Chapter 18
18
JACKSON
“ H i, you’ve reached Zora. I’m not available to take your call right now but if you leave your name, number and a brief message. I’ll get back to you as soon as possible .”
I grit my teeth in frustration. This is my 10 th call within the last half hour and it’s gone straight to voicemail.
I feel like a goddam stalker. I can’t believe I’ve been reduced to this. Zora told me she had a couple of sessions with her client today and wanted to do them in the privacy of one of the local library’s conference rooms.
That was hours ago. I should have heard back from her by now. I’m tempted to go look for her.
This obsession has gotten out of control.
Being with Zora is everything I could have possibly imagined and more. However, I thought being with her would sooth this beast within me, this total need to constantly be around her, to hold and touch her. But the more time I spend with her, the more I need her.
Only when I’m inside of her do I feel whole. Seeing her face brightens my day but when she isn’t around, I can barely concentrate. She infiltrates my brain and takes over my every waking thought.
Is this what love is? I don’t really know what that is because I’ve learned that everything, I care about gets taken away from me. So maybe admitting to these feelings I have toward her would put me at risk for losing her as well.
What made these feelings even scarier is knowing she’s only with me because I helped her family out.
After our first night together, I kept my end of the bargain and set about paying off her father’s debts. I could have easily set up an account to transfer funds to in order for her to handle it but I wanted to maintain my leverage over her. The second thing I did was pay off the mortgage and put a lien on the deed in my name.
Zora wasn’t happy about that but it ensured her father wouldn’t lose his home because the lien would exist as long as our arrangement did. Did I feel a little bad for holding this over her head? Maybe a little but I needed the insurance to keep the arrangement going.
I also made sure her father had the proper care while he was getting treatment. After two weeks Langston was still missing and there wasn’t much I could do about that.
I should be happy that my plan had met its fruition. Zora was at my beck and call like I’d planned all along. When I wasn’t working I requested her company and most of the time, we needed up in my bed.
But something is still off.
I have her presence and her body whenever I want it but I find myself wanting more. But she closes herself off to me. I ask questions beyond what I already know about her but she shares so little with me. She’s closed off and I hate it.
I want all of her but she remains distant.
“ Front door open.”
The welcome voice of my newly installed home security system blasts through the speaker in my home office. I hop out of my chair and hurry to the living room like an eager puppy ready to greet its master.
My breath catches in my throat when I see her. She’s wearing her hair in my favorite style on her, big and curly. She told me it’s called a twist out.
She’s wearing a black short sleeved maxi dress with buttons down the front with a beige belt cinched around her waist that accentuates her big tits and ass. It makes me wonder who else admired her in this outfit. Did other men look at her round bottom? Did they admire the way her hips sway from side to side when she walks?
That feeling of awe upon seeing her quickly vanished and is instantly replaced by a much darker emotion. One that wants me to throw her against the wall and fuck her until she passes out.
I should get this emotion under control but I can’t thing rationally when she’s close to me.
I’ve become so pathetic where Zora is concerned but seeing her is always the highlight of my day. But instead of a calm and collected greeting like a normal human being, I roar, “Where the fuck have you been?”
Zora jumps, and lets out a little squeak. She places her hand over her heart. “Jesus Christ. Good afternoon to you too.”
She places her keys on the entryway table and brushes past me and makes a beeline to the sofa She plops down with a heavy sigh and starts to dig into her purse.
“Did you hear me? I asked where you’ve been?”
“I told you I had therapy sessions today. I was at the library. Then I went by my father’s house to check in on him.”
I ball my fists at my sides to hold back my quickly rising temper. I’ve spent the day, forcing myself to get through several long, boring meetings, mulling through paperwork and fighting eye strain from staring at a computer. Every second was a struggle to get through because my thoughts were filled with her. And now here she was, as if she didn’t have a care in the world.
Whatever it was in her purse she seemed more focused on than me. And it pissed me off.
I took a calming breath before speaking. “You didn’t say you’d be gone all day,” Zora.”
She shrugs. “Why do you care? You said you’d be in your office all day in meetings.”
“I called you. Why didn’t you answer your phone?”
She pulls her phone out of her purse. “I turned it off because the battery was low and I don’t know what I did with my charger. You have one I can use, don’t you?” She then taps away at the screen and frowns. “Twenty-five missed calls? What the hell?” She scrolls some more. “They’re all from you. That’s excessive Jackson.”
Again, the nonchalance of her tone sets me on edge.
“You said your sessions would only be an hour apiece. So it shouldn’t have taken you so long to get back here.”
She shrugs with her eyes still glued on her phone. “I didn’t realize I had a curfew.”
I rip the phone out of her hand, irritated that it has her attention instead of me. “Look at me when I’m talking to you.”
She slowly raises her head and for the first time I notice her eyes are puffy and red. The nonchalance I thought I’d heard in her voice was something else. Wariness, maybe?
All the anger I felt before, quickly melts. I take the spot next to her.
What’s the matter, Zora.”
“Nothing you’d be interested in. As long as I’m here, right?”
“I wouldn’t as if I wasn’t interested. Tell me.”
Her shoulders sag. “Like I said, I visited my father after my appointment. Are you going to loan me your charger or not?”
Exasperated, I get off the couch and take her phone to my office and place it on top of the charging pad by my computer. When I return to the living room, she’s slumped over with her face in her palms.
“Zora, what’s the matter?”
Without raising her head, she mutters, “Nothing, Jackson.”
“We both know that isn’t true or else you wouldn’t look like you’ve been crying for the last hour.” I return to the spot next to her and place me arms around her shoulders.
Zora tries to shrug out of my hold but I tighten my grip. “That’s so rich coming from you.”
I want to be patient with her but she isn’t making this easy. Despite the circumstances, I’ve tried to make this arrangement between us as easy for her as I could possibly could. The only time I get a positive response from her is when we’re in bed. Her body never lies but I’m greedy. I want more than her body.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
She finally raises her head and looks at me with a narrowed gaze. Her dark eyes sparkle with anger. “Please don’t pretend you give a shit about my feelings or my tears when you’ve been the cause of so many of them. You keep asking me personal questions like getting inside my head is going to change anything between us. For some reason you want me as a convenient bed warmer and I’ve been that. You don’t get to ask me for more than we agreed upon.”
A lump forms in my throat. The bitterness in her voice cuts through the deepest part of me and for the first time, I feel regret.
Not for the plan I’d concocted to put Zora in her current predicament, but for the past. I will never be sorry for that. For as long as I’ve known her, I knew one day she would be mine. Getting her to realize that fact has been a challenge I have yet to conquer.
I want to share the complexity of our past but she would probably not understand or even care.
I release my hold on her. “What we agreed upon Zora was you would be whatever I want you to be.”
Fuck. Why did I say it like that?
Her lips curl but there’s no humor in her eyes. “Of course, Sir. I’ve forgotten that I’m at your mercy aren’t I? What is it that you want from me tonight?” She stands abruptly and I watch with my mouth agape as she unbuckles her belt and lets it fall to the floor.
Zora then quickly undoes the buttons down the front of her dress and shrugs out of it. She pushes it off her shoulders and it pools at her feet.
“Zora, what are you?—”
“Stop talking, Jackson. This is what you wanted.” She undoes her bra and steps out of her panties.
Before I have a chance to admire her sexy curves, she pushes me back on the couch and drops to her knees in front of me. I don’t stop her as she unbuckles my pants. I couldn’t if I wanted to.
I’m unable to breathe and I’m already so hard my brain has completely gone to mush.
She reaches inside my boxers and frees my burgeoning erection.
I inhale sharply when she wraps her fingers around my shaft and lowers her head.
“Zora…” I groan as she slowly swallows me whole.
What the fuck!
Just when I think this woman can’t turn me on any more than she has, she pulls a stunt like this and I’m held captive to the passion she’s evoked within me.
Her lips tighten around me and her head bobs up and down my pole. My balls tighten and my heart speeds up.
Briefly I wonder who else she’s done this to. Was it one of the men she’s dated over the years? The men who I’ve eventually had to pay off when it looked like things were getting too serious?”
I push away these intrusive thoughts and focus on the gift I’m being given.
Unable to help myself, grab a fistful of hair in each hand and guide her along my cock.
“That’s it, baby doll. Feels so fucking good.” I raise my hips to thrust deeper until I feel the tip of my cock hit the back of her throat.
She whimpers a bit but keeps going, sucking me off in earnest. She grips the base of my cock and slides her hand along my length in time with her mouth.
The more she sucks, the wetter and sloppier it gets and I’m so fucking close to busting in her mouth.
This isn’t the first time sometime someone has performed oral on me but it’s the first time Zora has and her mouth is pure magic. Each time she touches me I feel things I never thought I’d experience.
“So close.” I grit my teeth. My body starts to shake.
I release her hair and place my hands on her shoulders to gently push her away but she tightens her grip on me and keeps going as if she’s trying to suck out my very essence.
“If you keep this up, I’m going to cum in your mouth.”
My words go unheeded. Either she’s ignoring me or doesn’t care. Either way, it’s too late.
“Zora!” I yell her name as I release my jizz down her throat. My seed drips down the sides of her mouth and she finally let’s go of me and sits back on her heels.
She glances up at me as she wipes the corners of her lips. “I hope this satisfies you for now, Sir . If my services are no longer required right now, then I’m going to take a shower.”
And just like that, the moment is shattered. My body is still in recovery from that explosive orgasm. I don’t have the strength or will to fight with her right now. “Zora, let’s not do this.”
“Do what, Jackson? This is what you wanted.”
It’s on the tip of my tongue to tell her she’s wrong but she doesn’t give me a chance. She’s on her feet again, collecting her clothes.
“Zora…” My voice trails off because she’s already walking away and headed down the hall.
She slams the bathroom door behind her.
I throw my arm over my eyes and groan in frustration. There had to be a way to get through to her. I just don’t know how.