Nothing Even Matters (D'Amato Brothers Book 6)

by Vera Roberts

  “I refused the paternity test because I thought your trust in me would’ve been enough, Eli! When Simone accused you of being the father of her daughter, I welcomed Elena. It was hard but I did it because I saw the bigger picture. When I had doubts about E.J. being yours, you began to question all three of our babies!

  “I would also like it if you would treat me like the mother of your children instead of the ex you can’t stand. Two fucking years you refused to say a word to me, Eli. Two fucking years!” Faith’s voice screeched as hot tears streamed down her face. “Whenever I needed to talk to you, I had to go through your damn attorney! Separate birthday parties! Separate holidays! Even separate parent-teacher meetings! And you honestly think that type of behavior makes me want to stay in New York?”

  “Do you remember your words to me, Faye? Let me refresh your memory and quoting, ‘I wish you were dead, Eli.’ And you’re mad at me that I granted your wish?” He yelled at her. Eli was bothered by Faith’s emotion but remain steadfast in his reasoning. “Now, I don’t care if you want to move to New York, but if you think I’m going to let you take off with my babies across the country, what Simone and Darren did to your reputation will merely be child’s play in comparison what I’ll do.

  “You’ve known me more than half your life and you still listen to your motherfucking girlfriends. I don’t know why you fuck with them jealous no-man having hoes anyway. Real talk.” Eli calmly stated. “You’re always accusing me of some old bullshit when I’m just doing me.

  “Oh yeah, that leaked story about the vase? Who was that?” Eli asked and Faith looked away. “Yeah, that’s what I thought. It was fun painting me as the villain and how you were afraid for your life. It was all fun until people started to play detectives and investigate your facts. You were in fear of me but you had two more of my children? You were constantly walking on eggshells but you had no problem playing LOL Smiley Face Kiss Me Through the Phone with Darren?

  “Every fucking thing you wanted me to do, Faith, I did. Everything!” Eli didn’t attempt to hide the anger. “I wanted a DNA test on all of the kids, and you refused it. Simone didn’t but you did. What do you think that told me? But you had no problem spending my money, huh?” He started to take a sip from his glass.

  Faith threw her glass towards Eli, who managed to duck just in time before it shattered into tiny pieces. Eli rushed over to Faith, who slapped his face. “I hate you!” She cried.

  “Slap me again,” Eli dared and Faith took him on his challenge.

  “You’re punishing me!” She cried and slapped him one more time for good measure. “I hate you! I hate you!”

  Eli pinned Faith against the wall and crushed his lips upon hers. Faith continued to punch at Eli’s chest until the arousal took over and she succumbed to his kiss. His lips explored and devoured hers, before his tongue swept inside and played with hers.

  Faith felt Eli take control and she let him, inviting him inside her mouth. Heat swelled inside her and she soon felt a slick heat forming between her thighs. She let out a small moan and finally conceded control to her ex.

  She missed everything about him – his touch, his love, his undeniable swag. The way he took care of her. He spoiled her the same as if they’d just started dating. And now his lips were on hers.

  He trailed his lips down to her neck as they moved back to the living room and collapsed on the sofa. They quickly shed clothing as Faith straddled him. She felt his thick shaft poking at her and how anxious they both were.

  Eli’s lips were hungry, hot, and insistent. He was angry at her. He was madly in love with her. He knew if he truly hated her, she wouldn’t have stepped foot inside his home. If she truly hated him, she wouldn’t have come over.

  And she sure wouldn’t be kissing her ex, knowing she was engaged to another man.

  Faith slightly moved her position and sat down on Eli’s thick and long length, filling her completely. She cooed as he moaned, clutching her ass and smoothing his hands all over it. He slowly guided her up and down on his shaft as he watched her reaction. “You remember how I taught you to ride me?”

  Faith quickly nodded and bit her lip as she adjusted to Eli’s size. Her slick heat accommodated his thick length, setting off zaps of pleasure all over her body. No matter how many lovers she’s had or regret, she would always remember Eli. “You taught me well.”

  “You missed Zaddy, didn’t you?” He whispered.

  “God, yes, Zaddy!” She wrapped her arms around his neck. It had been so long since Faith was with Eli, she forgot how much he’d completely filled her. Every stroke, her sex tightly hugged him, like a warm embrace.

  Their tongues clashed in frenzied panic, as they breathed and panted just as hard. It was more than just sex between them. In fact, it’s never been just sex between them at all. Not the first time. Not the last time. Not any time.

  Faith felt overwhelmed as she felt Eli’s lips and hands everywhere on her body. Her body softly shook as he stretched her, yet she took all of him in. It was painful at some moments and Faith honestly thought she was about to be split apart. Eli seemed to know her body from memory and guided her just right, falling into a steady tempo.

  Her sex quivered with each movement as Eli’s warm mouth found her nipples and sucked on them. Her walls tightly clenched around him and they both knew she was close. Her legs shook uncontrollably and her breaths came out ragged and hard.

  Eli was close, too. Clutching his arms, Faith felt his muscles tense up. He sat her all the way down on him and he thrust hard into her, causing Faith to yelp and scream his name. “That’s it,” he moaned.

  Eli almost withdrew to the point where his tip was just in before he pushed all the way back in. The feeling left Faith hungry and needing more of him; an emptiness created not by sex but by pure love.

  She loved it. She lost control and surrendered everything to Eli. She didn’t want to play anymore games. She didn’t want separate homes. She wanted them. This is where she belonged. Not in Harlem, but with Eli.

  Lightening bolts of emotion pricked up all over her body as the climax began to build. The soft, quiet mewls grew into voracious screams as Faith’s thighs tightened and Eli’s grasp on her ass strengthened.

  The climax hit her hard and fast, leaving Faith screaming as ecstasy flooded into her entire being. Eli soon followed her, losing all control and came hard into her. Even after the initial orgasm, Faith remained on top of him; her body undergoing a series of small orgasms and aftershocks.

  They laid in silence, without saying a single word for the longest time. They wanted to be within the moment. They wanted to have the incredible emotion between them flow freely and without any interruption. What they’d just experienced was too powerful for words and they needed the silence.

  When they finally did speak, Eli said the first words. “I don’t want you to leave Harlem, Faye,” his voice was in a low rumble. “I want you here with me and the kids.”

  It was what Faith had been waiting to hear for so long. It wasn’t a question, anymore. “I won’t.”

  We Need a Resolution

  Faith woke up from her sex-induced slumber in Eli’s bedroom. After their tryst in the living room, they moved to the bedroom where they made love until the wee hours of morning.

  It was like they never missed a beat with each other. As Faith desired, Eli tasted her and gave her no less than two orgasms while he did it. When he was on top, he took out every aggression of the past two years on her. He was so aggressive, yet gentle as if he knew how delicate she was.

  Afterward, they laid together in silence without saying too much. They both knew what it was and it wasn’t just sex. But talking about something mundane like sports and weather seemed inappropriate.

  Now it was Christmas morning and Faith had spent the night with her ex-husband. The two of them barely slept as they spent majority of the night making love. Faith knew firsthand, sex didn’t make a relationship no matter how good it was. Questions were unresol
ved but at least they were willing to work things out now she was staying in Harlem.

  She heard the soft strumming of a guitar and put on a robe. She followed the noise to upstairs where Eli was playing in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows in one of the guest rooms.

  She walked to him and sat beside him as he continued to strum. She loved seeing how meticulous he was with fingers. The same fingers that pleasured her to no end all night, as he kneaded into her flesh, massaged her breasts, and played with her pink pearl.

  Faith listened for a little while as she tried to figure out the song. She soon realized it was Amy Winehouse’s “Wake Up Alone.” Eli was so talented in so many areas, yet he never bragged or boasted about it. It was almost as if he was ashamed sometimes that he was gifted.

  Faith normally would’ve asked him if he wanted a cup of coffee and would’ve gotten started on it already. She’d been inside Eli’s apartment only a handful of times and honestly didn’t know where anything was.

  Instead, Faith asked him a question that had been on her heart for the past several hours. It was another elephant in the room they needed to get rid of.

  “Did you really lose twenty million dollars?”

  Eli immediately stopped strumming and slowly blinked in his dimly lit bedroom. The wood crackled from the fireplace and Faith rested her head on his shoulder.

  The thought of losing that amount of money and the reason behind it caused tension to rise within him. He let out a small breath and turned to look at the New York skyline instead. “Yes.”

  “I thought nothing happened after I put out the statement?” She asked. “I thought that solved everything.”

  Faith put out a statement a week later. Had she done it a day later, the damage would’ve been minimal. A week later and lots of time for domestic violence victims to call for a boycott of the show and business, while Eli’s IG comments were in shambles, was just too late.

  That was two years ago, and he’d just barely recovered from it. “I don’t want to talk about this,” he replied.

  Faith glanced up at her ex and saw his eyes stare straight ahead. She felt the underlying tension beneath his skin and she could tell he was pissed. “I would never intentionally try to hurt you, Eli.”

  “I said I don’t want to talk about this,” he got up and put the guitar away. He walked out of the room.

  They were a step closer to reconciling until Faith and her mouth was took them ten steps back. She followed Eli to the living room. She found him staring out the window, with an arm resting on the clear glass.

  She was hesitant in approaching him, wondering what would be the appropriate choice of words. If Faith had to be honest with herself, she wouldn’t speak to the person who lost twenty million of her money. “Not talking about this isn’t going to make it go away, Eli.” She approached him. “If we’re thinking about reconciling, this needs to be addressed.”

  “Faith, you could’ve put out a statement anytime after the allegations came out and you chose not. Since you didn’t want to clear it up, I had no choice but to go the legal route. I lost my cool for one fleeting moment in a private moment between us and I almost lost everything. Faith, even your own father questioned the timing of those allegations coming out.

  “I know why you did it,” Eli began, “you were afraid I was going to tell everyone the reason we were separating was because I questioned the paternity of E.J. I wasn’t going to say anything, Faye. I wanted our separation to be quiet and private. I wanted to avoid the media, the blogs, everything. You didn’t. Instead, you wanted to hurt me before I could do any damage to you. Congratulations, you were successful.

  “The only way I could ensure the privacy of my family and keep our business intact was to make sure any communication we had went legal. The rumors about me and my family stopped almost instantly. There was never a question of who said what or who was doing what. Our business became bigger, the public was more forgiving than we’d expected, and our wealth grew exponentially. We earned that twenty million back and more.

  “I didn’t want to shut you out and I didn’t spend the last two years of my life gloating about it. I hated not talking about you. I hated having to turn down Nate’s requests to have us together because I wasn’t sure if I could handle an afternoon of attitude from you. I just said, ‘fuck it’ and kept it moving.

  Eli finally turned to her. He wrapped his arms around Faith and pulled her close to him. “It took me a long time to forgive myself for the affair and everything it caused. And it’s going to take me some time to forgive you for everything as well. But I’m willing to try if you are.”

  Faith blinked back tears and they softly fell down her cheeks. “I would like that,” her voice was barely above a whisper.

  Eli thumbed away her tears. “We need to get ready to go. My family is expecting us both over in a few hours.”

  Faith felt nervous. While she was on good terms with most of the family now, there was still a bit of underlying tension between the Sheppards and the D’Amatos. “I’m not sure if I should come over. I think my presence might cause problems.”

  “It won’t,” Eli reassured. “Trust me, it won’t.”

  Love swelled inside Faith and she revealed a soft smile. “You’re confident about that.”

  “If you’re showing up with me, my family already know what’s up,” Eli replied, “you wouldn’t come over for no reason.”

  ~~~~~

  Nicola’s heart was overjoyed.

  Her eleven grandchildren were present, along with most of her sons and their spouses. The only holdouts were Eli and she hoped, Faith. She extended an invitation to David and Amy, and they accepted after they had church services.

  Now, she was just waiting for Eli and Faith.

  When Amy approached her about the plan to put the couple back together, Nicola was skeptical. She knew how difficult both could be and she wondered if Amy just led her to a firing squad. Still, she went along with it. Faith and Eli had too much history to completely disregard each other like they had been. And they still loved each other very much, despite how they acted.

  “You look nervous, Ma.” The oldest son, Nick, commented. “Everything okay?”

  “Yeah,” Nicola brushed a lock of brown hair out of her face, “just waiting on Eli. He should be arriving soon.”

  “Is he bringing a special guest?” The second oldest, Kieran, asked.

  Kieran’s wife, Tiana, gasped. “Is Faye coming?”

  “Faye’s coming?” Nick’s wife, Zerrin, added. “When?”

  “Faye’s coming?” Joey’s wife, Zoe, chimed in. “She’s back in town? She broke up with her baller?”

  “They broke up?” Tiana gasped.

  “And see that’s how rumors get started!” Joey pointed out. “No one said anything about anyone breaking up or coming over.”

  “Well, your brother isn’t here, but Faith’s parents are,” Zoe retorted. “And they confirmed she came in last night and dropped Faith off over at Eli’s apartment.”

  “She spent the night there!” Tiana gasped again.

  “That’s a new development,” Nick was surprised himself. “Can’t say I didn’t see it coming, though.”

  “What do you mean?” Zerrin asked. “I thought Eli didn’t care.”

  “All he did was care,” Kieran chimed in, “he cared more than he showed. It was only a matter of time before he would forgive her.”

  “They’ve been together since they were 17,” their stepfather, Arturo, added, “that’s sixteen years of history between them. They’re not going anywhere.”

  “Shit, I might as well get fitted for another tux for their wedding soon.” Tony commented.

  The doorbell rang and Nathan rushed over to open it. Behind it were his parents together, and smiling. “Daddy! Mommy!” He hugged them both and let them inside. “Everybody! Mommy and Daddy are here!”

  The D’Amatos rushed out and greeted Eli and Faith as they entered. Faith received hugs from each br
other and held onto Tony a bit longer to whisper to him. “Don’t give up on Kris. She’s just as stubborn as me. Go see her today.”

  Tony pulled back and Faith nodded. “Please?” She repeated.

  Tony slightly shrugged. “I’ll see what I can do.”

  Faith was about to ask Nicola if she needed any help but her sisters pulled her away to a bedroom and closed the door behind them.

  “And I hope they stay in there!” Joey held up his beer.

  “So,” Nick handed Eli a cold beer, “everything cool between you two now?”

  Eli took a long pull from his beer. “I don’t know.” His brothers and father led them to another room where the table was set up for a poker game. Eli took his spot while Nick dealt cards. “We talked a lot but things aren’t completely resolved. There’s still the issue with her fiancée. She has to break up with him.”

  “I doubt he’ll be heartbroken,” Kieran checked his cards.

  “Is she still moving to L.A.?” Joey asked.

  “No,” Eli shook his head, “I, uh, convinced her not to.”

  “Ah, yes, the D’Amato Dick Convincer,” Nick chuckled as he shuffled cards.

  “Been changing females’ minds since the biblical times,” Kieran studied his cards.

  “How to go from a solid no to ‘Oh God, yes!’” Joey laughed.

  “Shit, and making her spend her money on you!” Tony chimed in. “She’ll do whatever the hell you want to after that, boy!”

  “Jokes aside,” Art laughed with his sons, “how are you feeling about everything, Eli? Is everything really okay between you two?”

  “Truth is, I don’t deserve her.” Eli began. “She was with me when I was poor and could barely afford lunch and stayed with me through the affair. It wasn’t easy on either one of us and we discovered a lot about each other; some good and some quite ugly. Even when we divorced, we couldn’t stand to be away from each other. Yeah, it was a break but it was too long, you know?