21. Amanda

AMANDA

I’m so confused. I thought for sure he was going to rip into me as soon as we entered our bedroom, but instead, he was gentle and kind when he undressed me.

Though he didn’t say a word the whole time and seemed not to want to look at me, when he led me into the shower and turned it on before stripping down and getting in with me, I started to relax.

His hands slid the washcloth over my skin, paying attention to the places I could no longer reach and even more to that place between my thighs. After being so tense all evening, this was a welcomed relief.

He even kissed me the way he usually does, which assured me once and for all that he wasn’t mad. But for some reason, each time I opened my mouth to speak, the words just died because I just couldn’t shake the feeling that something wasn’t right.

After he turned off the water and helped me out of the stall, he dried me off with a warm, fluffy towel that felt like heaven and then he led me to the bed after wrapping a towel around his hips. All of this was done without a word being shared between us, but I was in a euphoric place after that erotic shower and was in no mood to rock the boat.

He laid me back across the bed with my legs hanging over the side, knelt on the floor, spread my legs open, and started to feast. I forgot all about my fear that he was mad at me. I was just so lost in the ecstasy of having him touch me like this after expecting the worst.

His hands, those big, beautiful wonders, felt amazing against my flesh, and when he stood up and slid into me while looking into my eyes, I thought my heart would melt. I was close, so close, but then he pulled out. “On your knees.” He helped me get into my favorite position and even put a pillow under me for added comfort.

It was slow, deep, and just what I needed after a stressful day. I was close again, so close, but he eased off. He leaned over my back, and I braced for the feel of his teeth in my neck. It’s one of the most looked forward to parts of our lovemaking, his marking me. But he didn’t do it this time.

Still, I was distracted by the feel of him moving in and out of me. Then I felt the telltale throbbing of his cock which meant he was close as well, so maybe this time….

He pulled out and came on my back. I felt the wetness of his seed there and looked over my shoulder at him. “Why did you….?” The look on his face made the words dry up in my mouth. But what hurt more was the way he got off the bed without a word, grabbed his clothes, and walked out of the room.

What the hell just happened? I laid awake most of the night after checking the house for him, but he was nowhere to be found. I only fell asleep because I was too tired to stay awake much longer.

In the morning, he was there to drive me to work, but he didn’t talk to me all the way to the bakery. In fact, that’s not true; he did ask if I and the baby were feeling okay to which I said we were fine. But he said nothing else after that.

He didn’t come for lunch that afternoon, and it was all I could do to keep a smile on my face and make up an excuse when the others asked where he was. That evening, it was more of the same. Intense sex, no orgasm for me, though, and again, he pulled out and came on my back.

“Why are you doing this?”

“Because you don’t deserve my seed.” I wish I’d never asked.

“Where are you going?” I got off the bed to follow him, but his answer brought me to tears.

“You don’t need to know.” I cried myself to sleep.

* * *

THUNDER

* * *

Pain in the ass!Like I did the night before, I went to the home gym and worked out for a couple of hours before taking a shower and going up to bed. I waited until I was sure she was out cold both nights before going to her and then left before she woke in the morning.

As pissed as I am, I wouldn’t leave my heavily pregnant wife to sleep alone. Plus, I can’t seem to sleep without her next to me any damn way. I kept up the same pattern for the next few days and nights.

I’d drive her to the bakery without more than a hello: how are you? Since she wanted to treat her husband like a stranger with secrets and shit, then I’ll be that stranger until she gets her shit together.

I know it was pissing her off by week’s end because I kept freezing her out during the day and then fucking her at night without letting her cum. By the fifth night, she had the nerve to come for me because, once again, I came in her back and got up to leave.

“You can’t keep doing this; this is inhumane.”

“You can always say no.” That shut her up because I knew she needed that closeness as much as I did. I left her again and went for a ride this time.

I thought my anger would’ve abated by now, but it hasn’t. I’m still so pissed I can’t stand myself. Each time I think about them thinking they had the right to do that shit to her, it makes my blood boil, and I’m tempted to drive back to that house and light the shit on fire. But then I remember there’s a kid there, and that shit won’t do.

I’m not the most forgiving being in the universe, and my mind likes to spend hours thinking up fucked up shit to do to my enemies, and I must’ve killed those three people in fifty different ways.

But her I’m most mad at. I heard from Angel that she didn’t think it was a big deal, but the fact remains that she put herself and my kid in danger over stupid shit that could’ve been avoided. What happens the next time if her team doesn’t get to her in time?

I hate not cumming inside her, miss the closeness that that brings, but until she realizes her mistake and apologizes for scaring me half to death, no dice. But she still doesn’t seem to get it.

* * *

DAN

* * *

Mandy married to someone else?That can’t happen; I won’t let that happen. Mandy has always been mine. I sat on the couch and stewed with anger and rage. I didn’t even know who that man was; I had never seen him before.

After I went to the hospital and got patched up, I became nonverbal for three days. I didn’t speak to anyone; I didn’t want to hear anything anyone had to say; I just wanted Mandy.

Try as I might, I can’t get the image of her pregnant belly out of my head. That was supposed to be my kid. That’s my family. How dare she run off and get married to someone else and have a baby with him when she didn’t with me?

Was Mom right? Had she been lying all along? She was probably taking birth control, as Mom said. But why would she do that? It didn’t make any sense. We were in love once, or were we?

Mom had said that if she’d ever loved me, she wouldn’t be carrying another man’s child so soon after the divorce. Mom thinks she knew this guy all along and had just been stringing me along.

It was hard to separate truth from fiction, especially since I’d been drinking since I came back from the hospital, and the booze mixed with the painkillers was hitting me kinda hard.

I gotta find her either way; I need to talk to her with just us. I’m sure I can talk her into coming back to me. We’ve been in love since we were kids, we promised each other to always be together. There’s no way I’m gonna let anyone else have her.

Mom wanted to have that guy arrested, but Deidre, for once, used a calm head. She claimed that since Mom and I had accosted Mandy on the street in front of witnesses, we might be in more trouble than he is because she’s pregnant.

I hadn’t turned back on my security system since the last outage had knocked out the Internet because there’s no point in any of it anymore. I knew she’d been drugging me, and I still let her back in the house because Mom said it was good for my son to have both of us here.

Now, I wish I’d never listened; I wish I had taken those recordings and had her arrested, but now it’s too late. I glared across the room where she was playing on her phone and muttering to herself. It was all her doing, my wife, my job, all of it.

I’m sure she’s the one who called the faculty and reported me for drug use. Dumb bitch. Now, nobody has a job, and what little savings I had are about to run out. It would serve her right if she ended up on the streets. She must’ve felt me glaring at her because she turned and looked at me with a sour look on her face.

“What’re you looking at gimp?” I looked away and took another sip from the bottle that was never too far from my hand these days.

* * *

DEIDRE

* * *

Aha,found you. I knew he looked familiar. I’d say one thing for her: Amanda’s taste had improved vastly. If I’d known, Dan would’ve turned out this way. I never would’ve made him my mark, but you live and learn. I’m still young, and there’s another chess piece in play.

I knew the man that broke down our door almost a week ago looked familiar but couldn’t for the life of me place him. That’s because we’d never met, and I’d only seen him in an online Op-ed. Businessman of the Year, three years running. He’s one of the biggest weed distributors in the country with a billion-dollar company and many more than that in his offshoot businesses.

Now, how am I going to do this? How much of a look at my face did he get that day? Would he remember me? No-no, not a head-on meet. I should play this to my advantage.

He’d seen what I had to work with, and he’d asked about my son, which means he cared. That’s it. I’ll ask him for a job at his company. He hires homeless people and derelicts anyway, so why won’t he give me a job?

Especially after I tell him how my son and I are being abused. I felt better than I had in days. I called Cecile and asked her if she could watch the baby the next day because I was going for a job interview. She was only too happy to know that at least one of us was looking for a job.

I looked at her shiftless son with a sneer and got up to go to the restroom. By tomorrow, this time, I’ll have new prospects and a way to get out of this dump. I saw the rock on Amanda’s finger. If she can go from this to that, why can’t I?