“I started, um, losing the baby. Bam was out, supposedly at a business meeting. I called him when I was going to the hospital. He showed up about four hours later, after it was over, and I took one look at him and knew that he'd been cheating on me. There had been signs before, but he always reassured me. He said that I was silly and he loved me. Things would be amazing for a while. He could be amazing and attentive. He made me feel like a real life princess. Jewels the size of rocks, planes, yachts, traveling around the world, box seats, champagne. Whatever his heart desired. When you're little, you hear fairytales about princes and happily ever afters, but what you don't hear is that the prince is a spoiled brat who throws jewels and furs at you because he feels guilty for screwing around.”
She keeps going, barely taking a breath. It’s just rolling out of her.
“He admitted it that night. Said he loved me but that he's not a one-woman man. He tried to get me to understand that it should be okay. That the girls he did—and apparently there were many—meant nothing to him. That he loved me. I told him to get out. That I never wanted to see him again. The next day, as soon as I was released from the hospital, I filed divorce papers. I was on a mission. It drove me through the grief of losing the baby and the marriage.”
I run my hands across her shoulders. My heart breaking for her.
“I shut my emotions off. Never cried. Never opened that door to the playroom . . .” She's been lost in her story, but she stops and looks into my eyes. “I haven't opened the playroom door since that day. Until tonight. It was so . . . freeing.”
“I love you, Vanessa,” I tell her. “And I swear I will never, ever cheat on you.”
“I know you won’t,” she says. “In the office the other day, I almost told you I loved you. I wasn’t even thinking, it just came out. But I stopped myself because it seemed too soon.”
“Vanessa, it’s never too soon to tell someone how you feel.”
“When you rightly wanted to spend time alone with your girls, it hurt me. More than it should have. And I felt stupid for letting you into my heart. I’ve been trying so hard to protect it.”
I run my hands down the sides of her arms then entwine my hands with hers.
“We both have painful pasts. That’s what this is about, letting go and opening up your heart to me. Telling me what you want. What you need.”
“I want you to know what I need. I don’t want to have to tell you,” she says.
I pick her up and move us closer to the side of the pool, kissing her the whole time.
Her eyes fill up with tears again.
“Don’t cry, baby. No more crying.” I slowly kiss her wet cheeks, then her neck, then her lips. Taking my time. Showing her that with each kiss I want nothing more than to do just that.
But then she wraps her legs around my waist and deepens our kiss, her tongue tantalizing me, her curves flattened against me, her voice whispering my name.
“Dawson,” she says.
And with one word, I know what she needs. It’s the same thing I suddenly need. To be inside her.
I move my hands under her ass, lifting her toward me and causing her back to press against the side of the pool, as I pull her on top of me.
She leans her head back exposing her neck, so I take the opportunity to slide my tongue up its length, then rest my lips against hers.
Our lips are touching but not moving.
We’re both perfectly still except for a gentle, occasional thrust of my hips.
I feel like I should come clean. Tell her the rest of my story. But it’s not the right time. Not when she’s clinging to me. Not when I finally feel the way I should feel.
Like I’m finally home.
Like I’m exactly where I belong.
She moves her lips against mine, kissing me slowly, then deepening the kiss while she grabs ahold of my ass.
I move faster, kissing her in time with my thrusts.
Until I can’t kiss her any more.
She puts her lips on my shoulder, biting down slightly as she sighs with pleasure, and I feel my own release.
Then we’re still again for a moment.
I bring my mouth to her ear and whisper to her. “You need me to take care of you and love you forever.”
“That’s exactly what I need,” she replies, as I pick her up, carry her out of the pool and through the patio doors to her master bedroom.
I’m going to make love to her.
Slowly. Sweetly.
All night long.
Eastbrooke Academy - Connecticut
ARIELA
I suppose it’s sort of fitting that as I pull through Eastbrooke’s gates my dad calls me.
“Hi, Dad,” I say into my phone.
“Ariela! Collin just told me what you’re planning to do. I won’t stand for it. You need to come home now and make this right. I can’t even believe you would threaten both our livelihoods.”
“I threatened Collin, Dad, because he threatened me. Not only does he cheat on me, but he tries to control me. I used to let him, but I’m not anymore. That goes for you too. And there’s nothing either one of you can do about it.”
“I’ll side with Collin. Run your name through the mud. Disown you. You’ll come out of your marriage with nothing.”
“I don’t care, Dad. I don’t want anything from either one of you. I just want a divorce.”
“Collin will be contesting the divorce, Ariela. If freedom is what you want, know it’s the one thing you will never get.”
“The hell you will,” I hear my mother say loudly. “You will not take Collin’s side on this.”
I about drop the phone. I’ve never heard my mother raise her voice to my father.
“What the hell do you know?” my dad says to her. “It’s not like you can do anything about it.”
“Actually, I can. Ariela, dear, I’m putting you on speaker. I want you to hear this.”