CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Edmund could not believe how badly he wanted to see Maude again. He was in his hotel suite at the Ritz-Carlton having another drink and looking out the window when word came from Wyatt that they had arrived and Don was bringing her up.
He went to the door in anticipation. Which was so weird for him that it baffled him.
But he had to see her again. Overnight he was so worried about losing her that he ordered Don and Wyatt to go back to Dillon the next morning and bring her to him.
He would have gone himself, but it would have been too much like begging her to him.
But had she turned Don down, he would have taken his ass right back to Dillon.
And when she finally entered his suite and he closed the door and looked at her, that feeling of love came over him in such a rush of emotion that it overtook him.
And in that very moment he could no longer restrain himself.
As she was about to head for the sofa, he grabbed her by the arm and pulled her against him.
She looked into his eyes and he looked into her eyes.
And both of them were saying the same thing.
They both had had a sleepless night. They both had a need greater than their divide.
He pulled her even closer and began kissing her. And it was such a long, lingering smooch that it had both of them so heated that there was nothing that was going to quench their fire.
And suddenly it was as if they were picking up where they left off yesterday morning and Edmund was lifting her into his arms and she was wrapping her legs around him and they were kissing so passionately that it bordered on desperation.
And then he was carrying her to the bedroom without breaking their kiss even for a second.
He would not tear his mouth away from hers.
And when they got in the bedroom, he threw her across the bed, removed his clothing, and then began taking off her blouse and bra and kissing her mouth and then her breasts and all with a ferociousness that had her moaning even before he moved down her body.
And when he moved down her body, removed her clothing down there too, she was writhing with joy as he did her. It was as if she’d never experienced such euphoria. Until he moved up and entered her. It was next-level joy when he entered her.
They made love with an urgency that was lacking in Baltimore.
It was as if the south brought out the animal in them because their ferociousness did not let up.
They were wrapped up into each other, holding on for dear life, and were going at it the hard way.
They were moaning and groaning and that bed was shaking and bouncing in ways they knew had to be overheard by other guests, but they couldn’t help themselves.
Edmund wanted her even before she walked into that suite, and his need never let up.
And when they finally came, it felt seismic. Edmund poured into her for so long that she could not stop her orgasm even as she tried. They came almost as long as it took them to get there.
And then, when it was all over and they had done all they could do to sustain their euphoria, they crashed. Edmund fell on top of her, and then rolled off of her. He was done.
But Maude, younger and feistier, turned onto her side and looked at him. She had never had such urgent sex before and it felt like another world to her. And she smiled. “Not bad for an old guy.”
Edmund smiled too. She expected him to object, even if playfully, but he didn’t. He seemed to already know his skillset. “I’ve been told,” he said.
Maude, surprised by his comeback, hit him playfully. “Very funny,” she said, and Edmund laughed.
Then they just laid there. And then he pulled her on top of him. “I have something to say to you,” he said.
Maude was pleased. An apology, she felt, was overdue. “Say away.”
“I want you to move.”
That was not what she expected to hear. “Move? Why?”
“I don’t like that landlord, and I don’t like that area.”
Maude was floored. “What’s wrong with the area? There’s little to no crime where I live.”
“I don’t care. You aren’t staying there.”
“But why not, Edmund?”
“I told you why not.”
“No you didn’t. You just said I can’t stay there and I want to know why.”
“Because you’re with me now,” he said. And what he said were words he had never said to another human being ever before. He looked at her. When her big, brown eyes looked at him, he was even more certain. “That’s why,” he said.
Maude stared at him. She didn’t know what to make of him. “I thought you were going to apologize,” she said. “And now you tell me this?”
But it was Edmund who was baffled. “Apologize for what?”
“For what you said about me not paying my bills.”
“You hadn’t paid your bill.”
“I know that. But . . .”
“But what? Did I lie?”
“No, you didn’t lie, but—"
“Did I leave you high and dry, or did I take care of it?”
Maude felt overwhelmed by this man. “Yes, you paid it. And I thank you for that. I’ll pay you every month instead of my landlord until it’s all paid back to you.”
“Yes, you will,” he said.
Which only made Maude more perplexed. “So you want the money back?”
“Of course I want it back. I’m your boyfriend, not your sugar daddy.”
Maude was floored on every level. “You’re my . . . boyfriend? Since when, Edmund? When did we have that conversation?”
“We had it in that hospital suite. We had last night when you kicked me out but I still caught up your rent. And we just finished having yet another conversation about the fact that you aren’t just another woman to me.” He stared into her eyes. “No where near it.”
Maude’s heart wanted to soar as she searched his eyes. Could this be true? Could he mean what he said? “But what about Teri and all of your other women?” she asked him. “Because I won’t be one of many.”
When Edmund inwardly smiled and was about to give a funny response, she was too quick for him. “I won’t be one of a few either,” she said.
He smiled. She was sharp. She was definitely the one for him. And as the reality of it set in for him too, his smile left. “You needn’t worry about that,” he said.
But Maude wasn’t so sure. Not with Edmund. “Have you ever been in a monogamous relationship before?” she asked him.
He didn’t have to think about it. “No,” he said.
“Have you ever tried to be in one?”
“No,” he said.
Then Maude exhaled. “What makes you think you’ll be able to be in one with me?”
Edmund was honest there too. “I’m not certain I will be. The jury’s still out on that. It’s a chance you’ll have to take.”
“But it could mean a broken heart for me, Edmund. I don’t do shit half-ass.”
“Neither do I. That’s why I’m not lying to you. Monogamy may not be new to you, but it’s damn sure new to me.” Then his handsome face frowned. “I can make no promises that it will work for me.”
It was the worst thing he could have said to Maude. “So what you’re saying,” she said, “is that you aren’t sure that I’m enough for you.”
“That’s not the way I would phrase it.”
“But that’s what you’re saying?”
Edmund wasn’t going to lie to her. “In essence, yes.”
Maude, furious and fearful too, immediately got off of him and began getting out of bed.
“What’s the matter now?” he asked her.
But she didn’t say another word. She couldn’t. She went into the bathroom, closed the door, and then slid down to the floor in tears. She’d never been enough for anybody. Not even her own family. And now him too?
To his credit, he said the quiet part out loud. To his credit he didn’t lie to her. But that didn’t make it any easier. It may have even made it worse. She quietly sobbed.
But then she heard his phone ring. And then she heard him speaking on that phone. Was it one of his other women? Was it that beautiful black lady that fled his house that night?
But then he was calling her name. “Maude? Maude?”
She began wiping her tears away with the back of her hand. “What?” she yelled out.
“Get dressed. Natasha has been released.”
Maude stopped wiping tears and just sat there.
Because if Natasha was released, that meant she could give them real information, rather than the jail-monitored version, that could prove out Maude’s theory that Ross Hampton and his goons were destroying Dillon with their bullying of other companies, and their rancid corruption.
Not to mention his double homicides. She got up and opened the bathroom door.
Edmund was seated on the edge of the bed putting on his shirt.
But as soon as he saw her sad, tear-stained eyes, his heart dropped.
What was he going to do with her? “Come here, Maude,” he said to her in a way that wasn’t that arrogant, dominant style of his she didn’t like.
But it was more nurturing like she needed.
She went to him.
He opened his legs, pulled her into his arms, and laid back holding her. She expected him to tell her he was sorry and that he didn’t mean to imply that she wasn’t enough for him. But he didn’t say a word. He just held her.
He held her until she stopped sobbing. And then he pushed her soft hair away from her face and looked at her. “You’re okay?”
She nodded. She was resilient and tough because all her life she had to be. But now she realized there would be no easy bed for her to lie in with him either. She had to be resilient and tough and prove her worth to him too.
But the risk was greatest with him. She could prove everything there was to prove to him only to have him break her heart anyway the way all those other men did. She was never enough for any of them either. She wasn’t going through that again.
“Yes, I’m fine,” she said with more determination this time, as she got off of him and began picking up her clothes.
She knew he was watching her ass as she bent down because when she looked back up his penis was getting hard again even as he continued buttoning his shirt.
But until he was willing to fully commit himself to her with no exceptions or wait-and-sees, he could forget that.
He could look all he wanted, but she was going to do everything in her power for him to never touch her again.
It was kind of late for that, she knew, but better late than never.
At least this time she was waking up before her heart broke.
Because there was nothing romantic about a broken heart.
Because unbreak my heart sounded cute, and even plausible.
But it wasn’t plausible at all. It was nothing but a song.