Undisclosed Desire (The Complete Box Set

by Falon Gold

“Mama! I am. Don’t interrupt me. You, Brandon, Grandpa and Ma Ma need to move your money to a hole in the backyard. I’m being blackmailed into being Camron’s girlfriend, and you can’t say anything, or even let on that you know. He’ll ruin us all. He’s already taken all my money out of the bank… and probably put it back… and he’s the reason my credit card wasn’t working. But he’s probably fixed that too, while threatening to take it all back and everyone else’s financial stability if he even suspects you know. He had me sign a three-month agreement to live with him, but he’ll let me go at the end of it. You can’t tell Daddy or anyone else, now or ever. I know it’s a lot to ask of you, or anyone, but you have to let me deal with this my way while I live on Blanchard Row, on his dime. The only money I can spend is his. He’s replaced my car with a BMW and our first date was…” Things start to smell fishy. “…at your house.”

  Camron’s giving more than he’s taken, and definitely not isolating me. What if the new things in the closet are mine too?

  “Jesus Christ, Amari! I know you’re beautiful, but did he have to go this far for a damn date? Who the hell takes their prisoner on a first date to their prisoner’s family home anyway?”

  Despite my fear of Camron finding out that I’ve already broken his terms, I giggle. She’s outraged at the weirdest of things about the whole situation; Camron not following the blackmailer’s protocol. If there is one.

  “I tell you I’m being forced into a relationship and you want to know why he brought me to my family’s home instead of keeping me locked up. Well, he was adamant that he meets my family as my boyfriend, which makes not a damn bit of sense.”

  “Amari, any idiot can see that man cares for you, and yes, he’s going over and beyond to get you to feel the same. There was something so sweet in the way he held you while you were sleeping. He wasn’t being a blackmailer then, but a protector, so he’s not as bad as I want to think he is after making you sign a damn contract, or you would be in a dungeon somewhere. I’m sure you told him no to dating before he took a twisted shot at making you date him. Granted, money can twist people, but we can call his bluff. Money and material things isn’t worth the damage he can do to you, sweetheart. We’ll get through whatever fallout there is and have him arrested for this. If that doesn’t work, there’s a patch of land in the backyard that just won’t grow no matter what I do to it. I hear dead bodies infuse the soil with nitrates and can make just about anything sprout out of it. All you have to do is tell me to come get you.”

  “Good God, Mama, no! This is a mess for sure, but it’s my mess. I can fix it without one of us going to jail or hell. He hasn’t done anything I can’t handle so far. Nor did he just ask me to go out on a date with him, which is weird. I would’ve said yes. Well, I would’ve five years ago, and three months here is nothing compared to five years.”

  “Three months feels like a lifetime when you’re unhappy, baby girl, but I’m not sure you are since you’re trying to make light of the situation you’re in. You would only do that if it’s not terribly troubling to you like it would be to me… unless it was Mitchum that had me locked in some shit like this. Want to tell me how you really feel about Camron now?” No, not really, but the cat’s already out of the bag. It needs a leash at this point.

  Where to begin?

  Not the ass-end that’s for sure.

  “I was heavily attracted to him during my first few weeks at his company. Then he started going through woman like a Haitian with a machete in the jungle. I settled for getting through the days at work after that. Daddy needs that operation, and I knew I’d need capital to start my own business. I got tired of feeling like a voyeur and invisible to Camron, and got up the nerve to quit. He came after me literally. Now, I’m stuck as his girlfriend with no identity, which he took. That’s nothing compared to what we’ll lose if you snitch on me to anyone. I’m even breaking my NDA right now, so he doesn’t have to take everything from me. He can sue me for it, and win. I’m just trying to make him tired of me way before the contract’s up.”

  “How do you know he’s gone through women like a Haitian with a machete?”

  “He dated them right in front of me at the office.”

  She whistles low, or tries to. “This guy has layers.”

  “Like an onion.”

  “He reminds me of your father.”

  “How? Daddy’s a good man.”

  “And can be thickheaded and determined when he wants to be, like you. But he also dated someone else, or rather someone else’s before we got together like a normal couple. He’s a lot like Camron actually… stubborn to a fault, without the gobs of money.”

  Ew, you have the same taste in men as your mother.

  “I thought you and daddy were love at first sight.”

  “I didn’t tell you exactly how I met your father, Amari.”

  “Yes, you did, after a college football game at our old alma mater that Daddy coached football at before he got sick.”

  “There’s a little bit more to it than that.”

  “Obviously,” I shriek.

  “I met him twice, Amari. The first was during a bet that led to a one-night stand, which produced our first born that isn’t Brandon.”

  “So, you had a miscarriage?” How could I not know this?

  Because she didn’t tell you, idiot. You’re certainly not psychic.

  “Yes, I had three kids, not two. After the game, Mitchum’s friends and mine met up at a bar. My friends got drunk enough that night to gamble away my lips to the only other sober person there besides me, the man I’d been crushing on for weeks. Mitchum and his buddies were happy to egg the bet on, swearing I was afraid of him. I was, but I wasn’t going to let them all be right, and it was a chance to kiss the guy I wanted more than any other, so I kissed him to shut everybody up. Even more because I wanted to, then we performed our designated driver duties. I found Mitchum waiting on the apartment steps I shared with a roommate. I guess I drove slower than he did.

  Things… the obvious of course happened that night between us. We didn’t talk anymore afterwards. How could we when we didn’t exchange numbers the next morning before I found him gone? It broke my heart. I thought I was just a… dare that let him get more from me than he should’ve. Of course, I was too afraid to approach him again, let alone tell him that I was pregnant during our junior year. I quit as soon as I found out. I was glad to after that mistake, and got a real job to support my child. The baby came five months too early.

  I still couldn’t face Mitchum. Nataria Long spilled the beans to him in another bar after we all were dating someone else and they’d graduated. She was good and alcoholic by then, but her habit saved me from my own insecurities and permanently losing the man I loved. He found me. Asked was it true about the baby even though he was getting ready to marry someone else all because he thought I didn’t want him either.

  I had plenty of chances to say something to him after our night together too, but I didn’t, or I’d have known he’d left his number on my nightstand before he left for cafeteria duty. The paper got blown under the bed by Nataria bursting into my room after Mitchum left. She was hungover and looking for aspirin. I guess it’s only fair she didn’t find sobriety until she’d righted what she’d unintentionally sent sideways. He promised he’d never let me go again, and he hasn’t. Whatever goes sideways between us now, he finds a way to fix even if I don’t want him to at that moment.”

  I feel a lecture coming on. “What are you saying, Mama?”

  “Tell Camron how you really feel about him before this contract thing goes too far… or I kill him for it, so yeah, no I’m not moving anybody’s money. It’ll be justified homicide, but I can’t help but feel he’s doing this to you to save himself from something. Maybe a life without you in it. And no one has ever wished they’d met us sooner. Brandon’s been ruining my dinner parties since he was in diapers, but everyone in New York has heard about the Powers. Camron didn’t come from a good family, Amari.”<
br />
  “Trust me when I say I know that, Mama.”

  “But he’s endangering both of your hearts. You’ll only know the truth of how he feels if you’re truthful with him. Put it out there, baby girl.”

  “Mama—”

  “Amari, I can see your hardheadness through the phone. Now you just listen. There are some things people cannot come back from, sweetheart. This thing with the contract is one. Letting first love die a premature death is another. It’ll be Hell for Camron if he breaks your heart.”

  Too late for that, and I don’t want a second helping. “I can’t do it, Mama.”

  “You can, sweetheart. You are fearless when it comes to everything else. This part of your life is no different from going to Candleton by yourself to live and work. Sure, rejection can make and break you, but only if you let it. If you aren’t meant to be, then you’ll have another chance at finding real love with the right someone. And you’ll be glad you’ve done all you can before moving on. Camron needs to hear this from you if you ever want a relationship with him that can be fulfilling. Won’t happen unless you’re both truly honest with each other, and I’ll get those grandkids that I want, not grand baby as in one.”

  Should’ve known it would be something in it for her.

  “I’ll think about it.”

  “Do it soon, Amari, because my first instinct is to bring Hell to Blanchard Row tonight, but I’m compromising because it’s your life and your decision to stay there. Neither am I going to just sit back for three months while he takes moments from you that you’ll never get back. I’m not concerned about the money. Don’t think Camron will go as far to take anything from your family either. He’d have already taken it when he took yours. He’s playing the long game for your attention.”

  “He’s got it for however long it takes me to dig us out of this mess, even if it takes the whole ninety days.”

  “It won’t be the whole ninety days. That’s a fact. I’ll have rearranged the houses on Blanchard Row with my bare hands before then. Camron had better love your dirty underwear after this shit. Brandon and Mitchum will know about this in a week tops, love. You better get to talking now. Camron better profess his undying love right afterwards. One week, Amari. That’s all you’ve got.”

  Another time limit with an ultimatum, and my mother will act a fool, unless Camron and I find what she thinks is good sense. Who gets themselves into these types of dilemmas?

  That’s a stupid question.

  “Okay, Mama, just move everyone’s money like I asked please for my sanity. Whatever penalties you have to pay, I’ll reimburse as soon as I can. Maybe Camron will see my feelings as more than he bargained for and kicks me out of here.”

  “I doubt that if he feels for you like I think he does, but we can hope he doesn’t if you want to. One week, Amari.”

  “Got it, Mama.”

  “Things will work out just how they’re supposed to.”

  “I hope you know what you’re talking about.”

  “I wish I didn’t, baby girl, but I do.”

  “Okay. Bye.”

  “Bye, love.”

  Camron steps around the doorway in only black silk pajama bottoms. “Who do you hope knows what they’re talking about?”

  My first reaction to his sudden appearance is to pitch the phone across the room, watch it crash into a pair of Giuseppe gladiator sandals, and then tumble to the floor. I look so guilty right now, and feel it.

  “What have you done, Amari?” His forehead has so many wrinkles it’s going to take an iron to get them all out.

  “Nothing, Camron.”

  “You’re lying to me again.”

  He really hates that. Stop it.

  Shut up.

  “Okay, it’s true. I’m lying, but I… ah…” I just can’t tell him or stop myself from ogling his chest. Arms. Bare feet. The bulge at his crotch. Too gorgeous for his own damn good. And mine.

  “You told your mother, didn’t you?”

  My head snaps up, giving me whiplash. He already knows what I’ve done, just looking for confirmation. I do what anyone else would do when caught red-handed, give him attitude while gripping both hips.

  “Yes. I broke my word to you, Camron. I did the wrong thing for the right reasons. I had to. You have to understand why I did it because they’re my family who have worked their asses off for that money. They need it. You know my father is sick, my grandparents too old to work. You can ruin me again. I don’t care—”

  “Good. Six months,” he says too quietly.

  “I…” Wasn’t expecting him to be this calm about it. “You should be much angrier than this with me.”

  “Well, I’m not angry at all, because I get something out of your breaking the contract in the same day. A new one. Nobody has ever done that to me. You will pay for it. We sign the new agreement in the morning.”

  Immense relief crowds my chest—I’d saved everyone’s livelihood.

  But yours.

  Right, but the price I’ll pay is worth it. Now, why is he in here in the first place?

  “Is wanting to know who I was talking to on the phone all you wanted?”

  “No, I came to ask were you hungry. I overheard you on the phone. There’s cold cuts in the fridge, water, and wine if you want it.”

  “No, but thank you.”

  He pirouettes to leave.

  “Camron, wait.”

  He turns sideways in the doorway.

  “Layla’s stuff is in here and in my… the bathroom.”

  "It's all yours."

  "No, it’s... you delegated again, didn't you?"

  "Yes. As much as I'd like to learn more about your world, I already know too much about mine where most people are label whores. You've already gotten a taste of that, much to my embarrassment, and I don't want you constantly defending your right to wear what you want or to drive. I love what you wear, not so much your car, so you get to choose what you want to wear, and your new car is in the garage."

  Thinking of me again. Another wall is poof. Gone.

  “Where’s my old car?”

  “In the garage.”

  “But I can’t drive it?”

  “Not yet.”

  Not. Yet.

  “O… okay. Thank you.” At this point, I need to stop fighting and survive Camron’s attacks because he doesn’t play fair. Blindsiding me at every turn. Hitting me in the chest where I feel the most.

  “You’re welcome, Amari. Night again.”

  He departs as quietly as he came. Bath time comes and passes, the lavender soak a bust. Shouldn't have left me keyed up as if I chugged back a caffeinated drink. Sleep is going to be hard to come by tonight, although I didn't get anywhere near the amount I should've in the limo.

  Under the ultra-soft bed cover, my head sinks into the feather-filled pillows. Maybe, they’ll communicate that it’s night-time to my body. The neon red numbers on the clock countdown thirty minutes that have raced by at a turtle’s pace. I flip over on my back. Consider counting sheep. Um, no, but fresh air may work. The notes to Monica’s Without You flits above me in the air, reminding me that I’m the only one in here.

  That’s what’s wrong you.

  Whatever.

  I crack the bedroom doors. Camron’s is shut. I catch myself staring at them for too long then shake my head. “Get it together, Amari, open the French doors, and lay your ass down.”

  I try the fetal position while facing the moonlight sneaking in, then kick the covers off. The open-air flutters over my skin like pricks from tiny needles, as irritating as the white sheer gown I found in the closet. It’s like being trapped in between two cheese graters balled around me like a python.

  I tug at the rough material. “Which witch picked this out? This damn thing was not meant for sleeping in.”

  “Take it off then, Amari,” Camron whispers behind me, chuckling.

  I scream bloody murder and leap off the bed on the other side. His silhouette emerges out of the pitch-bla
ck near the tall boy beside the closet.

  “Are you trying to give me a heart attack, Camron?”

  “No, but I could hear you tossing and turning all the way in my bedroom.”

  “Sorry.”

  “Don’t be. Just tell me what you need to sleep.”

  Don’t lie.

  Shut up.

  I brace myself for rejection. “You, Camron. I need you.”

  “At your service. Lay down. I’ll give you a massage.”

  That was easy.

  Almost too easy. I pluck the hem of the gown over my head then knee the bed to get on it. On my stomach with my head angled away from him, I begin doubting myself. What if I can’t let him touch me without wanting to touch him back? What if I’m a single-mother afterwards?

  Camron straddles my backside. His cock nuzzles the slit of my ass then establishes itself at home—he’d taken his pants off. I stiffen, wondering why the hell I laid on my front instead of my back. A budding nymphomaniac. He starts to knead my shoulders tucked up to my ears.

  “Get out your head, Amari. Forget about the past, present, and the future. Just be in the moment with me.”

  “Trust me. I’m in it… and I have questions.”

  “Shoot.” His laidback demeanor relaxes me faster than his hands never will.

  Skin to skin contact with him is vicious on my senses, causes physical aches in my nether region, and rouses my blood to boiling point in no time. I start gulping air. Focus, Amari.

  “What were you looking for in the other women?”

  He’s slow to answer. “What I was looking for in them, Amari… was you.” ‘Was’ makes my eyes burn.

  Don’t you dare cry, Amari.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Not as much as I am. I found you only to lose you in six months.”

  “Camron…” I choke on my mother’s advice. Just doesn’t feel like the time to say, ‘I’ve loved you all this time’.

  Admit it, you want him to love you back first.

  Yes.

  “I’m right here. Right now, Camron.”

  “Not really. Your heart is still your own.” That remains to be seen, and I’m going stir-crazy with his fingers working the twin indents in my lower back.