Then, he walked from the window and went to turn on the lights. There was a mattress on the floor with full bedding. This was the only room in the house with a piece of furniture in it.
“Have you been staying here?” I asked.
“Yes, but I wouldn’t ever ask you to, not like this.”
“I’ve seen worse,” I assured him.
He gave me a puzzled look, and I changed the subject. “So how are you going to decorate this room?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never decorated a house before.”
I walked into the bathroom, and there was a Jacuzzi tub just like the one in the bathroom this morning. There was a door and I figured it was the bathroom’s closet. My attention went back over towards the tub and just the thought of this morning’s tub session made my toes tingle.
“Why don’t you do it for me?” he asked me. There was something else in his voice.
“I’ve never decorated a house before either,” I advised.
“Please,” he asked, pressing up against me.
I leaned back on him.
“You didn’t answer my question earlier.”
I knew exactly what question he was talking about, but I was in no shape to answer it now.
“How long have you been staying here? I asked, stepping away from him.
He held on to my hand as I walked all over the master bedroom. I opened a door in the bedroom and stepped into a closet heaven. There were shelves, hanging rods and even an island dresser in the middle of the closet. Towards the back of the closet, there was another door. I opened it and walked into the master bathroom. The door I assumed was the bathroom’s closet door was not. It was a door that entered into a closet heaven. We stepped out of the bathroom and I saw another door next to the main closet door in the bedroom. We walked over to it and he let my hand go, I opened it and there was only small rods going up and down, from the ceiling to the floor of the small room.
“What is this?”
“You don’t know, Ms. Pink Bottoms?” He teased me by calling me my favorite brand of shoes. And I knew then, it was a shoe closet, and my heart jumped. He really bought this house for him and me. I mean the closet alone would make anyone sign on the dotted line. That shoe closet really got me. My mind starting wandering; I could imagine every single rod in that closet full of nothing but pink bottom shoes. I had to wake up from the trance he had forced on me with these amazing closets. I couldn’t think clearly, everything was happening too fast. I walked over to the wall where the light was and I shut it off.
“Cricket, wait.”
I turned and wrapped my arms around his neck. I kissed him softly and pressed myself against him.
“Last night, this morning, my party and the fireworks, I’ve never had – I…I’ve just never had anything like that before,” I choked out. “I will never forget this for as long as I live.”
“I beg to differ, just wait till next year,” he assured.
My mouth fell open and I felt a ping in the pit of my stomach. I couldn’t take much more of this; my heart was already on the verge of stopping.
I slid from his arms and turned, heading back down the stairs. He didn’t follow me right away. I had made it down to the entrance before he even started coming after me. He shut the last of the lights off and faced me.
“You don’t like the house?”
“God, yes,” I laughed. “What’s not to like? It’s perfect.”
“Stay here with me then.”
“I can’t.”
“Why not, Babe?”
“We don’t know each other well enough for all that yet.”
“What are you afraid of?”
“Nothing. I just don’t think we’re ready to move in together yet.”
“Cricket, we’ve known each other long enough.”
“And we’ve actually only been together maybe four full weeks. We were broken up longer than we were together.”
“You know everything about me,” he stated.
“No, I don’t. That’s what happened to us last time. I thought I knew you, but I was wrong, and now with that shit at the party and that fucking box…” I threw my arms up at him.
“You don’t tell me anything,” he growled.
“Well, my lifestyle won’t get you locked up or have the police asking you questions.” I took a step towards the door and twisted the knob.
“I want you here with me.”
“Alright then, what was in the fucking box?”
He stood there looking torn, and I just stared at him because I didn’t have anything else to say.
“It’s not important right now?” he exhaled.
“Really?” I yelled.
“You’re the only one I want, and I can’t be here without you,” he said.
“Where in the fuck have you been then?”
“What?”
“You gave up. You were supposed to fight for me. That’s what they do in the movies,” I told him.
“Cricket, you never responded to anything I did, but I never gave up on us. Ayashe and Chelle said I had to do something big. They said you wouldn’t take me back unless I really meant it. And I did! But I had to do something big for you to listen to me. You couldn’t hear me or accept me any other way. I knew it had to be something to astound you.
Cricket, when I saw those tears stream down on your face in the cab that night and you told me you didn’t want the memories, Babe that broke me. It reduced me to my core. And I knew when I came back, I had to come correct. But I never gave up on us. Never.”
He pulled his face down and rested his forehead against mine. “I need to tell you everything, right now.”
He locked the top two locks, flicked on the lights, and guided me back to the kitchen. He helped me up on the granite counter where I sat as he paced the floor. He cracked his fingers and dug in.
“I started fishing with my dad and uncles when I was three. My dad was never a good fisherman; he was never good at anything but drinking. My mom worked cleaning houses and babysitting to pay the little bills we had on the reservation. Living on the reservation, a lot of your housing and utilities are covered or they help you with other bills. It is the way of life there; they look out after their own.
Well, with my mom and dad both there, we had our share of bills we had to pay, but we didn’t have a car, and my dad was always drunk. When I was five, I was a better fisherman than most grown men. My uncles used to let Loon, Kanoke, and I drive the boats and fish with them. We would go to the fish markets because we were short and cute, and the women would buy the fish from us just to be nice. I made out good, and we got by in the house.
After a few years of that, I decided I wanted to do my own fishing and work for myself. Loon, Kanoke, and I worked like fucking dogs for a year; scraping any and everything we could find. Patty was three, and my mom was working odd and end jobs to get us by. We had enough to buy a truck, but none of us were old enough to drive. We needed the truck so we could fish in the deep waters for salmon until we could afford to get a boat. My mom helped us buy the truck, and she put it in her name. Kanoke’s mom worked at a school cafeteria, so we had a place to store the fish, and now we had a truck.
Our first weekend out at the markets, we made five hundred dollars. And after six months, we bought our first boat. It was not much, but it got us the fish we needed. About a year after that, we had two boats and then the business just skyrocketed. When I was twelve, I had more money in my bank account than any man on the reservation. I’ve worked hard all my life because I’ve had to. My dad fucking sucks and he has never really provided anything for us. I was, and have always been, the man in my house.
We started racing boats for fun back when I was fifteen, and then we got serious about it. We knew how to handle them all because we worked on all types of boats. Kanoke liked working on vehicles, and Loon knew boats inside and out. We started racing a lot of stuff: three-wheelers, four wheelers, dirt bikes, and bikes. I had plenty of money, bu
t it was never enough. Something was missing, and I was trying to find out how to fill the void; I still don’t know how. I was a man in my mom’s eyes when I started paying the house bills. No one could tell me anything, and I would beat the shit out of anyone if they tried.
Then, puberty hit me big time and Elle couldn’t hang; that drove me fucking crazy. I couldn’t fuck her, and I needed to fuck. Jacking off did it for a while, but then that was not working anymore. I needed more. She tried to oblige me; I’ll give her that. And my mom and grandma tried to help her deal with my size because they both knew how it was for them dealing with the men in my family, but Elle has a very small frame, and she couldn’t ever handle it no matter how slow or how deep I went.
Her folks wanted her with me so I would take care of them and her. So their affection towards me was bias. My grandmother said my dad and grandfather went through the same thing, but my mom and grandmother went to this reservation back when they were young, and they saw a medicine man that helped them with ways to stretch themselves…down there. But that medicine man has since died; and no one knew his secrets; so we could not get Elle any help.
No matter what we tried, she couldn’t handle me, so she went elsewhere. After Elle, girls on the reservation wouldn’t come near me because everyone knew I was the boy with the monster dick.”
Jyme walked over to me and slid between my legs.
“My grandmother told me the girl I’m supposed to be with would be from far lands and she wouldn’t know of our people. She said that my dream woman would have a wide frame and that I would fit her. She said, my woman would stretch well and that we would have three children; two boys and a girl.”
“Jyme,” I sighed.
“Okay, okay. So my mom came to me back in September and she said she knew of this land that was for sale and that I should buy it up and start up a casino. I have the mind for it, and it would be easy money. Well, ever since then, some of the other reservations found out I had a bid on the land and that I actually have the money to buy it. Let’s just say, it’s been shit ever since.”
I crossed my arms over my chest, not saying a word. He sucked in a deep breath and pulled away from me.
“There have been threats, theft, vandalism, harassment, carjacking, and now two people have come up missing,” he explained.
“JYME!” I shouted, jumping down from the counter.
He followed me as I walked towards the foyer and then I started pacing back and forth. He stopped me and held both sides of my face.
“You must tell me now. Are you afraid of me?”
“No.” I yelled.
“Are you afraid to be with me?”
“NO,” I shouted.
“Why are you mad?”
“BECAUSE YOU DIDN’T FUCKING TELL ME.”
“CRICKET, YOU HAVENT BEEN AROUND!”
He had a point, but I didn’t want to hear his point right now. I jerked from him and started pacing again.
“Why did you freak out about that box?” I asked.
He walked over to me and I pulled away from him again.
“Come here.”
I stepped further away.
“Come here, Cricket!” he demanded. I went to him, and he placed both hands on my shoulders. You must not tell anyone what I just told you, not Chelle and especially not Ayashe. “Okay? Listen to me. You can’t ever let anyone know about this place. No one knows I bought this. No one,” he said sternly.
“Not even your mother?”
“She doesn’t have a clue, and I want to keep it that way.”
“Why?” I stared into his eyes.
“This is ours,” he assured me.
He pulled me into his arms, and I let myself melt into him.
“Cricket, this is why shit got so crazy with Garrett. We thought he was targeting you for someone else to get back at me. Sheen let things get out of hand and that is what happened.”
“Why didn’t you tell me all of this months ago? It’s been hell living without you, and I thought --” I cut off.
“You thought what, Babe?”
“I thought you were some crazy jealous guy that couldn’t control his temper.”
“OH, BUT I AM.”
I squeezed him tighter.
“But in Garrett’s case that was only fifty percent of the problem.”
“Oh,” I said.
We stood there holding each other. “Jyme, why did you get so mad at me that day?”
“After the shit went down in the parking lot, we had to get out of there. Everyone that I had on backup watch was on a bike, and the bikes weren’t good to have anymore that day. I risked a lot going to that mall where you met D’Artagnan, and when you wrote the bike’s tag numbers down, I about fucking lost it. I couldn’t let you see us, so I couldn’t follow you right away. Then, you wouldn’t answer your phone. Sheen kept talking shit in my ear about Garrett being a snitch or some kind of spy for some of the other reservations. I just let him handle it. Sheen means well, but he has a hot head and went way too far.”
“Wait you said you watched, and then you said you couldn’t follow me?”
He took a deep breath and pulled me from him. We made eye contact, and then he started.
“At first, it just started out as me wanting to see you. Then, I did get a little obsessed with it, but then, shit started happening and I couldn’t risk you getting caught up in the mix of it.”
“But Jyme, I’m right slap in the middle now.”
“Not really, no one knows who you are. You’re not from here; you drive a rental under your company’s name, and you live in corporate housing,” he explained.
“Oh.” He had a point.
He pulled me back into him again, and I held on.
“But Jyme, all that’s going to be changing in the next month. I have to get a car, and I have to find an apartment.”
“Hence the house. Follow me.”
We walked to one of the closed doors, when Jyme opened this door before he hadn’t turned the lights on; all he had said was, “here is the two car garage.” Now the door was open and the light was on. I saw the monster tank sitting there.
“What the hell is that?” I frowned.
“Take your shoes off.”
“I’m fine.”
“No, there’s a lot of cracks in there and I don’t want you to ruin your shoes.”
“Oh,” I sighed.
I slipped out of my shoes and he sat next to the stairwell. We stepped down into the garage and walked over to the tank.
“It’s a Cadillac Escalade.”
“Why is it so fucking big?”
“You need the room.”
“Ex-fucking-cuse-me!” I yelled.
“NO. NO. NO. Not that kind of room. I mean so we can ALL go somewhere if we need to.”
“Who is all? It’s just me and you.”
“And Kanoke, Chelle, Ayashe, Sheen, Loon, and his flavor of the month.”
He unlocked the car doors, and I stomped away from the beast.
“I think you’re obsessed with big things, hence the girl standing in front of you.”
Jyme licked his lips and tugged at his anaconda. My toes started tingling at once; I stepped back into the house, trying to hide my face. I put my shoes back on, and he beckoned for me. We made it back to the front door. And he shut off the lights once again. He closed the door and locked the three locks. We got back into the golf cart and headed back to the docks. When we made it back to Jyme’s truck, he was all lovely dovey once again. He kissed me about a dozen times, and our fingers had been locked since we got in the truck.
“So, let me get this straight. You’re not a part of some organized crime, nor are you the leader of one?”
“No,” he laughed.
“So you don’t kill people or blow up buildings?”
“No Cricket.”
“And you love me, unconditionally?”
“Yes.” He offered nothing more than those simple answers; and for my heart, thos
e were enough.
When we made it back to the room, I was exhausted. We ordered a ton of room service and watched T.V. We both realized we loved The First 48 Hours, Crime 360, and CSI; the original version.
I lay in his arms, and I had never have felt safer.
Jyme let me shower alone and I was grateful; I needed to think. I took a super long shower to melt all my worries away. I thought about something Jyme never answered in my questions.
What was in the box?
I had a strong feeling I didn’t want to know. I would have to bring it back up to him again, for my own curiosity; but not tonight. Tonight I had too much else to absorb.
I got out of the shower and slid on one of the nightgowns.
Jyme stepped in the room as soon as my nightgown touched the floor.
“OH, SHIT. Babe. Please don’t go to bed yet.”
I turned and stomped my foot at him. When I did, I noticed the mountains jiggled like Jell-O. I knew why Jyme had picked this gown out. He walked past me buck naked now heading for the bathroom.
“If you fall asleep, I’m fucking waking you up! You can best believe that!”
I wondered if he noticed his own double meaning, and then again I don’t think he cared. After our very tiresome session, we laid in the bed wrapped up in each other. Jyme was tracing his fingers up and down my arm in a soothing motion. I was right on the edge of passing out. Jyme sat up and then laid back down.
“Happy Birthday,” he whispered.
“My birthday is over.”
“You officially have five more minutes.”
I smiled and pulled him a little closer.
“Cricket?”
“Yeah?”
“Please?”
I lay there not saying a word while he caressed my arm.
“Have you ever heard that song by Foreigner called, ‘I Want to Know What Love Is?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Mariah Carey did a version of it a few years back.”
“I’ve never heard it.”
“Well, the lyrics are, ‘I’m going to take a little time to look around me. I’ve got nowhere left to hide; it looks like love has finally found me. I want to know what love is. I want you to show me. I want to feel what love is. I know you can show me.’
Heels of Love (G Street Chronicles Presents From Love to Loathe Series) Page 16
