7

AIDA

My brain isn't working well enough for me to understand what's happening as I watch Noel start to run on the treadmill like he wasn't just pounding between my still trembling thighs not two seconds ago.

It isn't until I hear the door beyond the room where I'm supposed to be running tests swish open that I'm grateful he didn't dawdle after I inexplicably let him hit it.

A moment later, one of the guards walks in.

I rush to smooth my wrinkled skirt, but I feel like it's clear to any with eyes what we were doing.

"There were thumping sounds." The guard's gaze narrows between my disheveled appearance and Noel's running form.

"Happens when you're running." Noel waves down where his feet are slapping the tread pad, which could be mistaken for the table hitting the wall.

He hasn't broken a sweat, not while we were going at it against the table or as he maintains the highest speed on the machine. His legs are a blur, and when he spares the guard another glance, it's only to tilt his mouth into one of those "don't give a shit" smirks.

Seemingly satisfied with Noel's response, the guard turns to me. "You almost done here?"

I swallow around the nervous lump in my throat, my legs clenching together as I feel the warm slide of semen dripping from inside me. I don't know where my panties are. Discreetly, I cast my gaze across the floor, but they're nowhere in sight. "We've barely started. Uh—I, um, I had to do some calibrations, you know, uh, to make sure the data is accurate." I fumble around for more terms that I hope confuse him enough that he doesn't notice that we just started. "I'll let you know when we're finished."

He shoots me another skeptical look. "Well, hurry up. Your kid's school called. There's been an incident."

Everything goes quiet, and at first, I think it's because fear is crawling its way up my back, freezing out the warmth that lingered from being with Noel. But then I realize it's because he's cut the machine.

He steps down and comes over, taking me by the arms despite the guard being right in front of us. "Calm down. Everything is okay. Go see to your kid. I'll be here."

"You don't give any orders here. Umansky said she can't leave until she finishes—"

"Shut the fuck up."

The guard's mouth clamps at Noel's command, and then I'm being turned so my back is to him. I face the easy blue eyes of the man who haunted my dreams all weekend and just eviscerated my vagina.

A man I know now I'm going to save.

"I'm not doing shit if they try to keep you here. They'll have to make me run. Go. I'll be here when you get back."

"They'll punish you." I want to be gone, to know what's going on with Zora.

Is she hurt?

Did she get in trouble?

Yet, I want to know that Noel will be okay, too.

Like he can read the concern in my gaze, he gives me a little shake. "Don't worry about me. They need me alive, and I'm pretty good at staying that way. Go."

With a nod, I stall for a second, the sudden urge to kiss him making me lean in.

His mouth curves slightly. "Go see to baby girl. I'll see you when you get back. Either way," he lowers his voice, "I'm inside of you."

Heat flushes my chest and face as he sets me back and turns me toward the flustered guard.

I rush past the man who shouts something at my back. Ignoring the warning, I sprint to security, where I gather my things and leave.

It takes entirely too long to get into the city. All I can think of in the forty-five minutes is that so many things can happen in forty-five minutes.

My panic only expands when I see the two police cruisers parked in front of the school.

I pull up alongside them and hop out, running in my low heels toward the school doors, only to draw up short when the officers emerge with my daughter walking between them, each holding one of her arms.

I continue forward and cut them off. "What's going on? Why the hell are you touching her? Get your hands off of my child!"

"Ma'am—"

"Mom!" Zora shouts, stepping from between the officers. At first, her face is drawn in anger, and then she launches herself at me, wrapping her arms around my waist.

It's been so long since she's hugged me that I forget I'm supposed to be cussing out the officers for daring to touch her and hug her back, crowding over and kissing the top of her dark brown, twisted hair.

"You okay? What happened? Did they hurt you?"

Her head shakes against my torso, but when she looks up, tears shine in her eyes. "They weren't hurting me. Something happened. They said they had to remove me for my safety."

I look over her at the officers, who are impatiently waiting for me to come out of mama bear mode. "What's going on?"

"Well, ma'am. There was a threat called in on your daughter."

"A threat?" I shake my head, trying to understand. "Who?"

They exchange a look, and it's one I've seen before. It was the look on every person's face last year when they realized who I was and how I was connected to the most sensationalized story of the decade.

"The call came from an inmate at the County Correctional Facility. We believe it was—"

"I know who it was." I heave a breath, and when I chance a look at Zora, all of the relief is gone.

In its place is the stony resentment she hasn't bothered hiding from me since everything went down.

"Can we go?" She crosses her arms and starts for the car, leaving me with the officers who watch her depart with pity.

I roll my eyes at that because what the hell do they know. "Can I take her home? Do you think the threat is real? Should we go somewhere?"

They're already shaking their heads. "That's not necessary. The school is required to call us in these cases, but we think he just did it to scare you. I'd say take her home, and it should all blow over by tomorrow."

I thank them, though I don't feel like they care enough to do more, and leave, calling the school on the way to get their side of the story.

"Actually, Mrs. Smith—"

"That's not my name. It's Dr. Eberling. Aida is fine if you can't remember that." I jerk the wheel on a turn, easing onto the brakes before I have an accident.

"I apologize. Dr. Eberling, we think it would be best if Zora stays home for the remainder of the week. Just until it's clear there's no threat."

I press my lips tight, fighting the urge to tell him how much I know this has nothing to do with caring about Zora's safety. They don't want their precious prep school reputation getting tarnished again by the association with me and what happened before.

"We have to think of the safety of the other students as well."

I sigh. "Fine. I appreciate your concern. If it's not too much trouble, I'd like to have her assignments sent to her."

"Of course. And we're sorry about this. It's just so unfortunate—"

I hit end on the call and grip the steering wheel hard, keeping my eyes on the road, not daring to look at my daughter because I know what I'll see.

Still, I'm unprepared for the absolute devastation of the words that fill the silence a moment later.

"I hate you."

I hinge my head in her direction, forgetting about the road, to stare at the side of my daughter's face, a face so much like my own—and her father's. But, right now, it's set in a grimace of disgust that startles me out of my stupor.

"I know the past year hasn't been great. It's been bad. Really bad. And I know it's my fault." I breathe, willing my voice to remain steady even as my throat feels like it's about to close in on itself. "But don't you ever talk to me like that. I made a mistake, a terrible mistake, but I'm still your mother. It's just me, Zo, and I'm doing my best. I—"

The clanging ring of my car's Bluetooth cuts me off, and I hit the call-receive button without thinking about it, wishing I'd screened it first when Umansky's voice echoes into the cab.

"I hope you're on the way back here, Doctor."

I inhale, remembering what happened with Noel before I left. For a moment, I wonder if maybe I'm busted.

"I'd like to get these tests done today. We have a schedule to keep."

I breathe a sigh of relief, even as my thighs twitch around the tenderness there. It's the worst time to think it, but Noel is blessed—and then some. There wasn't time to be shocked at his introduction to my body earlier, but my brain is having deferred surprise.

Clearing my throat, I snap myself back to the present.

"Dr. Umansky. I've had a bit of a family emergency. My daughter will need to stay home for the remainder of the week. I know we have deadlines, but I'll get us back on schedule next Monday." A part of me is a little relieved that the delay will also give me time to think of a plan to get Noel out of there.

Umansky tsks, and I can sense the condescension coming. "I'm sorry to hear that. Why don't you bring her to the lab? It's guarded, and she'll be looked after. We have snacks."

I frown at the dashboard, unsure if this is the same man who's been not so subtly hinting that he thinks Black professionals are token hires offering to let me—a single, Black mother—bring her kid to her place of employment.

Despite my unease with Genesis, I've wanted to get back to the lab from the moment I heard about the call to Zora's school.

Back to Noel.

He feels safe. He's the safest I've ever felt, even strapped to a chair. And if all else fails, Zo and I will have a dozen armed guards between me and anyone who wants to harm us.

I look at her, and she shrugs, scowling back out the window.

"Who cares."

I'll take that as a yes. "Uh, thank you, Dr. Umansky. I'll be back shortly then."

"We look for—"

I cut the line and send up a bit of thanks that he wasn't calling to bust me about screwing Noel.

Because I fucked Noel.

No, not Noel. Byron.

Even if it was a figment of my imagination, the name he gave me in my dream feels more appropriate—more him .

I fucked him against the desk at work—and I liked it. I really liked it, and if I'm being honest, I needed it.

I needed it just the way he gave it—hard, fast, and deep .

I let him come in my body without a thought.

Except it wasn't without thought.

Everything in me was aching to have that man. Like how he appeared in my dreams as something necessary. Something meant for me.

Shaking my head, I glance at my daughter, who's still looking out the window.

Maybe I'm fucking up again.

I tap into my insides, not of my thighs—those are demolished—but the gut that my mother insisted I listen to, and…

I don't feel bad about it.

I want to, but I don't. I should, but I can't.

As I shift in the seat, a twinge goes through my pussy. The memory surfaces of him stretching me, his hips thrusting with measured force. He caged me in with his big body, leaving me only to take what he gave.

"Mm."

"What?" Zora's frowning at me when I glance at her again.

My eyes had closed for the briefest moment as I relived the force of his movements, so unlike what I was used to, what I had before. And the short moan fell out of my mouth before I realized it.

I cough to cover the sound and adjust my hands on the steering wheel before lowering the window a crack.

It's hot.

"You're acting weird." Zora makes the classic face of every teenager when their parent is embarrassing them.

"Yeah, well, parents are weird sometimes." I'm glad she can't know what's clawing through my brain right now, the small details I registered subconsciously as I was with Byron but was too consumed at the moment to acknowledge.

The table hitting the wall in a syncopated thump, the thwack of his pelvis meeting my inner thighs, my desperate attempts to keep quiet.

I rub my lips, realizing they're pretty raw. It was all I could do not to scream out my pleasure, and I nearly bit a hole through the bottom one. Even this tenderness feels good. Byron has come into my life out of nowhere, leaving nothing but throbbing feelings in his wake.

Other details emerge, like how he growled when he came. A low rumble that sounded like it belonged in the throat of a beast and not the man who was giving me so much pleasure.

And, still, I'd understood it. My body had responded to the primal sound, coming even harder as he filled me up. Just like he said, he's inside of me, and I can still feel him.

I'd be worried if I hadn't seen his basic workup, which was one of the few test results I was allowed access to, and know I'm not at risk for anything transmittable. For a man who has lived the kind of life his record indicates, he's in the best health—sturdy and virile. He doesn't even have signs of trauma, no healed bones.

Another strange fact I should have noticed sooner.

I still can't believe how he hopped on that treadmill and wasted no time running at the highest speed.

"Are we going in?"

I blink on the lab's metal reinforced doors and realize I've muscle memoried myself back to Genesis.

It's a forty-minute ride, and my mind was on Byron the whole time.

"Yeah. Give me a minute."

She rolls her eyes and starts to exit the car, but I snap my fingers, triggering her pause. "None of that. You can be mad, but we don't disrespect each other. You don't disrespect me. Got it?"

"Yeah,' she mumbles, then gets out, closing the door and leaning against the hood with her arms crossed.

I take a deep breath, blow it out, and pull down the visor to check myself in the mirror.

Shit.

My loose braid out is lopsided and messy. The only consolation I have that no one has looked at me and thought I look like I've been fucking is that these folks don't know what a Black woman's hair is supposed to look like.

My eyes stay locked on Zo as I do some deep breathing exercises, sudden anxiety making me realize what I'm about to walk back into.

I never should have brought her here.

If Byron says something, I'm done, but I don't think he will.

A thump brings my focus back, and Zora raises her hands in question of what's taking me so long.

I hold her gaze, all the ways I don't want to gentle parent this snappy little teenager running through my mind before I climb out and lock the door. Circling to meet her, my patience thins as she eyes me with open contempt.

"Be on your best behavior, please ." The silent command is that she fix her face before my coworkers see it, and I'm satisfied at least that her expression goes neutral as we approach the door.

I press the security bell and lift my face for the camera, prompting her to do the same before the door buzzes and we're allowed in.

They take my personal belongings as always, including my cell phone and purse, in exchange for my clearance badge. When they ask for Zora's things, she looks up at me in dismay.

"I have to give up my cell?" She sounds like someone just told her it's a pound of flesh to get it.

"And backpack," the guard adds without a lick of sympathy.

"Actually, she has homework. Umansky said it was fine," I add when he looks like he's about to argue.

He grumbles about the bag but lets her keep it, and Zora grumbles about the phone but hands it over. I also note that when he places my stuff in the bin, he does so gently .

I arch a brow as I motion Zora to come along.

He better had.

Zora follows me down the hall, her arms crossing again as we make our way toward my lab.

With every step, my heart thumps a frantic rhythm. All the way until I reach the door and I'm about to scan my keycard.

"Doctor!"

I spin around, my expression bunching into distaste before I school it as Umansky approaches. "Dr. Umanksy, hi. I'm sorry I had to rush out earlier, but thank you for letting me bring her here. This is my daughter, Zora."

He spares Zo the briefest glance before focusing back on me. The smile that pulls at his mouth is forced at best. "Ah, yes. I think we got cut off earlier while we were speaking."

He pauses as if he expects me to confirm it was a mistake, but I remain silent, letting him come to his own conclusion.

His smile gets tighter before he fake guffaws. "Well, it doesn't matter. Your daughter is welcome here any time. I insist. However, you understand she can't accompany you inside your lab because we deal with sensitive research."

I look at Zora, who looks bored, and back at him. "Where is she supposed to go?"

Images of my daughter being forced to sit with Maxim or one of the other grimy-ass guards while I finish my work have my stomach rolling.

I'll walk out of here if that's the case.

"She's more than welcome to stay in the employee lounge. I've reserved it for her. No one else will go there. Here, I'll show you." He spins on his heels, walking down the hall, and I follow, waving Zo along.

I've never heard of any employee lounge, but I don't spend too much time here once I'm done with work if I don't have to. Usually, I'm in a rush to get home to see a daughter whose sole purpose in life seems to be to test my dedication to never throwing hands with her.

We come to a set of swinging doors, the only ones I've seen that don't have security access, and Umansky pushes them open to reveal what can only described as a teenager's dream room.

A row of large desktops have expensive gaming chairs in front of them, each with a controller and headphones.

There's an air hockey table and a pool table, TVs mounted on the walls, and a small cafe with snacks of all kinds stacked on the open shelves.

"Wow!" Zora rushes in, going straight for the closest gaming chair. She drops down into it and lifts the controller. "I wonder if I can play Tonia!"

"Well, it's a closed network, so you can only play in-house, but you can always play the computer."

Umansky's declaration doesn't dampen her excitement. She props the headphones over her ears and starts scrolling through the list of downloaded games, settling on something that looks like it involves shooting.

I cringe a bit as the avatar cocks a gun and starts running through a jungle, looking for targets. Turning, I find Umansky watching me with that strange smile.

I return it, if a bit shortly. "Thanks for this. It's only for the week."

He waves a hand, his eyes crinkling behind his glasses in a way that would be Santa Claus jolly if I believed it. "No worries. I'm just glad you could come back to finish your work."

The message beneath the subtle reminder is that I'm messing up their schedule.

"Well, I'll get to it." I turn back to ask Zora if she'll be okay, but she's sniping a zombie or something from a rooftop.

Umansky and I leave her, and I head back toward my lab, telling myself I may not like it here and may not trust these people as far as I can throw them, but having her close makes more sense. I wouldn't be able to focus if she was home alone.

As I approach my lab again, I know there's a good chance I won't be able to focus anyway.

This is confirmed when a pair of potent blue eyes meet mine the second I pass through the doors.