Home to Me

by Ruth Cardello

  Maddy brought her hands up to her mouth, and her eyes shone with tears. “That can’t be true.” She looked to her parents for support. “This has to be a misunderstanding. Right? Why wouldn’t she want her sons to be happy?”

  Elise spoke softly her husband. “Alessandro, maybe it’s time to tell Maddy what we know.”

  “No,” Alessandro said with finality. “The past is dead, gone with George. I will not discuss this further. Maddy, you are forbidden to visit with Patrice again. Rena, I’m sorry for the trouble my daughter has caused you. Now, I suggest we eat the food Richard has prepared for us before it gets cold and put this topic to rest.”

  Rena walked up to Alessandro and said, “What do you know that you’re not saying? What happened between your family and Patrice?”

  Alessandro turned and walked out to the foyer, saying, “You’re always welcome here, Rena, but right now I think you should go.”

  Following Alessandro, Rena implored one last time: “You don’t have to tell me, but her sons deserve to know the truth.”

  The older man looked away, and Rena stepped outside. A moment later, Maddy was standing at the door calling her name. Rena turned.

  “Rena, I’m sorry I said anything. That’s it. I’m just sorry.”

  Rena shook her head. “Just don’t say anything to anyone. Stay out of it. You’re making it worse.”

  “But—” Maddy started.

  Her husband joined her at the door, pulling her gently to his side. “Maddy, let her go.”

  She gazed up at her husband and said, “Richard, you don’t know what I did.”

  He kissed her forehead. “I know you well enough to guess. I also know you need to listen to what your friend is asking you to do. If she wants your help, she’ll ask you for it, non?”

  “Will you, Rena? Will you call me if you need me?”

  The sweetness of Maddy’s plea made it impossible for Rena to remain angry with her. She would never again speak frankly in front of her, but Maddy, as Elise claimed, meant well. Rena wished she could say the same about everyone in Nick’s family. “Sure, Maddy.”

  Rena slid into her car feeling she’d learned much more than she’d expected to from the visit, but that she’d left with even more questions. She called her own parents on the drive back.

  “Mom, I love you and Dad, and I am so grateful for both of you.”

  “Rena?” her mother’s voice echoed through the car speaker. “Are you okay?”

  “Yes. No.” Rena paused. “I don’t know, Mom. All I do know is I will never take you and Dad for granted again.”

  “Do you want me to drive into the city tonight, honey?”

  “No, Mom, I’m fine. I just wanted to hear your voice.”

  “You sound upset. Does this have anything to do with Nick?”

  On the thirty-minute drive back to her house, Rena took a page out of Maddy’s book and told her mother everything.

  ***

  Some days are longer than others. Dressed in cotton shorts and a pink T-shirt, Rena plopped down on her couch, picked up her television remote, then put it down beside her unused.

  She closed her eyes and ran through the day’s events. By Andrade standards, her mother was a saint, but that didn’t mean she’d kept her opinion to herself when Rena told her she’d been seeing Nick secretly, and how photos of them together might surface. Rena quickly moved on to how heartbreaking it was to spend time with Nick and his dysfunctional family.

  It was only when her mother circled back to what Rena was doing with Nick that their conversation became tense. How do you explain hot Saturday sex trumping common sense? Rena didn’t bother. She kept her answers simple and vague. “I know what I’m doing, Mom. I don’t have expectations of this going anywhere. We’re just having fun.”

  That had been the wrong thing to say.

  Her mother had expressed her concern again and again until Rena had lost her patience. “Mom, I’m not asking if you agree with what I’m doing. And I don’t need your permission to keep seeing Nick. I’m happy with things the way they are. I called you because I’m afraid everything is about to change and I don’t want to lose Nick.”

  “Do you even have him?” her mother had asked.

  “Yes,” Rena had replied angrily. “I have him in my life the only way that makes sense. And I’ve been happier like this than I can ever remember being. Can you try to understand that?”

  “I can try,” her mother had said sadly. “I just want more for you, Rena. You deserve better.”

  “You don’t get it.”

  “Oh, honey. I do. I want to tell you that you can have what you want and not ever pay the price for it, but that’s not reality. The choices you make directly determine the path your life will take. I don’t want you to look back at this time and regret that you accepted less than you should have.”

  What did I think my mother would say? Keep screwing that guy we all warned you to stay away from. Or: Here, I have a magical wand that will make all the issues with his family go away.

  There had to be a way that things could stay as they were. Maybe Patrice wouldn’t follow through with her threats. I guess I can hope she’s so ill she’ll forget what she said. Maddy now understood how important it was that she stop talking about Rena and Nick. So there was a slim chance that nothing had to change.

  Tomorrow is Saturday.

  Nick hadn’t called to cancel their date, so as far as she knew they were still on for a day in the Poconos. They’d decided to pretend they were newlyweds and stay in one of the hotel’s rooms that had a large champagne-glass bathtub. It was only a couple of hours drive away, but they’d decided to travel by Cessna plane. Nick had a pilot’s license, and it gave them the freedom to be spontaneous with their time.

  Unless his mother really is sick and he hasn’t had time to call and cancel.

  Does it make me a bad person that I’m hoping she had a quick recovery, just so my plans for tomorrow don’t change?

  It is Patrice.

  The doorbell rang and Rena groaned. It rang again and Rena pulled herself off the couch. I swear if it’s Maddy I cannot be held responsible for losing my temper. I’m done with that whole side of the family for today.

  Rena looked through the peephole, then swung the door open. “Nick? What are you doing here?”

  “Can I come in?”

  “Sure.” She closed the door behind him.

  “It’s been one hell of a day.”

  Tell me about it, Rena thought sarcastically. Rena wrapped her arms around her waist. “How is your mother?”

  Nick took a step toward Rena. “I don’t want to talk about her.” There was something different about Nick. Rena couldn’t quite pin it down. He wasn’t playful like he was during their Saturday dates. He had a predatory gleam in his eyes, and it made Rena retreat each time he advanced.

  “What do you want to talk about?” Rena asked, bumping into the edge of her coffee table as she backed away from him.

  “I didn’t come here to talk.” He reached for Rena, but she sidestepped him and moved so that the couch was between them.

  Rena raised a hand. “Nick, we can’t do this.”

  He dropped his coat behind him. “Yes, we can.”

  “Okay, let me rephrase that. Nick, we’re not doing this.”

  He pulled his shirt free from his slacks, unbuttoned it slowly, and dropped it beside him without taking his eyes off her. Rena’s heart began to race wildly in her chest. The entire day had felt out of control, and now Nick was testing their arrangement. She couldn’t lose control of this, too. He undid his belt and the top of his pants, and stepped out of his shoes and clothing in one smooth move. He dropped them on the couch between them. His full state of arousal left little doubt as to why Nick had come over.

  Rena grabbed his pants and threw them at him. “Put your pants back on.”

  Nick caught them easily and dropped them beside him on the floor. “No. I’ve been thinking about you all day and I
don’t want to wait until tomorrow. Admit it, Rena, you don’t want to either.”

  “What I want is for you to get dressed and leave. This is my home. You’re not supposed to be here.”

  Unashamed of his nudity or his arousal, Nick looked around the room. “Do you have someone here?”

  Rena stomped her foot in frustration. It was taking all of her restraint to hold to the rules they’d set in the beginning, but it was only because of those rules that Rena felt safe with Nick. He could only hurt her if she fell for him, and she had no intention of doing that. “It’s none of your business if I do.”

  With catlike swiftness, Nick moved around the couch and grabbed Rena’s forearm with enough force that she winced. “Do you or don’t you have anyone here?”

  Rena pulled at her arm, but he refused to release it. With her lips pressed together angrily, she said, “Of course I don’t. That’s not the point. You don’t have the right to ask me if I do.”

  He frowned at her. “You will not have other men in your life, Rena. Not while you’re with me.”

  Rena tugged to free her arm again. She didn’t like how standing so close to Nick was affecting her. No matter what her brain said, her body was readying itself for the pleasure it knew it could find with him. Her panties were soaking wet in anticipation, and she hated that her nipples were pressing against her thin shirt. “You’re hurting me,” she growled.

  Nick looked down at his hand and instantly released her. “Sorry.”

  His apology would have seemed much more sincere if he hadn’t been waving his excited cock at her when he said it. Rena glanced down at it and licked her bottom lip. A cock she knew the taste and feel of. She wanted to reach out and stroke it in the way she’d learned Nick liked the most. She wanted to sink to her knees before him, take him in her mouth, and drive him out of his mind, until all he could do was call her name and beg her not to stop.

  But not on Friday.

  “Please leave, Nick.”

  Nick rubbed a hand across his chin and said, “I don’t want to.”

  Rena waved at his erection and said, “I can see that, but that doesn’t change how I feel.”

  He stepped closer to her, and Rena inhaled loudly as the tip of his cock brushed her leg. She refused to look down at it again. “How do you feel, Rena?” He ran one finger down the side of her neck and traced her collarbone, then took her excited nipple between his thumb and forefinger and rolled it gently. “Are you wet for me already? My guess is yes.”

  Rena was going to step back, but Nick held her in place by wrapping one arm around her waist. “Don’t, Nick.”

  “Don’t what?” Nick asked and ran his free hand down her flat stomach toward the waistband of her shorts. He boldly slid a hand underneath the fabric, then beneath her panties to cup her sex. “Don’t do this?” He dipped one finger inside her, plunging it deeply, then withdrawing it. “Or this.” He rubbed his thumb back and forth over her clit.

  Rena closed her eyes and gasped for air. She gripped one of his bare shoulders with her hand and cried out with pleasure when his mouth settled on her breast and suckled her through the material of her shirt.

  “I can stop if you want me to, but do you want me to, Rena? I don’t think you do.” He pulled her shorts and panties down her legs with a move so strong it was almost painful. She stood before him, unable to tell him to leave again, unwilling to admit she wanted him to stay. He pulled her shirt up over her head, and they stood there in a naked and highly charged sexual standoff.

  Rena said nothing as he ran his hands over her, slowly exploring her body as he had many times before, but this time his touch was rougher. The determination in his eyes set Rena on fire. She wanted to resist him, but she also wanted him to take what she normally gave him.

  He turned her around, and pressing firmly on her back, bent her over the arm of the couch. He held her there while he ran his other hand back and forth over her exposed sex. With one of his feet, he moved hers farther apart, exposing her more fully to him.

  Then he sunk to his knees behind her and buried his face in her sex. His tongue dove within her then withdrew, only to plunge in again. He kneaded her ass with one hand while his other worked its rhythmic magic on her nub.

  He lapped at her until she was whimpering from the pleasure of it, then moved to lick the inside of her thighs. He nipped at her buttock, then kissed his way up her spine. He paused, and Rena heard the sound of him opening a condom package. She clenched in anticipation.

  He rubbed the tip of his dick up and down her sex, following the path his tongue had taken. Then he reached forward, took Rena’s hair in one hands and pulled her head back until she was arched before him. He laid his other hand on her hip and leaned down to whisper in her ear.

  “You’re mine, Rena. Not just on Saturday. You’re mine any day I want you. Say it.”

  Rena shook her head. Nick drove his cock deeply inside her.

  “I’m not playing by your rules anymore, Rena.” He pulled himself out and thrust back into her as if driving his point home. “And if you do have anyone else in your life, get rid of him now, before I do.”

  Rena would have protested, but the feel of him above her, inside her, hitting her G-spot with every deep thrust was more than she could fight against. As he pounded into her, heat spread through her with such intensity that she finally cried out, “Yes,” again and again. She slumped forward over the couch, and he climaxed soon after her.

  He withdrew, picked her up, and carried her to her bedroom. He gently pulled back the bedsheets, laid her down beneath them, and slid in beside her. When he tucked her against his side and kissed her temple, Rena rolled over and angrily pushed at him. “Stop it,” she snapped. “You’re ruining everything.”

  ***

  Nick easily held Rena to him. He’d never realized how adorable she looked when she was irritated. He bent and kissed her gently even as she glared at him. She kept her lips pressed angrily together. He rolled over, pinning her beneath him, and smoothed the hair out of her face. “What is going in that head of yours? I thought what we just had was amazing.”

  Rena stopped struggling and looked away. “It was. It always is, but not here and not on a Friday. You can’t stay.”

  “Are you fucking serious?” Nick laughed. When she tensed beneath him instead of laughing too, he stopped abruptly and said, “You are serious.”

  “We can see each other tomorrow.”

  Nick looked at the clock beside Rena’s bed. “It’ll be tomorrow in two hours. It doesn’t make sense to go home only to come right back.”

  “We have an agreement. You agreed not to do this.”

  “Well, I’m amending our agreement. Rule number five point two four will now read, ‘If sex commences on Friday after eight p.m., the no-overnight statute will be null and void from that point onward.’ ”

  “Don’t make fun of me, Nick.”

  “Then don’t be ridiculous. I’m here tonight for one reason and one reason only—I want to be with you. Yes, what we just did on your couch was fantastic, but I also wanted to talk to you. We don’t have a lot of time alone.”

  Rena scoffed at the idea. “We’re together every Saturday.”

  “Not like this,” Nick said and nuzzled his face in her hair. “We’re always running off somewhere, and not that that isn’t incredible, but it doesn’t leave us much time to talk.”

  “You want to talk? Isn’t that a woman’s line?”

  Nick took her chin in his hand and turned her face so that she was forced to meet his eyes. “Now who is making fun of whom?”

  Rena looked unhappily cornered. “Nick. I understand today was a tough day for you and if you want to talk, let’s get dressed and go somewhere. But I can’t do this.” She waved one hand in a circle beside him.

  Nick was momentarily at a loss for what to say and, in that pause, Rena continued, “I’m sorry. I know that was insensitive.” She let out a long breath as if seeking inner calm. “How is your mothe
r?”

  “She was fine when we left her.”

  “I’m glad. Was everyone there? Gio, Luke, Max?”

  Nick sighed and rolled onto his side. “Max, the lucky bastard, was out of the country.”

  “But Gio and Luke were there?”

  “Yes, we went in to see Mother together.”

  “Good.”

  “Luke said you were on the phone with her when she had her episode. What were you talking about?”

  Rena looked away again. “Nothing important.”

  “Don’t lie to me, Rena. Did you call her or did she call you?”

  “She called me.”

  “I didn’t realize the two of you were that close.”

  “We’re not.”

  “What did she do, threaten you like she threatened Julia?” Nick was joking, but when Rena looked away again all humor left him. “She fucking did, didn’t she?”

  Rena shifted toward the edge of the bed, but Nick stopped her by throwing an arm around her waist. The act sent the sheet flying off her, and her glorious breasts bounced free as she pushed at his arm and tried to rise from the bed. “It was nothing.”

  A slow, burning anger began to build within Nick. He didn’t doubt Rena for a second. She had never lied to him. He’d found his truth.

  In that moment, so much that had confused him became clear. Things his mother had said to him over the years made sense now when he viewed them as the words of a bitter and vindictive woman. She’d blackened his opinion of Gio with her stories of how he had greedily taken control of Cogent. She’s kept up her version of the villainous Andrade clan when Nick only remembered them warmly welcoming him.

  As with a rotten onion, the more memories Nick peeled back, the more vileness he revealed. I’ve been looking for the answers when they were obvious all along.

  Patrice was at the heart of everything that was wrong with his family. She was the reason her sons didn’t trust each other. He thought back to all the times she’d encouraged him to walk away from the family business, and it infuriated him that he’d allowed himself to be manipulated for so long.