“Idon’t need you here at all, Valerie. We’ve been transitioning you out. I’ve made that quite clear, but Franny enjoys your company … whether she’s telling you everything or not.”
“So that’s what this is about? I told you Franny only told her teacher about the blood she saw back at the academy because they experienced that trauma together. I’ve explained to you if I was here more frequently, I could get more—”
“That’s not necessary.”
“What is necessary then, Jameson? You want me to leave?” The woman sounded hurt.
“If there’s nothing else, then it’s best you do.”
“Well thereissomething else.” Her words were breathy as she replied, “You’re stressed. You had such a hard weekend. It stressed me out too. Look at me. Do you really want me to leave like this? Wouldn’t you hate that?”
Moments of silence stretched on and on, and I wasn’t proud to say I literally held my breath while waiting for his next move.
I knew he was a man that would have women around. I just didn’t think I’d be able to hear every moment of it, didn’t think I would want to succumb to listening to it, or that my body would actually tremble with anticipation.
“Please,” she almost whimpered. Desperation laced her voice, and I understood because I was on the verge of something, too, tiptoeing toward an edge I would fall down if he gave in to her.
When I heard, “Turn around then, and be quiet,” my breath caught. My heart lurched. My mind tried to scramble for sanity, but my body responded too fast. His voice shot straight to my core, lighting a flame so hot, I was burning and aching for whatever release I could chase to extinguish the intensity of it. Then I heard the gasping start. Her moaning was loud, her begging more and more intense.
With each minute that passed, my breathing turned shallower, my body grew tighter.
The fact that I clenched my thighs, that I bit my lip and considered snaking my hand down to my center, was absolutely ridiculous.
He was making love to another woman.
Roughly.
I heard her mostly, imagined that he was attending to her every need, how he probably had slipped his large hands into her clothes, pulled them off her, how rough his touch would feel while the scent of him encased her. The rumble in his chest would vibrate through me like it was doing to her right now, their skin would be hot to the touch, damp with passion.
She pleaded for more and then chanted his name louder and louder until something muffled it. He chastised her for not staying in control.
“This is a release. Not a show. Shut up.”
So vicious, and yet she still whimpered, “I can’t. It’s so good. Jameson, you make me feel so good. Right there.” She sounded almost frantic, like a fiend who would do anything for him, and I should have gotten up and not listened to the rest, but my nipples puckered at the thought of what he might be doing to her. Of how he might be touching her, of how his eyes must get dark or light when on the brink.
I heard how he breathed harder too, and something was wrong with me, because even as they finished, I went to the shower and imagined him all over again. Never was I into getting myself off like I was then. Never did I touch myself twice or three times in a night thinking of the same man.
Yet, I did for Jameson Knight. For a man I couldn’t have. For a man I shouldn’t want.
He had secrets, and they were his to keep. But my secrets were mine to keep too, and so I muffled my own screams in the night, calling out his name.
It was like I’d been told …
We all had things we hid behind closed doors.
Mia
FOR THE NEXT WEEK, a routine was established. Every morning, Archer would walk me to Rosy’s kitchen and then wander off … to do routine checks, I was guessing. My schedule became that I’d give Franny her chocolate and Malek his treat when they walked in like clockwork too.
I taught throughout the day, and I kept the boundaries between Jameson and I strictly professional like I knew I should.
“You know, boundaries are meant to be broken,” Rosy singsonged as I sprinkled a tablespoon of cinnamon into a waffle batter she was having me stir that morning.
“No. They’re in place for a reason.”
“Or we bet on who will overstep the boundary first. I’m betting him.”
“Why would he when he has … other women?”
