10

John

What the fuck…three months had passed, I was down thirty pounds, and hadn’t slept much at all. Who was she and why had she done this to me?

“I found her,” Jason said as soon as I answered the phone.

“What, where? Who is she?” I spat out in a flurry of words.

“Fuck, don’t kill the messenger. But…she’s with Nate Hendricks. She was taken to his place from the airport. Now she’s on her way to meet him at a restaurant.”

“I’ll kill him. The bastard. Of all the women in the world he came after mine.” The fury in me knew no bounds. Before it had just been business, but now he’d gone too far. The old me would show him what it was like when you had nothing left to lose.

“Tell me where they are.” He told me they were going to an Italian place Hendricks often visited. I was on my way there, arriving just before she did. I sat in the corner and watched as she was directed to a table. What caught my interest was the bump on her belly. She was pregnant with my kid. It better be or Hendricks was going to have a slow and painful death. The waiter brought the menu, but I only wanted a drink. I watched as Hendricks walked in and he looked worse than I did. She jumped up from her seat and into his arms. Then they sat there, talking. He grabbed her hand and I felt the pain and rage a man who’d been betrayed would. I got up to confront them when the waitress approached and in seconds a flurry of activity occurred. Nate chased after her, leaving my woman sitting at the table crying. Now I really wanted his head.

I reached the table. “Hello, Layla,” I said with contempt in my voice.

Her eyes met mine in shock and full of tears. “John?” she gasped.

“I see you weren’t expecting me.”

“I…”

“You what? Your lover went off to chase another woman and left you here crying. I hope it fucking hurts because you’ve done more damage to me than living on the streets ever did.”

“John, it’s not like that. It’s hard to explain.” She placed her hand on mine and my heart damn near exploded. Months of longing and hoping to see her again all came back to me. I took her hand and held it, needing to find relief. I saw the remorse and sadness in her eyes. I suddenly had a thought. Had Nate blackmailed her? Is that why she ran and hid from me? No, they looked too damn chummy.

“Start trying,” I demanded.

“Excuse me, but of all people I don’t owe you an explanation. In fact, I think it’s best you leave.” For the first time I saw anger and pain in those beautiful eyes that were solely directed at me. Whatever lies he told her I needed to fix, but not before my fist had a nice friendly conversation with Hendricks.

“I’m not leaving until I knock Hendricks the fuck out and take you with me,” I stated, she gasped, trying to pull her hand away. I felt Hendricks standing to the side of me and I wasn’t letting go no matter how bad she wanted me to in front of her lover.

“What the fuck are you doing talking to my sister, Moriarty?” he snarled. Wait…did he just say…? That was a bit of a relief. 

“She’s your sister?” I asked, shocked as fuck, but…it hit me like a ton of bricks. She must have been listening to him talk about me and believed it. 

“Yes, she is. I’ll ask you again. What are you doing here?”

“She and I have some important things to discuss. I followed her here and saw you two having dinner. She’s mine.” He wasn’t going to stop me from talking to my woman, my future wife and the mother of my child and soon to be others.

“What did you say?” he asked, stepping in like he was going to intimidate me. No one had that power except his little sister who owned me.

I stood, unafraid of him. “You heard me. She’s my woman, and I’ve been looking for her for months.”

“Great, you found her. Now you can scram and forget her number.” Ha. This guy had no idea who he was dealing with and it was clear he didn’t know she was pregnant.

We stared each other down. “Listen, Hendricks, she and I have a lot to discuss—particularly the fact that she lied to me about who she is and disappeared even though she’s carrying my baby.”

Oh, this was all news to him. Maybe he should have spent more time looking after her than fucking all those women, then he’d know something was going on with her.

“I’m sorry, Nate. I… well… I was going to tell you,” Layla stammered out to her brother, standing as well.

“But you weren’t going to tell me, were you, Layla?” I was pissed as fuck that I couldn’t hide the pain she caused me.

“I wanted to. It’s just, well, I needed to figure out how,” Layla said, looking up at me. Her eyes, the ones that stole my heart, were honestly sad and confused. 

I stepped around the table to her side and glared. “If you hadn’t run in the first place, we wouldn’t even be going through this right now,” I growled.

She blanched for a moment and then got angry. “I’m not getting rid of my baby, John.”

She thought that I wanted her to get rid of my kid? I wanted nothing of the sort. I wanted her to have a baseball team full of little Moriarty boys and girls. “You’re not getting rid of my baby, and I never said I wanted you to. We’re getting married and preparing for this baby together.”

“Look, Layla, if you want Jess and me to help you with the baby, we will,” Hendricks offered. 

“She won’t need your help. She’s my woman, and that’s my baby,” I told him in no uncertain terms. Then I turned back to Layla. “Let’s get out of here so we can talk. I’m not having this conversation in public.”

“He’s right,” Layla said to her brother. “This isn’t the place for it. John and I will go talk. I promise to call you later, Nate. I’m sorry you’re upset with me.”

He gave me a dirty look before addressing my woman. “I’m not upset with you. This fucker, hell yeah. He’s been sabotaging me with everything, and now he went for my sister. That’s fucking low.”

Is that what she thought too? Is that why she called me a liar?  I looked at her then back at him. “I didn’t go after your sister. I had no idea who she was, and undercutting you is nothing. I can’t help that you fucked up your career with those women. Now, Layla and I are going to leave. She’ll contact you tomorrow.”

“I’m not letting you take her anywhere unless she wants to go with you,” he dared to threaten me.

“No, he’s right. We need to talk. I’m sorry, Nate. I really am.”

The owner of the restaurant came up to us, completely red in anger. “Men, this isn’t the place for this. Please sit and have dinner in peace.”

“Sorry, sir. We’re leaving,” I informed him, grabbed Layla by the hand and we were out of there. The moment we made it outside, I pinned her to the side of the building and slammed my mouth down on hers. She gave very little resistance before surrendering. Her hands laced through my hair. I pulled away because I was tempted to fuck her right here. Jason pulled up in his car and jumped out. “I’ll give you a ride back and have someone return your car.”

“Thanks, Jason.” I led her into the car and sat next to her, my hand in hers. There was a lot to talk about, but I wanted to do it in private. The drive to my condo wasn’t too long. He dropped us off and I had my arms wrapped around her all the way up to my place. She didn’t say a word, almost like she was too emotional.

As I walked her inside, I sat down on the sofa and pulled her onto my lap “I missed you so much, Layla. Please tell me what I did wrong.” I needed to know.

She played with her fingers, trying to get her words together. “I thought you knew who I was and used me to get to my brother.”

I lifted her chin with my thumb and caressed her cheek. “I had no idea who you were. The woman I fell in love with had been a complete mystery to me and yet I couldn’t let you go.”

“You love me?” she asked, looking deep into my eyes.

I pressed my lips to hers briefly. “I’ve loved you from the moment I met you. I told you that.”

“I know you did and I didn’t believe you then because I thought it was just a way to get in my pants. Then you left and my brother mentioned you to me and I put it all together.”

I stood with her still in my arms, it was easy to do when she was so small, then took her to my bedroom. Laying her on the bed, I kicked off my shoes and joined her. Then I placed my hand on my baby’s cradle, rubbing softly. “I don’t know what your brother told you, but I have nothing to do with his business failings.”

“He said you were trying to ruin him,” she said.

“He can’t leave the pussy alone enough to get work done. I only read the stories about him. I never started any of them. It’s not my fault people know he’s a womanizer.”

She leaned on her elbow and looked at me harshly. “He’s not a womanizer, and hasn’t been with anyone in years. He’s been too busy trying to make up for the parents I lost.”

“What?”

“He hasn’t had a date in years. Our father’s suicide forced him to be one to a little sister who watched our mother die of illness. The thought of me being sick like her has scared him. Protecting me has been all he’s done. I felt destroyed when I made love to someone who was out to ruin him. Now I know different, it makes the past months a painful waste.”

“That it does, but I’m glad you don’t believe that anymore. I really didn’t know who you were and when Jason told me you were meeting him, I was ready to kill him. I thought he was going for the throat.”

“No, he has his own problems. I came to see what they were and tell him I was dropping out. He has been stressed and it seems that woman thought the same thing you did about him.”

“Did she say something mean that made you cry?” I would keep that woman away from mine. Layla’s feelings were the only ones that mattered to me.

“She thought my name was Lola and Nate and I were together and she’d interfered. It messed me up because that was my mother’s name.”

“And you missed your mom.” I ran my hand along her side, just needing to touch her any way I could. She didn’t call her any names which made her lucky.

“Yes, and my heart was confused about you, the baby, and Nate. My emotions have been a mess,” she admitted, running her fingers through my hair.

“I’m sorry, princess. I’ll make it better. I promise. But first I need you to tell me how you managed to get away.”

She smiled, biting her lip. “Sorry. In school, we go by my first name and my mother’s name. My brother wanted me protected, so in public I was hidden and most often referred to as his cousin, but nothing more. He told me someone was trying to find me and he had a feeling it was you or your people, but he thought it was due to the fact that you two fought, not because you were trying to figure out why I left.”

“Don’t leave me again, Layla. I’m serious when I tell you that nothing will stop me from finding you and tying your pretty ass to the bed.”

“You wouldn’t dare.”

“Try me, princess. I’ve missed you so much, I feel like a mad man right now. I want to tear off your clothes and show you how much I’ve wanted you to be in my arms.”

“Please, John. I love you too. I’ve fought myself on how wrong it was to miss you.”

“Well, no more of that. We’re done spending time apart. You tell Jason where you’re staying in NYC and he’ll clean it out, but from now on your place is at my side in our condo. We can start looking at a house whenever you’re ready.”

“Again with the hyper-speed.”

“Well, if you hadn’t left me, maybe I could have slowed it down some,” I argued, kissing her hard and nudging her onto her back. “I’m going to eat you out until you can’t take anymore, then I’m going to reclaim your pussy for my own.”

“John, have you been with anyone since?” I couldn’t even consider the idea. No one meant anything to me. I wanted her more than life itself and my loyalty and love belonged only to her.

“Fuck no. I only want you. You?”

“You’re my one and only.” I pressed my lips to hers, gently moving down her body. Her breasts were fuller and in my eagerness, I cupped them roughly through her clothes, forcing a cry from her.

“I didn’t mean to hurt you. I’m sorry,” I exclaimed, reaching up to take her mouth again. I grabbed her top and lifted it off, tossing it to the floor.

“It’s okay, they’re just a little sensitive right now.” I nodded and gently unsnapped her bra. I peppered soft kisses on her perfectly large globes. Her nipples were hard and a different color than I remembered. I wanted to discover all the beautiful changes her body had made while carrying my baby. The caveman in me wanted everyone to know that I knocked her up and that she was mine.

“I’m sorry, princess. I’ll try to remember that,” I muttered against her peak before suckling on it tenderly. She moaned, then released a deep breath. I had to have her pussy on my tongue and her little noises of pleasure in my ears.

I lowered her jeans until they had gone the way of her blouse. She lay there in her small panties and the slight bump where my little one grew. I couldn’t wait to meet him or her. Leaning with my hands on either side of her hips, I kissed the little mound. “I love you, little sweet baby,” I whispered. “Now I need to remind your mommy how much I love her.”