Finding Faith (20 page)

“I told you I have a meeting in the afternoon.”

I played with my eggs, sliding them around hiding his reflection that was smack in the middle of the white plate. It was bad enough I was too chicken to look him directly in those emeralds he called eyes because I would lunge across the table and attack him, I certainly didn’t want to be reminded of them as I tried to eat the food he cooked exactly how I liked.

“You already told me about the meeting, but what are your plans before that? I’m off today, so I figured it would be fun if we could do something. If you don’t have to work that is,” John said, shifting closer towards me with his mouth set in a tight frown.

His free hand balled up into a fist, resting next to his empty plate. Those eyes that were shining at me moments before turned dark, shooting green daggers, telling me he wouldn’t put up with anything other than a serious answer.

I had to decide how I wanted to answer this. I was onto the game he was playing and I didn’t think it would be such a great idea if we spent time together alone. As I was about to say so, I was saved by my phone ringing.

“I have to go get that. I bet it’s Grace. She must have come over for coffee this morning and saw I wasn’t there.”

Before he could stop me I scampered away in the direction of his room, letting a nervous giggle escape, relief seeping from every pore.

“Hey,” I said into the phone, more chipper than I’d felt in months.

“I’m so thrilled that you’re as excited to hear my voice as I am to hear yours,” a deep, silky voice said from the other end of the line.

Shit! “What do you want, Brad?” I asked, my voice dropping two octaves along with the cement block. That will teach me to not check the caller ID. A chill ran up my spine as I pictured Brad on the other end ready to go for the kill.

“I want to work things out, Faith. I miss having you in my bed.”

That deep voice hit me to my core, making the hairs on my arms stand up. Wanting me back was the last thing I expected to hear.

I was standing in John’s navy blue fireman T-shirt enveloped in his scent while I considered Brad’s plea, but quickly came back to my senses. Was I an idiot?

“Brad, it will never happen. Do you know how much trouble you got me in with that lie? Not to mention the crap you’ve been spewing about me.”

I spit the words out, not wanting to give him a clue to my fear.

“Come on, babe. I was angry. I didn’t mean all that. Give me another chance.”

His rich voice dripped with sweetness before going silent. I waited, not sure what to say. Then he spoke up again.

“You know you won’t get into trouble. Afterwards, I’ll show you how sorry I
really
am.”

His voice slid like velvet directly to my pussy, making me quake. No, it wasn’t supposed to react like that after all the evil things he said about me.

I grabbed at the twist in my stomach, feeling the worn cotton between my fingers. Brad wouldn’t be happy seeing me in this shirt. He felt I deserved to be in something better. I don’t think his reason was because I deserved more, but because he was too good to be seen with anyone dressed this way. The only thing I couldn’t argue about was the man sure knew how to make love to a woman. No, not make love, screw. He never did disappoint me in that department.

“Brad, I really…”

“Enough, Faith.” Brad’s voice became sharp, but still hung with lust. “I won’t take no for an answer. I’ll be over to your place by noon so we can talk.”

The handle to John’s room jiggled as he called through the door.

“Is everything all right, Faith? The omelet didn’t make you sick did it?”

I heard him mumble shit under his breath. The worry in John’s voice made me notice that I had the poor man on pins and needles.

As I suspected, even though I had my hand over the mouthpiece John had spoken loud enough to be heard on the other end of the phone.

“Who is that? Where are you? I thought you’d be home,” Brad snapped. The seduction in his voice vanished, replaced with a rough edge. “Faith?” he said sternly.

That tone always worked with uncooperative patients but it wasn’t going to work with me. Not over the phone at least. If I were in front of him that may be a different story. He scared the bejesus out of me lately, but as long as he was on the other end not able to see the horror he was inciting I could sound strong.

“No, I’m not at home.” It wasn’t his business where I was. I held my breath for his response. Brad never reacted well to defiance. When we were together I made sure to never anger him.

John called from the hall again, louder this time.

“Faith, answer me or I’m coming in. You telling me you’re naked won’t stop me either. It would probably work the opposite, if you want the truth.” I could hear the worry hanging on his voice, but he was attempting to play it off.

All I could do was shut my eyes and wait to see if the man on the other line heard. No matter how harmless John had meant the comment to be he had given this snake more ammunition to confirm his claim that I was indeed a slut. If I didn’t try to pacify Brad this would be all over the hospital by tomorrow.

“I’ll be right there,” I said, trying to keep the nerves at bay, feeling perspiration form on my forehead.

When Brad spoke again his voice was so quiet I had to strain to hear him. “Will you be home later? Will you be with him?” He sounded broken.

That threw me for a loop. Maybe he was going to try to right this after all. The clock on John’s nightstand told me I had two hours to get back home before Brad wanted to come over.

“I can be there by noon. I gotta go.” I hung up before he replied. John catching me on the phone with the ex and having to try to answer more questions that I didn’t know how to answer, or want to, gave me a pounding headache.

The hand that held the phone was still shaking as I ripped the door open. John stood in front of me with his hand extended towards the knob, a pin at the ready to unlock it.

“Where do you have to be at noon?” he asked. He saw my eyes go big.

Shoot, how was I going to explain this? Before I had to answer I got swallowed up by his massive hold, covering me like a blanket, making me forget about everything. Why was I fighting this? Oh, right, I decided we could only be friends.

John started speaking but I was immersed in him, not fully aware of what he was saying.

“We need to have a talk,” I vaguely heard him say. I could smell cumin on his breath. When did he start using it in his eggs? He never use to.

At that moment I was in my own world. I cuddled up closer, tightening my grip around his rock solid waist, wiping away any gap that could have been open between us.

His length hardened against my stomach. I buried my nose into his smooth, warm abdomen, soaking up the delicious, clean, musky smell, even better than the cotton shirt.

As I stood in his arms, my body melted against his like they were made for each other. It felt so good, but forget it.

Never.

I managed to pull out of the John induced haze and asked, “What do you want to talk about?”

Shit! I heard my voice, it sounded dreamy and pathetic. What made the situation worse was my question came out muffled because I still had my head tucked into his warm stomach. It seemed I was the only one who felt my voice sounded pitiful because John grew even harder between us as I received a tighter hug.

Air gushed out of my lungs as his iron limbs clenched around me. It felt so good shivers ran up and down my spine. John took an arm away causing me to let out a small groan of protest. I wasn’t left bereft for long. He found my chin, tipping it up so I had to look into those green bits of heaven. I refused, keeping my eyes sealed. I wanted to revel in the feel of his fingers on my skin even if it was only my chin. As soon as I saw him I’d be a goner.

Before I could open my eyes his breath was on my cheek, grazing me with a soft kiss. My mouth dropped open slightly in surprise from the reverence that I felt from that one delicate kiss from such a powerful man. I wanted to cry.

His strong hands moved gingerly to cup either side of my neck while his thumbs brushed the tender spot below my ears, slowly drawing small kisses along my jaw until he met my mouth. I was breathless, my lips parting wanting more.

Without asking permission, his tongue entered, finding mine, stroking shy at first until I joined him. Our tongues tangled with each other, exploring slowly. His kisses always told me everything he felt. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d felt so wanted. I relaxed my hold around him, tasting and savoring the feel of his mouth so warm and wet. The lust was rapidly building with each stroke, making me cream my panties. If his fingers touched my hot spot now I would combust.

A moan escaped me, arousing him. His hand slipped from my chin into my hair, taking a handful and tugging. A growl of his own came out in response as he pulled me in closer, urgently deepening our kiss. The soft and gentle kiss had changed to hungry and rough. Teeth clashed in our frenzy to get as much of each other as possible. I clawed at his bare chest, wanting more of him. A low grunt escaped his mouth into mine again and I swallowed it up with my own purr in response.

A hand moved down under my shirt, finding my ass, digging his hips into mine, reminding me of his rock hard erection. My hands stopped there, clawing, wandering down to both of his ass cheeks, digging my nails into his flannel pants wishing they were on his bare ass.

We were so engulfed in each other I didn’t notice we were moving until I suddenly felt the bed behind my knees, making me lose my balance.

We fell backwards as one onto the mattress. Hands started roaming over bodies in a frenzied pace, not able to get enough. If we didn’t touch every inch of each other we would explode.

John’s hand moved to the front, caressing my stomach as he made his way up to one breast alternating between running his thumb across my nipple and plucking it until he brought it to a tight peak. Once satisfied, he moved to the other side to pay the same kind of attention to that breast, but never breaking contact with my mouth.

I found the waist band of his pants and made my way to his stiff cock. I wanted to stroke it until he was as insane as I was. We were so primal neither of us could speak, only grunting, panting, purring in appreciation of what the other was doing.

Clothes started flying off. He yanked my shirt off in one swift motion dropping it to the ground. Then I slid his pajama bottoms down with my legs before flinging them behind his head, knocking something down.

Once we were naked, chest to chest, I wanted to scream it felt so amazing, his heart pounding so hard I could feel it against my own. I couldn’t resist splaying my hand over his heart.

“I love touching you,” I breathed.

My hand didn’t stay there long. John took it into his massive one, bringing it up to his mouth and kissing it tenderly, staring into my eyes before raising both of my arms over my head to leave them there and make his way back down.

“Fuck me, please. You’re teasing me,” I moaned as one of the licks he gave to my nipple followed by a nip hit me straight in my pussy. I went to bring a hand down to yank on his sandy brown hair but was given a tsk in between nips.

“Am I?” he asked with a smile that touched my collar bone. “I need to feel for myself,” he whispered in a husky voice as his hand made its way down, feeling every curve and dip as it went. When he reached between my legs he let out a groan that almost made me cum and said, “Shit, you’re soaked.”

Two fingers plunged inside taking over complete control.

My nerves were still on fire from all the attention he had started under my ear and worked down.

The two fingers he had working the sensitive spot inside were about to kill me. I didn’t know how much more I could take. My body was attempting to writhe away from him but his full weight was on me, keeping me prisoner. Adding a third sent me out of the atmosphere.

“Let go, Faith.” John’s voice was right next to my ear in a whispered moan. He licked the shell of my ear as he spoke, pushing me over the precipice.

A scream erupted from somewhere. The noise I heard sounded like a wild animal. I realized the sound was me because John was rubbing my hair saying sweet words of confirmation as I convulsed under him drenched in sweat.