Mistress, Inc. (18 page)

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Authors: Niobia Bryant

BOOK: Mistress, Inc.
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Renee
I
couldn’t sleep and I was standing at my bedroom window when a light January snow began to fall. It was a really beautiful winter scene of the snow sticking to the trees and bushes of my neighbor’s front yards. Nothing in the neighborhood moved or stirred but the snow. If it continued, it meant digging out cars and shoveling walkways, but I loved the winter.
Jackson and I used to love the winter together. Playful snow fights. Making love in front of the fireplace. Drinking hot chocolate spiked with brandy. Decorating the house for Christmas.
Although I missed him, I knew I was on the road to recovery because I didn’t cry not once this Christmas because he was not there at my side. I had no urge to lose myself in a drunken stupor so as not to face the dissolution of my marriage. Or the fact that my children had a sibling that wasn’t borne by me. Or ... or that my husband and son weren’t speaking because of my son’s sexuality.
Something about knowing that Jackson would lose his relationship with his son than accept that he’s gay made me so hurt and disappointed by him.
The baby put the nail in the coffin holding our dead relationship, and his treatment of our son hammered the nail in all the way.
And so, yes, our divorce was almost finalized. We both were ready to move on.
Jackson had signed the papers. We worked out dividing our properties, alimony, and child support. We were just waiting for the final divorce decree.
And truly, I was okay with it.
“Renee, come back to bed.”
I looked over my shoulder at the man waiting there for me.
I met Davin Thorne a few weeks ago at my Alcoholic Anonymous meeting, and tonight a long talk over coffee led to a flirtation that led to him following me home. And I hadn’t been disappointed by my choice.
He flung back the cover, exposing his naked body to me.
Nice, I thought, dropping my robe and feeling damn good about his thick dick rising from lying across his thigh to stand erect.
“See something you want?” he asked.
I licked my lips as I climbed onto the bed and straddled his hips. “I see lots of good dick and someone who is good with it,” I said softly, bending to circle one of his nipples with the tip of my tongue.
The kids were away and Mama was going to play.
I sighed as his hands massaged my lower back and then cupped my ass deeply as I moved my lips up to suckle his neck.
I leaned up and he lifted his head to take one of my nipples into his mouth as I heard the tear of the condom wrapper.
I pushed pillows behind his head to prop him up as he lifted me up by my hips and slid me down onto his hard dick. I gasped and bit my lip from the feel of him pressing against my walls.
“Damn, it’s hot,” he gasped, looking up at me as I grabbed the headboard and took control.
I closed my eyes and let my head fall back as I circled my hips, bringing the base of his dick against my swollen clit. His hands teased both of my full, undulating breasts as he gently rolled my nipples between his fingers.
I locked my legs beneath his and popped my hips, riding just the tip of his thick dick. He freed my breasts and they hung above his open and panting mouth as his fingers dug into my ass and tried to control the movement of my hips.
I resisted him, loving the control. Loving that he felt he would cum if he didn’t stop. Loving that I was so near my third nut on his dick that night.
I looked down at him intensely as he licked my nipples wildly. “Yes. Yesss,” I moaned, adjusting my ride to take all of his dick into me as I continued to glide back and forth on him.
He slapped my ass as he fucked me back, sending his dick even deeper inside of me.
I sat up straight and then turned on his dick to ride him backward.
He sat up behind me and wrapped his arms around my body as I worked my hips until my heart pounded and my sweat soaked the sheets.
“I’m gonna come,” I moaned, gasping hotly when his hands covered my breasts again as I glided back and forth on his dick like I rode a log.
I cried out as the first explosion burst inside me and made my clit extra sensitive. I didn’t give a damn who heard as I flung my head back and released all of my pent-up sexual frustration in a shout that was primal.
He didn’t feel like Jackson.
He didn’t taste like Jackson.
He didn’t smell like Jackson.
His touch didn’t electrify me like Jackson.
But it was nice. It was satisfying.
In time, with him or someone else, the rest would follow.
Jaime
I
woke up with a start and realized the house was cold. Icy cold. At first I tried to bury my entire head and body beneath the covers, but even that didn’t keep enough of the chill from seeping into my bones.
Dammit, I swore, before I jumped from under the covers and raced on my tiptoes to the digital thermostat on the wall. I kicked the heat up another five degrees and raced back beneath the covers.
Everyone knew winter was the perfect season to have a man in one’s big lonely bed to provide the heat. It had been six months since Eric’s death, and I was ready to get out and date again. Something I truly had not done since before I married Eric.
My relationship with Pleasure had never involved anything outside the bed—or in whatever locale we chose to have sex.
And although it would be so easy to call Pleasure to bring that dick to me, I refused to budge. Pleasure turning me down to fuck another woman who had the money in her hand had hurt me. I could admit that. Yes, I knew he was a whore, but I really thought I was first on his list. That I was special. That my pussy was better. That he would never turn me down. That his dick was mine.
That reality check slapped me hard as hell in the face and I knew I had to wean myself off my drug. I had to. It was all well and good that he fucked other women for money as long as I never saw it. We never talked about it.
But I was looking for more than just dick in my life. I wanted a relationship. Not marriage. Not even something completely exclusive, but someone of similar style and class to escort me to social functions, hold an intelligent conversation—and still be able to bang my back out when I wanted.
The thought of that made me smile as I shifted my hands to the edge of my pajamas. I had just scooped my hands down to cup my pussy when my phone rang. Frowning, I sat up in bed and picked up my cordless. Aria? Aria!!
“Are you having the baby?” I asked, already throwing back the covers.
“No, I’m going to have a coronary over that crazy bitch!” Aria snapped.
Jessa. It was always Jessa. I was tired of talking about the bitch.
I dropped back down on the bed and ran my chilled fingers through my hair. “What is she up to now? I haven’t really seen her the last month or so.”
“Do you know that bitch is writing a goddamn book? On what?”
I opened my dresser drawer and took out a suede box. “Listen, after that bitch came at me about suing Eric’s estate, I don’t put anything past her ass,” I said, shoving the phone between my ear and shoulder as I opened the box and took out my vibrator. I turned it on to test the batteries.
Bzzzzzzzzz.
It jumped to life in my hands.
“What the hell is that? A chainsaw?” Aria asked.
I turned it off. “Nothing, ” I lied.
“Whatever happened with that lawsuit?”
“We’re assuming she’s waiting for the little bastard to drop, because we told her if she pursued it we would push to make her have a prenatal paternity test, ” I said, rising to walk into the bathroom to rinse it off. I smiled as I lathered it with soap and worked it like a real dick.
“Jaime, do you really have to call the baby a bastard all the time?” Aria asked.
I paused. “Oh, so now you’re Jessa Bell’s best friend again?” I asked coolly.
“No, but I’m mad at her, not the baby. The same should go for you. ”
“Well, Aria, that’s fucking easy for you to say; she didn’t fuck your husband and get pregnant. Did she?” I snapped.
“Bitch, you tripping. I’ll call you in the morning when you get your head and your thoughts together.”
Click.
I shrugged and tossed the phone on a chair before I climbed back under the covers with my little friend. Soon the vibrating motion of it against my clit made forget every damn thing.
Bzzzzzzzzz.
Chapter 13
Two months later
 
J
essa couldn’t lie and say she wasn’t nervous about the Halls’ threats of suing her for custody as the time neared for her to have her baby. She hadn’t heard from them since the day they ambushed her at her home, but they were never far from her mind.
Even though Lincoln assured her that grandparents rarely ever won a custody battle against a fit mother.
But Lincoln doesn’t know everything.
Sighing, she picked up the remote and flipped through the channels before she gave up on that and picked up her laptop to try and finish the detailed outline for her book.
Boredom is a bitch.
Myra had put any further interview requests on hold and advised her to focus on the outline for her still untitled book. Considering she had already signed the contract and deposited the check for half of her advance, she knew her publicist and literary agent were right when they pushed her to get it done.
Jessa looked down and read what she had so far, starting with a prelude detailing her original plan to steal Eric from Jaime:
“Where do I begin? How do I tell the story? Our story. His and mine. He was my lover and her husband. You would think that wasn’t possible–like saying dry rain or cold heat–but it was true. She had the ring and the certificate ... but I had him. ”
Those words came easily. She had thought them in the days when she felt like she couldn’t live without Eric.
The difficult parts—her past, her relationship with her mother, her near death, her closer relationship to God—those words she struggled for. Those were things she felt were out of her control.
But when she was still deluded about her feelings and her power over Eric, she had thought it all out and felt everything was of her own design.
Setting the laptop aside and needing to feel more activity than shifting her wide ass on the bed, Jessa eased her cumbersome frame off the bed and walked out onto her balcony. It was hard to miss the colorful pastel balloons and streamers floating around Jaime’s backyard.
Aria’s baby shower.
Jessa knew she shouldn’t dare let anyone see her taking a gander at their festivities for Aria’s baby when she knew they all damned her baby to hell.
But she did allow herself a moment to take in the colorful rose topiary arrangements on each table. The bartender serving of fruity drinks. Four to five tables of food laid out buffet style. A huge, round table filled with brightly wrapped gifts that grew in size as more and more people strolled into the backyard.
Jessa felt a pang of sadness as she finally turned and moved back into her bedroom. She continued across the floor and out the door to the nursery directly across the hall.
Again, Keegan had worked wonders. The nursery was soft and warm and inviting with its creamy vanilla décor and furnishings with just a tiny hint of pale pink for the girl she was having.
No, there would be no baby shower celebrating the arrival of baby Delaney.
But there were people in Jessa’s life who cared.
She lightly touched the creamy afghan folded over the rails of the crib. Her mother had knitted it for her grandbaby, and Jessa was surprised when she gifted it to her during her last visit to the long-term rehabilitation facility.
Keegan gifted the beautiful Italian recliner chair and waived her usual fees for the interior design.
Henry gifted the bassinet that was ready to be pushed into Jessa’s room once the baby arrived.
Jessa laughed at the basketload of newborn clothing Myra dropped off. All designer, of course.
Still, that would have made one sorry shower. Four people and five gifts. Hell, she counted at least twenty gifts or better on Aria’s table and the shower hadn’t even started yet.
I oughta crash it
, Jessa thought spitefully even though she knew she never would.
She had outgrown that kind of childish drama. Plus, she honestly didn’t think her ex-friends were worth the effort anymore. She was trying to stay right with God, and those heifers were not worth a trip to hell.
Giving the nursery one last look, Jessa made her way back to her bedroom. Jessa settled back against the many pillows on her bed just as a twinge radiated across her lower back. She whistled until it disappeared and closed her eyes, taking deep breaths. She wasn’t due for another two weeks and figured they were just Braxton-Hicks contractions.
Ten minutes later, the twinge returned.
In another ten minutes, the twinge intensified in pain.
And every ten minutes after that.
Jessa frowned and popped her eyes open. Oh shit.
She picked up her phone and dialed Keegan’s number.
“Hey, sugar,” Keegan said in her usual big and bold voice.
“Lookey here,
sugar
,” Jessa bit out, swinging her legs off the side of the bed to sit up on the side. “Remember the plan for you to stay here with me the last week before my due date?”
“Yes.”
“Huge failure,” Jessa drawled. “Where are you?”
“Oh Lord, I’m in upstate New York. It’ll take an hour or better for me to get there, honey bell,” Keegan said in obvious distress. “Are you sure it’s time?”
Jessa felt a gush and she looked up to the ceiling. “My water just broke ... on my custom duvet!!! Like really, God? Really?!”
“Oh Lord,” Keegan drawled.
“Just call my doctor for me and come to the Overlook Hospital as soon as you can,” Jessa said, hanging up on Keegan before another of her affectionate and sugary nicknames made her literally vomit.
As she rose and calmly peeled off her soaked satin nightgown and robe, she tried to call Henry. His phone went straight to voice mail. Reverend Dobbins. He was at a church revival in Philadelphia. Her attorney, Lincoln, was in court. Her mother was in rehab. Myra’s phone just rang endlessly.
“WHAT THE FUCKKKKKKKKK!!!!” Jessa screamed at the top of her lungs, fighting the urge to throw her cell phone against a wall.
Standing there nude with her thighs still damp, Jessa gripped the edge of the dresser and forced herself to just breathe. “Calm down, Jessa. This is your baby and this is not the first time you’ve had to face things alone. You can do this. Don’t lose it.”
The phone rang in her hand, she answered. “Yes,” she sighed, feeling another labor pain building.
“I called an ambulance and it’s on the way, sugar,” Keegan said. “I’m already in my car heading to Livingston. GET DOWNSTAIRS AND OPEN THE FRONT DOOR!”
Jessa made a face. “Keegan, I’m in labor. Not deaf.”
“I’m sorry. I want to be excited for the baby coming, but right now I am as scared as a near-death hooker who ain’t been read her last rites until you get some medical help.”
Jessa paused in pulling on a strapless maternity maxi dress. She actually laughed. “Boy, a ho never gets a break,” she joked.
“At least you’re laughing.”
“I was,” she moaned, before another pain gripped her as she slid her purse over her shoulder and slid on a pair of flip-flops.
Jessa breathed through it.
“Don’t worry about the bag you packed, I’ll get it later—”
“Keegan, fuck that bag!” Jessa bit out just before the contraction subsided. She left her room and held up the hem of the dress as she made her way down the stairs slowly.
When she neared the bottom she heard the sirens of the ambulance, and it was in that moment that the reality of her life hit her. She was pregnant and in labor without a familiar face to support her. Jessa released a sharp breath as she lowered her chin to her chest and blinked her eyes to keep the tears from falling.
This shit is pitiful
, Jessa thought, as she gingerly made her way to the front door and set her alarm to activate in ten minutes.
Just pitiful.
But as the medics rolled the stretcher into the house and helped her on it, Jessa remembered something Henry always told her. “It is when you are at your lowest that God is truly with you, seeing you through to the other side. He never leaves you. Never.”
She forced herself to relax as the mix of her impending labor and the sound of the sirens evoking memories of that night ate at her. Jessa closed her eyes and breathed, hating that the image of Eric—an image she hadn’t been haunted by in months—suddenly appeared.
“It is when you are at your lowest that God is truly with you, seeing you through to the other side. He never leaves you. Never.”
“Be with me God,” she prayed, as the medics rolled her out the house and closed the door.
Jessa ignored her neighbors already gathering outside her door and around the ambulance, whose sirens still flashed red and echoed throughout the subdivision. She closed her eyes, not wanting to see anyone gloat or glare as the ambulance sped her away from her house.
 
“Hello, Delaney,” Jessa cooed to the swaddled bundle the nurse placed in her arms. “We did it. You’re here and healthy and all mine. Me and you are one helluva team.”
Jessa lightly kissed her daughter’s chubby cheeks and longed for her to open her eyes and look up at her. But she slept peacefully. “It’s okay. It’s been a long night,” she whispered, opening the blanket a little to guide her finger into Delaney’s tiny palm.
Her heart surged when tiny little fingers wrapped around hers. “Are you strong like your mama?” she asked into the quiet. “You look like me, so you better be strong like me. But don’t make the mistakes I did. We’re both lucky to be here.”
Memories of the night Eric almost killed her caused her emotions to choke in her throat, and Jessa tilted her head back and closed her eyes tightly to try to free herself from the thoughts.
“I will fight for you. I will die for you. I will not let anyone take you from me. Or make me leave you. I promise. I’m your mother. Nobody else. And I never knew I could love someone so much.” One of Jessa’s tears raced down her face and fell on Delaney’s brown cheeks.
“I can’t believe God has blessed me like this,” Jessa admitted. “Thank you, God. Thank you, thank you, thank you.”
The door to her private room opened. Jessa looked up as a nurse walked in with a smile carrying a pale pink chart. “How is Mama and baby?” she asked.
“You’re not coming to take her, are you?” Jessa asked.
“No, not yet,” the nurse said, coming to stand by the bed. “I just wanted to let you know that we have been bombarded with calls from the press about you all night.”
Jessa figured as much. When Myra called to check on her, she alerted Jessa that the news had broke that she had the baby. Although Myra had released a statement asking for respect of Jessa’s privacy at this time, the press had other plans.
“Also ... we caught a photographer trying to sneak in to the unit to take a picture of the baby.”
Jessa’s heart damn near stopped as she sat up and clutched the baby closer.
The nurse held up her hands. “We have let everyone know they are to treat you as a high-profile client and we are being even more strict with everyone on the unit—even those people coming to see other patients.”
Jessa forced herself to relax as Delaney stirred. She looked down and cooed to her.
The nurse set the chart down on Jessa’s nightstand and moved around the bed to grab a bottle from the rolling crib. “She may be hungry.”
Jessa nodded, forcing herself to calm down as she accepted the bottle. She didn’t want her sudden fears and anxiety to upset the peace of the baby. She nuzzled the nipple of the bottle to the baby’s lips and Delaney latched on.
Jessa’s breath caught as Delaney’s eyes opened. “I know she can’t see me really, but just knowing her eyes are on me ...”
The nurse smiled.
“If the press calls and they’re harassing you guys, please refer them to my publicist and let the staff know I am so sorry about all the hassle,” Jessa said, before the nurse could walk out the door.

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