Truth & Consequences: The Novel

by Leilani Harvey

  “We were looking all over for you guys,” Mia chirped out, with more enthusiasm in her voice than was actually necessary. “We couldn’t find you anywhere. Where did you go?”

  Unfortunately, Aneisa’s focus was still slightly spinning as a result of her torrid sex play with Jayson and the revelations he had laid on her afterward. She was having a difficult time accepting his confession of wanting her as more than a mere passing lover, so no words came through when Mia set her verbal snare.

  “What a coincidence,” Jayson’s smooth voice floated in from over Aneisa’s shoulder, “we walked back here looking for you two. It’s so tight in there,” he motioned his head to suggest the nightclub they were standing next to, “we thought maybe you came out to get some fresh air.”

  He lied so easily and casually that it scared Aneisa. Did that mean everything he had said to her less than two minutes ago was also a handful of sweet lies?

  “Maybe we should all step back inside and try to finish up our night,” Shane finally spoke up. His voice was shaky and uneven. He didn’t sound sure of his suggestion; he did, however, sound like he needed to make a hasty breakup of this little Q&A session.

  “No,” Aneisa answered louder than she had intended. On after thought, she was glad the word came out to harsh. This troublesome day and night required a definitive ending; it had already stretched out for far too long. “I’m done and I’m leaving.” She threw her hands up in the air while she pushed past Shane and Mia, and abandoned Jayson behind her. “Shane you can come if you want to…or not…but I’m going home.”

  There was no apology necessary; her rude behavior was justified. Aneisa wanted to put this entire bucket of mess in a dark closet and forget about it forever and always. She walked toward where Shane had parked, not caring whether or not he was following her. She didn’t have the keys, but it didn’t matter. If he decided he wanted to stay and wallow in misery for a while longer, she would call a cab or jump on a bus – whichever was the fastest possible escape from this mayhem.

  8

  The ride home with Shane was a silent and dreary one.

  Aneisa had showered and changed for bed long before her boyfriend climbed in next to her. While she was facing the window, he had crept through the door, turned out the light and positioned himself on the opposite side of the bed, leaving a large gap between their prone bodies. There would be no exchange of loving words to finish out this night. Instead, the gloomy mood that had crept in and invaded their once quiet and normal life together was determined to remain hovering over them.

  While Aneisa lay next to Shane’s sleeping form, her mind was held up in a complicated thought. Sleep was allusive and she alternated between rolling from her side and onto her back several times over. Her mind wouldn’t let go of memories of Jayson. She replayed her crazed and intensely orgasmic rendezvous with him repeatedly. Each time heightened her craving to feel his skin pasted to hers again, to hear his rough voice barking out lurid commands that pushed her ecstasy to the tipping point. Yet, there was more to him than his sexy domination. It wasn’t hard to read in those deep blue eyes how he was a broken man, who was fighting to keep his mind intact. Could she really be the one to bring him back from the brink of self-destruction? Or would her concern become a double-edged sword, allowing Jayson to drag her down into the pit with him?

  Everything was so confusing, and her mind was frantic. She didn’t know – or didn’t want to know – which direction was the right way to turn. Take a chance on pursuing her heart’s desire and tightening her budding link with Jayson or hold on the stable life she had set up for herself with Shane?

  She hated having the knowledge of cheating on Shane clawing at her mind but she loved how Jayson’s seduction had carried away from her lackluster daily routine. Even now, as she relived the scene where he had made her strip for him and then forced her to practically beg him to fuck her ass, Aneisa’s personal lubricant started to seep in a heavy flow across the crotch of her small panties. She could feel the sticky dew slowly gathering and inching toward her inner thighs.

  Her dark brown eyes slid to the right corners of her eyelids, trying to judge if Shane were still asleep or not. There was a chance he wasn’t sleeping at all, only silently lying there. He was hiding a secret too; she could feel it. His usual cheerfulness was overshadowed by an eerie muteness. He never did share the details of his afternoon meeting with one of the students who attended his undergrad class. He was determined to maintain an unbreakable silence on the event, and that worried Aneisa more than she was willing to admit. There were way too many obvious clues floating in her face for Aneisa to pretend blindness. Again, her own guilt for her attraction to and affair with Jayson kept her in a silent distress regarding the giant rift spreading between her and the man who was going to be her husband. She used the pinky on her left hand to twirl the trio of 1ct. diamonds from right to left on her ring finger. A sudden impulse to snatch the engagement ring off of her hand hit her hard, but she resisted.

  After a few more minutes of monitoring his breathing and observing the steady rise and fall of his bare shoulders, Aneisa was satisfied with assuming Shane had departed this conscious world. She never liked to tease herself in front of him. For some reason, it always felt wrong. She had to hold in the laugh that nearly escaped her throat. For someone who had allowed a man she hadn’t seen in over a year to shove his cock up her ass, how was it possible she was embarrassed to masturbate in front of her own fiancé?

  While Shane went on dreaming of whatever or whoever had stolen his attention away from her, Aneisa went to work trying to please herself into a heated release. Her thin brown fingers slipped beneath the elastic band hugging her hips. Her index finger made its way – discreetly – over her triangular patch of fine dark hairs, and found its way to her clit. The instant she touched the little button, her nipples hardened. Aneisa’s pussy was fully juiced in seconds. Her clit pulsed to life as she stroked it gently, back and forth, and then moved her fingertip over the slick nub in tiny circles.

  Mm, a tiny moan slipped through her lips and Shane stirred next to her.

  Aneisa held her position, unsure if he had completely awakened or not. When he didn’t move again, she silently released the breath she had been holding and went back to rubbing the wet fingers of her hand over her folds and then dipping them into the center of her tight pussy hole. A flashback from earlier whizzed through her mind. Jayson was sucking her dripping cunt lips again, and then ferociously tongue fucking her. Her hips gyrated as she relived every second of him tasting her. Her dark nipples became razor sharp and poked up against the white fabric of her thin strapped nightshirt.

  Before she could finish bringing herself to the edge of bliss, a much larger hand slipped under the waistband of her panties and covered hers. It was Shane’s hand. He must have awakened after she bucked her hips slightly. Aneisa was too afraid – or maybe too ashamed – to look at his face. She was afraid of the disapproval she might she in his emerald eyes. He had never seemed very interested in rough or explicit fantasies of any kind. Missionary was their usual position. It had never been one of Aneisa’s favorite ways to take a dick but, because she loved Shane and wanted to have a happy life with him, she had been content to settle on however he wanted to make love.

  With his hand covering hers so tightly, having caught her in the act of self-stimulation, Aneisa thought maybe he was trying to stop her or to shun her for what she was doing. Instead, when she finally gathered enough courage to face him, his eyes sparkled in the dim moonlight filtering into the bedroom. He was watching her with the most intense gaze she had ever seen on his handsome Irish face. His nostrils were flaring out. Did he smell the lust for sex she had been trying to hide? Was he angry with her?

  She pulled her hand out of her panties but Shane’s remained behind. His thick fingers were covering her hot coochie. While she stared into his eyes, unable to think or to move away, Aneisa felt Shane’s hand twitch. First one, then two more, then all
of his digits pushed against her cunt and gripped her kitten tight. He leaned over and his moist lips kissed her hard while his tongue dug into her mouth. There was real passion in his affection, much more than she was use to receiving from his usually polite kisses.

  She allowed her legs to hang open wider, her knees moved to either side. The heavy pads of Shane’s fingers began to rub her clit, forcing it to engorge with anticipation. Aneisa’s eyes slipped close while he played in her pussy, causing her pearl drops to gather and spill out into a puddle on the sheets below. It was Shane’s hand fingering her and dipping savagely deep into her cunt, but it was Jayson’s face she was in her head.

  Shane released her lips and his greedy mouth went down to the spot where her taut nipples were waiting. With his free hand he jerked up her top and immediately went to suckling her blackberry nipples. While Shane’s fingers were jammed deep up her cunt hole, Aneisa pushed her hips down further to receive more of him inside her depths. She panted hard and moaned aloud.

  Without warning, Shane moved his heavy body over and settled his weight between her sweaty thighs. He paused his sensual play and reached into the bedside drawer to snatch out a foil packet. After which, he pulled his rod from the opening at the middle of his boxers and placed his dickhead at her moistened entrance. He pushed hard to gain access to her sugary walls, with enough force to move her deeper into the mattress. Shane pumped her hole with so much chaotic energy that Aneisa had to bite her lip while she received his aggressive thrusts. This is how she wanted him to take her – hard and angry – just like her Jayson had done so well. Long and filling shoves opened her up to him. She loved how his heavy balls rubbed against her ass as he moved inside her. Her drenched walls clamped down around his cock and squeezed it tight.

  He went forward and leaned his forehead against the pillow while his cock vigorously rubbed the skin surrounding her wet opening. Another handful of thrusts and Shane arched his back and spilled his seed inside of her. He mashed his face further into her pillow and Aneisa heard him mumble something softly but she couldn’t understand the words he spoke. Then, just as quickly as he said the mute phrase, his head shot up.

  Shane stared at her. There was confusion in his eyes. He looked as if he were trying to read her face, to interpret her expression. Green eyes watched her intensely. When he squinted, she could tell he was trying to put recognition to her face. He looked almost as if he didn’t know who she was, or was he expecting someone else in her place?

  “Shane…what is it?”

  Aneisa’s legs were still spread for him and she could feel him going flaccid.

  He shook his russet colored hair and snapped his eyes shut. When he opened them again, whatever spell he was under was broken.

  “Nothing, babe,” he spoke quietly as he moved away and then settled himself back onto his side of the bed.

  Aneisa turned on her side. It was her turn to watch him with observant eyes. She had missed something important. Could it have been the unheard words he had spoken? Her ears had neglected to catch whatever Shane had mouthed during his fit of untamed passion.

  “Why did you look so…confused?”

  He never turned to regain eye contact with her.

  “Confused? No, I’m fine. I just…didn’t realize what I was doing, that’s all.”

  She touched the curve of his shoulder but he still didn’t turn back toward her.

  “We were making love,” Aneisa’s voice was low.

  It had been the best sex the pair had ever experienced together. Perhaps he didn’t feel the same way. This type of intense and forceful lovemaking had never suited his tastes; maybe he was ashamed of what he had done.

  After an extended pause of empty space, Shane finally lifted his head and looked over his shoulder. His eyes were shallow. He was looking at her as if she were someone who suddenly turned up next to him in bed and not like his future wife whom he loved and adored.

  “Aneisa,” he swallowed and cleared his throat, “I’m sorry.”

  “Sorry…why?”

  Was he about to admit the terrible truth she had been anxiously expecting?

  “I don’t know what I was thinking. It was all a mistake. I mean…it won’t happen again. Goodnight.”

  Before Aneisa could respond, Shane turned away from her again. As she was about to touch his shoulder again a horrible sight halted her motion. Scratches. Long, jagged, and red tinted welts lined the length of both of his shoulder blades; and the marks were not her doing. For whatever reason she had not noticed them beforehand; however, now they were painfully obvious to set eyes on.

  She wanted to shake him from his rest, to demand an explanation for his telltale injuries. Then it occurred to her. If she forced him to recount what had taken place for every minute of time they had been separated, wouldn’t he expect the same of her?

  It seemed this dreadful day wouldn’t release its terrible grip on them. She had somehow become an adulterous woman lying next to an abruptly deceitful man. Would this nightmare never end? Sleep was no longer an option for Aneisa. For the remainder of the night, she stared blankly at a white ceiling and hoped for a moment of peace in a life that was suddenly spiraling out of control.

  9

  Jayson’s swollen triceps strained hard. He used his Olympic strength to finish out the rep and push the weights up from his chest and into their resting place.

  “Good set, man,” the guy who had been spotting him patted his wet shoulder and walked away to start his own workout.

  “Thanks,” Jayson mumbled and sat up straight on the weight bench.

  He used his towel to wipe the heavy sweat from his face and then rubbed it through his soaked hair. He had purposefully put himself through a torturous and physically brutal workout today. The best way to release all of his inner frustrations was to hammer them out at the gym.

  He had arrived a little after dawn and went straight to work. Jayson ran on the treadmill until his legs felt like they were going to break beneath him, then lifted his torso into no less than two hundred hanging crunches. He had refused to stop until he was dizzy and his stomach had coiled in dozens of tight knots. While all of this would ease his nerves for an hour or two, at most, it would also add to his pounds of ripped hard muscles. From his square shoulders, over his wide chest and flat stomach, down his solid back and onward to his toned thighs and calves, Jayson was in peak physical condition.

  A grueling week and a half had passed by since his sanity had been tested and his nerves had been scraped to a raw and unsettling edge. He hadn’t heard from Shane or Mia, which was fine by him. The silence from Aneisa was what was causing his newfound inner turmoil. Lingering and heated thoughts of her still ran through his mind like a runaway train. When he was with her, a sense of peace had settled on him; when she was far away, he experienced the absence like a crushing pain. How had his feelings for her morphed so rapidly into such an intense longing? Why couldn’t he shake the vision of her lovely hazelnut shaded face from his mind? He had successfully fought off the dangerous effects of love and resisted falling into that trap for over a year, and now Aneisa was bring that spell full circle back to his doorstep once more. The last time they were together, he had told her his intent was on having her again – as many times as he needed to – but a smarter move would be to leave a bad situation behind him while he still had a fighting chance to escape its hold. After all, hadn’t he proved his point? He had the power to take whatever he desired whenever the urge hit.

  So all was settled. He would work his muscles into a tired mush if he had to, whatever was necessary to leave Aneisa Kane where she belonged – unhappily ever after with her fiancé. She would never admit what anyone with clear vision could easily see. Aneisa wasn’t satisfied with her life with Shane. She shouldn’t have to settle for a man who offered her less than his unflinching and eternal devotion and passion; however, if that was the life she chose to live, so be it. Jayson wasn’t going to be the one to cut off her self-imposed misery, n
ot when he could barely battle his own.

  A sharp spark, like a tiny electrical pulse, zapped his brain and whizzed over his sweaty skin. Was it possible they were destined to save one another? A man and a woman, who were both trapped in barren existences, helping the other to finally take a refreshing breath and to find a second chance at living a blissful life?

  Jayson shook his head and knocked the idea away. Who was he kidding? Bullshit fairy tale endings didn’t exist for a guy like him. It was a harsh reality he had experienced in vivid and colorful detail. He failed at matters of the heart and misery loved him. He would probably spend the rest of his days in a warped cycle of either running away from or head first into love. And there was no one who could save him from that fate.

  A sliver of contentment slid into his thoughts, and the corners of his mouth lifted to form a small smile. Maybe Aneisa’s fate wouldn’t be as awful. The part of him that clung to his old nice guy ways genuinely wanted her to be happy, with whoever had the ability to make that ending into a reality for such a special woman, even if it wasn’t him. If a man truly cared for a woman and knew his presence would only cause the object of his affection more harm than any type of good, he should leave her in peace. Jayson would do the same for Aneisa, despite a burning desire to be near her soothing flame once more.

  By one o’clock, he was finishing up morning rounds at the local hospital.

  Jayson walked down the stone stairs outside of the place where he was fulfilling his work-study requirements for his internal medicine studies. He was one of five students handpicked from his medical school to be admitted into the accelerated program, but it was an achievement that brought him little joy.