~Zoey~
I stirred in bed, disrupting the, likely, high thread count sheets and down blanket covering my needy frame. Only Stenton could get under my skin like this. Only he could have me feeling so off-kilter after apologizing and not receiving a response, neither gracious explanation nor apology in kind. It was official. Unsettled, I was tipsy and aroused beyond measure. What I didn’t share with him was my disappointment in his lack of apology. He hadn’t spent Thanksgiving with Jordan… Okay, with my family. With me.
He was arrogant, I’d quickly decided on. How dare he say nothing more about his absence? How dare he not formally account for his offenses? Yeah, I was intoxicated, but still lucid enough to want to rustle him. No more. I would not lay here and wrestle with this alone. I tossed the covers off, slipped on my slippers and paraded to his room down the hall.
I knocked, but didn’t wait for an answer. Opening the door, I entered the dark room and immediately heard “Secret” by Maroon 5 flowing in the air. So caught up in my need to read him, and realizing I couldn’t yell my frustrations, I attempted to find the bed in the dark. When I did, I dropped my knees on it for dramatic flair.
“You don’t get to walk away and not accept any culpability in this,” I grated. “You have done wrong. You act as if Jordan is the only one who needs to see—”
I was snatched down into the bed by strong arms. The yanking caused a yelping in my descent. My heart leaped from my chest, the air hurled from my lungs, and I landed flat on my back.
“What the fuck is your problem?”
In an instant, I was enraptured by his scent and natural heat, the hardness of his heavy frame, and the coolness of his breath. My breathing returned in short stints, my body tensed in total shock of his closeness, my will had halted at the collision with his beguiling countenance. In that moment, I was reminded of what it was like to be his Ni?a. It wasn’t looking good for me. The swell of my clitoris from just his proximity concerned me. I hadn’t planned on this. Didn’t anticipate my undisputed attraction to Stenton.
I broke.
“You love her…just like you used to love me.” I didn’t recognize my voice, but the truth in my words rang that of my fears.
I’d followed all the pictures of their date nights, event goings, and even Erika’s “elusive” private messages to Stenton on Facebook. Their relationship had started, yet my heart was still missing from my chest. It was still with Stenton. Even on Thanksgiving, Erika, her mother, Ellis, sister, Emily and brother, Erik, who had apparently developed a strong bromance with Stenton, had posted pictures of them with him as though they were a family. I’d bottled the information since he left my apartment in August, after turning me away. It had been a difficult time holding in these rampant emotions with no one to share them. He and Jordan now belonged to …Erika Erceg.
From the light casting from the security bulb outside of his window, I could see Stenton grimace. He then mumbled a string of vulgarities under his breath. I don’t think I let out a single breath, awaiting his next move.
“Zo, I’ve never loved anybody or anything like or more than I love you. I don’t think I’ll ever put anything or one above the love I have for you.”
“You love Jordan far more than you love me,” I quickly hid my face, clearly embarrassed by my sudden jealousy of my own child. I felt exposed.