“Oh, I have plenty of direct questions. Are you and your cohorts still laundering money through your casino?”
He chuckled. It angered me that he was so unbothered. Nothing ever took Reed off his square.I couldn’t wait to expose his ass.
“Before I answer any more questions, I have one of my own.”
“Not that you’ve answered any questions in the first place, but go ahead.” I motioned with my hand, opening the floor for him.
He pulled a folded sheet of paper from his jacket and passed it to me.
“The lawyers wanted me to get this out of the way early on.”
“Wait a minute. Now we’re talking about lawyers. Where is this coming from?” I quizzed.
“It’s nothing personal. We just want to make sure that any information put out is factual.”
“Wow. Are you really questioning my integrity when your company is the one being investigated for fraud?”
“Not at all. I trust you, but I know your employer very well. I wouldn’t put it past them to spin the story for ratings.”
“How dare you even think like that! My name will be attached to that story.”
“It’s a problem for me to protect my brand from media vultures, but you’ve been attacking my character since the moment you stepped on that red carpet.”
“Yeah, well only one of us is a known charlatan. You know, I knew it was a mistake coming here,” I said, pushing back from the table.
Reed stood and rounded the table before I could stand. He dropped to his knees in front of me and cupped my face in his hands. The heat in his gaze went straight to my pussy. This was not happening right now. I shook my head, hoping to shake out of his hold. Instead of letting go, Reed moved his hands to the back of my head, gently threading his fingers through my hair.
I held my breath determined not to inhale his cologne. I had to do something to help me resist him. My panties were ruined as soon as he licked his lips. I cursed my pussy for responding to him at all. We were supposed to be in this together, but my girl was threatening to betray me for our first love.
Pipe down, girl. This is the opposition!My pleas went ignored, but I removed his hands from my face anyway.
“If you’ll excuse me. I’m leaving.”
“Faith, stop running from me, baby. I stopped chasing you when you asked me to before. I accepted the fact that I fucked up the best thing to ever happen to me. As hard as it was, I let you go. You came back to me for a reason. I know that. You say you hate my guts. You say you don’t want anything to do with me. You can say whatever you want to push me away, but I’m not buying it. You knew I would be here, but you still came. If you hate me so much, then why did you come here in the first place?”
“I didn’t say I hated you,” I mumbled, dropping my eyes to my lap to avoid the blazing glare in his eyes.
“You didn’t have to say that you hate me. I know that’s what you’re trying to make me think. You know what I really think?” he asked me, tilting his head to follow my eyes. When our eyes connected again, he finished his statement. “I think you still love me, baby, because I damn sure still love you.”
Iwas on my knees in a six-thousand-dollar suit, but I would have taken it off if I had to. As a matter of fact, I wanted to take it off. Being between Faith’s legs brought back fond memories of teaching her just how good her body could feel.
Now she stared down at me like I was the lowest scum on the planet, and to some extent, she was right. The glimmer in her eyes that told me she wanted to give in to me and was disgusted with herself for even considering it was enough ammunition for me to stay right where I was.
“What do you expect, Reed? You want me to just crumble and fall for your game after all this time?”
“I don’t want you to crumble. I don’t want you to fall apart. I want you to believe that I want to make things right between us.”
“It’s mighty convenient that you want to do that all of a sudden after I’ve threatened to expose your business.”
“It may be convenient, but it’s long overdue.”
“That may be true, but contrary to what you might think, you can’t weasel your way out of everything with a bunch of semi convincing lies. I’m not going for it. I’m not the same girl that thought the world revolved around you, and just to clear the air, Idon’tlove you anymore.”
Faith’s words stung, but to use her own words against her, I wasn’t going for it. I never expected for her to give in easily. I just needed to make my intentions clear. I didn’t take the task of making things up to her lightly. I was in it for the long run.
Faith was stubborn, and rightfully so in this instance. Her tenacity was one of the things I loved about her. No matter how much she’d grown, she was still my baby. Still soft, still sweet, still the prettiest girl I had ever seen. Getting her back would likely be the hardest thing that I ever had to do, but I was up for the challenge.
It took years for me to convince myself that letting Faith go had been the right thing to do. Seeing her again after all this time made me feel like someone had snatched my heart from my chest and set it on fire. I felt raw, exposed, and willing to do anything in the world to get my girl back. Her staring at me like I was the villain in her backstory made me feel like shit. It hurt to know that I deserved worse than that.
