chapter Fourteen
My Valentine
Talina
The last eight weeks have been a whirlwind. I haven’t smiled so much in…I don’t know how long. I thought working with Nelson would become awkward, but things have only gotten better.
We’re at the point of finishing each other’s sentences. Nelson anticipates me in so many ways. We have become one well-oiled machine.
All of my fears have melted with each day. Nelson still shatters me to bits on a nightly basis, but he’s there to hold me after, over and over again. Today is the first day, I’ve felt out of sorts and it’s not because of our relationship.
Valentine’s day was special in my household growing up. My dad made my mom feel like a queen and me and my sister got to be princesses. My first dozen red roses came from my dad.
Over the years, I watched him give my mother countless roses and shower her in gifts of love, joy, and laughter. Their love was true love. I’ve always thought I’d have to settle for something less than that.
Nelson had an important meeting this morning, but he insisted that I take the day off. I woke to a trail of rose petals leading into the bathroom. A warm bath and bottle of wine waiting for me.
I broke down in tears. Nelson doesn’t know how much the simple things mean to me. The gesture is something my mother would have smiled all day about. Something I would have overheard her telling her sisters about.
God, my Mom and Dad loved each other. It was something we all felt. Finding Nelson’s note to me, along with a new jar of M & M’s and a diamond bracelet, gave me hope that I’ve finally found that same kind of love.
It’s been a melancholy type of day, so bittersweet. I don’t have Detra here to keep me laughing. She had to return to the States a few weeks ago. I have to say, I miss her.
I thought about calling Mya, but I don’t want to bring her down. Not after she called this morning, squealing about the text she sent me. She couldn’t even wait long enough for me to receive it and open it on my own. My heart nearly burst through my chest to see the amazing ring Jin placed on her finger.
I’m so happy for them. Mom and Dad would be so proud of her. Jin has been in love with my sister for as long as they’ve known each other.
I swipe at a tear and give a watery smile, as the song on my phone starts to play from the beginning again. Ella belts out, My Funny Valentine. I can’t remember a Valentine’s day when this didn’t play in my home.
I feel Nelson’s arms go around my waist, as I stand at the window in the sitting room. I close my eyes and breathe him in. His scent feels like home to me now.
“Are you trying to tell me something,” he says, his words sounding a little harsh.
I turn to look up at him. His words were hard, but I see nothing but love in his eyes. I cup his face and lift on my toes to kiss his lips.
“My father was a very handsome man, but he would always tell my mom how he somehow got lucky to have her,” I smile at the memory, as more tears fill my eyes. “Every Valentine’s day, he’d play this song, teasing as he danced Mom around the living room.”
Nelson’s eyes soften. He brushes away my tears and kisses my lips. He begins to sway me in his arms.
“I’m glad you have fond memories of it. Mine are very different.”
I knit my brows. “How so?”
At first, I don’t think he’s going to respond. His jaw works and his eyes go distant. I’m used to him avoiding a topic when he gets like this.
I sort of wish this was one of those times, as his words proceed to shatter my heart. I’ve wondered so many times in the last few months where Nelson goes in his head. I’ve wondered about the darkness he and Detra have hinted at.
I never thought I find out the answer like this. I never thought this ugliness would be the response. I think I fall in love with the soul of the man that stands before me, as he unravels his truth.
“My mother used every opportunity she had to make me feel like shit. I’ve been called ugly, by her more times than I can count. She was never kind to me.
“I can still hear her cackling, while this song played. She’d tease me with it, and not in a good way. She’d laugh, when I’d come home and didn’t get a Valentine’s day card from anyone.
“When I was seventeen. There was this girl. I had such a big crush on her. We’d been friends, or at least I thought we were.
“I thought she was my girlfriend. I’d gotten up the nerve to ask her out and she said yes. We were together for few months. Then, on Valentine’s day, at the dance in front of everyone, this song came on.
“My heart stopped the moment I heard it. I looked around and in the middle of the school gym, was my girlfriend kissing someone else. When I went to walk out of the gym, my mother was there, smoking a cigarette with a smug grin on her face.
“I didn’t know my mother was paying her to lead me on. It wasn’t even much, but back then we all needed something. It was enough to betray me.
“That woman wanted to break me. My father made her promises he never kept and I had to pay for them. She ripped me apart, until the day I left her behind,” Nelson’s last words echo with so much pain.
“I’m so sorry,” I whisper, wrapping my arms around his waist. “I wish I could take all of that away.”
He looks into my eyes and strokes my wet cheek. “You have,” he says with a weak smile.
“I love you,” I reassure him.
“Do you think you can see yourself with me?” Nelson asks sincerely. The worry in his eyes baffles me. I love him so much. “I mean in a forever way.”
I push his hair off his forehead. “I’ve been looking for you all my life, Nelson. Since I was a little girl, I’ve wanted what I saw my father give my mother. A love that touched not only their souls, but the souls of everyone around them and everyone that watched them.
“You know, that forever love. The kind that changes everything. That love that draws you together, no matter what. The type of love that can conquer anything. I think I have that now. With you, so I’m not going anywhere. You’re stuck with me,” I smile into those expressive hazel eyes.
Nelson licks his lips and nods. He blows out a breath. “I was hoping you would say that,” he says and drops to one knee. He gives me a broad smile. “Keep breathing, Ta.”
“Nelson,” I gasp and clench my t-shirt over my belly.
He pulls a box from inside his suit jacket. “I’ve been shopping for the right one for weeks. It had to be perfect, just like you. When you called me all excited about your sister, I wanted to tell you then,” Nelson draws in a breath and blows it out.
“I have a hard time trusting people. I’ve had more failed relationships than I care to count, but all of that has taught me to cherish, when I have something special. You, Talina are the most precious part of my life.
“I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I want to grow old with you and dance around our living room every year to our song to remember this year, over and over again. Will you be my Valentine? Will you be my wife? Will you marry me?”
“Yes, yes, and yes,” I squeal and throw myself at him.
Nelson catches me, but my momentum is too strong. I knock him over and he cracks his head on the floor. I gasp and Nelson groans, reaching for the back of his head.
“Are you okay? I’m so sorry,” I rush out.
“I’m fine,” he chuckles.
“I’m so, so sorry,” I repeat, dropping kisses all over his face. “I’m sorry.”
We look at each other and burst into laughter. Nelson wraps his arms around me and buries his face into my hair. I wrap my arms around his neck and absorb all the love he fills me with.
~B~
Nelson
I was thrown back in time when I heard that song. I almost turned to leave. Only, there was something in the way Talina had been standing at the window.
Taking her in brought me back to the present, back to the woman I’ve been sharing my life with for the last two months. I knew then that it was time to share my past with her. Talina has healed me with each day. I have nothing I want to keep from her.
I’m glad I didn’t walk away. Talina is finally mine forever. I’m going to make her my wife. We’re going to share a lifetime of the love she spoke so passionately about.
“I love you so much,” I say, against her breast.
Once she said yes, I wasted no time tossing her over my shoulder and carrying her up to our bedroom. Well, I did so after she flung herself at me, knocking me to the floor, where I cracked my head. My life is always filled with laughter with Talina around.
However, this moment will be filled by many sounds, just not laughter. I drag my tongue from one nipple over to the other. I love the taste of her chocolate skin on my tongue.
I get ready to pull her peak into my mouth, but Talina has other ideas. She catches me off guard, as she pushes me onto my back. She moves her small frame to rest between my legs.
My lips part, as her intension hits me. She pulls me into her mouth, swirling her tongue around the crown. I groan and push my head back into the pillow. I suck in a breath, as she works her head up and down.
“Baby,” I groan and rock my hips up.
The slurping sound that greets my ears, sets my blood on fire. My toes curl, as she plants her palms on my thighs. Her fingernails dig into my skin, and my hands shoot into her hair.
“Talina,” I hiss. “Damn, Baby.”
“Mmm,” she hums and it’s the last straw, I gently peel her off.
I cup my hands under her arms and drag her up my body. I roll until she beneath me. I nudge her legs apart, with my thighs.
When I slide inside her, I grasp the sheets beside her head. This will never get old, she’s always so snug. I shift my leg up further, tilting her hips up and sliding my knees beneath her. I want to go deeper than deep.
I want to feel every inch of my woman. I set a slow pace, making love to her, not fucking. Chest to chest, heart to heart, I feel her soul connect with mine. I drink from her lips, taking her cries for my own air. They give me a new life, as I slide back and forth, over and over and over.
Our love making is the only sound that matters, as we call for each other and breathe for one another. She is everything I was made to love. Feeling her soak my hard cock is like a prize in itself.
“I love you with everything I am,” I groan in her ear.
“I love you too, Nelson,” she pants. “Please, I need more.”
I grin, knowing just what she needs. I lift to sit back on my hackles. Scooping my hands beneath her, I lift her up so that we’re chest to chest again. I coax her legs around my back, then guide her up and down on my length.
Her head falls back, I lean in to lick her neck, before I suck her flesh into my mouth. I kiss my way down to her breast, kissing the mound, before using my tongue to seek out her tight peak. I suck her sensitive trigger into my mouth, finding the sensitive skin on her hips, with my hands at the same time.
I tease her skin with my fingers, while taunting her breast with my mouth. Her cries tell me all I need to know. The rocking and rolling of her hips, takes me to the edge of my restraint.
My fingers dig into her hips, biting into her flesh. “Yes, Nelson, yes, Baby,” she purrs.
This woman. She had me from the beginning. I would give her the world, yet she never asks for more than my love. I can do that.
~B~
Talina
If this is what I have to look forward to as Nelson’s wife. I want to get married tonight. I didn’t think he could take my body any higher. Boy, was I wrong.
My breast pops free from his mouth. How is watching his saliva connect from his lip to my nipple so sexy? I feel like every nerve in my body is soaring. How does one ooze sexy, during the act of sex? Nelson has changed everything I ever thought about sex.
“Baby, I’m coming,” I breathe.
“Then, cum, I’m here to catch you. Fall as hard as you need to,” he rasps and that’s all it takes.
I fall and I fall hard, but it doesn’t hurt because he’s there to bring me down gently. I know in my heart this will always be the way it is. Nelson will catch me every single time and I love him for it.