hair in frustration. “I’m close to finding out the entire truth on why he left me. Now, are you going to help me win my fiancé back or not?”
She let out a defeated sigh, not wanting to suggest anything simply because she preferred I didn’t get back with him. But, she gave me her ideas, anyways. “Wear something that he loves. Talk about the things that first made you guys realize you were falling for each other. Talk about memories. Hell, invite him over this weekend and wear your sexiest lingerie piece, that’ll definitely drive him crazy.”
I thought deeper about the lingerie, imagining myself walking out of my room in red lace and high heels. He always had a thing for lace so, that would be perfect. He definitely wouldn’t be able to turn me down if he saw me dressed like that. That could be my second attempt, my first attempt would be bringing up our memories right before seducing him.
“Veronica, you are a genius! I know I’m going to get my man back, thank you so much!” I excitedly said, confident that everything was going to go smoothly. This could also lead to him telling me whatever he was hiding from me...
“That’s what I’m here for! To help you in need whenever you need help.” I could hear the smile in her slightly high-pitched voice as she said that. Before she hung up, she also brought up something else. “Are you ever planning on telling him about Jason?”
I hesitated, biting on my lower lip as I stared at my half-empty glass of wine. I didn’t want to tell Nathan but if I didn’t, karma would do its job and he’d find out somehow. “I will, only if he tells me his secret.”
“You’re doing the right thing,” she said. She said goodbye and hung up.
I fell into a pit of thoughts. Now that I thought about it, Jason could tell Nathan any time of any day. They lived in the same penthouse! I just hoped I got to tell Nathan the truth first. It would be better hearing it from me than his own brother. I either had to hurry and tell him, or negotiate with the devil.
Oh, what the hell. I dialed Jason’s number, hoping that he would pick up. After a couple of rings, his annoying voice answered the phone. “Hello princess.”
I groaned in disgust, rolling my eyes. “If you plan on telling Nathan about us, don’t even bother, because I’m going to tell him.”
Surprise rose in his voice. I imagined his expression turning into a perplexed one. “You are?”
I nodded my head, pouring myself another glass of wine as I held the phone between my ear and my shoulder. “I won’t let you come in between us. I’m doing what’s best for me, and if this is what it takes to win Nathan back, I’m willing to do it.”
“Are you sure you’re not just doing it because you’re scared he’s going to hear it from me first?” he questioned with a subtle laugh. “Because I wasn’t going to tell him. Not yet at least.”
“Well good because I’m going to tell him,” I nonchalantly told him, taking a sip of my glass of wine. “Sorry Jason, looks like your blackmail was all for nothing.” With that said, I hung up the phone and placed it on my counter.
*****
After a long week of working and avoiding Jason at work, I was exhausted. On the bright side, it was Friday night and we were dismissed into a three-day weekend. I could finally relax and take some stress off my back. I could also get working on my plan to win Nathan’s heart back.
I invited Nathan over for dinner and wine later on, setting my plan in motion. He was more than happy to come over and reading his response made my smile reach from ear to ear. Tonight, I was going to first capture his attention by making his favorite dish, shrimp chicken Fettuccini Alfredo. Then, we’d reminisce over the meal, and finally, I’d take off my robe, exposing my lingerie. I’ll tell him that I’m his dessert when he asks.
About two hours before it was time for him to come over, I began to prepare the dinner. I wore my lingerie underneath my silky black robe. As I was setting up the table with our plates of food and glasses of wine, when the doorbell rang. My stomach churned nervously. I mentally prepared myself as I made my way to the front door, ready to take action.
“Hi beautiful,” Nathan greeted, pushing his hands into his blue blazer pockets as he studied my body from head to toe. I already felt naked under his gaze and it felt great.
“Hi,” I replied seductively, stepping aside to let him in. I made sure to thrust out my hip further as I held the door, putting on a sexy show. It was definitely working since he couldn’t take his eyes off me. “Come in.”
He cleared his throat. As he entered, I was immediately met by his Prada cologne. I followed him to the dining room, where everything was already set up, and took a seat at the table. He looked impressed, looking at the meal with such appreciation.
“My favorite meal! I couldn’t ask for a better dinner than this,” he genuinely stated, giving me the eye as he took his seat.
“You think this is good? Then, you’re going to love your dessert,” I chuckled humbly
, receiving an interested and questioning look from him. I held up my glass of wine, making him mimic my action. “To a lovely dinner.”
“With a lovely woman,” he winked at me before clinking our glasses together. I took a sip of wine, staring at him from under my eyelashes. Everything was starting off perfectly and I was starting to have a great feeling about this dinner.
Twenty minutes into our meal, we were having an amazing time. It was all laughs and jokes, reminiscing about the good times we shared. How we traveled to different cities together, always having a habit of ordering champagne or good wine when we dined out, talking about the amount of kids that we wanted. He was feeling deeply about the conversation, his emerald eyes sparkling with his passion. It was the same look that was very familiar to when we were actually together and happy. It was a good sign.
“You know, I’m glad I came tonight,” Nathan admitted, wiping his plump lips with the napkin. “I’m having so much fun with you, just like the good old days.”
Hearing this come from him just made my life feel complete. I’d never felt so blissfully happy until now. My heart fluttered and I couldn’t help but to smile sweetly at him. No way in hell I was going to tell him about Jason tonight. “Me too, Nathan.”
“It’s been a while since I’ve been on a date like this, you know that right?” He cleared his throat, staring at his glass of wine.
“Really?” I said astonishingly.
He chuckled sheepishly, shaking his head. “How could I after basically being divorced? I couldn’t dare sit in front of another girl and be romantic with her, I just couldn’t.”
“But, I thought you were seeing someone else,” I said. My eyebrows furrowed together dumbfounded. “I mean, you saw another girl while we were together so why not continue to see her when we split?” I questioned him.
He hesitated for a couple of moments, wrinkles forming on his forehead as he dozed off into deep thought. Then, he met my blue eyes. “It’s not important. Just know that losing you had a bigger impact on me than I thought it would and I never want to go through that again.”
I sucked in a breath, my eyes widening. “R-really? You mean that?”
“I wouldn’t be telling you otherwise,” he told me truthfully.
“Wow,” was all I could say. Although we ended our relationship in the worst way, it still meant a lot to me that he cared afterwards. He hadn’t just left me in the dirt and forgotten about me, not at all. It was more like he’d left me and then come back to pick up what he threw away because he realized how valuable I was. But, that didn’t stop my curious mind from wondering who the other woman was. Every woman wants to know who the other woman is, that’s just how we are.
He stared at me for a couple of moments, seductively sipping on his glass of wine. “So, what do you have for dessert? I can’t wait to see what delicious treat you have set up for us.”
Here it was, the final moment. The moment that would determine if I would win him back or not. I stood up from the chair, his eyes following me as if I were his prey. “I have a feeling you’re going to love the desert.”
He watched me closely, leaning comfortably against the hardwood chair. That’s when I unbuttoned my robe and it dropped onto the ground with one quick movement, leaving me in my red lacy lingerie and heels. His mouth dropped open, his eyes burning with such desire and hunger.
“Wow,” he breathed out, as if he was having a hard time catching his breath.
“You like what you see?” I purred, slowly walking over to him, making sure to build up the tension. He rubbed his palms on his dress pants, probably becoming sweaty from excitement. I crawled on top of him, straddling his waist with my legs. He held onto my thighs with a strong grip, his erection building underneath me. I suppressed a moan when I felt it.
“I love what I see,” he huskily admitted, his hands slowly gliding up my waist with a gentle touch. Our faces were inching closer to each other, our breathing meeting another as our noses touched. His breath was uneven, and after rubbing around his chest, I could feel his heart accelerating. I took off his blazer, our eyes never breaking, as he slipped his arms out of it and I threw it on the floor.
I went ahead and leaned in, pressing our warm lips against each other’s. He immediately responded, shuffling me closer to his body and with a rougher kiss. Our tongues danced, making me moan into his mouth as I grabbed onto the back of his hair. I could hear my heart booming against my chest, so loud that I thought he could hear it. He pulled away from the kiss, his lips now trailing slow, hot open kisses down my neck. A moan escaped my throat, throwing my head back as I enjoyed feeling his lips against my skin. He sucked on my pleasure spot, creating a small love bite on it.
“Damn, Nathan,” I breathed, thinking about how much I’d missed his touch. He didn’t say anything in response, he only growled and sucked on my earlobe. I was busy unbuttoning his shirt and once I’d successfully taken it off, I savored his shirtless physique. From how much more toned his chest and waist looked, I could tell he had been working out more lately. So slowly, I trailed my tongue down his chest and ended it with an open kiss on his v-line. He moaned and once I was done, he frustratingly picked me up, my legs wrapping around his waist as he led me to my bedroom.
“That’s it, I need you right now,” he murmured against my lips before kissing me slowly. I nodded my head eagerly in agreement, hearing him push open my bedroom door with a creak. My back landed on my satin sheets and I gasped, Nathan crawling on top of me and pinning my hands above my head. He undid my brassiere with one hand before wrapping his arm around my waist, sinking his head down to kiss and suck on my nipples gently. I moaned loudly, closing my eyes as my back arched. It felt like fireworks were exploding inside of me and I could feel a pool of wetness staining my lace panties.
He paused for a second, bringing his head up to bore his beautiful eyes into mine. He pushed a strand of my black hair behind my ear, looking at me with such passion and love. It definitely wasn’t lust because I knew the difference between his love and lust look. When you lust for someone, you don’t look at that person with such purity. But he was looking at me with pure love.
“I still love you,” I whispered, so delicately that if he wasn’t close enough as he is now, he wouldn’t have heard me. Something flashed in his eyes, the green color becoming more intense and that’s when I knew I’d got to him. I was winning him back.
“I still love you too, Melissa.”
The words echoed in my head like a love song and my stomach erupted with so many butterflies I thought I was going to throw up. Happy tears formed in my eyes and we tangled our arms around each other, pressing our lips together hungrily. He took off his dress pants before pulling down my panties, exposing my entire naked body. My heart was engorged with happiness. We spent the night making love to each other, making up for the past five months.
*****
The bright sun rays from my bedroom window hit my eyes, awaking me from my amazing sleep. I found myself nestled in Nathan’s arms, feeling his chest heave up and down against my small back as he continued to sleep soundly. I cranked my head around to look at the love of my life, amazed by his peaceful face and long eyelashes. We were naked together in bed and it was a beautiful morning after making love, just like old times.
As if he felt my awakened presence, his eyes fluttered open and he smiled cutely at me. “Good morning, gorgeous,” he croaked, turning me around so I could face him.
My heart fluttered and I released a deep breath, feeling like he took my breath away. “Good morning,” I replied, pushing away the small strands of his brown hair away from his eyes.
He intertwined our hands, giving mine a light squeeze. “How did you sleep?”
“I slept wonderfully. It felt like I went to heaven and came back,” I admitted, leaning my head on his shoulder. I felt him shaking with a small laughter, placing a long smooch on the side of my forehead as he rubbed circles on my upper arm.
“The feeling’
s mutual. God, I missed this feeling of waking up next to you,” he whispered, closing his eyes for a brief second as he took everything in.
A smile was plastered on my face and probably wouldn’t come off for a long time. After a moment of comfortable silence passed, I decided to ask him what I’d been wanting to ask since last night. I pulled up my head, sitting up so I can be on his same eye level now. “Nathan... what does this mean for us? What are we now?” I questioned nervously.
Realization flashed in his eyes, his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down as he gulped. He blinked several times, not knowing what to say, but I could see a slight smile tugging on the corner of his lips. “I want us to be together...” He trailed off and my hopes began to drop once I realized there was going to be a “but” coming after.
“But...? What’s holding you back?” I asked him, scared of what his answer was going to be. I nibbled on my bottom lip nervously, waiting for his answer as he ran his fingers through his hair frustratingly.
“I don’t know how you’re going to react to this but I can’t hide it from you any longer.” He rubbed his temples, nervous. I gave his hand a reassuring squeeze, convincing him that he could do this but honestly, I was as scared as he was.
“You can tell me anything, Nathan.”
He stared off into space for about ten seconds before facing me, clearing his throat. I raised my eyebrows, my stomach churning nervously since I had a feeling this wasn’t going to be anything good.
“You know how you thought there was another woman?” he began. I nodded my head. He let out a shaky breath. “Well, there wasn’t.”
My heart dropped, my grip on his hand loosening. This was a good thing that there wasn’t another woman, right? So, why the hell did I feel so disappointed? “So, you lied to me?”
He shook his head immediately. “No, I didn’t lie to you. I did fall in love with someone else.” He paused, running his hands over his face. Okay, now I was more confused than ever. After dropping his hands away from his face, I could see the anxiety worn in his eyes. “I fell in love with another man.”
The Crime of Protection Page 37
