Live & Learn ~ A Miss Independent Novel

by Kiki Leach

  “Come inside me,” she whispered against his tongue. He reached down for her leg again and wrapped it around his. She arched her back and he pounded into her until she called out his name in jubilation. Moments later, they collapsed in satisfaction with one another and she reached for a pillow to rest her head. Her skin was warm, her thighs ached from the angle in which she was positioned, but she felt it was worth it. She closed her eyes with a smile on her face that grew when she felt Maurice moving behind her again. His tongue traveled from the center of her back all the way up to the nape of her neck. “God, I felt you tonight,” she said. “I felt you and I can’t imagine ever feeling like this with someone else ever again.”

  “I hope you mean that.”

  “I do. You didn’t just…” She stopped to gather her thoughts in the midst of her clouded mind. “I don’t know what it is but you somehow manage to take me to different places inside my head that I never imagined I could go. And mixed in with all of these feelings… Now that we’ve finally come together, it makes our connection that much deeper and unending. We don’t ever have to leave my bed, this room, or this house and I’m always there with you.”

  He rolled over to the side and replaced his body with his hand, rubbing it up and down her back. “Does this mean that the Hamptons is definitely out as an option this summer?”

  “Mo.” She turned to look at his face and glowered. “I was trying to be meaningful about our connection, and then you bring up the Hamptons again. Why are you itching for us to get back out there, anyway?”

  “Because I want us to spend some time together in the ocean and…” He moved in and whispered in her ear while simultaneously slipping two fingers inside of her and rotating his thumb around her pussy and clit to massage her. When he heard her breathe out in soft satisfaction, he looked down at her face and smirked. “Say yes, V.”

  “God, yes.”

  He leaned over to kiss her and before long, they were at it again, which seemed to be the only thing that kept Vanessa from backtracking on their agreement.

  Part Twenty-Four

  A few weeks of romantic bliss had gone by when the Fourth finally arrived. Maurice and Vanessa showed up on the steps of their summer house just a little after 10am, tired from the ride and anxious as hell to get inside for a cooling down.

  As he grabbed the keys from his pocket, she fanned her tank top against her chest while reaching for her bags. “My breasts have been sweating like crazy since we walked out the front door. I’m half-dressed wearing red, white, and blue shorts up to my ass in this heat and I’m still hotter than hell’s kitchen.” Vanessa wiped the sweat from her forehead and moved her hand back into her hair, lifting it from the back of her neck where it stuck against her skin. “It sure as hell didn’t help that the drive on the way here was pure shit.”

  Maurice was irritated with the drive and heat as well, but tried to keep as calm as he could to make their time there as peaceful as possible. “Relax, V.”

  “I’m trying. But the air conditioning stopped before we even left the city, despite paying a fortune for that car, and the traffic was out of the ass insane.”

  “I told you that we should’ve come out here yesterday to avoid all of that.”

  “Well, Mo, we couldn’t exactly do that because I had to work and so did you.”

  “I suggested calling in,” he said, “but you didn’t want to do that.”

  “That’s because my mother would’ve been on my ass for missing another Thursday deadline. She’ll make a lot of exceptions when it comes to you, honey, believe that. But the magazine sure as hell won’t ever be one of ‘em.”

  “That so?” he asked.

  “Yeah. But whatever, look, I just hope that everything that happened before us even getting out here won’t reflect on the rest of the weekend. Otherwise, I’m going to blame the hell out of you when we go back home and it won’t be pretty.”

  “Nothing a little sex in the shower won’t cure.” He snatched his bags from the porch and finally opened the door.

  Vanessa stood back to glare at him and folded her arms. “You wanna bet? Especially when you haven’t gotten me in one yet?”

  He reached behind himself and grabbed her bags as well. “I’ll double whatever wager you’ve got.”

  She bent down to the side of his face and grinned. “I don’t think you wanna go against me in this, Mo. You remember back in high school when we gambled in the gym after hours, I always kicked your ass and went home with pockets FULL of your cash and everyone else’s. How the hell do you think I was able to afford the down payment on that townhouse before you two moved in?”

  “Your mother helped you out with that, V.”

  “Not true… Okay, maybe a little, but not entirely.” She moved further into the house as he pushed the bags to the side and closed the door. Everything was still painted a pristine white color, from the walls to the stairs, just as she liked it. The den was familiar, with a big screen sitting high on the wall, a couch and a few chairs and colorful beanbags tossed off to the side near the bookcase. The bar remained fully stocked, which pleased them both. She headed straight back to the deck and opened a set of double doors leading to the beach. She breathed in the air as warm as it was, ignoring the taste of the intensifying heat to inhale the salty flavor of the ocean. It was in that moment that she finally felt good about being there. Maurice came up and wrapped an arm around her waist. He trailed his fingers across her stomach and brought his mouth down to her shoulder, lightly nibbling her skin. “It is beautiful out here,” she said. “It always is. I can’t deny that.”

  “Does that mean you’re finally ready for--?”

  “Nothing, until I’ve had a shower first.” She squirmed away from him and turned back toward the house. “I am sweating like a pig and can barely function when I feel so dirty.”

  He reached for her hand and brought her back to him. “I don’t see anything wrong with that.” He scooped her up in his arms and she couldn’t help but laugh. They began kissing, but quickly pulled away from each other when they heard something falling over from inside the house.

  “What the hell was that?” Vanesa questioned. Maurice lowered her to the ground and she hurried back inside. She stopped for a second but continued on when she heard the ‘clanking’ noise again, and rounded a corner leading to the kitchen, only to find Nikki rummaging through the fridge and knocking the condiments inside against one another. She was wearing the bra of her two-piece while the bottom half was covered in shorts. Vanessa was livid. “What the HELL are you doing here?”

  Startled by the sound of her voice, Nikki almost fell into the fridge. Vanessa made her way down the set of stairs leading to the island in the center of the room, and noticed that piles and piles of bagged food had covered almost every surface, from the counters to the table and even a few chairs. Maurice came in right after and cursed to himself when he saw Nikki staring at Vanessa and holding her chest in fear.

  “Did you hear what I asked you?”

  “I heard you, I was just waiting for my heart to fall back into place,” Nikki replied as she closed the refrigerator door. “But I didn’t think you were showing up this year, so--”

  “I could easily say the same thing about you which brings me back to my original question.”

  “Why are you asking me what I’m doing here like I didn’t pay for some of this place too?”

  “Yeah, until you no longer could afford it so Maurice and I were forced to pay your half for you. So I’ll rephrase, what the hell are you doing here now? And how the hell did you even get here? We didn’t see a car outside when we drove up.”

  “We came here in a rental, but it’s on the side--”

  “We? Then you’re not here alone.”

  “Are you?” she retorted. Vanessa sneered.

  “Um.” Everyone looked to William as he emerged from the other set of doors which led out to a different part of the beach. He stared at Maurice and Vanessa in surprise and stepp
ed to Nikki’s side. Vanessa noticed that his shorts were wet, and felt like gagging in seeing him so undressed. “I didn’t know we had company this weekend,” he said to her.

  “Neither did we,” Vanessa chimed in. “Which begs the new question, why are you here? I thought you still had that summer house that was miles and miles away from this place? I’m talkin’ far off with a pool in the backyard instead of an ocean.”

  “Patricia and I have been renegotiating a few things in the divorce decree and that house is one of the things she gets to keep for the next few summers before we trade off again.”

  “Wonderful.” Vanessa raised her hands to her face, annoyed, then quickly pulled them back. William grabbed a beer from the fridge and twisted off the cap, tossing it on the counter. It was just one more thing to aggravate her. “There’s a trashcan literally two inches from your feet,” she said.

  William picked up the cap and threw it into the trash at her request. “You know the water is pretty perfect out there right now.” He drank back some of his beer. “Not too warm or cold. I’ve been out there since 8am. You two should probably take a dip before the sun shifts.”

  “Yeah, yeah, we’ll get right on that, I’m sure my hair can’t wait – but let’s get a few things clear first. At the moment, you’re both here rent free and I’m not good with that. She stopped paying for this place years ago, so I hope that you either plan to pay her portion for this summer or you’re both gonna to have to get the hell out.”

  “Real nice, V,” said Nikki.

  “What do you expect me to do, Nik? Allow you to continue drinking my booze and eating my food for free while making this place into your secret love nest?” Silence ensued between all four of them. “You know what, fine.” Vanessa waved her hands at them. “This was supposed to be a nice, quiet, romantic weekend for us” – she pointed between herself and Maurice – “but hey, it’s cool. Whatever. The more the fuckin’ merrier, right?” She turned back to the steps and looked up at Maurice. “I’m going upstairs before my head explodes.”

  “Just a second, V,” Nikki said. “Since we didn’t know that you were coming, we took that bedroom for ourselves.”

  Vanessa turned back and lifted her brows. “Oh, did you? You took the bedroom that I have to pay for every summer I’m out here without missing a beat, the one with the biggest bed and private bathroom -- you just scooped it right on out from underneath me because you didn’t know I was coming? There’s something called a phone. Ever heard of it? You could’ve called to ask.”

  “Calling up your best friend to ask about her summer plans is a shared responsibility, V. You could’ve done the same instead of bitching at me for being out here--”

  “Are you fucking kidding me, Nicole? I have tried calling you for WEEKS on end since you don’t even bother to come home anymore, but you never put in the effort to return a single one of them, so I stopped trying. Now how’s that for a ‘shared responsibility’?!” She exhaled. “I’m takin’ your shit outta my room and dumping it in one of the spare bedrooms where it belongs.” She stormed out of the kitchen and practically flew up the stairs to her bedroom.

  Nikki shook her head at William, who encircled her waist in an attempt to lend some comfort.

  As Maurice entered the room behind Vanessa and closed the door, he found her throwing Nikki’s clothing back into her suitcase. “She can sleep with whoever the hell she wants, but she sure as fuck won’t be doing it in a bed that I paid for.” She picked up the bottom half of Nikki’s bikini and immediately dropped it to the floor when she realized it was soaked with ocean water. “These sheets better be brand fuckin’ new from the last time we were here.”

  “I think you need to chill out, V.”

  “Oh, really?” She picked up Nikki’s makeup bag and flung it across the room. Maurice didn’t flinch at the sound it made. “See my ‘chill’? It almost flew out the damn window.”

  “Calm. Down.”

  “Easier said than done. I haven’t seen that girl in weeks and the first time I do, she’s out here with HIM and has her shit spread out all over every part of our room” – she extended her arm and spun around to showcase – “like she still pays a single dime to continue staying here. She’s plucking shit out of my fridge and he’s walking around here drinking beer that WE paid for, and it just boggles my mind that she sees absolutely nothing wrong with what’s been going on. And not just today, but throughout our entire relationship since they’ve become more serious in theirs.”

  “Hate to break this to you, Vanessa, but it’s been going on a lot longer than that. It just took her being in a relationship with someone that we actually knew about for you to finally see her mooching for what it is. That being said, I think she understands exactly what’s going on with all of this. But she’s sick of fighting with you about it and doesn’t want to start up again this weekend, and I can’t blame her for that. Look at you already throwing shit before we’ve even had a chance to settle back into this place.”

  “I’m pissed the hell off.”

  “I get that. But you need to start handling your anger a little bit better from now on. That can be hot at times and under the right circumstances, but it can also make you look a little crazy every now and then over something that’s not even that big of a deal.”

  “Not a big deal that she’s dating a man old enough to be her dad?”

  “So what?!” he asked her. “She’s happy and so are we. Let’s just deal with the fact that they are going to be together and get through this weekend in peace.”

  “She’s not happy, Mo.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “Because I know her and so do you, and you know damn well that William does not make her happy. Give me a break. He gives her things and treats her decently compared to Oscar – one of the main factors being that he’s not married, yay. That’s all well and good but he is not the man that she is going to be with for the rest of her life.”

  He dropped his hands and rushed toward her. “She doesn’t think like you, V! When are you going to realize that? I’m glad that when you think of us, you see forever, that’s great and one of the things I love the most about you. You have a plan about where you see things going, but she doesn’t have that for her life. She never has and I don’t think she ever will because she goes with the flow and it works for her.”

  “If it worked so well for her in the past, she wouldn’t still be living with us barely paying rent and working at that damn coffee shop,” she said. He ran the palm of his hand down the front of his face and pat his throat in frustration. “Seeing them together makes my skin crawl. The man has known me since I ran around my house in pigtails and I’m just supposed to stand there and act like all of this is normal and accept them being together?”

  “Yeah,” he said. “As a friend, it’s your obligation to accept it whether you like it or not. And if you want to keep her in your life like I know that you do, you will.” He moved even closer to her and she crossed her arms, becoming tense. “Now can we go back to making this weekend about us?”

  She took a step back. “It’s not about us anymore.”

  “Come on, V.”

  “I’m sorry, but I just can’t do that with them here. Besides, I’m starting to smell even worse the longer I move around this room and I’m pretty sure I’m PMSing on top of everything else. So much for a romantic weekend in the Hamptons.” She shoved past him and went to the bathroom, slamming the door. “HAPPY FUCKIN’ FOURTH!” Her voice was muffled but it was still loud enough to rattle his nerves.

  Sex in the ocean seemed to no longer be a viable option. Maurice saw Nikki’s bag on the floor and angrily kicked it across the room. This was supposed to be time spent in endless pleasure and it was already turning into a disaster that didn’t look to be wrapping up anytime soon. Maybe next time I should listen to her, he thought. He fell back on the bed and covered his face with a pillow.

  Downstairs, Nikki continued grabbing for every bag of
fruit that she could find inside the fridge. She had planned to make smoothies for herself and William from scratch, though she didn’t have the slightest idea of where to start or how they would turn out. William sat on a bench behind the island while watching her struggle to make do with what she had. He had offered to help her cut up the fruit, but she turned him down.

  “I know what you’re thinking,” he said.

  “You can’t possibly have any idea.”

  “I think I do. And I can tell you that everything’s going to be fine.”

  “I’m glad you’re being so optimistic about it all, but I’m starting to think that everything’s bullshit.”

  “She’s here with Maurice and called this a ‘romantic weekend’, you heard her. That’s a start in my book.”

  “To what? We’re still fighting and she’s still being a perra critica.” She licked the fruit from her fingers and tossed them one by one into the blender. “This doesn’t really qualify as progress.”

  “Give it time.”

  “How much time am I supposed to give her? Days? Weeks? Six months to a year? I’m not going to wait around forever for her to accept my relationship with you. She’s either going to accept it now, or that’s it.”

  “You don’t mean--” The churning sound of the blender stopped him short. He reached out his hand and flipped the switch to turn it off. “You don’t mean that.”

  “I do. If she can’t accept us being together, then what kind of friendship do we have? I have never liked Maurice because I always believed he was nothing more than a womanizer. But for some reason, Vanessa was the exception, even when we were kids. He loved and respected her and basically worshipped the ground she walked on and still does. That is something that mattered to me from the very beginning and has helped to make their relationship much more tolerable. It just sucks that she can’t have the same respect for me or our friendship. You’re not Oscar. You’re not married, and you treat me better than any man I’ve ever been with. And she still doesn’t care.” She rested her arm on the lid of the blender and turned it back on.