| |
She woke to the sight of his eyes on her face. It was a jolt, given the uncommon allure of his gaze. She adored it. Approval shone in her bright stare as vividly as it did in her smile.
“How are you?” Fray braced his weight on an elbow while skimming his hand across her breasts.
Her smile deepened. “I’m good.”
“Good, huh?” He followed the query by sliding his hand down her torso and curving his fingers into her well-tended sex. A knowing smile softened his exceptional features when she bristled.
“I’m still good,” El insisted.
“A bath could help,” he suggested.
She snuggled deeper into the bed. “Is that all?”
“Well,” he responded with a patented, rakish grin. “I wouldn’t want to suggest more of the hair of the dog.”
“I like that suggestion,” her heartbeat flooded her ears when he suddenly drew her across his chest and favored her mouth with a throaty kiss. Too soon, he was sitting her back against a jumble of pillows at the head of the bed they’d all but trampled.
It had been just before mid-morning when she’d arrived. Now, the room was doused by the gray tint of late evening. They’d spent the day making love with brief intervals for napping. There had been little in the way of talk, aside from suggestive chatter before drifting off to sleep or upon waking. When Fray set her against the pillows and pushed himself up in bed to watch her, El knew the time for serious discussion had returned.
“Why’d you keep it, Elli?” He was smoothing the back of his hand across the brand. “There are things you could’ve done. You would’ve never known it was there.”
“That’s why I kept it,” she followed the path of his hand while making the quiet admission. “It helped me remember why I was angry-why I should hate you. I haven’t hated you in a long time, Fray. This,” she gestured to the brand, “it doesn’t do the trick like it used to.”
“Does it hurt?”
“Not anymore,” her smile hinted of triumph, “It was pretty rough for the first few years after...” She looked over in time to see the rage returning to smother the quiet curiosity that had commanded his expression. “Fray?” She braced against the pillows and leaned closer. “Fray.”
“If my father was alive, I’d kill him.”
“Yeah you um...you said that before.”
The obsidian of Fray’s stare had all but blacked out the gray as he focused on her thigh. “It’s alright. My cousins will do just fine.”
“Fray?” She shifted again, kneeling next to him. “Do just fine for what? Fray?”
His expression was answer enough.“No Fray.”
“Watch me.”
“This isn’t the way.”
“It’s a way they’ll understand and right now it’s the only way that’ll work for me.”
“Not the only way. You’re about to get them out-”
“Signatures, Elli? You think voting them out of the family business is all they deserve?”
“Could you really do what’s going through your mind?”
“El...” he smoothed his thumb down her cheek. “You’re too much of an angel to imagine what’s going through my mind.”
“It’ll make you just like them.”
“I am just like them. They’re my blood.”
“You’re better than they are.”
“Not really, babe. Not at the heart of it. I’m just better at hiding it, is all.” For a time, he studied the invisible line his thumb trailed down her cheek. “Somehow losing you kept my mind off how much I wanted them dead. When I was alone, you were all I thought about- what you were doing, who you were doing it with, if God would give me another chance with you,” he shook his head.
“Work was the only thing that took my mind off all that, living up to care for what my family put me in charge of,” he said. “Now God’s given me my chance with you. Now I can obsess over other things.”
“Like revenge?”
“I prefer justice.”
“Or retribution.”
“If you like.”
El decided it was time for a different tactic. Straddling Fray, she kissed him and took pleasure in her power over him when she felt his sex defining against her.
“Would you do something for me?” Her tone was soft, coaxing.
He replied just as softly. “I’d do anything for you, as long as it doesn’t involve me not going after the filth who brutalized you while I held you down and watched like a scared little boy.”
“Fray,” agitated, she shifted, intending to slip from his lap but he held her fast.
“You can’t expect me to do that twice in a lifetime, can you?” His grin was devilment personified when she stubbornly refused to answer. Launching his own new tactic, he began to work her clit beneath his thumb.
“Fray...” Lashes fluttering, El surrendered to the pleasure flooding her like syrup.
“Can you, Elli?” He insisted.
“Yes, yes...”
He understood that her enthusiastic reply was out of approval for what he was doing to her body. “Can you El?” He insisted, sliding his middle finger along the seam of her sex.
“No, no Fray,” she moaned, grinding and winding herself onto his busy fingers.
He was sensitive enough to feel the trace of her moisture against his fingertips. Only then, did he risk delving into her bruised core. He kept his eyes on her face, smiling when she fastened her teeth to her bottom lip and winced.
“You want me to stop?”
“No please.”
Grinning, his eyes full of adoration for her, Fray understood that her need was identical to his. Hands smothering her waist, he raised her, careful not to press into where the brand curved near her hip. She’d said there was no pain, but Fray suspected it would be a while yet before he could accept that as fact.
He settled her slowly, kissing her temple when she rested her forehead to his shoulder.
“Alright?” He murmured, vision blurring as elation seized while she took him.
Moans and whimpers were her only response as her hips undulated in a slow wind. Ripples of pleasure ripped and layered to roll over any lingering pain. Soon, her back was arching and her moves were eager, energetic and wanton. Promised release was all that remained on her radar and she set course for that destination.
Fray could barely keep his eyes open. Those ripples of pleasure had him pleasurably drunk. He wanted to wait for her, but feared he’d fail to hold out against what his body demanded.
There was no need to worry. El was shuddering, crying out in the telltale manner that indicated orgasm. Fray loosed the tethers on his restraint then. His seed spewed deep to coat her inner walls in the same fashion that her intimate moisture coated his sex.
Afterwards, they remained as one, both longing for the most intimate closeness. It was a moment neither was ready to relinquish- not for quite some time.
~~~
Instead of a bath, Fray suggested a compromise and they enjoyed the shower beating down in a soft, warm spray on them in the tub. They kept the room lighting dimmed as they lounged, embracing in the wide, black porcelain fixture. It was like sitting in the middle of a quiet, late evening rain.
“Did you hate your dad before that night, Fray?” His earlier rage had eased and she didn’t want to renew it but the question had nagged too long not to be heard.
“I always hated my father,” he spoke quietly and without temper. “We hated each other.” That time, the weakest strains of amusement filtered through. “I think, once I got a little older, some of that bullshit fatherly pride started to play in for him. It’s why he was so set on me joining in on his insanity. He never loved me, though- said I watched him with my mother’s eyes. He said she was haunting him through me, so he’d never forget. I didn’t know what he meant by that and he never told me. In my heart, I believe he’s the reason she’s dead.
I asked Bin once, but she never would say. I wish I’d been old enough to understand what happened between them...then I wouldn’t need anyone else’s stories. I’d have my own.”
“After that night,” El began when he’d silenced, “when you-you took me home and didn’t come back I...I wondered if you’d been part of it all. If what happened between us at Bin’s...if it was all a trap-a lie-”
“El,” Fray pushed from his recline in the tub and took her with him. Hands on her arms, he squeezed gently and made her face him. “There’s no reason for you to believe me now, but that was no lie. Everything I said, what happened between us that afternoon it was real. You were it for me. I knew it then. I sure as hell know it now.”
“Why didn’t you come back?”
He smiled. “You mean, besides knowing that your dad would take my head off my shoulders once he realized he hadn’t gotten around to it?” Shaking his head, Fray leaned back against the tub. “I couldn’t face you- couldn’t face the questions. I could hardly look at myself in the mirror, no way could I face you. I wanted to, though-wanted to come see you, at least send a note before I left when Bin put her foot down about wanting all the boys off the island. But a note just didn’t seem...” He drew his hands back through his hair and groaned.
“What were you thinking, falling for an idiot like me?”
She shrugged. “Guess I just have a thing for them.”
“Well please don’t lose it,” he tweaked her chin. “I’ve got a feeling I’ll be stuck with the label for the rest of my life.”
“Hmm...well I see I’m gonna have to change your mind about that.”
“My mind can be hard to change,” he warned. “It could take all night, well into tomorrow...” He tugged her onto his lap, eased her onto a filling erection.
Ellia sighed. “Guess I better get started then.”
***
“Fray’s the one who can decipher that shit, not me,” War said from where he reclined behind his desk viewing documents via tablet.
“Sorry,” Zyon realized he’d murmured aloud. Sighing, he looked up from his phone which he’d been studying while he opted to recline on the long sofa in the living area of War’s office. “I know why that name sounded familiar to Fray,” he said.
Warwick was still focused on his tablet. “What name?”
“Micha Dunlap,” at War’s blank look, Zyon left the sofa to hand his cousin the mobile he’d used to scour the net.
“The guy was in the news for about seven months before he resigned from G-ATL,” Zyon referred to New Corp’s Atlanta offices. Though several of the founding families claimed authority in the business. It went without saying that the Guthrie’s were at the helm.
“Resigned why?” War asked even as his deep gray eyes scanned the phone screen.
“Apparently, there was some kind of networking fundraiser. He got into it with a reporter who asked about his previous employer’s connections with some underhanded labor practices.”
“So what? Everybody runs into that from time to time.”
Zyon shrugged. “Well it peeved Dunlap enough that he tried to use the guy’s tie to make a noose around his neck.”
War expelled a lone whistle as the thick, smoky dreds shielded one side of his wide, dark face. “Reporter Dennis Bentley quickly became the lead in his own story when Dunlap accused him of slander,” War read from the write-up. “This, while Dunlap held Bentley’s tie in a choke hold and demanded to know where he got his lies. Bentley was in no shape to form a response.”
War spared a few additional moments to scan the story before looking to his cousin. “What do you think?”
“I’d like to know why Mr. Bentley was almost fed his necktie,” Zyon admitted. “Given that the feeder is now six feet under at a time when half his associates are dropping like flies.”
“And the other half may be trying to cover their asses,” War tugged a hand through his hair. “Could we be reaching with this guy, man?”
“There’s a strong possibility that we are, but seeing as we all know those fools are up to something and at least one person- not among us- knows what it is...” Zy shrugged then too. “I’d say we could stand to reach a little.”
“So how should we approach Mr. Bentley?”
Zy took up his phone where War had placed it on an uncluttered corner of his desk. “I’d say the man would understand how concerned we are over the sudden loss of an employee and how distressed we were to learn of his run-in with that employee.” Zyon began to walk the office while conjuring his plot.
“We’re concerned that Dunlap may’ve been going through stress he felt unable to share and we’re just trying to get some closure.”
“Fuck, you’re good at that,” War breathed.
Zy frowned then suddenly as though he’d just realized how deep he’d gone into his role play. “Yeah,” wearily he massaged the bridge of his nose. “I’ve been told I’m quite the liar.”
Understanding diluted the humor in War’s hazy stare. “Should we clue Fray in to our theorizing?” he asked.
Zy was already shaking his head no. “He’s got his hands full trying to get these signatures and maybe...making things right with El.”
“You think that’s possible? Seriously now. Making things right with them?”
Zy dismissed his cousin’s query with a wave. “I don’t think that one damn bit, but if we’re lucky enough maybe we’ll have the chance to look them in the eye one day and tell them we’re sorry before they kill us.”
***
El got home around 4 the following afternoon. Earlier that day, she’d spared time to speak with Ted who had been so close to hysterics, El feared she’d just caught the woman before she launched an island-wide search. El had been in no mood to hang around the hotel and attempt anything resembling work. She left for home after assuring everyone concerned that all reports of her disappearance from the face of the earth had been greatly exaggerated.
She’d only been in the house five minutes before she wanted to head back to the hotel. She was in no mood for work, but altogether in the mood for Fray who she’d left sliding back into another nap. His exhaustion was no exaggeration. His patience as a lover had gone hand in hand with his determination and it was all firmly planted on a foundation made of stamina.
El had only hoped for patience and tenderness. Fray’s desire and hunger were thrilling surprises. Now, she was studying the floor length mirror that she hadn’t taken time to put back before her mad dash to see Frayzer the other day. Secure then in the quiet privacy of her sitting room, she rehashed the experience of seeing him-of seeing him see her.
Going in, she had only hoped for patience and tenderness because she knew his horror and disgust would probably be all she could expect. To have lovemaking enter into it was something she didn’t dare allow into her realm of thinking. For that lovemaking to involve the kind of love and passion that had exploded between them in that room had been beyond anything she could have imagined.
El supposed that had a lot to do with the fact that she had little to use for comparison. That one day, that one exquisite day with him, had been her only true experience.
She studied the mirror again. He’d been angry, but that anger had transformed into regret and then arousal. There had been none of the horror and disgust she’d expected. He’d looked upon her with the kind of awe and appraisal she remembered in his eyes years ago when she was younger-when she was perfect.
It was the image she’d stared into that mirror hoping to find- the one she was hoping he would see. What she found in his extraordinary gaze when he looked at her was so far beyond anything she could have hoped for. He looked at her, not as the girl she’d been-innocent and unblemished- but the woman she was and El could see that it was the woman he desired.
The woman, scarred and uncertain, was the one he looked on with eyes radiating want and need. Her body had hummed with what she’d seen when she looked at him. That look had made her hum in a way that she would never find looking in a mirror. El didn’t know how long all this would be hers to savor. As long as it was, she’d forgo the woeful stares into the piece of glass across the room. Sighing, her resolve, El left the loveseat and went to return the mirror to the closet.
She was angling the fixture to slide it back into place along the paneled inside of the closet. Once again, she noticed the mark on the floor. Her earlier investigation had proved it wasn’t some random blemish, but had been placed there intentionally.
Curiosity renewed, El abandoned the mirror and stooped to once again inspect the hole in the panel. Like before, she wedged her finger into the small groove and lifted the wood slab free. Tentatively, she peered over into what looked to be some type of long, rectangular box. The panel had served as a lid of sorts. The space wouldn’t allow for much to be stored there.
Still, her brows rose when she spotted something thick, square and leather bound inside. Hesitation intervened for barely a split second and then she reached in to retrieve the item. It was obviously old and; when she saw its front, her heart beat double time before it swan-dived to her stomach.
...then I wouldn’t need anyone else’s stories. I’d have my own...
Fray’s words replayed in her head before she rubbed the unusual cover. Inscriptions. There were a multitude of them adorning the area- writing in a thin gold script. Names.
Some she recognized, others not so clearly. The one near the bottom; above what appeared to be a title, caught her gaze and held it. Her heart prepared to repeat its sudden dive.
Elliot Lucas Taylor- Private Notes on The Tradition.