The Ties That Bind (20 page)
Read The Ties That Bind Online
Authors: Electa Rome Parks
It was about five weeks after the club incident. Brice had gone out of town for a few days, and I decided that I was going to go out with the gang. I knew that I had Christian to cover for me. I deserved it. I would graduate soon, and I wanted to celebrate. So Carolyn, Tiffany, Malcolm and I had all gone to this nonmilitary club to dance, drink and have a good time. It was just like the last time.
Malcolm knew that I couldn’t handle my liquor and normally didn’t drink, but tonight he kept refilling my glass. I even had my first shot of bourbon. I was feeling too good. Before I knew it, I was out of it and he was taking me home. Once we got to my apartment, he walked me up the stairs, unlocked the door for me and waltzed on in behind me, playfully rubbing my ass through my pants. I just giggled as I slightly stumbled. He knew that Brice was out of town.
By now I was feeling good, with no inhibitions. Malcolm asked if we had anything to drink as he made himself at home in my refrigerator. I had gone to the bathroom to relieve myself, and when I came back he was sitting on the sofa with the TV on and remote in hand like he was staying for a while. Like he owned the place.
“Come here, Mia,” he said as he held out his right hand with this lustful look in his eyes.
I walked slowly over to him and stood above him at the sofa.
“I don’t bite,” he said as he pulled me down onto the sofa and on top of him.
“Listen, Malcolm, maybe this isn’t such a good idea. Maybe you should go.” I could feel his hardness through his pants as his hands massaged my back. My nipples were standing at attention.
“Chill, baby. Just sit down and we can watch some TV. Don’t freak out on me.”
We sat there for a while watching some off-the-wall movie. Malcolm laughed every now and then. Out of nowhere, Malcolm leaned over, turned my face to his and kissed me. The kiss was full of passion, tongue and desire. I felt that kiss all the way down to my toes. I knew there was no turning back. I wanted him. I wanted him bad. I could smell the sexual energy seeping out of his pores.
“Wait right here. Let me change into something more comfortable.” Then I started laughing because that was so cliché, and I had always wanted to say that.
He said, “I’ll be right here, baby. I’m not going anywhere. I got something for you.”
I went into my bedroom and changed into this short black silky number that Brice had purchased for me from Victoria’s Secret. Or was it Frederick’s of Hollywood? It left little to the imagination. That’s funny, because when I was in public he didn’t want me to show any skin, yet when he fucked me he wanted me to look like a whore.
When I walked back into the living room Malcolm’s eyes almost fell out of his head.
“Damn. Come here, girl.You need to stop covering up all this at school, baby,” he said as he fondled my breasts through my negligee, and chills went up and down my spine.
I did as he said and sat down on the sofa next to him. As he kissed and licked my neck, my legs voluntarily spread, open and waiting. Malcolm had pulled off his shirt, and I ran my hands across his toned chocolate chest and his tattoo as we kissed. By now he had pulled the spaghetti straps of my black negligee down to expose my breasts and erect nipples. He was squeezing and fondling them as I lifted my chest to meet him and his eager tongue. As his hand urgently caressed my body, from my stomach to my thighs, his other hand was pulling down my gown and panties in one pull. Shivers were running up and down my arms.
Malcolm stopped. He stopped touching me. Malcolm stopped those wonderful sensations. As I sat there butt naked in all my glory, he reclined on the floor and admired me . . . from a distance.
“Tell me you want me.”
“What?”
“You heard me. Tell me you want to feel me inside you.”
“Come on. You know I do.”
“I want to hear you say it, baby. All this time, you haven’t let me get any. I want to hear you say it.”
I didn’t say anything. I tried to pull him closer. Malcolm wouldn’t budge. He sat there on the floor with a slight smirk on his face as he stroked his jimmy, which had made an appearance, from his unzipped pants. Thick, long and black.
“Don’t get shy now. Don’t you want to feel this?”
I nodded my head.
“You think you can handle all this?” he asked as he stood within inches of my face. Malcolm laughed and bent down as he kissed me passionately.
As Malcolm massaged between my thighs, he stuck a finger in. Then another. When the man got on his hands and knees, pulled me to the edge of the couch and placed his face between my spread legs and went down, all I could do was throw my head back, close my eyes and grab that bald head and hold on for dear life. I had never felt that good in my entire life. My body was on fire. He was hitting the spot. Shit! He was hitting it just right. Like he owned my stuff!
At right about that moment, there was a knock at the door. He stopped. “No, don’t stop, baby.” I stopped moaning, and we both stared at the door, silently willing the person on the other side to go away so that we could finish. Whoever was knocking kept knocking and was not giving up and going away. Suddenly I heard a key going in the lock. Then the door swung wide open and Christian walked in and grabbed Malcolm off of me. Everything after that happened in slow motion, in a daze. I remember screaming and Malcolm trying to get his shirt on and pants up, and Christian yelling, screaming at me to get dressed and me running, totally humiliated, down the hallway.
Then everything was quiet. Dead silence. I heard some low conversation, angry voices. I heard a door slam hard, and then Christian was in there sitting on the bed by me and I had the sheet pulled up to cover my nakedness. Christian looked at me and I looked at him for a few seconds.
“What in the hell was that, Mia? Just what in the hell were you doing? Do you really want Brice to beat your ass again?” he screamed at me.
Suddenly I went off. “Leave me alone, dammit. You are not my keeper. You are just like Brice. Stay the fuck away from me. I don’t need you to make my life miserable too.”
The affects of the alcohol were all but gone, and I was very clear-headed and realized what I had done or almost done. I had almost had sex with a man who wasn’t my husband. By now I was softly crying out of humiliation and also because I had never seen this side of Christian, much less talked to him in that manner. I couldn’t speak or even look at him now. I pulled the sheet up tighter around me. I felt so exposed.
Christian finally realized what he was doing and how he was acting. He leaned over and held me in his arms while I continued crying.
“Mia, I know it has been rough for you lately, but you aren’t like this . . .You don’t sleep around and cheat on your husband . . . even if Brice has given you reason to.”
“Oh, Christian, I don’t know . . . what happened. I needed to feel loved, and Malcolm was showing me that.”
Christian stared at me in disbelief. “Malcolm just wanted to get in your pants. Nothing more, nothing less.”
“Are you disappointed in me?”
He didn’t respond.
“I need for you not to lose respect for me. It means a lot to me. You mean a lot to me.”
“I would never do that,” he stated with sincere honesty.
For some reason, with that revelation, I felt this strong urge to kiss him and feel closer to him. I leaned up and kissed him softly on his lips. Our lips parted, and I felt his hesitant tongue as it explored the inside of my mouth. He paused for a moment. Then he was into the kiss, and I lowered the sheet and placed his hands on my exposed breasts. We kissed passionately and he touched, squeezed me in places and then . . . he grabbed me by the wrists and pushed me roughly away.
“Damn, Mia.You know I can’t do this! You know this can’t happen. Listen, I’m outta here. Get yourself together before . . . just get your act together and stop behaving like a child and start behaving like the lady you are,” he said as he rose to walk out of the bedroom without even looking at me.
I screamed and cried. “Christian, I’m sorry. Are you going to tell Brice?”
He kept walking.
“Christian, are you telling him? You know what will happen if he finds out. Pleassse don’t tell. You’ve got to promise me this will remain between us.”
He stopped at the doorway, turned around and finally looked me dead in the eyes.
“Mia, I’m not going to tell him about any of this. I’m going to blame this on the alcohol that you’ve consumed.You aren’t thinking or acting rationally right now. Neither am I. I’m going to pretend like this never happened. You do the same.”
I laid back on the bed with a sigh of relief and said, “Okay.”
Right before Christian walked out the door, I asked him, “What if I had met you that summer at the cookout? It could have all been so different.”
“But you didn’t. You met my best friend.”
Christian walked up the hallway and out the door. I lay there for the rest of the night, relived his kiss and the feel of his hands as they touched my body in intimate places. And I thought about what he had said. Funny, I didn’t even think about Malcolm. Christian invaded my thoughts.
31
Christian
T
hey say there is always quiet before the storm.That was definitely true in our case. I avoided Mia and Brice for as long as I could, and it was a bit strange with Mia when I eventually saw her again. I still couldn’t get her kiss or the feel of her body out of my head, and the guilt was eating me up.
hey say there is always quiet before the storm.That was definitely true in our case. I avoided Mia and Brice for as long as I could, and it was a bit strange with Mia when I eventually saw her again. I still couldn’t get her kiss or the feel of her body out of my head, and the guilt was eating me up.
At first there were a lot of silences, no eye contact or being alone with each other for us. Then I guess we realized how foolish we were acting because soon we were as before. Well, I can’t say exactly as before, because there is never any turning back or going back to the way things were. The kiss and the touch happened, sparks flew, and that couldn’t be forgotten. Life is really funny like that. For every action there is a consequence to deal with. You have to lie in the bed you make.
Mia told me that she didn’t have any more problems with Malcolm. I learned later that was far from the truth. Even though I don’t think that I walked in on any problems in the first place. It looked like they were both about to get their grooves on. But I made it absolutely clear to him who Mia’s husband was, who I was and what we could do to his flourishing military career. I advised Mr. Malcolm to keep his dick in his pants when it came to Mia. He could screw anybody else he wanted to, just not Mia. He got the picture loud and clear. I hated playing hardball, but I had to do what I had to do.
Hell, in my younger days, I probably would have done the same thing. Shit, yeah. I would have tried to get in the panties of someone who looked like Mia.
32
Mia
A
fter Christian kicked Malcolm out of my apartment, I thought that Malcolm would have avoided me like the plague. I knew that I would if the situation had been reversed, but that didn’t happen. It was like Malcolm got a thrill out of pursuing me even more. I for one knew that I was skating on very thin ice and was just lucky that Christian promised not to tell Brice what he had witnessed.
fter Christian kicked Malcolm out of my apartment, I thought that Malcolm would have avoided me like the plague. I knew that I would if the situation had been reversed, but that didn’t happen. It was like Malcolm got a thrill out of pursuing me even more. I for one knew that I was skating on very thin ice and was just lucky that Christian promised not to tell Brice what he had witnessed.
I just wanted Malcolm to leave me the hell alone while I was still on top. Malcolm, on the other hand, had very different plans. The fool wouldn’t leave me alone. If it hadn’t been such a sad situation, it actually would have been funny. I could really pick them. I thought that he would get the message when I ignored him in class, which probably wasn’t the smartest thing to do, but Malcolm wasn’t deterred. That night was a drunken moment of weakness. He knew I didn’t want to sleep with him. Or maybe I did, just to “show” Brice. I don’t know.
I had gone back to class that following Monday, and instead of sitting over near the wall by Malcolm, as I usually did, I sat at a desk in the back corner of the classroom. When I walked in just before class started, Malcolm was already seated in our usual spot. I saw him glance at me and try to make eye contact, but I walked to the back of the room and sat at a desk between two girls. I noticed him looking back at me throughout the lecture, but I pretended not to notice and kept taking notes.
I had glanced at him a few times when he didn’t notice and he seemed to be fine. He didn’t have any circles under his eyes, unlike me who hadn’t slept a wink, and he didn’t seem to be upset. Malcolm looked as fine as usual. Even in shorts and a T-shirt, the man had it going on. For a brief moment, my mind drifted back to that night and what could have happened. After class, I fumbled with my book bag and stayed behind to ask the professor a question, hoping the entire time that Malcolm would take that as a hint and go on without me. When I finally walked out of the classroom, I didn’t see him, but before I could make it down the hallway, Malcolm was at my side.
“Mia, what’s going on? What’s up with the cold shoulder?”
I glanced over at him and kept walking. “What do you mean?”
“Don’t give me that bullshit. You know exactly what I mean.”
“My husband, remember him, my husband’s best friend walks in on us about to have sex and you ask me what’s wrong?”
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