Truth & Consequences: A Miss Independent Novel

by Leach, Kiki

  “Where’s your broom?” he asked her.

  She looked around at the mess for herself and shrugged. “I can clean this up, it’s fine.”

  “I did this,” he said in a low, remorseful voice. “The least I can do is stick around to clean it up. It’s not like I don’t owe you that much for everything I did to you tonight, and back then.”

  “And in the Hamptons and the minute you came back.”

  He raised his bandaged hand in the air and bobbed his head. “Alright.”

  “Alright.” She nodded and turned her eyes behind him. “The broom’s in the corner behind the cabinet. The dustpan should already be with it.”

  “Okay--”

  “And once you’re finished with that Nathan, I want you gone.”

  “You’ve got my word,” he said.

  “That doesn’t really mean much to me anymore, so I’ll take your actions on it instead.”

  Part Fourteen

  As Vanessa made her way into the foyer, she stopped for a second to listen for anymore movement throughout the house. “Nik?” she called. She went over to the den and craned her neck around the frame, but didn’t see anyone there. “Nik?” she called again.

  When she continued not to hear an answer, she became concerned and rushed upstairs, heading straight for Nikki’s room.

  “Nik -- ?”

  “She’s not here,” a voice interjected as she zoomed past the first door near the end of the hallway.

  It was low and deep, a man’s voice; one she instantly recognized as it sent a thrill of desire throughout her entire system.

  She took a few steps back and pushed in the door leading to Maurice’s bedroom. As it swung back, she peeked her head inside and saw him sitting on the edge of his bed, or rather his bare mattress as he had just removed the blankets and sheets that were left behind to cover it.

  He looked up at her, his intoxicatingly deep root beer colored eyes scanning every part of her body, wondering in that split second if it had been touched by anyone else since he had been gone.

  Vanessa clutched the kit tighter to her chest to hide how hard she was breathing while staring at him. It had been weeks since she actually laid eyes on him again, but he was beautiful. In fact, he had somehow managed to become even better looking in the time they spent being apart. Which led her to wonder if it was because he was happy, happy in being away from her, or happy in actually being with someone else who wasn’t her and never would be. The thought made her sick to the point where she had to finally turn her head and swallow back the bile that was starting to build up from inside her chest and gather itself in the back of her throat.

  She crossed one leg over the other to keep her balance steady against the frame of the door and lowered her head, avoiding eye contact with him at all cost.

  “I seem to remember you leaving your key here the night you decided not to come back,” she said.

  “I used Nikki’s key to get in. Told her that I left a few things behind that I needed.”

  And that’s when she finally turned back to him. “A few things you needed at almost midnight on a Wednesday? And Nikki just ‘gave you’ her key to get back in here.”

  “Things changed between us after the Hamptons, V. Whatever hatred we had toward each other sort of just… disappeared.”

  “Is that so?” she asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “Well I guess if that’s the case, why don’t I just call her up and ask her about the key she lent you.”

  Just as she turned from him, stretching her leg and pointing her heel out, Maurice opened his mouth and exhaled.

  “I made a duplicate before I left.” He held the key between his fingers and lifted it high to show it to her while lowering his head, only semi shameful of building upon yet another lie.

  “What the hell would you do that for?” she asked, puzzled.

  He thought a moment before answering. “Just in case you lost yours or if Nikki lost hers--”

  “Then we’d still have your original key, Mo. Not to mention, duplicates of our own. Why are you really here this late at night? What do you want?”

  “You, V,” he said. “Just like I always have. But you continue to make that difficult as hell.”

  Her heart skipped a beat when she heard him say that he still wanted her. She knew it without him even admitting it to her, but actually hearing the words pour from his lips like water down a cool stream pricked her skin and filled her stomach with every butterfly known to mankind.

  In spite of it all, she couldn’t let her anger deter how she felt.

  “Mo!” she hollered. “If absolutely nothing else, the very LEAST you could have done was tell me the truth long before the shit had so epically hit the fan, if only so that I could somehow prevent everything that happened to us after it all came out.”

  He sighed while quickly dragging his hand down his face. “V--”

  “And for the record, I never asked you to move out of here! This was supposed to be our home together, remember? Isn’t that what you kept telling me?! You leaving for good was something you decided all on your own.”

  He jumped up from the bed and threw his arms up in exasperation. “I never planned to leave for good, Vanessa, but you told me to get the hell out -- !”

  “I told you to get the hell out because I was pissed off at what you had done, not because I actually wanted you gone forever! Do you think I like being here by myself? Waking up and not seeing you here too? Not feeling you next to me as I roll over in the middle of the night? I’m lonely as hell and I hate even admitting just how much, but I am. Nikki can’t even fill the void of friendship anymore because she hardly ever comes around these days unless she needs to talk to me about something dire, or about what it’s like having Oscar on one side with William dangling so high on the other. I actually found myself having a full on conversation out loud yesterday during breakfast and not a single person was sitting across from me at the table.”

  His lowered his hands and dropped back down to the edge of the bed, grunting. “So you miss my company.”

  “Yes,” she breathed. “I miss your company because you’re my best friend. And I miss your hands caressing every part of me because you were my man.”

  His entire body twitched as a reassuring sensation overcame him, and he gulped.

  Suddenly he was staring at her again, at her stomach and thighs, hands and legs, remembering how they felt wrapped around his waist the first time they were together in her room, just a few feet away. The feeling of her breasts pressing into his chest for the first time, flesh to flesh, is something he’s vowed to never forget.

  And then he focused in on her mouth, remembering how it looked, and how ripe it felt against his skin when they showered together after coming back home from the Hamptons. He wanted to feel that way with her again, to have that inner peace she provided for him. But first, he needed to know one thing.

  “Have you been with anybody since I’ve been gone?”

  “You’ve only been gone for four weeks. Who the hell would I have found to spend time with since then?”

  “I know plenty of men who would’ve taken my place beside you, Vanessa, both at parties and in bed, long before they even knew I was there first.”

  “I could say the same about the women who still call here casually asking if the rumors about us being together are actually true, while giving a dry ‘congratulations’ when I all but ignore the question altogether and tell them that you just aren’t home. But it’s left me to wonder for myself if--”

  “What?”

  “If there’ve been others for you since moving out.”

  He gnashed his teeth and cut his eyes away from her, shaking his head. “No.”

  “What about Melanie? You may think of her as just ‘one of the flock’ but she seems all too determined to shove her way past the rest of those thirsty birds that seem to gather around and bow down to your feet at every turn.”

  He opened his hands and g
rimaced. “Vanessa, what the hell are you talking about?” he asked.

  “I’m talking about you being out with her this morning at that new Beatnick Café near your office building. Nikki said she saw you there on her way to rehearsal and that you two looked more than friendly in some corner booth. A little too friendly for a casual Wednesday morning at 7am.”

  He groaned and dragged his hand down the side of his face and around to the front of his throat. He would’ve choked himself to death if he thought it would’ve gotten him out of this conversation. “She was exaggerating,” he told her. “Look, we’ve hung out from time to time since I’ve been gone, sure. Had lunch, maybe gone to a few movies and had some drinks when I can’t sleep.”

  “That sure as hell sounds like a lot of time spent with someone you don’t give a damn about spending any of it with, Mo--”

  “I’m not having sex with her,” he interjected. “I haven’t had sex with anybody since you – I haven’t even seen a woman naked. And that’s the bottom line, right? I don’t want to be with her like that or anyone else, and I don’t plan to make it happen anytime soon.”

  Vanessa sighed. “Even if you don’t plan to make things happen, it doesn’t mean that she won’t try. Did you ever think of that? I told you from the beginning that she had a thing for you and you just blew it off like it was nothing. It would be absolutely no surprise to me now since Oscar’s left if she tried to make her move on you and--”

  “What? I shot her down? Because that’s exactly what would happen. I’m not interested in Melanie outside of friendship,” he said, rising to his feet again. “You need to understand that.”

  “I’m sorry, but what can you possibly gain from a friendship with her if sex isn’t what you’re looking for?” She quickly raised her hand and shook her head, stopping him before he could answer because she knew that whatever it was, she didn’t want to hear it. “You know what, it doesn’t matter,” she said. “Because I know women like her, I’ve seen them my entire life in this business and especially once they get around to having a good look at you. No matter what you say, if she’s determined to have you, then she’ll find a way to make it happen. One way or another, she’ll--”

  “Can you find a way to make it happen?” he asked. “For the second time?”

  Her eyes lowered and she turned her head as he approached her. “Don’t.”

  Vanessa stood straight and pressed her body against the wall near the frame to keep herself steady, while still holding on tight to the first aid kit.

  She swallowed hard and watched Maurice’s hand come toward her, having no urge to push him away despite her protest. When he caressed her cheek, his large, soft hand melding against the warmth of her skin, she sank into him like a silk pillow and breathed out. “Mo.” Her lids fluttered shut as the heat of ecstasy bounced between them with every touch.

  His other hand found the buttons on her shirt; he smirked while giving it a light tug. “I love the way you look in my clothes.” His voice lowered with every spoken word. “I love that even though I’m not here, you still find ways for me to be a part of you – still find ways for me to be wrapped around every inch of your body. And this shirt…” He tugged at it again and yanked her to him. She had stopped breathing completely as her heart leapt into her throat. “It’s part of you now, just like I’ve always been.” He bent down, and with his mouth hovering over hers, whispered. “I miss waking up next to you, Vanessa. Just as much as you miss me being beside you.” He slid his fingers up to the opening at the collar and glided them back and forth across her collarbone. Unwittingly, she dipped her head back and released a soft, but powerfully explicit moan.

  The sound was like a symphony to his ears.

  The first aid kit loosened in her hand despite her grip; for a few seconds, she forgot why it even mattered that she was still holding it.

  Maurice smiled when he felt her breath shaking. He exhaled between her lips and her tongue swirled around them. When she opened her eyes to look into his, they had darkened with a delicious hunger she immediately recognized as ever being only for her.

  “I miss you like hell, V.”

  He dropped a hand and slid it up between her thighs, sinking his fingertips into the inside of each one. She yelped and allowed that kit to finally drop to the floor.

  As it bounced against the wood, everything from the alcohol to the scissors and gauze scattered across their feet. Ignoring the clacking sounds and commotion, Maurice’s hand slipped beneath her shorts and moved closer to her panties, his thumb grazing the lining; she moaned again, draping her free hand around the back of his neck and holding on tight as if she were preparing for the wildest ride of her life.

  The moment he could feel just how much she still wanted him, his ego took over. He moved his other hand up beneath her shirt, wrapping his fingers over the rims of her shorts and panties and simultaneously dragging them down to the floor where he remained on his knees. Staring up at her with a devastating, yet charismatic grin that only he could pull off, Maurice ran his hands up her legs and pressed his mouth against the smoothness of her thigh. She rested her hand on top of his head as he gradually moved his face up higher and higher until it was directly between her thighs.

  He extended his tongue against the most sensitive, and softest part of her flesh and it was like a nuclear bomb had erupted inside her chest with fireworks exploding at every turn. She felt herself shattering with every stroke, every deep kiss, and struggled to keep her trembling legs from officially giving out from beneath her where she stood.

  As his hands tightened around the back of her thighs in an attempt to bring her even closer, she clutched the hair on his head, and chewed down on her lip so hard that it began to bleed inside her mouth. Forgetting all about the mess downstairs, all about who and what caused it and that reason still being present inside her house, she immersed herself in this moment with Maurice, with the man she loved more than her own life, and consumed it for all it was worth.

  Before she could come, because he could always feel it just before she made it known by wiggling her body against him and calling out his name, he stood up and thrusted his tongue inside of her mouth. She tasted herself and wrapped her teeth around his bottom lip as he lifted her from the floor. Automatically, her legs encircled his waist and she locked her heels to remain in place against him.

  For Maurice, showing up that night and making love to Vanessa wasn’t initially part of the plan. He had come there for something, something important that he wasn’t sure would matter to her anymore, even if she were to find out why it should. But once he got a taste of her again, the reason behind the why didn’t seem to matter as much to him anymore.

  As the kisses became deeper and grew more fervent, Vanessa murmured something to him about her bedroom. He kept one hand behind her thigh while the other pressed down hard against her back and lifted her even higher on his body. She pulled her mouth from his and stared down at his face. They were both out of breath, panting as if they were addicts just waiting for their second fix.

  Maurice was starved for her as his mouth was eager to take hers again. She smiled in realizing just how much he still ached for her in a way that he never seemed to ache for another woman before. She treasured that feeling, knowing that no matter what happened between them that night or any other one following, no other woman would ever own that part of him like she did.

  And no woman who valued her own worth in anything would ever try.

  He carried her from the room and down the hall, but when she kissed him again, her tongue doing all the passionate and desperate things he remembered from the time they were first together, he stopped at the end of the hall, just before reaching her bedroom, and shoved her against the wall near the bathroom. His hard and heavy breathing vibrated against her as he moved his mouth over to the side of her neck and ran his tongue along her skin. Her hands dropped down to his back and she clawed against him while trying to yank the edge of his shirt from the buckle
of his pants.

  When Nathan heard a hard bumping sound coming from above his head, he cautiously put the broom to the side and called for Vanessa. When she didn’t immediately answer, his concern turned to worry.

  “V?”

  After hearing the bump again, he dumped the glass from the pan into the trashcan and sat it on the floor. Dusting his hand against his pants, he stepped over another pile he had swept across the room and headed out to the foyer.

  “V?”

  Vanessa’s eyes popped open when she thought she heard someone who wasn’t Maurice calling out for her. It was then that she was brought back to the reality of someone else being inside her house, and exactly who that someone was. She knew that she had to stop considering what happened before, and the consequences of those actions partly resulting in her now separation from the man she truly loved. Her brain was telling her to put her legs down, to unwrap herself from Maurice – who didn’t seem to hear a damn thing from anyone but her – and to tell him to leave while simultaneously shoving him away.

  But her heart. Her body. Oh God, neither her heart nor her body would let her do anything except enjoy what was happening to them. Maurice was still kissing, still sucking and licking, still making her feel so damn good and desired in a way she hadn’t felt since the last time they were together.

  Clinching her sex, she closed her eyes again and squeezed tight as he entered his fingers inside of her, one, by one, by one…

  And then it happened.

  “Well, well.”

  Nathan’s voice boomed from the other end of the hallway. Vanessa’s eyes popped back open and her breath caught.

  Maurice stopped cold as if a loaded gun with a half-cocked trigger had been shoved against his back. He pulled away from Vanessa as a sudden flurry of rage fueled emotions engulfed his entire system and flushed his already inflamed skin.

  What the hell was his rival doing there at that time of night?

  And why the hell hadn’t Vanessa said anything about it before they started kissing, let alone started doing… this?