Five Years

by Brooklyn Knight

  Was this…

  “Linkie, you’re back.” The look on Nichola’s face matched his to a tee. The energy seeping from the both of them was enough to light the entire place on fire.

  His lids were hooded, like he wanted to consume her instead of his now watered-down drink; and it was completely obvious that Nichola was doing her best to keep her panties in place.

  Unsolicited thoughts of Maverick Dangerfield slipped into my mind, but I shoved them away before they could take root.

  “Yeah, baby, I apologize,” he was saying. “I had to run to the men’s room.” He pressed a lingering kiss onto her cheek before sliding in the space next to her, and the waitress arrived with my drink.

  Right on time.

  “Mary, this is Linkie, the guy I was telling you about.” She was talking to me, but her eyes never left his.

  I cleared my throat. “Linkie… it’s a pleasure to meet you.”

  “Likewise,” he said. His eyes had yet to leave hers. “Nichola has told me so much about you. I’m really happy I could meet you tonight.” Finally, he was ripping his eyes off her and offering me a killer smile.

  Well, damn!

  4

  Amaris

  In a flash, his energy flooded me. It was one of my super powers. Over the years, I’d developed an uncanny ability to read people and tell what they were about, no matter how much they tried to disguise their true-selves. Already, I could tell Linkie was a warm and kind man – all the things Nichola hadn’t experienced in a very long time.

  “And I’m sorry for crashing your Girls’ Night,” he was saying. “From what I can tell, it’s a pretty sacred occasion.”

  I drew in the wanderings of my mind. “No worries,” I said swiping my hand through the air. “It’s about time we switched things up a little. Normally, it’s just her and me, talking about the same thing, over and over.” I clutched my glass. “So did the two of you really meet on that ridiculous dating app Nichola’s been trying to get me to use?”

  “We did,” Linkie answered. The smile on his face made his eyes crinkle in the corners. “I’ve been using the app for a while. For me, it’s difficult to meet women of a certain caliber,” he explained. “And I’m getting older – tired of the one-night things.”

  I nodded, only sort of following his logic. The truth was, I’d never experienced a one-night thing before. Hell, I’d never experienced anything.

  Linkie was still talking. “About a month ago, I got a ping indicating the system had found a potential match, and when I saw Nic’s profile…” he dry-whistled and that hooded, animalistic look turned his green eyes stormy. “It was a done deal,” he completed the thought.

  Nichola swung a strand of hair over her shoulder and jutted her chin. As if she was going to counter, but the blood flooding her cheeks, making her honey-brown skin crimson, gave her away. “I was surprised when he messaged me,” she admitted.

  Linkie’s neck jerked back lightly.

  “I didn’t know how serious you were,” she explained giggling, “didn’t know if you could handle a sister.”

  “Well, you know now, right? In fact, the better question seems to be, can a sister handle me…” He chuckled dark. “I think you know the answer to that too.”

  They leaned in to share an earth-shattering kiss, and I sucked on my too-small straw.

  “So Amaris,” Nichola called out, and I jerked to attention. “Back to what we were talking about on the phone.”

  I swallowed my drink and the sour part scorched my throat. “Nic, I’d really rather not,” I informed her, but of course, my protest went unacknowledged.

  And to make matters more uncomfortable, Linkie was joining in. “I couldn’t help but overhear,” he admitted. “Well, I overheard Nic’s side of the conversation.” He sat back in his seat and observed me, the way I often observed my clients at CCDS. “So you’re looking for a man?”

  “Can we not make this sound so primitive?” I requested, disgusted by the sound of the question, even though, practically speaking, it was pretty accurate. “And no, I’m not looking for a man. I’m way too busy for a relationship, but even if I wasn’t, there’s not much in the way of selection.” I set the glass down. “Second of all,” I continued, “quite unfortunately, half the men I meet have mental health issues, diagnosed or otherwise.”

  “That’s not fair, Mary,” Nichola muttered, frowning.

  “You’re right,” I agreed without hesitation. “And you know what else I’ve learned? Life’s not fair. It’s like my mama always says: Good things come to those who wait, and those who wait on the Lord, shall renew their strength.”

  Linkie frowned a little.

  Nichola ran her hand over her hair and muttered, “Here she goes with the Harriet Tubman bullshit again.”

  “Trust me when I tell you,” I concluded, “I wish it didn’t have to be this way, but it is. But look at the two of you.” My mouth softened into a genuine smile. “I know you’ve just met, but you guys look amazing, like you belong together.”

  Linkie and Nichola locked eyes and then lips.

  A few uncomfortable seconds expired, and I bristled in my seat. I sucked at my straw, shocked to find that all of the liquid in my glass had prematurely disappeared. Shooting my hand into the air, I summoned another, just as Linkie and Nichola parted.

  “Sorry,” he muttered, smoothing his thumb over Nichola’s bottom lip. “Once I start, it’s hard to stop.”

  “So I see,” I commented lightly.

  “Amaris, you shouldn’t give up on the prospect of finding a good man,” he asserted. The vocabulary he’d chosen made it sound as if we were discussing the terms of a business contract.

  What does Linkie do, anyway?

  “A woman as beautiful as you should have men lining up in front of her door, fighting for her attention.”

  I grunted. “I don’t know about my door, but the one’s outside of this club sure had a lot to say.”

  Linkie grimaced. “You should let me set you up,” he said, tone low.

  I almost spit out my fresh drink. “Excuse me?”

  “The dating app didn’t work for you – that’s been established.”

  “You have a point about the dating app, but a blind date?” I scoffed. “Seriously, Linkie. I like you. You should quit while you’re ahead.”

  “Mary, I actually think this is a really good idea,” Nichola corroborated.

  I was being double-teamed.

  “I’m sure there are a ton of guys at Linkie’s job who feel the same way as he did.”

  “A ton,” Linkie confirmed. “I told you, when you’re successful, it’s hard finding a partner you can trust, a partner who isn’t looking for a sugar-daddy to mooch off.” Linkie shrugged. “It’s worth a try,” he threw out there, “and I actually have a guy in mind who I think you’d like.”

  “What makes you think I’d like him?” I asked, stiff.

  Linkie grinned and pressed his glass against his mouth. “All the girls like him.”

  “Just what I need,” I scoffed. “A freaking corporate playboy.”

  Linkie laughed. “I can’t lie and say he’s not eye-candy for most of the women he meets, but I have a feeling that once he sees you, he’ll be as willing to settle down as I am.” Again, his eyes turned to Nichola, but I interrupted before they could latch lips.

  “Linkie, I’m sure I’m grateful for your suggestion, but…” I blew out a breath. “It’s a little much for me. And I’m fine being single. Despite what my best friend thinks, I’m actually pretty happy being my own woman. Blind dates, internet dating, set-ups, they don’t really work for me. I like to have some control over who I meet. Besides, I was raised to believe true love finds you – not the other way around.”

  Nichola grimaced and slammed her glass onto the table. “See, that’s the problem, Amaris,” she declared. “You’re so bound by all these irrelevant childhood rules, you’re reducing your chances of finding true love.” She leaned forward. “
And to make matters worse, you see so many problems dealing with other people, you’re not tapped into your own needs and you allow this fear of the unknown to stifle you.”

  “Actually, it’s quite the opposite,” I countered, slamming my glass down. “My childhood rules are the reason for my integrity and moral standards. And the reason I’m so good at what I do is because I know exactly what my needs and issues are.”

  An uncomfortable silence descended on the table and landed next to the cutlery.

  Nichola sighed and her shoulders dropped. “We were just trying to help,” she muttered.

  “She’s right,” Linkie confirmed. “If possibly finding the man of your dreams isn’t something you’re interested in, I totally respect that. I didn’t mean any harm.”

  I rolled my eyes away from them, trying to ignore the disappointed look in Nichola’s eyes.

  Or the disappointment lacing itself around my heart.

  Maybe I was making too much of this. Hell, what harm could meeting one of Linkie’s friends really do?

  I’d been willing to create a profile on some stupid dating site and go on three dates with three strangers. Now, here was Nichola’s boo – a guy who was clearly a complete catch – offering to set me up with one of his corporate buddies, and I was turning it down.

  It made no sense.

  If I was going to turn down anything, it should have been those freaking dates I’d gone on in the first place.

  I huffed. “All right fine,” I bit out.

  Both Linkie’s and Nichola’s eyes illuminated.

  “Really?” Nichola questioned me through a gasp of disbelief, grabbing my hands.

  “Really,” I agreed. “I’ll… try this cupid-crap out. I’m sure it won’t be any worse than any of the dates I’ve already been on.”

  “You won’t regret it,” Linkie promised.

  I jabbed a finger at him. “And no Axis I candidates,” I spat.

  Linkie laughed and I reluctantly joined in. “I have no idea what that means, but I’ll make sure the guy is a perfect fit.”

  “So what’s his name?” I asked taking up my glass.

  “Uh-uh!” Nichola cut me off shaking her finger at me. “No names. No identifying information, no nothin’!” She turned to her boo. “Linkie, you tell her that shit, and the next thing we know, she’ll access his psychiatric history and read his clinical files!”

  “That would be completely unethical,” I said sipping my drink, though I couldn’t lie and say that she was off-base with her accusation.

  “Fine. You don’t tell me his name, and you don’t tell him mine. If this is gonna be blind, everybody is gonna be Stevie up in here.”

  After our laughter died, Linkie provided further details. “Next weekend,” he said. “Dinner and dancing. And to ease the pressure, Nic and I will come, too. It’ll be a double-date.”

  That might not be so bad.

  By the end of the night, everything had been finalized, and as I cruised along the highway, back to my apartment, I couldn’t deny the excitement percolating inside of me.

  Damn, it had been such a long time since I’d been in the company of a good man, and I was so happy for Nic.

  Linkie was a catch, and she deserved a good man at her side. She’d done everything the right way: education, house, and car. The only thing that had been missing was Linkie.

  And it was so obvious that he was into her. I could see it, read it. Feel it.

  The thought of feeling the same thing had my mind wandering in anticipation.

  Maverick Dangerfield…

  The hell if he wasn’t still riding shotgun.

  I’d need to process this in clinical rounds with my supervisor. Never in my entire career had I been attracted to a client, but Maverick…

  The walls of my vagina tightened.

  ‘A woman should never spend idle time thinking of a man. Girls who do that are considered sluts.’

  Damn…

  It’d be fine. I’d be fine. Everything was going to be fine.

  5

  Maverick

  ~Session Two~

  I plucked my keys off the desk and twirled them around my finger before marching out of my office and strutting past my secretary. She knew where I was going, so I didn’t have to announce it.

  In fact, it seemed as if the entire office knew.

  Laughlin had scurried past when she got in this morning, and when I’d seen McConnell, he only smirked and pushed his shoulders back, too far for his own good.

  Blaine intercepted me just as I hit the garage door. “Where the hell are you going?”

  Apparently, he was the only one who had no clue. Either that, or he was being a jackass.

  I had a strong feeling it was the latter.

  “Why can’t it be lunch?” I asked.

  “You mean lunch, like the lunch I had?” He grinned, and I swore I could still see the pussy juice coating his lips.

  “I’d need a woman to indulge in that kind of a feast,” I said, secretly jealous.

  “What happened to Robin?”

  “Two weeks happened to Robin,” I answered.

  He frowned. “What she do?”

  “Nothing,” I shrugged. “You know how I am. I get bored and she was getting attached. Complaining that I work too much; calling me after hours and shit.”

  “People who are in relationships normally call one another after hours. And it sounds like she might have been concerned about you,” he suggested crossing his arms over his broad chest.

  “Then that was her mistake,” I snapped. “Never once did I tell her we were in a relationship, and I don’t need anybody’s concern. You know how I roll. Anyway…” I looked at my watch. “I’ve got therapy, and if you don’t let me past, I’ll be late.”

  He stepped to the side, but only a little. “Shit, I forgot about that! You never told me how Friday went.”

  “That’s because there was nothing to say.”

  “You’re joking, right? You mean to tell me that with the way you were bitching out the door last week, there’s no follow up? Nothing to rant over? And you’re actually going again?” He took a breath. “I thought those appointments were at least a week a part.”

  “Initially the follow-up appointment was,” I informed him, “but I called and rescheduled before I left work on Friday. I… wanna get it over with.”

  Blaine peered at me.

  “And… it wasn’t as bad as I thought it was gonna be,” I added. “Some of the things the therapist said made sense, so I figured I’d give it another shot, see what else she had to say.”

  Blaine narrowed his eyes. “Well, I’m glad to hear that,” he said, “especially because you’ll need to get your shit together if you’re gonna meet this woman I have lined up for you.”

  “What woman?”

  “Nic’s friend,” he explained. “I met her on Friday night, and Mav, she’s a quarter. Trust me, she’s right up your alley.”

  “What makes you think I have an alley I want anyone to be up?” I asked, disdained.

  But the disdain was contrived. I did have an alley, but the more I thought about it, there was only one woman I wanted going up it.

  Or down it...

  Shit, I’d been trying to stop thinking about Amaris since Friday, to no avail. The entire weekend had seen me jerking my cock to images of her spread over that desk of hers.

  Blaine had only been dating this woman for a couple of months, and already he was pussy-whipped. Granted, that was longer than he’d ever stayed with any woman, but he was losing goddamn control. He’d been talking about her from the moment he’d met her, but then, who was I to fucking judge?

  There I was telling Blaine that he was losing his shit, but both of us were in the same canoe, going up the same creek without a goddamn paddle.

  I steadied my posture. “I’m hardly interested in meeting anyone right now,” I said, shocked to hear the words coming out of my mouth, and even more shocked to think they were true.
>
  Blaine frowned. “The last woman I set you up with, you fucked her three times.”

  “It was two.”

  “Still more playtime than you normally dole out,” he countered. “You’re gonna like this one, trust me when I tell you. It’ll be more than a two-time-fuck. It could be forever.”

  Something tickled my insides at the thought. “What’s her name?”

  “Can’t tell you.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because I didn’t tell her yours, and that wouldn’t be fair.”

  I snorted. “What does she look like?”

  “Gorgeous.”

  “Jennifer Garner gorgeous?”

  “Halle Berry gorgeous.”

  “She’s black?”

  His eyebrow quirked up and I chortled.

  “I can’t say I’m not intrigued,” I admitted, “but I’m working on myself right now. The last thing I need to do is complicate things with a two-time-fuck.” I shrugged. “Maybe once I get a handle on my issues, I’ll be in a better frame of mind to think about entertaining a woman.”

  “So you’re actually admitting that you have issues?” Blaine asked, crossing his arms. “Shit, this therapist, whoever she is, she must be good.”

  “She’s damn good,” I agreed, but my voice was lower and more suggestive than I’d intended.

  “Well, the least you can do is come and meet my lady,” he suggested. “I’m more than ready to show her off. Initially, I was taking my time, thinking the feelings might die away, the way they normally do, but they’re not going anywhere, Mav. Shit, I think she might even be the one.”

  He paused and the shine in his eyes clued me in to how serious he was. He had the face on, the one he used in business meetings when he was about to close deals. Blaine was dead-ass serious about this girl, and if he was this serious, he was right: the least I could do was meet her.

  “All right, I’ll be there,” I agreed, and then I jerked my eyes back to my watch. “I’ve gotta go, Blaine,” I said heading for my Mercedes. “I can’t be late. I don’t want any reason for Mitch to suggest I need more sessions.”